One of the many mysteries of USA Network’s Falling Water during its first season has been the identity of The Boy: A tiny little blond kid, all white-Americana, stoic, oft-creepy. We know who he is, in a sense (Tess’s long-lost kid), and we know what he signifies (messianic stuff) — in a sense — but some other crucial details are missing.
Chief among them: His name… Which remains a mystery until the last few moments of the first season. If that doesn’t sound like a blockbuster reveal, wait until we get there.
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From the start, The Boy’s name is something the show openly questions. Fliers with the boy’s face sketched on them and the phrase “His name is…” are scattered around New York, causing Tess (Lizzie Brocheré) much distress. That alone told us it was an actual mystery, rather than just a question with a sure-to-disappoint answer.
The finale doesn’t fully answer why this kid is so special — but we do get firsthand experience of his powers: He’s able to bend space and time, as we are told… And then shown, again and again.
Tess (Lizzie Brocheré) goes to Marcello’s, finds the boy with a wounded Burton (his girlfriend stabbed him for reasons we’ll get into later), and tries to escape with him: Bill finds them. They try again, Taka gets looped in: They fail again (thanks Bill) — and the boy resets the dream…
And so it goes, until finally Burton, Taka, Tess, The Green, Bill and his device all show up at Marcello’s.
The Green descend on the gang like one of executive producer Gale Anne Hurd’s “Walking Dead” zombie hordes, and just when it seems like The Boy might not end the dream — that maybe his plan all along was to get everybody with the power to stop him together, so they can self-destruct… The dream resets, this time with The Boy safely in Tess’s backseat, Bill’s bizarre device next to him.
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So it was the device he wanted after all? Maybe not.
Burton’s locked up in what looks like a psychiatric hospital with the Woman in Red, who gifts him a pair of green sneakers. Taka’s with Sabine, who is clearly somehow in cahoots with The Green. Bill is nowhere to be seen. And The Green? They’re all dead. Or, at least mostly. Their bodies are scattered across the floor of Marcello’s — and on the ceiling, painted in green of course: “My name is James.”
And while that’s creepy and terrifying on its own, it’s also the Boy’s name. It’s also, in some traditions, the name of Jesus’s brother — and “Falling Water” has been working the “messianic child” thing pretty hard for awhile.
On the other hand, it’s also been hammering away at the idea that nothing is what it seems, so… We’re clearly not meant to have all the answers, just like a regular dream — not yet, anyway — and just like a regular dream, we are gonna take a while to shake this whole thing off. Great job, “Falling Water,” for giving us something as beautiful and imaginative as anything the sandman could’ve come up with. And bring on Season 2!
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