11.22.63 Jumps Forward, Says “Happy Birthday, Lee Harvey Oswald”

By  · Published on March 22nd, 2016

Welcome to Last Night on TV, our ongoing series that looks back at what happened on television the night before. If we’re going to stay up all night and watch TV, we might as well talk about it the next day.

It’s been six months since the end of the last episode, and it’s now 10.16.63, nearly one month until Kennedy gets shot. However, Jake isn’t any closer to finding out if Lee is the one who pulls the trigger or not. Especially after he overhears Lee and de Mohrenschildt talking about the attempted Walker shooting, and it sounds like Lee had nothing to do with it. But are they joking? Jake can’t tell.

So as the clock is starting to tick down to zero (and only two episodes left), things need to escalate. First, there are some b-story obstacles standing in Jake’s way: Lee gets hired at the Texas Book Depository and Ms. Mimi apparently has cancer, and Sadie’s nearly done with a series of surgeries to restore her face. However, considering she’s only six months out from nearly have her face hacked off, she actually looks pretty good.

On top of it all, Bill is growing restless and agitate. He’s pissed off that Jake is hardly around, and angry that he still doesn’t know if he should kill Lee or not. He tries to convince Jake that maybe they’ve already change the future just by living below the Oswalds, but Jake won’t hear it. Finally, Bill decides to take things into his own hands and when Jake comes home one night, he finds Bill upstairs at Lee’s birthday party.

Apparently he and Lee are best buddies now, while Bill is trying to pull off an affair with Marina on the side. This doesn’t sit particularly well with Jake who tries to usher the fairly-drunk Bill downstairs. As a result, they get into a scuffle and break a lamp, accidentally revealing one of their own listening devices that they had hidden inside. This sets Lee off on a rant about the government, and he’s definitely now sounding like someone who could murder the president. Nice work, guys.

Jake angrily waits for Bill downstairs, and then spots him outside smooching with Marina. Not a great idea, Bill. When he finally comes inside, they scuffle once more before Bill pulls a gun and tells Jake to get out, and that he belongs there now. So in the course of an hour, it looks like things are completed screwed up, and that the Jake/Bill planted bug might be what causes Lee to kill the President of the United States. Not really a good night

Jake heads to the hospital where Sadie is about to get her final surgery, but just as she goes in he spots the ominous Yellow Card Man and knows something is wrong. He and Deke accidentally get locked in a waiting area, and Jake completely panics and smashes down a window to get back to Sadie. Just in the nick of time it seems, as the interrupted anesthesiologist notices that Sadie wasn’t getting any oxygen.

Sadie decides not to get the final surgery, and Jake heads off to confront Bill. But he finds the two of them as thick and thieves, while Bill shows Lee how well he can handle his rifle. A bewildered Jake says “Second shooter…” before planning on a course of action that is pretty genius: he has Bill committed. Who’s going to believe a man ranting about his ‘brother’ being from the future? It seems to work, and Bill is safely socked away.

Jake also confronts de Mohrenschildt in an extreme manner by choking him with wire from his back seat. Jake asks for details about Lee, and it seems as though George is only being nice to Lee and Marina as they are both from Russia. Jake doesn’t buy it at first, but lets him go after asking him about the plan to kill JFK, to which a confused de Mohrenschildt explains that Kennedy is going after the communists who ruined de Mohrenschildt’s country, how could he be mad?

So Jake has seemingly learned that Lee didn’t shoot at Walker, and that George most likely wasn’t behind the plot to get Lee to kill the President. But as he heads home, he is pursued by a group of thugs representing he man who owns several betting establishments where Jake had laid down future bets to make some cash. However, even though he won, he gets the complete crap kicked out of him. When he wakes up, he’s in a hospital room, alternately seeing Sade and his ex-wife from the future leaning over his hospital bed. And apparently he’s been unconscious for quite some time.

Two shows left, Hulu. I really hope I’m happy with the ending you seem to be backing into.

For more TV reviews, check out the Last Night on TV archives.

Related Topics: