Stitchers 3X01 “Out of the Shadows” Review

The dead may stay dead, but the missing return in Stitchers 3X01 “Out of the Shadows”

In the stitch lab, we last saw Kirsten purposefully trapped by her father during a stitch inside a childhood memory of her mother. We discovered that he had hijacked the image of young Cameron and had earned her trust until he could lure her away from the others. Although the real Cameron made the promise not to leave Kirsten behind, the entire team remained over 74 hours, wracking their brains on how to bring her back. After a complete system reboot failed to wake her, Linus happens upon a way to break from the quantum entanglement Stinger created with Ivy’s help. The team hijacks her mother’s memory and use her to push Kirsten away, separating her from the bond and finally waking her. She is furious for the intrusion, but before she has time to process very much, the team is arrested and told they will be reassigned elsewhere.

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Once recovered from her ordeal, Kirsten hunts down Blair and demands that they be reinstated. He counters by offering her the ability to finally reunite with her mother. Unfortunately for him, Kirsten is nothing if not tenacious, and after an attempt to break them out of holding goes awry, they are suddenly summoned back to the lab. Blair reveals they have an emergency stitch - his son. Despite her reservations, Kirsten stitches into Nathan, but finds a disturbing message from her father in his death memory. Blair demands to know what she witnessed before following through with his plan to reassign them. Before they are shipped off, however, Kirsten uses information she saw in the stitch to strike a deal with his boss to keep everyone together.

We Stitchers fans have waited a long time to see the squad back together, and “Out of the Shadows” didn’t disappoint. Let’s stitch into the episode and check out some of the big moments, shall we?

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The Stitchers program may have been her father’s baby, but her mother holds the ultimate key

While Kirsten (Emma Ishta) hasn’t had the benefit of knowing her mother for most of her life, it is clear from the quantum entanglement that her bond with her is intense. After coming out of the hijacked stitch, she threatens Blair (John Billingsley) with non-participation if he breaks the team up. However, when he informs her that not only does the NSA know her mother is alive but where she is located, she pauses. Then, he drops a bomb. The Stitchers program is the result of an attempt to speed up human evolution, and her mother is its biggest success. Blair reveals that while her mother’s mind is indeed trapped, she has also evolved in ways that the NSA desperately wants to understand. He insists that this will be the key to using the technology for what it was always intended to do - if they can only map her out.

Blair: “Yes you can.”

Kirsten: “Why would anyone want to?”

Blair: “Well, imagine if world leaders knew instantly what other world leaders thought and felt - immediately, intuitively - wants, needs, fears, desires of their counterparts. You tell me. What would that mean?”

Kirsten: “The end of conflict?”

Blair: “Yes. The end of war, hunger, poverty. Pretty much all the bad stuff that keep nice people like me up at night.”

To go from believing that her mother died after the lab accident to finding out she is alive but missing is already a lot for Kirsten to take in. Discovering that her mother is now potentially the greatest military commodity of the modern world is a completely different matter. The NSA is trying to induce telepathic ability in humans, and they believe Jacqueline might have achieved it. We’ve always known that there was more to the Stitchers program, but we couldn’t have guessed this! Whether it can actually be achieved or not doesn’t matter; it is whether other governments and dark entities believe it can be done. If they do, we can assume no one who works in the lab will be safe, and the team will need to be stronger than ever to weather the storm that is coming. Of course, that means we fans will spend the rest of the season with one eye open and all our fingers and toes crossed…

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Stinger may have lurked silently in the darkness before, but he announced his return with quite the bang

Blair has been rather intent on making it clear who’s boss since getting personally involved with the Stitchers program, and this time, he means business. After allowing the team to rescue his “golden goose,” he immediately detains them all at a NSA facility with full intent to reassign them. He goes so far as to try forcing Kirsten to work with a new team by baiting her with information about her mother’s whereabouts. He thinks that he has full control over the situation, but he’s wrong. With Kirsten no longer captive in the entanglement, Stinger (C. Thomas Howell) is forced to take more drastic action. He kills Blair’s son in a hit-and-run, but not before relaying a message to Kirsten warning her against trusting his nemesis and asking her to find a way back to him. When Blair hears what Stinger did to talk to Kirsten, he promises to find and kill him.

Stinger: “Blair wants to kill your mother. Do not trust him. Find out where she is and find a way to tell me. Together we can save her. I’m counting on you, sweetheart.”

Kirsten: “Oh my god.”

Cameron: “Kirsten what is it? Will you talk to me, damn it?!”

Camille: “Cameron, you okay there?”

Cameron: “Kirsten, bounce!”

Stinger: “And hey, I don’t think you’re a bad person for calling the NSA on me. Kirsten, daddy loves you so much.”

After a season of wondering if Kirsten would ever find her father and get the answers she seeks, the tables are turned. Not only does he come out of hiding to connect with his daughter, but he does so in a way that clearly shows his feelings towards Blair and the NSA. No one at the lab has all the information on what’s really going on between the two sides, but we’ve now seen they will kill to protect their interests and get what they want. Kirsten (and we) have no idea what to think now…Stinger experimented on his wife, but now says he wants to save her. Blair insists she is safe, but also refuses to give up her location. Who is on the side of good? Only the writing team knows, and we have to admit we love them for keeping us on our toes!

