by Raven Kross:
The River: “Magus”
Original Air Date (ABC): Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Season 1 Episode 1
In the pilot episode of ABC’s new show “The River”, a Tess Cole goes on a search for her missing husband Emmet, star of the fictional environmental show “The Undiscovered Country”, taking her reluctant son Lincoln with her. The studio that produced her husband’s TV show has agreed to fund the search, on the condition that they can film it and use the material as a sort of new season of “The Undiscovered Country”.
This Just Feels Like Another Birthday
Tess and Lincoln set out for the Amazon, along with producer Clark Quietly, first mate Emilio Valenzuela, Emilio’s daughter Jahel, Capt. Kurt Brynildson, and cameramen Sammy and AJ. The signal from Emmet’s personal beacon has shown up on their radar, and they’re following it in the hope that it will lead them to Emmet’s ship, the Magus.
After some searching, they find the beacon all right- rusty, waterlogged, and abandoned on the river floor. But Tess refuses to give up. The crew continue on for several more days until they reach a spot to restock their supplies. They have some fun mingling with the locals, but the party is interrupted by the aerial arrival of Lena Landry, the daughter of the cameraman who went missing with Emmet. The second she steps out of her helicopter, she storms over to Lincoln and demands to know why she wasn’t included in the party.
It’s Coming From the Panic Room
Lena shows the Coles a model she created of the tide patterns around the beacon’s location. The crew sets out on a route that appears to lead into nonexistence- in other words, none of the maps give any indication that there is a river in that area at all. It’s not long before they discover the ship, firmly lodged in the muck and undergrowth at the river’s edge.
They immediately board it and call out for Emmet. In response, they hear several loud creaks and groans from within. They rush belowdecks and track the noises to the Panic Room. While two of the men work on opening the door, the rest of the group spread out to find the med kit and fire up the control room. Meanwhile, Emilio and Jahel go to the engine room and try to get the engine working.
When at last they break through the Panic Room door, they’re assaulted with a horrible stench. The room is littered with rotten food, tattered cloth, and odd tribal carvings. It doesn’t seem as if anyone’s been there in a while. Lincoln sees a blanket in the corner and approaches it slowly.
“Dad?”
Cue the suspenseful music. He lifts the edge of the blanket ever so carefully, then rips it back. Nothing but some kind of weird-looking wooden pod thing. What the? He reaches for it. Lena tries to stop him, but suddenly something flies out of it, and Lena is thrown out of the room and hits the wall.
No Me Gusta Being Scared
Lena is in hysterics with a giant bloody gash in her leg, and Lincoln stitches it up. In the Panic Room, Sammy discovers some old pictures. Captain Kurt identifies the subject as Cam Travers, one of the show’s old producers. Lena says that Emmet once told her Travers died of a fever and they buried him in that area. (Insert ominous music sting.)
Later, Lincoln questions Emilio about his father. He learns that before his disappearance, Emmet began spending nights alone in the jungle by himself. He had no food, no supplies; he was protected, he claimed, by magic.
Jahel insists that her father “tell him”. She begins to explain in rapid Spanish about an evil monster who grows stronger when it tastes blood. She indicates a broken piece of the strange-looking pod, smudged with Lena’s blood. When they opened the door and released it, she explains, it tasted Lena’s blood, and that gave it strength. Her words seem to disturb Lincoln; he runs up to the main deck to warn the others.
There’s Something You Need to See
Suddenly, Lena calls out to them. Someone has ruined their life boats. Lincoln goes into leader mode- he instructs Emilio and Jahel to get the engine running before high tide, and he takes over clearing the propellor. Lena finds him and says that there’s something she needs to show him.
The crew gathers in Emmet’s private quarters, and Lena reveals a shelf filled with old video tapes. She explains that Emmet had instructed her to find and destroy them if anything ever happened to him, but she’d figured they might help in the search. They pop in one of the tapes and begin watching. It shows disturbing, jumbled clips of Emmet in what appears to be a montage following his descent into madness. Finally, there comes a shot where he is talking to the camera, explaining that it must be Cam Travers; the rest of the crew has been killed and he and Russ Landry (Lena’s father) are going to capture it in a “soul trap”. He is holding an odd-looking object; the same one that was sealed in the Panic Room.
Although one or two people are skeptical, Lincoln is visibly disturbed by the tape. He asks his mom why she never told him about any of this, and she leaves nearly in tears. He follows her up to the deck and they get into an argument. He accuses her of cheating on Emmet, and she says that he has no idea what their lives were like.
“No one goes that far for love. But guilt?”
They’re interrupted by the sound of the engines starting. The Valenzuelas have gotten it up and running. They hurry belowdecks to join the crew. One hour until sunrise.
Suck It- I’m Getting the Shot
AJ and Sammy are in the control room, monitoring the cameras. When the ghost activity starts, AJ takes his camera and goes upstairs. (Note: He is a skeptic.) He challenges the ghost to reveal himself. Sammy chooses that moment to come along with his own camera. Together they scout out the deck.
A sudden presence emerges from the darkness and lunges at them so fast they barely see it. They narrowly miss it, but when it comes back for round two, Sammy finds himself a nice bloody death. AJ gets out of there ASAP, of course, and the news of Sammy’s death sends the rest of the crew into a panic. The spirit goes for the engine room and totals the machinery.
You Know There’s A Camera Right There?
By now, the ship is in a frenzy. Lincoln goes into the center of the chaos and puts a knife to his skin. If it wants blood, well then by George, he’ll give it blood. His mother holds out a picture and tells the spirit that she knows it’s Cam Travers and asks if Emmet is alive- once for dead, twice for alive. The spirit is gone in a rush, and Tess has her answer- two scars on her leg.
In the control room later, Clark sees Kurt lurking about, covering all the cameras. He picks up the phone and speaks about Emmet. He says “If he found the Source, I’ll put him down.” Up on the main deck, Lincoln goes to talk to his mother. They each reveal their own insecurities about what Emmet was really up to, but they agree that it’s worth searching for.
Awww, emotional mother-son moment.
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[Photo Credit: ABC]
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