Resurrection Review: Season One, Episode Two – “Unearth”

First aired March 16th, 2014.

With every new person who comes back from the dead comes at least one mystery surrounding their death. With all these puzzles to solve, there may not be time to figure out why they are being resurrected.

Caleb (played by Sam Hazeldine) appears to be in great health, despite his medical exams showing that he had a heart attack three days ago (the same time he was resurrected). While his daughter, Elaine (Samaire Armstrong), is thrilled to have him back, his son, Ray (played by Travis Young), thinks something is up. Ray is right: when Caleb died from his heart attack he was in the process of burying a bag in the woods. Whatever was in there must have been valuable because he shows up at a man’s door yelling that “it’s gone” and attacks him with a hammer.

So far, everyone has been brought back from the exact point that they died. Apparently, to them, everything just went black, and since they’re aware that they died I’m curious to know what happened to them while they were gone, if were they in limbo or walking around as ghosts. It’s not surprising that Caleb has a dark side, given his “evil” appearance in the series premiere, and so far whatever he’s hiding is turning into a great enigma. It would be interesting if unfinished business was a factor in who comes back from the dead.

Immigration Agent Martin (Omar Epps) and Dr. Maggie (Devin Kelley) are looking for answers about Jacob (Landon Gimenez). Martin wants to open Jacob’s tomb to see if there is still a body in his coffin and uses connections to get a court order. Maggie is also continuing to investigate her mother’s death, tracking down the man she had an affair with, Sam (Ned Bellamy), to ask if he’s her biological father. He tells her no, but goes into his house and frantically tells someone off-screen that she has found them.

The show tries to build suspense by not showing what’s in the coffin at the end, but it can only go one of two ways and either one makes for good story. If the coffin is empty that means somehow Jacob’s body was taken/left the mausoleum before being resurrected, if his body is in there than he was somehow given an entirely new one. It seems fairly obvious, at least in my view, that the person Sam was talking to is Maggie’s newly revived mother. That is the only logical conclusion for why he’d be nervous about her finding them and in a show where the dead come back to life it’s entirely possible.

Meanwhile, Lucille (Frances Fisher) is trying to integrate Jacob back into society, but people are unnerved and refuse to let their children play with him. She has his childhood friend, Pastor Tom (Mark Hildreth), spend time with him and the two reconnect. Eventually some of the kids start playing with Jacob, but Martin and Lucille notice him having a strange conversation with Caleb. Jacob remains tight-lipped about what they talked about.

I figured people would be freaked out about Jacob’s return and found it weird nobody reacted in the premiere. I thought the scenes of Tom and Jacob hanging out would come off as weird but the show managed to make them seem more heartfelt. My theory about Jacob and Caleb is that they are somehow bonded through their shared experience of cheating death. If that dream in the beginning was any indicator, there may be a larger conspiracy involved in their resurrection.

Quotes/Thoughts

“You’re nothing but a desk jockey, a glorified chauffeur who shuttles immigrants from one airport to another.

How does a pastor get so good at video games?

“I need to get the hell out of town before they all start rising.”

If Caleb killed that guy, he’ll likely come back and tell everyone, then he’d be screwed.

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