Kyle XY – The Complete First Season – Declassified DVD Review
Posted by Neil Borenstein on 05.24.2007
Before Season Two premieres on June 11, see what the first season of the ABC Family hit is all about!
Kyle XY – The Complete First Season – Declassified DVD Review
Cast Matt Dallas: Kyle Marguerite MacIntyre: Nicole Trager Bruce Thomas: Stephen Trager April Matson: Lori Trager Jean-Luc Bilodeau: Josh Trager Kirsten Prout: Amanda Bloom Nicholas Lea: Tom Foss
DVD Information Genre: Drama/Mystery/Sci-Fi Region: Region 1 Number of Discs: 3 Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment/Touchstone DVD Release Date: May 22, 2007 Run Time: 437 Minutes (10 episodes) Specs: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound – English, Spanish; English and Spanish Subtitles; Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 – Enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions
Who is Kyle XY?
The ABC Family Original Series, Kyle XY, returns for a second season starting on June 11 at 8 p.m. eastern time, continuing the story of a mysterious boy with so many unanswered questions about who he is and where he came from.
Before the program continues into Season Two, the first season will hit the DVD shelves on May 22 at all your favorite retail and online locations. This three-disc DVD box set is perfect for viewers who have not previously seen the program during its television run and want to catch up before Season Two starts, or for viewers who watched Season One already and liked it so much that they want to add it to their DVD collection.
Disc One
Sneak Peaks:
Theatrical Preview – Ratatouille
To Own on DVD – Scrubs: The Complete Fifth Season
ABC Family promos - Kyle XY: Season Two, Fallen
Episodes:
1. Pilot May be viewed with optional commentary from actor Matt Dallas, co-creator Eric Bress, executive producer David Himelfare and producer Julie Plec
The pilot episode of any program is always the most important considering it is the first impression.
Kyle XY’s pilot starts with Kyle lying in a forest, curled up and naked. He is covered with some weird gel and narrates (as he does often throughout the program) about that being his first memory. It is in that forest that Kyle encounters his very first challenge – a rattlesnake, primed for attack. But Kyle manages to catch the snake and set it free before any damage could be done. He then wanders into the city and gets taken in to a juvenile detention center after being arrested by police most likely for indecent exposure considering his lack of clothing.
Then, we meet the Trager family. Nicole, the mother/wife of the household, screams to wake up her daughter, Lori, who is conveniently in bed with her boyfriend, Declan. Declan leaves the bedroom before Nicole can catch them. Nicole gets a phone call from Lou Daniels (played by Dorian Harewood) who is a worker at the detention center holding Kyle. Lou wants Nicole, a social worker, to meet him. Nicole sees Kyle, who received this name after Lou says he reminds him of his brother, and she decides to take him home for what is originally planned for a few nights, which does not thrill Lori and Josh, the son. Nicole’s wife and the children’s father, Stephen, is persistent about forcing the kids to give it shot, though, as Nicole feels this is the best option for Kyle, who has no family, no accessible background information and most intriguing of all, no belly button.
Kyle begins to try and understand himself and how to interact with those around him in this episode. Since Kyle is basically a mystery to everyone, the Trager family does its best to try and help Kyle adapt to society. But his main form of communication is through mimicking others and relying on learned behaviors from the minimal past experiences he’s had. Sometimes, that works in his favor and sometimes it leads to him getting in trouble. But throughout this episode, despite Kyle coming off as incredibly smart, human traits and flaws are made very prevalent to his character. And that is something that really draws the family into accepting Kyle into their home and starting a bond that will surely progress as the season continues.
Side plots from this episode include an attraction to a neighbor girl named Amanda, the relationship between Lori and Declan, who was cheating on her at a party, Kyle’s learning of the difference between right and wrong and the presence of a strange man in a truck that seems to be following and researching Kyle.
