The art of a cliffhanger is a very precarious craft. The audience must be wholly invested for the unsolved ending to capture their interest and leave them wanting more, or it will risk losing them to disinterest and annoyance. Traveler has walked this fine line since the first episode, sometimes succeeding and other times leaving me rolling my eyes as an episode left off on a suspenseful note. Unfortunately, last night, on the finale, the suspense was too much to be captivating. It was just irritating.

After joining forces and ditching Marlowe in the back alley, the three boys are reunited for the first time since the pilot episode. They bicker, Jay throws a couple punches, they stare in awe as Will displays his knowledge of gun shots and hotwiring cars. Basically, it's all filler time for Will to reveal that the painting everyone wants so badly is in Tyler's car, and they need to retrieve it in order to have a chip on Jack Freed.

Borjes goes to arrest Fog at his eating club, but Otis Whealing, the escaped FBI agent they previously had in custody, is waiting outside. He shoots Fog and flees. Borjes goes running after the suspect, and though he finally catches Otis on the top floor of an abandoned building, Chambers is right behind him. No, not to claim credit, but rather to shoot Borjes for doing "too good work." So, now we know that Chambers is a double agent, but last time I checked, double agent does not mean Most Unconvincing Actor Ever. But that could just be me.

Marlowe uses her NSA contact to figure out who the Joseph from the recording might be. Against orders again!, she leaves the FBI Field Office to go to his house, and I would just like to take this time to say that she doesn't walk, she shuffles awkwardly. When she's not walking quickly - and even then - it is almost distracting how much she resembles a zombie, particularly when she's supposed to be "mournful" after Borjes is killed. Anyway, as she talks to Joseph, he gets a cell phone call, immediately after which he starts to shoot at Marlowe. After a mildly exciting showdown, Marlowe proves her FBI chops, shooting Joseph in the chest. Though she wins the shoot out, she gets no information from Joseph. But she does get the last incoming phone number - Agent Fred Chambers.

While the FBI sorts through their own drama, Will, Jay, and Tyler argue their way to the police impound lot, continually pointing guns at each other. Tyler's car is on a flat bed, and as Jay breaks into it, the truck begins moving. In a exciting for the sake of excitement action scene, he rips out the painting and jumps out of the car from the moving flat bed. The boys take off, but not before Jay and Tyler really start to question Will, while also often threatening to kill him. As an aside, I like how many times they all threaten to kill each other, because I actually think at this point it was pretty realistic given that I want to kill them too, sometimes.

Will calls up Jack Freed to arrange a meeting for the painting. In some fast trickery, Will gives him a place to meet, but instead ambushes Freed at his car before he can even leave. Freed calls on Will to complete the bargain, and here Will turns on Jay and Tyler, which seemed a little fake. Probably because it was. After getting Jack to admit everything out loud, in true villain versus superhero fashion, the boys pull a recording device out of the rafters and go to turn Jack in.

Jack rightly comments that no government agency is going to believe the boys, and that he'll claim the tape is doctored. In an interesting commentary on the Homeland Security situation, they tell Jack that there are no plans to take him to the authorities, but rather, to the press. Sitting outside what appears to be a version of the New York Times, Jack, in exchange for his release, offers to tell them about the fourth branch - apparently the painting is evidence of its existence. This mysterious fourth branch is who Will worked for, why Jay's dad served his country. Though tempted, the boys walk away and call up to the newspaper to tell them to come look in the limo that's parked outside for answers about the Drexler bombing. Too bad it explodes.

Here's the thing - that's the end of the episode. With not so great numbers, this is likely the last episode of Traveler we'll ever see. And my last impression is that it was about to go Da Vinci Code on me, except an explosion erased every last hope that the boys had of being exonerated. Maybe in later episodes, they could find more evidence, but it would all probably continue to blow up until the series finale. There are so many ways to conclude with the possibility for a future, while still wrapping up the past. Traveler was catchy and fun to watch - too bad it feel into the trap of a poorly conceived cliffhanger.

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My TV has been very good to me this summer. I didn't watch the Grey's Anatomy finale on it, so I've really had no reason to get angry. But this past Wednesday night, I found myself yelling at my TV set. Not in frustration, or disgust, as I once thought Traveler would make me. No, instead, as the final scene of the episode flashed onto the screen, I compulsively screamed, "BADASS!" Because that's the only way to describe this past week's episode.

Split up from each other for the first time, Jay and Tyler do what any red-blooded young men would - they get themselves some lovin'. After Tyler VERY narrowly escapes from the FBI foot hunt (though, was anyone else wondering why they didn't just shoot him?), he goes to a bar, dejected and thinking of Jay. He gets totally sloshed, but somehow manages to hook up with the bartender.

