Despite the clever structure in the first half of the episode and the cool action scenes, Ben's return in "What Is and What Should Never Be" proved to be very troublesome to the overall mythology and undercut the possibility of it becoming a great episode. For a while, I was thinking that "Fool in the Rain" would be a game-breaker both in quality and direction of the show.
The balance between standalone and mythology plots has been adequate so far, as Ben has had about 5 seconds of screen time. His re-entrance into Annie's life, however, is riddled with plot holes and questions which are unlikely to be answered.
Why does Ben pop in and then leave for the rest of the episode? Why is he so cryptic? Is there anything wrong with telling Annie everything? How did he get into Annie's house without the CIA noticing? Why is the CIA so inept? To catch Ben, all they had to do is put 24/7 surveillance on Annie.
"What Is and What Should Never Be" also featured more of Joan and Jai than usual, and reinforced what I already thought of them--they're boring. Joan wants to protect her agents, but has to go with the Agency and her husband's agenda. Jai is a pretty sleazy guy who Annie likes, but is under orders to get close to her.
Score: 8.9/10
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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