Hindsight 1.08 “The Imaginary Line” Recap

2003
Over breakfast, Lolly talks up Kevin, saying that he’s sweet, smart, and one of the only people in the world who understands her. Becca, however, is more concerned about the work she still has to do for Simon and the fact that Kevin’s tardiness is keeping her from doing her job. Kevin then walks into the diner where they’re seated.

1995
Over breakfast, Lolly laments the fact that she’s still stuck in the friend zone with Kevin. Since he’s leaving tomorrow, she has a fair amount of pressure on her to be honest with him about how she feels, so she turns to Becca in hopes of alleviating some of her anxiety. However, Becca informs her that nothing happens with Kevin because she never told him how she felt. Annoyed at this whole situation, Lolly then chastises her friend for avoiding Kevin, more or less, for the two weeks he’s been staying on their couch; Becca only compounds this worry by scurrying out of the diner when Kevin shows up, offering up her breakfast as a penance.

Becca heads to work at the magazine where she’s given her next assignment – distribute fliers and sticks advertising the upcoming first issue at a rave. The party is supposed to have the right type of demo for Thermal (young, rebellious), but when she hears about the advertising campaign, Becca suggests that they go a whole different direction. She brings up viral marketing and how the less information you give on a piece of promotion, the more intrigue and word-of-mouth you stir up. Being that Thermal needs any type of heat it can get, her bosses agree to the idea, albeit begrudgingly. Over at the Anchor, Sean stops in with two tickets to an Oasis concert, though Paige isn’t able to get off to go. Plus, there’s the fact that she’s wary about getting too close to Sean given his on-again, off-again status with Becca; he swears that there’s nothing between them anymore and apologizes for bringing Paige into the middle of his drama, but she still refuses to go out with him. She does, however, inform him of her side job catering and offer him some quick cash if he works with her that night.

2003
While having an argument with Sean on the phone, Becca runs into Kevin in the park. He’s trying his best to see the sights of New York with the help of a guide and she takes advantage of finally having a kind, attentive ear in her life. Lolly isn’t exactly enthralled at hearing about her marital problems with Sean, so Becca unloads a bit on Kevin, telling him of the petty arguments she and her husband have every day of their marriage. Though Becca can’t go with him around the city, Kevin does walk with her back to her job.

1995
After inadvertently knocking into someone in the park, Becca gathers her things and treks to Sex, Lies, & Video Tape, where she tells Lolly about the rave. Lolly, of course, is a big fan of raves and immediately agrees to help Becca pass out her promotional material in exchange for a chance to hang out at the party. Unfortunately for Becca, though, when Kevin comes into the store, Lolly quickly invites him along for the ride without asking her first. But she still soldiers on for the good of her career and the future of the magazine, as she spends the afternoon with Lolly and Kevin putting up the advertising for Thermal. The two might not completely understand the concept of viral marketing, yet they go along for the ride, with Kevin inquiring as to how Becca’s doing while Lolly climbs all over the city sticking stickers. Although Becca has a lot to deal with, she feels like she’s on the right path. Until, that is, she gets triggered by Kevin asking her about how she knew he liked apricot jam.

2003
Kevin tells Becca about his unusual love for apricot jam and how he used to get made fun of for it. The two had been hanging out every day after their chance encounter in the park, but nobody in their lives knews about their new connection – not Sean, who Becca knows wouldn’t like her having a male friend; and not Lolly, who Becca doesn’t want to feel left out. What she and Kevin share is something special, she surmises, as he understands her and listens to her in ways that Sean could never dream of. Their conversations are her favorite part of every day and when he hears this, he kisses her in agreement.

1995
Sean isn’t exactly thrilled to be working at an art gallery. Though he needs the money from this catering gig, he doesn’t like what the galleries represent or how they do business. There’s also a bit of jealousy in there, as he marvels at a derivative painting selling for $20,000 when the gallery wouldn’t buy anything of his for anywhere near that amount. Part of that comes from Sean never putting his work out there and never building up the artistic reputation that would net him that type of money, but still, he’s angry and insecure and a bit saddened at seeing his lack of commercial success staring him in the face. Just then, Noelle, who works in the gallery, comes over and engages with him over the work. The two flirt until she mentions she wants him to curate her next show, which is set to feature young artists. All the work is in the back of the gallery, so she takes him away to check it out as Paige watches on.

Becca, Lolly, and Kevin finish putting up posters and head out to the rave. They make the subway stops they’re supposed to and come across the guy with the purple hair selling passes into the event, which Kevin buys for all three of them. Purple Hair then offers them some ecstasy which Becca declines before walking back to the train with Kevin. Lolly, though, opts to stay behind with Purple Hair, leaving Becca and Kevin to get to know one another while on a one way trip to see DJ Will Scar. Once Becca gets off the train and hits the street, she’s incredulous at the universe pulling her closer to Kevin and not recognizing her attempts at pushing him away. She’s then forced into showing him around New York, given that they still have hours before the rave even starts and he has enough spare stickers to keep them occupied for a while.