As much as I certainly didn't want to see Tyler get caught, the ineptitude of the FBI in pursuing him is getting a little ridiculous. He walked through Times Square, drunkenly stumbling, they watched him on traffic cameras, and they still couldn't capture him? That does not say much for the security of our nation. Nor does Agent Chambers' acting skills, which were so atrocious in this episode that I refuse to even address his scenes.

Across town, Jay orders some take out for Kim, which calls into question, again, the abilities of the Feds. A food delivery that the terror suspect's girlfriend didn't order, arriving at her home already paid, with a personal note attached? Isn't that just a tiny bit suspect? Anyway, Kim meets Jay at his motel room and after some namby-pamby half-hearted arguments from her, they get it on. Good for them.

Kim and Jay comb over the evidence that Jay and Tyler found, listening to an audio file that basically exonerates them. Kim explains Marlow's visit earlier in the episode, and encourages him to turn himself in with the evidence. Instead, he draws up an elaborate plan to have Kim lure Marlow to a nightclub. But while Jay confronts Marlow, Tyler, armed with the knowledge that Freed is in on this whole thing, calls Kim to warn her against going to the Feds.

But wait, where's Will Traveler in all this? Very busy, being a badass. First he threatens to hang the gun hookup guy by putting him in a noose on top of a car and slowly, slowly backing away. After getting what he wants there, he analyzes the picture of his dead girlfriend to find the tattoos on the arm of the person holding up her head. With some handy work, he finds him, kicks the living daylights out of him, gets his information and turns to leave. When the hit man tells him that "Mary" would be proud, however, Will turns around and fires a few shots into him, with an unbelievably pissed yet satisfying, "Her name was Maya."

The information from the hit man implicates Freed as the start of the order to kill Maya. Apparently, Freed used to run an operation that shut down years ago, and now everyone working for him is merely doing his personal bidding. Corrupt government agents - always a good twist.

Kim returns to the club, watching Jay present the evidence about Will to Marlow. But when Marlow grabs Jay's gun, Kim retrieves a ridiculous metal pole from her boot - seriously, what is that doing in there - and cuts the power to the club. Marlow immediately radios that Jay been located, as he scoops up his evidence in the dark (and I'm willing to bet anything that he lost the audio file). As Tyler runs to the club, he hears the radio that Burchell has been spotted. Jay tries to run through the ally, but Marlow catches up. She holds him at gun point and, well, it certainly seems like the end of Jay's escape.

All of a sudden, Tyler shows up, holding a policeman hostage, demanding Jay's release. Marlow tells him, very astutely, that he won't shoot anyone. But from behind we hear, "No. But I will."

And as the camera panned to Will Traveler there was only one appropriate response. BADASS!

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As I've noted before, Traveler has its on weeks, and it has its off weeks. Given the triumphantly suspenseful episode last week, it only makes sense that this week was incredibly boring. However, instead of throwing random unconnected events at the audience, the writers took this week to restate the obvious, and repeat things that we simply already knew.

Tyler and Jay returned to their anxious and angry arguing, dispelling the team image they had begun to cultivate in the previous episode. When they arrive at the office of the mysterious backer for Will's college career, all they find is a gutted apartment with shredded paper in bags. But Tyler realizes all the shredded paper is watching one specific ticker of the stock market, HOL - the very same company that Carlton Fog mentions in the first episode. Holloway is the company that insured the Drexler, and tons of its stock moved before the explosion. Wouldn't you think the idea of the shredder would be to eliminate that incriminating detail?

Jay spends the night at Eddie's (gagging and hog-tying Eddie, which is pretty fun to watch), and when he wakes up, goes to Kim's to stare longingly at her now empty apartment. Here's what I decided after that: if I see the flashback scene of them kissing before she moves to New York one more time, I will turn off Traveler and never go back. Can't the writers come up with at least one other good flashback of them loving each other? So, Jay misses Kim, something we already knew.

Tyler doesn't have much success with his dad, who he sees talking to the creepy blue-eyed Department of Homeland Security mastermind. Carlton essentially tells Tyler that he's a deadbeat without any abilities, he wanted him dead, and to get lost. Something, again, the audience already knew.

Meanwhile, the Feds are literally one step behind Jay and Tyler, getting to the Boston library the day after they do. Marlowe and her Boston contact run directly in to Will Traveler and finally affirm his existence after seeing him on the video tape. Will exists, is dangerous. Something we knew.

