Frequency 1.10: The Clarinet of Time

Just three more episodes of Frequency after tonight's 1.10, and the vice of time travel and paradox is beginning to tighten - nicely for the narrative, painfully for our heroes.

Raimy is more keenly aware than ever of how any change in the past, done to make the future better, can end up making things much worse.   Frank knows this, too. This means that both know that Frank's killing the serial killer to save his beloved wife and Raimy's mother Julie can have horribly unforeseen consequences.  Raimy knows this even more acutely than does Frank, because she remembers her mother alive, her father dead, knows that she got her father to survive via her information from the future, and that this somehow resulted in her mother being murdered.

But as in all good Greek and Shakespearean tragedies, Raimy and Frank can't help being commanded to change history, to kill the serial killer, by the demons of their own consciences.  It's not that Frequency the television series is anywhere near Greek or Shakespearean tragedy - it's that all time travel stories, when they're well done at all, can't help but tug on those ancient strings.

And though Frequency on TV is by no means great, it does a pretty good job of it.  Tonight, for example, Raimy feels the wound of what she thinks she'll lose when Frank changes history.  And she kills the serial killer, and tells the cop that it doesn't matter, because she expects her father to kill the killer decades earlier.   But in a nice twist, all due to a clarinet in the back seat, that doesn't happen.

Frequency is now set up to really go out on a high note - and who knows, maybe even come back, if not on CW, on some other venue.  I'm looking forward to it all.

See also Frequency 1.1: Closely Spun Gem ... Frequency 1.2: All About the Changes  ... Frequency 1.3: Chess Game Across Time ...  Frequency 1.4: Glimpsing the Serial Killer ... Frequency 1.5: Two Sets of Memories ... Frequency 1.6: Another Time Traveler? ... Frequency 1.7: Snags ... Frequency 1.8: Interferences ... Frequency 1.9: The Wife and the Fiancee

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