A Love of a Lifetime

Infobox Television episode
Title = A Love of a Lifetime
Series =Journeyman


Caption =
Season = 1
Episode = 1
Airdate = September 24, 2007
Production = 101
Writer = Kevin Falls
Director = Alex Graves
Guests = Christopher Warren
Monique Curnen
Music = "Look After You" by The Fray
Episode list = List of Journeyman episodes
Season list =
Prev =
Next =Friendly Skies

"A Love of a Lifetime" is the first episode of the first season of "Journeyman".

Plot

Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter, finds that he is -seemingly randomly - traveling through time. He travels first back to the late 1990s, where he sees his lost love Livia, who had supposedly died in a plane crash. Later on, he finds himself on October 6, 1987, where he saves the life of a man named Neal Gaines by pushing him out of the way of a cable car. When he travels back to the present he believes it was a hallucination until he finds out that Neal Gaines was real.

He then goes to April, 1990 where he saves the relationship that Neal Gaines has with his pregnant girlfriend by telling her to keep the baby. During this visit he again sees his past fiancee, Livia. She is working as a waitress in the cafe that Neal and his girlfriend are meeting.

Later in the episode, he travels to December 31, 1997. Drenched from the rain, Dan goes back to his old apartment to get a change of clothes. As Dan changes his clothes, Livia turns up in the apartment.

As he leaves the apartment, Dan sees another copy of her standing outside the stairwell. Running over to her, he realizes that she is from his timeline and that she never died in the plane crash. She briefly explains that she was taken from the plane in the same manner that he has been traveling before it crashed. Trying to follow her out of the building, Dan loses contact with her as she disappears through the building entrance.

Knowing that Neal's girlfriend and son are supposed to die on New Year's Eve, Dan goes to the restaurant, where he and Livia were announcing their engagement. After his 1997 self leaves the restaurant to follow up on a story, 2007 Dan enters the party to ask Livia to use her contacts within the D.A's office to track down Neal and his family.

After learning the location of Neal's family, Dan races to the site, just in time to see Neal's wife and son being escorted into a car and Neal exiting a taxi. Neal, still upset by the prospect of his wife and son leaving him, approaches them. Dan calls out to Neal, and distracted by Dan calling out to him, Neal is hit by a bus and dies in front of his wife and son. As Neal lies dead, Dan sees that Neal was carrying a gun and intended to kill his wife and son.

Once back in his current timeline, Dan finds out that Neal's son grew up and saved the lives of 6 kids.

Realizing that his trips back and forth through time have strained his relationship with his wife, during his last trip to 1997, he visited what would later be their home, and buried newspaper and her engagement ring. When he returns to the present, he tears up a brick path to retrieve the box and show its contents to her.

Reception

Mike Pearson of the Rocky Mountain News felt that "Journeyman" cannibalized past television shows "Early Edition" and "Quantum Leap". In his opinion, the second episode was more coherent than the first. [cite web |url=http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/spotlight_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23962_5711403,00.html |title=Prime choice Journeyman |accessdate=2007-10-03 |last=Pearson |first=Mike |date=2007-10-01 |work= |publisher=Rocky Mountain News] Tony Whitt of IfMagazine.com gave "A Love of a Lifetime" an A−, and felt that one aspect of "Journeyman" that was better than "Quantum Leap" was its love story. He also liked the acting in "A Love of a Lifetime" and called star McKidd "damn watchable." [cite web |url=http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=2035 |title=Review: JOURNEYMAN - SEASON ONE - 'Pilot - A Love of a Lifetime' |accessdate=2007-10-03 |last=Whitt |first=Tony |date=2007-09-26 |publisher=iFMagazine.com] Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune felt that "A Love of a Lifetime" was "a deft mix of supernatural wizardry and grown-up drama." [cite web |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20070924-9999-lz1c24tv.html |title=Are you really going out with them? |accessdate=2007-10-03 |last=Peterson |first=Karla |date=2007-09-24 |publisher=The San Diego Union-Tribune]

Ratings

The series premiere was watched by 9.2 million people, and received a 3.5/9 share. [cite web |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUSN0243904520071002 |title=ABC dances to Monday primetime win |accessdate=2007-10-03 |last=Gough |first=Paul J. |date=2007-10-02 |publisher=Reuters]

References

External links

* " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1036109/ A Love of a Lifetime] " at imdb.com