Television Review: 11.22.63 Episode 7 (Hulu)

This episode started with Jake in a coma still and he saw Al, who told him that he wasn't the man he thought he was.    He brought in Bill and Sadie and just messed the whole thing up.   All the while, the days until the assassination- the title of the show- are ticking down.    So Jake gets out of his coma and out of the hospital but he can't remember anything.   I suppose this is why if you venture to the past and decide to place bets you should either a) hire protection should they come after you or b) get out before you get caught.  

Now it was revealed that when Jake was in his coma Miss Mimi died and that couldn't have been a worse send off for a character ever, but I guess I shouldn't have expected some big show.    Jake has trouble remembering what he's supposed to do, but Sadie reminds him he was working with Bill and eventually Jake remembers he had Bill committed.   When Jake and Sadie go to set Bill free though, he jumps out the window and effectively dies because too much crazy overcomes him.   It just goes to show that you can start fights in brothels and hang out with Lee Harvey Oswald but it'll still be your own hand that does you in.

Jake remembers where he used to live, goes there, finds Lee Harvey Oswald and it all comes back to him.  He realizes he has to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and so Jake and Sadie set themselves up near where it will happen on the day it is to happen.    Yes, we get all the way until 12:30am on the titular day, twelve hours from the assassination.  

While in the car, Sadie becomes the Yellow Card Hat Guy- the guy from the very beginning when Jake first went back in time at the request of Al.   YCHG tells Jake this story about how he is trying to go back in time himself to save his daughter from drowning, but every time he goes back, even if he doesn't blink an eye, it still somehow happens.   He is essentially telling Jake that the paat is unavoidable because it has already happened and so you shouldn't try to change it.

The worst part is- and these are the monologues in the story which I really like- that no matter how many times YCHG goes back in time and isn't successful, he has to keep going back and keep trying to save his daughter because otherwise it feels like he's just going to let her die.    He tells Jake it's a loop and he makes it sound like a horrible loop to be stuck in.   He warns Jake to go back now so as not to be stuck in the same loop as him.   Jake says his thing is different, but I'm inclined to agree with the YCHG here.   The past will always find a way and Jake will devote his life to an endless loop of torture.

At 8:30am, four hours from the assassination, Jake and Sadie wake up, realizing they've lost time and the car won't start.   Jake says it's the past pushing back.  Oh, so Jake can go ahead and cause the death of Bill but Lee Harvey Oswald is not okay to kill, huh?  Now the past decides to fight back?   I feel like the past is a lot lie Mother Nature in the way that it works, but then again it could be called Father Time.

By 9am, Lee Harvey Oswald is finding his position to wait for JFK to go by in the parade and Jake and Sadie have hotwired a car and are on their way to stop him.   Three and half hours until the assassination and that is where it ends.    It's all going down in the final episode and I'm kind of excited but I also feel like a lot of what the Yellow Card Hat Guy said is true as well.