In Review: Tom Swift (S1 – EP9) …And the Night to Remember

Synopsis: In …And the Night to Remember Tom continues his search for the last capsule piece which leads him to an interesting situation with Susannah.

The Story

Having learned that Susannah was in charge of The Road Back in the last episode. Tom and his team set about to work trying to find the remaining fragments of his father’s spaceship. But when they learn that Sussanah has one of the three remaining fragments. The game changes and Tom has to somehow entice her into visiting Swift Manor to arrange some sort of deal. Using some memory technology that he has created. Tom gets a night to remember when Sussanah reveals a few things that he did not know about his father. Indeed this information about his father might change Tom’s eagerness to save his fathers life.

Added to this. Sussanah tries to get Tom to Join up with The Road Back, but her looking to go back to simpler times raises all sorts of ethical questions. Specifically where past events are concerned when it comes to slavery. In short, Tom refuses to join the organization due to how it is romanticizing a past that wasn’t particularly fair or equitable to black people.

The Acting

Tian Richards turns it all on in this week’s penultimate episode, which sees Tom’s eyes opened to a few things. The sit-down talk he has with Sussanah (Elizabeth Cappuccino) turns out to be very revealing. The sit-down conversation she has with Tom in which she tries to strong-arm him into joining her Road Back was really well acted. Richards does a great job of conveying Tom’s pain and anger towards his father when he learns that his dad tried to use technology to change his sexuality from gay to straight.

Overall

An interesting episode, which sets things up for what will be an interesting and revealing series finale. The discussion between Tom and Sussanah is an intriguing and rather nuanced one and pretty ambitious for a one-hour TV show.