“The Returned” (9 p.m. Central Mondays on A&E) takes “mystery” to a whole new level. Traditionally, a mystery show is something like “Gracepoint,” where we try to figure out whodunit over the course of a season. Clues peppered into each episode lead toward the revelation of the killer(s).
The mystery of “The Returned” is “What the heck is going on?” It might have more mysteries on top of that one, but that’s the first one, and it’s difficult to hook viewers with such a vague concept. A murder mystery –- particularly if the victim is a kid like on “Gracepoint” or “The Killing” — is visceral and hook-worthy. Showing viewers that four people have “returned” is weird, but why should we care? In “The X-Files” Season 8 episode “Invocation,” where a dead kid turns up years later, unaged, we at least had the hook of Mulder and Scully. With “The Returned,” since it’s a new show (well, a remake of the French show of the same name), we don’t know anyone.
Nonetheless, while I can’t say I’m hooked, I did enjoy the first two episodes enough that I’ll stick around for a third.
In the small town of Caldwell, Wash., 16-year-old Camille (pictured above) dies when her school bus drives off a cliff. Four years later, she walks back to town, unhurt, unaged and without memories of the day. Her mom and dad are, of course, stunned but delighted. Likewise, Camille is stunned that her parents are divorced, that her mom is now interested in another man (Jeremy Sisto from “Law & Order”) and her twin sister, Lena, is suddenly four years older. (Everyone is four years older, but it’s most noticeable when your twin is four years older.)
The plot thickens when we bring in the other “returned” people. This because we don’t have all the information yet, but the writers’ trick of calculated revelations is nonetheless effective. Simon throws Rowan (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) for a loop because she was going to marry him before he died on the way to his wedding 10 years ago and now she’s about to tie the knot with someone else.
The third “returned” is a young boy. Julie, a local doctor, finds him by the roadside, takes him in and gives him the impromptu name Victor – and declares him to be her nephew — when she’s asked by a nosy neighbor. It’s implied that Julie was pregnant when she was stabbed a few years ago. Presumably, she had planned to name her kid Victor.
Also of note, there was a fourth “returned” in the pilot episode – a wife, Helen (Michelle Forbes from “The Killing”), whose husband is several decades older. So presumably, she died several decades in the past. The husband, after briefly flirting with calling Dr. Julie to see if he’s gone insane because he can suddenly see his dead wife, opts to kill himself by jumping off the top of a dam.
And of further note, a local fake psychic, Lucy, is stabbed – and carvings are left in her stomach that look like Julie’s. And in the flashback of Camille’s bus crash, we see that the driver was dodging Victor.
That’s a lot of summary without much analysis, I know, but with “The Returned,” we’re still in the phase of organizing the puzzle pieces before we interlock them. And this appears to be a 5,000-piece puzzle.
How does it all tie together? Nothing is the same among the four stories of the “returned.” We can’t even say they all returned from the dead, since it seems Victor might never have been born. Camille, Simon and Helen are unaged, but Victor presumably has aged. Camille has no memories of her lost four years. Simon seems to know he hasn’t seen Rowan in a decade, and he’s desperate to see her. Helen seems to have no memories of her lost decades, yet she’s unfazed by her aged husband.
Will “The Returned” be a murder mystery after all? The local detectives have already grilled one red herring – erm, suspect (Lucy’s manager at the restaurant/bar) – about the stabbings and ritual carvings of Lucy and several other women from years past.
Or will it be a character drama sort of like “The Walking Dead?” That show has a mysterious vibe, but we ultimately are drawn to it by the characters more so than an implied promise of answers. “The Returned” isn’t in that league yet, but it does have a good cast of sympathetic characters.
I’ll keep tuning in for a while. There’s SOMETHING there with “The Returned.” But I don’t know what it is yet.
Main image: A&E publicity photo