11.22.63’s Quest for The Truth Leads It to a Great Episode

By  · Published on March 15th, 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.

We’re on the back half of 11.22.63 with only three episodes left, but this one was a doozy. While the show has nearly left the tracks a few times, the powerhouse punch packed into “The Truth” locks it back onto the rails with an electromagnet.

We pick up right where we left off: with Sadie confronting Jake about the recording of Marina and Lee in his basement. He tries to lie and tell her it’s a drama, but women often know when their lovers are lying, and she smacks Jake a good one. “Everything you say is a lie!” Well, she ain’t wrong. She vacates the premises in tears, and Jake dumps the enchiladas she made for him into the trash. Breaking up is hell on the appetite.

But hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and Sadie not only breaks things off with Jake, she also tells Principal Deke about it. Deke angrily confront Jake about this, and coupled with finding him in a whorehouse in Dallas, he has no choice but to fire him. Or make him resign, as he says that will make it easier for him to find a job. Despite his thorny exterior, Deke is a softy.

Jake resigns himself to the task he’s supposed to be there for, and he and Bill make final preparations to stake out General Walker’s house in the hopes that they will see Lee attempting to kill Walker. They have a complete stalker kit on hand, including food, flashlights, extra batteries, fuel, and … adult diapers.

Bill wonders how Lee shooting at Walker means he later goes on to kill Kennedy, but Jake says it’s because he’ll be using the same rifle that later killed Kennedy. And he also doesn’t give a crap. He just wants see Lee fire that shot so he can then kill him and go back through the portal to the future. However, just when it seems like they have everything set and Jake is sweeping his house in Jodie of all evidence, he gets a call on the phone. It’s Sadie’s ex-husband Johnny, and he has Sadie captive.

Jake can’t help but go over to her house where Johnny has her at the kitchen table with a blood-soaked pillowcase over her head. When he later whips it off, there’s a horrifically deep cut on the side of her face. Johnny, who is clearly completely nuts, blames Jake for making him do that, and pours him a glass of bleach to drink while he holds him at gunpoint. But Jake tosses it in Johnny’s face, and near-blind he tries to perforate the couple with his pistol until Jake stops him with a fireplace poker to the side of the head, and Sadie blasts a hole in his chest.

While this perfectly Stephen King moment is playing out, Bill shares a moment with Marina until Lee wakes up and interrupts them. He gives Bill a book by Karl Marx, telling him that it tells the truth. Bill takes it (realizing how stupid it was to go to their door), and later hurries off to observe the attempted Walker assassination by himself after getting a call from Jake telling him he can’t make it. But at the scene of the crime, Bill is distracted at the last moment by a woman in a crowd who appears to be his dead sister. He runs after her and realizes his mistake at the last second… just before he hears a shot ring out.
Jake sees a wounded Walker enter Parkland hospital, where Sadie has been taken, and he calls Bill to find out what happened. Bill, in tears, tells him he missed it all and Jake wordlessly walks away from the dangling phone. Yep, he’s pretty pissed off, both at Bill and at himself. However, the doctors manage to save Sadie’s life. But they can’t do anything about the massive gash on her face and she will have a horrible scar forever. Lovestruck Jake doesn’t care, and he rushes to her to confess his affection for her. “I can’t do this without you.” Then he comes clean about being from the future, and tells her everything. La di blissful da.

In the meantime, we’re no closer to finding out who killed Kennedy. And you know what? This time I’m not even mad. This was a great episode. Bring on the endgame, 11.22.63. I’m ready.

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