Overview:
Against Livia's advice, Dan takes things a step too far this week and changes more than he was meant to.

Dan's putting right what once when wrong task this week sends him back to the 1990s where he works to help a kidnapping victim get her life back. It seems he takes things a step too far, though, as he enlists Jack's help in tracking down the kidnapper and a second victim, against Livia's strong objections.

In the present, Katie struggles as Zack begins to act out in school -- ostensibly in response to Dan's frequent absences -- and her frustration reaches a boiling point. She seems to find her way back, though. In her last scene with Zack she reassures him that Dan will come back. "He always does," she tells him, perhaps trying to convince herself as well.

By the end of the episode, both kidnapping victims are saved and the kidnapper is on his way to jail. Livia's concerns about "changing too much" seem overcautious until the last scene, where, in the present, we see the kidnapper released from jail and menacingly parking in front of the Vassers' house.

Thoughts:
It was exciting to watch Dan pull off the rails this week in saving both girls, and I really like that his choices in the past are having more and more consequences in the future. It's a really interesting touch that most of Dan's trips seem to be to the recent past, where there is ample opportunity for him to interrupt his own time line. We've seen this in a few episodes so far, but it seems this week things moved to a more serious level.

And speaking of time changes, we see another example of altered time propagation effects impacting present day again this week. In the past, Dan prevents the kidnappings from going unsolved, seemingly erasing his need to enlist Jack's help in finding the second girl. Painfully, this also erases the conversation that led to Dan convincing Jack that he wasn't crazy, and puts the brothers back to square one by the end of the episode.

I'm fighting -- with great effort -- to keep myself from exploring these altered time propagation effects too deeply in this space, as I think such a discussion, while fun for some of us (the geeky, science types), would quickly grow beyond the scope of these reviews. However, I did want to mention one thought I had this week. What happens to Dan's conversations with Katie at the end of each episode? If Dan somehow never sought Jack's help (ignoring the paradox here -- how did Dan save the girl if Jack didn't help him?), did he ever sit in the kitchen with Katie pouring over ten year old real estate data? I wonder if that plate Katie broke will be sitting safely back in the cupboard next week.

Though Spider-findeR makes a brief return -- unfortunately helping the Feds track more dirt on Dan's activities in the past -- we get nothing from the Professor this week. As next week's episode seems to be focused on repairing some damage Dan caused by thwarting the "rules," I wonder if we'll see more of the all knowing Dr. Langley.

Great Moments:

• The opening trip when Dan stumbles on to past Livia partying at a rave was fun. It actually took me until their next scene to realize she was actually the Livia from the past. It seems our farm girl (again, just completely making up the fact that in 1948 Livia lives on a farm) acclimated pretty well to life in the nineties.
  
• Zack pretending to disappear was a really cool scene. For a few seconds I was sure he was in the past in some quartz influenced repercussion of Dan pushing things too far.
  
• Call me a softy, but the scene in the past where Dan rocks little Zack back to sleep was a really nice moment given all the problems they are having in the present. It was also kind of strangely underscored by the fact that he was there to pick up duct tape and a crowbar.
  
• "He'll come home. He always does." As much I am pulling for a Livia / Dan pairing by the end of all this, I can't help but feel for Katie as she struggles to hold it all together in the present. I thought this quiet scene was a nice way to balance her losing it in the kitchen.
  
• The kidnapper waiting outside the Vassars' house was a creepy, creepy way to end the episode, leaving off with a perfect cliffhanger.