Jupiter’s Legacy “Painting The Clouds With Sunshine”

While Jupiter’s Legacy on the surface seems to be a show about the extended Sampson family, there actually are a number of supporting characters on display, characters that show that, well, there are legacy characters everywhere and not just with the Sampsons.

This episode sneaks up on that reveal in an interesting manner.

As always, Jupiter’s Legacy tells two stories, one in the past and one in the present.  This episode sews up the two in a rather neat way despite the fact the two stories probably couldn’t be more different.

In the past, there’s George Hutchence.  He’s Sheldon’s best friend, a billionaire playboy who offers Sheldon some advice on how to handle the voices in his head, but George’s advice falls short.  Meanwhile, he’s still living it up despite the Depression.

By episode’s end, it turns out the Depression hit George pretty hard too.  His house, once full of servants and possessions, is now a largely empty space with just one manservant.  Apparently, he let the others go with severance packages that were fairly generous, showing George cares quite a bit for people despite the fact that, well, he comes across as a vapid playboy.  George appeared in the other two episodes, but I hadn’t seen fit to mention him before.  Here, he got a bit of the spotlight, and it was a good look into the character.

But then in the present there’s Hutch.  He’s the planner for a crew of thieves.  He has no superpowers but does possess a rod of some kind that can transport him anywhere he says out loud.  He can be vague, too, saying just “somewhere safe” when things go bad.  He works with a crew of three others, all superpowered, and the one guy has a literal magic van.  Hutch owes money to different groups at the same time and needs to steal some kind of briefcase to get out of trouble.  The criminals involved all seem to be superhuman, and Hutch has a strict “no killing” code of his own.

Then, after a successful getaway from one group of crooks, Hutch hits someone with the van.  That someone is Chloe.  Chloe seems a little drunk, and for some reason, Hutch’s crew decides they need to take out the Utopian’s daughter before she brings them all in or something.

It was here that I wondered what the hell they were thinking.  Chloe has superpowers like her parents and brother, sure, but she also isn’t really a superhero.  There’s no indication that she has the slightest interest in fighting crime and might have let the foursome go if they just took off and didn’t look back.  However, they opt to fight her, and she, well, defeats them.  Hutch gets away.

Then Hutch proves he doesn’t have to hold the rod to control the rod when one criminal henchman swipes it from him.  That guy got to go to “shark-infested waters”.  Then Hutch used the rod to go into an absent crime boss’s heart.

Well, that was ruthless.  Hutch got everything he needed for now.

What all this has to do is…you know, I knew the answer before the episode revealed it, but Hutch is building something for a purpose.  His father is locked away somewhere, and Hutch is building a device to break him out.

Hutch’s father is George.

Say, would Chloe have recognized him if she saw him?

That’s something worth wondering.