Forever
Forever- Pilot (1×01)
“It’s not the number of years we live that matters. Our lives add up to a series of moments. We never know when or where they’ll happen. But they stick with us, marking our souls forever.”
For a show I wasn’t excited to watch at all, I’m so hooked. This might just be the best new show of the fall! Okay, Gotham and How To Get Away With Murder aside. I feel like there’s this new trend in the world of television that’s obsessed with men over 200-years-old. Case and point, Sleepy Hollow’s Ichabod, The Vampire Diaries Salvatore brothers and Forever’s Henry. Old men are just hot. They age well, like wine.
The new supernatural mystery surrounds Henry, a man who simply cannot die. He spends his time studying the dead and experiencing death, to try to figure out his own immortality. During the course of the premiere he suffered from 3 very different life-ending deaths…. None of them stuck. You know how tiring that must be? Every time he dies, he wakes up in water– naked. The way he resurrects goes back some 200-years-ago, when he was a doctor seeking shelter on a ship. Slavery was still a thing and he came to an African American’s defense, and ended up getting shot and thrown into the sea. It seems as if the water is a symbol of death and rebirth. The naked part obviously leaves him in very questionable and awkward situations, but hey… at least he’s eternally 34 and hot right?
Henry doesn’t seem to understand why he keeps coming back to life, but he refers to it as a curse. He’s seen a lot of pain, suffering and death. He’s also lost people that once mattered to him and has had to live with that pain. And there’s no escape! He can’t die. Can you imagine that? Sure you get to do whatever you want without ever worrying, but it’s no fun when people around you age and die and you’re left alone, with this secret that you can’t really tell anyone because you’d become a crazy science experiment. My guess is that when Henry died the first time, there was a lunar eclipse. Some freaky Friday type of occurrence. Or it was around the Bermuda triangle and maybe, plane disappearance’s aren’t the only thin that area is responsible for? And if you want to get really supernatural, maybe the black man he tried saving on the boat was some kind of warlock/witch that put an eternal spell on him. You never know. Voo-doo is a real thing after all right? And lastly, there has to be something to that old pocket watch he’s always carrying. Maybe it’s his saving grace and as long as it keeps ticking, Henry’s heart keeps beating?
Anyways, we meet Henry on a train. He’s very intuitive and strikes up a conversation with a young woman who looks much like his late wife. His approach to women, or to anyone for that matter, could be deemed as stalker-ish, but after so many years, he’s just really observant. Unfortunately, his luck didn’t last long because the train he’s on crashes and everyone in the first car, killed. Everyone except for Henry.
We see him again at his job at the coroners office, examining the body of the train conductor. How ironic right? Detective Martinez–whose working on the case– walks in, hoping to get a quick analysis of his cause of death. Alcohol would mean a huge homicide case and a busy and late night for her. Henry informs her that the underlying reason is heart attack, but it probably came from the main reason… poison. At least that’s Henry’s assumption after finding foam around the conductors lungs. Someone intentionally poisoned the conductor of the train and sent tons of people to their deaths. Who would do such a thing? Well, maybe someone who knows Henry’s secret?
Henry gets a call from a “friend,” which is unusually cause he doesn’t have any. The mystery voice on the other line, let’s him know that they know everything about him, including the fun little fact that he’s unable to die. In fact, they know that he was on the train and didn’t die. Henry comes to the conclusion that whoever his “fan” is, is just like he is. The person has been watching him, observing him, following him, and according to Henry, most likely, poisoned the conductor, to see if he would die and resurrect.
In the meantime, Martinez is going with Henry’s assumption and hoping to find someone from the footage of the train that looks suspicious. That’s when she sees Henry, getting onto that first cart. Why didn’t he tell her he was on it, she wonders. As she goes to bring him into the precinct, Henry is on his way back with Abe, his much-older than he is son. The two have been trying to figure out who this “fan” was and wondering what poison was used to kill the conductor. Instead of waiting 3-weeks for the toxicology report, Henry decided to just insert a vile of the mans blood, into his own system. He determined that the quick death was due to aconite.
A little bit about Abe before I go on. When he was first introduced I wondered who he was and why he was trusted to know his father’s secret. The reason is much better than I could ever imagine. Henry was at war in the 1940’s as a medical doctor. He met Abigail, who had found an abandoned baby. The two fell in love, and in the meantime, the baby fell in love with them, so they adopted him. Since Henry cannot age, it looks like Abe is actually his father, but surprise, it’s vice-versa. It’s an interesting dynamic, and definitely a wicked spin on the father-son relationship.
