The Dresden Files Episode One : Birds of a Feather Warped Drive Recap
Dresden Files the Warped Drive Experience.
In my twenty-five years of life, I’ve come to the realization that most people talk themselves out of the truly fun things in life. We often say we would like to do things someday. We fantasize about writing novels, making artistic pursuits, and taking around the world vacations, and then slip into a quiet acceptance of the status quo. This is the back-story for Warped Drive. My good friend and I often watch Television together, specifically Science Fiction, and fantasize about having our interpersonal commentary reach the masses, for their edification and laughter. Over the course of a day, via IM, we both agreed that it would be good for us to stretch our artistic legs and take on a new writing project. In that vein, we have each decided to cover a TV show.
I’m going to start with the recently concluded season of SciFi channel’s The Dresden Files, available via iTunes. I hope you will join me as I wander through the journey of Chicago’s only listed Wizard for Hire as he solves crimes. For those of you unfamiliar with the TV show, Harry Dresden is a practicing wizard, who solves Chicago Area crimes for Lt. Murphy. Murphy, the detective of the so-called “freak squad” often calls Harry to act as an expert when the crimes appear to have a ritualistic or supernatural twist.
To be fair, I don’t do my reviews alone. My ever present companion, Starbuck the Black Pug, often takes the blame for many of the comments my internal monologue wishes to make. So any snorts of agreement or comments out of left field can be laid solely at the 4 tiny feet of my alcoholic pug. Any praise can be sent in the form of bottles of Tullamore Dew, Starbuck’s favorite Irish whiskey.
The TV show opens on a macabre looking wizard poster, and spooky musical tones. The camera pans down to a young Harry asleep in the bed, and a helpful subtitle advises that the scene is Atlantic City, NJ in 1981. Starbuck snorts “Clearly, the child is having nightmares knowing that Ronald Reagan is within a 500 mile radius.” The voice over, whom we understand to be older Dresden, waxes philosophical about the power of nightmares. Obviously afraid of the disembodied voice speaking about his childhood, Young Dresden awakes with a start. Young Harry calls for his father, who walks into the room complaining that he’s trying to practice his grand finale.
Little Harry, like most kids, complains about monsters in his room. The father dutifully checks out the ultimate hangout for childhood monsters, the closet. “It’s just a closet, Harry.” His father says. Funny, I recall Freud saying, “It’s just a cigar.” Oooh! Scary dramatic foreshadowing. Realizing that he won’t be able to practice without somehow calming his son, he gives his son his mother’s shield bracelet. Harry looks up, eyes all full of tears, “Why didn’t it save Mom?” His father explains she wasn’t wearing the bracelet at the time. Harry vows to find the thing that killed his mother and rip its heart out, and the closet door dramatically closes, and the scene flashes to 2007 Harry waking up with a start.
Harry and his girl have the just woke up after having a fun night of sex moment. While she scampers out, she makes Harry promise he’ll stop by the diner later. Harry calls to what appears to be his roommate Bob, asking if he’s seen Harry’s keys. He opens an apartment door, and reveals what can only be a wizard’s laboratory, complete with an older Englishman writing what appears to be an alchemical formula. The letters appear to be floating in the air, giving away visually that Harry is a “magician”.
Bob threatens to sing showtunes from the 16th century if Harry disrupts his formula working. Ever so subtly, the show has setup two of the major themes of the Harry’s life. One, that he’s just your everyday Blue Collar man who just so happens to be a wizard, and secondly, Bob and Harry have a slashy relationship, which is convenient for all the subtexters out there. Harry and Bob exchange a few words over the girl that just left the apartment, Bob clearly interested in Harry’s sex life. Harry declines to answer Bob’s inquiry about “Locker Room Accounting”, but mentions that he’s had “that dream again, about my Dad.” Bob replies that since this is the third time, he’s had this dream, perhaps it’s a sign. Dresden brushes him off, asking about the formula he’s working on. Bob states that he’s working on a pet project of his before his “forced retirement.”