2. Sleepless In Seattle
Kyle has a problem with the concept of sleep. After being with the Tragers for a week, he hasn’t slept even the slightest of winks. Instead, he chooses to spend the time when other normal people sleep wandering around outside or perusing around the house to make a mess of the refrigerator before watching and mimicking Kung Fu programs on television while speaking fluent Chinese. Kyle doesn’t really understand the constraints of time, other then everybody follows a man-made number system of which there is never enough for everybody.
After a detective came to interview Kyle at the Trager house and found out no information since Kyle didn’t remember anything, Nicole took him to a doctor to be checked out. The doctor found him to be in good physical condition, and prescribed pills for Kyle to take to induce sleep. The pills are ineffective, however, and he ends up wandering around outside, where he is once again followed by the man in the truck. He also speaks with Amanda through her bedroom window.
When he returns, he bumps into Lori, who is trying to sneak out to see Declan, and Nicole and Stephen wake up to catch them. Nicole and Stephen decide to play night guard to Kyle to make sure he doesn’t wander off again, which spoils another sneak out attempt from Lori and also causes Stephen to oversleep a very important meeting.
Kyle is becoming somewhat interfering, and he ends up running away from home. He is found by the Tragers thanks to a picture he drew, and he was finally able to become exhausted. He ended up falling asleep in his most comfortable spot, the bathtub, with the radio on playing static – something that caught a reaction from Kyle earlier on in the episode as well.
This episode seemed somewhat irrelevant, as I think lack of sleep was a poor theme and his comfort with a bathtub could have been portrayed in some other fashion. But the character building was perhaps the most important part of the episode, which is crucial considering it’s still very early into the show at only Episode No. 2. Nicole and Stephen are becoming increasingly parental toward Kyle. Lori seems to be the one getting most agitated by Kyle, though one can tell she is fond of him being there. And Josh, who thinks Kyle is an alien, is getting a kick out of the whole thing.
3. The Lies That Bind
This episode’s theme is about Kyle’s learning of the difference between honesty and lying along with the benefits and consequences of each.
After finally getting Kyle to get to sleep, it’s almost impossible to get him up. And the problem with him sleeping in the tub is that the bathroom needs to be used by Lori and Josh in the morning.
Kyle is going to work with Stephen, who is meeting with the CEO of the company about his business and assets, while Lori goes to “work” and Josh heads to summer school. While at work with Stephen, who gets into a bit of a moral crisis since the company cannot bring on Stephen’s entire staff and there will be layoffs, Kyle ends up putting his technologically advanced mind to work to fix the server that was in need of an IT fix up.
Back at home, Nicole meets with the detective again, who produces pictures containing a skeleton, which he believes might be as a result of Kyle being involved in a murder. Nicole doesn’t want Kyle confronted with such pictures that could shock him, so instead is given a photo with a keycard on it that could potentially jog his memory. Kyle doesn’t recognize the keycard when shown to him, though the tail end of the episode proves he might actually know more than he thinks. And that strange man who keeps following Kyle around in the truck has knowledge of the murder and what happened to victim.
Kyle’s big confusion with the concept of lying and honestly comes mostly with his interactions with Lori, Josh and Amanda. Lori actually got fired from her job and used her time mostly to sneak out and see Declan, or spy on him. Instead of watching Kyle when asked to, she bails and leaves him to his own resources at home alone. The sight of Kyle jumping off a roof causes Amanda to crash her car, leaving her with the issue of how to break the news to her already extraordinarily strict mother. This also causes Lori to convince Kyle into covering for her, which is already something he was doing for Josh after helping him with a math test (or really doing it for him.) All of the lies eventually blow over for Kyle, and he lets out the truth about what went on with Lori and Josh, and lied to Amanda’s mother about the car scuff being his fault. This once again brings up the theme of Kyle’s presence being a bit inconvenient for Lori and Josh, with the later realization that they really do like having him around despite his thwarting of their youthful antics.
To help with getting him a bit out of everyone’s hair, Stephen and Nicole change Stephen’s old workshop into a room for Kyle, with a bathtub to sleep in to boot.
4. Diving In May be viewed with optional commentary from actors Matt Dallas and April Matson and writer/producer Julie Plec
In my opinion, this is the best episode yet of Kyle XY.
Kyle experiences his first dream, at least the first one he can remember. He is under water in a pool, and Amanda is swimming toward him.
The detective appears again at the Tragers’ house and he talks to Kyle about the pictures he drew, which appeared to have the same logo found on the security keycard when the pictures are put together. Kyle still doesn’t really have anything to offer, and he goes to the pool with Lori and Josh while Nicole and Stephen go to the high school to try and get Kyle registered.
While Lori deals with the dilemma of being a virgin with pressure from her friend, Hillary, and her not-so-loyal boyfriend, Declan, Kyle and Josh scope babes. Josh has his eye on a chick in a pink bikini number named Ashleigh, while Kyle has an attraction toward the lifeguard, who is Amanda. While Josh tries to get his sister to go into the women’s room to get Ashley’s number, they lose track of Kyle. Kyle jumps into the pool, which prompts Amanda to go after him and pull him out. Once she gets him out of the pool, he seems to be fine. And with a bunch of people around him, Kyle experiences his first erection. Stephen has to explain these feelings to him, while Josh’s solution is to give him a dirty magazine.
As a result of Josh’s prompting, Kyle gets signed up for swimming lessons, and his trainer is Amanda, who has previously walked into his room and seen the pictures he drew, dominated mostly by pictures of her, which kind of freaks her out. She invites him to come to her house as she has something to show him – artwork that her father, who died last year, made. Kyle thinks that’s what is missing in Amanda’s life, and that when he draws her; it’s what comes from his mind. Amanda then tells him art isn’t about what you see, but what you feel.
Lori ends up going to a party to be with Declan, who seemed to change his ways and wanted to more exclusive and serious with Lori. Josh, who was meeting Ashleigh, and Kyle, who was going to meet up with Amanda, came along as well. And while Lori lost her virginity to Declan, Lori later realized the only change in Declan was that Hillary told him to step up his game otherwise Lori wasn’t going to put out – this after Hillary, who was completely wasted, was hitting on Kyle. Josh ended up getting caught naked in the hot tub with Ashleigh. And Kyle, who was just starting to experience love, felt pain once he saw Amanda show up at the part with her boyfriend, Charlie.
We also get a better glimpse into the man following Kyle. His name is Thomas Foss and he is leaving a company he had worked for over 10 years, and the man handling that wants to make sure Thomas’ contact information is current as a man who also worked there named Kern has gone MIA. Thomas left his keycard, which the man, who later showed up at Thomas’ house, found out really wasn’t his.
This episode is really the most groundbreaking of the short series so far because we’re delving more into the relationships between all the characters. Kyle, Lori and Josh seem to be getting closer as they deal with the troubles of their lives, while Declan and Hillary are even further exposed for who they really are in Lori’s life. Stephen and Nicole have differing opinions on how to handle Kyle, but in the end have a common goal of just wanting what’s best for him. Kyle now has to deal with the pain of watching the girl he’s fawning over be with someone else. And the mysterious man tracking Kyle now has a bit more of an identity.
Disc Two
Episodes:
5. This Is Not A Test
Kyle enters more new territory in this episode with his first day at school – or actually, being tested for high school to determine his grade level and if he deserves one-on-one tutoring. The summer sure did pass by pretty quickly.
