Tom Swift Season 1 Episode 9 Review: …And the Night to Remember

Wanting to know all the answers can sometimes come at a very steep cost. This is something Tom realizes all to well during Tom Swift Season 1 Episode 9, “…And the Night to Remember.”

This penultimate episode realigns what we know to be true about The Road Back, Tom’s allies, and the relationship between Barton and Tom. Nothing is as it seems and loyalties are tested at the highest levels.

By the end of the episode we are left wondering what we actually know to be true.

Tom’s Playing Around Gets Him Played

From the beginning anyone could see that the way Tom treats his love interests and play things is going to come back to haunt him. After all, he is told point blank by Justin that he’s tired of being used by Tom only for Tom to manipulate and use him again.

While Tom is a character to root for, there are still things about him that will never change or go away. These qualities in him come from his life of privilege and make even his biggest fans question his likability.

Instead of choosing to be real and honest with people, Tom finds ways to use them to his advantage not caring how his actions could hurt. We see it most with Zenzi and Isaac, but they love him enough to let is slide most of the time. 

But, with Justin it’s different. This man has been hired by Tom to be his lawyer and keep his interests protected. Instead of nuturing that relationship, Tom uses it against his enemies but also for his own physical self-interest. 

Anyone can see that with someone like Justin — who needs personal touch, care, and validation — Tom’s behavior is going to backfire in big ways. Sure enough, by the end of “…And the Night to Remember” Justin has gone over to Susannah Robb’s side to work against Swift Enterprises.

We always talk about a woman scorned, but she’s got nothing on a man whose been tossed aside.

Zenzi Learns the Hard Way

Zenzi has never been the smartest when it comes to Congressman Eskol. Since day one she’s been hesitant to really ensure he never get close to Team Swift — even before they became romantically entangled.

Now that she thinks Eskol is wanting out of The Road Back she’s even more hesitant to evaluate his words. She just takes his words at face value and that becomes her downfall.

Eskol has always been a snake so it seems a bit sudden of him to “drop Susannah Robb” like yesterday’s news. While I have always been wary of Eskol, even Tom seems to take the man’s change in allegiance as trustworthy. 

To be honest, I expected there to be a bit more resistance to the idea of Eskol working with them instead of against them. So, naturally when his true colors are revealed it’s not that big of a shock but it’s devastating for Zenzi.

It’s one of those plot points on Tom Swift that doesn’t make a lick of sense. These characters have been working to get a leg up on The Road Back and now Eskol is switching sides and crickets?

At this point, Team Swift deserves this setback because they put it on themselves. The Congressman has never once shown an affinity for liking Tom and one night with Zenzi has him changing his stance? I don’t think so.

Tom Finds Out the Truth

While most of Tom’s inventions are super cool and something we’d all love to have access to, his latest one is not one such invention. Anything that connects to your brain and releases information from it through manipulation is a slippery slope to further mind control. 

There is the obvious benefit of it giving Tom and company the information they need to find the last capsule piece. However, there is the downside of it stirring up memories long forgotten or locked away in the recesses of your mind.

Which is what happens to Tom and honestly, it has a debilitating effect on him — as it should. Tom finds out that his father used to experiment on him as a child as well as severely disapprove of who Tom is.

This whole time Tom has been working to save his father under the faint hope that his father might actually believe in him and want him to be the head of the company. Now, Tom knows that his father is a complicated man who did some awful things to Tom in the name of science and getting to Saturn.

It’s never easy to find out about childhood trauma as an adult. So, it’s understandable that Tom has decided to completely forgo continuing the mission to save his father. 

I mean, would you want to save the person who will never see you for the successful inventor that you actually are? Tom has some really messy feelings to sort out and unfortunately, it’s not going to make their tasks in the Season Finale any easier.

 

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Tom Swift airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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