Agent Chambers, reinforcing his laughably bad acting skills, yells at Borjes to find out who killed their agent last week. Borjes explains that though the booking was done properly, all the documentation of their prisoner has disappeared. Maybe the audience didn't already know this, per say, but it certainly wasn't surprising. When they lift a print off the throat of the dead agent, they find that the entry in the computer is completely blocked. When they finally unlock the security, it turns out that (gasp) the escaped prisoner is from the Department of Homeland Security. Duh. We already knew that.

Finally, while the Feds once again chase their tails, we get Will Traveler, who is still without a doubt the best character on TV. Through flashbacks - none of which are new - we are reminded that Will is unhappy that Maya is dead. After kicking the living daylights out of some goon who assaults him at Maya's house, he refrains from killing him, telling him to warn a mysterious "him" that Will is coming. Will is angry Maya was killed. Duh.

He seeks out an old friend, who, even when shot, tells him nothing new - Will has something "they" want. She doesn't even know what it is, and the audience does. There's no new insight into why the painting is so valuable, or so important. Will narrowly misses being killed by her, but displays a whole new side of depravity, digging his thumbs into her gunshot wounds to get the information he wants. So, Will is a badass, has the painting, they want the painting. We knew that.

Though the episode ends in a suspenseful chase as the Feds spot Tyler, this episode is nothing more than filler. In a high energy, conspiracy fueled TV show, there's no reason to have episodes with no news. But judging from the scenes of the next episode (they're taking July 4th off, patriotically enough), there's a really exciting and revealing hour in the works next time. But, then again, we already knew that.

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Traveler, the show, is much like the world's most obnoxious boyfriend. Every week you say to yourself, "I'm going to end this. He's too closed off, our fights are so circular, and even though he was better last week, this week he's being terrible." He says the right things, but it takes him weeks longer to say it than you wanted. And then he does something so sweet, and you figure you might as well stick it out another week to make sure he really is as awful as you think. Before you know it, you're in a committed relationship.

Traveler, the person, is, as we learned this week, also not the best boyfriend. But he is definitely a complete and utter badass. The episode picks up exactly where it was left the week before, and after some back and forth between the boys and the Porter With No Purpose, we follow Traveler to some warehouse, where gunfire breaks out. Though the Porter With No Purpose stays behind to fight the gunfire, my money's on him for coming back again at some point, with no specified purpose, of course.

Finally, the FBI starts to pick up some clues, and actually follow the Will Traveler lead. They identify the guy who is actually killed in the Drexler blast (and in a surprising twist, the audience actually knows who he is and why he was there), and in searching his apartment, run into one of the Department of Homeland Security goons. Instead of running around chasing their tails like usual, this week the Feds had a taste of what Jay and Tyler have been dealing with. The goon will not answer questions, and frustrates the FBI with the same inconclusive wall that Jay and Tyler have been running up against for weeks (or days, depending on your time scale). When the prisoner escapes and Agent Marlowe realizes that something larger is going on, it seems as though the Feds have finally caught on to the (obvious) bigger picture.

When Jay and Tyler find out what the key Maya gave them unlocks, they find Will's hidden stash of passports with different identities, receipts, tons of currency, and a gun. Interestingly enough, the receipts show one backer throughout Will's Yale career. Finally learning a little bit more of the incognito approach, Jay and Tyler find a computer and research the mystery backer.

Maybe it was harsh to criticize the boys at first as they fumbled around looking for clues. Their actions now have directive and confidence. More importantly, their chemistry is getting increasingly enjoyable to watch, as they play off of one another like true best friends would. The closing scene in the car, as they laugh hysterically for no good reason was a very well executed reminder that these boys are just some young kids caught in trouble and that the audience should be rooting for them.

I'm still not sure whose side we're supposed to be on, or which side Will Traveler is on. But what I am sure of is that when Will, while handcuffed, stuck a stake through the interrogator's heart - that was the coolest thing I've seen on television in ages. And when it turned out the hotel room was actually a sound stage, I really wanted to know where the hell he was. So, like the devoted girlfriend I am, I'll be watching next week, hoping Traveler will be as good to me as it was last week. And maybe hoping that Will Traveler might give me a call, too.

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I am just going to come out and say it - I have no idea what is going on with Traveler. The past weeks set us up for some kind of explanation, but this week's episode only asked more questions and confused the given pseudo-answers. It's not just the new pieces of unclear evidence that murk up the plot, but the continual deception. If nobody is who they say they are, and everybody is trying to kill Jay and Tyler (except maybe the Porter), there is no feasible way that they're getting out of this mess. More importantly, I am getting altogether too confused to care.