When they get to the school, Nicole meets with the vice principal, Mr. Bradford Hooper, who wasn’t thrilled with the idea of admitting Kyle for one-on-one tutoring based on the financial commitment that would take as well as Kyle’s questionable past in only the short amount of time he’s been with the Tragers. Regardless, he administers a test to Kyle, for which he doesn’t understand because he hasn’t learned anything yet. While good at math, Kyle isn’t good at other subjects like history. So, he wanders off. First he solves a complex graduate school math problem in an empty classroom that was previously occupied by Lori’s math class, which saw some humiliation come her way via Hillary because the two are still fighting (though all the attacks are coming solely from Hillary.) Then Kyle goes to the cafeteria for lunch, and sits next to the loner, geek-kid who talks to him about comics. He takes Kyle to the library to learn about all the stuff he wasn’t knowledgeable about via the reading of encyclopedias. There, he runs into Amanda and Charlie. The interaction draws up a sneaking suspicion to Amanda that Kyle likes her, to which Kyle says they’re friends. After this, Kyle ends up stepping up for Josh, who was getting harassed by a kid in his remedial English class. Hooper, Nicole and Stephen saw the tail end of the fight, and Hooper thought it was once again a bad idea to admit Kyle in. But Lori’s teacher, who was amazed that somebody solved his complex math problem and was lead to Kyle by Lori, really wanted to work with him because he was able to solve that problem but had no idea why. After being pressured into it, Hooper gives Kyle the five-hour test, which takes him 30 minutes. Kyle decides he doesn’t want the one-on-one tutoring, but instead wanted to go to class like everyone else.
Thomas Foss is becoming more apparent in the show as well. In this episode, he ended up breaking into the Trager house while everyone was gone, but was forced to break back out when Nicole came home. He didn’t go far, though, and he actually got a new job with the security company and said he just so happened to be riding by the Trager house when somebody was trying to break in. Thomas was actually there for a different reason, as is now able to more closely monitor Kyle after installing cameras in the house.
Lori’s relationship with Hillary is basically on its last legs after Hillary spent the entire episode trying to humiliate her. And Declan is turning into a bit less of scumbag.
6. Blame It On The Rain
Six episodes in, and we finally have some light shed on the identity of the murder victim found in the woods.
Kyle wakes up from having a bad dream where he sees a man with glasses and black raincoat outside of his bedroom window. He hears a knocking at the door, and it’s Declan with a cut on his head and needing a place to crash. He stays in Kyle’s room, which doesn’t please Lori in the morning when she finds out since she thinks her parents will kill her if they find out. In the process of trying to sneak Declan out, Nicole catches Lori and wishes her a happy birthday while making her pancakes. Kyle manages to get Declan to the door when Stephen walks downstairs and Declan plays the whole “just coming in” card. So he stays for Lori’s birthday breakfast.
This whole birthday deal and memories begins to become a downer for Kyle, who has no idea when his birthday is. In his room, Kyle has flashes of the man he saw in his dream and decides to draw it out. He looked up and found out that the last major storm was before he woke up in the woods, and Nicole thinks there is definite progress. But Kyle is losing his patience with not knowing who he is exactly.
The power goes out, which prompts Stephen to go check outside. While outside, he walks over to Kyle’s window and sees some blood on the sill. Just then, Thomas Foss walks up and says he’s just making the rounds since a lot of people’s power went out. To help identify the man Stephen now believes may have actually been at the window, he invited Thomas in to see the picture of the man Kyle drew. Thomas took the picture with him before he left and made a phone call to say that Kyle is starting to remember. Thomas later checks a video he had from Kyle’s room and pauses on Declan coming in.
Declan ends up speaking with Lori, who wasn’t in a very happy birthday mood, and Amanda ended up coming over to see Kyle since she didn’t want to be home alone without any power. Together, the four of them, with Josh, end up playing with a Ouija board. Despite everyone telling Kyle it was fake, he asked when his birthday was and the board ended up really moving to form the number “781227”. Declan begins to doubt what Kyle is all about until he gets Declan out of the way of a lightning bolt that came striking down when they went outside. When they got back inside, Declan and Josh played video games while Kyle and Amanda did research on a computer. Josh kept making fun of Kyle being an alien, which really got Kyle irritated because he had no idea who he was and Josh was making light of it.
Thomas came back over, and while Kyle said he knew him, Thomas countered by saying he probably just saw him circling the neighborhood. It turns out there was a hit and run accident and the man at the window was the one who caused it – Declan. Lori got annoyed at him over that since he had basically lied to her up to that point about what happened to him, but she convinced him to turn himself in. Then, Amanda caught up with Kyle and told him about her father, while Nicole told Stephen she figured out Lori wasn’t a virgin. Lori decides to share her birthday with Kyle.
