Fire in the Hole in last week’s Stitchers had everyone on death’s door, loved ones were called and Fisher saved the day with help from Tim. Future Tense changes the pace a bit and deals with death on somewhat less grand scale. It also focuses on Linus and Camille as a faux couple and some disturbing visions that Kirsten sees in a murdered psychic’s memory stitch.
At the start of the episode practically perfect Liam and Kirsten are making crepes and playing at domestic bliss. Everything goes well till Cameron rings and the boyfriend lets a little jealousy and a lot of suspicion change the mood. Liam is not buying the “video game” story and, considering what happens later, he has known all along that the story was a cover.
Camille comes to work all chipper and bearing churros. After effusively complementing the team, she holds up the box of pastry singing, “Churros for everyone…” Cameron grabs the box saying “Oh churros, the extruded cousin of the Beignet.” As he runs off to put the box into the break room, Linus grabs Camille for a private moment.
After reminding her of the call to loved ones, suggested by Maggie, he explains that he told his parents that they are a couple. Camille recommends: Telling them the truth, that they broke up, or to call an escort service. Linus wants her to dine with him and his parents, explaining that his mother has made Chicken Tikka Masala. Camille is moved by the menu choice on offer and agrees to a one time dinner date, “but then I’m dumping your lying a**,” she says poking him in the chest.
Maggie talks to Kirsten about Liam and warns her that the relationship, and her potential fiancee, are dodgy. “The timing is off,” the Stitchers boss warns and Kirsten does not react well to Maggie’s inferences. After their meeting, she complains to Cameron about Maggie’s interference and states that Liam is none of her business. Cameron appears to diss the perfect partner and then says that Liam is a nice guy.
Fisher comes in and after an awkward comic moment between the detective and Cameron, he apologizes to Kirsten about not responding to her message earlier. She explains that Turner revealed that Ed died protecting her and Fisher says he look into it. Kirsten says that Les Turner is not easily accessible, Fisher smiles and says the big boss has been paying him attention lately.
The latest stitch is Vanessa Sawyer a 24 year-old “online’ psychic whose co-host returned home to find her murdered. Sawyer’s death by geode is looked into by the team and Kirsten enters into a very different memory path. During the meeting, they discover that Fisher will be questioning late woman’s co-host Solaris and Cameron is dismissive of psychics in general. Saying that they might ask Solaris for some racing tips and Maggie says she would rather rely on scientific methods.
Camille laughs at them both. “Yeah? Well stitching is basically talking to ghosts.” All the meeting’s participants stop and look at Camille. “Well it is,” she finishes. While Kirsten is in the stitch, she sees things differently, when Vanessa looks at a woman arguing with a man, she sees flames, each memory in Swanson’s brain deal more with visions than real events that have occurred.
In one memory/vision, Kirsten sees a woman being strangled. She takes herself out of the stitch and says that Vanessa was killed because she saw someone being murdered. Kirsten and Cameron join Detective Fisher at Dreamcatcher Studios where he is questioning co-workers. Kirsten spies the man who Swanson saw strangling the woman and send the detective in his direction.
She and Cameron join Fisher while he questions the studio’s owner, Rick Hauser (played by Tommy Savas). As they walk up, Hauser says, What is this, ‘bring your kids to work day?'” “Oh no, it’s interrogate a douche day,” Kirsten replies, “Go ahead Dad.” Fisher is not amused and he moves Hauser away from “his kids” to finish the questioning.
Linus and Camille go through possible outfits for the dinner. He hates her “librarian” outfit and likes the alternative outfit even less. Linus asks that his pretend girlfriend show only 10 percent of her skin, Camille turns and walks off saying, “Look at this 10 percent.”
Cameron and Kirsten talk with Solaris and while Dr. Goodkin is clearly skeptical, the woman makes a couple of accurate observations about the two. She tells Kirsten that she is making a decision and that she cannot have a relationship with anyone till she knows herself. Solaris then tells Cameron about a heart issue, which he has, and gives him a crystal for protection.
As they leave the co-host, Kirsten spots the “murdered” woman, who is clearly not dead. Mia, is another client of Hauser and she is throwing a party, Cameron and Kirsten are invited and she accepts with the idea that she can save Mia’s life. As Kirsten watches Swanson on her show, she ends a psychic message with a “happily ever after” sign-off which prompts a childhood memory with Ed.
