Note: Major spoilers for the third episode of the 11.22.63 mini-series, you have been warned.
I thought that last week's episode was very good, and while this week's episode didn't have the same feeling for me, it was still a very solid episode and a good continuation of the story. Last week's episode really felt like it was chugging along at a really fast pace, as they were trying to tie up the side story before the end of the episode, whereas this week's episode was more about setting up things to come in the future. A few new characters were introduced in this episode, and some other characters from the first episode made a return, and I felt that they did a good job of fleshing out the various characters to give us a better idea of what is going on.
The episode starts off with Bill and Jake driving in the car, Bill holding a gun to Jake and asking about the newspaper article he found that talks about how JFK had been shot. Jake tells Bill again that he is from the future, only this time Bill is starting to believe it a bit more than in the last episode. They go to a hotel where Jake tries to further explain what is going on, and he offers Bill $100 dollars to drive him to Dallas, Texas. Bill agrees and the men make the drive from Kentucky to Texas.
When they arrive, Jake explains to Bill what he knows about the location that the assassination is going to take place, and Bill asks if Jake really thinks that he can figure it all out and stop it. Jake says he hopes so, but he doesn't know for sure. After this, Jake tries to pay Bill his money, but Bill asks if he can stay on and help. Jake is reluctant at first, but finally agrees to let him stay on and become his partner.
They go to a small town halfway between Dallas and the town that Lee Harvey Oswald is going to live in, and Jake gets a job working at a high school to pass the time until the assassination is going to happen almost three years later. After getting the job, Bill says they should go to Dallas to celebrate, so they go to strip club where they meet Jack Ruby, who is obviously going to play a very important role later, due to his involvement in the real world events of the JFK assassination.
Two years pass by while Jake and Bill get ready. They get an apartment right across from where Oswald is going to live, and they set up a plan to put "bugs" around his house so they can spy on him. Meanwhile, Sadie (the girl from the first episode that Jake ran into when he first got to Dallas) shows up at the school and says she is going to be the new librarian. What seems like a coincidence seems to point to a little bit more than that, which I feel gets explored a little later in the episode without coming right out and saying it.
The night that Jake and Bill are planning to bug Oswald's house, Mimi the secretary at the school asks Jake to be one of the chaperones, along with Sadie, whom Jake is clearly forming a crush on. Jake says he will do it, but he makes plans to leave during the dance and go plant the bugs before returning to the dance. While at the dance, Sadie and Jake have a conversation about how she was in Maine right around the time that Jake came through the portal into the past. He says they must have just missed each other, and they toast to timing. I thought this scene was very subtle, but clearly implies that Sadie is part of the past that is messing with Jake, to try to distract him from the task at hand.
Jake leaves the dance abruptly, and tells Sadie he will be back in a couple of hours, and then goes to Bill's apartment. They break into Oswald's house and start planting the bugs, but then Oswald shows up with his wife, and Jake and Bill are forced to try to escape without being seen or heard. They are crawling through the overhead insulation when Bill gets tangled up in some spiderwebs and screams. Oswald overhears this and starts yelling and looking for whoever is hiding out, but they get away without being seen.
The next day, Jake tries to apologize to Sadie, but she doesn't seem to want to hear about it. Jake knows that he messed up, and so he lets it go, but he will later in the episode try again to apologize, and she shuts the door to the library and kisses him, telling him it better not happen again. They agree to go to dinner that Saturday.
Meanwhile, Bill has been listening in on Oswald's conversations, when George de Mohrenschildt shows up. They try to listen in on the conversation, but the two men go outside and they don't get to hear what happened. Later, Bill tells Jake that George and Oswald are going to the Senator Walker rally, and so they show up at the rally as well to see what the two men are up to. After the rally is over, Oswald confronts Walker and calls him a fascist and goes off on a rant, attacking the police officers, before being detained. He yells out that he will kill them all, as Bill, Jake, and George all look on, as the episode comes to an end.
I feel like they got a lot accomplished in this episode with the hour they had to squeeze it all into. They set up Oswald to look like an unhinged, crazy person, while they made George out to look like he was setting this whole thing up so that Oswald will end up taking the fall. Whether that is what plays out or not remains to be seen, but I think that is what makes it so good. We are only getting pieces of the puzzle, but not the full picture yet, which will keep us guessing for the upcoming episodes.
I also felt like there were some very strong scenes during the episode, and not a lot of wasted scenes that were just thrown in. This makes each scene seem more important, and doesn't let us the viewer get lax in our viewing, as we need to make sure we are paying attention and not missing important details. For example, the scene with Jake and Sadie, as he is starting to fall for her, and she in return, but we the viewer get to see that this is part of the plan to distract Jake and try to keep him from accomplishing his goals. Similarly, there was a scene where the neighbors downstairs attacked Bill while Jake wasn't around, and stole the recording equipment, destroying some of their tapes. This was another nod to the fact that the past isn't going to make this easy on Jake if he really wants to change the past.
After three full episodes, I think I'm hooked and I really feel the need to find out what happens next. I can tell that there are going to be many more twists and turns along the way, and I'm really excited to see it all play out. I feel like the closer Jake gets to the day of the assassination, things are going to really start spiraling out of control, and I can't wait to see how he and Bill handle this, and try to adjust to not let the past keep them from doing what they have set out to do.
My rating for the episode is 8/10
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