YMMV / The Pretender

• Adorkable: Jarod has a childlike innocence, purity of emotion, and wonder (when not Pretending); is just terribly nice and sweet to innocents; practically squees any time he gets to interact with a family that really loves one another; and is genuinely curious and puzzled about U.S. societal and cultural norms; all of which combined makes even the over six-foot, highly imposing Jarod someone that is just terribly adorable when he's not being the psycho, badass avenger and defender of the weak.
• Angst? What Angst?: In "Toy Surprise," we find that Mr. Parker never seemed perturbed by his wife's death. Sydney even recalled Mr. Parker told him "Life goes on" and resumed life as if nothing happened - immediately after the funeral, thus suggesting this trope. A DSA that Angelo had obtained even shows that exact conversation, but after Sydney leaves, we see Mr. Parker sit down and openly weep over Catherine.
• Better on DVD: Loose ends or not, the DVDs make it a lot easier to try to keep track of what's going on instead of getting one episode at a time.
• The Chris Carter Effect: It became increasingly apparent that the writers had no real idea where any of the the ongoing mysteries of The Centre were actually going, nor any interest in resolving them.
• Cry for the Devil: In the flashbacks to "Once in a Blue Moon," Jarod stops a serial killer (but fails to save the final victim). In the present, he foils the copycat in time and discovers the body of the girl he failed to save all those years ago. In the next scene, we see Big Bad Mr. Raines clutching the girl's necklace and crying. Sydney lampshades this trope by telling Miss Parker, "Sometimes, even the devil deserves a little privacy."
• Fridge Brilliance: The B-plot of "Cold Dick" has Broots and Miss Parker end up in bed together when they arrive in Vegas, but it turns out to be All Just a Dream. There's actually a hint at this in the call letters of the radio station Broots puts on. First of all, the station has five call letters when American radio stations normally have four. Second, the first call letter is W when they're supposed to be in Las Vegas. Radio stations west of the Mississippi River have call letters starting with K.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In "Red Rock Jarod," Lyle has kidnapped a pregnant woman and buried her alive. To get him to reveal where she was buried, Kyle intends to use his knife. The stabbing happens off-screen, but when next seen, Lyle is clearly suffering from a nasty wound. Years later, another Jeffrey Donovan character would repeatedly insist that the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique never works.
• It Was His Sled: Jarod having both a brother and sister.
• Moral Event Horizon: Mr. Lyle killing Kyle.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • "Not Even a Mouse." How George died: After the drunk-driving coroner accidentally hit him - she panicked, injected him with a paralytic, and finished him off via autopsy. Later, a disgusted Jarod paralyzes her and sends her off to the same fate (or so she thinks). Uh - this is a Christmas Episode, right?
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Most famously, Kyle is Michael Westen without the scruples.
  • Jon Gries, who plays Broots, has shown up in dozens of HITG roles. Today he is most recognizable for playing Uncle Rico, Roger Linus, and Sheriff Sturkey.
  • Sydney is Lodz.
  • Mr. Lyle is Mike Decker.
  • Jake Lloyd appeared in about half a dozen episodes (in flashbacks, as young Angelo) before being cast as Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace.
  • "Homefront" had a rather nasty father who has been a rather nasty person in a number of other things (including the vampire businessman who gets defenestrated in the first episode of Angel), and his ex-wife is Jan.
  • Jarod's clone is Kevin Fischer and Ian Thomas.
  • In the episode "Scott Free", Scott's son is Drake before he met Josh.
  • The Centre contractor in the episode "Over the Edge" went on to become Holland Manners.
  • The Vietnamese immigrant in "Collateral Damage" is Jin Kwon.
  • The property developer in "Gigolo Jarod" is Elisa Maza and Allison Blake.
  • The young man Jarod helps in "Toy Surprise" is Francis from Malcolm in the Middle.
  • One of Jarod's students in "School Daze" is young Jack and Luke Girardi.
  • The two-parter "Bloodlines" stars Haley Joel Osment, in a Not-So-Small Role. Jarod must identify which one of three children is a genius. Since two of the children are unknown child actors and the last one was the lead in The Sixth Sense the year after appearing on this show, it's not hard for a post-1999 audience to guess which one it is.
  • A behind-the-scenes example: Javier Grillo-Marxuach was a member of the writing team for the first season.
  • Janitor Kenny, whose murder may have been a catalyst for Jarod's escape, is Dr. Phlox
  • Mr. White is played by Jigsaw.
  • Lounge singer Billie in "Pool" is Sydney Bristow/Elektra Natchios, and the man who killed her father is Peter Burke.
  • Charles Logan is the crooked reporter Jarod attempts to expose in the first season episode "Jaroldo".
  • Bryan Cranston plays the talk show host at the center of "P.T.B.", shortly before he became famous as Hal Wilkerson.
• Seasonal Rot: Season 4. The Chris Carter Effect was in full force, old storylines were being recycled, and newer ones (like Mr. Parker on the run and the whole story behind Thomas' murder) meandered. Those kind of complaints certainly cropped up in the first three seasons, but individual episode quality also began to suffer.
• Tearjerker: The end of "The Dragon House, Part 2." Jarod's brother Kyle is presumed dead (though he is later shown to have survived), while he found his mother and sister - only to lose them again just as quickly.
  • "Red Rock Jarod," where Kyle dies for real in Jarod's arms.
  • The end of "Under the Reds" when despite Jarod's best efforts, Steven Chambers' parents decide to take their comatose son off life support and donate his heart to a boy in Cleveland.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Mr. White, the enigmatic albino played by Tobin Bell. Among other things, White acts as The Centre's "finder" for families that could be used as leverage. He plays a notable role in the Season 4 premiere, has been searching for Jarod's family and even tells him he'll "see [him] on down the road," but he never returns.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The first half of Season 4 sees Mr. Parker on the run from the Triumvirate. Not once does he ever cross paths with Jarod during this time. Mr. Parker is also marked for death and struggling to regain his position, but almost all of that material is kept off-screen.
• Toy Ship: Young Jarod and Miss Parker.
  Jarod: I still remember the little girl who gave me my first kiss.

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