The Invisible Man
"Tiresias"

Airdate: July 7, 2000

The Keeper

In an attempt to appease a government bean counter who is more than a bit suspicious of The Agency's questionable bookkeeping practices, Fawkes and Hobbes investigate a suicide that leads them to a man who can see the future. All the while Darien is suffering from horrendous nightmares that seem to be foretelling a violent outburst.

I'd like to start off by saying that if someone doesn't give Darien Fawkes a break pretty soon I'm going to put him out of his (and my) misery. While I appreciate the idea of a dark show (Hey, I loved the second season of Millennium, okay?), there has to be some ray of light in this guy's nightmarish existence, otherwise what's to keep him from blowing his own brains out?

Everyone in this episode gives him shit. Everyone. The Official, The Keeper, Hobbes and even the old, blind guy hurl words at the guy that do nothing more than close the walls in around him. His future holds only madness and violence, and both are not what Fawkes is about. I suppose that is the point. Fawkes, although seemingly destined for a breakdown of apocalyptic proportions, is not a quitter. Deep in his cynical soul is an inner strength that believes that he can escape his destiny. Even if no one else believes it.

The Official

The woman whose suicide Fawkes and Hobbes are sent to investigate did not have this inner strength. She believed the words of this all-seeing psychic and without the will to prove him wrong, took her own life. To protect others, she thought. But nonetheless, she did not take control of her own destiny and change it. Despite a loving family, despite a job in law enforcement, she surrendered to hopelessness.

And she wasn't the only one. Several of Scarborough's clients, after hearing his tales of gloom and doom have chosen the easy way out. They threw themselves upon the pyre as a last desperate act and although the old man tries to convince Darien to do the same, our anti-hero cannot. For he knows that as long as there is life, there is hope. Even walking that thin line between sanity and full-blown, violent crazy as he does, he cannot give up the fight.

Was the old man a charlatan? Not likely. Was he evil? Yes. For although, in Darien's case, his vision proved mostly true, he did nothing to strengthen his clients will to change their future. Instead, in what smacked of arrogance, he prodded and wheedled to enforce his visions. Someone needs to look the geezer up in one of those Hannibal Lecter places.

Oh, and someone else needs to cut Fawkes a break. Seriously. Like now.

-- Linda M. Najera

The Invisible Man airs at 8pm EST, Fridays on The Sci Fi Channel.

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