Rewinding the Nine

I guess one interesting consequence of streaming TV shows online is that the networks can burn off remaining unaired episodes of cancelled series. NBC did it for Kidnapped, and ABC decided to do it for The Nine. (They actually tried to air them on actual TV but then poor ratings caused it be yanked yet again, this time to be released on iTunes and ABC.com only.)

Unlike Kidnapped which had barely started going when it got cancelled, the Nine had 7 episodes air, and it had progressed quite a bit and I'd really really liked it. I thought the stories were all intriguing, I liked how the relationships between the hostages had been evolving, I liked the pace at which they were revealing what happened at the bank. The last 6 episodes of the original 13-episode order continued all that brilliantly, with things getting even more and more interesting, but of course tons of questions were left unanswered, questions that will never be answered. Which sucks!

A quick refresher: the show was based on the premise of a 52-hour hostage situation at a bank. There were nine hostages, a bank security guard, and the two robbers, brothers Randall and Lucas. This is Randall's "third strike" and he'll be going to prison no matter what happens, but Lucas is much more conflicted, and several of the hostages find him sympathetic. The security guard and one of the hostages, Eva, are killed during the crisis. The remaining hostages have formed a sort of strange bond, and in the weeks after their release their stories all intertwine as they deal with police investigations, media coverage, and rebuilding their lives.

Two of the hostages, Jeremy and Lizzie, were a couple before the hostage crisis, but have broken up despite the fact that Lizzie revealed that she was pregnant afterwards. Jeremy is now involved with Franny, whose sister Eva was the hostage killed. Kathryn, a prosecutor, finds herself running for District Attorney with the hostage crisis as a major selling point of her campaign. Nick, the police detective, is doing his own investigations into the crisis, which led to him getting closer to Kathryn as their used their respective connections (And they kissed in the last episode! Squee-worthy moment of the series, haha.) Egan, who entered the bank that day intending to kill himself, has completely turned his life upside down, getting a divorce, changing careers (he volunteers to work on Kathryn's campaign), and just changing his attitude in general. And Malcolm, the bank manager, whose daughter Felicia was also a hostage, proves to be the most surprising of all. All the way through he's been honest and religious family man, it was revealed in the last episode that he had helped plan the robbery as a way to cover up money that he himself had stolen from the bank.

So...sigh. Another good show with no closure. Matt Mitovich over at TVGuide has a thread up for questions that he may be able to get answers to. So I'll definitely be watching that space.

I do wonder though, how had they been planning on making this a multi-season series I would have liked a full season to reveal everything but any more than that and it just would have been another Lost-type situation. Not that it makes any difference now...