Baptiste 2.2: The Odd Fellow

My favorite moment in Baptiste 2.2 on PBS last night was when Emma says he's "an odd fellow".  Which Baptiste certainly is.  But he's an odd fellow in large part because he's a genius.  An Emma's a little odd herself.  After what she's been through, the grievous losses she's suffered, few people could be as strong and determined as she apparently is.

As to what exactly is going on in the narrative, that's still somewhat unclear.  And the jumping back and forth between the present with a shaggy long-haired Baptiste and Emma in a wheelchair and 14 months earlier when Emma was walking and Baptiste a little better kempt doesn't exactly help.  We're obliged to put together two parts of a puzzle which not only don't quite fit, but are rather blurry, out of focus, on their own.  But that's part of the challenge and appeal of this series.

We are beginning to see some of the pieces a little more clearly, like Baptiste's terrible discovery of his murdered daughter.  This makes him a colleague in heart-piercing grief with Emma.  And one of the most interesting parts of this story is how the two keep switching places of being all but overwhelmed by sorrow and exhorting the other to snap out of it and get to work on the problem at hand.

That's the life and death problem of saving Emma's surviving son.  Baptiste doesn't always succeed -- he's an odd genius, but only human --  but I'm betting that he does succeed in this wrenching case.  The question then is what will happen to his fractured family?  Will he get back with his wife?  Will he find some peace?

I'm hoping it's yes to the first, but not likely for the second.  Odd fellows rarely do.

See also Baptiste 2.1: Souls on Edge ...  Baptiste 1: Logic, Passion, and Unflappability ... The Missing 1: Worth Finding and The Missing 2: Unforgettable