Album 57: A Call to Something More

[AshleyWhittaker]

Someone in a different time zone could have listened to it and wrote the plot.

[Woody]

Actually, someone found the episode on the server before it was even supposed to be released, last night.

http://media.focusonthefamily.com/fotf/ ... 130810.mp3

[Skylerbuck]

Thanks Woody

[The Old Judge]

Actually, someone found the episode on the server before it was even supposed to be released, last night

I hate to do this because I know someone's probably in trouble, but Unless they meant to do it on purpose.

I think a good possibility is Dan Isidro. He's done mission work in South America.

This is the man from A Mission for Jimmy, correct? If so, why would it be an "old friend" of Connie's? Sure, he spoke at the Odyssey Community Church missions conference once, but that would only classify as an acquaintance, maybe. To be considered a "friend" there should be at least some actual relationship there, I think. Thirdly, we never know whether Connie ever met him or not.

[EvangelineWalker]

I think a good possibility is Dan Isidro. He's done mission work in South America.

This is the man from A Mission for Jimmy, correct? If so, why would it be an "old friend" of Connie's? Sure, he spoke at the Odyssey Community Church missions conference once, but that would only classify as an acquaintance, maybe. To be considered a "friend" there should be at least some actual relationship there, I think. Thirdly, we never know whether Connie ever met him or not.

He was also in The Cross of Cortez! An awesome episode. There's no evidence that he's a friend of Connie's, and it's probably a longshot, but it would be cool if he was the 'old friend' in the episode. I always wanted to hear more from him.

Quote tags fixed - Woody

[Jimmy Barclay Fan]

I think of Dan Isidro as more of a friend of Whit's, or Eugene since they both knew him in Cross of Cortez. Plus, in the Decision, Whit says Dan is his friend, as well as Eugene's.

[manfrednissley]

Just a guess. The old friend is Joanne Allen (she is a missionary nurse after all) and the pilot is her first husband.

Joanne is one of the most underrated old characters in Odyssey. The original actress is still alive, though she is 89 in real life.

[Skylerbuck]

Joanne and Jack are now travelling though, as heard in Album 56.

[The Old Judge]

Well, to theorize on this: Connie could call Joanne at whatever place her and Jack are visiting and state her problem.

Connie:"Y'know Joanne, when you face _____, it's just so difficult. I'm really struggling right now, and with Whit so busy and Katrina, I just had to call you."

At which point Joanne goes, "Now that you mention it, there's a story about someone I once knew. I think it'll be a help to you. Do you want to hear it?"

Connie: "Sure, go for it. The writers need a 20 minute time block anyway."

[TigerintheShadows]

Well, yeah, but the use of the term "old friend" instead of the character's actual name makes me think that it's either yet another pre-hiatus character returning to the show or a completely new character. The fact that we aren't given the character's identity makes me think that this will be a character from whom we haven't heard in a while or at all--if it were Joanne or Jason or the like, why wouldn't we be given their name? What would be the point in not telling us who they are if it were someone we'd heard from recently?

[The Old Judge]

Umm, to create suspense?

[TigerintheShadows]

Seems pretty lame to me to build up suspense about who this "old friend" is and then to be like, "Oh, hello, character who had at least semi-prominent status as a character last album". //shrugs It could be the case...but halfway-decent suspense-building/storytelling says it's not.

[The Old Judge]

But then again, it's seemed lame to

1). Have a "ghost" haunt the school theatre, only to have it turn out to be a parrot being used as a prop for a TV show.
2). Kill off a deranged scientist by his own experiments, then have his "spirit" come back in cyberspace
3). Armitage Shanks to have a tennis court, when he doesn't even like the sport.
And so many more!

But they happened. In a show with 738 episodes, it only stands to reason there will be little instances that people will look at and go, "That's lame." We just gotta love the show anyway.

[Jonathan]

For the record, the only time Armitage's tennis court is mentioned is when he's playing tennis, and it's up for debate whether his comment at the end of that scene refers to tennis; it could refer to match-making (or whatever his role was there).

