612: "The Top Floor II"

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Archived reviews of Adventures in Odyssey episodes!

How was the show?

5 stars: Excellent!
21
50%
4 stars: Great follow-up to last week's show!
19
45%
3 stars: It was fine...but that's it
1
2%
2 stars: What a let-down
1
2%
1 star: Could it get any worse?
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 42

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LizzieG
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612: "The Top Floor II"

Post by LizzieG »

Discuss the show here! \:D/
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Angel Bob
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Post by Angel Bob »

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

I'll be honest: I have had much respect for Nathan Hoobler as an AIO writer. Ever since his debut with "The Triangle," his comedic entrance with "Break a Leg," and his suspense-filled entries in the Novacom Saga, we have been blessed with an incredible amount of episodes from a writer who knows AIO like the back of his hand. One of the thrilling Novacom episodes that he co-wrote, "Plan B: Collision Course," contained one of the most shocking endings ever dropped on AIO fans: "Robert Mitchell is dead." Even though this was later discovered to be false, it sure stirred up discussion online and will always be remembered as one of the most memorable "revelations" in an AIO episode. And now, folks, Nathan has done it again in "The Top Floor" with a plot twist that's not only a major surprise, but also somewhat disturbing as well. The very thought of Dalton being with Eugene's mother and brother in a picture...it's a bit confusing (more on that later), but one of the few AIO moments where my heart actually leaped when I first heard it. The music was so well done in that scene - it portrays a sense of longing from Leonard, a desire to be with his son and tell him the truth.

Anyways, enough about the plot twist - let's talk about the rest of the show! I must admit, this particular three-parter is really reminding me of "The Search for Whit," except the tables are turned this time. Instead of going to a foreign country to find something while being chased by unknown "bad guys," our heroes go back to the U.S. with full knowledge of who the "bad guys" are while attempting to find what they're searching for. It's a formula that's less mystery and more suspense. I found this episode to be a bit underwhelming at first, but when I heard it the second time, I enjoyed it immensely more. The production quality is fantastic (especially the sound effects and music, which sets such an appropriate tone in many of the scenes and is not overpowering). I even recognized one of the music cues from "No Way In." The characters are real. The humorous moments (like Eugene's conversation with the guard) are appropriately placed. And there are incredibly quiet moments - such as the scene where the intrepid trio is about to go to Dalton's room for the first time - when I could just experience the intensity, the nervousness that the characters were feeling.

One particular part of the plot that I found quite refreshing was the way Dalton was portrayed. Instead of being presented as a one-dimensional, plain "bad guy"-type villain like Mr. Charles or the Chairman (both of whom I didn't particular care for as villains), he actually has a human side. When Everett spoke about how "my dad always plays with me after he gets back from a long trip," I actually felt for Dalton. It was also quite fascinating that he and Whit recognized each other during Dalton's visit to Odyssey. Dalton's past as an archeologist and the conflicts he and Leonard previously found themselves in provided an interesting backdrop to the present conflict. The flashback scene with Leonard and Dalton seemed a bit out of place at first, but when I heard it again, it felt like a natural part of the story.

There are a few plot elements that I'm pretty confused about, though:

(1) Why did Dalton freely give away his name to Katrina while at Whit's End, especially when he insisted a few minutes earlier in the episode that Doyle refrains from using his real name in public? I suppose this is because Whit (someone who knew Dalton's name) was present at the moment.

(2) Why didn't Dalton recognize Katrina's name during Eugene's message on the answering machine? Wouldn't he have formulated a theory about whom Eugene was calling instead of calling her "that girl at the shop"? (Maybe Dalton was too excited about hearing where Eugene was.)

(3) Obviously, the biggest question of all is - why doesn't Dalton recognize that Everett is actually Leonard's son? As we hear in Dalton's and Doyle's conversation in Eugene's house...Dalton believed that Eugene died in the train crash, and Everett died at the dig. Is Everett really Leonard's son, or not? Why did Dalton have a picture of him and Thelma? I'm hoping that we won't hear another big "resurrection" twist (like Thelma being alive) next week...it would be extremely strange if Dalton is doing something like keeping Thelma prisoner somewhere and has told Everett that she died.

