Doris Schwartz Time and Again Season 2 Ep 9 Commentary

"At Least We've had today" is the next line in the song "Right Here, Right Now" from season 4 after "If Tomorrow Never Comes" and it seemed fitting to continue with the lyrics from that song as episode titles.  I was hoping that the reader would think it meant that Doris had been unsuccessful in her attempts to save Nicole and she would have to carry on knowing that at least she tried to save her friend.  So that would be a nice surprise when they discover that Nicole hasn't died. However, to me the title refers to her relationship with Danny as he will be the one that we discover died.

 

To me this is a complete emotional rollercoaster of an episode not only for the reader but for Doris. The subject of the episode is "Consequences". Doris saw in the first season that her actions could change things and her intentions, no matter how good, could still result in bad things happening. Despite that she still tries to change history and hasn't learnt from the past. In season the things that changed were minor compared to the epic changes in this episode.

 

 I think any of us in the situation of having knowledge that something bad is going to happen to a friend, would try to change things. So I think Doris' reaction is totally understandable. 

 

Firstly Doris has to contend with being the cause of the accident, which for the moment she wants to keep quiet about. She still blames Mickey for being drunk for causing the accident rather than her own involvement. 

 

To add a little bit of much needed relief we have some humour with Angelo Martelli both thinking Bruno is the father of younger Doris' baby and by asking older Doris out on a date.

 

We also revisit the mystery as the hospital announcements we've heard before. Now we have some context for them.  

 

Then we almost have some happiness when Doris realises that she did actually save Nicole's life but of course this is short lived when she realises that changing history has jeopardised the health of her own child and the chilling revelation at the end that Danny is dead.

 

I hope that was a shock to the reader. I can just imagine people saying "How Could He Kill Danny?!!!"

 

For me I knew as soon as I decided on Doris setting out to save Nicole would mean Danny had to die. He was the only other person in the car apart from Mickey, who we don't care about. So I guess Danny was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Read "At Least We've Had Today"