In last week’s preview of Charlie Jade, I focused a lot on generalities, like the cinematography and a cast overview. In a show so rooted in mystery, it’s important to let things play out slowly. Now that the premiere has aired, let’s explore the Jadeverse(s) and the clues we’ve been given so far.
The show opens with a Spanish guitar picking out a slow and mournful tune over barren, windswept dunes. Cutting away from the desert vista to a huge underground facility, the music moves to the background and is replaced by the sound of hundreds of sprinklers and Charlie Jade’s opening narration. Where there is water, there is life. There is also Vex-Cor.
It looks like water is required in order to open and maintain the link between Alphaverse and Gammaverse. Charlie also implies that Alphaverse is in short supply of the wet stuff and might be mining the idyllic verse to get some more. What’s not clear is how Betaverse – which appears to be our home – comes into play. There’s a sister facility in Beta, and Elliot Krogg, the former head of research for Vex-Cor, knows something bad is going to happen. But what?
Charlie’s a cynical and weary PI who specializes in “misper” cases. When first we meet him, he’s looking for a missing college kid. A couple of things of note happen during this sequence. Charlie is able to use a handheld device – let’s be really nerdy and call it a tricorder for now – to read the recorded data from a mobile video bug. He’s also able to follow the kid because his assistant is plugged into a monitoring grid that tracks everyone. Presumably, this grid reads signals from the same implanted chips that the residents of Cape City use for paying for purchases. It’s also possible these chips hold more personal information, such as their rating classifications.
Driving his car – a beautiful Aston Martin DBS6 – we see the first of Charlie’s many visions in this episode, a particularly jarring and realistic train hurtling toward, and then through him. He pops some pills to ward off the visions, but the drugs don’t seem to have much effect. In narration, he indicates he’s had the visions before as well. Later on in the desert, Charlie sees across the divide between the three verses, but what’s notable about this first vision is that it happens nowhere near the desert facility.
Back at his office, Charlie meets a frightened, lost girl from Cape Town. As she’s also the first girl with an actual South African accent, it’s pretty clear she’s from our world but trapped in Alpha. How she got there is a mystery, though it’s seems 01 Boxer made it happen. Since the link in the desert wasn’t online, is there a second link somewhere?
Similar to the New Caprica occupation on BSG, we are intended to sympathize with the terrorists. All they want to do – at least all we see in the pilot – is protect their home from being despoiled. Having seen Alpha, I’d say they’re right to be concerned. So they decide to blow up the Vex-Cor facility. The explosion sets off a massive chain reaction up the link through Beta and into Alpha.
Prior to the explosion, Charlie’s perspective shifts rapidly between the three verses. Whether that has to do with his proximity to the experiment, the curious blue stone he finds, or something else isn’t obvious. Immediately before the bomb goes off, Reena, played by Patricia McKenzie (Soul Food, Naked Josh) shows up in what appears to be Alpha. At least it looked like Alpha’s color scheme to me. After the explosion, we just see Charlie, unconscious in an arid desert similar to the one in the opening.
So what do you think? Did the premise pilot draw you in enough to come back next week?
R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.
Oh, seriously, when people were talking about this on another article I did not realize it was a show, I thought it was a person.
Sounds interesting though, I’m looking for a re-run of this episode right now.
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It’s on SciFi tonight at 8pm. Mike and I are DirecTV cheaters who get the east coast feed!
Richards last blog post..Charlie Jade recap
Hmmm – weird. I have DirecTv and it’s not showing up in my guide. But, I also don’t have an East Coast feed – how did you guys manage that?
SciFi uses the east coast feed in all time zones. CJ was on at 8pm EDT.
Richards last blog post..Charlie Jade recap
Oh well – my time machine is in the shop so I officially missed it for today. However, Chinese Jade is currently on QVC – I wonder if that is a sequel.
The Trousered Apes last blog post..Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Parts 5 thru 10 of 10 with Dr. Craig
Oooh – and I just discovered that Charlie Rose is playing on PBS at the same time as Chinese Jade. I think I’ll watch them picture-in-picture – that should resolve the issue for me!
