Every TV show is different, but often it takes me a few episodes before I figure out how my favorite character or characters will be when I start watching a new series.

I need to see how everyone interacts with each other, who's the funny one, who's the serious one and who's the one that kicks the most ass. If I can find all of the above qualities in one character then that usually means they will be my favorite.

Astrid: Great, I see we've moved to the comedy portion of your psychotic break. | permalink

Last week, I felt pretty much the same about all of the characters. They were all interesting in their own way, but no one really stood out. Well, all of that changed in "In Too Deep." This time I found a character that instantly rang true for me: John.

In some ways, John reminds me of another one of my favorite CW characters. He's another guy who is just trying to look out for his family, blames himself every time someone gets hurt and isn't afraid to make the tough decisions to protect the people he perceives to be his responsibility. Is John exactly like Dean Winchester from Supernatural? No, of course not, but he definitely has some personality traits that attract me to both characters.

John: Stephen, we are not super heroes. We are a hunted species trying to survive. | permalink

In this episode, everyone was fighting over the right thing to do. For Stephen it was continuing to work at a place that began to reveal its dirty secrets the longer he was there. Though how he could not know that his uncle would have no trouble killing paranormals he thought were a threat is beyond me, but I digress.

John's struggles involved wanting to keep his core family safe, while still reaching out to save those that were still out on the streets. There was a lot of head-butting as each faction fought to prove that theirs was the right choice, but in the end John was reminded of a message that Stephen's father once gave him: Be brave.

Cara: We are all for survival. But if we're not going to stand up on our own, what's the point of surviving. | permalink

In a great moment near the end of the episode, John gave that message back to Stephen and convinced him to go back to Ultra so that he could be their eyes and ears on the inside.

Jedikiah made it clear that he knows full well that is exactly what Stephen is up to so it will be interesting to see how long he can keep The Tomorrow People safe and how long it takes before Jedikiah finds them (because, let's face it, we all know he will eventually).

John: Thanks for reminding me, Stephen. | permalink

My favorite bits:

• Stephen cleaning his room without being in it. I wish I could do that.
• Stephen teleporting into a bucket. Oops.
• Stephen seeing into his mother's memory about the day his father left.
• Finding out that John stole Tim from Ultra. Interesting.
• Cara telling John to relax because he was blaming himself for everyone.
• Stephen telling Cara that they needed to establish ground rules - like not invading each other's space when they were naked. Jeesh, some people are so picky.
• Cara pointing out that John seemed a tad upset about the watch. Considering he was pinning her down at the time, that was a fair assumption.
• The fight/wresting match that involved teleportation.
• Jedikiah claiming that he was trying to protect humanity by killing Kurt. Yeah, right.
• Russell pointing out that he was once a reckless jackass, too, but he turned out awesome.
• Cara and Russell telling John that they needed to start fighting back.
• Cara reassuring Kurt that she was trying to help him. while punching him unconscious. Hey, whatever works, right?
• Jedikiah discovering that the watch had a D-chip, and taking it away from Stephen before his first debriefing. Uh oh.
•  John telling Cara that he trusted Stephen, but he really hated his timing.
• Stephen filling his mind with the memory of his father leaving to fool the mega empath.
• Stephen checking to see what happened to Vaughn, and finding him in the morgue.
• John telling Stephen that Stephen's father had given him the watch to remind him to be brave and he must've forgotten that.
• Stephen letting Cara in to see his last memory of his dad.
• Stephen deciding to take care of his family, be a better, brother, son and friend to both species.