At the precinct, he’s questioned by Martinez and walks her through the probability that he’s the killer. Obviously, he could have done it. Would he be so nonchalant about it? Maybe… he could be crazy. All legit options. But, they didn’t have enough to hold him for right now, so Henry was on his merry way. He decided to do some investigating himself, probably to help clear his name in case the cops couldn’t figure it out. Henry is a very modern Sherlock Holmes with an old soul, so I fully trust him over any cop/detective on the force currently. Why would someone do this? They’d obviously be on the train and have to get pretty close to the victim. He finds the area where the poison was poked into the conductor and picks up a fingerprint, which he than delivers to Martinez. The duo go to visit Han’s house. Obviously, not being able to die has it’s perks. Henry isn’t scared of anything and instead of walking into this mans house, he does some unauthorized snooping and finds Hans’ little lab of aconite. As their having a look, Hans returns home. Martinez tells him to freeze, but he throws some poison on her and escapes. Thankfully, Henry is a genius and helps her get rid of the infected spot before it kills her. “Aconite is a horrible way to die,” he advises. “Trust me.” You know we believe him. He’s experienced it and he’s got a whole list of the most brutal ways to die. He’s literally an expert at death.
The duo calls in back-up and they make an important connection. Hans had been planning this attack for a long time, mainly to kill the conductor, who killed his wife a couple of years ago in a train collision. Revenge is a powerful motive, as we’ve learned in previous shows. This news upset Henry a little bit, who though that Han’s motive was to test out his theory that he cannot die. We’re back to square one of not knowing who the “fan” is. As he’s looking through some of Han’s belongings, he finds drawings of a scorpion and an upside down fish. He travels back in time in his memory, and recalls that those same drawings are on the ceiling of Union Station by platform 42. Detectives let him know that Han’s wife died by platform 42, and everyone rushes to stop the next attack. Henry takes it one step further though. Realizing that ethanol was added to the aconite to make it more soluble, means that Han’s is trying to send the poison into the air through the ventilation system.
He drags Martinez up on the roof, where they find Hans. Martinez gets shot and Henry hopes to talk Han’s out of the action. He gets shot too, but knowing that gunshot is not high on the pain scale, gets the energy, grabs Hans and jumps off the roof. A murder-suicide, except that obviously, Henry returns to life moments later. He visits Martinez in the hospital, and she’s convinced Hans didn’t just jump, he was pushed and Henry fell with him. Given that she was going in-and-out of consciousness, no one will believer her. After just one episode, I’m already invested in this relationship. Throughout the first episode, they stressed how much Henry missed his late wife– a blonde. So it’s exciting to see is interest in Martinez– a strong brunette, who lost her husband not too long ago. Martinez makes the first move and comes by to Henry’s place to let him know she requested him as her MA for the next case. Abe encourages his father to go, whose pleasantly surprised by Martinez’s forwardness. After so many years of life, it’s not the loss, pain or death that’s hard.. it’s the lack of hope and surprise, he recalls. Abe mentioned that his father had been trying to die for so long, he forgot how to live. It seems like Martinez, and this new partnership with the police, is a new beginning for Henry.
What did you think of the first episode of Forever? Does the show have potential? Sound off below or tweet us your thoughts. For some reason, I have a feeling that Abigail, is still alive somewhere… But that storyline, won’t be revealed until like next season, after Henry finally moves on and falls in love again. Cause you know, that’s just how life happens. I also wonder if the reason Henry dies so much is because he just has really bad luck, or if he would have never lived a long life to begin with? A very strong premiere, for a show, that wasn’t expected to live up to much. I think much of the season will revolve around expanding the relationship between Henry and his new lady friend, figuring out who his “secret fan” is and why, finding out how to break this curse, but most importantly, finding Henry’s purpose. Someone with such a gift— or curse— definitely has a bigger purpose than hiding out in a coroners office, pining for a love that happened hundreds of years ago. But what it is!?
Alright everyone, this was hands down the best episode of Forever, ever! Henry takes on his most important case yet and we finally got some closure as to what happened to Abigail (ah the heartache). Plus, a really surprising Adam revelation that no one saw coming! Yep, we’re on our way to the first season (hopefully) finale! Although the setup of the episode indicates that the writers and directors are preparing to be done for good if the show doesn’t get the green light by answering tons of questions for us and closing plenty of story lines.
Henry and Abe decided it was time to find out what happened to their mother after Abe tracked down her alias. They visited her last known address- a little hut in the middle of nowhere. The kind woman said that Sylvia, or Abigail, was a nurse at a nearby hospital and stayed there a long time ago, but vanished as quickly as she came. As Henry was observing the area he noticed a significant flower from their past planted in the garden that was surely done by Abigail. But when he went over, he realized there was someone buried in the ground and sure enough, when they dug it up, they found a skeleton.
