Stitching 101. Welcome to the Stitchers Program
ABC Family introduces viewers to a new, state of the art method to solve crime with it’s new sci-fi procedural drama, Stitchers. Emma Ishta stars as Kirsten, a smart, sassy college student with temporal dyspepsia that is facing what would be seemingly the worst day imaginable to most people. Suspended from school, kicked out of her house and seeing her adopted father’s dead body, she appears to be un-phased. Convinced his death isn’t a suicide, Kirsten sets out to find the real story, but is stopped mid-hack and recruited to work with a government agency to help investigate murders and mysteries in a unique new way.
Using a process called ‘stitching,’ the agency’s “Men of Science” headed by Cameron (Kyle Harris), Kirsten is transported into the mind of a dead man’s dying brain to raid his memories in an attempt to locate two bombs he activated before his death. Successfully stitching into the man’s fading memories, Kirsten is able to discover a few clues to find the bombs, but not enough to solve the case, so against Maggie (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), the director’s wishes, she takes to the streets to find out more. Cameron tags along and with a little convincing her soon-to-be ex-roomie, Camille (Allison Scagliotti), one of the bomb’s locations is discovered. With time running out and one activated bomb still out there, the recipient of bomb one provides the last clue needed to locate bomb two. Kirsten taps into her temporal dyspepsia and disarms the bomb just in time. After successfully completing her first case, Kirsten decides stitching isn’t for her because she is forced to feel real emotions for the first time, but once Maggie reveals the details of their next case she cannot resist. Before we get all the whodunnit theories and thoughts reeling, let’s go over this week’s top moments.
Meet Kirsten:
Viewers get their first real sense of Kirsten’s character when she stands in front of her professor as her roommate, Camille accuses her of stealing her work. As the two ladies exchange jabs, Kirsten’s expression and body language exudes arrogance. It’s as if she’s annoyed by the fact they would actually think she’d take or need to take someone’s work. Kirsten comes across as total bitch at first and has a smugness about her that is quite pretentious actually. Things all start to come together after virtually no reaction to seeing her adopted father’s corpse. She further explains the neurological condition she suffers from called temporal dyspepsia. Unable to feel the passage of time, she must rely on logic and math to function in the real world, which also affects her emotional perception. It’s this very condition that puts her on Maggie’s radar as a candidate for stitching.
Welcome to the Stitchers Program:
With virtually no other options, given her recent college suspension and no place to live, Kristen accepts Maggie’s offer and the world of stitching is unveiled. Hidden deep below the Chinese restaurant is a lab and team of scientists dedicated to placing a living consciousness into the memories of a recently deceased person. By invading those memories, the living person can recreate the corpse’s last moments. Talk about a total omg-moment. The complete idea of being about to read a person’s thoughts is one thing, but to be inserted into an actual dead person’s last memories to solve mysteries and work criminal cases is off the chain ridiculous…in a good way.
“You’re getting this guy’s dead degrading brain to talk to you? How?” - Kirsten.
Show Me:
Reacting as most people would, Kirsten can’t seem to fathom the idea of stitching is actually possible. She wastes no time suiting up into a special body suit for better a connection and gets into the fish tank to see how it’s done. Like an already well oiled machine, Cameron makes sure all systems are up and ready for stitching. The audience is transported with Kristen into the man’s slowly dying mind and much like her it’s a total new experience. Overwhelmed by her new surroundings, ‘The “Men of Science’ urge her to slow down her breathing or she’ll need to be taken out of the stitch or as they call it, bounced. As she tries to calm down and slow her breathing, she glances around seeing flashes of a couple and parts of their life. Holy shit it worked! Or at least it seems….
Make the Bounce:
As Kirsten searches for clues inside the man’s memories to determine the location of the two remaining bombs, back at the lab concerns mount as her cerebral temperature rises. Along with viewers the ‘Men of Science’ grow more and more concerned for her well being and urge her to make the bounce. But she refuses and Cameron is now unable to override her because she’s been in for more than two minutes. A stressful moment for everyone becomes even more intense when the lab’s connection to her starts to fade. Kirsten is flooded with flashes of memories as the man’s brain dies. She sees bits and pieces of a fight between co-workers, the woman hit by a bus, a fight at her funeral and the man then committing suicide by setting off the first bomb. After finally making the bounce, Kirsten shocks us all as she acts out a memory from the man. It’s as if she believes she is the man for a minute or so and slowly approaches Cameron thinking he is the man’s girlfriend. She caresses his face, kisses him and mutters blue door, sepulveda before fainting. And just like that Camsten is born, because honestly with all that sassy banter and chemistry between them already how can you not ship those two?
I’ll Do It Myself:
Unhappy with the idea of letting the case rest in the hands of others outside the agency, Kirsten makes a ballsy move and goes rogue. She goes against the agency’s policy insisting that she continue to work the case and heads out into the streets. Maggie tasks Cameron to deal with the her and the two end up working the case together adding even more fuel to the embers of the Camsteen ship’s fire. But when Kristen asks Cameron to trust her outside the agency she seems vulnerable for a moment. He agrees to trust her sending the message there really could be a potential romance brewing between them. When they ask Camille for help it’s funny how Cameron is quick to point out that Kristen has no filter. The banter between them as they work the case is truly entertaining.
“You guys don’t really hack into dead people’s brains and read their memories?” - Camille.
FINAL VERDICT
The first episode of Stitchers, “A Stitch in Time,” is an interesting watch that successfully keeps viewers attention and sets the groundwork for an intriguing season ahead. Jeffrey Alan Schechter penned an episode that shows viewers the concept of stitching and gives just a taste of each character. Kirsten is written in such a snarky way that she has absolutely no filter. It is fun to hear what comes out of her mouth next and the dialog between her and Cameron is quite fun. Episode director, Todd Holland, does a great job utilizing camera angles to capture Kirsten’s emotions during her first stitch. His use of blurry and hazy filters allows the audience to easily differentiate between reality and inside a memory. The case featured in the episode develops at a good pace. It’s clever the way each clue planted along the way ends up bringing everything full circle once the case is solved. At first viewers had no idea why Kirsten hears phone key tones while she’s stitched into a memory, but ironically it is those tones that end up disarming the last bomb to save a man’s life, Schechter makes sure to draw viewers in for the next episode by adding the mystery surrounding Kirsten’s fathers, both biological and adopted. It’s going to be interesting to see how things all shake out and what Kirsten discovers about her dads.
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