As we last left our characters, Hattie had just knocked on Rayford's door, telling him she was going to the U.N. unless he gave her a reason to stay.
As they talk, Chloe appears on the stairs and overhears them. Incidentally, I should add, in the original Chloe learns about her father's flirtation with Hattie when he confesses it to her. Fred Clark is appalled at this indecent exposure. We get to avoid that distasteful business in the movie by instead having Chloe accidentally overhear their conversation. Hattie wants to get back together, now that Irene is conveniently out of the way. But Rayford is now a born again Christian and tells her this is something much bigger, and that everything he needs is right here (holding up the Bible). Rayford is apparently played by Brad Johnson, who Clark often praises for being a good enough actor to bring Rayford to life as a credible, human person. Up till now, I would agree, but he fails here. Apparently he can play a husband who is so put off by his wife becoming a born again Christian that he buries himself in work and other women, but he can't play a convincing born again Christian. Every time he tries to be sincere and passionate about his new found faith, he just ends up sounding like a phony actor. Anyhow, Hattie shows no interest in his religion. When he rejects her, she walks out, gets into the U.N. car with the U.N. driver and heads for the U.N.
As they talk, Chloe appears on the stairs and overhears them. Incidentally, I should add, in the original Chloe learns about her father's flirtation with Hattie when he confesses it to her. Fred Clark is appalled at this indecent exposure. We get to avoid that distasteful business in the movie by instead having Chloe accidentally overhear their conversation. Hattie wants to get back together, now that Irene is conveniently out of the way. But Rayford is now a born again Christian and tells her this is something much bigger, and that everything he needs is right here (holding up the Bible). Rayford is apparently played by Brad Johnson, who Clark often praises for being a good enough actor to bring Rayford to life as a credible, human person. Up till now, I would agree, but he fails here. Apparently he can play a husband who is so put off by his wife becoming a born again Christian that he buries himself in work and other women, but he can't play a convincing born again Christian. Every time he tries to be sincere and passionate about his new found faith, he just ends up sounding like a phony actor. Anyhow, Hattie shows no interest in his religion. When he rejects her, she walks out, gets into the U.N. car with the U.N. driver and heads for the U.N.
Chloe, on the stairs, confronts her father. "Is that why you never had time for us?" He denies it and tries, not very successfully, to explain his estrangement from his family. He says he resented Irene's church not because he didn't understand it, but because he was jealous and didn't want her to need anyone more than she needed him. That reeks of revisionist history to me. I think the earlier part of the movie makes perfectly clear that he resented her church the same reason most people do -- he couldn't stand the preaching. Except now her church has turned out to be right, so a little revisionism is in order. He says Irene loved them very much to put up with their ridicule and still keep trying to convince them of the Truth. But Chloe raises that awkward question why they should convert, because God will send them to Hell if they don't. He insists it isn't about Hell, but that just isn't convincing. Under normal circumstances you might talk about greater love or meaning or whatever. But right now the world is going to end in seven years and if you don't take Jesus Christ as your personal savior before then, it's down to Hell with you. So yeah, it's hard to see this as anything but bribing God not to send us to Hell. Chloe is unconvinced, but alone in her room, she takes out her mother's Bible and starts to read.*
Meanwhile, in New York, Google-challenged Buck is watching Ivy's parrot while the girls do all the work. It turns out the ten tracts of land belong to the U.N. as part of its "Disarmament and Peace" initiative. (And no, the real world U.N. does not own any land). Stonagal and Cothran are underwriting an archaeological research foundation in Israel that is presumably responsible for discovering the plans to the Temple. "Why is it that these two keep coming up as good guys?" Buck asks. Ivy thinks maybe they are, but Buck knows better. Buck's phone rings, and it is Alan Tomkins in Chicago. He is heading back to New York, but Buck says no, he will come over to Chicago. (How is he getting to New York if air traffic is down? And can he rearrange his professional schedule just to accommodate Buck? Never mind, Buck going back to Chicago is one of those pieces of plot necessity you just have to accept).
Buck takes his private plane back to Chicago and meets Tomkins, an FBI agent (in the novel, he was Scotland Yard) in a bar. Also in the bar is a loud, drunken old lady attracting just a little too much attention to herself to be a mere backdrop. On the subject of the disappearances, Tomkins says (credibly enough) that officially it's radiation. Unofficially, the Agency's running scared from the top down. In other words, they don't have a clue, but have to have some sort of story to sell the public.
Dirk has been talking to Tomkins too, but not about the planes crashing over Israel. Instead, he has revealed that Cothran and Stonagal have loaned the U.N. huge amounts of money that they now intend to call in. Apparently they have a mortgage on the ten useless tracts of land the U.N. owns and now they mean to foreclose. (How?) Why do they want ten worthless tracts of desert? Buck realizes that with Rosensweig's formula the worthless desert can become a bread basket, just like Israel. They are trying to corner the market on food! (Yeah, I figured that out back in part 3. What I didn't think about was where they would find the land to use the formula. And what Buck doesn't realize is that they are artificially creating the famine in the first place). Buck says that they are using Carpathia like a puppet, and he has to warn Rosensweig. As the bar keeper a little too conspicuously escorts the drunken old lady out, Tomkins tells Buck to let the professionals handle this; they are going to a safe house.
The two of them step outside. Tomkins gets in his car, but Buck is accosted by the drunken old lady, begging for a little money. As Buck deals with the very insistent old lady, Tomkins gets into the car. As soon as he turns the keys in the ignition, it blows up. Buck is knocked down by the explosion and injures his leg. The creepy stalker who shot at Buck looks down from the window, pleased. We also get a closeup of the old lady, looking knowing. So it appears, once again, that the stalker wants to frighten but not kill Buck, and that he sent the old lady to create a diversion and keep him from getting into the car when it blew up. Don't ask me why.
The next morning, he staggers to the Steele's door, saying he is sorry to come here, but the Steeles are the only ones "they" don't know. While Rayford looks out to see if anyone has followed Buck, Chloe helps him to the couch. Buck struggles to warn them about the plot, but falls silent. Presumably he either passed out or is in too much pain to speak. Chloe says they have to get him help. Rayford, recognizing that it would be too dangerous to take him to a hospital, proposes the emergency center the New Hope Church has set up.
I must admit that watching this for the first time and reading Fred Clark's comments, I was sitting on the edge of my seat by the time this segment ended. What would follow was obvious. Buck was about to learn about the PMD prophecies. What would he make of them? Would he start to suspect Carpathia. I passed an anxious week, wondering what was going to happen next.
_____________________________
*Actually, we see this after the scene in New York with Buck, but I though it would be more economical and show more continuity to put them together.
*
No comments:
Post a Comment