The whims of human nature once again come into conflict with the machinations of fate, chance, and coincidences as CBC’s sci-fi drama Plan B returns with its second season. Although the series introduces an entirely new set of characters in its second season, with a storyline and backdrop that totally differ from that of the first season, the plot device of time travel as a means of having a chance to change one’s life remains the same. Narrative wise, the second season appears much more compact and interesting than the first one, probably because the toxic, manipulative relationship plot of the first season packed less of a punch than the exploration of the psychological intrigue of abandonment and ensuing insecurity as highlighted in the second season. With the latest season, the series creator Jean-François Asselin has seemingly got a better grip on using the central idea of doing something over as a signifier of moral and emotional conflicts among characters—something viewers will surely like to see carried forward in the next season as well.Â
Spoilers Ahead
Mia’s Tragic Past
Mia Coleman, a middle-aged black female police officer with anger management and major trust issues, is the center of the narrative focus in this season, which revolves around her attempts to make amends with her past. In the present timeline of June 2023, Mia is going through a bad patch as she is having a legal dispute with her ex-boyfriend Bryson Miller over his decision to not let Mia visit Jared, his young son from his ex, whom Mia had practically raised as her own. Mia and Bryson were in a relationship for quite a while, Mia was supportive of her boyfriend, whom she had helped to stand on his own after he lost his job; she was extremely loving and caring towards Jared, and later on, she even bought their house for the family to settle down for good. Unfortunately, Mia and Bryson’s relationship started falling apart when Mia’s insistence on trying to have a child despite having multiple miscarriages took a toll on her boyfriend’s mind. Bryson had started cheating on her with one of his acquaintances named Laura, which Mia had learned by keeping tabs on him, and while confronting him about this, she raised her hand on Bryson in front of Jared. The inevitable separation led Bryson to try to sever any connection between Jared and Mia, and to get back on him, Mia decided to deal a low blow by entangling him in a legal dispute regarding their house, trying to use her past actions as a leverage against Bryson, who has moved on with Laura.
However, the manipulative, insecure, and control freak attitude Mia has towards her husband has a deep-rooted origin in her tragic past. During their teenage years, Mia and her sister Liz had witnessed their mother die alone after their father had left her for someone else, and the kids were unable to call for help in due time to save her. Mia’s father, who was extremely loving and protective towards his children, never really shared much about his feelings towards their mother, which resulted in a teenager Mia having trouble coping with this new reality, blaming her stepmother, Joan, for ruining their lives and leaving the home on their own. Mia’s past led her to have troubling abandonment issues and mistrust of men in general, which was never resolved—and as a result, she was never able to form a healthy relationship with the person she loved. The only person Mia trusts and feels comfortable sharing her burdens with is her sister Liz, who was able to accept the past and is living a happy life with her family.
To Stop a Heinous Crime
In fact, Mia’s worldview is what led her to take up the job of a cop, as she seeks to make a difference by ensuring the safety of other hapless women, and she is really driven by her cause. In the present timeline, on the day Mia turns 40—the same age at which her mother passed away—she and her partner, Tyler, who is a bit infatuated with her, intercept a scene of crime where a man has fallen to his death—and Mia finds the details of the Plan B agency on his phone, which she notes down for further investigation. Later that day, Mia and Tyler respond to a call about a possible domestic violence situation, and following the lead, they approach a couple, Paul and Keri Whitman, who were having an argument. Paul is infuriated with Keri for leaving him and taking their children with her. Mia learns from Keri’s cousin, Leslie, that she is concerned for the safety of Keri’s two daughters, and despite seeing telltale signs of Paul being a troubling presence in their lives, Mia finds Keri unwilling to press charges against her husband. Mia and Tyler later have an argument about the best possible way to approach the situation, as Mia was keen on keeping Paul away from his wife and children. Later that night, Mia disgruntledly attends a birthday party organized by her family, when she learns about her fears turning out to be well founded. Paul has killed his entire family before taking his own life as well, and guilt dawns heavily upon Mia, who can’t help but think that she could have done more to protect the family.
While looking into the Plan B agency, Mia finds nothing substantial and decides to give it a try, as in her remorseful state she wants to have another chance at saving Keri and her kids from Paul at any cost. Plan B works just as it should, as two agents from the organization take Mia to the previous day once again, and having the foresight of how events are going to unfold from that exact point in time, Mia takes preemptive measures to ensure Paul remains away from his family this time, which results in her actions being viewed as extrajudicial abuse of power, and her chief coerces her into taking a mandatory psych session. With her conversation with the psychiatrist, Andrew, Mia’s mistrust of men, abandonment issues, and struggles with the concept of domestic violence gradually start surfacing. However, despite trying to prevent the crime, Mia finds out that, even in this changed reality, she is unable to save the Whitman family, and Paul is still able to butcher his wife and children before taking his own life in remorse. Desperate to anyhow change the destiny of the family, Mia uses Plan B once again.