According to hospital records, it belonged to a woman who came to the hospital after a car crash and Abigail was her nurse. Long story short, Jo and Henry find out that the accident was caused by a judge, who accidentally hit a man on the road because he was driving drunk. The passenger- a woman- was taken to the hospital and Abigail took her home because the girl feared for her safety, since she was cheating on her boyfriend at the time.
That boyfriend was the cop of the district who was called to the scene in the present day when Henry dug up the woman’s skeleton. This is all super interesting but Henry doesn’t understand how it connects to Abigail, until he starts explaining that a man came and took dear old Abigail out of the house before he went in and accidentally killed the girl out of rage and jealousy. A few minutes later, the owner of the house came and knocked on the door. A huge hint for Henry who begins wondering why anyone would knock on the door if the area was pretty secluded and there was only one way in. Wouldn’t she have seen the car with Abigail in it?
Yes, unless that car never actually left. This clue leads them to a part of the road where tire marks indicate the car drove into a ditch and low and behold, that’s where they find the car after all of these years, covered by a bunch of leaves. Henry digs out Abigail’s corpse and just knows these are the remains of his beloved wife. At the morgue, Lucas tells him that while there was a blow to the head, Abigail had a huge cut on her throat which looked self inflicted. Henry realizes the one thing connecting this whole puzzle is the man that got hit by the car. It said that he died but there was never a death certificate.
That’s when it hits Henry- Adam, his stalker, was the man that got hit by the car that night. In the hospital, he was in a lot of pain so he told Abigail about his curse and asked her to kill him. That’s when he realized she wasn’t even shocked because she had heard of someone with this curse before. As a 3000 year-old he couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to meet someone like himself, so he killed himself and went after Abigail. Abigail, desperate to keep Henry’s secret and keep him safe, drove the car off the road. When Adam tried to resuscitate her, she slashed her own throat and died, thus adding on a good 20-years to Adam’s search for another cursed soul.
The revelation is truly heartbreaking. All this time Henry thought his wife left him because she didn’t want to be with him. As painful as it is to lose someone, at least now he knows that she wanted to be with him forever and even wrote him a letter asking to meet her. Sadly, a letter she never got to send because she died protecting him. Seriously, this is worse than Romeo and Juliet. And how brilliantly did the writers tie in Adam! He’s not just a stalker anymore, he has a personal connection… and knowledge. Lots of it. And now we sort of care about him. Although, that’s not to say he isn’t still completely crazy.
Aside from the case, it was touching to see Jo help Henry even though she couldn’t really understand why a 30-year-old man cared about a 65-year-old woman this much. He could have just lied and said it was his grandmother and that Abe was his father but honestly women have an intuition. I think Jo was able to sense that this mystery, this Abigail meant much more to Henry than he let on. It was good that he finally got closure and was able to say goodbye knowing that the woman he always loved never really gave up on him. I really wish he would just clue her in on everything. But then think about it, how long can their “romance” last before history starts repeating itself? Still… it would be nice for someone other than Abe and Adam to know.
Next week, it seems like Adam is going to try to test out his theory that the original weapon is the one capable of killing them. Henry is also trying to hunt down the knife that Adam was stabbed with and Adam threatens Henry with the one thing he’s most afraid of- getting exposed to Jo. Could this finally be the moment she learns all? I also really want to know why these two- Adam and Henry- are the only two people with this curse. How was it enacted and why? This show better be renewed for another damn season cause I’m not ready to let go yet. I still have questions and I want to see Jo and Henry’s relationship evolve!
Forever blew me away this week with an episode filled with strong character moments all around and superb organization. All the story lines came full circle! Things kick off at the Urkesh consulate in New York. The country’s most hated king comes to apply for a visa and say’s he’s going back home to die. The workers all freak out, so you know, whatever happens is going to be connected to them. Flash forward to what I believe is merely a day later and the King dies of an apparent heart attack on a bench in Central park. This is definitely a case for the one, the only, Sherlock Holmes Henry Morgan.
Upon first examination, Henry determines Aronov Armen died from lung cancer. But further examination reveals a cut on his stomach that triggers memories of Henry’s own trip to Urkesh. That’s because this 80-year-old man is the same boy Henry and Abigail operated on during their honeymoon in the country. I say this every time I write reviews for this show, but I love how the writers find ways to connect the present day cases to something in Henry’s memory. We may think the world is such a big place, but try living for eternity and somehow, everything is connected. Jo’s assumption of Henry, “A person has to live 10 lives to pick up everything you have,” misses the point. Henry’s simply lived one very long life.
Armen’s wife admits her husband rejected cancer therapy, so Henry now knows the King was poison. They visit the consulate (see we’re back here again) with Henry’s handy dandy poison detector in hand. Unfortunately, the consulate knows nothing. Thankfully, Lucas finds something when he’s getting down and dirty, dissecting the victims stomachs insides. Yes, I really almost puked during this moment, especially when he opened the damn bag to smell what was inside. I’m almost vomiting right now just thinking about it. But this, along with just looked at the Kings credit card statements leads them to Taste of Urkesh– a restaurant where Armen had his last meal.
The owner denies knowing anything about what happened to the king, but doesn’t shy away from his feelings of hate towards him for what he did to his people. Henry’s detector goes off and they bring him in for questioning only to find out that Armen dined with a young woman, with green eyes, who looked like a mistress. The two got into a heated argument and before she left, she shouted something about a cage. That leads them to the Gilded Cage bar– definitely and odd place for an 80-year-old king. Lydia, a cocktail waitress, admits that Armen started coming in about a month ago claiming to be her father. Lydia said she fell for it until he started saying he was a king and wanted to give her all of his diamonds and told him to keep this a secret because if his wife found out she would kill him. Well, that’s motive right?
His wife reveals that Armen had cheated on her more than 25-years ago when she found out she couldn’t have kids. Armen was sad that his bloodline would be discontinued and there would be no air to the throne, so he went and got a woman pregnant. Hanson suggest that maybe the wife killed him when she found out and right then she begins breaking out in a sweat and panicking, before dropping to the floor. Henry automatically knows that she’s been poisoned and pumps out her stomach with a dishwasher hose. Honestly, the survival skills I learn from this show are beyond me.
What started off as a simple heart attack, turned into a hunt for the killer whose trying to kill of the monarchy of Urkesh forever. Ink on the door means the attacker had to be working for the consulate. See, back here again. They pay another visit to the consulate, where the general sneaks in the identity of the true killer to Jo. She calls Lydia to warn her about a possible attacker, but it’s too late. The killer, a man named Asif who worked for the Soviets, is already in her house. Lydia begs him not to hurt her. After all, she hasn’t done anything but in Urkesh, blood is paid with blood and Lydia’s family killed Asif’s parents. This is his revenge. As he chokes the princess (cause yes she’s technically a princess) a baby starts crying from the other room, revealing that there’s yet another member of the bloodline. Asif knocks Lydia out and goes inside the baby’s room pointing a gun at the innocent child. I swear, I had to shield my eyes at this moment even though I knew there was no way they’d kill an infant on primetime. Henry and Jo arrive just in time. Henry saves the child, while Jo pursues the attacker, only to accidentally shoot Lydia.
Thankfully, she gets to the hospital in time and makes it out alive. It was sad to watch her panic that she’s going to die and leave her child an orphan just like she was. I cannot imagine that kind of life. While she’s recovering, Jo and Henry babysit the baby, which a nurse mistakes to be theirs. Could this be some foreshadowing on the writers part? That would definitely be cute! Plus, Henry would live long enough to spend a good 90 years with the kid or so. Sorry, deep down I’m still rooting for these two to figure it out.
All this talk of children really brings Henry back the good old days, when Abigail was alive and they were considering having another child aside from Abraham. However, fate had other plans and Abraham remained an only child. Hey, at least they had one. He asks if Abraham ever feels regret that his parents didn’t give him a bigger family, but Abraham admits all he even needed was mom and pop. But now, since he knows who his real family is, he’s been tracking down all the Weinraub’s in the area, connecting with tons of distant cousins and cousins thrice removed. It’s actually nice to see Abraham so happy. The best discovery of all comes when he realizes that he’s actually related to Henry through a common ancestor. This makes their bond even stronger, although really, is that even possible?
This weeks lesson…. blood doesn’t necessarily make you family. Circumstances, experiences, friendship all bond people in a unbreakable way. And deep down, all of have shared blood in our veins. That lesson is driven home when Armen’s wife goes to visit Lydia and meet her “nephew.” Despite losing her father, she gained a whole new family and understanding about who she really was and that was priceless. As for my favorite part this week, it was great seeing Henry deal with several generations of the same family. From saving the king when he was a boy, to bonding with his father, to meeting that boys daughter and then holding her son. I guess that’s the beauty of living forever.
Photo Credit: ABC/Forever
Forever took us back to the days of Hitler on this weeks episode and our favorite stalker Adam made an emotional comeback.
It started off with a nurse questioning Abe about his parents medical history. He doesn’t have the answers because he doesn’t know who his parents are. All he has is a number tattooed from Aushwitz.
