Clock's ticking.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Almost the entirety of "Soldier Boy" was in direct response to the final moments of last week's 11.22.63, as Jake lost all his memories about the case. While on paper, this sounds like a cheap, convoluted way of padding out the season, the idea of counting down the last two weeks before JFK's assassination was a very clever way to frame this episode. While "Soldier Boy" had its ups and downs, the end result was a solid lead-in to the finale.
The opener here, I thought, was rather interesting, as Jake awoke to Anderson Cooper on the TV in a modern hospital and Al telling him he was disappointed with Jake's progress so far. It all definitely lent to Jake's disorientation this week, which was then compounded by Ms. Mimi's inevitable passing.
On the downside, I'm hoping people now know what I meant when I said Bill was a pointless character. Not only was he a constant thorn in Jake's side throughout the investigation and offered little in the way of character development, but he unceremoniously took his own life with little consequence. And much like Bill's sister subplot, the repercussions of his death were nigh nonexistent.
"Soldier Boy" was also a good entry for Oswald, who began planting the seeds of his inevitable shooting in Dallas. Of course, the big "aha!" moment came when Jake and Sadie visited Oswald at his home, which kicked things into high gear for the rest of the episode, just two days before the assassination. And from the moment Jake couldn't find Oswald's rifle, it was clear that Time was going to do everything in its power to stop him.
Obviously this manifested in the Yellow Card Man at one point, who finally revealed his own dark past with time travel. While not the most coherent of subplots, I thought this was a nice turning point for Jake, who resolved to finish what he started no matter the cost, even with Sadie by his side. (Although, parking in an abandoned alleyway overnight didn't really seem like the best idea.)
The episode's final few minutes were also exciting, ending just a few short hours before the president's motorcade arrived. And having already seen the finale myself, Jake's car not starting that morning is just the start of Time throwing major hurdles at Jake and Sadie before the moment of truth.
The Verdict
"Soldier Boy" was definitely a step up from the last few episodes, if only because it stayed focus on the task at hand. While the Bill drama was stiff as usual, we can at least take comfort in knowing that it's over. From now on, Jake is in the home stretch, with nothing left to distract him -- that is except for Time itself.
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