Bob explains that he’s building a doom box that, when opened, “Pop goes the weasel”. The actor cleverly delivers this line, his facial expression and tone halfway between algebra teacher droning on about pre-calculic logic and that face that Mr. Burns makes every time he says, “excellent.” Harry states that he’s seen this in Bob’s grimoire, and Bob mentions his uncle had a copy of it. Harry is visibly uncomfortable at the mention of his uncle and states that there was some pretty nasty stuff in there. Bob states “it served him well, as did I until you self-defensed him to death.” I have to admit that I love this show, but no one talks like this. Its reassuring to know that this is all added dialogue to setup the show, as the original pilot had a few hitches and wasn’t going to be ready for airtime. Just bear with it. Harry orders Bob back into his skull, and purposefully walks through the formula. Bob sighs longingly at Harry and disappears into the skull. (Yes, Bob’s a ghost. Go with it.)
Harry walks outside to find his Jeep has a boot on it, and kicks the tire in frustration as what sounds like the theme song music plays in the background. Harry moans about the ticket he just got when he’s interrupted in his misery buy a longhaired child, walking up to him, calling him by name. Brushing off the kid, he claims, “I don’t teach magic and I don’t do tricks.” The kid complains that he’s got monsters, and they are going to kill him and his mother. Harry asks why he thinks he has monsters. The kid, still nameless, doesn’t know but promises to pay Harry $5000 to find out. Harry scoffs, until the kid pulls out the money in hundred dollar bills. Harry admonishes him to put the money away, as the camera pans out to a Raven overlooking the duo. The screen then cuts away to the theme song and credits.
We meet our dynamic duo at the diner. Harry informs the kid with a parental tone that “generally speaking” there are no monsters, and that he won’t take the case. Scott (the kid finally earns a moniker) indicates that his are real, because he’s heard them clicking and scratching. Harry claims that he can’t take advantage of the kid, and walks away from him.
Harry calls Lt. Murphy, and tries to make small talk, but she’s clearly busy with a
crime scene. Harry asks for Murphy to unboot his jeep, and she brushes him off. Murphy complains to her partner that Harry was calling to get her to clean up his parking tickets, and he states that, “He could do a little magic and make his car disappear.” Setting up the distrust that the police have for his mumbo jumbo ways, Murphy then asks about the crime scene at hand. Carmichael delivers the stats to Murphy, explaining that the body of the week has been found skinned, no ID, no friends, and her job has her floating from school district to district. The close-up on the body’s face is all meat and bone, just creepy enough to make you pay more attention to the TV. Murphy, like a good detective, asks why if she was skinned here, is there no blood.
Thescene cuts to Harry grabbing some books off the shelf, with Bob following behind him like a schoolboy, apologizing for “pouring salt in an old wound.” Bob’s eyes are wide open as he says this, and one can imagine the tears welling on the 
inside. He also admonishes Harry to listen to the boy, as he fears that his recent conversation about Harry’s uncle has clouded Harry’s judgment. Harry snarks that he’s not taking money off a kid, but Bob replies with a line about “Don’t take his money but do take him at his word.” Harry looks up at Bob with a dreamy look and mentions Melissa, to which Bob replies with a hand over his heart and his eyes closed, “She of the languid eyes.” I’m not sure, but I think that’s queer ghost speak for ‘pretty lady.’ Harry chuckles back, “When they’re not rolled back in her head.”
The scene flashes to Harry and a redhead, presumably Melissa, back at the same booth at the same diner. Laura, Harry’s orgasm friend from earlier, drops off food for the new dynamic duo. Melissa looks and sounds perturbed at both Harry and herself for being in Harry’s presence. Melissa smarts off at Laura, and Harry asks Melissa to look through the Council records illegally for him. Melissa incredulously asks Harry if he wants her to break the rules for a chicken salad, and Harry replies, no for the kid. Starbuck, sitting near my feet, croons, “Won’t someone think of the children.” (I told you that Pug would come in handy here.)