With one sticker left, talk turns to what this job means to Becca. It might not be her dream job yet, but it’s got the possibility to become something for her, whereas her job with Simon was a dead end that she only escaped through the miracle of time travel. Kevin then informs her that his dream job was to be a Ghostbuster, which was born from watching the movie innumerable times in the theater, much to the chagrin of his mother.

2003
After having sex, Kevin amuses Becca by mentioning his mother’s initial support of his love of movies fading into ambivalence and absence when he wanted to see The Goonies for the sixth time. He then tells her that he loves her and after reciprocating, Becca brings up their pie-in-the-sky plan to run away to Europe for a couple of years, assume false identities, and then move to Seattle to start their lives anew. The thought of it is wonderful, but she doesn’t know how they would be able to tell Lolly.

1995
A chemically-enhanced Lolly greets Becca and Kevin as they make it to the rave in one piece. Becca’s first plan is to go after DJ Scar, a friend from her past who turned into a successful music producer. She wants him to display the Thermal logo on the wall of the club, so after making sure Lolly has enough water, Becca makes a go at the DJ booth. Unfortunately, Will’s manager Owen won’t let her up to see him, but she does leave him with the name “Watson,” something relating to the true story behind the scar on the DJ’s face. Out on the dance floor, Lolly finds herself amazed by glow sticks and gets interrupted by Kevin when she tries to tell him how she feels; clueless as to what was happening, he wonders aloud about Becca’s safety before getting brought out onto the floor by Lolly.

Becca tries to get the projector runner to flash the Thermal logo, but that turns out to be the wrong move again. Instead of helping her, he goes and gets Owen; while Becca does eventually get an audience with Will, he simply thinks they had sex in a casino bathroom and orders a wrist band on her before heading back up to the DJ booth. As Becca gets kicked out of the club, Owen mentions to him that she said something about Watson, which does at least make a noticeable impact. Back on the floor, Kevin can’t keep up with Lolly’s moves and when the two take a breather, he informs her that he’s thinking about extending his trip to New York. There’s nothing for him in North Carolina, Alaska is much too cold, and he’s fallen in love with the city.

2003
On New Years Eve, Becca pulls Lolly out of the party they’re celebrating at and into the nearby alleyway. Lolly is initially supportive when she learns that her friend is leaving her husband; however, that support melts away when Becca confesses that she’s leaving Sean for Kevin. Becca argues that their relationship evolved into something she didn’t expect and while she does love him, her friendship with Lolly means more than anything. Lolly, though, is upset that Becca made a move on a guy she knew was off limits and kept it hidden from her for six months. As such, their friendship is officially over.

1995
Becca hugs Lolly when she sees her outside, but the reunion is short-lived when Owen comes out looking for Becca. He takes her back inside to Will, where she reveals that she knows Watson is the dog who got loose when he was eight years old. He tried to run after it and fell into a barbed wire fence, hence the scar on his face – the one he says he got from busting up a knife fight in New Orleans. Will agrees to show the Thermal logo if Becca keeps this story on the DL and as she leaves, she hints that he’ll become a famous music producer as long as he ditches Owen.