[The Old Judge]

Well, good for you for finding potential underlying meanings, but I just thought it was obvious. I just listened to The Right Choice recently, and after Eugene leaves, I believe another ball comes out of the shooter, Armitage swings, and then says, "I hate this game."

[TigerintheShadows]

Sounds like every sport I've ever played...

Sure, they've done stuff like that in episodes, but have they ever done things like that in terms of marketing the episodes? Like saying an "old friend" was returning and then having that person be someone we heard in the previous episode who played a prominent role? Because I've never heard "Stage Fright" or "The Right Choice" (the former by choice, the latter because we don't own the album) or heard anything about the buildup to either, but from what I read about the promos to "Blackgaard's Revenge", it did sound to many like a far more interesting and plausible episode than it actually was.

[EvangelineWalker]

But then again, it's seemed lame to

2). Kill off a deranged scientist by his own experiments, then have his "spirit" come back in cyberspace

This is not exactly how I'd describe Blackgaard (if this is who you are talking about). He was more than just a scientist, though he was 'deranged' in the sense that he wanted to take over the world. He wasn't killed by his own experiments, he was killed by

a bomb he set off at Whit's End in order to destroy the remains of the mineral in the tunnel. And he decided to commit suicide and kill Jack Allen in the process because he was dying from the ruku virus

The plot of Blackgaard's revenge was rather lame although it wasn't really his 'spirit' that came back, it was a virus that had his personality (if I remember right)

[The Old Judge]

True, Evangeline. Notice I called it his "spirit", not his spirit. I was using it as a default term.
About the end of Darkness Before Dawn, I had forgotten about the bomb. Remember, though, he tried to take Jack Allen because he thought he was going to die. After the bomb went off and they rounded up the rest of the bad guys, Professor Bovril states that he had made a breakthrough in the cure and Dr. Blackgaard could have been saved. I know he was impetuous, but a man that smart, who had evaded the law for so long, could have been smart enough to hold on for a little bit longer, instead of just blowing himself up.

[TigerintheShadows]

But do remember that you described him as "deranged" (an adjective that I think describes him very well). It's possible that the effects of the virus as well as perhaps a subconscious knowledge that things were falling apart (a man as clever as he probably deduced that something happened to Jellyfish and probably would to the professor) just pushed him over the edge. Perhaps everything sort of caught up with him at that moment and he acted on some sort of gut feeling? It wasn't just Whit's End that was a thorn in his side, after all; Whit's End was just a building. Blackgaard's fight was always with Whit and his allies. I imagine that perhaps he decided that, as Jack wasn't going anywhere and he was somehow connected to Whit (though I'm not sure that Blackgaar knew to what extent this applied), Blackgaard's last act would be to die as he lived, destroying things that mattered most to his nemesis, and in a last-ditch moment of (virus-borne) madness, he set off the detonator. It's also likely that during their conversation, Jack had touched some sort of nerve--which one, I don't know--and that set Blackgaard off, like it would any other human being, evil genius or not.

[EvangelineWalker]

But do remember that you described him as "deranged" (an adjective that I think describes him very well). It's possible that the effects of the virus as well as perhaps a subconscious knowledge that things were falling apart (a man as clever as he probably deduced that something happened to Jellyfish and probably would to the professor) just pushed him over the edge. Perhaps everything sort of caught up with him at that moment and he acted on some sort of gut feeling? It wasn't just Whit's End that was a thorn in his side, after all; Whit's End was just a building. Blackgaard's fight was always with Whit and his allies. I imagine that perhaps he decided that, as Jack wasn't going anywhere and he was somehow connected to Whit (though I'm not sure that Blackgaar knew to what extent this applied), Blackgaard's last act would be to die as he lived, destroying things that mattered most to his nemesis, and in a last-ditch moment of (virus-borne) madness, he set off the detonator. It's also likely that during their conversation, Jack had touched some sort of nerve--which one, I don't know--and that set Blackgaard off, like it would any other human being, evil genius or not.

Yes, it seemed like a spontaneous decision. We can only speculate what was in Dr. Blackgaard's mind at that moment. It sounds very plausible that he was pushed over the edge partly by the virus and partly by circumstances, and perhaps had an element of revenge.