Episode #32, segment 2 - The Junction

#32b: THE JUNCTION (episode #8 of 2nd season)
written by Virginia Aldridge    Directed by Bill Duke

A group of present-day coal miners are sent to a particular junction in the tunnels to check out something; there's a cave-in. One of the miners (William Allen Young) is separated from the rest. He does come across another miner (Chris Mulkey) with a broken leg; they don't recognize each other. That's because, it's soon revealed, the 2nd miner is from the year 1912. They end up commiserating on their situation (trapped) and on the woes of the modern miner, who cheated on his wife. Meanwhile, a pastor is getting set to deliver a sealed letter to the trapped present-day miner's wife; the letter has been safe-kept by the church for 73 years.

Despite the use of a time warp in the old Zone tradition and the prospect of much tension in a dark mine, this ends up as a very ho-hum episode. There's a moment when the two trapped men meet and the white miner from 1912 is instantly hostile to the black present-day miner; that's the one really clever bit of scriptwriting. But, other than that, its all very pedestrian, with a slow pace and lackluster direction. Most of it is very by-the-motions and even the unveiling of the old letter lacks sparks. All the actors seem uninspired. BoG's Score: 5 out of 10