The boys return to Maya's bookshop, angry at her deception. Though the man listening in on her activities hears their exchange, he can't do all that much about it, given that the Porter shoots him in the chest. Why? No idea. I will give the Porter credit, though, for shooting the Bad Guy in the head as punishment for deception and refusal to tell the straight truth. I wonder if the writers ever feel like turning that gun on themselves.

Maya rushes Jay and Tyler out of the shop and gives them the rundown on what Will was doing, in addition to dating her and being pointedly mysterious. I have watched the scene a half dozen times, and the best I can glean is that Will thought he was serving his country and Maya's brother put drugs in her bookshop. Oh, and Will had a key that would apparently get him out of any kind of mess, not that Maya has a clue what the key does. So she gives it to Jay and Tyler, which probably means they will spend the rest of the season trying to find the box that it fits so they can find a treasure map inside, probably with no coordinates.

The episode then gets pretty tough to recap, because I don't know what creepy Blue Eyed Homeland Security guy's name is, and he appears to calling the shots. He sends distinctly speeding cars to Deer Harbor, but oddly enough, they can only catch Maya. And the Porter watches it all, intently tailing a white van.

Luckily, if you want something to take home from this episode, we get a lesson on Occam's Razor by Agent Chambers as he tells Kim to ditch the conspiracy theory. It's moments like this where I slightly forgive Traveler for still making no sense, because it reminds me that, according to the show, the museum blew up only two days ago. There is a limit to the amount of progress that can be made in two days, and I admit that, even while throwing popcorn at the screen and telling the TV that if it's fantasyland, they should figure something out already. Kim goes to be with her parents, but first, has a conversation with Jay where she shakes him up and asks him to turn himself in. As he contemplates his morality, a sudden reunion occurs - Jay and Tyler see Will.

What follows is the most confusing scene ever. Will turns, sees the boys, sees the white van (the very same one the Porter had been tailing), and then the train pulls in front of the boys. That's great, because, of course, it means they have no idea what happens next, and neither do I. The Porter, who has logically been watching, shoots Will, tells him to stay put, but, alas Will is pulled into the white van. The train pulls away, the boys spot the Porter and the episode ends.

Who is the white van? Who is the Porter? Who is Will Traveler/Daniel Taft? Who is on whose side? Why is the Department of Homeland Security involved? These are times when Traveler veers into territory that belong to the epic Harrison Ford movie The Fugitive. However, the plus side of The Fugitive is that it ends in three hours. This is the fourth hour of Traveler. I'm hoping they jump into the ravine soon, or put me out of my misery.

I'm glad that Traveler is on at 10 PM. That way, when it's over at 11 PM, I don't feel badly going directly to bed. Because the uniting characteristic of every episode, brought to a fever pitch in the third, is that Traveler is exhausting. This week, Jay and Tyler very narrowly escaped capture not once, not twice, but three times in their hour-long allotment on ABC. But thankfully, they also brought some answers too.

Jay opens the episode by acting as shady as humanly possible in a flea market in upstate New York, and in turn getting spotted by a watchful citizen. The Feds knock down the door of their motel to find, of course, that they have just missed the boys. Jay and Tyler have a very circular fight as they run through some kind of orchard - hey, at least it's not the woods anymore - the upshot of which is that they're going back to New Haven.

Back in New Haven, Jay and Tyler pop into their old friend Nell's house - or in Tyler's case, his old flame. Much to their surprise, they find their things have been switched out for Will's, making it look like they had planned the Drexler bombing. It's at this point that the boys exclaim that they've been set up. Well, uh, yah.

Things get interesting when Nell walks in, a very pretty girl whose relations with Tyler were ruined when she insisted on applying for a job with his father's company. Given that we already know Carlton Fog is in some way in on this whole scam, Nell already seems a little less than innocent. In flashbacks, Tyler remembers Nell's distaste for Will, and her refusal to go investigate when Tyler finds that Will has a carrel in an odd library. Perhaps Nell is sincere, and she does help Jay and Tyler narrowly escape the FBI again as they burn the planted documents. But her seductive wrangling of Tyler in flashbacks, combined with the vaguely risqué skirt flip give her character just a little bit of an intriguing edge.

Tyler's flashback points the boys toward the library. Jay and Tyler find an obscene sum of cash, a train schedule, and a gun in the ceiling tile of Will's carrel, a scene that made me pause and wish I had looked around just a little harder when I was studying in the library this past year. As they turn to leave the library, it turns out that Agent Marlow and company have them cornered. The chase scene through the library ends when Jay opens a wall, and the boys disappear behind it. Seriously.

