The Time Traveler’s Wife: Season 1/ Episode 4 – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

Alongside meeting one of Henry’s exes, we see Claire struggle with waiting for Henry to come into her life again after leaving quite an impression on her 18^th birthday.

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Aired (HBO)	6/5/2022
Director(s)	David Nutter
Writer(s)	Steven Moffat
Introduced This Episode
Gomez	Desmin Borges
Charisse	Natasha Lopez
Ingrid	Chelsea Frei

This content contains pertinent spoilers.

Recap

18 Years of Age – Henry, Claire

On Claire’s 18^th birthday, she tempts Henry as she has done before. However, rather than be aggressive by hiding his clothing, she seduces him in a way that forces him to remind himself of the boundaries he has tried to keep up. After all, he has known this Claire for 12 years and has been damn near a father figure to her.

But, with Claire knowing they will be married, she kisses him, and feelings flood Henry and kissing goes to an attempt to erect boundaries, but another erection overcomes him, and they have sex. This makes Claire learning she will have to wait two years before she sees Henry again, the one she is meant to be with, devastating.

In Waiting – Ingrid, Gomez, Charisse, Claire, Henry

For two years, Claire barely looked at anyone. 41-year-old Henry cast her under a spell, and after her first time being a r**e, all she knows is the extremes of pleasure and trauma. Yet, when she moves out for school in Chicago, she sleeps with both her roommate Charisse and her roommate’s boyfriend Gomez, who is deeply in love with her. In fact, Charisse, too, seems to have feelings for Claire, but Claire is unavailable.

She calls out for Henry in her sleep, and no matter how in love with her Gomez is, she will never have him. But, unlike Claire, he does see Henry in all his 27-year-old glory. Mind you, with his girlfriend at the time, Ingrid, who he is having a nasty fight with for reasons unknown.

Oh, This Is That Night? – Henry, Claire, Gomez, Charisse

Jumping ahead, Claire and Henry now claim each other, but not so much in a romantic and passionate way. They are destined, and in a way, you can see this makes them both comfortable to a point. Gomez, not so much, for he and Charisse seem jealous of the man Claire has held off all others for. However, what makes things especially interesting is when 41-year-old Henry shows up and decides to stay for dinner. Oh, and Ingrid shows up and reveals she knows Henry is a time traveler, and apparently, she and Henry are still together.

Well, at least in her mind, she is. Claire seems to feel bad for Ingrid thinking she will be anything beyond a few chapters, if not just one, in Henry’s book. Yet, with her giving the eye to 41-year-old Henry, you can see 28-year-old Henry still has something for Ingrid since he doesn’t need to feel like the second choice with her. She loves him for who he is, not who he is promised to become.

But, while they have their issues, Charisse and Gomez are just trying to process the idea of a time traveler, never mind the older Henry becoming best friends with Gomez in the future! Which, with him giving stock tips for Netflix and noting he should invest in bitcoin, that surely sweetens the deal. However, their amazement leads to a question: Where is Ingrid in the future?

The older Henry tries to avoid this because, while seeing his past self is fine, even giving stock tips or using the lottery to fund his and Claire’s future, telling people what will happen in their life? Never mind trying to prevent bad things? That crosses the line for Henry and makes it so he may hint something bad will happen to Ingrid, self-afflicted, but when, where, and why? He keeps that close to his chest.

Things To Note

• Henry is 41 in 2021.
• Claire’s birthday is May 24^th, and she turned 18 in 2006
• 41-year-old Henry hasn’t met his older self

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. Why is it only older Henry who is on the recorded video, and with the way Claire is talking, who is recording all of this? Is it Henry, a kid Henry and Claire adopt? Who?
2. How did Henry meet Ingrid, and during Henry’s first lifetime, what made it so he dropped her for Claire? Also, what were they arguing about when Ingrid saw him?
3. What was Henry’s first lifetime like, and how much did the original Henry influence the timeline?
4. Was the younger Henry told about Claire?

What Could Happen Next

1. Working towards Henry meeting Claire’s family, and her meeting Henry’s dad

Review

Highlights

Claire Having To Fall In Love With The Reality, Not The Fantasy

Claire is representative of many of us who fall in love with someone’s potential and not the person sitting right in front of us. The only difference is, she has met the fantasy in the physical and is waiting on that to become part of her reality. However, the problem is that for her to have the Henry she wants, she has to fall in love with the Henry she has. Also, she has to fall in love with him over and over as he stumbles and has shortcomings on the way to becoming the 41-year-old Henry who has filled her fantasies for almost a decade.

And through Gomez and Charisse, you can almost see what happens to people who long for a fantasy and try to settle for reality. They can be taken by a moment but are left instantly unsatisfied when the high of lust subsides and are disgusted with themselves, maybe the other person, for not being what they want.

Yet, while they are miserable, those like Ingrid are in bliss. They aren’t wishing on a distant star but accepting and loving what exists. Do they try to mold someone into what they dream? Sometimes. They may push a thumb in certain places and attempt to cut a bit off here or there, but they recognize that a human being isn’t clay. You can not push, cut at, and try to mold someone without consent, and if you lack it, you will receive pushback.

So it should be interesting to see how Henry develops into this person Claire loves. Also, whether the two may have to break up and make up repeatedly for him to become the man she wants or if it really is just a matter of mercy, grace, patience, and being consistent, that is all he needs.

On The Fence

Feeling Like We Should Have Gone Deeper With Ingrid

Considering Ingrid is a cutter who has had a tumultuous relationship with Henry, based on the fight Gomez saw, I’m led to hope we’ll get some background on her and Henry’s life beyond the time when his mom died. I get there has been some course correction to remind us this is the story of the time traveler’s wife, less so the time traveler, but the more we’re pressed to wonder how Henry became the man Claire loves, the more there is a need to dive into his history.

Heck, even in terms of Claire, while she appears fully formed, I can’t move past wondering what she lacked in her family and the effect it may have had on her. For Henry was a crutch, more than anything, when she was growing up, hence a love which was borderline born on emotional dependency. Maybe not to the point we saw with Ingrid, since what Claire may lack in an emotional outlet or resources is somewhat compensated financially.

However, dependency looks different with many, and considering Henry’s sudden disappearances may trigger abandonment issues, since her family is often emotionally absent, it could be, as Gomez hinted, Claire could be the type to shut down more than cling?

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