Pathways 2x07 'Masquerade'

by Brian L. Lamkin

The gang attends a massive Halloween party at the Blaze, where nothing is as it seems, and everything will be questioned. When Parker catches Julie and Sam sharing a passionate moment, everything is shattered.

Ah, Pathways. A potentially excellent drama show with an engaging, well-written cast of characters, suffering so far this season with some scatty plotting that's left the majority of the episodes lacking a strong central story to tie all the ancillary scenes together - until last week, when everything fell into place at last. Lamkin retuns to his show for 'Masqueradde,' so let's see if he can continue to nail home the show's strengths without getting bogged down in trying to give every member of his large cast something to do.

We open with Sam and Mark (not the cheesy British pop duo, thank God) looking at something in the Blaze, closed before its normal operating hours. And whatever they're looking at, it's big. Oo-er missus. Nudgeworthy double entendres aside, what they're actually so enthralled by is a giant inflatable pumpkin. Happy Halloween! The banter between these two is actually pretty good, showcasing Lamkin's skill with call and response dialogue sequences. Over at Dom's house, Gabe and Dom are watching some TV, both being so painfully vocal about 'making things work' that you can tell neither one of them is 100% confident about it yet, and as Dom asks if he and Gabe are going to the Blaze's Halloween do together, Gabe's hesitation tells Dom (and us) that something's not right here - and I'll bet it starts with a 'J'!

And there he is - ladies and gentleman, the Devil himself, Jacob Hallows. He bumps into Gabe in the newsroom, and as Gabe tries to pull a voidy Jacob points out that it was Gabe who kissed him the other night, not the other way round. Jacob tries to book in some Gabe time, but he's saved by the Cooper as Alanna wanders past, and Gabe rockets after her. Jacob gets the hint (although Alanna doesn't), and leaves Gabe be - for now. Sam and Mark meet up with Julie, and then Charlie shows up, fresh out of hospital. Annoyingly, though, Eric was sorted out entirely off screen for drugging Charlie - kicked out of school and sent to a juvenile detention centre, maybe, but still, it would have been better to actually see this happening. One of Pathways' annoying habits is focusing too exclusively on its cast sometimes - it doesn't branch out of its established set of faces and locations that often, and in this case a few scenes showing what happened to Eric would have offered a better sense of closure for the story. Plus, I thought Parker was off to kick the guy's ass, so maybe we've yet to see something about that! Anyway. Gabe hazards an apology for his recent erratic behaviour, but Sam isn't buying it for a second, waiting for Dom to leave before pressing Gabe again - but Gabe's still Mr. Avoid The Issue at the moment, so no luck there. At the Blaze, bar owner Kathleen tells Mark they're going to need to cut some staff to get through the current dry spell, but Mark's going to have to do the downsizing! Eep. Mark manages to convince her he's up to the task, but we know Mark better than that, don't we - will Crestview's resident Mr. Nice be able to channel his inner hardass?

Gabe gets home from school to find Parker already there, and the animosity between the two is just as frosty as ever. Parker teases Gabe with some information he seems to have concerning Gabe's posse, and after making Gabe squirm he delights in telling him that the gang are still pretty upset with Gabe's recent behaviour. You have to wonder if Parker does know something, or if he's just messing with Gabe to see how he reacts. Over with Anna and James at a fancy restaurant, James glad for some quiet time which Anna promptly spoils by spotting her friend Sarah and racing over, turning dinner for two into dinner with four in seconds. Julie shows up round Sam's place where Sam is still worried about Gabe, who's eating alone at the local arcade when Jacob pours himself into the chair opposite him. Gabe's trying to play it cool, but when Jacob asks him if he loves Dominic, Gabe's hesitation (or 'major Shatner,' as Jacob brilliantly puts it) says more than words ever could!

