After last week’s episode, I speculated that something serious was going to happen to Ariel (Sofia Vassilieva) this week. After all, they ended with her not making it home from school. Isn’t that every parent’s nightmare? That your child will go to school and not make it home in the afternoon? So to pair that with the ominous, “To Be Continued…” I figured that Ariel had been abducted by some crazy serial killer in a windowless van.
This week, we have the thrilling conclusion to Ariel’s disappearance, and it turns out that she… went on that ski trip her parents told her not to go on. Just like Allison thought. And she was fine. And the storyline was over. I don’t really see the point to any of it — especially given the A story in the episode.
It’s Marie’s birthday, and Allison (Patricia Arquette) has a dream that she’s pregnant with her again. So it’s five years earlier, and she has to solve a case to stop a man from being wrongly imprisoned and getting out of jail and shooting her and Devalos in the present day. Pretty straightforward as far as Medium plots go.
I really liked what they did with it, other than Allison’s horribly fake-looking pregnant belly. It was clever of them to not allow Allison to go back and fix things in the past. Instead, she had to work through all of the issues to figure out how to fix them in the present. The whole confession at the end was a little convenient, but what are you going to do?
Now, back to Ariel. Frankly, I totally understand why she’s pissed at her parents. Here is a sixteen-year-old who’s never really done anything wrong, but her parents never let her do anything. Every episode it seems like they’re telling her no, for one asinine reason or another. After years of that, I’m not surprised that she finally just thought, “to hell with it,” and went on the damn ski trip.
I know that teenagers shouldn’t need reasons for rules, that “because I said so” should be good enough, but come on. They had a perfectly good reason for her not to go, yet they chose a completely ridiculous one. Last week, Joe and Allison told Ariel that she wasn’t allowed to go on the ski trip because her friend has the audacity to have an older brother! Who is invited on the ski trip as well! And also has friends! Who are invited! OMG! Because her brother and her friends are 18 and Ariel is 16, she isn’t allowed to go. That is stupid. It’s a family trip in which the kids are allowed to invite friends — not Spring Break in a motel full of UFL frat boys.
What makes this whole storyline even crazier is that we find out this week that Saturday is Marie’s birthday. Wouldn’t “hey, I know you want to go skiing, but it’s your sister’s birthday on Saturday” have been a much more reasonable rationale for saying no to the ski trip? Ariel’s a good kid and her family is important to her. I’m sure that while she would have been disappointed, she wouldn’t have run off if her parents had given her that reason instead.
Maybe it’s just because I don’t have a sixteen-year-old daughter, or because my parents were especially permissive, but I sure feel sorry for this girl. I just really didn’t think that this episode would find her being held captive by her parents instead of a psycho killer.
Free Ariel!
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Apr 15, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I think Ariel is very lucky to have parents who are protective of her. It may have been a “family” outing to go skiing — but still, 18 year old boys with 16 year girls, on a weekend getaway?
With only ONE parent as a chaperone? (They only mentioned the other child’s father.)
No way.