Whatever happens, I'm looking forward to next week's exciting conclusion. So many questions to answer! How will Dalton be brought to justice? Will he realize what he has done wrong and repent? (Considering the "human" side of him that has been shown...I'm beginning to wonder.) And if so, would Leonard forgive him? What about Everett? Is he really Leonard's son and Eugene's brother? If so, how did he end up with Dalton? How will Leonard persuade him that he is Everett's real father?

I guess we'll just have to...yep, you guessed it. Keep listening. :)

(10 out of 10)
Last edited by Angel Bob on Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Jonathan »

I didn't get a chance to review last week, so I'll do so now.

I liked it. It set things up nice, there was intrigue, the explosion gave me chills; they are good at that sound effect. And that convo between Leonard and Eugene regarding faith was very good dialogue. I, like Applesauce, thought that Whit got info too easily, but minor that is. 5 stars.

Now for part 2.

I want to start out by saying that I am torn. Really.

On the one hand, it was fantastic. The acting (I particuarly liked how Whit was written and acted, in both parts so far), the story, the suspense. Marvelous. Like noname, I saw parallels to The Search for Whit. I was kept on the edge of my seat.

And Dalton--for the first half, I was thinking that this is the best Odyssey villian since Blackgaard. Charles, well, he was transparent. Chairman, we saw once, and don't even know his name.

Dalton, we don't know much about, he's complex, we don't know what comes next (I about fell out of my chair when he and Whit cheerily greeted each other).

Speaking of stellar performances, Audrey, wow. I would still perfer Pam to come back, but I can live with this. She's improved by leaps and bounds since A Most Surprising Answer.

But then....

But then came that gasp. That blasted photo.

When Leonard leaned in for a look, I knew it was going to be a big revelation. The gasp wasn't a surprise, but my stomach dropped. I spent the next scene or two going over in my head what could be on it. Thelma and Dalton, I hoped. This could get interesting.

But no, Leonard just has to go and say "That's my son." at the end of the episode.

Why did this bug me?

Because I don't want characters coming back from the dead. I've gotten tired of it.

You see, death is a serious issue. Most series don't take it seriously. AIO for a long time handled it amazingly well.

But then came Mitch. His coming back bugged me. We were told he was dead. The whole witness protection program thing wasn't told to us until the team went "Fooled ya!" I viewed it as a sleazy move in writing. A soap opera move, if you will.

Then came Leonard. Now, this didn't bother me nearly as much, but it still did. It's one that I can live with though for the following facts: His death wasn't very established. Eugene was 7 and on a different continent. So yeah, it makes sense that he was lied to. Kudos to Marshal for being creative (even though it did invalidate many past stories).

And now Everet. His death was more established. So why is he back?!?!

I'm very surprised that this plot twist came from Nathan. I thought he was on the same page as me about characters coming back from the dead. Especially based on his Blackgaard, Alive? article (which I read a few days ago because I listened to that two parters a few days ago). So what is this?

This twist pretty much ruined this episode for me. I'll probably expound on this next week if things turn out like I'm afraid they will (Eugene with a brother. Whom we were told was dead), but it was ruined because I am in no mood to have my emotions batted around like a badmitton birdie concerning such a serious issue as death, especially on a program that (should) know better.

So my expectations for next week? That this be resolved while keeping us in reality and not Young Hearts Turning. The three parter may still be disappointing for me, but not as much.

Though based on the direction AIO has been taking lately, my hopes aren't nearly as high as my expectations. But then again, Nathan has never failed me before.

So here's to hoping.

