Episode
Reviewed: Silver
Lining
(530)
Writer: Nathan
Hoobler
Director: Marshal
Younger
Production
Engineer: Todd
Busteed
Music
Composer: John
Campbell
Original
Airdate: 10/25/03
Rating
(out of 5 cones): 
Episode
Summary
Connie
and Joanne's stop in West Virginia won't be as sleepy as it first appears
when Connie is accidentally pulled into something bigger than she imagined.
The
Review
Unfortunately,
some people have a habit of falling in rivers. Some have the habit of
slipping into rivers, some have the habit of walking into rivers, and some
tend to die a horrible and painful death in rivers. Rivers can be scary
places, especially in a small town in Virginia.
Virginia is known for its many rivers, and it’s very unlikely that
you could travel throughout the entire state of Virginia without falling
and/or slipping and/or walking and/or dying a horrible and painful death in
rivers. It just amazes me that rivers can be so much fun at times. You can
go boating in a river, you can go canoeing in a river, and you can die a
horrible and painful death in a river. How much fun is that? If there’s
one thing I look forward to doing at least once in my life it's looking
death in the face and conquering the water of a river. What fun!
Now
obviously you can’t be taking me seriously about the above profound
statements, right? What could be fun about falling in a river and dying a
horrible and not-fun death? That would be very painful. Very painful indeed.
And that’s where we come to a Silver
Lining. Connie and Joanne are on their travels and they
accidentally fall into a river and/or slip into a river and/or die a
horrible and painful death in a river. Their silver lining of hope comes
only when Vic Hamilton, a man wanted by the police, rescues them from the
local, raging waves of terror. Only there aren’t any waves, just a
current. Connie and Joanne are unaware that this compassionate man is wanted
by the police, an irony that only slaps them in the face later on the bube
tube.
There
was something very real about the feeling of being underwater, floating in
Connie’s clothes, that splashed me in the face.
Heh.
If only that happened in real life. Oh wait, I’m sure it’s happened somewhere.
However, as clichéd as falling in a river seemed for an intense scene on
AIO, I liked it. There was something about the intensity of the music and
the fear instilled in Odyssey’s characters. There was something very real
about the feeling of being underwater, floating in Connie’s clothes, that
splashed me in the face.
Now
you’re probably wondering why I wrote three long-winded paragraphs about
falling in rivers for enjoyment, considering that the scene in this episode
only takes up about three minutes of airtime. Yeah. Let’s just leave it at
that. Don’t try to stop the current when it’s pushing so strongly. And
now we’ve got four.
In
regards to the main storyline with Connie Kendall and Joanne Allen’s
mysterious adventure, I was very pleased. Their running into Vic Hamilton
was rather predictable when he wouldn’t give out his name, but it was
stunning. I knew right away that there would be a mystery at the sound of
Vic’s voice box. Silver
Lining has a short-lived mystery, but a powerful one. The
realization that Vic would be murdering someone on the other end of a
walkie-talkie line splashed me in the face again. There’s nothing as
exciting as being placed on a countdown clock to help a character change his
mind. The crime could occur at any moment; it’s the will of the good guys
to change the way the bad guys think. Hopefully they’ll have what it takes
to do it in time.
Connie’s
maturity, an issue that has been brought up before in our Extra!
Extra! column. I was very pleased with Connie’s behavior as a whole.
In a lot of recent episodes, Connie hasn’t been the most mature person.
I’ve seen her act like a ditz and seem as if she’s a completely
different person. However, the Connie in Silver
Lining has taken a more mature, sophisticated role. I like that
in Connie’s character. I’ve read some other fans’ reviews of this
episode in which they claimed that Connie has become more mature on this
little road trip of hers. I tend to disagree with that statement. We have
only had the opportunity to be with Connie two or three times on this road
trip so far, so she has many more episodes to learn the basics of being
mature; in the Odyssian world at least. Besides, there are now over 500
episodes of Adventures in Odyssey. Connie's maturity didn't happen in
five episodes.
Regarding
the introduction of new characters in this episode, it’s nice to be able
to hear new voices rather than older voices over and over as “new”
characters (for example: Corey Burton, Will
Ryan). It’s nice to hear new voices for a change and it’s actually
interesting to listen to unrecognizable pitches. In other words, when a new
character is introduced in recent months, I don’t think back to who plays
the character; I take the character as presented. There is no temptation to
think back and realize that Corey Burton is
playing yet another character. Now don’t get me wrong; Corey has done a
lot of significant roles and has had a huge impact on Adventures in
Odyssey. Odyssey wouldn't be Odyssey without him. It’s just that
hearing new voices adds an even more positive splash to the series.
Getting
to the music and sound design, both were very well done. As I mentioned
earlier in my review, the way AIO doused us into Connie’s perspective of a
life-threatening situation in the river was very well crafted. As Connie
plunged under water, we did too. As Connie came out for air every few
seconds, Joanne’s screams for “Connie!” were powerful, especially as
Joanne’s voice became muffled as gallons of water submerged Connie’s
body.
The
Rating
All
in all, this episode has been pretty interesting. Some parts were more
tolerable than others, while some were also predictable. I give Silver
Lining
4 out of 5 cones.
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