Melissa begs Harry to shut up, and starts to breathe in deeply. Harry, with a look of shock, asks if she’s really going to do it here. Melissa breathes in, “I’ll be right back” and throws her head back and we see the whites of her eyes. Harry tries to hide his face, but cannot help but notice that his squeeze is watching. Starbuck stops the DVR long enough to ask, “Is this like the Wizard equivalent of the Orgasm soup scene in ‘When Harry Met Sally?’” Ignoring the pug, I press play, and hope that Dresden can dazzle me some more. Melissa tells Harry the kid’s clean and asks him to bugger off.
The scene changes to a school and a loud school bell, the helpful subtitles indicate JFK middle school at 9:33 AM. “Boy,” Starbuck snarks, “I hope there isn’t going to be a test today.” We see Scott wash his hands in the bathroom, as a Raven looks in the window. His teacher asks Scott to stay late to tutor a few of the kids in spelling lessons. A scary man in goth makeup scares Scott, and he drops his backpack and runs down the hall. The teacher turns around and yells his name, but he cannot be found.
The scene changes back to Harry, playing with some sort of dragon chess board, while Bob paces around the room. Harry lets Bob know that Melissa didn’t turn up anything. Bob asks Harry to go tell the boy that at least, and Harry says he doesn’t have an address. I swear that Harry is polishing some sort of knob while he’s having this conversation. Bob tells him to go the diner and find some organic residue of the boy, so he can do a tracking spell. Harry gives him the look of “Say Wha?” Bob replies with an intense, yet dignified, “Where there’s Children, there’s snot.” As Bob finishes his stare of doom, Scott bursts into the room and into Harry’s arms, activating Harry’s latent paternal instinct. Harry gives out a calming “Woah Woah” while Scott carries on about monsters. The screen flashes to black and white, with Harry’s shocked face the last thing we see before a cut to commercial.
Starbuck snorts at the DVR, and manipulates the controls with her paws till we see our helpful subtitles again. Sharpe Residence 4:49 PM. Starbuck mentions something about that being a fast day, and mashes the play key with her paw. Scott’s mother goes on a non-coherent rant about her son, and Dresden starts to pry about Scott’s dad. Scott’s Mom goes on about how he didn’t want to be a dad, and then ends her rant about therapists with perhaps the best line of the show, “Everyone is very educated and completely useless.” Take that modern educational fascists! Harry then asks if anyone has ever tried a little magic, after all the show is about the Wizard for Hire, Harry Dresden, not the therapist for hire, Sigmund Freud. We know it’s still just a cigar Freud, you homosexual.
Anyway, the scene changes to Harry’s hand glowing over some protective symbol on a piece of paper. Scott asks Harry what he’s doing, then Harry replies that it’s a protection symbol, just like the one on his shield bracelet, that’s apparently “saved his bacon more times than he can count.” Which by the looks of him, means that he’s seen bacon 3 or 4 times in his life. Insert plot device here, “If you hang this on your door, it will keep away anything that means you harm.” Starbuck snorts disbelief at the screen, and rolls her eyes at me. Scott asks Mom for his first tattoo, which surprisingly enough is the protection symbol and not an “I heart mom” sailor jerry tattoo. She tells him that we’ll put it on his bedroom door and the doorbell conveniently rings. “Gotta love TV time.” Starbuck snorts.
Scott’s Mom, still nameless, answers the door and is surprised to see Scott’s teacher at the door. The teacher explains she’s here because Scott left his backpack at school, but doesn’t mention anything about him dropping it and running like hell, or explaining why an underpaid public school teacher would have the funds to take a taxi to a student’s house to drop off a backpack. Harry leaves as they talk, and Scott’s Mom insists on paying the Taxi Fare.