Elsewhere, Paige walks in on Sean making out with Noelle in the back room. At the end of the night, there’s definite tension between them, especially when she learns he’s going home with this girl he just met. Sean argues that he’s unattached and that he spent every day of the last two weeks trying to get Paige to be with him; he’s not going to continue to put himself out there only to be rejected. Back at the club, Lolly blurts out that Kevin is staying and goes over to tell him how she feels. Initially, she wasn’t going to, but when she said something about there not being a rush to be honest with him, Becca’s reaction pushed her toward him, more or less. When Lolly gets by him, she kisses him, just as Will flashes the Thermal logo on the club wall.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-“It’s called viral marketing.” “Is that, like, small pox?”
-“I charge $175 an hour. It’s worth it. I’m really good.”
-“Let’s go find purple hair!”
-“He’s a future friend. Amazing.”
-“I sort of bought ecstasy from the boysenberry hair guy.”
-“So yay for vandalism.”
-“You’re so much taller than you were a few minutes ago. How’d that happen?”
-Non-Exhaustive List of 90s Songs Included on Hindsight: Sheryl Crow “Leaving Las Vegas”; Annie Lennox “Why”; Sarah McLachlan “Possession”. In the 2000s flash forwards/flashbacks, we had Coldplay “Clocks”; Vanessa Carlton “A Thousand Miles”; Five for Fighting “Superman (It’s Not Easy)”; and Norah Jones “Come Away with Me”. I’m also fairly sure we heard the riff of Digable Planets “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like That),” but it was such a brief moment that I could be mistaken.
-Okay, as wonderful as this episode was, let’s get the one thing I thought was wonky out of the way – Becca is supposed to be 45 in the present? It’s 1995 and Becca mentions that she hadn’t been to a rave in 15 years, which her boss responded by something “what, since you were 10?”; that’d indicate Becca would be born in 1970, making her mid-40s. Maybe it’s because Laura Ramsey is much younger than that, because we’ve primarily seen the character redoing her 20s, or because the show didn’t really make her look mid-40s in the present day sections of the pilot, but that seems so bizarre to me – the fact that she’s 44-45. Chronologically, it works, though, so what do I know?
-Absolutely adore this episode’s structure. Not only did it take advantage of the loose relationship this show has with time, it was an inventive way to address one of the biggest questions of the series thus far and something that really showed what this show is capable of. I’ve been keen on the entire series, but this is the episode where it all clicked into place; this is where you saw how it could combine pop culture, time travel, female friendship, and some really deep psychological/philosophical work into a fun, frothy, surprisingly astute work of fiction. Bravo.
-I also love that a show as bubbly and energetic as this can do an episode as sad as this one was. I mean, this is Hindsight, so there were plenty of fun moments sprinkled in, but this episode definitely reached for the emotional sledgehammer when it came to revealing why Lolly and Becca’s friendship ended the first time around. It was probably the most dramatic scene the show has done yet, juxtaposing with the lively party scene, and made all the more poignant by the fact that the audience knows something so personal that Lolly still isn’t clued in on. And you know that once she finds out what happened, their friendship is never going to be the same, so there’s a certain feeling of dread lingering now.
-Also, Laura Ramsey and Sarah Goldberg have never been better on this show than they were there. So raw, so heartbreaking – a true testament to Lolly’s friendship with Becca being the true Hindsight love story.
-It’s impressive that the central mystery of this show was so well thought out. I got a little antsy that Hindsight would tease this out a bit too much and that they would drain the suspense and intrigue from the issue by playing it too much, but I was wrong for being that anxious. It was well done – just enough bread crumbs to get you interested, just secretive enough for the reveal to hit you hard, especially since Becca doesn’t feel like she has any way to control the situation.
-The one problem I had with Becca’s viral marketing scheme – isn’t the point of viral marketing that you get quick word-of-mouth thanks to the internet? I mean, they had the internet in 1995, but it’s nothing like it is in 2015; it’s certainly not quick or connected enough to launch a brand new magazine in a week, even with the exposure at the club.
-I liked how the flashbacks (flash forwards? what are we going with?) were subtly different than the show’s present day. 1995 feels very warm and has kind of a yellow-y vibe, while 2003 was blue-ish and kind of cold without being over the top.
-Alexandra Chando! I will be the first to say that I still miss The Lying Game. ABC Family screwed it over, it deserved the internet’s cancellation rage over Bunheads, etc. I didn’t know she was going to be in this show, so that was a pleasant surprise.
-I’ve not said much about Sean’s plot, but I did like it. It’s just that everything with Becca and Lolly was so dominating that the B-plot was made to feel a bit disconnected. I do think Sean’s relationship with Noelle, introduction to the art world, and tension with Paige will come into play later this season, with the latter likely helping this section of the show tie back to Becca. What I’m curious about is whether Sean’s newfound interest in getting his art out there will cause him to implode or whether he’ll put it all together and become the man that Becca always wanted him to be. If it’s the latter, could Becca make an attempt at getting him back into her life once she sees his potential being fulfilled?
-Although it’s kind of devastating that Becca and Lolly’s friendship ended over a guy, I buy that Becca’s marriage to Sean would end with her meeting someone else. She’s mentioned how he pushed her away with his anger and with her claiming to not know how to be a wife, it makes sense that she’d respond like she did to Kevin and that she would want to make a fresh start with someone who understands her. It wasn’t malicious or anything of the sort; she was lonely and needed to feel the support from someone that she wasn’t getting at home. I’m very intrigued to see a Becca/Sean flashback from around that time period, though, just because we haven’t really seen any firsthand accounts of their marriage and how bad things got between them.
-I like that Purple/Magenta/Boysenberry Hair was chewing a glow stick like a tooth pick. Heck of a character detail and it said literally everything that it needed to about his character.
-I kind of thought that we’d see Kevin looking at Becca while he kissed Lolly, especially with Lolly basically jumping him outside the club. Lolly on E was a fairly fun plot, but tossing in her attempts at being honest with Kevin, knowing that he really wanted Becca, just made every club scene so (deliciously) painful. The awkwardness was just the right amount of cringe comedy and the right amount of tragic drama.
-I was a bit surprised that Becca didn’t encourage Lolly to tell Kevin how she felt. I assumed that she would want to have more control over the situation and to try and wriggle her way out of what could be the end of their friendship; she complained about the universe not letting her veer away from Kevin, so this would’ve been a way for her to take charge of her future and try to save her friendship with Lolly. But maybe there’s a part of her that remembers how good things where with Kevin and doesn’t want to give that option up, not when Andy is back with Melanie and Sean broke things off with her.
-As a reminder, we’re now two episodes from the season being over. A renewal decision should be coming in the near future, so I hope that you’re doing what you can to help raise the show’s profile. Watch episodes on the VH1 app, VH1.com, and your cable provider’s VOD – they’ll give VH1 the hard data that shows there’s an audience for Hindsight and that a second season would be financially viable. Tell your friends about this show. Live tweet on show nights or, heck, whenever you’re able to watch a new episode. Post on the show’s Facebook about how much you like it. Anything you can think of to make one last push to the renewal that this show deserves.
-Next week on Hindsight: Lolly tries throwing a Christmas party to win Kevin over, while a brief moment of success for Becca is soon enveloped by complications.