Watching Taken the Miniseries (part 7)

Allie is wise far beyond her years… and kind of sassy too. And that’s why everyone in the show loves her, basically. For us, we finally get to know who our narrator is and she’s pretty damn awesome.

Allie’s been a constant presence for us since the beginning, but we haven’t been properly introduced to her up until this point. In prior episodes we could gather who she was based on how she referred to other characters and in the last episode we got the first story where she refers to herself directly. But now we have the opportunity to get to know her personally and in a direct way. If you think about it, she’s kind of the protagonist in this wide cast of characters, but outside of the intro sequence we haven’t even seen her face until now.

The past six episodes have essentially been world building and now that we have a rich world with thorough character back stories, it’s time for the actual plot to begin. Everything has been building towards Allie’s birth. The aliens have been engineering it and the Crawford family, in turn, has been trying to figure out just what the alien’s game plan is so that they can have the upper hand. Now they know that it’s all been leading up to Allie and shady government plots are being set into motion. The aliens want her. The government wants her. Everyone else is just intrigued by her.  And all Lisa wants is to keep her daughter safe and give her the best life possible.

Throughout the episode we get glimpses of Allie’s powers. She can read people just like her mother and grandfather could. She can also manipulate time, which is a trait we haven’t really seen in her lineage thus far. She can also project the images of people as well just like her grandfather demonstrated with Sally. And holy crap, she can heal! And teleport! Holy wow! Allie you are all kinds of awesome!

We also have the opportunity to observe how Lisa and Charlie are coping nine years after their encounter. They meet and even though they aren’t consciously aware at first that they had a shared encounter, something deep inside draws them together. Lisa reveals that she actually enjoys her abductions while Charlie was just confused about them. You can’t really blame Charlie, though. The aliens were essentially responsible for destroying both his father and his grandfather’s lives. Charlie is holding himself together slightly better than them (no drug or substance abuse so far and he’s keeping a roof over his head), but he did lose out on his potential teaching career because he became so obsessed with his encounters.

When they undergo hypnosis the truth comes out.  Charlie hadn’t known that he was a father, but now that he does know he wants to be a good one and contribute. It’s not an easy situation though. Charlie is a stranger and Lisa has been doing just fine on her own. Better than fine, actually. I mean have you seen Allie? She’s kind of amazing. But at the same time Lisa and Charlie are drawn to each other and they do seem to care about each other, even if those feeling didn’t develop in a normal way.  If nothing else, they both love Allie and that joined passion ties them together.

Much of this episode takes place in a hostage situation during the alien abductee group meeting that both Lisa and Charlie have attended. I feel like the hostage situation itself lasts a tad too long, but it does have a huge influence on propelling the plot forward. We get to see Allie demonstrate her powers (all that ‘holy wow!’ goodness I mentioned earlier) and it gives the government a convenient excuse to step in directly. The truth about Charlie being Allie’s father also comes out to Allie during the crisis and, even though they don’t have much time to fully process it, the whole ordeal clears the air about the big elephant in the room. Allie’s first act after this monumental revelation is the cure that nasty bullet hole in her father’s gut.

The episode culminates with Mary shooting her own father in defense of the project and Allie using her powers to get the hostages to freedom out of Crawford’s grasp. Allie shows back up a few moments later and goes with Mary willingly in the hopes of sparing her mother and father from the government’s previous interest in them. Have I mentioned how much I love Allie? She might be a little too perfect, but whatever, man. I love her.

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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