'Bull' Season 4 Episode 2 review: A crisp story with a happy ending makes 'Fantastica Voyage' a vast improvement from Episode 1
This review contains spoilers for 'Bull' episode 2: 'Fantastica Voyage'
'Fantastica Voyage' is all about perception and faith. In 'The Da Vinci Code', there is an important scene where Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), and Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellan) talk about the possible hidden images in Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece The Last Supper.
At one point, Sir Leigh refers to scotomisation. Now, this isn't an everyday word that people use. Scotomisation is the psychological tendency in people to see what they want to see and not see what they don't want to see.
To put that in episode two's context, Bull (Michael Weatherly) sees a visionary in an entrepreneur, while the world sees her as a con artist judging her by her past.
The synopsis fits this theory: "Bull sees a visionary whereas the federal government sees a con woman when he helps the defense of a charismatic entrepreneur, Whitney Holland (Liz Alderfer), who is accused of defrauding investors in her seemingly groundbreaking water filtration system company."
If 'Labor Days' had a futuristic ending, this one had a feel-good ending to it. This episode is about Bull's instincts on a person and how it is proved right.
This episode also seems to have made Twitterati happy as a bunch of plaudits followed soon after the episode's airdate. By the way, did you know Bull's glasses were fake?
The case
Whitney Holland is on a mission: ensure people in the world will never run short of water again. She and her team devise a groundbreaking water filtration system, except, her R&D man thinks it's a lot to pull off. He backs off from the project and instead puts her in court for attempting to defrauding investors.
Is Whitney a fraud?
It does look like it, however, Bull isn't convinced. Whitney's backstory is revealed to be a lie. TAC runs a thorough background check on her to realize she was inconsistent.
To begin with, her father's death was a lie, as was her college dropout story. Even so, he persists in backing Whitney, despite Benny's (Freddy Rodriguez) reservations about how she wasn't able to prove her innocence.
Add to this, Whitney's habit of writing bad checks in college. Bull decides to run a polygraph test on her himself, where she still stands her ground that she could supply clean water on a larger scale.
The test begins
Bull goes about with the jury selection process and they pick jurors who will help Whitney win. Benny too scores brownie points by putting the whistleblower on a spot.
He exposes him by letting the world know that the employee would make a profit if the government wins against his former employer Whitney.
All's well that ends well
When questioned by the DA, Whitney's lies surface and Bull along with the team buckle up for the worst. However, the case goes to mistrial as one juror is still undecided.
The court gives Bull seven months to come back, giving Whitney ample time to prove her water filtration system works. Incidentally, this is the same juror Bull and Benny pick.
He is a man who is intrigued and believes Whitney stands a good chance of pulling this off and also extends help by offering to fund for her research.
The final verdict
We would rate this one a good watch. It has got a tinge of emotion to it and minus the science and tech, it is about a woman who believes in what she's doing.
Series lead Michael Weatherly does a terrific job in directing the episode. A crisp story and an unexpected ending have always been 'Bull's forte and Weatherly sticks to the winning formula to deliver an episode with a happy ending. 'Fantastica Voyage' is an improvement compared to 'Labor Days'.