5: All's Well With Roswell
How Odyssey is an exceptional place.
By David Hilder | March 23, 2012
How Odyssey is an exceptional place.
By David Hilder | March 23, 2012
AIO fans will all agree that Odyssey is an exceptional place. But to what extent is it out of the ordinary? After reading Rusty Gordon’s book about Odyssey, Tales of a Small-Town Thug, we hear that one reviewer said they had originally thought the town was like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting, but after reading the book they thought it sounded “more Roswell than Rockwell.” In the episode Around the Block, Eugene explains that this is a reference to Roswell, New Mexico, which conspiracy theorists claim is a “focal point for the appearance of UFOs and strange occurrences.” Obviously, the town of Odyssey doesn’t match that description at all, does it? Well, apart from Terror from the Skies, the possibility of aliens in AIO has not really come up, except maybe when Jared shares a little too much on Candid Conversations with Connie. But what about the town being a focal point for strange occurrences? That actually seems to describe Odyssey pretty well.
The town of Odyssey and its citizens always seem to be involved in odd or unusual situations. Maybe not all the time, but more often than one would think possible. Even when ignoring most of the wild Imagination Station rides the kids go on, there are plenty of instances that point to Odyssey being a Roswell-ish place. And not just Odyssey in general, but more often than not the building of Whit’s End itself. Remarkable things and events seem to surround that place.
Adventures in Odyssey starts off early on with some real excitement in Album 2 with The Case of the Secret Room and The Last Great Adventure of the Summer. The first is about a 40-year-old robbery and murder mystery where a skeleton is found in the basement of Whit’s End, along with the stolen money. A mysterious woman, a police car chase, a creepy old mansion on Chatwick Hill, and African poison darts are also involved. The second is about a kid who finds out his father happens to be a CIA agent who knows karate. They are chased by a man in black and are eventually caught and taken to London where they are threatened to be fed to piranhas. Not exactly the typical person’s experience.
Then there’s the Blackgaard Chronicles. It starts off with Dr. Regis Blackgaard, the man who tried to buy the Fillmore Recreation Center property and keep Whit’s End from opening, coming to Odyssey to try to steal the Applesauce program from Whit. Later, Connie and Whit bump into Blackgaard again in Chicago where he is after a military computer program this time and we learn Whit once worked for the Department of Defense. It seems most people have at one point or another. Whit’s son Jason, an NSA agent, encounters Blackgaard while fighting a terrorist group in Switzerland. Perhaps Blackgaard is just drawn to people with the last name Whittaker. Blackgaard then secretly comes to Odyssey to murder Mustafa, a Red Scorpion agent who had been working for him to obtain the TA-418 formula.
In Album 25, Darkness Before Dawn, Blackgaard returns to Odyssey officially and runs for mayor, while at the same time trying to obtain the Ruku virus to take over the world. He does manage to take control of Whit’s End, but then chooses to die in an explosion in the underground tunnels because he believes the virus he was accidentally infected with was incurable, even though an antidote could have been produced.
But he had a backup plan, as any proper villain would. Blackgaard had implanted a virus into the Imagination Station in an attempt to live forever. But he was fooled by a computer version of Whit and was foiled when he tried to attach himself to it, just as Hank Murray had been fooled into wasting his last bullet on a life-size TV screen version of Whit when he tried to rob Whit’s End in the episode Hold Up. Obviously it was nothing usual in the town of Odyssey. There are more versions of Whit in cyberspace than in reality, but luckily the digital ones get killed instead of the real one. Also, the appearance of Edwin Blackgaard, Regis’ good twin, doesn’t seem far-fetched at all, at least in the AIO universe. Especially when you consider that he moved to Odyssey of all places without knowing his brother was obsessed with the town or had ever been there.
Not only were there secrets to be uncovered in the basement of Whit’s End, but also in the attic. In The Treasure of LeMonde, playing an organ a certain way opens up a secret room which causes a competitive search for the hidden treasure of LeMonde. As time goes on in AIO, it becomes increasingly more obvious how fortunate Whit was when he decided to buy the building, which would become Whit’s End, after his wife’s death. For example, a closer examination of the tunnels underneath leads to the discovery that Whit’s End just happened to have been an important stop on the Underground Railroad that helped runaway slaves escape.
