TOWER PREP “Phone Home” Review

TOWER PREP “Phone Home” Episode 10 – Birthday’s are not fun when you’re away from home, when you’re stuck at TOWER PREP, the day can be even worse and Ian finds out in this weeks episode “Phone Home”. Ian’s first birthday at the school leads him to demand a call home, surprisingly the headmaster allows it. When Ian places his call, his mother wishes him a happy birthday as if everything is normal. Ian knows it’s not. His family always wishes him “Merry Christmas” on his birthday. Determined to actually reach his parents, Ian and the gang set out to find a way to place a call. They break into the headmaster’s office and are within seconds of their goal when they’re interrupted. Ian has to scramble to get out of the office just as he’s about to complete the call, Suki, his lookout, sees the headmaster enter with…

Oh, yeah, you knew there would be one, didn’t you? And this was a biggie. Suki’s brother, the brother she’s believed to be dead for years, is working with the headmaster. Suki believes that her family has sent him to take her away and time is literally ticking away before something happens. As Ian and the gang face that countdown and the consequences of what it might mean, they struggle to stay focused on their plan.

“Phone Home” deals with the questions of family and loyalty, and as Suki faces her brother, that is put to the test. Where does family lie, with blood or with other ties you’ve chosen for yourself. The confrontation with Suki’s brother took an exciting turn, giving us a little action. The fight scene was fun, but for some reason this episode was lacking something for me. Even the constant ticking of the timer didn’t add a sense of urgency to the overall plot of the episode. There is a tidbit of information about the master computer Whisper, but it is almost a throwaway and lost in the rest. Of course, part of that might have been because “Phone Home” was part of a two-hour event and more than likely was the first hour of a two hour script, rather than meant to be a completely stand alone episode.

The ending did deliver though, I am learning to trust Tower Prep to give me something, no matter what. I’m still not sure what it was in this episode, except the writers were madly trying to get so much information into it that something was lost. Somewhere along the way, a storyline should have been dialed back perhaps. I know they are heading towards the escape, but they tried a little too hard with this episode. Still, compared to a lot of what’s out there, it was still a strong entry in a great show and kept me glued to the screen for the second hour of the event.