The Founder is a serious man not to be trifled with…

Fresh off his capture at the end of last week’s episode, John boy’s getting to know the Founder in a less than ideal way. The ULTRA head is torturing Young for information on his flock. When John growls the tried and true threat of “if I wasn’t strapped down”, the Founder acquiesces to John’s wishes and show him what it means to be in the big leagues. “I broke out before you were born, boy,” he says while telekinetically smacking John around some more before Stephen jumps in, covertly trying to save John’s skin. He finds out what we all knew from John’s flashback—that as an ULTRA agent, he carried out his task to kill Roger Jameson. Stephen’s caught off guard by the information and his emotional tide jolts Cara. She tries getting him to talk but Stephen re-focuses them on the more important task; rescuing John. While Russell and Cara formulate a makeshift plan, Stephen finds a picture of Jedikiah in a fleeting moment of happiness with Morgan. Using the supercomputer TIM, they’re able to extrapolate where the picture was taken and, ultimately, Morgan. The plan: capture Morgan and use her as trade bait to get John freed.  Cara hops into Jed’s room and not so nicely expresses interest in a prisoner exchange. Jed’s reaction only strengthens the proof of his happiness seen in the picture; he genuinely cares for Morgan.

A bit more settled after John’s revelation, Stephen goes to see the shackled leader of the Tomorrow People. John gives him the full story and Stephen is beyond angry. “You’re a fraud, John,” Stephen hisses truthfully for, all this time, John has been feeding his people a lie on finding the Refuge once they located Roger Young. Despite that, Stephen believes his father’s still alive, ‘Thanatos’ is real, and he’s still going to find a way to get John out. Back at home, Momma Jameson picks up on her son’s dour mood. Stephen ends up asking her about his father and she shuts down. “We’re safer without him,” she says before walking away. Though he knows she’s hiding something from him, Stephen lets her go.

At ULTRA, Jedikiah speaks to John; a final goodbye as Mr. Young will be summarily eliminated sometime soon. John doesn’t take to kindly to being called son, and spits in Jedikiah’s face. Afterwards, Jed calls Stephen in his office and shows his nephew the video of Cara’s depowering. He hypothesizes that Stephen was able to stop time and replace the serum with something else. Stephen admits to his feelings for Cara and is flabbergasted when Jedikiah opens up to him about Morgan. Though he cannot give Cara what she wants, Stephen can. When he goes to give John his final meal, the latter breaks out and takes Stephen hostage. A quick flashback shows that the devil’s truly in the details and Jed set the plan in motion on his prior visit to John. With a bit of help from Stephen, John takes out the d-chips and teleports out of ULTRA.

Stephen and Jed are at the rendezvous site waiting for Cara to bring Morgan. She does but instead of take his paramour, Jedikiah walks away, asking Cara and John to take Morgan with them. They don’t trust him one bit but everything in his demeanor says he wants nothing more than to protect his love. Back at the lair, Stephen and John working to getting back to limbo—stopping time while teleporting. It’s a tireless and utterly fruitless effort. Cara says as much and tells John “You don’t have to do this.” Though he doesn’t say why, he tells her that he really does. When they are alone, John tells Stephen it’s only a matter of time before Cara finds out, especially considering the emotional connection she shares with Stephen. When Stephen gets home, his mother apologies for her dismissive attitude re: his father. She gives him a box of Roger’s research materials and though she wants him to leave it alone, she knows he can’t because Stephen’s “a seeker, just like him.”

The sly Founder has a chat with Jed at ULTRA, knowing that he’s hiding something. To misdirect the Founder, Jed admits to his affair with Morgan. They chat a bit longer and the Founder ends it by asking if Jed wishes to take care of the loose end or should he.

Going through his father’s stuff, Stephen eventually finds a memory card with video of the ‘Thanatos’ trials. While he and Russell go through hundreds of attempts Roger and Dr. Krick  tried to reach limbo, John admits to Cara his role in Roger Jameson’s death. She is beyond disgusted, unable to be in the same room as John. With the power couple of tomorrow at odds, Stephen takes it upon himself to visit Dr. Krick after hearing his father mention the ‘alternate method’ to reaching limbo. The good doctor is packing up his things, ready for a change, though it seems more like he knows things are coming to a head. His line of thinking is tragically validated when, after telling Stephen “There are things afoot that you couldn’t possibly understand, boy,” he’s gunned down by The Founder and his hit squad. Stephen escapes capture and relays the message back to the group. They still aren’t convinced, trying to break it to Stephen that he’s father’s dead. He refuses to believe it and challenges Cara; “either I’m the Chosen One or I’m not.”

Later at home, Stephen asks his mom if he can have guests and he ends up inviting all his friends over. Astrid meets the Tomorrow People and has this flirty eye thing going on with John. Knowing him better than anyone else, she knows he’s pulled everyone together for a reason. He tells her he has to go away for a bit, to bring his dad back.  She volunteers to go with but he tells her “Where I’m going, you can’t come with me. But I promise, I’ll be back.”

Back at ULTRA, the Founder is tearing into Jedikiah for some of the bumps in the road, chiefly, John’s escape. He reminds the director that were it not for Stephen, he’d have little use for Jedikiah. As it stands, though, they are still grooming Stephen for “his ultimate purpose”.

Cara watching the clock as Stephen goes under

When Cara walks into the lobby of their lair, Morgan’s waiting for her, alive and well. Things didn’t look so good for her when Jed put a pillow over her head and a bullet into it. Morgan shows Cara what happened and the latter is shocked that Jedikiah has a heart, after all. She leaves Morgan to start with the crazy plan of killing Stephen. Before he goes under, he asks John to take care of his mom and brother if things go south and separately from that, tells Cara to let John off the hook. They finally get started with the procedure and, though there are some tense moments, it works. When he regains consciousness, Stephen tells them it worked. “I saw him,” he says both surprised and elated, “We have to find my dad’s body.”

Tomorrow’s News

  • Just when I thought I knew where things were going, another variable is thrown into the mix. We’ve known that Stephen’s an important cog in his people’s future though we thought it was because he could find his father and, in doing so, the Refuge. It seems that the Founder has his own nefarious plans for Stephen, one that could signify the end of his people or something out of left field.
  • To further the above point, Stephen’s separate conversations with John and Cara solidifies him as a unifying force. Despite what John did, Stephen’s able to look past that and at the bigger picture. He knows their strength lies in sticking together. Any animosities between one another, legitimate or not, will only hurt their cause. It’s a testament to Stephen’s inner strength and burgeoning confidence in himself.
  • Who knew that Jedikiah had a heart?! One of the strongest things about ‘The Tomorrow People’ is how the characters have layers about them—yes, like an onion. As soon as you think you have someone pegged, you find out the first few impressions were just pieces of their personal puzzle. When Morgan was first introduced, she came off as nothing more than a distraction to pass the time but she’s so much more to him, especially considering what he’s willing to do to protect her.