Drama
Orphan Black: Echoes
The Orphan Black franchise is back. And its new show echoes the violence, profanity and homosexual romance from the original.
Jenna walks past the same homeless man each day on the way to work. She barely pays attention: She and her husband donate large sums of money to organizations that combat homelessness, so she feels that she’s doing enough.
But as she prays over her lunch, she finds herself face-to-face with God Himself.
“I know you were just asking for a blessing and getting ready to eat, but since you were talking to Me, I decided to talk back,” He says.
God decides to personally teach Jenna what it means to serve—truly serve—those around her. While the money she’s donated is good, it’s meant that Jenna’s missed the personal connection with the homeless. And He wants her to recognize how she might grow: Dollars and decimals are no substitutions for real human connection.
God likewise decides to personally connect with others, too—a corrupt atheistic car salesman; a boy whose parents are contemplating divorce; a girl who must choose which college she’ll attend—and more.
And in each encounter, God teaches these people a little bit about what it means to follow Him.
Destination Heaven is Great American Pure Flix’s next family-friendly Christian show. Each episode focuses on a different character learning a different biblical moral. And, as you might expect for Pure Flix, there’s little content here that’ll cause concern.
The worst content we might encounter? We briefly see one character temporarily suffer the beginning effects of a heart attack. Another character slyly references honeymoon activities. A parent yells at his son. For families exhausted by surprise issues, the fact that these examples are the worst we can find in Destination Heaven will come as a more joyful sort of surprise.
Each episode is structured around a biblical principle—from serving the less fortunate to casting our anxieties on God. As viewers, an episode’s principle won’t immediately be clear. But, like a puzzle, the idea will become evident as pieces are connected throughout the episode.
But Destination Heaven occasionally feels like a puzzle missing a couple pieces—wherein the full picture is so nearly there and yet just a little lacking.
For instance, I was disappointed that there was no gospel message provided throughout the series. It felt strange, for example, that God would reach out to an atheist in order to teach him how to “bear one another’s burdens” and “be still” (a la Galatians 6:2 and Psalm 46:10) without actually guiding the character into saving faith through the death and resurrection of Christ.
A few lines may cause some head-scratching regarding the show’s depiction of God’s omnipotence as well, such as when God claims to not be able to say for sure whether someone will live, or when He references a few movies and seems surprised to learn that a character hasn’t seen them. And, if it is not yet obvious, Christians holding to iconoclasm (that is, in depicting God as a person) will take issue with the show.
You might think all that is rather nitpicky, and I confess, it is. After all, being nitpicky is required when so few content issues exist. In fact, Destination Heaven is a perfectly fine show, one that carries plenty of positive messages that’ll be good for the whole family. And for families who sit down to watch together, we would encourage parents to connect the moral of these episodes to the gospel.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
As three young friends struggle to beat a level in an online video game, one reveals that he’s been struggling with family issues in real life, too.
One of the kids, Aiden, prays to God, who brings Aiden into one of the levels of the video game to speak with him. God is described as the “greatest game designer of all.” He wants to talk to Aiden about having faith in the real world, as Aiden doesn’t publicly display his faith. God puts the game’s invisibility cloak over Himself and explains that it’s what Aiden does to God when he doesn’t speak to his friends about Him.
Aiden decides to reach out to his friend, Ben, and Ben admits that his parents are in the process of getting divorced. Aiden suggests that Ben consider praying to God about it, and Ben does so. However, there’s animosity as the two wonder why God can’t just fix Ben’s parents’ relationship. Ben’s atheist mother catches Ben praying, and it moves her, causing her to try it for herself.
Various verses are referenced, including Ecclesiastes 4:12, Matthew 18:20, John 15:26, Romans 12:15 and Hebrews 13:8.
Stressed over a sudden life change, Nathan decides to go camping. God uses the opportunity to teach Nathan a valuable life lesson.
Nathan and God discuss Nathan’s relationship with his father, who used to take Nathan camping. Nathan admits that the relationship was strained as a result of his dad’s actions. From this, we hear a reference to Matthew 7:9-11.
Nathan comes across a father-son duo camping nearby, and he recognizes that the father is dismissive and verbally rude to his son—just as his own dad was—and God uses the encounter to teach Nathan about himself. “There’s only one perfect Father, and some people aren’t even satisfied with that,” God says.
We hear a reference to the encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35. God says, “Me works in mysterious ways.” When Nathan wonders if God helping him catch a fish would be cheating, God replies “If it were cheating every time I helped anybody do anything, then nothing would ever count—ever.”
Danika prays to God about her future with Alex as the two plan to get married.
Danika’s anxious over the thought of being married, dreaming up various worst-case scenarios that’ll be sure to spell the end of her marriage. At various points in those scenarios, Danika threatens a divorce, defying God’s command in Mark 10:9. Ultimately, Danika preemptively learns how to compromise in marriage as God reminds her of Matthew 12’s writings on anxiety.
God is seemingly confused when He references various movies, only to find out that Danika hasn’t seen them, implying a lapse in His omniscience. God claims that patterns are meant to be broken. We also hear a comment about “being the best version of yourself.” We hear a subtle reference to the gospel in the phrase “redeeming the world.”
There’s a sly reference to sex near the end of the episode.
When Harmony is given a chance to attend to the elite Kinser College of Music, she recognizes it’ll take a miracle to convince her parents to allow her to go.
Harmony decides to pray about whether she should attend the college. “Would it be wrong to ask you for a miracle?” She questions, and God responds that it’d be wrong to ask anyone except Him. However, He tells her to “back off the m-word” for now.
Meanwhile, Harmony’s parents pray that Harmony would choose to go to Princeton, and God speaks with them about their desires. Harmony’s father believes financial security is extremely important: “What else is there?” He asks. “You happen to be looking right at Him,” God responds.
Ultimately, God transports the family to a meadow hidden from people to show them a flower that will grow, flower and fade before any person can appreciate its beauty. “It exists only because I love to create,” God says. We hear a reference to Bezalel, the chief artisan of the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:30-35).
Justin, a greasy atheist used-car salesman, bargains with God to live a better life after he meets Him because of a heart attack.
Justin is incredulous when he has his out-of-body experience and meets God. He asks God if he’s going to survive his heart attack, but God responds that He can’t quite confirm or deny it.
“Right now, I can’t say for sure if you’re going to make it or not,” God says.
Justin decides to begin reading the Bible and going to church. He develops a legalistic mindset, hoping to please God through doing certain things that he feels will justify his life before God. But when he and God have another conversation, God tells Justin that “bearing each other’s burdens would fulfill nearly everything I ask” and to practice “being still” in order to get to know Him better (references to Galatians 6:2 and Psalm 46:10).
God later references knowing the appointed time He’s made for Justin to die (Psalm 139:16, Job 14:5). A woman references the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria (John 4). We’re told that sometimes doing what God asks us to do will come with a price.
God encourages Jenna to provide for the homeless just outside her workplace.
God brings to mind the Final Judgment as described in Matthew 25:31-46, in which He divides those faithful to Him from those who did not honor Him. Jenna recognizes that those in the latter group will be told by Jesus to depart into eternal punishment, for He never knew them (Matthew 7:21-23). However, God tells Jenna that she will inherit the kingdom. We hear a reference to the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
When asked about why God revealed Himself to Jenna as a craftsman making picture frames, God quips that He “would’ve gone with a burning bush (Exodus 3) or put you in the belly of a big fish (Jonah 2), but both of those seem so ‘Last Testament’ ago.”
Jenna says “God bless you” to a homeless man named Daryl. Daryl responds by admitting that he thinks people say such things as if they believe God will actually do it.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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