In case you couldn’t guess, this is the Matt-centric episode of season 3. Maybe it’s just because I pay more attention to him than the other characters, but it’s interesting that each season includes one episode that focuses pretty solely on him, especially given that he doesn’t always have a big presence on the show apart from that – he’s missing altogether from a small number of season 2 and 3 episodes, and there are episodes throughout the series where he only appears in one scene. Maybe the writers shore up all their Matt-energy/efforts to release once a season in a big Matt-a-palooza?
Like most characters on the show, Matt is hyper-focused on the coming seventh anniversary of the departures. Again, like others, he’s convinced that it’s vital, that something is going to happen even if he’s not entirely sure what. He’s also developed some other… shall we say unconventional beliefs that mean he thinks that Kevin is crucial to whatever is going to happen. This means he needs Kevin to be in Miracle on the anniversary date. The only problem? The plot has taken both Kevin and Nora to Australia, and flights are grounded due to an unexpected naval crisis in the Pacific.
Each Matt episode involves him moving heaven and earth to and make something happen, something he very desperately needs in that moment. Each one also tests him to his limits, asking him to prove just what he’s willing to do to get it. Whether he achieves his given goal or not, the lengths he goes to illuminate him as a character.
And in this episode, he’s willing to go far. As in “guilt one of my parishioners into flying me halfway around the world so I can gain entry to another continent on a technicality, talk my way onto a ferry chartered by a lion-stud sex cult” far. He’s bound and determined to get Kevin back to Miracle under a serious time crunch, and he will do almost anything to make that happen. Matt is straight-up losing his shit.
One thing that’s nice about this episode is that, for once, he’s not going through his frenzied mission basically alone. He’s acquired two quasi-disciples to help him out and has one irritated cynic he can’t shake. This means Christopher Eccleston isn’t playing purely off of one-shot characters for the majority of the episode. He’s not just the desperate guy whose needs are too dire to care what strangers think of him. This time around, he has friends and acquaintances to accompany him, who go, “Hang on, let’s stop and think about this for a minute,” when road blocks to Matt’s goal are thrown up. As Matt goes to greater and greater lengths to get to Australia in time to bring Kevin back, we get to see other characters going, “Wait, Matt, are you serious right now?”
Christopher Eccleston has always played Matt’s feverish intensity with the right air of, “Okay, I’m self-conscious about freaking out like this, but what I need is too important to stop now,” and the addition of other cast regulars adds an interesting dynamic to that. He’s still ultimately not going to stop, but it’s harder for him to justify his extremes to people he knows and it forces him to use different tools to rally his troops/keep them from giving up on him.
I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite episode overall for Matt, or for Eccleston’s performance on the show (I’m still really partial to the season 1 finale,) but I do think this is my favorite of the Matt-centric episodes. It goes to some genuinely bonkers places and puts Matt seriously through the wringer while mostly avoiding plots that turn me off, and Eccleston really gets to let loose.
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