-Jonathan

edit-I gave that two star rating. Maybe my opinion will change after next week, depending on how things turn out. But for now, like the rating says, it was a let down. It was suspenseful, so it's getting a two and not a one.
Last edited by Jonathan on Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:05 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Macnut »

You're my hero, Nathan!
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Post by EK »

"I'm in your Ashanti Village Stealing All Your s0ns" - Dalton.
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Post by Rio »

noname wrote:Warning: Spoilers ahead!
AGHHHHH i guess I shouldn't read any more?? TOO LATE!! I AM GONNA DIE! is this all true? man I have to wait till tomorrow cuz the rest of the fam is sleeping and I might wake them up to the loudness of my reactions to such a SHOCKER! i am not going to sleep tonight.... ](*,) till tomorrow when I give me review to "The Top Floor II"!!! < that was supposed to be dramtic there....

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Post by Bennett »

Welcome to Odyssey! The Town where--if you die--you will most likely NOT be dead!

Jonathan had a few good points. It feels like if you throw a rock somewhere in Odyssey...it'll hit someone who'se a long lost relative. We went from Eugene being last in a long line...from being his own quickly growing race.

But these "coincidences" (the all so many of them) (going to same dig as parents in Africa, finding his father in Odyssey, to now finding a long lost brother) seem to be sortv'e helping along the theme of this three-parter...that God is in Control.

But aside from that; it was still a reasonably good episode. It's like, one of those shows that are on your "Good" list because you like everything about it and theres nothing really to complain about--and you wish every episode could more like it in recent seasons (including the music); but it still hasn't managed to reach the "great" list.

But, still, entertaining. Almost forgot I was listening to a kid's show ;).

Well, another third to go!
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Post by Arla »

I thought that Eugene's long lost brother sounded kind of young. I thought he would have been older. I knew something was coming when Leonard looked as well. Plus that guard asked them that question, which they made up the answer to... I feel like that's going to hurt them. Still good episode though. I am getting a bit tired as well from people "coming back from the dead".
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Post by Angel Bob »

I'll agree with everyone else: I don't particularly care for the "bringing back characters from the dead" element that has been present in many recent shows. Mitch's case was the worst - he was a character that we were just beginning to know, and we had to experience Connie's emotional roller-coaster before the big revelation that Mitch is actually alive. Thankfully, in Leonard's case, we don't actually hear from his character until after we discover that he's alive. Also, the story behind his death was somewhat ambiguous.

But concerning Everett, I don't really think we can make any judgments about him and his situation until we hear Part 3...this story seems to throw curveball after curveball at listeners all the time. I'm sure Nathan will give us a reasonable explanation for what happened - especially since we've never even heard from Everett in any previous episodes. There's only one thing I'm hoping for: that Thelma won't be "resurrected" as well. It's one thing to bring back Everett (which was done so perfectly at the end of part 2), but bringing back another character, especially one that we've heard even more about, would be serious overkill.

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Post by J-man »

Argh now I wanna hear part 3!! I loved the episode, lots of surprises. I have a few I'd like to comment on:

1: If Everett is Eugene's brother, why is he so young? It doesn't quite make sense, Eugene is probably in his late 20s or early 30s, and yet he has this kid brother who sounds like he's about 11? Ok whatever.. Although if they are brothers and it ends up that Everett comes to Odyssey, that would be interesting.

2: Whit and Dalton. That took me by surprise, Whit walks out and starts talking to Dalton like they're old friends. I guess that would explain how Whit knew where Dalton lived. :-k

3: Eugene was excellent in this episode. The dialogue with the guard was good, and the last part about the person who used to work there was too funny. \:D/

4: Jason was in top form again. I enjoy it when he's like this, calm, cool, collected, and resourceful. ;)
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Post by Conniepaw »

J-man wrote:Argh now I wanna hear part 3!! I loved the episode, lots of surprises. I have a few I'd like to comment on:

