This week’s episode is brought to us by the number 892.
This is the point where I am willing to say outright that Touch is good, and I’m glad that Fox has yet to cancel it despite putting it in the Friday Night Death Slot.
The first season was iffy, but intriguing enough to warrant a third. Now, here, in the middle of the second season, we know what the show was trying to set up. I’m usually known as a fairly negative fangirl, so if I’m saying that Touch deserves more recognition now that it’s getting emotionally dramatic. Oh yeah, and main characters start dying again. That’s usually a good sign for a good show.
So let’s start at the beginning, shall we. Martin awakes in the middle of the night sensing what is probably a disturbance in the force. He checks in on Jake, and then sees Lucy’s lamp on. When he opens the door, he finds she isn’t there. When she doesn’t answer his phone call, he freaks out because he’s worried she went to the police and compromised he and Jake, so he grabs his kid and leaves like a bat out of hell.
Of course, not until after Jake spends time tuning a radio to 89.2 and shoving a notebook he has stolen at some point from Soliel, which Martin takes to mean they need to go Soliel’s house before they go on the run from cops he’s not even sure are following him.
During this time, we find Norburg tied up on the floor of his own loft where Lucy shows that she would probably be a good torturer if ever the need would arise in later episodes. She demands her daughter back while punching and kicking his broken ribs, and stepping on his hand.
When Martin arrives at Soliel’s house at Way-Too-Early O’clock, Carl happens to be awake and let’s them in. Jake, immediately takes out a family album and finds a picture of Frances (Norburg’s mother who is taking care of Amelia, and Carl’s ex-girlfriend… sort of). Martin notes the license plate number of the car in the picture, apparently hoping that it is her car they are standing in front of (spoiler alert: it is) and then asks Carl about her. Carl basically tells the story from episode two, which is that they were dating and then she left mysteriously. She also doesn’t answer his phonecalls anymore.
Meanwhile, Amelia is confronting Frances about lying about her mother, Lucy, who she was told left her up for adoption. Amelia starts to beat on Frances when a knock at the door comes and stops them. This is especially ominous as Amelia, earlier that day had been listening to some sort of Bible radio station, stating “They are coming.”
Martin leaves to go to Breakwire, where he gets all of his questionably illegal searches done, to find out more about the license plate number in the picture with Frances. Trevor reveals that Lucy has gone to Norburg’s loft, and Martin speeds out, leaving Jake to hang out with the arcade machines. (Breakwire still looks like the best place to work, ever).
He comes upon the loft just as Lucy is being held at gunpoint by Norburg, who has worked free of his bonds while she went to look for painkillers. He tells her not to trust Martin, that he’s a liar (which is a very fair assumption for Norburg to make, given the facts he knows) and then claims that if Lucy can get him Jake Bohm, he will return Amelia. He also explains that Amelia is very important to his research, and that mapping her brain will result in miracles.
Martin bangs on the door, remembers the numbers Jake told him, and then slips into the house after using the security keypad. It is too late, and Lucy and Norburg are gone. Lucy to get Jake, and Norburg to get Amelia. On the floor, Martin finds blood, but he doesn’t know if it’s Lucy’s or Norburg’s.
Of he goes to Breakwire, only to find that Lucy had gotten there first and took Jake. Naturally, Martin is very annoyed that Trevor let some complete stranger that usually takes care of Jake by herself all the time away. He gets a message from Lucy, who is either having second thoughts about taking Jake, or just is planning on letting Martin swoop in and save the day.
When he meets Lucy where she is supposed to meet Norburg, he yells at her. He feels betrayed by her after all he’s done to help her find Amelia, and he takes Jake and drives off… and then drive back again.
He finds Lucy sitting by herself. Norburg hasn’t shown up. Martin convinces her that Norburg won’t, and he takes Lucy home (leaving her car there…). Suddenly, he realizes that 89.2, the station Jake tuned his car too, suddenly has signal. He correctly surmises that they need to follow the signal and drives until he finds a radio tower in the distance. As they drive, he sees Frances’ car.
Lucy and Martin find Norburg in the house, grieving over his mother, who is lying on the floor with a bullet between her eyes. He never says who might have taken Amelia, only threatens Lucy and Martin that if they follow him, he will kill them.
And that is where this story ends.
But there is, of course, Guillermo Ortiz’s story line. We find him at Tonto National Forest, wandering around on trails that are closed. It’s not very clear why he’s doing this, but we do find out there is another hiker lost out there.
Guillermo finds the man, wounded from falling, and looking forward to dying. Guillermo takes his confession, which is that a kid once died while he was performing surgery on him, and he thinks it’s because he had been drinking the night before. In a move uncharacteristic for Guillermo, he refuses to the kill the man, stating that it wasn’t something he wanted to do anymore. He then build a fire, and burns the photos of all the people he had killed so far in this season. He stops, however, when he gets to Jake’s photo.
Then, he decides that the suicidal surgeon is whining too much, and talks some sense into him. He tells him about how much his son will hurt if he kills himself, and how many more children will hurt because he won’t be alive to perform anymore surgeries. He closes his speech by saying that sometimes such a thing as acceptable loss.
Guillermo says that last phrase very carefully, and seems to come to a realization. It seems that Guillermo had convinced himself he didn’t need to kill anyone anymore, and then redecided it’s totally cool to kill people again.
He manages to get the surgeon back to the park rangers, and the last scene we see is Guillermo standing on a mountain, looking down at the night skyline of Los Angeles.
Looks like things are going to get real next episode. Will see you then.