The teacher and the mother make a passing conversation, and when the Teacher tries to come into the house, the symbol flashes across the screen, and the Teacher is prevented from walking into the door. “I knew the teacher was evil.” Snorts my pug, “No public school teacher can afford Taxi fare.” The teacher makes a very faked excuse why she has to leave, and the Mother watches her go with an eye of suspicion.
The scene flashes to Harry at the diner, asking the girls to tell Laura he stopped by. Starbuck chuckles, “Unless she’s bi and into girls that occasionally have out of body experiences while having sex, I kinda think you killed this relationship, Harry.” While swallowing the last of his pride with his iced tea, in walks Murphy asking for help from Harry. Harry wittily replies only if he’s on the clock. Murphy gives Harry the run down on the Corpse of the Week, and asks for Harry’s opinion. Harry snottily retorts from their previous conversation, “My first thought is that my car’s still booted.” Murphy replies she’ll take care of it.
Harry thinks it could be some really difficult to pronounce Aztec god who’s into flaying people, and chimes in that he needs money. Murphy orders him into the car, and the screen flashes to an eagle’s eye view of downtown Chicago at dusk. Or should I say Raven’s eye view, as five of the beasts land just outside a certain kid’s window, peaking in through the curtains. Scott’s Mom tucks Scott in for the night, removing the paper with the protective symbol that Harry etched. Scott reminds his mother about needing tape, and she shushes him and closes the bedroom door.
Murphy gives Harry more stats about the corpse of the week, and Harry starts to visually scan the house looking for clues. Harry then freaks out when he sees a picture of Scott’s teacher, who according to Murphy’s report died at 11:00 AM this morning.
Harry does another voice over, as we see that the phone lines to Scott’s house have been severed. His voice announces that only a skinwalker could have committed the crime. We watch as Scott’s mother drops the protective symbol while trying to tape it to the door; obviously the ominous-sounding voice over is distracting her. While she’s on the floor, she notices that her baseboards are filthy, which really cannot be surprising as the single mother of a pre-adolescent boy.
Her eye for cleaning failure carries her up the dirty door boards and to the ceiling where it appears the protection symbol has been etched. Starbuck snorts. “This probably won’t go with the general decor of the hall.” She turns just in time to see a flying scary dark figure morph into a man, in fact the same spooky goth man that scared Scott. She gives the obligatory scream, and falls over, acting just like every female lead character in a horror flick.
For some unknown reason, Harry rushes into the house, and amazingly knows the 
mother’s name is Cheryl. Harry runs into Scott’s room only to find him gone. For whatever reason, I also note that Cheryl has split the protective ward in two. The camera closes tight on Harry, changes to black and white, and then cuts to commercial.
Starbuck moans as once again the helpful subtitles have pointed out where we are now, Atlantic City, NJ 1981. Harry’s father, dressed in the suit and bowtie of a cheap stage magician, is slowly killing himself on stage with poorly executed ring tricks. The audience on the screen looks just as disgusted with the performance as Starbuck when she saw that we have yet another flashback.
Young Harry, complete with shield bracelet, watches as his father fails another attempt of legerdemain. Harry starts to fiddle with the bracelet, and we watch as Harry’s dad throws the ring into the air, and on the way down, it seems to spin and levitate on its own. Harry’s dad takes the applause from the audience, but directs a quick look at his son.
The scene flashes to young Harry getting a tongue lashing from his father about using his magic. Harry’s dad gives him such sage advice as, “What you can do, what you have, is a loaded gun.” Starbuck sniffs that this sounds more like a line from a Vietnam era military sex ed video than a warning against using magic carelessly. “Who you are, what you can do, you tell no one, you show no one, alright?” I look over at Starbuck and ask, “Is he saying to stay in the closet, or not do magic in public?” We can’t even say for sure. Freud starts dancing behind me, and Starbuck and I direct our attention back at the screen.
The scene changes to Harry brooding over his job, the fact that he’s made a mistake, and in his line of work, that means someone can end up dead. However vigilant Cheryl tried to be with the cleaning, Harry notices a black feather that she missed, just in the crack of Scott’s door. Even though there are police everywhere, he manages to sneak that into his pocket. “So is being a good thief a requirement of wizardry?” Starbuck asks. Murphy asks Dresden what he thinks is going on, and Harry tells her to get Scott’s teacher’s face on TV, as the killer is “looking a lot like her these days.” Murphy lets out a little scullyism of, “but she’s dead.” Harry reiterates his request to Murphy, and leaves to go speak with Cheryl, the upset mother.
Dresden starts to speak with Cheryl, but I cannot help but notice that the couch and room ensemble in this house are far too expensive for a single mother with a child. No single mother I know can afford to buy furniture from Pottery Barn. Dresden fumbles with the English language, trying to find the words to ask if either Cheryl or Scott’s father are Mages, and Cheryl, through tears, says she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Dresden says this next line “may sound crazy, but have you noticed birds hanging around you or Scott.” She replies positively. I’d like to point out that since we’ve been watching the show we’ve seen no less than 10 birds watching over Scott, but then again, I’m the recapper, its my job to pay attention to insignificant details for the point of snark.
We get a lovely pan through the city of Chicago at night, while Harry’s disembodied voice recounts his trespasses today. Namely, his car was booted, he lost his girl, allowed Scott to get kidnapped, and now he’s going toe to toe with…
“The Raven Clan.” Bob’s voice booms. The scene changes to the feather Harry found resting on a grimoire that Bob’s reading. The page is open to a dark picture of the goth looking man who scared Scott earlier. Bob and Harry begin to formulate a theory, and one of the highlights of the show is watching these two actors play off each other’s energy. Harry questions why the Skinwalker would need the Ravens, to which Bob replies that the Ravens wouldn’t set off the protection symbol, “as they are morally neutral.” I’m afraid that they’re actually Chaotic Good in D&D third edition Bob, I think you’re going to need to get with the gaming times. Bob and Harry deduce from the large book of doom that the Ravens will more than likely follow migratory patterns and return back to their nest.
When ever so unexpectedly, who should come a-rapping on Harry & Bob’s chamber door? But little Miss Melissa, begging for entry. She comes into the house, and makes a very strained attempt at suggesting her life is at stake. She nervously looks around the room, asking about Harry’s charge. Harry says he doesn’t know where he is and wants to know what’s going on. Melissa says that the Skinwalker is looking for Scott, and reveals that Scott is an orphan. Harry indicates that Melissa lied to her, and Melissa goes on a rampage, ripping the wards and protection seals from Harry’s front door. Bob looks on powerlessly. Harry gets her to stop, and Melissa apologizes with the famous line for doing something evil, “I had no choice.” At which point she falls over, her corpse completely skinned. Harry and Bob are distracted while in shock over the fallen Melissa, when in walks Scott’s teacher, the vile skinwalker. She utters, “We should talk” The camera closes in tight on her faces and fades to white.
Starbuck works the controls and again, we’re back at the not-so-helpful subtitles advising that once again, we are in Atlantic City, NJ, 1981. Young Harry mentions that he misses Florida, while shining his father’s shoes. Harry’s Dad stops his chores and tries to console him. Harry mentions that while he was onstage, Harry got a call from Uncle Justin. Harry’s dad is visibly upset by this news. “Old boyfriend?” Starbuck ponders. Harry tells his Dad that Uncle Justin wants to talk with Harry’s Dad about Harry.
The scene flashes to Harry bound, gagged, and hanging by his hands. Skinwalker Teacher is raising Harry, and starts talking to Bob. “You belong to the Uncle, right, Justin Morningway?” Harry moans in the background. She torments Bob by posing the thought that he just stood there and watched while Harry killed his Uncle, just like he’s doing now. She taunts him with phrases of impotence and “shadow of his former self.” The jokes about Bob being a ghost and powerless roll off her tongue, I can only imagine the actress spent hours training the laugh out of her voice. She drops a few punches on Harry, and the scene flashes back to Cheryl.