You know, as I start Act III I'm getting the same old feeling cropping up again here - there's lots of little scenes but nothing tying any of them together, and despite Lamkin's dialogue being probably the best I've seen all season so far, I'm still waiting for some kind of main plot to stand out from the episode! Anyway. Over at the restaurant, James is clearly a bit miffed at his evening with Anna having so many extra guests, but Anna and Sarah are more interested in announcing their plans to expand the practice. Max (Sarah's fella) is happy, but James is put out at Anna not having him told him about something so big, even to the point that they have to have a Quiet Word about it - and promises to talk more 'later.' You may as well raise the 'Incoming Bust-Up' flag now, guys! At the arcade, Julie shows up, responding to Gabe's invite, and after tripping through some small talk he asks her if she and the others really are mad at her, like Parker told him earlier. Julie sheepishly admits that they are concerned, but almost slips up when the idea of her cheating on Parker is raised - so what's going on here, then? At the Blaze, Mark's doing his best to get the place all Jack Skellington'd up in time for the big party tomorrow, but as Kathleen tries to get him to say which of the staff he wants to let go, Mark gets a nice little comedy routine as he does his level best not to single anyone out. Alanna's on her way back from doing some shopping when Parker pops out to see her, and despite the frosty reception he persists, finally getting her to let him walk her home. So what's going on here then, eh? Hmm. Dominic runs into Jacob, asking him flat out if there's anything going on with him and Gabe, and Jacob says there isn't. At least, not 'right now.' Those last two words leave Dom full of confusion as Jacob wanders off - aww, bless. You can just picture Dom's little face dropping at that. Does he feel threatened by Jacob? Maybe he doesn't think he'd be able to win Gabe back if Jacob got his claws into him? All sorts of potential drama in the offing there.

Act IV opens with the Halloween party about to start, with a chance to get everybody dressed up and crack a few jokes - Sam and Mark have come as Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall from Brokeback Mountain for example, while Gabe has inventively dressed up as Jack Kerouac's 'The Open Road.' Narf. Parker drags Julie away, and Gabe hurries over to Dom, who plops a baseball cap on to win the Least Effort Award for his outfit. Dom is obviously distracted by Jacob's words earlier, but Gabe's doing his best to get into the party atmosphere as we cut away to the Jones residence. Anna sends away some trick-or-treaters but finds James still sulking about her previous announcement. Unfortunately, the argument is settled remarkably quickly (as things so often are in Pathways land), and as we return to the Blaze it's Jacob's turn to make his entrance, all James Bond-ed up as he makes his move on Gabe. Jacob gets the joke of Gabe's outfit straight away (which makes Gabe go annoyingly girly over him - show some backbone, man!), and Jacob slyly remarks on Dominic's absence. Dom shows up just at the wrong moment, however, giving Jacob a chance to twist the knife a little further, and poor old permanently-guilty looking Gabe stutters his way through an attempt at an explanation. Jacob drops his trump card - his kiss with Gabe. Dom's heart hits the floor right there and then, and as he scarpers Gabe is in hot pursuit, throwing a dark look to Jacob - but we all know he'll be back, don't we? In a back room, Julie awkwardly tells Sam that she's losing the spark with Parker - then kisses Sam! Yipes. Thing is, Parker just saw the whole event, pausing to punch the blow-up pumpkin on his way out (and presumably head straight for Alanna). Gabe arrives back home - but this is a long way from being a Happy Halloween. Up the stairs, into his room, slam. The end.

So... darn it, I want to like this show, really, I do. There's some excellent characterisation here - Gabe's tongue-tied attempts to talk to either Jacob or Dominc make for some good moments, and the script is littered with witty, quotable lines that liven up several otherwise fairly average scenes - but leaving the Halloween party to the last Act means that again we have an episode where a large number of only moderately connected scenes pass before we get to the meat of the episode, and then it's all over before you know it. There's some good plots building up now, but using the party environment to spring them on us would have linked things up a lot more effectively. That said, the Gabe/Jacob/Dom triangle is playing out pretty well here, with some well-written, realistically awkward dialogue from Gabe and Dom as they try to work things out. So a good episode with the potential to be a great one, but again I'm still holding out for another episode structured around a central story like 'The Slip' to help hold the scripts together.

ZPM RATING: