Treaties, resurrection, and betrayal are the lifeblood of this week’s ‘The Tomorrow People’ when, after an unsuspecting discovery forces the hand of the good guys and the time table for returning Roger Price—Stephen’s dad—back to the land of the living.

Stephen trains with the Founder to better control histime-stopping powers

True to his word, Jedikiah is doing everything he can to destroy the machine, even infiltrating his former HQ to no avail. Bathory addresses ULTRA after the failed attempt, reminding everyone that this is a new day, one where the Tomorrow People and ULTRA can coexist. He pulls Stephen aside and reiterates the importance of mastering his time-stopping abilities if he’s to operate the machine. What it means is some serious training and the Founder takes Stephen through the paces, forcing him to use all three of his powers at once. Though he’s able to do two without problems, Stephen finds using all three are a bit harder than he thinks. Hillary’s there throughout, watching out for her FWB. When Bathory leaves, they do a bit of fliration and planning for some naughty-time that night before she’s relieved by another agent to help with Stephen’s training.

On the Roger front, Jedikiah’s frayed beyond belief. After Stephen’s warning, John checks in on the former ULTRA head and gets a shotgun pointed at him for his troubles. He tries convincing Jed he needs to hide but the latter refuses to leave his brother’s body, understanding the danger of allowing Bathory to get his hands on it.

At home, Stephen’s prepping the house for a night with Hillary when Bathory unexpectedly comes a-knocking. Though there is a modus vivendi in place between ULTRA and the tomorrow people, the Founder wants a more lasting and binding truce. The only way to do that is speak with Cara or John personally. Stephen points out ULTRA’s prior promises and how the Founder was behind John’s torture but he reminds Stephen that “war is a nasty business…and the quicker we put an end to it, the better.” He requests Stephen speak with Cara and the others now and, casting any subtlety to the wind, vocalizes the disappointment he’d feel if someone were to be working with Jedikiah. The Founder’s wishes driving him, Stephen tells Cara and Russell about the request but admits he doesn’t trust Bathory or Jedikiah but, with everything at stake, they have to go down this road, especially since Stephen believes he’ll be able to pull his father from limbo with the Founder helping him hone his powers. He returns home to find a trench coat and lingerie wearing Hillary waiting for him in the living room and the start to get a bit friendly when, after an interrupting call from Astrid shakes Hillary’s confidence, she asks Stephen the question we’ve all wondered at some point…”What is this to you?” She doesn’t want it to be just a fling and though they don’t define it, Stephen assures her there’s more to it than casual sex. Of course, not everyone’s ecstatic about Stephen and Hillary’s current state of affairs. Astrid and Cara commiserate in their jealousy with the latter expressing (and probably hoping) her concerns about Hillary using Stephen. With Astrid’s suggestion and the Founder’s request for a tete-tete, Cara has the perfect way of getting Hillary alone in order to get into the ULTRA agent’s head. She sends Russell along to meet with the Founder and gives Stephen the request to use Hillary as collateral, in case things go wrong. Stephen agrees but it puts him in quite the awkward situation.

Jedikiah working side-by-side with Cara and the tomorrow people

Tasked with bringing Hillary to the Lair, Stephen tries to keep his cool and gives his current woman some info on his connection with Cara. Of course, having the cursed woman’s intuition (for us guys at least), surmises that Stephen and Cara have been intimately familiar with one another. Stephen’s feeling the heat and the icing on the cake is Hillary planting a big, wet one on his lips right in front of Cara at the Lair. While Stephen takes Russell to meet the Founder (a meeting that goes very well from Russell’s POV) Hillary opens her mind up to the probe she knows Cara wants to do. Of course, she focuses on the past few one-on-one sessions between her and Stephen, something Cara’d rather not see. When a tipsy Russell comes back with word that the “war is over”, Cara tempers everyone’s raucous cheers by stating no decisions will be made until John returns. A bit later, Russell suggests a nice ULTRA/Tomorrow People soiree, one that Cara reluctantly agrees to, so long as he keeps it modest. The party starts off fun enough but tension mounts when ULTRA arrives. It takes Russell grabbing the ULTRA tech he’d run into earlier on his tour and leading her to the dance floor that things pick up. Stephen and Hillary look quite comfy together but he bids her adieu, reminding his partner that he has to do some training in the AM.

While all this is going on, Bathory has dispatched a tactical team to check out one of Jedikiah’s land holdings. They get there and surprise Jedikiah and John though the latter two work together to take down the group. The lead agent catches sight of Roger’s frozen body though he doesn’t recognize who it is. Jed implores his former protégé to pull the trigger but John refuses and the agent gets away. He knows how big this truce could be and killing an ULTRA agent would throw it all in the crapper. But now that ULTRA knows where Jed is, they have to do something with Roger’s body. Stephen arrives on the scene with provisions, seeing the signs of the fight and blood where his father’s body was once housed. He goes to Bathory and is told of the situation, promising that he will fix things. The Founder conveys to him the importance of doing just that lest he hunt down the Tomorrow People with a tenacity Jedikiah only dreamed of. Stephen jumps to the Lair amid the chaos of Roger’s body now there. They only have a short amount of time to get things resolved before Roger dies for good. The biggest need…a capable nurse. John reaches out to Marla and she’s shocked to see her husband’s body on the gurney with a bullet hole through the chest but with the opportunity to bring him back.

Unfortunately Russell didn’t get the memo on what’s going on and his brings Hillary and Astrid back to the Lair. Jedikiah tells Stephen he may need to lead his father back to reality and there’s only two ways to do it; the machine or ‘killing’ him. Stephen chooses the latter—despite the Founder’s earlier warnings—and, in a surprising twist, Hillary’s there for him, offering her aid. The two get to ULTRA and break into the machine’s room, hooking Stephen up to it and firing the thing up. Stephen gets in touch with Roger though the latter warns him “Stay back…something’s wrong.” He’s able to wrap his arms around Roger, pulling the man from his chair as the bullet wound materializes in his chest to match the one in his body. Stephen pulls Roger into the light, disconnects from the machines and disappears before the Founder arrives at the room.

Surgery done and Stephen back in the fold, everyone waits anxiously for a sign from Roger. They get it in the weakest of heartbeats. Weak or not, it’s there, signaling Roger’s back into the fold.  The hard stuff behind them, Stephen thanks Hillary for his support, understanding the risk she’s taking. “They believe in you and your dad,” she tells him. “So do I.” It looks like she’s in it for the long haul and, on the John/Jedikiah front, the former may have it in him to forgive Jedikiah if Roger walks out. Stephen and Marla stare down at the recovering body of the man who’s been out of their lives for far too long.

If only things were to be that easy…Hillary, despite it all, is working with the Founder who tells her “I’ll let you know when it’s time for our next move.” Report made, she walks away, with the look of someone with the lines of guilt etched into her face.

Tomorrow’s News

  • Things just keep getting better and better. When it looked like John would never forgive Jedikiah, we are treated to the two working together and the possibility of John forgiving his former mentor for putting a bullet in Stephen’s father. Despite their past, John still harbors strong feelings for his father-figure, a man who removed him from the worst of foster situations and molded him into a man. Theirs is a complex relationship, one that cannot, and will not, be known for its simplicity.
  • Speaking of relationships…Stephen and Hillary’s budding affair is both fun and welcome. I’d believed from the start that he and Cara were best developed as kindred spirits, linked by a connection that didn’t necessarily involve a romantic component. Though their brief tryst changed my mind, it’s good to see him move on with a character as polarizing and complex as his current partner. Though it was a bit too neat how they have her working with the Founder, methinks her motivation for this has nothing to do with her being bad but Bathory exploiting her personal feelings for Stephen and Hillary making the best possible choice (at least the one she believes) that will keep Stephen safe. She genuinely cares for him, much more than she’s admitted to this point.
  • And then we have Bathory. What is his endgame and how does Roger fit in? What is the ‘next move’ he’s waiting to play and how will it affect our heroes? Though I’m not a fan of him, the Founder’s strength lies in the fact (much like Jedikiah) that he’s not bad for the fun of it, but that he genuinely believes he’s doing the right thing. Of course, “doing the right thing” is often a symptom of someone being dishonest with him/herself. Though time will tell, my instincts tell me Bathory squarely falls into the category of being blinded by his own thoughts to what’s right.