Cheryl and Murphy are taking over coffee about the case. Murphy reveals she has a child, but he stays mostly with the divorced father. Murphy finds out that Cheryl’s not really Scott’s mother, in fact, she adopted Scott illegally. The mother does a not so believable weepy thing.
Skinwalker continues to torture Harry, wanting to know where Scott is. Harry and the skinwalker trade verbal spars. Finally, having enough of the not so witty banter, she extends her hand, and Harry’s flesh begins to separate from his face. Bob, unable to watch as the love of his unlife is screaming in pain, begs the walker to stop. He explains that they don’t know where the child is, but gives her the raven feather, telling her she can do a locater spell to find the Ravens, and with them the child. The Skinwalker makes the fatal flaw of saying too much at the end, “Were it up to me, I’d be wearing your skin right now.” She exits out the front door.
Harry, tormented on the floor, reveals that she’s working for someone. Bob recounts the score, that the boy is in danger and they have no leads. Murphy calls Dresden and reveals that she adopted the boy, illegally. Their conversation drops, and Bob apologizes for his actions. Bob also reveals that they only have roughly one hour before the skinwalker accomplishes the spell and finds the child. Harry, bloody from the encounter, tells Bob he needs something from him. Bob says, “Name it.” Harry replies, “The Doom Box.” All the hopes of this leading to a sexual romp die quickly. Damn. Well, there’s always room for manlove next week. Bob has the saddened yet shocked look on his face, which fades to white as we cut to commercial.
Starbuck mangles the remote with her paws until the still-not-as-helpful-as-they-used-to-be subtitles reveal that we’re back in Atlantic City, NJ 1981. We see young Harry, curled up in fear, as two loud male voices, his father and Justin, presumably, argue offscreen. The uncle, in mysterious shadow, tries to convince Harry’s dad to let Justin raise him. Harry’s dad calls him out, saying that he won’t let Harry be used in the “shadow wars with the high council.” The uncle gets up and starts to threaten Harry’s Dad, who matches Justin in intensity. Justin tells him he’s making a serious mistake, and scarily touches his cane to Harry’s Dad’s chest. They trade death threats and languid looks that seem more like they belong on Daytime TV, than on a wizard/cop show. Harry’s dad walks out the door, collects young Harry, and the scene changes again.
A dark Neo-Gothic building with wrought iron fencing fills the scene with dread. Flashing inside, we see a few birds, and several men in black leather clothing with white facepaint, looking very pale and ghoulish, sitting in a circle around Scott who appears to be eating an ice cream banana split. Starbuck retorts, “so do you reckon they are voyeur feeder pedophiles?” One sharp blow to her head, and the screen restarts. One of the goth guys gets up, as the music dramatically swells, and approaches Scott menacingly. He reaches under his coat, and hands Scott a can of whipped cream. The sounds of warning caws out from a few of the ravens collected, and we see the leader of the raven clan walk away. I have to admit, I’m enamored with the detail of the show. You can watch as the leader of the raven clan’s eyes blink and reveal a nictitating membrane, just as one may expect if someone had Raven eyes in human form.
The leader walks down a staircase, while we watch his shadow mock Alfred Hitchcock. Harry jumps out of the shadows and grabs the leader by his neck, reasoning with the ravens that they are doing a poor job of hiding the kid if he can find them. He tells the Ravens that the skinwalker is on the way. The raven leader indicates that they will skip town. Harry tells him there must be another way, as Scott needs his mother. The raven leader objects; the mother is not “strong enough to protect him.” Starbuck points out the logical fallacy that the Ravens aren’t strong enough either, but that hasn’t stopped them from committing grand theft progeny. Harry deduces that the Ravens originally gave Scott to Cheryl, to protect the boy from the High Council.
