Symbols And Signs – Episode 4 begins with Eli Adler’s (Billy Crystal) frantic search for Noah (Jacobi Jupe), who runs away after a ‘sand therapy’ session goes wrong. Although Eli eventually finds him unharmed, Noah’s denial of having his pen doesn’t help the already bad situation.
Eli is still clearly obsessed with uncovering how the farmhouse links Noah and Lynn (Judith Light). Being that none of Noah’s previous foster placements can be linked to farmhouses or anything Dutch, Cleo (Ava Lalezaradeh) can’t shine any light on the matter. She raises an interesting point when she asks what the connection has to do with Noah’s diagnosis. The question causes Eli to briefly get lost in his thoughts. When Cleo brings him back to the present, he realizes that some of the answers might lie with Noah’s birth parents. Being that he was abandoned on the steps of Saint Matthew’s, finding them will likely be next to impossible. Despite this, Eli soon realizes he has more pressing concerns when Cleo calls attention to what appears to be a water leak.
While Eli traces the leak back to the hall bathroom and repairs it, a Shift Nurse (Delia Cunningham) checks Noah’s temperature and administers his medicine. He also draws the unwanted attention of an overly nosey boy, Enzo (Neo Vela), when he retrieves Eli’s pen from under his bed. Although Eli repairs the leak with relative ease, it leads to muddy water backfilling in the tub. It doesn’t take him long to uncover the culprit as a clog and repair it before Barbara (Maria Dizzia), Sophie (Rebecca Ruane), and Sue Ann (Miriam Shor) show up.
Although he denies it, Eli’s reaction suggests he’s forgotten all about his plans with Sophie. Before they leave, he also receives an invitation from Jackson (Robert Townsend) to come over and listen to Jazz. Eli practically hangs up on him in an attempt to rush off the phone.
Eli uses his time with Sophie to visit Father Dennis (Peter Hans Benson) at Saint Matthew’s in search of more information on Noah’s background. This goes bad from the moment they show up and Sophie asks him if he’s mad at Lynn because she is clogging the tub. From there, she claims that Lynn has reincarnated in her stuffed lizard and she continually interrupts his session with Dennis. As far as Noah goes, Dennis remembers him because he was the only child abandoned in the past 20 years. Despite this, Dennis doesn’t provide any new information and only adds to Eli’s frustration when he tries to psychoanalyze him. It doesn’t take Eli long to vent his frustration and storm out.
Upon returning home, he immediately vilifies Barbara for telling her about Lynn’s drowning. Even though Barbara claims that she didn’t tell Sophie, the fact that she likely overheard her talking to someone about it bothers him even more. Although they spend several more minutes going back and forth, they make amends before she leaves. As it so happens, Sophie leaves the lizard behind which leads to Eli’s discovery of Lynn’s shopping list which also contains a little note to self about sending drawings to Jackson. It doesn’t take him long to research this and discover that she sent Jackson some drawings that she didn’t want him to know anything about.
As Eli races over to confront Jackson, Noah has another menacing encounter with Enzo, who he is clearly frightened of. The scene suggests that Noah stole Eli’s pen for protection against him. By the time the Shift Nurse suspects Noah is hiding something in his hands, Eli has arrived at Jackson’s Jazz party and become even more frustrated that his host has run off and left him to mingle with the guests. The situation with Noah and the Shift Nurse only becomes more heated, as does Jackson and Eli’s confrontation.
Jackson eventually tells Eli that Lynn was trying to confront her own mortality and didn’t want Eli involved because of his science-based belief. She felt that there were things that science couldn’t explain, whereas he’s a staunch believer that everything can be explained. By this time, a male orderly has stepped in to help with Noah’s situation, which leads to the discovery that Noah wasn’t actually hiding the pen; he was hiding the figurine of Eli from the sandy therapy session. Even more shocking is the mysterious message on the back of the figurine. This scene is wrapped up with Eli screeching in either what is pain or fear as snow falls around him and the room turns so cold that the glass windows begin to shatter.
Meanwhile at the party, one of the guests begins to choke and Eli quickly intervenes to remove the obstruction, but learns afterward that the guest still isn’t breathing, leading to him performing an impromptu Tracheotomy on the spot and saving her life. The pen used as the breathing apparatus is the pen that Noah supposedly stole. With a newfound respect for him, Jackson apologizes to Eli and tells him Lynn was having a problem finishing her latest book, but the ending was slowly revealing itself in her dreams. Despite this Eli claims he doesn’t want to hear anything about Lynn’s dreams because he was beginning to suspect he didn’t know her at all. Much to Eli’s surprise, Jackson gives him the drawing that Lynn was supposedly working on. They bear a close resemblance to Noah’s and this is where the episode abruptly ends.
Before Review
First off, I enjoyed the episode. I’ve enjoyed the entire series thus far, but do have some major qualms to air. For one, what’s up with the dark scenes? Every scene is unnecessarily dark, so dark at times that you can’t even make the character’s faces or words written on a note. Is this intentional? That’s admissible enough for me, but another major problem is all the mysteriousness. I understand this is likely a ploy to build suspense and always keep the viewer guessing, but as I’ve constantly stated throughout, it’s done in a way that only frustrates me. That may not be the same for everyone else, but my humble opinion.
Billy and Jacobi do a decent enough job but they are nowhere near as good as the praises I’ve been reading online. I am also glad that they are cutting back on the scene of them together because shared screen time only showcases the lack of chemistry. Despite what probably sounds like a negative review, I’d give the episode a 5.8 out of 10.
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