They exit through the steam tunnels of the library, and I have to give the writers credit for pulling out that old college standby, though you would think the FBI would know about it. But still, the escape through the steam tunnel system is a great shout out to the college life, and I'm glad to see the show playing to that demographic. Plus, steam tunnels are pretty cool. Jay and Tyler head to the train station to take the same train that Will had marked on the schedule.

While Jay and Tyler repeatedly barely escape capture, Kim is being hounded by news and paparazzi. She loses her job, but in going through her belongings at work, finds that one existing picture of Will Traveler. But of course, immediately after she prints it, a man bumps into her on the street and steals the photo out of her purse. At that point in the episode, I did have to wonder who isn't in on the set up.

But there's plenty in this episode about who's behind the Drexler episode - and that's the enjoyable, albeit exhausting, portion of this episode. There's someone in Homeland Security who seems to be directing the whole operation. His minions steal the photos of Traveler, and he is the same man who ended the second episode pleased with the elimination of Jay and Tyler. Who is he? Why does he want this to happen? We have no idea, other than his ominous interrogation regarding the contents of the blown up exhibit.

And as Will Traveler reappears and unfurls a stolen painting from the Drexler to find out what exactly it is, it appears that there's more terrorism than even the show's namesake understands. And I'm so tired.

The first episode of Traveler had me literally on the edge of my seat. Not having seen any previews, I actually jumped when the Met exploded. And I was really annoyed when the episode ended, only because I wanted to see more. But after watching this week's episode, I realize why so many watchers were wary of the new series. They were Lost fans.

I never got into Lost. I saw part of one episode, maybe, while I was cooking dinner one night, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on. So I lack the jaded consideration of serial dramas that so many others have honed with Lost. This week's Traveler gave me a peak into what that disillusionment must feel like.

Carlton sets them up with a shady agent, who apparently fixes reputations. His recommendation is that the boys head to Sweden. That plot twist introduced a whole element of absurdity that finally pushed the show over the edge. This sketchy guy, who looks nothing like a lawyer, and everything like a hit man, is taping the boys as they take polygraph tests. In what world would anyone think that's a good idea? Maybe they've been through a lot, but their trust, even wary, of the blatantly questionable goon was simply ridiculous. Though Jay has a gut reaction of distaste, all it takes to get him back on board is Carlton Fog's suspicious request that Jay play his son's keeper, as Tyler is evidently incompetent.

Jay has convenient flashbacks throughout the episode, as he apparently has the world's best memory. He not only remembers key moments of the past three years, but more importantly, he can connect seemingly inconsequential pieces of conversation to establish that Carlton Fog was in cahoots with Will Traveler. He has some lovey-dovey memories with his girlfriend, talking about New York, and their future together. But his past is not nearly as interesting as the back stories on Lost, at least from what I've heard, and the fact that I am even making that comparison is not a good sign.

Meanwhile, the Feds are hitting brick walls right and left. Marlow, the only agent who believes in the boys' innocence, is told to keep her place and not jeopardize the investigation by challenging the majority. In fact, Agent Chambers, a white man, tells the African-American woman that her mistakes are the reason she isn't at the helm of the project. I could not have been the only one who felt that his comments were almost humorous in their denial of racial overtones. His insistence that her promotion is imminent once everyone forgets her "mysterious" mistakes calls for an extreme suspension of reality. In a conspiracy theory based show, with multiple last minute escapes and sometimes foreshadowing so obvious it borders on silly, the viewer shouldn't really be expected to swallow that much more than is necessary for the plot. And the lame, in-house FBI rivalry? It does nothing for the plot, only clunkers it down in more confusion and unnecessary twists.

Unfortunately for the FBI, Kim, Jay's girlfriend, tells them nothing they want to hear, dramatically hanging up on Jay's call just moments before the Feds can trace it. Her big, sweeping contribution to the episode is a sketch of Will Traveler. Her artwork reveals the overriding problem with the second episode. I started and ended the episode with the exact same amount of knowledge of what exactly happened and why. The only thing this episode gave to viewers was the hitman's grunted, "His father is the least of your problems." At this point, if anyone is unclear on the point that Jay and Tyler are in trouble, well, they've got their own problems.

I like Tyler, and I like Jay. I want to know who Will Traveler is, and how he is connected to blowing up the Met, and going to Yale with the boys. But episodes like this week's are pointless, and do nothing to further an already confusing situation. As this week concluded with yet another car chase followed by yet another foot race through the woods, I can only hope that next week gives more answers, and leaves me less Lost.