No Ordinary Family 1-20: No Ordinary Beginning

This time I mean it. We really have reached the end of the first season of No Ordinary Family. Yes, they definitely set things up for a season two. However, if they don’t come back (and I’m not holding out much hope), they did wrap up several major plot threads and go out with a bang. They even killed off a character.

So let’s get to it, shall we?

The episode opens with George on a plane that is about to crash. As it goes toward the ground, we flash back to yesterday. Two things. First, I hate, hate, hate this storytelling devise. Really, the story is so boring you have to do something like that to peak our interest? Second, there’s no way this was just 24-36 hours. It really doesn’t make sense.

No really, I did like this episode.

The story really opens with JJ skateboarding. His math teacher, Mr. Litchfield, stops and demands the correct answer to the formula, but JJ tells him to get lost. Litchfield then calls Dr. King. Dr. King basically threatens Litchfield.

What I sure thought was the next morning (hence my rant earlier), Jim goes with JJ to school to tell Litchfield to back off. But they find the teacher dead. The autopsy reveals that Litchfield was electrocuted, but there wasn’t enough power around to electrocute him. Jim immediately figures it is another super and figures that JJ will be the next target. Sure enough, the power goes out at the Powell home. JJ goes out to look at the switches, and someone is there to zap him and kidnap him.

Meanwhile, it looks like Katie is moving into another place with George helping her. (I feel like I missed something here. Why was she moving? Her house wasn’t destroyed last week, was it?) Katie asks George to get her some pre-natal vitamins from her doctor, and just as he is leaving “Joshua” shows up. He’s thrilled to learn he’s going to be a father. And they reunite, especially after Joshua says that the antidote Stephanie created worked and he no longer has powers.

Jim and Stephanie figure out that Litchfield was in contact with someone at her company, so they go to confront Dr. King and ask him to help. He agrees if they will give him more of the trilsettum. He uses it to keep his cancer at bay, but he needs regular injections. Which is why he’s so interested in a permanent solution.

But he’s not the only one. Mrs. X is the one who has kidnapped JJ, and she is forcing him to figure out how to make the effects of the trilsettum permanent. Until he can figure it out, she throws him in a cell with…Joshua.

And that’s when I hit myself over the head. Why didn’t I figure out that Katie was seeing Victoria disguised as Joshua? It was so obvious, but I missed it.

Anyway, Joshua really is free of his powers thanks to Stephanie, but he’s being punished for turning against the company. When he learns that Katie is pregnant, he wants to get out of there. But he does give JJ an idea on why their powers might be permanent. Maybe it was because the trilsettum was in gas form.

The rest of the Powells decide to work together to break into the fortress and rescue JJ. It almost works, but Mrs. X is watching them on cameras and as soon as they get in an elevator, she fills it with gas.

When they come to, Stephanie and Daphne are in a room. Mrs. X walks in and tells them Jim is in another room. He and Daphne have been given something to block their powers. Then JJ is brought in and told to figure out why the powers are permanent or Mrs. X will shoot Daphne. He tries to convince her that he really, truly doesn’t know, but she isn’t buying it. And suddenly it clicks. It was the adrenaline of the plane crashing that made the Powells’ powers permanent. With that figured out, Mrs. X walks away and tells the guards to wait seconds and then kill them.

Unfortunately for her plans, Dr. King has shown up. He shoots the guards first and convinces Stephanie to try to stop Mrs. X (she fails) while he goes for Jim. But he doesn’t plan to free Jim. He is going to tell Stephanie that a guard shot Jim before he could get there. So he shoots Jim several times and leaves Jim bleeding on the floor.

As he gets to the hanger where Stephanie just missed Mrs. X taking off, he gives her the bad news. But just as he is trying to comfort her, Jim appears. The drugs he was given wore off in time to save his life. He tries to kill Dr. King, but he lied earlier, he really does have powers. And he and Jim start an all out fight. Just as it looks like Dr. King is getting the upper hand, JJ comes up with the idea of shooting Dr. King with the antidote that Stephanie created. She flashes away and gets it (I guess she doesn’t travel through time any more), only to have Dr. King keep her from injecting him with it. When he stands there threatening Stephanie, JJ picks up the syringe, calculates the right angle, and throws it right in his eye. Not only does that take away his power, but it allows the cancer to take over and kill him. Honestly, that scene reminded me a little too much of the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark. But anyway, Dr. King is dead and won’t bother the family any more. And yes, that was the death they advertised. I honestly thought it would be George. I certainly wasn’t expecting a villain.

So let’s get back to the non-Powells. When George goes to pick up the vitamins for Katie, the doctor has no memory of ever seeing her. The doctor mentions being attacked in his own parking garage, so George starts going through the security footage and he catches Victoria attacking the doctor.

George calls and tells Katie who manages to play it cool for a little while. But then she spills the beans just as the real Joshua shows up. Honestly, Victoria gave up a little too easily for my tastes, but not before Katie gets knocked around the goes into premature labor. She delivers a baby who isn’t old enough to survive. Only he does. So what kind of superpowers will he have? Will he be evil like Katie fears?

We need to get back to Mrs. X’s plan for a minute. She wants the powers to be permanent so she can create super soldiers to sell to the highest bidder. She’s got 80 convicts all ready, so she charters a plane for them. Victoria even gets on board. George has been following Victoria and is mistaken for one of the prisoners, so that’s how he gets on board. Yes, this is the plane ride that we saw at the beginning.

With just a couple minutes left in the episode, some agents show up at the Powell house. They tell the family about the plane crash. There were 80 people on board, but no bodies at the crash site. While this is being said, we see footage of several of them walking away, one of them being George. Jim asks why they are telling the family about this. The NSA agent replies with, “It has recently come to our attention that you are no ordinary family.” Yes, I loved that line. Of course, I am wonder how they learned this. Anyway, the agent then asks for the family’s help in tracking down these new supers just as the screen goes to black.

So, if the show doesn’t come back next year, I feel satisfied. We learned why the family got the powers and why they stuck around. Dr. King is defeated.

And yet we can still go so many places with the story if there is a second season. It might turn a bit into a super of the week format, which would get boring quickly. But if they can come up with a bigger story as engaging as these last 6 or so episodes have been, I’d really be happy.

Thanks for watching with me. Here’s hoping we can do this again in the fall.

Come visit me over the summer at my regular home, please.  I promise talk about ultimate Frisbee, books, TV, and mud runs.