1: If Everett is Eugene's brother, why is he so young? It doesn't quite make sense, Eugene is probably in his late 20s or early 30s, and yet he has this kid brother who sounds like he's about 11? Ok whatever.. Although if they are brothers and it ends up that Everett comes to Odyssey, that would be interesting.
My sister and I are 16 years apart. When i was 11 she was 27. So that is not really a valid point.
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Post by Skid »

noname wrote:Obviously, the biggest question of all is - why doesn't Dalton recognize that Everett is actually Leonard's son? As we hear in Dalton's and Doyle's conversation in Eugene's house...Dalton believed that Eugene died in the train crash, and Everett died at the dig. Is Everett really Leonard's son, or not?
There is the possibility of Dalton not even wanting his henchmen to know that he kept Leonard's son alive. It is kind of sensitive information for a crook to share with another crook.
J-man wrote:Whit and Dalton. That took me by surprise, Whit walks out and starts talking to Dalton like they're old friends. I guess that would explain how Whit knew where Dalton lived. Think
He talked to him like they were old friends because they were at least fairly good acquaintances, this was discussed in the first episode.



Anyway, on to my own impressions. I'd give the show about four stars, the last one dropped because of back-from-the-dead syndrome. I really enjoyed the multidimensional form of Dalton, all the previous villains have been kind of flat in their various levels of evil so one that was actually human is a nice change. And I guess everything else I intended to say has already been said by everyone else, so I won't bother saying it.
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Post by the_newfie_haystack »

Oh wow, I just realized that if Everett ever does come to visit Odyssey, he may not be the genius that his father and brother is. That would make for some very interesting episodes. :-k
Anyway, this episode completely rocks! Kudos to Nathan Hoobler for excellent writing. I can't wait for part three!

Haystack

Edit: Dude, the return of Officer O'Ryan! We haven't heard from him in ages! \:D/
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Post by Christian Cowgirl »

the_newfie_haystack wrote:Edit: Dude, the return of Officer O'Ryan! We haven't heard from him in ages! \:D/
Its so good to hear from old friends like O'Ryan. I was holding my breath when I heard his name hopeing beyond hope that it would be the same actor. I started breathing again :p

I also don't like the little brother twist, I was kinda hopeing that the picture would be of Thelmas sister or something.

All in all I'd give this a 5 out of 5, Eugene has some great lines, Jason is as cool and manly as ever, Whit is protective and rescorceful, Katrina is really starting to fill the shoes of her role, and Leonard has fit in quickly.
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Post by Applesauce »

Well, let's see...on the whole I liked this episode a little more than the last one...just a little.

The conversation between Whit and Dalton in Whit's End was great! I love the thought of them knowing each other from before (although I'm kind of confused why Whit didn't recognize Dalton's name all the times he heard Eugene and Leonard talking about him). But it gives a nice background to Dalton, and shows that we don't yet know all there is to know about him (calming one of my complaints from last week about him being to predictable). Also, Katrina's trick to record Dalton saying his name was quite clever. I didn't see that one coming, and I'm glad that she's actually playing a part in this saga instead of just being a bystander. Oh, and it's great to hear from Officer O'Ryan again!

Now, for the cons: Eugene kind of bothered me in this episode. For someone who's supposed to be so intelligent, I don't particularly like episodes where he lacks common sense. He practically blew their cover as "cleaners" right in front of the security lady, and I'm surprised she didn't suspect anything. But this wasn't a very big issue for me, I just occasionally wish Eugene could be a little smarter (wow, never thought I'd be saying that).

Next is Everett. Okay, I know this has already been said by several others, but just for the record: What was that?!? Part of next weeks episode is going to have to explain how Leonard didn't know his son was alive. Because it doesn't make sense that someone living in such a secluded jungle wouldn't know for sure if his son was dead. Didn't he see his son before they buried him? Did Dalton just tell Leonard that his son had died, and he believed him without seeing any evidence that this was true? When Everett first showed Leonard the picture, from LM's reaction I knew it had to be his wife in the picture. At first I could only think of one possible way for Dalton's son's mom to be Leonard's wife, and I was shocked that AIO would include such a touchy issue into a kid's show. Part of me was almost relieved when it turned out to just be LM's son. But I was really looking forward to the shows following this saga, because I wanted to see how they would handle Eugene and Leonard's relationship in the future, particularly with Leonard's lack of faith. And now there's a brother to throw into the mix? Come ON!! Will Eugene's mom be back next week? How about his grandfather? Why don't they just bring the whole family back so that we can have a big, happy family reunion, because death is obviously not a serious issue in Odyssey!

