| Charlie Truman | |
|---|---|
| Season 2, Episode 3 | |
| |
| Air date | 14th March 2012 |
| Written by | James Griffin |
| Directed by | Murray Keane |
| Episode guide | |
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Next Death's Cleansing Embrace |
Charlie Truman is the third episode of the second season, and is the thirteenth episode of The Almighty Johnsons overall.
Synopsis[]
Ty’s downward spiral picks up pace, while it is Gaia who spirals out of control.
Plot[]
A party is in the offing in the world of the Johnsons: allegedly just a few quiet drinks to celebrate Mike’s new bar. Zeb is much keener than Axl on the idea of a Johnson party – but not as keen as Gaia, who seems a changed woman since her mysterious (and as yet unexplained, to the boys) return. And lo, it comes to pass that at said party Gaia hooks up with a guy, a complete stranger, and leaves Axl moping at the bar, still with the hugest crush on her.
While Mike feels utterly at home in his new bar, the evening doesn’t exactly run as smoothly as he would have liked. For starters Ty turns up, looking like death, his physical state clearly getting worse and worse the longer he is with Eva/Hel. When the Johnsons gang up on him Ty is defiant – he’s fine, he’s made his bed and he’s lying in it and they should not worry about him. To Olaf this sounds a lot like someone who is accepting their inevitable death.
And so Mike’s bar opening becomes the Ty and Eva show as, first, Eva gets into a full-on girl fight with Michele, who is there with Colin; and then Axl springs Eva and Ty playing freezing games in the toilets with one of Eva’s emo followers. For Mike this is the last straw and he calls a Thing.
The next day, and Axl is rudely awoken by the arrival of Bryn, looking for his daughter. Unfortunately, for both Axl and Bryn, Gaia is has yet to return home from her night out. Thus he is forced to leave Zeb to mind an angry father while he heads off to the Thing – ‘Thing’ being the old term for an intervention, a family sit down, which in this case involves playing mini-golf while they try to counsel Ty out of his self-destructive downward spiral.This has limited success, but they do manage to get him to agree not to freeze mortals just because his wife gets off on it.
When Axl returns to his flat, he finds Bryn still there, waiting - and then Gaia arrives, doing the walk of shame. She, however, does not stay round to hear Bryn’s demands that she return to Waiheke with him, instead choosing to do a runner as Bryn and Axl tussle. Eventually Axl tracks her down to Mike’s bar, where she finally tells him the story of how she realised Bryn and Jacob, for reasons that remain unclear, were keeping her prisoner on the island, until she managed to escape. Axl promises her he will sort the situation out; which he eventually does, brokering deal with Bryn that he will look after Gaia, to stop her running away forever.
Ty, meanwhile, is trying to sort out his marital situation. Eva, however, does not take the interference of the brothers well, and takes out her frustrations on Stacey, before confessing to Ty that she wants to have a baby – which is actually a scarier thought than anything she’s done thus far.
But others are now getting wind of TY’s perilous state: Dawn and Agentha. Agnetha is deeply unhappy to see the state Ty is in and tries again to wrench him away from Eva by getting him to travel north to join Anders on his secret mission. Ty declines. But Dawn gets more pro-active and goes to see Eva, to share her concerns. Eva responds by locking Dawn in the ice-carving room, where it is only the timely intervention of Ty saves her from being frozen – again.
Ty takes Dawn away, to safety, to look after her. But when he returns to his house the next day he finds that the door to the ice-carving room has been jammed shut again, only this time it is Eva inside. And as Ty tries to revive her, she dies, and he watches her Goddess-spirit ascend, back to the heavens, while he is left with the corpse of his now ex-wife.
Cast[]
- Emmett Skilton - Axl Johnson / Odin
- Tim Balme - Mike Johnson / Ullr
- Dean O'Gorman - Anders Johnson / Bragi
- Jared Turner - Ty Johnson / Höðr
- Harry Stanbridge - Young Ty
- Ben Barrington - Olaf Johnson / Baldr
- Alison Bruce - Agnetha / Freyja
- Jo Davidson - Elizabet Johnson
- Keisha Castle-Hughes - Gaia
- Shane Cortese - Colin Gunderson / Loki
- Hayden Frost - Zeb
- Eve Gordon - Stacey / Fulla
- Michelle Langstone - Michele / Sjöfn
- John Leigh - Bryn
- Fern Sutherland - Dawn
- Brooke Williams - Eva Johnson / Hel
- Arthur Meek - Jacob
Crew[]
- Witter - James Griffin
- Director - Murray Keane
- Script Editor - James Griffin
- Storyliners - Rachel Lang, Tim Balme & Ross Hastings
- Producer - Simon Bennett
- Executive Producers - James Griffin, Rachel Lang, Chris Bailey & John Barnett
Music[]
- Oh My - Performed by Gin Wigmore (Theme Music)
- Griffin Boys - Glass Owls
- Summer Girls - Performed by Glass Owls
- Coal Town - Performed by Family Cactus
- Dark Star - Barry Saunders
Reception[]
Trivia[]
- The title of this episode refers to a soldier Olaf once fought with, who knew he was going to die and embraced it long before he stood on a mine.