‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ 1×06 Review: “Episode 6”

There are a lot of things that need to be said about The Time Traveler’s Wife, but part of me is at a loss for. I am not sure how I feel about this ending. Especially when part of it feels more like a beginning. Part of it just feels very meh.

And I hate that because I have loved every episode of this series. I have looked forward to it. I didn’t hate this episode, I just felt more lost in this episode. It felt like a lot crammed into 60 minutes.

Maybe that’s it. I feel overwhelmed.

Clare and Henry are getting ready for their upcoming nuptials. Weddings are hard. The planning, the figuring out what needs to be done, how things are going to be, and making everyone happy. Weddings become less and less about the couple and more and more about the people around.

For Clare, her parents have always been a lot. But they are excited to give her a wedding and make it the event of the year.

But for Henry, he doesn’t get the point of it all. He’s a cynic, because he’s had a lot of shit happen to him. I can understand why he doesn’t want to remember things and why he doesn’t want to have to deal with the memories that videos have.

But as Henry may be traveling through time and revisiting things, it doesn’t mean that others are. It means that Henry is selfish and he is only thinking of himself. Sometimes though, he needs to be pushed. He needs to believe that things can and will be different in life.

Sometimes watching this show, I feel like there is a bigger lesson – loving people at every stage in their life, embracing fears, staying present in stressful situations. There are so many I could come up with here.

But for Henry, I think that the greatest lesson is that hope is possible. He’s scared of hope and hope is causing him to time travel like no other. His wedding is coming up and he’s very happy to marry Clare. He loves her. It’s not her that he’s scared of, it’s hope.

And well, one can’t really blame him, because hope is fucking terrifying.

I can’t imagine feeling hope when you keep traveling to the future and all you know for sure is that you are seeing the person that you love in pain. All you know for sure is that there are fights and arguments, and you love them and want to save them from the pain. Henry keeps seeing glimpses of his future, but he’s not seeing the good parts.

He’s seeing the pain that Clare feels and that is too much for him. It would be too much for anyone.

One thing that Theo James has done so well this season is that he has played Henry so stoic, but if you’ve focused on his eyes, he’s always allowed a little bit of hope into his eyes when Clare is around.

We can all fall in love in life, but the truth is it is scary. It’s terrifying. And when knowing that you can’t make it perfect, you’re going to try everything that you can to make that better. So as time gets closer to the wedding, as Henry sees more and more of the future, he time travels more, trying to figure out what to do.

But sometimes to fix the future – we have to face the past.

A RECONNECTION

Life is a complicated mess all of the time and one of the hardest things that we deal with in life is parents. Some of us shut things out because it is easier than dealing with the pain.

We get to see the moment that Henry tells his Dad he’s a time traveler. Now, I have to say something I don’t even want to say. This whole teenage Henry time travels and gives himself a blow job when he was a teenager – not my favorite thing at all. Hell, I hate that story line and I feel like it was more for shock value than anything. So having to hear about it so many times this episode felt forced and overdone.

Henry’s Dad and him hadn’t talked in a long time. They’d both gone through so much, but Henry has shut him out over it. Clare, however, isn’t having this and is excited to meet Henry’s Dad.

I love the way that Clare interacts with him and as we all know, 90% of the time I am annoyed with Clare’s attitude (which in my opinion means Rose Leslie is doing an amazing job, cause she makes the viewer think and feel) . She matches his humor, but the best thing about it is that the way she likes him, opens a door for Henry.

A door for Henry to know that he has someone that he can talk to. His Dad.

That door couldn’t have opened at a better time.

He can talk to his Dad about time travel. He can tell his Dad what is happening and how it’s making him feel. He can go to his Dads house and discuss all of his fears. He can find a center when he feels lost.

Thats something that Henry needs.

THE PARTY

As the weeks go by, Henry has shut Clare out from telling her where he’s been when time traveling. How’s he supposed to tell her that he’s seen the future and it’s not so bright?

Henry wants to make sure that he doesn’t time travel on his wedding day and he’s there for Clare. He’s on the search for sedatives or some answer as to how he can stay put. He’s willing to do everything, but visit a doctor.

He keeps calling his Dad and telling him what is happening and his Dad is there for him. He admits to his Dad that getting married doesn’t scare him, it’s the future that bothers him, but it’s the hope that he feels that scares him the most.

