With Stitchers, the third time’s the charm as we’re treated to passionate delivery, mind bending cases, and delicately balanced storylines

Freeform’s original sci-fi procedural show Stitchers follows a young graduate student named Kirsten Clark (Emma Ishta) as she is recruited into a top secret NSA program. Its team leader, Agent Maggie Baptiste (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), reveals that the lab has the technology to “stitch” into a dead person’s memories. They use the information they gather to solve the victim’s murders and any potential related crimes. As Kirsten suffers from temporal dysplasia, a condition that makes perception of time difficult, she makes an ideal Stitcher. The rest of the team is made up of Dr. Cameron Goodkin (Kyle Harris), Dr. Linus Ahluwalia (Ritesh Rajan), her roommate Camille Engelson (Allison Scagliotti), and Detective Quincy Fisher (Damon Dayoub). Driven to solve the mystery of her missing parents and why she was left with her caretaker Ed, she agrees to join the program.

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When season 3 opens, Kirsten is still trapped in the quantum entanglement associated with her mother’s memory. Cameron and the others finally devise a plan to break her of the connection, but it’s a painful one As soon as she is safe, Blair initiates his plan to break the team apart, but Kirsten goes above his head and to have him removed as director. Maggie is put in his place, and her mother’s location is revealed to her. Knowing that the stitching technology must be perfected and the entire brain mapped to save her, the squad rallies together for Kirsten. Negotiating some of the most unusual and challenging cases they’ve ever faced, each member of the team must also face the demons in their past. New relationships blossom and roles may shift, but in the end our favorite squad learns the true meaning of the word “family.”

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The stitch lab’s real life counterparts are the people we want in our squad

While there are many shows on television right now with an ensemble cast, few have the natural chemistry and genuine camaraderie as the Stitchers squad. Not only are several of them pretty much the same person as their character, each cast member is immensely talented and passionate about their work. Don’t get us wrong – they’re very pretty to look at, but their beauty is more than skin deep. Without their commitment to their roles, we wouldn’t be so emotionally attached to their journeys so far. We watched this power squad come together for the first time during season one, where they faced the challenge of introducing audiences to the technology and tone of this unique show. In season two, both the team and the cast solidified their bonds through their collective efforts to save Cameron and help find justice for the victims.

Courtesy of Stitchers

The events of season three only served to strengthen the relationships between the team members. They worked tirelessly in sync to save Kirsten from the quantum entanglement. She returned the favor by refusing to stitch without them, going so far as to get Maggie placed as the director of the program. While they each developed outside relationships (except Camsten, of course), Fisher said it best when he admitted they were his family. In real life, Kyle Harris, Emma Ishta, Damon Dayoub, Ritesh Rajan, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Allison Scagliotti are thick as thieves. They truly enjoy each other’s company, and their joy over working on the show is undeniable. Their live tweeting, Instagram posts, and Facebook chats with fans have been part of what made this season so special. There is no doubt they aren’t just doing a job, but truly appreciative of what they have.

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The job’s never boring when it comes to revealing the secrets of the dead

The fact that Stitchers is a science fiction procedural show is already about as unusual as you can get. Add to that a series of astounding and unexpected cases and you have season three. We began with one hell of a “stitchy” (yes, we said it) situation, with Kirsten trapped by Stinger via quantum entanglement. Before we have time to even take a breath, things kick off with a divorce lawyer with an obsession with love dolls and an attempt to clear Cameron’s father’s name. The cases only get stranger when the team encounters a MI6 agent, a trip through an autistic mind, and a close encounter of the faux-alien kind. All of this drives Kirsten to her ultimate goal – find her mother and bring her back to life. This is eventually accomplished through a singularly mind-blowing collaboration between friend and foe, but the results leave us dying for more.

We think it’s safe to say that this season’s cases were by far some of the most memorable of the entire show. Just as the team discovered, each stitch presented a unique challenge both in brain mapping but also in their individual growth. For instance, “Just the Two of Us” brought us into the mind of an autistic individual. Having Kirsten come to an emotional epiphany with the aid of the victim Tom, someone not traditionally considered adept at such things, was truly inspired. Meanwhile, in “Paternis,” the stitch was the window through which we discovered the pasts of Cameron, Camille, and Linus. Rather than just having the characters recount their childhoods, we saw it through their eyes. By the end of the season, we feel as though we have stitched into the “memories” of the program itself, seeing how the pieces fell together to give us the answers.

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The writers are geeks for homeostasis, leading to consistent storytelling

One of the challenges of any show is balancing the individual personalities and style of each writer on the team while maintaining a sense of cohesion. It’s not unusual for it to take some time before a show settles into a consistent tone while this is sorted out. We see some of that in the first two seasons of Stitchers. The first was focused primarily on introducing the science of the show as well as the overarching mythology of Kirsten’s family connection to the program. Just as the team members had to get comfortable with Kirsten and Camille coming on board, we as the audience had to do the same with this new show. In season two, we delved more into the interactions and relationships between the team members, and as their bonds grew stronger, so did the writing.

Cameron: “It’s connected. You, your mother, Denise Nichols. You’re all connected.”

Linus: “It all makes sense. The algorithm that Denise’s computer used to pick the stitch cases is tuned to Kirsten’s brain and the mapping we accomplished.”

Camille: “The computer would get LAPD homicide reports and then narrow all those crimes down to a few candidates for stitching.”

Fisher: “So, how did Denise pick each specific case?”

Cameron: “She didn’t. Kirsten did.”

Linus: “The data arrays that Kirsten found at Denise’s they show an exchange of data, not in one way, but in both ways. To and from the nanobot cluster in Kirsten’s brain.”

Kirsten: “Without knowing it, I selected the exact right case based on the potential benefit to my mind mapping.”

By season three, it became quite clear that Jeffrey Schechter and the rest of the writers had found a state of balance. While each episode still maintained the individuality of the main writer, there was always a cohesive glue between them. In addition, despite the heavier emotional load this time around, the writers never forgot the pop culture humor and geek references that made the show so loved. With rare exceptions, the characters remained true to themselves even as they learned to trust those around them. Even in Ivy’s case, her journey reflected her sister’s in the sense that she represented the alternate result of Stinger’s abandonment. Season three was the culmination of time and effort by the writers to become one force, and we definitely see that reflected on screen.

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Final Verdict: If Stitchers season three is a glimpse into what the show still has in store, we are left with no other choice but to rally for more!

Let’s face it, being a Stitchers fan involves being on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Sure, the cases, mythology, and drama all keep us on the edge of our seat, but what really worries us is the fact that we don’t know if the show will continue on. There may only have been ten episodes, but the writers and cast made the most of what they had and gave us the best season yet. As we mentioned above, the writing is stronger than ever, the performances were riveting, and there was plenty of humor and geekiness to spare. Not only did we get a sneak peek into the past of several of the core team members, the show also highlighted the support staff in the most hilarious of ways (we’re talking about Tim – obviously).

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Until we hear news regarding possible renewal, fan theories abound on who Kirsten was talking to at the end of the finale. The fate of fan favorite ship Camsten is in danger, while Camanda, Livy, and even Figgie are showing increasing potential. We still have no idea what will happen now that Jacqueline is back, and if Stinger is truly done with his grand plan. With Kirsten’s supposed amnesia, what is going to happen to the Stitchers program? Jeff Schechter certainly dangled a giant carrot in front of us fans to galvanize a campaign for another season, and that’s exactly what he will get!