In Last in a Long Line, Eugene finds the tombstone of his father, Leonard, and discovers that his grandfather had been living nearby all this time, but had since died several weeks ago. Eugene then happens to go to the exact same village that his father had gone to in Africa 20 years earlier and discovers his father may still be alive. Then after a long search, he finds him posing as a homeless person in Connellsville, coincidentally right next to Odyssey. They later go to New York to find evidence to convict Dalton Kearn, the villain who had been searching for Leonard, and was also raising Eugene’s brother, Everett, who no one else knew was alive. And subverting the best security that money can buy isn’t too difficult to pull off when you have a secret agent, like Jason Whittaker, on your side.
In An Act of Nobility, Whit tells a story about how a man named James Armer went to a foreign country where the crown prince looked exactly like him and he was able to save the prince from a plot to overthrow him. It is hinted that the story is true and that James Armer is actually John Avery Whittaker himself. How often do people find a royal lookalike, impersonate them, and then help save them from being murdered? Probably not too often.
There are many other examples of bizarre occurrences. A fake Indian Medicine Man tries to put a curse on Whit, Hollywood comes to Odyssey to make a movie out of Whit’s short story, Eugene and his drama group play out a murder mystery on a train with Whit unaware that it’s an act, Whit and Eugene go to Mexico on an archaeological trip that turns dangerous, there is bomb threat at the local radio station, Whit almost dies when he creates an Imagination Station program to experience death, the townsfolk turn into a mob when a piece of cloth from Jesus’ robe unexpectedly appears in Odyssey, a mysterious stranger shows up at Whit’s End and claims he used to live there because he had lived in an identical house, Harlow Doyle and Whit are kidnapped by bootleggers, Bernard Walton is jailed for going under the speed limit, Whit suddenly moves to the Middle East and on the same day Jack Allen arrives to replace him even though he didn’t know Whit had left, a live radio show of Jesus’ birth is interrupted by the birth of Stewart Reed Barclay, Rodney breaks through Whit’s End’s brand-new skylight just as Jason and Jack are admiring it, Jenny Roberts is kidnapped, Eugene and Jason find Whit in the Middle East and again deal with the cutthroat world of archaeology, Eugene bursts into the Shanks’ wedding and is later almost arrested for hacking into a hotel’s computer system, a painting stolen from a Jewish family in France during World War II is unearthed in Odyssey, the famous writer Mark Herring stops at Whit’s End while biking across America, Bart Rathbone discovers “Bigfoot” in Odyssey, Eugene goes crazy and is unable to do simple tasks after losing to Bernard at chess, an angel named Malachi arrives to solve people’s problems and dilemmas and then disappears from memory, a long-lost box found while digging a vegetable garden at Whit’s End reveals the secret to a murder perpetrated long ago, David Straussberg not moving Bernard’s lawn causes a chain reaction that leads to a waterslide not being built, Tom’s son Timmy goes to a strange world called Marus, Mandy’s goldfish narrates the story that leads to his death, it is discovered that Agnes Riley is a childhood friend of Joanne Allen, we find out Whit and Jack were in love with Jenny Morrow at the same time, the Washingtons go to a ghost town called Tin Flat and are unknowingly on a reality TV show, Whit is trapped in a room with no way out and then the Washington parents are drugged by a plumber then who tries to steal money from a safe in the house, and an original model of the Statue of Liberty is stolen in Odyssey of all places. How many of those things have ever happened to you? In the town of Odyssey, clearly anything is possible.
Then there’s the obvious one, the Novacom Saga. In this storyline an evil corporation chooses Odyssey as their testing grounds and launch site for their planned takeover of the world. And how did they plan to do that? Mind control of course. Nothing out of the ordinary considering what goes on in this town. Later, Bennett Charles escapes from prison while trying to inflict revenge on Mitch and Whit. And Connie goes all the way to Washington D.C. to apologize about something to Mitch, and on the way she helps an accused bank robber to be found innocent. Then she and Mitch get engaged and almost married; Connie breaks it off at the last minute. And then Eugene returns from his trips around the world with amnesia and recovers through a treatment in the Imagination Station and some earnest prayer. These people undoubtedly lead very interesting lives.
