The problem with the picture
Before we move on to the next part of “Mistakes Were Made,” I have to admit that I dropped the retcon ball last week, and missed some big flashing errors around the introduction of the baby picture that started out being of Rebecca until the writers decided at the end of Season 2 that, whoops, never mind, it’s Ryan really.
There were a couple of glaring moments in “Northern Exposure” that I missed, and then Holly’s declaration that it was indeed Rebecca in the first part of “Mistakes Were Made Part 1.” I’ve gone back and added my comments to the play-by-play on those episode posts, but for those who’ve already read them, I thought I’d group the gaffes here, too.
From “Northern Exposure”:
(in the attic)
23:26
Sarah says that’s her dad’s car in the picture, and pinpoints it as one he got in ‘79. Now, if the picture is supposed to be of Ryan … that means William was there with his car when the picture was taken? I had kind of gotten the impression from “Prior Commitments” that William hadn’t had much contact with the kid. Just a drive-by photo shooting, apparently.
(at the table)
28:12
Joe hands The Photo to Justin, who says it’s clearly not of him because the baby has a bonnet on. I’m pretty sure that was intended, at the time, to suggest that the baby was a girl, as indeed we were later led to believe that it was, right up until the point where the writers suddenly decided it was a different baby and a boy. Did Ryan’s mom always want a girl or something?
From “Mistakes Were Made Part 1″:
(Saul, Holly, and Sarah at the office)
5:21
Whoa. Holly said that the photo was Rebecca. The same photo that Rebecca later says is not her, and Kevin remembers is Ryan. Why would Holly either 1) mistake an anonymous baby in a very clear photo for her own kid, or 2) lie that the kid is hers when she then firmly says the child is not a Walker? Big whoops here.
And, back to today:
You know, I’m sure they thought it was a nice touch reintroducing this photo at the end of Season 2 and making it Ryan. It must have seemed like a bit of continuity, but … boy, how very much not. There were plenty of ways to have introduced Ryan, if that really had to happen, that would not involve a photo with William’s car and a girlish bonnet in it, a photo that Holly had said without hesitation was her daughter. I can think of lots of reasons why Holly might lie about Rebecca being William’s one way or the other, but the photo? No reason at all.
People who create TV shows must long for the days before DVDs when obsessed fans couldn’t easily go back and check this stuff out, mustn’t they?
Photo: ABC.com
Brothers and Sisters, continuity errors
July 21st, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Yes, THANK YOU Terri! These are perhaps the most glaring errors. If they wanted to introduce another Walker sib, fine. But it insulted my intelligence to make that picture now suddenly be of Ryan when it contradicts very explicit dialogue/scenes from Season 1.
Notice that the finale didn’t include a flashback of Holly ID’ing the photo as Rebecca without a second’s hesitation. Gee, I wonder why. Must be an unintentional oversight, right?
July 21st, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I wanted to add — and we have one more REALLY glaring inconsistecy. Holly’s speech later in MWM, Part 1. Oh boy…can’t wait to see how you handle that one.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:00 am
Just freeze-frame on the picture. All you see is a bit of grass, a bit of a car (no licence plate), an bit of arm holding a child with a bonnet. The picture is black and white.
I am still amazed that Sarah could deduce the car was her dad’s when she has (initially) has no idea who the child is, what color the car has, where the picture was taken, not even a licence plate to go on.
And it is beyond me why Kevin and Sarah think the child SHOULD be their father’s. Sarah finds the picture originally somewhere on the attick of the ranch, it was not of any real importance to William if he just left it there.
William said it was the picture of some child of some woman he and Doug knew and it just ended up accidentally in the file and he would send it back.. So he forgot about it and it ended up on the attick and therefore it must be an illigitimated child?… It doesn’t make sense.
I hope that season 3 will provide us with some logical explanation, because I don’t understand the jump (well, I do it’s called retcon) from b/w picture of unknown child taken somewhere, sometime, someplace suddenly being ‘that must be Dad’s sixth child’.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Sylviane, I wouldn’t hold your breath. It was contrived because the writers were pulling something out of their asses. But make no mistake: Ryan’s the real deal.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Well, I didn’t plan to hold my breath either.
And I don’t doubt that Ryan (unfortunately) is the real deal.
And I dislike him more and more and I haven’t even met him yet.