It must have been quite the dilemma for the makers of Life on Mars when they got to the eighth and final episode of the first season. The series was a hit with UK audiences; should they provide a satisfying conclusion to the mystery of Sam’s adventures in the ’70s, or should they forego that closure in order to do a second series and give people what they wanted? Obviously they were going to go for the latter, but I wonder whether there wouldn’t have been more integrity to Sam’s story if they’d aimed for an ending rather than for fan service. Episode 8 definitely suggests that the writers tried to be at least somewhat conclusive, but alas, considering Sam’s situation situation that’s roughly akin to remaining at least somewhat virginal.
The episode starts by ramping up the mystery, with Sam having eerie flashes of someone walking through a forest while a girl whispers, “Save her.”
Cut to one of those ’70s car chases that the series does so well. One thing leads to another, and soon the boys in blue are arresting a man in a hotel. Business as usual – only it’s not: the man that Gene’s handcuffing happens to be Sam’s father. His absentee father, to be precise, who had left when Sam was just a kid, walking out on his wife and child at a family wedding.
Sam is euphoric. “You know I’ve been looking for an answer, why I’m here an how I get back? Maybe the answer’s found me,” he tells Annie. He’s convinced that Vic “Dad” Tyler must be innocent; after all, any link to the stabbing crime they’re investigating is tenuous at best, not to mention that Vic looks like the kind of guy who’d feel guilty about swatting a fly. Gene has different ideas, though, leaning hard on the man (although he’s learnt enough from Sam not to rough him up immediately) and ordering a search of the Tyler residence. Talk about awkward: having to search the place while your mum and dad are sitting there, resenting you.
What is more awkward: following the leads – Dad’s into gambling, so let’s come down hard on the local gambling establishment, unearthing a tacky ’70s porn production ring and a mystery phone number – Sam dials the number they’ve found, only to have Sam answer it. A much younger Sam, mind you. He doesn’t like facing up to it, but obviously his dad is somehow connected to the up-and-coming crime gang, the Mortons. Sam’s brain goes into overdrive: maybe that’s why Vic left, because he was in trouble with the Mortons… and maybe Sam’s task in the past is to stop his dad from leaving.
Vic’s very good at playing the pity card: he tells the police that he was coerced into working with the Mortons, selling their stag films to protect his family. Sam obviously wants to believe him, but there’s something to Vic that’s too good to be true. “I just want to give my family the life they deserve. I’d give anything for that,” he tells grown-up Sam, who wishes to believe that his father wasn’t just a good-for-nothing loser who dumped his family on a whim.
Vic promises to co-operate with the police in any way necessary, so he’s sent back to the local gambling den to help Gene & Co. catch the MOrtons’ men red-handed. After he goes in, though, there are gun shots; two suspects are shot, and Vic slips away, apparently scared for his family and his life. Sam catches his dad as he returns to the flat to pick up his things, and convinces him to stay with his family, regardless of what the Mortons might threaten.
Or so Sam thinks – but more flashes of green, a woman in a red dress running away (is this the “her” he’s supposed to save?), and a violent struggle, suggest that something’s wrong. Which is also what Hunt’s thinking, and for once I’m in full agreement with him – it’s clear that Sam’s way too gullible, wanting his dad to be an innocent victim and hoping to get him to stay with his family. So for once Tyler Jr.’s knowledge of the future is put to other uses than fish-out-of-water jokes: he knows that Vic will be walking out on his family at a wedding, and this wedding happens to be just about now.
Sam’s need to return back to his time, and to have his father stay with him and his mother, results in a situation where not only is Annie put at jeopardy (she turns out to be the woman in red): Sam ends up turning his gun on Gene, as he’s about to arrest Vic. The man runs, yet again, and Sam lets him go: he couldn’t bear being the one to destroy Vic in the eyes of his mother and his childhood self.
And so, for all the hints that we might get an answer to why Sam’s in the past and how he could return, for all of the build-up, what we end up with is a cop-out (pardon the pun). Sam can’t return, not yet, and why? Because you gotta give the fans what they want. Never mind that he turned against Gene and Annie, never mind that he let a criminal go who would have beaten Annie to death. In the final scene of the episode and the season, all seems forgiven as the gang decides to repair to the pub for a pint or five. Sam isn’t cursed to be in the ’70s or in a coma – he’s cursed to be stuck in overly episodic TV, where you can hint at a resolution, you can even pretend that closure is just around the corner… but in the end, you have to press that reset button. And I won’t deny that it can be great fun, but if nothing ever happens that is of any consequence – Sam putting his colleagues in danger and even betraying them, Sam letting a criminal go – then the series is basically telling me not to care. It’s only TV, after all.
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Matt K. is a survivor of academia. He's fanatical about good TV and movies. He lives in Switzerland, which means that he gets his chosen drug mostly in the form of boxed DVD sets. You can read more of his musings on TV, life, movies, books and video games at http:\\goofybeast.wordpress.com. 
