Let’s see if Jake gets any closer to his target Lee Harvey Oswald this episode!

11.22.63 Episode 3 Other Voice, Other Rooms Recap starts now!

The date is 11.1.60 and Jake is driving he and Bill up the highway, Bill questioning him all the way. How did you have that newspaper? How did you know Frank was gonna do that? Are we there yet? Bill threatens to take him to the cops, but Jake tells him he was there too, he’ll be an accomplice. Jake explains he’s there to stop the President being assassinated, and Bill thinks he means Eisenhower. He explains that it’ll be Kennedy, and Bill says “You come from the future, when?”

They head to a motel, and Bill asks why he doesn’t just take the shooter out now. Jake tells him that Oswald has defected to Russia and doesn’t come back to 1962. Bill asks him to prove he’s from the future, to say something he can check. The only proof he has left are his scorched newspaper, and the tattered wagering book. Jake asks him to drive him to Dallas for $100, and Bill agrees. But he’s keeping the gun.

Jake has a terrible nightmare about Frank Dunning, and attacks Bill in his sleep. He comes to his senses, and Bill asks him to please not hurt him anymore. Jake apologises and sees that Bill’s back is covered in scars. He tells Jake that if there’s one thing he knows, it’s how to take a beating, his daddy made sure of that.

They drive to Dallas, and into Dealey Plaza, a freakishly quiet and empty Dealey Plaza. Jake explains what is going to happen, how JFK will be shot and no one will know who the shooter was. He points out the Book Depository and how Oswald was going to work there, he might be the shooter. Maybe it was a CIA marksman with Oswald’s gun. Maybe there’s another shooter over there, on the grassy knoll, maybe sent by Russia. Bill asks if he thinks he can figure it out, and Jake replies that he knows more than anyone else knows yet, but not everything.

In a flashback, Al is talking about being a child when JFK was killed. People were crying, just stopped in the middle of the street. They all knew that something had been broken in all of them, and it could never get repaired. Holy moly, Chris Cooper is a hell of an actor.

Jake tells Bill more about Oswald, and how he tried to kill someone else before JFK, using the same gun, General Walker. If Jake can see Oswald make the attempt on Walker, alone, then he can discount all the other conspiracy theories out there. Bill stops to watch Kennedy making a speech on a television in a shop window, “I want to save him too”. Jake tries to pay him his $100 and tells him to go home. Bill doesn’t want to leave, there’s nothing for him in Kentucky, and Texas was where his sister used to live. He believes Jake, and he can have his back. Besides, we need Bill as a plot device, how else will we hear Jake explain things every step of the way? Bill played a different part in the book, much later on, just so you know. Jake agrees to let him stay and help.

They go to Jodie, Texas, right in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth. Two places that Oswald will live when he gets back from Russia. They’ll set up a base, get jobs and settle in to wait. Jake interviews at the local High School for a substitute teaching job, and the Principal asks whether he thinks Catcher in the Rye should be in the library, it has prostitution in it and everything! Jake says yes, Land of the Free and all that jazz, he thinks they can handle it. “Call me Deak”, says the Principal, “All my faculty do.” The physics teacher has a house for rent, looks like Jake is getting things squared away.

Bill insists they go and celebrate in Dallas, and they end up at a strip joint. Bill gets rowdy and the owner comes over asking if they’re doing alright. Bill asks whether he likes Kennedy, and Jake sensing trouble tells him it’s no place for talking politics. The owner asks if he has a problem with Kennedy, he himself thinks he is a great man. He holds his hand out to Bill to shake “Jack Ruby.” Jake’s jaw drops to the floor, and he drags an increasingly gabby Bill out of the club.

Back in Jodie, Jake has his first day at the High School, and makes an immediate faux pas by offering Miss Mamie, the black school secretary, a cup of coffee. This may get a bit tricky for a fella from 2016.

We swing in to 1962, and Jake is an established English teacher at the High School, and has settled well into the community of Jodie. He gets called to the gym where a dance is being set up, and Miss Mamie wants to introduce him to someone, Sadie Dunhill. Jake and Sadie have met before in Dallas, when they talked books, but she has not recognised him. Jake knows just who she is though, and reminds her that he returned her bag to her. She remembers, and Miss Mamie tells him that Sadie is the new school librarian.  Jake tells her he was glad he could keep her out of trouble with her husband, and she tells him in no uncertain terms, there is no husband. They both agree to chaperone the school dance together.

In Fort Worth, Jake and Bill go to look at an apartment to rent, directly across the street from the place Lee Harvey Oswald is due to live in when he returns from Russia. Bill will be based here, and Jake will stay part time so they can have eyes on Oswald.

