Frequency – Deviation

By starrymag | November 14, 2016

By: Cade Taylor

 

The risks keep getting higher and higher for Raimy (Peyton List) and Frank (Riley Smith) as they work faster to save Julie (Devin Kelley) and this week’s episode, Deviation focuses on just that. I mean, like any other episode of “Frequency,” but this time Frank comes face to face with the Nightingale in a fight that has me biting what fingernails I have left off.

 

In the ending of last week’s episode, we saw the Nightingale burning his truck back in 1996 and at the beginning of this episode we see that he was also burning a body along with it. With the Nightingale case becoming harder and harder to crack Frank pushes the idea to tell Amanda (Amber Friendly) that she’s in danger, but Raimy shuts that down out of fear that it would just change things even more. After ending her conversation with Frank on a tight end she makes her way back inside her home, showing a morning-after Kyle (Rob Mayes) making eggs and toast. This relationship is already a little too much for Raimy because she still loves Daniel (Daniel Bonjour) so she gets out while she can, even sacrificing a ride from him to ride the train to work. As if things in her life weren’t stressed and complicated enough, she then runs into Daniel while on the train. At this point, he does have a valid reason to think she might be stalking him.

 

Meanwhile, Frank is working day and night to make sure that Amanda has eyes on her at every moment, not wanting to miss his shot at the Nightingale. He gets around the clock protection for Amanda for the next twenty-four hours, on top of putting an extra squad car at Julie’s. Julie fights and fights about the decision until she eventually admits to Frank that she’s seeing other people. In Frank’s eyes it’s only been a few weeks since they officially separated, but to Julie it’s been way longer than that. She’s lived the past two years without Frank and him just showing back up can’t take that away.

 

Back in 2016, Raimy is given the chore of speaking with an inmate named Carl (Curtis Armstrong) who says that he can talk with himself in the future. Of course, Raimy thinks this guy is nuts, at first, but curiosity makes her bite. Carl seems like he knows what he’s talking about, even explaining how and why he ended up in jail. It turns out his future-self told Carl that his next door neighbor, Steve Fishman, would end up getting day drunk and running over six children. Carl, supposedly, spent months trying to get Steve to sober up until the day finally came. Instead of allowing innocent children to die he took care of Steve in broad daylight while he was still drunk.

 

While Raimy is dealing with a whack job, Frank is getting a squad together to go out and watch Amanda, but before he can make it out of the precinct Stan Moreno (Anthony Ruivivar) stops him to inform him that Little J is back out on the streets slinging drugs. Frank mentions to Moreno’s face that that isn’t his life anymore and it doesn’t concern him, but hastily makes an unknown phone call to someone about the situation. During the stakeout Satch (Mekhi Phifer) confronts Frank about how he’s been acting, mentioning that he might need to talk to a shrink, take his sick days and get things right with himself. That doesn’t last long before the two of them are busting out of the car for a man in a hoody who’s following Amanda down the street. The only problem is that it’s not the Nightingale, but someone selling bootleg CDs.

 

Before just blindly following Carl’s information, Raimy does a background check on him where she finds out that he’s got a long rap sheet of crazy behavior, even blinding another inmate with a pen when they messed with his machine he was trying to re-build. Raimy makes him explain how the device works instead of just taking him to it. Carl describes in great detail how you can attempt to change the future/past as long as you want but nothing will change until you get rid of the biggest problem. The major issue in Raimy’s situation being the Nightingale. She won’t be able to stop the Nightingale until they take him out for good.

 

The heart to hearts between Raimy and Frank are what make this show even more unique. Without ever actually meeting they have such a close bond and it tugs at all of the viewer’s heartstrings. Another thing that makes the show is the conflict between the two when it comes to decisions, which happens when Frank tells Raimy that he’s going to spill the truth about her safety to Amanda.

 

Frank going over to Amanda’s house turns out to be a good thing because halfway through explaining the situation he notices another person in the room next door. While Amanda takes his car key and makes a run for it, Frank begins the search of the house, coming face to face with the Nightingale. Frank puts up a good fight, but isn’t a match for him. It’s obvious that the Nightingale is someone with experience in knowing how to handle themselves. Right before he leaves Frank lying on the floor, beaten and bloody, he reaches for Franks wallet, inspecting his information before bolting out.

 

Amanda may have been rescued in 1996, but that doesn’t mean that the Nightingale stopped caring in 1996. Amanda had been living her life in India before recently moving back to the country; only to be killed by the same person she had escaped twenty years prior. Her death is a little overwhelming for Satch so he informs Raimy that he feels like this is the same thing the Nightingale was doing to Frank back in 1996. He thinks that the Nightingale was goading Frank back then and now he thinks he’s doing the same thing to Raimy.

 

Before Frank makes his way over to Julie’s to watch the house for the night, Satch returns Frank’s wallet to him. Everything seemed fine until he notices a picture missing in the back. The romantic relationship between Julie and Frank may be gone, but the friendship and feeling of safety hasn’t gone away. Julie and Frank have a heart to heart, the mood quickly turning sour as Julie gives Frank a package that Stan had dropped off for him; the bag being filled with photos of Frank with the woman that he had talked about to Satch earlier.

 

In the ending scene, we see the blood smeared piece of paper that was in Amanda’s hands back at the house get cleaned; the piece of paper being the same photo that the Nightingale had taken out of Franks wallet twenty years ago back in 1996. It’s obvious that the Nightingale either holds a grudge or has a deeper connection than we know to Frank and Raimy if he’s keeping the same photo for the past twenty years.

 

Another episode down without Gordo (Lenny Jacobson) and I’m not happy. He may not be one of the main characters, but he definitely should be. This show needs some comedic relief and Gordo is the best thing for it. The more and more we see of the Nightingale the more that I think that he’s someone that might know the Sullivan family. I mean, why would he keep one photo for twenty years only to terrorize Raimy? It seems a little much to go after Raimy so much later in the future only because Frank got in the middle of his plans.