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ABC Family: theBEST MIDDLEMAN: Season 1 Episode 12

MIDDLEMAN: Season 1 Episode 12

Well, first off, this was an AMAZING season finale. Here are my thoughts:

Assuming this show is renewed (let us hope), we may have found out some useful clues about various characters in the alternate universe. In the alternate world, Tyler was a good-guy. This means that in the real world, Tyler is actually a bad guy! Tyler would take the place of Wendy in the alternate universe, if it was real (could Tyler kill Wendy?). Also, Manservent Neville was a good guy, meaning he also is bad in the real world. Could these story lines take place in a second season? Please, leave your thoughts!!!

middleman902's picture

Secret Sticking out tongue Vampire Pirate Blush Heart eyes Cool Mad Angel (Smiling Big cry Big smile Sad Smiling Puzzled Crying No comment Wink Gasp luve all the episodes wish ut wouldnt be cancled best tv show on abc

you!

primitiveskin's picture

A lot of people have been commenting about how Mirror-Manservant is good, therefore, Middle-Manservant must be evil. Although the timelines in the Mirrorverse are NOT entirely clear, some facts are apparent.

1. Mirror-Ivan Avi, the Palindrome, was born in a bad place, what with the environmental damage of ammonia clouds, random stranglings, and bears?!? Fatboy appears to have been quite powerful in the Mirrorverse prior to Ivan's pineal gland accident at age 13.

2. Wendy and Lacey's art school was taken over five years ago, to be converted to a management training facility. Lacey was arrested at the rally to protest Fatboy's takeover of the school, with Lacey believing that Wendy sold her out by taking a job with Manservant Neville and missing the rally. Fatboy Stormtroopers existed at this time, as Lacey would spend two years in Darning Camp, mending, shudder, jockstraps and socks.

3. Wendy had been in the employ of Manservant for a year, before he started to think about returning power to the people and going green (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean). It was at this point that Mirror-Wendy put Manservant on ice. It's not really stated when the Battle of DC, the takeover of the U.S. Government, occurred, so this could have happened prior to Wendy going to work for Fatboy, or, it may have happened under Wendy's leadership.

4. Tyler may have become the Middleboy at a much earlier time than when Wendy became the Middle Apprentice. Mirror-Middleman didn't go all Snake Plisken until Tyler's death at the hands of Mirror-Wendy. From Tyler's death scene, the industrial nature of the background suggests that he may have been poking around Fatboy HQ, and more specifically, close to where the cryogenically frozen Manservant was being held. Em-Em had sold his phased polaron cannon to Fatboy three years ago to pay the rent on the Middleman HQ.

5. When Mirror-Middleman did start to go downhill, Sensei Ping plucked out his eye, and Em-Em dropped the dime on him with the Luchadores. Mirror-Wendy has a Heydar, so I'm assuming that this is actually the Baby Heydar that was acquired after the defeat of Varsity Fan Club. In the Mirror-Middleman HQ, there is a severed Interrodroid head hanging where the Baby Heydar usually resides. Again, I'm assuming that with the defeat of Mirror-Varsity Fan Club, the depletion of Mirror-Ida's battery caused her to be replaced by O2STK. Since Mirror-Ida's chameleon circuits were functioning, she decided that she really needed a tan, rather than assuming her other guise, which we've come to know so well and dearly.

So, Mirror-Manservant Neville wasn't really a "good guy", although he was coming around. If anything, it may NOT necessarily be the act of going to work for Neville that corrupts Mirror-Wendy (the Mirrorverse is a harsh environment, after all) and potentially, Middle-Tyler. It may be when Manservant shows a moment of weakness, as was the case in the Mirrorverse, that causes his apprentices to go Evil with a capital E.

Will Tyler become evil, or is he just an unwitting pawn? I'll tell you one thing, Brendan Hines, the actor playing Tyler has been an unwitting pawn before. He played Andy Goode on the Sarah Connor Chronicles, having developed The Turk, which may just evolve into Skynet, and end up KILLING US ALL!!!

Some people dream in black-and-white,
And others dream in color.
But when I see you in my sleep,
My dreams are sweet-and-sour.

primitiveskin's picture

Mirror universes are called as such because on the surface, things appear to be the exact opposite from your home universe. However, they are inherently alternate universes that follow the same continuity until some diverging point, which apparently was the takeover of Wendy and Lacey's art school five years ago.