In the morning, Stephen is reading the paper, and as he tosses the paper down, Kyle notices a picture of a university professor, which is the man he drew in his picture. Nicole calls the detective, who has the keycard lying on his desk with the ID No. 781227.
7. Kyle Got Game
There are a few changes in relationships in this episode.
Perhaps the biggest one is the triangle relationship between Lori, Declan and Hillary. For a while now, Hillary has basically been doing her best to get at Lori for embarrassing her at that party. She flaunts herself at Declan, not because she wants him but just because she wants to fight with Lori. And Lori does buy into it and tries to counteract Hillary. This is until the end of the episode when they make up – almost completely out of nowhere.
Another change is between Kyle and Declan and Kyle and Charlie. Kyle ends up showing off his basketball skills to Josh and his friends in the front of the house, and Charlie happens to walk by and see this. He asks Kyle to come and tryout for the basketball team, which is getting ready to play in the championship game. Kyle impresses enough to make the team, which has Declan somewhat envious, and he even tries to one-up Kyle on the court but ends up busting his ankle in the process. In the game, Declan is still able to play but the coach designates Kyle as the star. Kyle slows down toward the end of the game after a hot start, which draws the ire of his coach and teammates. Declan ends up really going down on the ankle and can’t continue, which causes the coach to berate him. Kyle stands up for him and the team follows in suit. This basically mends the iffy friendship Kyle and Declan have had so far. The team ends up forfeiting the game, which cause Josh a lot of money since he decided to become a bookie.
Meanwhile, the whole murder investigation continues. The man who was killed ends up being Professor William Kern, who was the man in the newspaper that Kyle said was the man in the picture he drew and thus in his dream. But Detective Breen says the suspect has already been found dead due to OD’ing with the gun that killed Kern as well as some of his belongings. The man is somebody previously picked up by Thomas Foss in a dark ally. The case is closed with no real answers for Kyle. Kyle ends up having another dream, though. This time, he sees Kern get shot and then a very vivid image of Thomas appears.
A lot really did change in this episode. Lori and Hillary are back on track. Declan might end up being the odd man out here, but he’ll probably end up being cool with both. He’s also becoming more tolerant of Kyle. Kyle is becoming more tolerant of Charlie, though the attraction toward Amanda is still growing. Josh, who had felt neglected a bit by Stephen in this episode, knows his parents love him but will still have to pay the consequences when he gets into trouble. And Kyle’s memory of Thomas Foss is starting to reach the surface. All in all, things are moving along in this show now.
8. Memory Serves
Kyle gets hypnotized to try and recall some memories, but he only sees the same vision from his dream with Thomas Foss shooting Professor William Kern. When asked to go deeper into his memory for something before that, Kyle just starts to speak a bunch of gibberish really quickly and is taken out of the trance.
He comes in to Lori’s room while she’s talking to Declan about colleges, and Declan is making a trip to the University of Washington. Kyle wants to tag along since that’s where Kern worked. Lori tells her parents that the three of them are going to a different school since they would never allow them to go to the University of Washington with Declan.
Thomas ends up stopping by the house and wants to make sure everything is okay since he was asked to be taken off detail from their house by Stephen, who asked for a background check on Foss from the detective and it came up clean.
At the campus, Nicole and Kyle end up going to Kern’s office, and they meet his research assistant there. After explaining their situation to her and Kyle thinking he knew Kern, he asks to be given Kern’s tests aimed at brain power maximization. Kyle took the tests and was perfect, something Kern would have been proud to find if he were still alive.
Kyle wanders off and sees a picture in a case that has a person in it that looks exactly like him. The problem is the picture is from 1985 and Kyle doesn’t believe that he’s in his 40s. The person in the picture is actually a kid named Adam Baylin, who a secretary recalls as being a kind-hearted graduate student who was basically mentored by Kern. But Adam has been missing for 20 years.