Henry is called to the scene of the murder, but instead of being intrigued by the dead man on the ground, he’s fascinated by a sculpture, which turns out to be the murder weapon. The victim Karl Haas is an art dealer, who owns all original paintings that were stolen by the Nazi’s in Germany. His father was part of the Hitler’s task force–an SS officer– who fled to the US after the end of the war and smuggled in all the stolen pieces. Their identifiable by a Nazi stamp on the back, which is also the imprint left of Haas’s head.
They bring in Haas’s son for questioning, but he admits he didn’t know anything about his family’s past. Henry finds another lead– one of Haas’s watches, which could only be repaired by a certain watch maker in Brighton Beach. The store owner admits that he gave Haas the watch as a present 2 days ago after he brought him an original painting belonging to his family. Turns out, Haas worked to fix his father’s mistakes, by returning all the stolen art to its rightful owners.
Blood from Haas window connects them to a man named Max Brenner, who’s ben dead for more than 20 years. How could the victim be murdered by a dead man? Turns out the string of DNA belongs to a man related to Max… Sam Brennner, also an artist who indulged himself in skinning animals to use their blood for art. Pretty gross if you ask me. Jo finds a painting inside his “studio” which belonged to Haas and he admits he’s been trying to get his family’s painting back for years, but Haas wouldn’t give it to him. So one day, he broke in and decided to steal it, but didn’t actually kill him. He did however hear him arguing with someone over the phone about a Rembrandt painting.
Phone records reveal the man on the phone with Haas the night of his death was Julian, a man working with the international action house. He shows Jo and Henry a safe filled with valuable pieces that did not have owners…. Henry realizes the Remberandt painting used a poison oak canvas which would leave skin irritated and Julian kept scratching when they were speaking to him. This pinpoints him as the main suspect. But when they return to the museum, Julian’s cleared out the whole room.
Jo figures the only way to steal that many antiques is to ship it the way the Nazi’s did… by boat. They stop all the shipments from the ports and it doesn’t take long to find the stolen one as it bleeds right onto Jo’s cheek. Inside, they find a tortured and dead Julian. The scene is pretty gruesome, but it reveals that whoever killed Julian is not the same person that killed Haas.
Much of the storyline this week connected with Henry’s past and his personal experiences with his father. Like Haas’s son, Henry also didn’t know his father– a good and honorable man was working with the slave trade. Money makes people do crazy things. But despite his disappointment with his father, he was there for him when he fell ill and passed away. That’s when it clicked that whoever killed Haas did it out of anger, but with love. He must have died with his eyes open, but he was found with them closed. Fingerprints from his eyelids point to his son. He admits it as an accident. He was upset with his father after getting a call from Julian and finding out the truth about the Nazi painting. His father had all these paintings that were worth millions of dollars, but never helped him out financially, even when he was struggling. Like I said, money is the root of all evil. But, he didn’t kill Julian.
So who did? Julian fought back and a piece of skin under his fingernail revealed the killer’s antibodies had diseases that don’t exist anymore. The realization finally hits Henry…. Julian’s killer is Adam, his stalker. Henry closed the case much to Jo’s disappointment. He knew there was no way he could reveal the killer was a 2000 year old immortal.
Adam was a central part of this weeks episode, making an appearance at Abe’s antique shop. Since Abe’s never seen Adam, he obviously didn’t know who he was an agreed to assist him with an antique he left behind. This was Adam’s goal all along, as the antique belonged to Henry’s family… better yet, his father. The two met up and Adam revealed, he didn’t want to harm Abraham. In fact, he was trying to help him, which first led me to the believe maybe he was his father. But that couldn’t be since he’s way to old for that. He slipped Abraham a book of records from Auschwitz so that he could finally identify his family. Despite being a psychopathic killer, the gesture was nice and gave us a very powerful scene that brought tears to my eyes. Everyone deserves to know where they came from. Maybe his gesture was to make amends? Why he would apologize, I’m not sure, but Abe makes a valid point– all of this means that once upon a time, Adam was also a victim. There has to be a lot more to his story. We know he was also in Aushwitz and was tortured for being immortal. Clearly, Hitler had an obsession with immortality. Is that why he became this evil person? And why is he sparing Abraham? Does he really just want a family? I can’t figure it out, but it definitely has me intrigued.
What I love most about this show is that all the cases connect to Henry’s history and a historical periods. It makes them that much more complex and interesting. And finding out everyones stories is also key to being able to understand them and their actions.. Case and point, Adam. Nothing makes what he does right, but it might allow us to understand why he does the things he does. I just can’t wait till Henry finally comes clean to Jo!
Photo Credit: ABC/Forever
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