1.18 Dead Men Tell Long Tales The whole thrust of Dead Men Tell Long Tales is the death of a dive salvage boss, and how this neatly connects to Henry’s first fatality on the Empress of Africa. The best parts of this story are those set in the past, because some of the others, such as the bar full of salty sea-dogs, was wading chin deep through clichés. And, unlike some other appearances, Lucas’s humour grates rather painfully in the few scenes they allowed him. I won’t talk about what happens then, just in case you’ve not watched the episode, but needless to say it wraps up what is a pretty light-weight murder mystery even by Forever’s standards. Much more interesting were the insights sprinkled throughout about what really happened onboard the Empress of Africa, and how it relates to Henry’s immortality. The reappearance of Adam in the midst of this wasn’t a huge surprise, though it happens much earlier in the story than I was anticipating. He’s got a great untested theory that the weapon that kills you first can kill you again, which I frankly didn’t buy because he didn’t have a shred of evidence as to how this might work. I’d also find it hard to accept that you could easily return a weapon of this type to working function after it had been on the ocean floor for 200 years, making it impractical to use in any case. That briny scent in the air is a red herring, I suspect. Other than playing with Henry’s mind, I’m not really sure what Adam is up to, as by his own version he’s lost his first death weapon, so even a successful conclusion for Henry wouldn’t actually help him. A better theory I’d suggest is that because Henry dropped the key and freed the slaves he was blessed with some supernatural gift. One that requires another ritual to be performed to reverse, perhaps. If Adam is correct, then he can never die, and that means the only ending for him would to be trapped somewhere, like the bottom of the ocean, where he’s destined to die and be reborn repeatedly for eternity. Whatever the truth, in two weeks’ time the long tale will be done, and I’ll be mulling how much it made sense and how neatly it concluded. I’m really hoping that the writers got the hint that this wouldn’t be a multi-season gig, and therefore wrote something that isn’t a cliff-hanger. Because I think we all, including Henry, deserve some resolution here. Read Billy’s review of the previous episode, Social Engineering, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
