‘Homecoming’ Recap: ‘Previously’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Whenever a television series tips its proverbial hand and offers up a big-time surprise early on in the season, the show in question finds itself at quite the crossroads. For it can either take its time in breaking down exactly what that reveal means or what it is all about, in order to build excitement for the season finale, wherein everything will come together, or it can be bold and answer all of your questions immediately. Which is a risky gambit that may leave the audience wondering if the show has anything left in the tank after that grand reveal, and it just so happens that the next episode of Homecoming decided to be quite bold, and go the latter route in regard to the bombshell it dropped in the last episode, in that, Jackie is actually the mysterious Alex.
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For ‘Previously’ took the time to provide us with everything we ever wanted to know about Alex, by taking us back in time. Because when we catch up with Alex here, her memory and her career as a crisis manager are completely intact and what’s fascinating about this journey through memory lane is that Alex is the complete opposite of the curious and trusting individual, we met in the series premiere. Instead she is fierce here, and willing to use dubious methods in order to get her clients what they want. Even going so far as to make use of fake IDs and stories and pictures in order to convince the person causing trouble to do whatever is easiest on the company, and she is quite good at what she does. And it’s also important to note that she has a healthy and loving relationship with Audrey Temple, who is having a crisis at work at this particular point in time.

For a Federal investigation is about to get underway at the Geist Corporation, one that is a direct result of Colin’s blowout with Thomas Carrasco at the Homecoming facility and that leaves Audrey in a terrified place because she doesn’t know what to do. But Alex sure does, and it turns out that she helped Audrey orchestrate the power play against Colin that happened in the season one finale, and she also helped motivate Audrey to take charge and get herself the cushy new leadership position that we recently discovered she is currently enjoying, and this was quite the fascinating sequence of events for certain. Because it really does fill in a vast majority of the missing gaps we needed in regard to what happened at Geist, shortly after the truth about the Homecoming program came out into the open, and we finally have a solid understanding of who Alex is and what she stands for.

Which really only leaves one unanswered question in regard to where the story is right now, specifically… what was Alex doing in Walter Cruz’s proximity? And thankfully, this episode takes the time to address some of that as well. For it also reveals the fact that large doses of the drug, don’t quite wipe everything away as easily as Colin had hoped. Because shortly after Walter’s encounter with Heidi in the season one finale, some odd echoes of the past were returning to his mind, to the point where he nearly hit another car whilst on the road, and the resulting medical exam to check on his scattered state, revealed some horrifying facts. In that, his medical history was a lie, motivating him to ponder heavily upon what’s going on, and what other nuggets of personal information might be a fabrication.

If anything, diving into Alex’s past now, was a brilliant storytelling decision, simply because it informs the audience that Alex and her lost memories are merely a piece of a bigger puzzle. What that is exactly, has yet to be revealed. But it simply cannot be coincidence that we came to learn that Alex is a fixer, and that Walter is regaining his memory, since that likely means Walter eventually figures out what happened at Homecoming and that makes him the kind of liability a fixer would need to take care of, in order to save her girlfriend’s career. But that is of course, nothing more than speculation and the only way to be certain that is indeed the case, is to dive back in and continue this wild journey. Until next time.  

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