Jake pulls up to the gas station in Jodie, and meets Miss Mamie on her way out, empty handed. Jakes asks her what’s going on, and she tells him that she ran out of gas but the attendant won’t allow her to buy any gas here. Jake confronts the attendant, and the guy tells him that she needs to go over the tracks to N Word-Town, and she can buy all the gas she wants, like it should be. Jake grabs a can and tells the guy to shut his f*cking mouth, and fills it with gas. He throws the money for the gas at him, and opens the door for Miss Mamie to catch a ride with him back to her car. I have a feeling this ain’t over, Jakey boy.

In May 1962, Jake is at Love Fields to see Lee Harvey Oswald, his wife Marina and new baby June return from Russia. Oswald is greeted by his mother and brother, and Oswald asks where all the reporters are. The reporters who would surely want to witness the only American Marine to ever defect to Russia return to the US. His mother tells him to stop talking like that and herds them out of the airport to stay with her, which they do for a week.

Jake and Bill work on bugging the apartment the Oswald’s will be moving in to, hoping to catch some chatter about General Walker. Snazzy voice activated microphones, huge tape recorders and wireless transmitting devices. Clunky and obvious in today’s terms, but cutting edge for 1962.

Jake and Sadie chaperone the dance, Jake antsy that the Oswalds are due to move in soon. They confiscate some ciggies, catch the quarterback trying to spike the punch, and head out back with the hip flask and smoke em up. They discuss their respective divorces and make a toast to starting over. Out on the dance floor it’s dancing time and Jake and Sadie have an sweet swing dance number, before Jake sees the time and realises he needs to leave. He promises he’ll be back, and leaves Sadie to chaperone alone.

Jake and Bill go to the Oswald’s and set up all the surveillance equipment, but are interrupted when the Oswald’s arrive to check out the apartment. They start to get it on, and Jake and Bill manage to escape via a ladder into the ceiling crawl space. Bill freaks when spiders crawl over him, alerting the Oswalds to their presence. They manage to get out, and get back to the apartment and Oswald goes off his face out the front of the apartment. At Jake and Bill’s, the recorders click on, it’s the voice activated microphones! Bill starts to listen, and take notes.

The next day Jake apologises to Sadie about leaving and not coming back, and she gives him the ice queen apology acceptance. Miss Mamie reams him out as well, telling him apologies are like dandelions, pretty but no substance.

The surveillance continues at the Oswald’s, mainly Lee and Marina fighting about her smoking around the baby, and not doing anything while he is at work. They are watching and listening when George and Jeanne De Mohrenschildt turn up at the Oswald’s door. Jake tells Bill that they’re CIA, and this is the most important conversation that they can overhear. This could be the beginning of it all. They’re speaking Russian, and Jake kicks himself for not thinking of that. Lee and George step outside away from the microphones, and Jake runs out to get a Russian-English dictionary.

He gets back and Bill is knocked out on the floor, all their surveillance equipment gone. It was their neighbour, and Jake and Bill burst in pretending to be FBI, Bill with his gun drawn. The tapes have been pulled out everywhere, pretty much useless now. Jake starts to get in to the neighbour, but spots his daughter cowering under the table. He gives it up, and starts collecting it all up and taking it back across the hallway.

Jake sees Sadie at school and tries to apologise again. She lets him go on and on, shuts the door to the library and kisses him, probably just to shut him up. Sadie says “Take me out to dinner this weekend.” Jake replies “Definitely.” One last thing though Jakey Poo, don’t ever do anything like that to Sadie again, alright?

General Walker hosts a  rally, and Jake has heard the Oswald is planning on being there, so he and Bill attend. They spot Oswald and George in the crowd, and try and work out George’s motive for bringing him to the rally. Jake thinks he’s just trying to get Oswald’s blood up, and motivated to make some sort of move. As they leave, Oswald calls out General Walker “Do you know what a fascist is?” Some attending soldiers pull him away, while George calmly watches on. Oswald manages to throw a bottle at the General, and fights off the soldiers. He rants and raves at the crowd about fascists and how they all need to wake up. “I’ll kill you. I’ll f*cking kill you!” Holy shit, talk about your loose cannon.

That’s it for this episode, and Daniel Webber who plays Lee Harvey Oswald is a total dead ringer for the real thing. The face, the voice, it’s quite eerie. And he’s an Aussie, no less! I’m finding the historical aspects of this show so interesting, I have read the book but it’s amazing seeing it all come to life on the screen. The empty shots of Dealey Plaza in this episode were also incredible. And Franco is continuing to deliver as Jake! Seriously enjoying this show, guys. Laters, from the future!