Then there's Jason. Now, I don't have any real complaints about Jason in this episode. In fact, I'm really glad to have him back. But while listening to him in this ep, I realized just how much I missed him being a regular on the show. He was always such an intriguing character because he was Whit's son and yet he always seemed to get into so much conflict with people, particularly Jack Allen. You never knew what he was going to do next. Back then, every single episode he was in developed his character. There was always another layer to his personality to discover. Now, ever since the Novacom saga ended, every show he's been in he's just dropping in to help solve some sort of mystery. I'd like to have a Jason-focused episode every once in a while, without some crime to prevent or mission to accomplish.

Anyway, that's all I really feel like writing. As I said before, I did like this episode better than last week. But the ending kinda ruined it for me.
J-man wrote:3: Eugene was excellent in this episode. The dialogue with the guard was good, and the last part about the person who used to work there was too funny. \:D/
Ooh, I liked that part, and I just gotta say: I hope that becomes a plot point in part three! I would love it if the guard asked that question to trick them, and uses it to prove that they don't really work there. \:D/
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Post by Rio »

I kinda thought it was a little bit of a let down...
I hate it when they add new people like Everett and Kelly, they both get deep on my nerves..... Jason was Great, Katrina wasn't as annoying as the last few times.. Whit was Ok, but Eugene and His dad where obnoxious but not as much as in part one.....

For the story line, I'll give it a 7.5/10, it was just Ok.
But for the sound quality, I give Gap Digital 11/10 The sound was superb!(as are all Gap digital episodes) I am curious as to what is going to happen in part three... I just hope that nothing will leave you hanging for a couple weeks.

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Post by Skid »

Applesauce wrote:
J-man wrote:3: Eugene was excellent in this episode. The dialogue with the guard was good, and the last part about the person who used to work there was too funny. \:D/
Ooh, I liked that part, and I just gotta say: I hope that becomes a plot point in part three! I would love it if the guard asked that question to trick them, and uses it to prove that they don't really work there. \:D/
I doubt it, remember that Eugene has read all the janitorial service's employment records from the last ten years, so I'm fairly certain that they can't be tripped up using that method.
Last edited by Skid on Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Applesauce »

Ah, that would explain why he had such a quick response. I guess I didn't catch that those were employee records he was reading. :-
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Post by Oba-rai »

5/5. (I was the first to vote last night. w00t.)

Oy vey. Where to start? I guess I'll listen to the episode while I write my synopsis.

(Does anyone notice that Leonard, Arthur Dent, and Malachi the Angel have particularly similar voices?) Yay! Doyle and Leonard! Is it Jennifer's longlost brother? \:D/ The Leonard elevator scene was astounding... and Everett sounds like Max.

Hmm. The ending sneak preview at the next episode makes me think that there will be an epic weapon stalemate. Just Because It's Epic (tm).
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Post by Jonathan »

In my review I said that Everett's death was established, but I didn't properly explain myself. The following sentences stirred some thoughts.
Applesauce wrote:Part of next weeks episode is going to have to explain how Leonard didn't know his son was alive. Because it doesn't make sense that someone living in such a secluded jungle wouldn't know for sure if his son was dead. Didn't he see his son before they buried him? Did Dalton just tell Leonard that his son had died, and he believed him without seeing any evidence that this was true?
There is no possible way in my mind that Leonard could say his son was dead without seeing the body. We know there are trust issues there between him and Dalton. Why on earth would Leonard have believed it if Dalton said "Your son died at the dig" without seeing the body?

He wouldn't of, is the answer. He's smarter then that. We know that.

Besides, with a body not present, it would be a natural reaction for a parent to be in denial.

I sorta said so in my review, but I agree with this:
Applesauce wrote:Why don't they just bring the whole family back so that we can have a big, happy family reunion, because death is obviously not a serious issue in Odyssey!
I'm sad that this is true. It's not a serious thing anymore.

This really did ruin the episode for me, and literally has me kinda depressed.
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