At their – what I am assuming is a rehearsal dinner party – Henry is looking in books to try and figure out what he could take to make him stay put. But no answers are found and he will not tell Clare what is happening. But he does make her worry. She says something that makes him decide he needs to make a phone call and leaves.

Clare is smart to get Gomez to follow Henry. Words I never thought I would say.

THE MORPHINE PILL

Henry goes to his old dealer/friend asking for something that will help him. He wants to stay put and he thinks that his friend can give him something to help.

Here’s the thing Henry – you know what would help? Talking to Clare. But, what do I know.

His friend suggests a pill and Henry – stupidly – decides to try it. It knocks him on his ass. However, my favorite part is when Gomez shows up at the door, pounding and screaming, and threatens the dude to let him in.

Yes, I don’t really like Gomez, but what I am learning is that he is there for Henry. He just wants to be liked and feel important. Gomez is all of us – the insecure person that feels out of place and just wants to help everyone. He’s there because he knows that Clare wants him to make sure that Henry makes it to the church. But I also think that he is there because he genuinely likes Henry.

He can’t keep Henry in their time, but he does whatever he thinks necessary to help. And that means calling Henry’s Dad. And there is something so special about his Dad being there. He tries so hard to keep Henry there and when Henry says “Dad,” it’s like a little kid asking for help. And I burst out in tears.

FUTURE HENRY FUCKS UP

We learned a few episodes ago that Clare and Henry didn’t have kids. 28 year old Henry is in the future and he figures out why he’s seen Clare crying over and over again.

She has a box, one that she’s been touching and crying over. He opens it and finds positive pregnancy tests in there. He hears Clares tears and searches for future him.

And future him is a dick. Henry hears him telling someone that Clare hates him. When he realizes that Henry is there, future Henry hangs up the phone. They go back and forth talking and we find out that Clare has been pregnant, but the baby keeps time traveling out of the womb.

It’s happened multiple times and he couldn’t do it anymore. Though he does try to say that he couldn’t do it to Clare anymore. So future Henry got a vasectomy without telling Clare. He made that choice for her.

And 28 year old Henry is pissed. He has always said that he can’t change the future, but he tells Henry that he wouldn’t and won’t do that to Clare. The thing is, we all know that he will, because you can’t change what is.

The two get in an argument and time travel, leaving Clare to realize that there were two there when she entered the room.

THE WEDDING

Future Henry returns to the past, while 28 year old Henry returns to the future. Only issue – it’s wedding day.

Henry’s Dad and Gomez realize it’s the wrong Henry there, but they are going to do what is needed. And even though Future Henry is a dick, he’s gonna do what is needed also. He loves Clare and isn’t going to let her down.

To disguise the grey in his hair, Henry uses shoe polish, and his Dad and Gomez get him to the wedding.

Meanwhile, 28 year old Henry is in the future. He pounds on the door and Clare lets him in, realizing it’s young him and then realizing it is shoe polish day. It’s the day of her wedding.

She sits Henry down and shows him a video of his wedding. He’s witnessing the future him marry the Clare of the past. He’s learning about what marriage is and that it’s not about making each other happy. It’s about more than that. It’s about loving through things.

Clare is pissed off at Henry. She has every right to be, but it doesn’t mean she hates him. She loves Henry. Everyone is going to make their mistakes and do things that they shouldn’t.

But that doesn’t change love.

Both versions of Clare have annoyed me, but this one spouting truth was everything I needed to make me have patience for her.

THE END

I hate musicals. I love music, but musicals… nope. And so I won’t even talk about how the wedding ends, because I won’t say anything nice.

But I will say that part of what really has bothered me about this episode is the ending. Does breaking into song negate everything? It feels like a joke of an ending, as if someone got high and said let’s just make the ending shit.

Personally, I hate that.

What we got was not an ending. We don’t know what happens next. We don’t know how it goes. It felt like the ending of The Hills (the original) and it just made me pissed.

OTHER THOUGHTS

• Clares parents and brother are a lot
• I love Gomez feeling like a superhero
• Gomez being blunt all the time wasn’t my favorite, but now it is, so I am going with it.
• Hate the ending.

The Time Traveler’s Wife airs on HBO and HBO Max.