Meanwhile, Nicole and Stephen end up breaking the code that was Kyle’s gibberish during hypnosis, and it’s actually letters and numbers that designated coordinates for a blocked off area in Seattle. Conveniently, when Kyle, Lori and Declan were looking through some old files to see what they could dig up about on Adam, Kyle found a paper with drawings on it, including the logo that was on that keycard which also ended up in Kyle’s drawings, as well as the numbers in the coordinates.
While on the phone with her father, Lori knew she was in deep trouble about lying but told Stephen about what they found out. He told them to get home, but once Lori went away briefly, Declan drove Kyle to that location. When they get to the spot, Kyle goes into the woods alone and is attacked by a man in a black suit. When he is finally able to rip off the mask the man is wearing, it’s Thomas Foss. Thomas tells him to leave his past alone and stop asking questions otherwise “they” will kill him and the Trager family. Thomas is simply trying to keep Kyle safe. Kyle runs out and doesn’t tell Declan what happened, although he later does during the end of the episode.
Also at the end, there are people watching monitors and picked up a feed from three hours earlier with Kyle climbing a fence. One of the people spouts out the number “281227” and “He’s alive” in an astonished tone.
Lori and Declan also continued their on-again off-again tumults, with most of the jealously this episode coming from Declan. At the end, though, they kissed, which signifies a real romantic start to their relationship.
Disc Three
Episodes:
9. Overheard
Overheard basically follows the last episode with a woman asking a man named Cyrus Reynolds why No. 781227 is still alive since he should have been dead months ago. The company, which is called Zzyx, can’t afford to have a subject like him loose. They also figure out that Thomas Foss was assigned to him, a man whose wife and daughter were killed a few years back, spent 10 years with the company, trained Reynolds some and has been known to get a little too close to subjects especially when it’s time to decommission them. Reynolds says he’ll take care of it. Reynolds ends up catching up with Thomas, which he figured would happen. Instead of Reynolds having the upperhand, though, Thomas manages to take it by getting in his car with a gun and tells Reynolds to stay away.
Kyle ends up learning about more things he can do. He’s able to read lips and filter out other noises so that he can hear conversations between people from far away and even through doors. Unfortunately, if he tries to hear conversations for too long, he gets a painful flash as if his body is telling him it doesn’t want to continue.
Kyle enlists the help of Declan to try and find out where Thomas lives so Kyle can find out more information about him. They end up getting his address and go to his place, and Kyle listens through the door to hear Thomas listening in on the Trager family through his monitors. Once Thomas leaves with the monitors turned off, Kyle and Declan go in, only to turn the monitors back on and see the Trager’s house being watched. They even listen in on a conversation between Lori and Hillary about Hillary’s new boyfriend who she won’t tell Lori about, which causes Lori to think it’s Declan. They then hear Thomas coming back, so they go out the window, only to be followed unknowingly to them by Reynolds by car. Thomas figures out someone was in his place since the monitors were left on and he knows that they’re being followed by Reynolds.
Declan and Kyle head straight for a carnival after that and Declan meets up with Lori. Lori doesn’t trust Declan because he’s been doing things that he won’t tell her about, but when she realizes he was just with Kyle, she has to start trusting him more. While Kyle is staring, mesmerized by a ride, Reynolds is watching him and looks ready to make a move on taking him out. That is until Amanda and Charlie go up to Kyle. Kyle and Amanda head off for a ride on the carousel while Charlie hangs back.
While on the carousel, Kyle overhears Declan and Charlie having a conversation, and it turns out that while he’s going out with Amanda, Charlie is also seeing Hillary, hence the reason she didn’t want to talk about it. Kyle also sees Thomas, who is snuck up on by Reynolds. Kyle ends up getting another painful flash like he had before while listening to a conversation and also while outside Thomas’ apartment listening through the door in front of Declan. Reynolds hits Thomas with his gun to knock him down, and just when he’s about to take a shot at Kyle, Kyle goes down with a seizure. As Amanda is screaming for help, Thomas gets up and sees him down, perhaps not knowing that Reynolds didn’t shoot him.
