In Review: Houdini and Doyle – Episode 5

Synopsis: After a nightmarish encounter with otherworldly beings, a man wakes up in a field claiming his wife has been abducted by aliens.

Review: There is quite a lot packed into this episode insofar as character developments, but the fun part is the roles of Houdini and Doyle are reversed in that Houdini takes on the role of the believer whereas due to certain preconceived prejudices Doyle becomes the sceptic.

The episode is pretty big allegory for racism and prejudice. The man whose wife has been taken is black and must be the only black man in the small town that our team visits. As such his wife’s older brother is very quick to point the finger by claiming that his brother in law did his wife in.

While all of this is going Houdini is trying his best not to be offended by the small mindedness of the town, but can’t contain his distress and takes on one of the racist in a fist fight.

Doyle thinks the young man is lying about his wife being taken and justifies his view point by saying he is showing classic symptoms of a psychological condition. Houdini is quick to debunk this knowing that there is much more to this investigation than meets the eye.

In the end the aliens turn out to be very human in that they have been living underground for years and have rarely surfaced, which is why the have the look of aliens.

The end for me was somewhat disappointing as was the story, but the character development and acting throughout was top notch.

We also get teased with some more clues about Adelaide Stratton’s mysterious past when the episode ends with her saying that she thinks her life is in danger, but from what?