'11.22.63' Recap: 'Happy Birthday, Lee Harvey Oswald'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

As the old saying goes, the truth shall set you free, and on 11.22.63, it certainly seemed like that was going to be the case. Jake was open and honest with Sadie at last and this next episode should have been all about Jake getting back on track because of that and well...that most certainly did not turn out to be the case. The truth did nothing to improve his situation, if anything, things are getting worse for Jake as the date for JFK's assassination draws closer, because the past is starting to have enough of Jake's interference and because everything began to fall to pieces in 'Happy Birthday, Lee Harvey Oswald'.

Case in point Bill and Jake's relationship, which has already seen major strain over the last few episodes, finally came to a boiling point in this particular tale. Bill is a man who needs facts and evidence in front of him, he needed to see that Frank Dunning was evil in order to believe that what Jake was doing made sense and despite the facts that Jake has dropped upon him regarding Lee Harvey Oswald and the role he could play in the upcoming assassination, he needed to see more from the man, a sense of true evil and unfortunately, Bill simply isn't seeing those things. For one, he's madly in love with Marina and enjoying a whirlwind affair with her, and Oswald has even befriended the man, leading to a stunning scene where Bill decides to reveal the bugs in the apartment to Lee in a devastating act of defiance against Jake. To make matters worse, after an ugly confrontation between the two of them, Bill begins to cozy up to Lee's weapon as well, prompting Jake to wonder if Bill is the second shooter of historic lore, and it forces him to make a tough decision.

With Bill more or less compromising the mission and its success, Jake lies to Bill about Marina and that she needs his help at the hospital, only to take the young man into the psychiatric ward instead...and have Bill committed. It's a bold plan that quite frankly had the potential to fail, but Bill sold the notion of insanity hook, line and sinker, by rambling on about how Jake was from the future, a murderer and so on. While he may be right, the doctors seem to think otherwise, and his conviction on the matter will not doubt keep Bill in the mental hospital for quite some time. Either way, it's a stunning move on Jake's part, and it demonstrates how dedicated he is to the mission once again, and has even managed to find the balance between taking care of Sadie and preparing to the save the President's life. But...despite his work to keep her safe, the past saw an opportunity to devastate Jake when Sadie checks into the hospital for plastic surgery to deal with that nasty scar and by spotting the strange man with the yellow card in his hat, he's able to intervene and save her. 

If anything this move to hurt Jake galvanizes him more and he finally makes one big move to discover 100% as to whether or not Oswald was acting alone in this matter and he confronts George, CIA style of course, torturing the poor man and terrifying him to uncover the awful truth. There was no conspiracy to end Kennedy's life, it's an idea that Oswald has hanging in his mind and armed with those facts, Jake knows its time to finish the end game, and put down Lee Harvey Oswald before he can cause any harm. But before he can kick into action and deal with Lee, the past finally catches up to Jake, in the most unexpected way possible...through his monetary life line. It turns out that Jake never went back to teaching to pay for Sadie's surgery and to live; he instead used his black book of gambling to handle his affairs and well, his latest win, combined with the fact that Bill tried to get in on the action on the same fight...finally caught his Bookie's attention, and he was more than happy to make an example of Jake in violent fashion.

From a result of his beatdown, Jake is left unconscious in the hospital, with trauma to the brain and judging from Sadie's comments, his memory is suffering as well and that's where our story ends and wow, what a brutal episode. Who knew that Jake was able to go to such dark places to get things done? It could be simply because time is running out since 11.22 is a month away, or it could because his experiences to date have finally changed him. But either way, Jake is a changed man, one willing to do what it takes now, it's just a matter if he's going to remember his mission once he finally wakes up. Either way, outside of Sadie, Jake has cleared a path to Oswald now, and man...it may be time to just sit down and binge the last two episodes in one sitting because devastating episode or not, this is it, the time to save the President is near, and Jake's options at this point are to save the man...or start all over once again, if he has it in him of course. Until next time. 

---