Watching Taken the Miniseries (part 9)

We start out directly where the previous episode left off. In other words, we’re smack dab in the middle of a whole mess of crap. Like wow, lots of crap.

Lisa and Charlie are within sight of their daughter and are more determined than ever to reach her. Their determination leads them directly into Military custody, though, which just sucks all around. Lisa isn’t doing so well either. Her connection with her daughter clearly has her extremely strained. Allie is also looking pretty terrible. In fact, she spends most of the episode in a deep REM state in some sort of psychic… thing. Her whole ordeal climaxes when it appears that the aliens take the whole damn house off it’s foundation and, once again, sorta flip the bird to the humans and fly off into the night.  Because if it’s one thing we’ve learned from this show, aliens like to say “screw you, look at how awesome we are” to humans and fly off into the night.

During the whole encounter with the downed craft, Chet once again proves his unwavering loyalty towards Mary by trying to keep the Military from moving in on the UFO as she’s inside of it. He doesn’t succeed, though, but he tried damn hard to protect her and even slipped up and calling her “Mary” in the General’s presence. I don’t think anyone is under any sort of illusion that he and Mary were platonic anymore, but there are bigger fish to fry. You know, that whole crashed spacecraft that wiped out a huge chunk of their base and everything. Yeah, that.

The aliens use Lieutenant Pierce’s memories of his mother to lure the soldiers inside. This is the same Lieutenant that Allie had made friends with in the previous episode, which at the time seems like an interesting choice and clearly leads back to Allie in some way, but it’s not until the end of the episode that we learn the true reason why. Either way, we can now officially dub him “Nice Soldier” and appreciate the adorable moments where the alien version of his mother serve him Tollhouse cookies while his fellow soldiers stand around angry and confused. Lieutenant Pierce is awesome. End of story.

Mary is inside the spaceship, as well, and is completely amazed at everything around her. Three generations of her family have been working towards this moment and she’s finally made it. She explores the craft fearlessly and is confronted by alien reflection of her grandfather. As expected, they get along pretty damn well at first. “I see your father in you,” he tells her. “But not enough to ruin things.”  Ah, yes, bonding over their hatred of their shared genetic link.  How lovely.

The reflection of her grandfather explains the situation to her. Pierce’s mother and Owen Crawford are “screen memories” or “projections.” Though she is aware that she’s essentially talking to herself, she grills her grandfather for answers. She learns what we’ve essentially surmised already. She wants to be a part of the alien’s power at all cost. The cost in this case is the same mental torture her grandfather experienced from Jacob Clark oh so many decades ago.  Mary looks into Owen’s eyes and Own looks back and then she falls screaming to the floor because that’s just how the aliens roll.

Also more cookies. Because cookies.

After the spacecraft flips the humans the bird and flies away the soldiers pack up and leave. Of course this has all been a ruse by Allie because, as mentioned a million times in this article series, she’s awesome. There was no spacecraft. There were no aliens. It was all Allie. Damn.  Good job girl.

When she reveals herself to her parents in the Jeep we see Allie as a vulnerable little girl. She’s extraordinarily powerful, far beyond anything the aliens themselves are capable of, but she’s only nine years old and she’s scared. She knows she’s different, but she wants a normal life more than anything. She wants to play soccer and listen to her boy bands. She wants to hang out with her mom and her mom’s friends. But that’s not an option now. Things are too out of hand.

I know Dakota Fanning gets lots of crap for being in pretty much every movie for like a decade, but she really is a phenomenal actress. The scene where she is dreaming of the perfect birthday party and screams “I can’t [stay]!” at the dream version of her friends and family had me choking up. She can carry a scene on her own, play off the actors around her, or just sit silently as the adults around her work the scene together. Like Allie, she’s kind of amazing. No wonder she got the gig. It’s another Steven Spielberg miracle child actor. He kinda has a way of finding them, doesn’t he? Drew Barrymore was his discovery too.

But anyway, back to the episode. The last half of the episode consists of Charlie, Lisa, and Allie on the run. It’s interesting that some of the most tense scenes of the episode come from the most human challenges. While Lisa and Allie are back at the abandoned gas station, Charlie has to evade being recognized, steal a car, run from the cops, and try to make it back to his family safe and sound. My heart was pounding during those scenes way more than they did during the UFO scene earlier in the episode. Sure, aliens are powerful, but humans are downright terrifying.

As the title implies, we see John again. It’s not a very happy reunion, however. Allie is terrified of the man. Lisa points a gun at his face. Then some rowdy locals get in the mix. More weapons. Gunshots.  BOOM BOOM! Then Allie goes all alien super power on their butts and there’s an exploding car. Yeah, not the best family reunion in history, but at least Sally’s star pendants are finally reunited.

TAKEN REVIEWS

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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