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    Sullivan's Crossing

    Sullivan’s Crossing “Detours” Review

    Ian GildersleeveBy No Comments5 Mins Read
    Sullivan’s Crossing -- “Detours” -- Image Number: SUL103_0025r -- Pictured (L-R): Chad Michael Murray as Cal Jones -- Photo: Michael Tompkins/Fremantle -- © 2023 Fremantle. All Rights Reserved.

    The third episode of Sullivan’s Crossing, “Detours,” had a wonderful theme of fitting in, finding your place and sanctuary. Each character is either trying to decide what their role is, or decide how best to act in that role.We began with Andrew, uncertain of how he fits into Maggie’s life, or more accurately, how she fits into his. There’s a distinct jealousy that he has about Maggie being walked home by Cal that Maggie rebuffs by stating she is not his ex-wife. There’s that hint, without outright statements the show is so good at, that Andrew’s wife had cheated on him. There’s an interesting thing that people do when they are hurt, that they define others by those who have hurt them in the past. He goes on to remark about not able to see Maggie growing up there, defining who she is, that that lifestyle is not her. He’s trying to control his image of her, define her role and identity, to bring a sense of comfort and justification of them being together.He’s not alone, however, in defining others by past trauma. Maggie’s feelings of jealousy and replacement by Lola take an interesting turn as we learn that Lola and her mother actually moved in with Sully not long after Maggie and her mother left. Lola being the same, or nearly the same, age as Maggie, I can see how Maggie might think Sully decided to be Lola’s father instead and forgot about his own daughter. There’s a resentment toward Lola that comes from Maggie’s anger toward Sully in what she sees as abandoning his role as her father. In turn, Lola probably sees Maggie as the one who abandoned Sully. She’s the one to have lived with him and seen his pain, and now is very protective of him. She questions Maggie’s intentions of being there and doesn’t want Sully to get hurt again.

    While Sully’s role as a father is in question, he also has the dual role of being a community leader. The campground is his history, his legacy, and his sanctuary. He respects the land and the Mi’kmaq people and mirrors their gracious welcoming of others. The respect of culture, community, and inclusivity of diverse peoples is an aspect of the show I greatly appreciate and admire.The episode began to explore the wider community beyond our main characters. The difficulties of the role of parenthood that Rob faces with the tug of war between spending quality time with his son and having to sacrifice those moments to provide his son with a sustainable life and home. Jackson’s Police Chief father wanting his son to join the force, remarking on progress of the police force inclusivity and hinting at Jackson’s possible LGBTQ+ identity. Then there’s the statement of the role of community, in how the entire community comes together to search for the missing daughter of a visiting family.Finding community may be what Cal has been searching for in his journey. We learn he moved around a lot as a child and never had a real place to call home. That brings new insight into how he’s acted over the past few episodes. He’s kind, yet distant. He goes to a community diner yet stays in his corner and drinks alone. He wants to have that community with others, yet fears the impermanence. Perhaps that fear of creating connections that he has always had to let go of has led to him never staying in one place too long as an adult and his circled date is his own self determined exit to not allow himself to get hurt again.While I did enjoy the overall theme and kernels of insight we got, I feel the episode faltered in pacing. With such a wonderful theme, they really just skimmed the surface and meandered from character to character, never delving too deeply. The sudden change of pace with the missing teenager that came over halfway through the episode led to a cliffhanger ending that left nothing resolved. As is the nature of a cliffhanger, yes, yet I do not think there was a need. I think the episode would have been better had the girl gone missing way earlier on and focused the majority of the episode on that search, splitting the characters into pairs and using the isolation of the search to really explore those characters and their dynamics. Heck, I would have kept Andrew around and put him and Cal on a team together! Instead, we got no real progress or resolution, and now, following the fallout of that cliffhanger, have to potentially deal with another disjointed episode.Written by Kerri MacDonald and directed by T.W. Peacocke, the episode had a wonderful theme of determining your role and finding your place, yet was marred by pacing and not focusing enough to really delve into those ideas. I give the episode 5 out of 10 missed dance opportunities.

     
    New episodes of Sullivan’s Crossing air on The CW Wednesdays at 8/7c and stream free next day on The CW app.
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    Ian Gildersleeve is a long time viewer of The CW and previously wrote Beauty and the Beast reviews for KSiteTV.

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