The River "Peaches" Review

ABC promised its viewers that they wouldn't be able to sleep after the newest episode of The River. Not only will the viewing audience sleep but they will sleep soundly. "Peaches" is for people who adored the 2002 film Ghost Ship. If anyone felt so afraid of the events in Ghost Ship, avoid "Peaches." I assume no one felt afraid of Ghost Ship; therefore, "Peaches" wouldn't terrify a single soul. Of course, I also assume no one remembers the 2002 film about a ghost ship in the Baltic Sea just like no one will remember The River two days after its probable series finale in three weeks.

The crazy Magus crew got themselves into a whole bunch of trouble again. The night was thick with fog, but Tess refused to let visibility affect their search for Emmett and only Emmett. Lena quietly reminded her captain about the other man missing, her own personal daddy Russ Landry, to which Tess nodded awkwardly. Lena spent the first two acts in grief, hugging her legs, and telling anyone who listened about her feelings of loss. Russ became an afterthought the moment Emmett went missing. The news reports only used Emmett's name in the headlines. Lena's emotional breakdown is a response to the 24/7 cycle of 'find Emmett' and the complete disregard for Cole's number one cameraman. Lena feels alone, as if no one wants to deal with her wants and needs. Jonas helps her, but he wants to copulate with her, so his motives aren't pure. Lincoln's just a bystander because the writing evidently had nothing for him, except to passively watch another man try to get the girl he's liked since childhood.

Lena is sad before and after the ghost ship crashes into the Magus, which causes the ship to run aground and be at the mercy of whatever ship happens to come along with spare parts. The downtime allows Lena the opportunity to think about herself, and her memories with her personal daddy. Russ called his little girl peaches and taught her how to play the accordion because boys 'never asked out girls who played the accordion.' Russ wanted her to be a boy or a nerd, uninterested in boys asking her out. The memories produce expressions of warmth and love on her face as well as expressions of loss and suffering. Memories are good but the present reality, his absence, is difficult for her to cope with. Jonas finds video in which Russ briefly jumps in front of the camera to address his daughter and tell her everything she needed to hear at that moment.

Soon, though, the Magus situation dominates the rest of "Peaches." A band of environmental activists respond to Tess' S.O.S. and come to aid the stranded Magus with a box of tools. The activists seem innocent enough until Kurt witnesses two of the Exodus crew members conspiring to kidnap members of the ship for an unknown purpose. The Exodus crew are actually ghosts in search of people who can take their place, which will free them from the prison of their boat. The Boiuna is a weird, magical place where river ghosts drag folk into the water and tribes inflicted with grey-scale evaluate whether crews are worthy of the Amazon and where another tribe hangs people who film sacred rituals--of course there would be ghosts eventually...this is Oren Peli's show. The ghost crew are a rather shallow bunch, creatively speaking; their plan is to get the Magus Crew drunk and then lore the stupid ones onto their boat. They are ghosts so, naturally, they aren't at peace, and the lone way for them to find peace is to leave the ship, and the only way to leave the ship is by kidnapping five people and keeping them on the Exodus until sunrise. I honestly wondered why the ghosts needed five people, not even thinking about Russ as the fifth ghost.

Yes, Lena's own personal daddy was found in the brig (or cabin?) of the Exodus by Lena herself. Father and daughter shared a tearful reunion. Their happy reunion turned to panic when Kurt showed up from nowhere with news that everyone trapped was definitely screwed when sunrise hit. Eventually, Lincoln notices everyone but two people are missing. Lincoln and Clark use the zodiac to find the Exodus. Kurt busts out of their 'prison,' a brief fights ensues between the living and the dead, the living use flares to burn the ghosts as well as the ship, and then all is well. However, Russ reveals his secret: he, in fact, died months ago but Lena's presence allowed him to move on peacefully (and he told Tess valuable information about Emmett and The Source). People knock The River for a myriad of reasons, and indeed one can criticize the show for barely trying to tell substantive emotional stories. Emotional beats are the anchor of not only each episode but the series as a whole; but the emotions are broad; any character could be given Lena's story because the emotion isn't specific to the character. It feels the writers know they need an emotional anchor each week so they decide willy-nilly to give a character something to overcome; and hey, it's storytelling 101 but it's lazy. Lena's been on the ship for 22 days and hasn't mentioned her father since she flew in on day #2. It's entirely plausible that these emotions built up in Lena to the point that they exploded in torrents because no one seems to care about her father. I just remember her close relationship with both Lincoln and Tess, and her outburst seems out of character when one considers the people she could've honestly talked with about her feelings. The story would've been fine if this had been in episode three. Lena's behavior didn't track with what we've seen in the previous four episodes. And one other thing: no effort was made to make the viewer care about Russ. We didn't know a damn thing about him except for his nickname for Lena.

I thought Jahel's little moments with the young South American ghost were the best parts of "Peaces". Jahel and Lincoln conversed about her feelings as an outsider, about how language keeps her separate from the other people. Indeed, she can't communicate with the others about her visions and premonitions; if she could, they wouldn't be so scared of her and she wouldn't be so alone, and she wouldn't be so willing to spend a night on a ghost ship with a boy just because she can communicate with him. Jahel tells Lincoln she should learn the English language, Lincoln reminds her of the country they're in, but she rolls her eyes. I'd like the crew to learn her language. It won't matter though. This series is doomed. I digress. I liked her little moments because they developed her character a bit, deepened her in a way she hadn't been before, made her less of a stereotypical South American girl of exposition and more of a human being with actual feelings.

Overall, "Peaches" was another silly hour of The River. The ghost storyline was truly ridiculous. I rooted for Kurt for the first time because he finally acted like a badass security guard. For one week, at least, no one worried about his motivations (well there was one scene about that). There are only three episodes left in season 1. Next week's episode looks good.

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