Kyle is taken to the hospital. There, the doctor can’t tell Nicole or Stephen exactly what caused it or if it will happen again, but his MRI ended up being normal, which surprised Nicole considering his MRI was basically off the charts when he originally had one done. It turns out, Reynolds paid the doctor off to say that and hide the true results.
All of the people close to the Tragers and Kyle are there, so Hillary shows up and sees Charlie holding Amanda’s hand. Later on, Lori sees Hillary making out with Charlie. So that little angle has some potential going forward.
Detective Breen also shows up with some important news. Just as it seems Kyle is ready to spill the beans to Nicole about what he’s seen so far, Breen interrupts them in the room with the important news. Followed by him is a man and woman, the woman calls Kyle Noah and says she’s his mom.
10. Endgame
We’re still in the hospital to begin this episode, with Kyle still in bed with Lori and Josh trying to be there for him.
Stephen and Nicole talk to the Petersons, the man and woman who believe they are Kyle’s parents and are waiting on a DNA test. They say that five year ago he left for school and never came back and they found out about him on a missing persons Web site. They gave Nicole and Stephen a photo book to give to Kyle, something to possibly get his memory working, but it only infuriates him and has him yelling at Thomas Foss through the camera in his room back at home. The Petersons try and tell Kyle about his background, but it only makes Kyle more upset. Nicole is dealing with the situation well since this is what Kyle has been looking for and this kind of stuff is basically the nature of her job.
Kyle brings Josh along with him to Amanda’s confirmation, which he was invited to in the previous episode. Josh is really only there to see Ashleigh. Afterwards, Kyle goes to give Amanda a present, which turns out to be a necklace of a saint, but her mom is not too fond of Kyle and takes Amanda away. This leaves Kyle alone with Charlie, and Kyle tells him that he knows about what he’s doing with Hillary and it’s not his place to say anything but Charlie should.
The woman who has been working with Reynolds, Rebecca Thatcher, tells Reynolds that she doesn’t want any evidence of the experiment existing outside the walls of the company.
Stephen broke the news to the family that the DNA test was a match and the Petersons are Kyle’s real family. Kyle does not want to go and becomes so upset that he runs out and heads for the church. A man sits down next to him and tells him that there is somebody out there with his story waiting to tell him, at the right time.
As Kyle is walking outside, we see Reynolds chasing after him. A cloth is placed over Kyle’s face to knock him out and he is being driven somewhere in the back of a car. Kyle is on the ground and gets a vision similar to that of his dream but in more detail – Thomas and Kern are talking and Kern says something about the company wanting both Foss and Kyle dead, and that Baylin, who he mentored, walked out on this project a while ago. They struggle and Thomas shoots Kern. Kyle gets up and it was actually Thomas who took him to the woods, hoping that it would jog his memory of what happened. Kyle hears something and Kyle and Thomas begin getting shot at. They run, but Thomas gets hit. They managed to make it to the car and Kyle drives away. Kyle asks Thomas for more answers about his past and why the Petersons are claiming to be his family.
Next thing we see is Kyle back at the Tragers’ house, and he says that he remembers everything. He calls the Petersons mom and dad and says he remembers them. Then he tells stories about when he was younger and things they did.
A goodbye party is thrown for Kyle. There, we see Declan still suspicious of the Petersons. He gets angry with Kyle for helping him out with his mystery and then it just ends like this. Kyle says that he trusted Declan this far and if there were something to tell he would tell him. Also, Charlie talks to Kyle and says that anything he is doing with Hillary is merely physical, which she overhears and throws her drink at him. Lori later consoles her about this. Kyle has an emotional “see-ya” with Amanda.
It’s time for Kyle to leave with the Petersons, and Josh, who previously ran out, comes back just in time to say goodbye. They all say goodbye and before he gets into the car, Kyle tells Declan that he left something for him. The Petersons drive off with him, and then we see Nicole, who previously handled this situation pretty well up to that point, break down crying. Declan goes into Kyle’s room to find a box, with magazines and other stuff inside that clearly shows Kyle made up the memories he was talking about through research and not from actual happenings.