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It’s been a long and *very* bumpy road, but the era of Camsten has arrived!

Kirsten and Cameron (Kyle Harris) have been dancing around each other for two seasons, and when she ended up trapped in Stinger’s entanglement, things seemed hopeless. However, our favorite neuroscientist is nothing if not determined, and with the help of the lab, he rescued her. Of course, he had to pretend to be her mother and say some very painful things, earning a huge slap from Kirsten once she woke. Luckily for him, once she got past the residual emotions she forgave him and moved on. By the time they have to stitch into Nathan Blair, their flirty banter is going at full force. Once they resolve the case, Kirsten shows up at her bestie’s door to collect her thoughts. She reads the note Nina gave Cameron before he admits that he wasn’t in love with her. With that last hurdle aside, the two finally give in to their feelings and kiss.

Kirsten: “Cameron, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

Cameron: “Yeah. I mean, I loved Nina, but I…I wasn’t in love with her. Took me a while, but I think I finally figured that out.”

Kirsten: “How long would you have waited for me when I was trapped in my memory?”

Cameron: “Forever.”

Kirsten: “Everything makes sense when I’m with you.”

In this episode, we had a chance to relive almost the entire Camsten saga within the sixty minutes. It’s a moment many of us had been waiting for, and Stitchers didn’t disappoint. We start with the slap (hello, pilot anyone?) and the initial tension between them. It quickly gives way to their easy friendship, before the cheeky flirtation begins. There is a scare when Kirsten stitches into Blair, followed by the departure of a romantic interest before feelings are finally admitted. Throw into the mix the natural chemistry between Emma Ishta and Kyle Harris, and we have an emotional trip down memory lane. We love the song chosen to play when they finally kiss, and the last exchange was perfectly them. Jeffrey Schechter did a phenomenal job easing this duo into their relationship, and we know this will add some interesting moments in the lab in upcoming weeks!

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Final Verdict: In Stitchers “Out of the Shadows,” knowledge brings power…but danger follows close behind

Stitchers had us on the ledge with Kirsten’s fate for a year, but we finally got our answer with the season three premiere. The show played with our emotions, giving us an equal number of highs and lows before the episode’s end. We learned a lot more about the true purpose of the Stitchers program (if Blair is to be believed, anyway), and we also know Stinger will do whatever it takes to keep Jacqueline out of their hands. We loved seeing Kirsten finally taking care of the team who has taken care of her for so long, and her admission that they have taught her so much was beautiful. We know now that bad things will come, but we’re also sure that our squad will handle it - together.

While we did get some questions answered (thank heavens Kirsten is out!), there were plenty more to replace them. Is Blair to be trusted when it comes to Kirsten’s mother? What happened between Stinger and the NSA? What will happen when Blair finds out about what Kirsten did? Is Jacqueline really alive and safe? Can she really do what they say she can?

While we did love this episode, there were a couple of minor issues we admit we have. Considering heavy-handed Blair was in removing the team and threatening to reassign them, the team seemed rather unconcerned. That led to a funny reunion, but didn’t totally feel in character with what we’ve seen from them so far. The other thing was the meeting with the Admiral. If the alarm was triggered that Kirsten had used a false ID, wouldn’t the Admiral have known about it before agreeing to meet with her? Maybe it was intentional…

Obviously, these are small things to pick on for an overall fantastic episode, and we have to say that we’ve missed so much about the show. We love the geek culture references, the easy chemistry between the cast, and the growth of each character. Even though we’ve hated Blair, John Billingsley’s emotional performance over Nathan’s death made it impossible for us not to feel a little sympathy for the man. That is, until he pulled a gun on Camille.

With Blair at least temporarily removed from the program, we’re expecting a little breather from the tension hanging over the last season. However, they’re still getting orders from higher ups, and with Stinger now out in the open we have no doubt there’ll be chaos visiting the lab soon. We’re concerned about how Linus will handle the guilt of not seeing his father as he passed, and whether Camsten can keep their emotions in check when danger comes.

We have waited a long time for Stitchers to come back, and we’re super excited to see our favorite scientists get back to what they do best. We’ll be keeping an eye out for more clues as to the Stinger/NSA/Kirsten drama, and we’ll be ready to make a list of the nicknames and references!

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Since we have that nice secret NSA interrogation room available, let’s talk about our questions…

• Why did Stinger choose now to come out of the woodwork? What’s his agenda?
• How long will it take for Blair to find a way back into the Stitchers program?
• Will the Admiral follow through with finding Kirsten’s mother?
• Will Maggie finally take the job as director of the program?
• Can Blair be trusted to tell the truth about the real purpose of the Stitchers program?
• Was it really her mother who reached out to Kirsten at the end of that stitch?
• How will Linus work through the grief and guilt he feels about his father’s death?
• Will Maggie’s son fully recover? Will we get a chance to meet him?
• Just what did happen in that room between Fisher and the other guy?
• Can we have Camille bet on how many kisses Camsten will share? We want in on that…

AN ALL NEW STITCHERS AIRS ON MONDAY, JUNE 12TH AT 9/8PM CST!