Holy crap!

Since The Apprentice is done for the season (a summary, in case you missed the exciting conclusion: Bill won; Kwaame lost; Omorosa is a psycho hose beast) I tuned in for the second half of the two-hour season finale of Tru Calling this past Thursday after watching Survivor All-Stars (a summary, in case you've missed the past few episodes: Shii Ann's out; Rupert's hanging in; Big Tom still sounds like Boomhauer from King of the Hill; and either Rob and Amber appear to be poised to take home the million bucks, since no one's figured out that when you get down to the Final Four, a voting block of two is hard to beat), and discovered much to my surprise that the show no longer sucks.

The original premise - Tru Davies plays a grad student/City Morgue employee who can travel back in time a day in order to prevent the untimely end of one lucky stiff every week - seemed to me to be a dead end (no pun intended), but as the series progressed they tried to give this gimmicky setup a mythological "arc". Enter Jason Priestly, whose character Jack turned out to have a similar power to that of Tru, only with a wicked twist: whereas Tru goes back in time to stop people from being killed, Jack does the same to ensure that people die.

As the season left it, we're not entirely sure whether what Jack is doing is evil so much as it is maintaining the balance of the cosmos, although we do learn that Jack is in league with Tru's father, who used to have Jack's "job", just as Tru's mother once had hers. Jack had a nice thought-provoking revelation for Tru about her power, though - in order for her to save someone, according to the laws of the universe, someone else has to die, and making that happen falls to Jack. Since this would really paint Tru into an ethical corner if were true, I suspect that we'll learn eventually that Jack and Tru's dad are up to no good and merely using the "balance of the cosmos" as their cover. If the show's writers are smart, though, they won't show their cards too soon and let Tru agonize over the nature of her power while the viewers try and figure out which end is up, a la the X-Files.

That is, provided the show gets renewed. Right now it's still on the fence. After such a redeeming season finale, it would be a real shame for us not to find out what happens next in the "Truniverse"! So best of luck to the show.