In the car, Kyle told the Petersons they were good liars, which they agreed and said they were supplied with the right DNA to make a match. Someone is on the phone with Thomas, who had previously refused to go to the hospital over his wound and now seems to be in a lot of pain. Thomas actually told Kyle to go with the Petersons and we get a flashback to the car scene with Kyle where he wanted answers. Thomas told Kyle that before the day he woke up in the woods, for all intents and purposes, he didn’t exist. The Petersons drop Kyle off in front of a house and say that’s where they were supposed to drop him off. He walks in and there sits Adam Baylin – ready to tell Kyle all the answers he wants to hear. As it appears, it would seem that Baylin’s been the man talking to Thomas and the man Kyle saw in the church.
Meanwhile, at a lab, Thatcher and Reynolds continue to plan how to take out Kyle and the people helping him. But, before that, No. 781228 is in excellent condition – with the letters “XX” on the case containing it.
And that’s the cliffhanger until Season Two …
Bonus Features:
Alternate “Pilot” Episode: This is basically the same thing as the original Pilot episode. A few scenes are cut for some different ones, but the most important events are still there. We still get Kyle waking up in the woods, but instead of wandering in the city, we next see him right in the juvenile center. The Tragers’ first scene is not Nicole trying to wake up Lori, who’s in bed with Declan, but instead the family at the table for breakfast with Josh busting on Lori for asking to go to Declan’s party. I personally like the episode they used a lot more than this alternate version. 41:45
“Endgame” Extended Episode: Yeah, so this was pointless. This is basically the same exact episode with maybe a minute or so more of the family inside of the house after Kyle left. This was completely unnecessary and I feel like I just watched the same episode twice, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing just that I don’t feel I got what was advertised. An extra minute or so is hardly “extended” in my book. 45:40
Kyle Declassified: This is just basically a feature showing what’s happened to Kyle so far with narration from Kyle. It’s the series boiled down to about 14 minutes. There’s also a behind the scenes look at Season Two with comments from the actors. 18:03
The Opinion … the show and the DVD
I didn’t actually watch the program during its original run on ABC Family, so it was all new to me coming into this DVD. I think the show was done decently well, though there are some complaints.
Though I never actually did see the show John Doe, it has been knocked for basically being the same thing. According to Wikipedia.org, Kyle XY was written before John Doe actually became a show. And John Doe didn’t last entirely that long. But it does take the uniqueness out of Kyle XY just a little bit. There’s also a lot of repetition in Kyle XY. How many times are Lori and Declan going to be back and forth on their on-again, off-again status? And just how many relationships are going to be drama-filled with people cheating?
But, it wasn’t all that bad and I think on an overall basis, Kyle XY is very entertaining. It has a lot of suspense with good character build. It’s just a storyline you get into and want to come back for more. And in a show, that’s basically what you’re looking for.
The DVD itself is decent. Basically, you want the episodes, and they come off great. The audio and video made a solid transition to DVD and everything comes off without a hitch and how it should be.
The bonus features are a bit disappointing, though. The alternate Pilot episode is good alternative viewing of the beginning of Kyle, but it’s really the same thing. Any changes that were there were not as good as what was in the real Pilot. The extended Endgame episode was also pretty poor. They didn’t give much extra, and what they did give was unnecessary. The Kyle Declassified feature is a good synopsis on what has happened so far, probably to catch people up who might have forgotten, as well as a good look into what we can expect from Season Two.
Overall, it was a good show on a decent DVD, something everybody who watched the show originally should own, as well as those with even a slight interest in what this show is all about.
The 411: Kyle XY is a good show with a lot of room for growth. The show has an intriguing concept that is thrown off a bit by repetitive stories. But it’s still a suspenseful program that will have you coming back for more. The DVD itself is great for all fans of the program and all those that want to check it out for the first time, but the bonus features are both limited and somewhat unnecessary. I do recommend it, though, for those interested in drama and Sci-Fi programming, as I’ve been turned into a fan through viewing it and will likely check it out on June 11 when Season Two premieres.