Here are some more surprising instances in AIO. The TV show America Sings comes to Odyssey after randomly throwing darts at a map, Eugene and Connie find out they fought against each other in a prank war at Camp Jumonville when they were kids and that Connie had a crush on Eugene, the Washington parents switch places with the kids because, strangely, Whit suggests the idea to them, Wooton, Bernard, and Whit stumble upon a mystery and manage to expose a glass company for illegal labor practices after deciphering a comic book symbol, a time capsule is found in Whit’s End and it contains the deed to the land that just in time keeps the city from shutting down Whit’s End, Odyssey is a finalist for the Best Small Town in America contest, Jason and the Whisperer confront each other in Odyssey and Grady McKay is kidnapped, the gang at Whit’s End are for some reason recruited to solve The Mystery of the Clock Tower when it is stuck at 11:45, it is mentioned that Eugene designs and crashes an experimental aircraft on the tarmac of Odyssey Airport, and we find out Johnny Appleseed planted Tom Riley’s orchard. That’s a lot for one town to go through. All of a sudden the episode I Slap Floor doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.
The Green Ring Conspiracy starts off with Whit’s grandson Monty, who is also a secret agent, falling out of the sky and landing in Gower’s Field. Then untold millions of counterfeit dollars are going to be distributed from Odyssey but once again our favorite AIO characters are all involved, including Jason and Monty, and they solve the mystery and catch most of the criminals before it’s too late. And then Jason and Dale and Ann Jacobs turn up in London to tie up the Green Ring Conspiracy with the capture of the villain, Mr. Grote. That’s all in a day’s work for these people. You’d think the villains out there would have learned by now not to mess with Odyssey.
With all this evidence before us, I don’t think it can be denied that Odyssey is not a focal point for strange occurrences. Things happen in this town that are indeed pretty abnormal and there are probably more examples that I haven’t mentioned. Odyssey is just a weird place. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. It wouldn’t be nearly as exciting to hear about a town where only normal things happen. And I doubt such a town even exists. Odyssey is simply an extraordinary town, and that’s the reason the show is called Adventures in Odyssey. It’s always an adventure, if not sometimes a bit of an embellished one. But I’m not complaining or anything like that.
The town of Odyssey and its citizens always seem to be involved in odd or unusual situations. Maybe not all the time, but more often than one would think possible. Even when ignoring most of the wild Imagination Station rides the kids go on, there are plenty of instances that point to Odyssey being a Roswell-ish place. And not just Odyssey in general, but more often than not the building of Whit’s End itself. Remarkable things and events seem to surround that place.
Adventures in Odyssey starts off early on with some real excitement in Album 2 with The Case of the Secret Room and The Last Great Adventure of the Summer. The first is about a 40-year-old robbery and murder mystery where a skeleton is found in the basement of Whit’s End, along with the stolen money. A mysterious woman, a police car chase, a creepy old mansion on Chatwick Hill, and African poison darts are also involved. The second is about a kid who finds out his father happens to be a CIA agent who knows karate. They are chased by a man in black and are eventually caught and taken to London where they are threatened to be fed to piranhas. Not exactly the typical person’s experience.
Then there’s the Blackgaard Chronicles. It starts off with Dr. Regis Blackgaard, the man who tried to buy the Fillmore Recreation Center property and keep Whit’s End from opening, coming to Odyssey to try to steal the Applesauce program from Whit. Later, Connie and Whit bump into Blackgaard again in Chicago where he is after a military computer program this time and we learn Whit once worked for the Department of Defense. It seems most people have at one point or another. Whit’s son Jason, an NSA agent, encounters Blackgaard while fighting a terrorist group in Switzerland. Perhaps Blackgaard is just drawn to people with the last name Whittaker. Blackgaard then secretly comes to Odyssey to murder Mustafa, a Red Scorpion agent who had been working for him to obtain the TA-418 formula.
