666 Park Avenue

666 Park Avenue

Episode 3: The Dead Don't Stay Dead

By: Carlos Uribe

666 Park Avenue is about the resident managers of a supernatural apartment.

Spoilers Ahoy!

A show that has fantastical elements has to have rules. It can't just do what it wants for the sake of the plot. The audience needs to know how something works and that it's going to consistent. When a show isn't consistent with these rules then the audience gets lost. The audience gets lost because they don't understand how the world works. What 666 Park Avenue needs to do is establish how Gavin's deals work and then keep them consistent. The pilot episode had began with a violin player who had achieved fame after making a rule with Gavin that he would sell his soul after ten years. The cold open had been all about Gavin collecting the soul when payment was due and that he liked to keep his deals. This implies that when a character enters a deal with Gavin, then that character is made aware of the deal. A character is willingly offering something to Gavin and asking for something in return. The pilot proceeded to show this with a guy who was keeping his wife alive by killing people for Gavin. When the guy failed to kill a person, he lost his wife and then his own soul. People make some kind of deals with Gavin and what they owe in return is a big price to pay. This was consistent and what the show had established. The second episode, Murmurations, had the weekly character Danielle who killed for Gavin for beauty. Her mind had blocked her deeds and it looks like she doesn't even remember making the deal. There is a sense that there is still a deal that was made at some point. We don't have to see anyone making a deal but we do have to see that it's fairly consistent.

The Dead Won't Stay Dead doesn't follow those rules. In this episode, we're introduced to a desperate journalist who just wants to get out of the obituary section. She could just wait to get promoted but she's tired writing about dead people. She wants to do actual news. She gets so desperate that Gavin tells her to write creatively. He doesn't explicitly offer her any deal, doesn't offer any terms, and he doesn't at all state what she'll be paying in return. This would give the impression that there was no deal made. There was. What she writes starts to happen even if she's just making things up. The plot is very rushed but she's able to make a guy a post-houmous Cold War hero and change her own mother's obituary to have made her a best-selling children's author. One of the best scenes in the episode is right after she changes her mother's fate and her own appearance changes. When she's asked to write a piece about a Russian bad guy she had made up in a previous piece, she creates him just before she is tortured and supposedly killed by him. Her fate registers no emotional impact because we had spent so little with her and she really wasn't developed that well. Her words might be coming true but the pilot never establishes why she chose write a fictionalized obituary. Gavin had told her to be creative but that's no reason to actually do it. What makes even less sense is that she actually turns it in on purpose. It would made more sense if she had actually submitted it. When she's captured by the bad guy, it's as if that's the price she paid. Or was it? It was all so confusing. What makes even less sense is why exactly Gavin was doing all of this. What did Gavin have to gain from all of this? This is a nice idea to have for a plot but it needed to be better developed.

The plot spent more time with Henry and Jane. The show has gotten into a habit of having the haunted hotel stuff happen when Jane's alone. She's the only one who sees little girl ghosts, hears voices, and sees red blood spilling over a door. It's no wonder that the rest of the characters seem to think she's a bit crazy. It makes sense that the character who is exploring the history and mystery of the Drake would be the one to get scared by it but it's going to get a bit ridiculous. Why is the hotel only messing with her? What makes her so special? While there's some time spent in the room she uncovered, not much is actually revealed. She's just being haunted but with no new information about anything. She's warned about releasing an evil creature but we learn nothing about why the room was covered up or anything about the hotel. She does bring up a chest that has a small bell on it because she takes it as a sign that she needs to bring it up. It's clear we're supposed to wonder what's in the chest, and I do, but it's not necessary to actually bring it up to her room. What's so much better about Jane this week is the time she spends with Olivia. It's been ten years since Olivia's daughter died. We learn the daughter had committed suicide because her father is evil (legitimate reason if you ask me) but only Olivia knew the truth. She trusts Jane with the knowledge and the two are bonding nicely.

Henry and Gavin are also getting closer. Gavin is trying to help Henry and when he discovers that Henry wants to be a chief of staff to be city council, Gavin pushes Henry towards the job. That is until the councilman turns Gavin down on some building renovation and Gavin pushes the councilman to his death. Gavin tells Henry that maybe he shouldn't take the job but he should set his own goal higher and run for city council. I guess with Gavin's financial support, Henry might have a chance but it's not exactly like he has a lot of experience in the city. I get that Gavin is supposed to be powerful and wants to use Henry somehow but isn't a bit early to be talking about elections? I'm skeptical about this but at least it's an advancement in the plot.

666 Park Avenue has one immediate problem: it has to establish how exactly does it's premise work. How does one make a deal with Gavin? We don't need to know how powerful he is exactly or where he got his powers from but we do need to know how he functions. This would have been a good episode if it had been consistent with what we've seen before and if it all fitted in together better. The weekly case was rushed, the love triangle remains uninteresting, and the Henry and Jane relationships with Olivia and Gavin are pretty much the only reason to continue watching this show. I want 666 Park Avenue to be good but it needs to realize what exactly it wants to do and how it works.

Other Notes:

There were also some scenes with the love interest plot this week but the only interesting thing that happened was when Henry looked out the window and saw Alexis changing. It was just funny.

It appears that the bad guy that the journalist made up is going to stick around for next week. This means that her storyline had some semblance of importance.