Emergence Review: Camera Wheelbarrow Tiger Pillow (Season 1 Episode 2)

Emergence Season 1 Episode 2, “Camera Wheelbarrow Tiger Pillow,” wrestles with real-life implications of the situation the characters find themselves in. 

If nothing else, this episode makes one thing clear: Even if the mythology of the show never makes sense, the guiding light of this series — the thing that anchors the audience — is and likely will always be the characters and the performances that are given. 

That’s the biggest, most important thing with a series like this — that you are on board with the characters. Look at another similar show, like Fringe. Often times, that’s a show that very often you had no idea what was going on with the larger scheme of the mythology, especially at the beginning. 

What made it okay was that Fringe had a consistently solid cast that always came through when the show needed. You might not get what’s going on with a parallel universe, but you always knew that Olivia Dunham was going to be there to guide you through it. 

That’s something that Emergence already has in the form of Jo and the others, and it will hopefully still have a good handle on this as the series progresses. Its characters very well could end up being its saving grace if the plot doesn’t make any sense, and that’s okay. Not every story needs to make sense!

Having things make sense with the characters will always be more important and vital than things making sense on a narrative level. If a show has a good emotional through-line, then everything will fall into place. 

This isn’t to say that the writing for the characters on Emergence is amazing or revolutionary in some way. Rather, they feel fully realized already — and that’s not something that every show can hang their hat on. There are little touches the writers hit on that let you really believe there was something going on before the show started — that these characters have real, fleshed-out backstories.

For example, with the scenes between Jo and Alex, you can see so clearly how this was at one point a couple that worked expertly together but it doesn’t have to sell that this is a relationship that just stopped working at some point. Another show might lean on Alex being a jerk — and he is to a certain degree — but this show knows it doesn’t need to do that fully. 

One big way that the show is currently not working at all is Benny. He doesn’t fit in with the rest of the show as it is right now, and it would probably work better if he wasn’t here at all. He doesn’t really provide anything to the show that Jo couldn’t do on her own or was already in the midst of doing before he popped up. 

That being said, Emergence is still on a solid upward swing, and we look forward to seeing how it will continue to unravel as we spend more time exploring these characters. 

What did you think of this episode of Emergence? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Emergence airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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