In Album 25, Darkness Before Dawn, Blackgaard returns to Odyssey officially and runs for mayor, while at the same time trying to obtain the Ruku virus to take over the world. He does manage to take control of Whit’s End, but then chooses to die in an explosion in the underground tunnels because he believes the virus he was accidentally infected with was incurable, even though an antidote could have been produced.
But he had a backup plan, as any proper villain would. Blackgaard had implanted a virus into the Imagination Station in an attempt to live forever. But he was fooled by a computer version of Whit and was foiled when he tried to attach himself to it, just as Hank Murray had been fooled into wasting his last bullet on a life-size TV screen version of Whit when he tried to rob Whit’s End in the episode Hold Up. Obviously it was nothing usual in the town of Odyssey. There are more versions of Whit in cyberspace than in reality, but luckily the digital ones get killed instead of the real one. Also, the appearance of Edwin Blackgaard, Regis’ good twin, doesn’t seem far-fetched at all, at least in the AIO universe. Especially when you consider that he moved to Odyssey of all places without knowing his brother was obsessed with the town or had ever been there.
Not only were there secrets to be uncovered in the basement of Whit’s End, but also in the attic. In The Treasure of LeMonde, playing an organ a certain way opens up a secret room which causes a competitive search for the hidden treasure of LeMonde. As time goes on in AIO, it becomes increasingly more obvious how fortunate Whit was when he decided to buy the building, which would become Whit’s End, after his wife’s death. For example, a closer examination of the tunnels underneath leads to the discovery that Whit’s End just happened to have been an important stop on the Underground Railroad that helped runaway slaves escape.
In Last in a Long Line, Eugene finds the tombstone of his father, Leonard, and discovers that his grandfather had been living nearby all this time, but had since died several weeks ago. Eugene then happens to go to the exact same village that his father had gone to in Africa 20 years earlier and discovers his father may still be alive. Then after a long search, he finds him posing as a homeless person in Connellsville, coincidentally right next to Odyssey. They later go to New York to find evidence to convict Dalton Kearn, the villain who had been searching for Leonard, and was also raising Eugene’s brother, Everett, who no one else knew was alive. And subverting the best security that money can buy isn’t too difficult to pull off when you have a secret agent, like Jason Whittaker, on your side.
In An Act of Nobility, Whit tells a story about how a man named James Armer went to a foreign country where the crown prince looked exactly like him and he was able to save the prince from a plot to overthrow him. It is hinted that the story is true and that James Armer is actually John Avery Whittaker himself. How often do people find a royal lookalike, impersonate them, and then help save them from being murdered? Probably not too often.
There are many other examples of bizarre occurrences. A fake Indian Medicine Man tries to put a curse on Whit, Hollywood comes to Odyssey to make a movie out of Whit’s short story, Eugene and his drama group play out a murder mystery on a train with Whit unaware that it’s an act, Whit and Eugene go to Mexico on an archaeological trip that turns dangerous, there is bomb threat at the local radio station, Whit almost dies when he creates an Imagination Station program to experience death, the townsfolk turn into a mob when a piece of cloth from Jesus’ robe unexpectedly appears in Odyssey, a mysterious stranger shows up at Whit’s End and claims he used to live there because he had lived in an identical house, Harlow Doyle and Whit are kidnapped by bootleggers, Bernard Walton is jailed for going under the speed limit, Whit suddenly moves to the Middle East and on the same day Jack Allen arrives to replace him even though he didn’t know Whit had left, a live radio show of Jesus’ birth is interrupted by the birth of Stewart Reed Barclay, Rodney breaks through Whit’s End’s brand-new skylight just as Jason and Jack are admiring it, Jenny Roberts is kidnapped, Eugene and Jason find Whit in the Middle East and again deal with the cutthroat world of archaeology, Eugene bursts into the Shanks’ wedding and is later almost arrested for hacking into a hotel’s computer system, a painting stolen from a Jewish family in France during World War II is unearthed in Odyssey, the famous writer Mark Herring stops at Whit’s End while biking across America, Bart Rathbone discovers “Bigfoot” in Odyssey, Eugene goes crazy and is unable to do simple tasks after losing to Bernard at chess, an angel named Malachi arrives to solve people’s problems and dilemmas and then disappears from memory, a long-lost box found while digging a vegetable garden at Whit’s End reveals the secret to a murder perpetrated long ago, David Straussberg not moving Bernard’s lawn causes a chain reaction that leads to a waterslide not being built, Tom’s son Timmy goes to a strange world called Marus, Mandy’s goldfish narrates the story that leads to his death, it is discovered that Agnes Riley is a childhood friend of Joanne Allen, we find out Whit and Jack were in love with Jenny Morrow at the same time, the Washingtons go to a ghost town called Tin Flat and are unknowingly on a reality TV show, Whit is trapped in a room with no way out and then the Washington parents are drugged by a plumber then who tries to steal money from a safe in the house, and an original model of the Statue of Liberty is stolen in Odyssey of all places. How many of those things have ever happened to you? In the town of Odyssey, clearly anything is possible.
