Jack vs. Tru: Which Is the Lesser of Two Evils?
Most people think Tru Calling is rather simple, and uninteresting. But here's an article that says different.
by Forgotten Conscience
Okay, here we go. Tru Calling is great. I really like the show, I've always liked the show even when people said it was crap I liked it. But after seeing the finale I must say I finally understand some of the many levels of the show, and as such have written this article about Tru Calling in an attempt to perhaps make others feel the same way.
The thing that popped out at me the most was the whole Tru vs. Jack scenario. This has so many levels. First off the obvious good vs. evil and who exactly is the evil one is a great question to ask and always works if it's done correctly (which it does in this instance). Tru's actions can be considered good for the most part concerning the "body" she has to save but what about her actions involving her own life? She uses her abilities to make her life better by heading disastrous events in her friends and family's lives off at the pass this could be considered selfish and therefore not entirely honorable. Not befitting of a "hero". This could be explained though in that Tru's desire to help people doesn't stop with those she wants to help, she also wants to help the living as we see in D.O.A. (the first of the two hour finale). Tru chose to help the people in the doctor's life because she couldn't save the doctor's life and because the doctor said "Help them" instead of "Help me". These people are still alive and yet Tru chooses to help them anyway even though they weren't supposed to die on that particular day.
Jack on the other hand does not use his powers to help people in his life, but that could also be because he has no people that we can see to help. No reason to make any life but his own better. However we
haven't actually seen him use his power to make his own life better (i.e. win the lottery, win at horse racing, etc.) which is not to say he hasn't we just haven't seen him do it. Nevertheless, he hasn't made any selfish decisions that we've seen to make his life better.
If he wasn't making sure people stayed dead he could be considered a "good person" for being that selfless. Also, the reporter situation, although clearly we find out later that his purpose is to make sure people who were supposed to die actually die, when Jack tells the reporter where to find Tru so that she'll go to the diner and get killed that actually would've worked in Tru's favor. Without the reporter to expose Tru's secret (which she apparently is still intent on doing after her last appearance) Tru could continue her work without harassment by people. This action though considered wrong when you consider what Jack's motive actually was, could be considered the good or the right thing. He may be doing the "wrong" thing but it's possible that sometimes he's doing it for the right reasons.
The ripple effect, it was brought up many times this season and with good reason. Jack believes that keeping someone alive who should be dead causes ripples in the universe's design and causes changes that affect it. He is not wrong. It has been said so many times in shows where time travel was possible that changing events could have negative and/or positive consequences. If you go back in time and
save someone who originally was supposed to die that person's life changes dramatically and all the people that person comes into contact with, which they've said, but what they haven't gone into detail about is what those changes might be. If Tru saves a kid and that kid grows up to become the next Hitler its Tru's fault. If Tru saves someone and that someone makes a decision that kills hundreds of innocent lives its Tru's fault because she changed destiny. Tru may be able to save those lives whose deaths were her fault, but she wouldn't have had to save those lives if she had let that one person die and stay dead.
Though in my own personal opinion it is clear that Jack is the `evil' one his power MUST stem from a good place. Why would a person be able to relive days and have dead people ask him for help if he was chosen to make sure that person died? Jack made a choice somewhere along the line to cause people's deaths rather than prevent them, perhaps when his sister died of a disease (as he mentioned early on), or perhaps when he was nearly killed trying to save a little boy's life (though it is possible that he might've made those stories up to get people to trust him). Either way some event pushed him to elieve that he was chosen to ensure people die. Chances are it was someone close to him because as you may have noticed, Tru seems entirely certain she was chosen to help people, especially since Luc was killed or at least I got that impression from the way the season finale ended, so one could suppose that a similar event happened in Jack's life to make him take the opposite side.
It is possible however that Jack's purpose is simply to be the opposite of Tru, or vice versa. Tru may be life and Jack may be death but if we follow the mirror image concept it could have easily been the other way around. Tru said herself that if she had gone to a doctor and said she thought she was reliving days the doctor would've thought she was crazy too. She could've been Jack if circumstances had been different, and the same is true for Jack. If Jack had not told anyone about his ability and had someone like Davis to help him understand his ability Jack could've been life and Tru would've been death.
Now if we look deeper into the Tru vs. Jack concept we see that the show is also about connecting to people. Tru for all intents and purposes has to get into the lives of those she saves in order to keep them alive. She has to become at the very least the person's friend to help them resolve whatever it is that causes their deaths. Knowing their futures and seeing the day's events unfold gives her a unique perspective on how events in people's lives can lead to their deaths.
However Jack doesn't do that. Jack as far as we've seen has only gotten into Tru's life in order to affect Tru's work in saving people's lives. He has not made a connection to any of the "victims" or gotten to know them at all. Perhaps to stop himself from seeing the person behind the "body" and therefore forcing him to help that person because of his ability. Jack tries to keep events unfolding the way they did as much as possible because he knows that if that day unfolds the same way that the person who was "meant to die" will die and therefore is simply a body and not a person who needs help. It was said before Guardez left that Guardez sees dead bodies whereas Tru sees the people they "used to be". The same can be said for Jack's way of thinking.
Now, if we look deeper into Jack's actions we see that in the beginning Jack attempted to make Harrison's life worse by affecting Harrison's relationship with Lindsay and Tru's by subverting Luc's
ability to move in next door to Tru. Perhaps this was an attempt to make Tru's life so hectic that she couldn't save the people she has chosen to help? It is in Tru's nature to help those in need of help, and if her friends and families lives were messed up Tru may have to spend more time helping their lives and perhaps not save those she believes she's supposed to help. She is after all fighting time when the day restarts as well as all those things which she was supposed to do that day and instead she must put aside her own life in order to help the lives of others.
It is also apparently a "family business" of sorts. If Tru's parents could both relive days and then passed it on to Tru, then who exactly is Jack? Could he be a relative of Tru? We'll have to wait and see. However if it is a "family business" then that would have to mean that Tru's parents were related in some way other than being married, which either wouldn't make sense or would just be really gross. It is entirely possible that either Tru's father's family could also relive days and that's how he's able to do it, or that Tru's father was simply chosen to be the opposite of Tru's mother to balance out the universe as Jack was chosen for Tru.
Also, if Tru's parents passed their ability on to Tru then isn't it also possible that all of Tru's siblings have the potential to have this ability as well? Not only Harrison and Meredith but Tru's step siblings from her father's other marriage as well. Which leads to the question of whether Tru's step mother knows about Tru and her father's apparent abilities? Tru's step mother did ask Tru to "Stop him" instead of "Help me" when she died. It may be that Tru's step mother wasn't talking about the man who killed her at all it might be Tru's father she asked Tru to stop. But again we must simply wait and see.
And lastly, as far as we know all the "evil leapers" (Jack and Tru's father) are men, and all the "good leapers" we know of were women (Tru and Tru's mother). This to me sorta suggests a battle of the
sexes of sorts, men vs. women and all that.
So to answer the question posed above. Is it good vs. evil or good vs. good? Clearly this show is not black and white. There are no clear good guys and no clear bad guys. Jack may be choosing to be
death and Tru may be choosing to be life, but Jack isn't evil. He simply sees things from a different perspective than Tru. To quote another great show many people who read this might know…
"Its all how you look at the glass."
Real source is a yahoo group,so in order to see it you have to join it-->
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/Forgotten_Conscience_Productions/
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