The leader replies, “Like a cuckoo’s egg, placed in the nest of another bird.” Wow, writers, I bet one of you worked for hours to come up with that analogy! Bravo! Harry convinces the Ravens to leave the child with his mother, on condition that he will take care of the Skinwalker. The leader looks at Harry with disbelief, but Harry reveals he has a secret weapon. The raven looks down at the doombox with a look of horror.
We cut over to the main chamber of the Ravens, where Harry and Scott are happily reunited. They hug, and Harry makes Scott promise that he won’t tell anyone about what’s happened to him. Scott’s actor spot on delivers the line, “If I tell anyone about this, they’ll think I’m nuts.” Of all the scifi I’ve seen, this is possibly the best character driven way to write in a secret identity. The leader of the Ravens starts to quibble saying that even if Harry manages to stop the skinwalker, there will be other attempts on his life, and Harry promises to be there for Scott.
The scene flashes to the Skinwalker Teacher making her way to the Raven nest. She calls out to Scott, trying to seduce him with her loving voice and promises of reuniting with his mother. She runs into Harry in the same main chamber. Harry tries to use logic on the skinwalker, postulating that maybe her employer has double-crossed her. She doesn’t fall for it, though admittedly, Harry’s strong suit isn’t logic. Harry decides to try a different tactic; “I want to make an offer to your employer.” The skinwalker closes in on Harry with the line, “make it to me.” Harry tells her to leave Scott alone, and in return, he’ll give her this. He makes a showy, stage-magician like production, and taunts her with the doom box.
The skinwalker’s focus shifts from Harry to a desire for the doom box. “You can feel it right, that’s real power, yours for the asking.” Harry tantalizes. “It’s so dark,” She’s enticed by her own words, “Give it to me.” Harry tosses her the box. Clearly, little Mrs Skinwalker never read the tale of Pandora, because the box begins to glow, and, well Bob said it best, “Pop goes the Weasel.” The energy courses out of the box, and in a brilliant light show, turns the skinwalker into a pile of ashes.
We flash to the outside of the Raven’s nest, now streaming light through the windows, and Harry’s voice over starts up about monsters. Harry’s uncle overlooks the building, and drives away as Harry preaches that we should face our monsters, and drag them “kicking and screaming out of the darkness.”
Harry and Murphy are walking through the streets of Chicago. “Bottom line, the kid is safe and the killer died in a gas explosion.” Murphy rebuts that explanation is too convenient for her. Murphy has a hard moral issue to contend with, the kid can be returned to his mother, but she did adopt him illegally. Harry convinces her that is only a problem if the real parents coming looking for Scott. Murphy gives Harry the look that Agent Scully perfected for Agent Mulder. She walks away from Harry, and we see that Murphy has kept her word; the Jeep has been freed.
Back at the casa de Dresden, Scott picks up Bob’s skull and asks what the symbols mean. “Don’t touch.” Harry gruffly replies. Cheryl motions Scott to dinner, and stands close to Harry out of Scott’s earshot. She thanks him for everything he’s done for them. Harry, still bearing a shiner from the events of the show, tells her that Scott is special, really special. She brushes that off, as I would assume most parents do, but Harry, like a dog with a bone, makes her promise that if things get weird, she’ll call him. She assents, and then deduces that Harry’s childhood was similar to Scott’s. “Who looked out for you?” she asks, her eyes starting to well up with tears. “My dad” Harry replies, further demonstrating the points that the well-intentioned but poorly executed flashbacks were trying to make. The whole family sits down to dinner, and the camera shows that outside the window, a family of ravens watches on. Had I been a Raven, I would have at least morphed into Human form long enough to demand birdseed, or perhaps a take in the spaghetti. Alas, the credits come and the Ravens are forced to watch the “family” gorge themselves.
Warped Drive 