The Trousered Apes last blog post..Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Parts 5 thru 10 of 10 with Dr. Craig
That should do it. Or you’ll have a good feel for Chinese Rose.
Richards last blog post..Charlie Jade recap
LOL, I came on seeing 7 comments and thought there was some awesome discussion about the episode
I haven’t finished it yet, my only disappointment with it was the non-HD broadcast
Man, I gotta say, this was a really hard show to get in to. Granted I had a one year old crawling around and periodically crying about something and I was fighting off sleep, but they were losing me within the first five minutes. I didn’t think they did a very good job of explaining the separate universes or I just missed some important details.
I want to like it and get in to it, but I hope the next episode is easier to follow.
I like the interactive portion of the show where they were begging people to call in because they only had 15 items left and they were slashing prices…I couldn’t dial fast enough. I think I sprained my finger.
The Trousered Apes last blog post..Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Parts 5 thru 10 of 10 with Dr. Craig
@Jason, it’s unfortunately a double-whammy. Not only do they want you to pay really close attention (although things will get dropped with the writer-team handoff,) the series starts out a little slowly. The pilot especially is really just trying to set the tone and mood, along with just enough explanation about the three universes to whet your appetite.
I totally understand not getting into it, but I’d give it another week or two to see. I went into it predisposed to like it, and looking back I think I was pretty forgiving of the shortcomings of the early episodes. It totally paid off for me pretty fast, though.
@Ape, I think you spent too much time at the end with the Jade half and not enough with the Charlie half. Try this to even it out.
Richards last blog post..Charlie Jade recap
I sort of feel the way Jason does, even though I only got 20 minutes into it
It was a bit confusing at first, but I did like the guy who plays Jade right away, and the dark tone to it was great.
I’ll keep going, but been busy writing the BSG recap because I couldn’t think of anything else since it ended.
@ Richard – rotfl – that was hilarious.
Microhoo…err…Yahsoft…ugh, we’re not going to go there.
The Trousered Apes last blog post..Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Parts 5 thru 10 of 10 with Dr. Craig
@Richard – I definitely want to give it a try. It seems like the kind of show I could enjoy.
I will hopefully finish watching the first episode this afternoon…also need to see how In Plain Sight went a second time.
In Plain Sight was decent last night. I think I liked the pilot episode better, but it wasn’t terrible.
Hey – did you guys switch off of Disqus? That thing was jacking me up…
The Trousered Apes last blog post..Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Parts 5 thru 10 of 10 with Dr. Craig
And it has started keeping track of my comments again – yay…
The Trousered Apes last blog post..Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Parts 5 thru 10 of 10 with Dr. Craig
Only articles written after we started using Disqus will have Disqus comments enabled.
Sorry, we’re still using it. It seems to work pretty well for most of us…those of us who aren’t apes anyway.
Ah – gotcha.
The Trousered Apes last blog post..Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Parts 5 thru 10 of 10 with Dr. Craig
Ape, you can also go to our new Comments page, and it has three tabs, one of them shows you the top commentors on the new system.
Okay Richard, finally finished it and am glad for your recap, because I was highly confused
I think I liked it a bit after reading your recap, since it cleared a few things up for me…but tracking the three ‘verses and what is happening in each was difficult for me.
I’m sure it gets easier…right?
It does get a little easier. The pilot is a bit more confusing than the rest of the series. There will be weird things happening and puzzles to work out throughout, but you’ll start to get more comfortable in each of the ‘verses. You’ll know immediately when you see the bluish one that you’re in ours, and that Charlie’s stuck here. You’ll also figure out the rules – who knows what and who’s in charge of what – in each.
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So Beta is ours, and bluish…and Alpha is greenish, the place still beautiful that the terrorists want to save?
Gamma is the lush paradise. Like history, ‘Verse names are written by the winners. Alphaverse is the nasty place where Vex-Cor is in charge.
Makes sense…looking forward to next week.