Wendy was recruited by Fatboy, and hence, missed the protest rally where Lacey was apprehended and sent to darning camp. In the meantime, Lacey also didn't go vegan, which is why the specialty at her loft in the Mirrorverse was rabbit stew; French cuisine kills bunnies, indeed! Joe 90 must have completed law school and then went to work for Fatboy. The Middleman didn't go the Snake Plisken route until Tyler was killed as The Middleboy. Ida was probably destroyed and replaced by O2STK, but the new Ida has functioning chameleon circuits, thus her youthful glow early in the episode before assuming her more familiar high school librarian guise. Just as in the Middleverse, we don't have a lot of backstory on Noser, so he may be essentially the same, just a little more militant, which is understandable. Which is not to say that I sometimes wonder if Noser can do Jedi Mind Tricks, since he can't be beat at Stump the Band, and his Mirrorverse counterpart couldn't be taken out by a squad of Fatboy Stormtroopers!

Things could actually hinge entirely on Pip in both the Middle- and Mirrorverses, since of all the characters, he actually was a bizarro-mirror image of himself, as Father Pip! Put that in your pipe and smoke it (obligatory snarky drug reference, courtesy of Ida)!

Some people dream in black-and-white,
And others dream in color.
But when I see you in my sleep,
My dreams are sweet-and-sour.

Yukichin's picture

Well, The Middleman in the alternate universe was also a good guy, despite being a bit lost. So while that holds true for some people (Like Wendy), it didn't for everyone. *shrug*

TheMiddleGirl's picture

Yes, but Tyler and Wendy's roles were reversed in the Middlemirrorverse: MirrorWendy went to assist Manservant Neville, and MirrorTyler became Middleboy. It could be argued that MirrorTyler was good as a result of working for MirrorMM, and MirrorWendy was evil as a result of working for MirrorFATBOY, and similar results will hold in the regular Middleverse, which would lead to an evil Tyler, since Wendy is currently working for O2STK, filling the "good" side of the balance.

Note: this is just me playing devil's advocate. I like Tyler and want him to stick around as a good guy.

I do have another argument about this, but it's late and I need to go to bed.

Used to be KyrieEleison on the boards, but wanted a more Middleriffic username. Am also Middlegirl on Livejournal.

Wendy: What does that make me, the Middlegirl?

cjhtwo's picture

The fact that Manservant Neville was a good guy in the mirrorverse holds with my idea that he's trouble in the middleverse - I don't think I've ever seen that actor play a good guy. But I sure hope that Tyler says a good guy!!!!

wooster182's picture

I will actually be much more interested in Tyler once he does turn evil. He's too perfect at the moment. I want to see some action from him.

The Mirror world wasn't inherently bad. It became less evil by the minute once TMM got the nerve to become TMM again. I think there were several instances in the episode that proved that the people in the real world and the mirror world could go either way depending on the circumstances.

But as the pendulum swung Neville and Tyler good in the mirror world, I'm hoping and assuming that they will be influenced to be evil in the real world.

primitiveskin's picture

Again, it can be argued that working for any Manservant, Middle- or Mirror-Variant, does not necessarily corrupt that person. The Mirrorverse was a bad place, with Neville using Fatboy to provide order, in a Communist, Socialist, benevolent-dictatorship kind of way. Please consider that Wendy lost her father under mysterious, and as of yet, unexplained circumstances at age 14. Ignore the clamor of all of those fans begging for Em-Em and Dub-Dub to make with the kissy-kissy, PMGO! The relationship is more like brother and sister, or, as Wendy confessed to Em-Em, that he was more of a father figure. So, in the Mirrorverse, who could have become Mirror-Wendy's surrogate father? Why, it was that dashing fellow, Mirror-Manservant. And, why did Mirror-Wendy go so irredeemably EVIL? Because that rotten BLEEP was going soft with notions of returning power to the people, which Mirror-Wendy considered to be the ultimate betrayal of what she thought that they both held to be sacred, namely, the continuance of world domination by Fatboy!

Is Fatboy a shady multi-national corporation in the Middleverse? Does Manservant Neville have ulterior motives? Will Tyler be an unwitting pawn, or an active participant in dastardly doings? Does Tyler have daddy-issues too?!?

Only time, and Javi, will tell...

Some people dream in black-and-white,
And others dream in color.
But when I see you in my sleep,
My dreams are sweet-and-sour.