Liam is being followed and he interrupts Kirsten’s memory flashback to tell her about it. He asks her what is really going on and she hesitates. Liam leaves, angry and upset. Kirsten confronts Maggie about Liam being followed. The two talk and Maggie points out that Liam may well be perfect but Kirsten is being dishonest. She warns that he senses it already and it will blow up in her face. Kirsten’s boss also reveals that she has a son…an estranged son.
Linus does a run though with Camille on the history of their relationship. He prompts her on what she can and cannot do or say. Kirsten goes back into Vanessa’s memory to learn more about her death. In the stitch, she sees Mia and Vanessa talk, the psychic “sees” flames around Mia. Kirsten touches a crystal on Swanson’s table and gets a vision of Cameron in a corpse cassette.
She then sees Mia’s party, which hasn’t happened yet. The team try to get her back and they realize that Kirsten is not in a memory but somewhere else in Vanessa’s brain. She is convinced that Mia will be murdered at the party. Fisher leaves the lab in disgust stating that he will find Vanessa’s killer, “You know, the one who was actually murdered,” he says.
The meal with Linus’ parents goes brilliantly, much to his chagrin and discomfort. His mother and father fall in love with Camille who does everything that Linus told her not to. Meanwhile, at the party, Kirsten arrives to find Cameron ignored her request to stay away for his safety. Back at the dinner party, Camille has won the parents over and Linus is upset.
As Kirsten and Cameron talk at Mia’s party, Liam turns up. Seeing the two together Liam starts acting very jealous and storms off. Hauser makes a speech, where he makes light of Mia’s accomplishments and builds himself up. At the dinner party, Linus’ mother brings out his grandmother’s ring, a huge rock (rather interestingly this is what Camille says in the Stitcher briefing about the geode that killed Vanessa) that Camille gets to wear.
She hands Linus the piece of jewelry, sticks out her hand and says “Put a ring on it.” Mia’s party is over. Cameron and Kirsten talk about Liam and Mia comes back as does does Hauser. The two go into the building to find Hauser choking Mia; the vision that Kirsten saw in Swanson’s stitch.
Mia has tried to burn down the studio and Kirsten realizes that she killed Vanessa. Fisher arrives to arrest Mia, after Cameron puts out the flames. Camille has a heart to heart chat with Linus’ mother and he overhears her say that they might just have a chance.
Liam and Kirsten have it out and she tells him that she is not ready to marry anyone. Cameron stops by later to support her. He gives Kirsten the crystal that Solaris gave him, to “protect your heart,” he says. Liam makes a call to someone telling them that Kirsten turned his marriage proposal down. He then asks about Plan B.
Stitchers keeps the twists coming. Liam, may have changed form Mr. Mary Poppins to Saving Mr. Banks, but it turns out that the perfect partner has a very ulterior motive. Camille shows that she too had no family growing up and her confession to Linus’ mother is touching and explains so much about the girl.
Fisher got off some good lines in the episode, “Where’s the fire” being the best. As usual, however, it is Kyle Harris’ Cameron who gets the most points for pop culture coolness. His Dr. Who quote, “We don’t know what it is, let’s poke a stick at it,” wins top prize hands-down.
Things to look for: Camille “signposting” the big rock on her finger in the meeting was either intentional, which means her character should be observed more closely, or it was a serendipitous occurrence that was uber cool. Cameron in the corpse cassette and Maggie’s son.
The former is disturbing and the latter, like Camille’s non-family life, is intriguing and explains much about the ex-CIA operative. Kirsten is becoming more adroit in each stitch and her confidence is growing as are her abilities. The danger of her becoming another “Marta” seems to have become an non-issue.
This penultimate episode took another step forward to the season’s final episode, next week, and left the viewer with one tantalizing image, a dead Cameron as seen in the stitch. The Camille and Linus storyline continues to entertain and Scagliotti may just become Queen of comic relief in this series.
The news that the Network Deities have seen to it that a second season of Stitchers will appear in 2016 is pleasing and shows that the entire creative bunch have gotten it right.
Stitchers airs Tuesdays on ABC Family. Watch this program. It has something for everyone, including the talented Emma Ishta, Allison Scagliotti, Kyle Harris, Damon Dayoub, Ritesh Rajan and Oded Fehr. Next week’s finale will also have C. Thomas Howell as guest star so do not miss it.
Fans of Emma keep an eye peeled for an exclusive interview that Ms Ishta gave to MikesFilmTalk about the season finale.