Then there’s the obvious one, the Novacom Saga. In this storyline an evil corporation chooses Odyssey as their testing grounds and launch site for their planned takeover of the world. And how did they plan to do that? Mind control of course. Nothing out of the ordinary considering what goes on in this town. Later, Bennett Charles escapes from prison while trying to inflict revenge on Mitch and Whit. And Connie goes all the way to Washington D.C. to apologize about something to Mitch, and on the way she helps an accused bank robber to be found innocent. Then she and Mitch get engaged and almost married; Connie breaks it off at the last minute. And then Eugene returns from his trips around the world with amnesia and recovers through a treatment in the Imagination Station and some earnest prayer. These people undoubtedly lead very interesting lives.
Here are some more surprising instances in AIO. The TV show America Sings comes to Odyssey after randomly throwing darts at a map, Eugene and Connie find out they fought against each other in a prank war at Camp Jumonville when they were kids and that Connie had a crush on Eugene, the Washington parents switch places with the kids because, strangely, Whit suggests the idea to them, Wooton, Bernard, and Whit stumble upon a mystery and manage to expose a glass company for illegal labor practices after deciphering a comic book symbol, a time capsule is found in Whit’s End and it contains the deed to the land that just in time keeps the city from shutting down Whit’s End, Odyssey is a finalist for the Best Small Town in America contest, Jason and the Whisperer confront each other in Odyssey and Grady McKay is kidnapped, the gang at Whit’s End are for some reason recruited to solve The Mystery of the Clock Tower when it is stuck at 11:45, it is mentioned that Eugene designs and crashes an experimental aircraft on the tarmac of Odyssey Airport, and we find out Johnny Appleseed planted Tom Riley’s orchard. That’s a lot for one town to go through. All of a sudden the episode I Slap Floor doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.
The Green Ring Conspiracy starts off with Whit’s grandson Monty, who is also a secret agent, falling out of the sky and landing in Gower’s Field. Then untold millions of counterfeit dollars are going to be distributed from Odyssey but once again our favorite AIO characters are all involved, including Jason and Monty, and they solve the mystery and catch most of the criminals before it’s too late. And then Jason and Dale and Ann Jacobs turn up in London to tie up the Green Ring Conspiracy with the capture of the villain, Mr. Grote. That’s all in a day’s work for these people. You’d think the villains out there would have learned by now not to mess with Odyssey.
With all this evidence before us, I don’t think it can be denied that Odyssey is not a focal point for strange occurrences. Things happen in this town that are indeed pretty abnormal and there are probably more examples that I haven’t mentioned. Odyssey is just a weird place. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. It wouldn’t be nearly as exciting to hear about a town where only normal things happen. And I doubt such a town even exists. Odyssey is simply an extraordinary town, and that’s the reason the show is called Adventures in Odyssey. It’s always an adventure, if not sometimes a bit of an embellished one. But I’m not complaining or anything like that.
This site is in no way affiliated with Focus on the Family. "Adventures in Odyssey" is a registered trademark of Focus on the Family.