Traveler (TV Series 2007)

"The East Wing of New York's oldest art museum is still burning."

Will, Jay and Tyler have been best friends throughout Yale graduate school. Now after graduation they plan a cross country road trip, but first Will suggests a prank. Jay and Tyler will rollerblade through the Drexler museum while Will tapes it. Jay and Tyler pull off their prank and seconds after they exit the museum it explodes. Now the two are on the run after being labelled criminals. FBI Agent Chambers (Steven Culp - 'Desperate Housewives', 'JAG', 'Star Trek: Enterprise') is after them, TV pundits are demanding these whitebread home-grown menaces go to Gitmo and there is no evidence that their good buddy Will Traveler ever existed. Disorientated, confused and betrayed they have nobody but themselves and no clue what is going on. An okay start. What is going on? what was Will's motive? Who is/was he? Why scapegoat these two in particular?

Highlight:

• The FBI agents hit Tyler with their car (unintentionally).

Comments:

• The Drexler Museum is obviously the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Both Will and Tyler's daddies got on the wrong side of the government in the past.
• That was one badly guarded police van.
• A flashback to the trios first meeting at their lavish campus accommodation indicates that dear old Will was playing Jay and Tyler from day 1. But why?

Tyler and Jay keep on running until they reach the country retreat of Tyler's filthy rich father. They think they've found sanctuary, but they haven't. Meanwhile Jay's girlfriend Kim is hauled in by the FBI and interrogated. As well as the bombing and murders, a lot of circumstantial evidence is piling up against the boys and no-one is listening to their side of the story. Tyler and Jay have to run again when someone they thought would help them tries to kill them. But where can they run to when the President of the USA has just declared them public enemy number 1? Okay.

Comments:

• Hints of Will's past emerge.
• The FBI are comparing the duo to McVeigh. How are Tyler and Jay ever going to get out of this?
• The duo realise that Will has been setting them up for this ever since they met.

Jay and Tyler are still running and somewhat unwisely decide to run back to Yale. They think there is a chance they can find Will's belongings to prove he exists. They make it back and with the aid of Tyler's ex-girlfriend they look for Will's stuff. However they soon find Will has planted stuff in their belongings about the Drexler museum. They quickly burn the evidence on the BBQ in the back yard only for the FBI to show up and arrest Tyler's ex. Meanwhile Kim is being hounded by reporters and is fired from her job. Will and Tyler are running again unaware that Will is on the loose and he stole a painting from the Drexler. Okay.

Comments:

• Jay and Tyler are sure Will was part of an organisation.
• Jay and Tyler are learning that their other friends thought Will was creepy.
• Jay and Tyler don't actually like each other that much.
• So who is Will really? Why did he steal a painting? Why did he destroy the Drexler? Why did he create such an elaborate frame up of his two 'best friends'?
• The more Jay and Tyler try to prove their innocence the worse they look.

Jay and Tyler travel to Deer Harbour which Will claimed was his home town. There they find evidence that Will was part of a larger organisation and that Will Traveler isn't even his real name. Then they get a greater shock as they see Will alive (and he stole Tyler's car) only for Will to be dragged off by his colleagues. Meanwhile Will's frame-up of his 'best buds' is revealed to be really in-depth. Wll carried around a video camera for years claiming to be doing a video blog but really he was taping Jay and Tyler's every conversation, bad taste joke and drunken rant which he edited together and posted on line as their hate filled manifesto. A goodish episode. Will really is a deceitful nasty bastard.

Comments:

• Will's had another name Daniel Taft, which probably isn't his real name either.
• Will got his name from his girlfriend Maya's bookstore which is called 'Have Books/Will Travel'.
• Jay's estranged mother is dragged in by the FBI.
• Kim has been arrested, shunned by her neighbours, forced to move in with her estranged family and is starting to doubt Jay's innocence.

Will is interrogated by his bosses. It seems that events at the Drexler didn't play out as originally planned and Will is going to have to answer for that. It seems that Jay and Tyler surviving and Will stealing a painting from the exhibit deviated from that plan. To loosen Will's tongue, his bosses have his love interest Maya killed. Will goes batso with a piece of broken chair and escapes. Meanwhile Jay and Tyler decide to follow the money as they look up the guy who paid Will's college fees. An okay episode, events from the 'Pilot' are retold from Will's POV.

Comments:

• Jay and Tyler find Will's collection of passports. Why don't they just mail them to the FBI?
• What exactly is Will a part of?
• Why didn't Will escape before he did?
• Where was museum security when Will and his cohort (whom he killed) were beating each other up and planting the bomb in the Drexler exhibit?
• Why did Will steal that painting?
• Who is Will really? He can kill people with broken chairs and a hoodie, has numerous passports, guns, safe houses and hidey holes. Is he a spy?

Jay and Tyler search out info but have a falling out and split up. Jay deals with a jerk former friend (Labine) and Tyler confronts his father. Tyler learns that his dear old dad knew what was going to happen, knew Tyler was supposed to die and didn't care. It seems Tyler's dad has nothing but contempt for him and poor quivering lipped Tyler is dumped on the sidewalk by his evil dad. Meanwhile Will kicks a guy through a window, shoots a former colleague and is on the run from not only his own group but from the FBI. Yes, the FBI at last have proof of Will's existence and now everyone is after him.

Good. More about Will's motives are revealed and now the tables have been turned on him. This show is really good, the mystery is intriguing and the plot moves at breakneck pace. The events from 'Pilot' to this epsiode have taken place in only 3 days.

"All this was about getting rid of a painting?"

And so the curtain falls on 'Traveler'. Will is reunited with Jay and Tyler. They aren't exactly pleased to see him, gun pointing and a fistfight are involved. Will explains about Operation Hometown. The trio capture the crazy eyed Freed (McDonough) and menace him. Freed spills that everything happened because of something called The Fourth Branch. Agent Marlowe's partner is murdered and she learns her boss Chalmers is in on it. Kim is arrested. There are revelations, betrayal and death. And by the episode's end, Will, Jay and Tyler are still running with no proof whatsoever of their innocence. Good

Questions remain:

• How did the FBI not find the painting in the car?
• Is Carlton Fog dead after being shot?
• Where was Kim being taken?
• Tyler has a brother?
• What is it with the painting?
• What is Will Traveler's real name?
• Who blew up Freed?
• What'll Marlowe do about her evil boss?
• Why is Jay not concerned about Kim?
• What is The Fourth Branch? Tyler's dad is part of it, Jay's dad died for it and Will unknowingly has been working for it.

Damn this was a good show and all 8 episodes took place in a week! Some week for Will, Tyler and Jay. With so much stuff to pack into this final ever episode it was a shame that Tyler and Jay's reaction to Will's return was given nearly enough air time. Will is utterly unapologetic and remains the most fascinating character to the end. Available online is the creator's blog entry where he explains where the show would have gone if it had lasted longer than 8 episodes. It's interesting reading but he planned to kill off Will and Tyler and have Jay be the hero in the end? Uh-uh, the show ends just fine. No justice, no truth, just more running for Will, Tyler and Jay. The show ends as it began with running and bleakness. A fitting ending for this show. I'll miss it and Will Traveler.

RIP 'Traveler'.