Desperate Attempts To Change The Past
This time, Mia straight up abducts Paul and tries to force him into confessing his intentions regarding his family in exchange for his release. A dumbfounded Paul pleads with Mia to release him, but she doesn’t pay heed to his words. Keri starts to get anxious about her husband, and eventually she confides in Mia about his past aggressive outbursts and physical violence, which stemmed from a deep sense of insecurity. Paul was raised in an abusive household, and he is doomed to repeat the cycle of violence even though he is in denial regarding it. Paul’s belittling demeanor towards her resulted in Keri cheating on him, something that acted as a massive trigger to Paul’s already disturbed psyche. His background and surroundings are extremely conservative and rather regressive, which never made him feel the necessity of giving his wife the freedom and space she deserves. This led him to feel insecure about losing his job, and unknowingly, his overly possessive, jealous self mutated into a monstrous form that later claimed the lives of his family and himself.
Mia tries to squeeze a confession out of Paul, to no avail, and as she calls him out about his aggressive behaviors, which can inevitably leave an impact on his daughters, Paul breaks down in remorse. However, after Mia’s action of abducting Paul nearly gets exposed, she once again uses Plan B, this time to take Paul into her family cabin and keep him tied up there. Unfortunately, this time, due to Mia’s negligence, Paul dies by strangling himself to death. It’s interesting how in order to prevent a crime from happening, Mia unwittingly becomes a criminal herself—all because she feels a calling to save Keri and her children, and she doesn’t know any better way to approach the situation despite having the chance to do it over and over again and again. After giving Paul a burial in the wilderness, Mia uses Plan B to stop a bunch of crime, but none of this absolves her of her sin, and Paul’s death starts haunting her. An aggrieved Keri approaches Mia to seek help in finding her missing husband, remaining oblivious about the fact that Mia is responsible for his absence all along. Eventually, the burden of guilt forces Mia to confess her crime to Tyler, whose advice about approaching the root cause of the situation leads Mia to try one more time to save the family, but this time in a more planned, thought-out way.
Did Mia and Paul Get to Restart Their Lives?
On this occasion, using Plan B, Mia goes back in time six months before the present timeline— when Paul’s outbursts first began to surface—and befriends Keri in the hope of warning her to move on from him. Mia actively tries to get Keri to seek out the person she would later cheat on Paul with, in a sense to prepare her to accept her separation from Paul. However, at this point in time, Mia was pregnant with Bryson’s child and hadn’t had her final miscarriage yet, which later resulted in her boyfriend cheating on her, and their eventual separation. Mia sits in an uncomfortable position as her foresight about future incidents leads her to stay reluctant about even attempting to save their relationship, but at the same time, things work out differently this time, which makes her question whether she is making the right decisions after all. For example, Mia tries to keep Bryson from cheating by approaching him in a gentler way, but makes the mistake of assuming that she will suffer a miscarriage. Mia doesn’t suffer from miscarriage, and as she tells the truth to her boyfriend, a rift arises between the duo, which eventually results in Bryson cheating on her.
Meanwhile, Paul’s violent streak of outbursts prompts Keri to seek refuge at Mia’s home with her daughters, and Paul gets apprehended by the authorities while trying to forcefully take her daughter away. In this timeline, Mia voluntarily opted to seek psychiatric help from Andrew, who pinpoints her unresolved childhood trauma and the reaction of her father to her mother’s death as the root cause of her being unable to cope with anything that is out of her control. Mia messes up once again by making a scene at Jared’s birthday when she belittles her father in a family reunion, and as she returns to Andrew to share her emotional complications, Mia learns a lesson in acceptance. Paul is granted occasional visits with his daughters under Mia’s supervision, and eventually, as he too starts seeking psychiatric help from a help group for former domestic abusers, he tries in his own way to break free from the cycle of violence and be a better human being. In a sense, Mia and Paul closely mirror each other with their personal demons, insecurities, and control freak nature, which brought nothing but misery to their lives in the end. Mia eventually reconnects with her father, who accepts his fears of confronting the harrowing reality all those years ago when Mia and Liz lost their mother.
In Plan B season 2’s ending, Mia considers the death of her mother to be the root cause of all the miseries she has faced in her life and wonders if she could use Plan B to change all of that by altering events to save her mother and patching up the relationship between her parents. As she questions Andrew about this in a cryptic way, he advises her not to make such a mistake, as it would change the trajectory of her life in a way that she won’t be the person she is at present. It is better to accept life the way it is and try to improve ourselves by seeking help. Mia lets go of her grudges against Bryson and lets him know that she has accepted the fact that he has moved on with his life. On the other hand, Paul tries his best to make amends with Keri by making honest efforts to change himself, and the duo even patch up for a while as Paul apologizes to his wife—until once again Paul gets jealous and overbearing after learning that Keri is seeing someone, and in a fit of rage he raises his hand on her. Paul feels deep remorse after this incident and seeks Mia’s help, but both of them know that he has burned the bridge to have a healthy relationship with his family any longer. Paul decides to take his own life in remorse, but Mia advises him against that, and instead uses Plan B to offer him another chance at life. Mia has found peace in acceptance, but she feels Paul has gone the extra mile to change himself and deserves another shot to reshape his life in a better way. Paul is taken by the agency, and he finds himself in the exact moment when he lost it after learning about Keri seeing someone else. In the present timeline, Mia feels herself alone as she delivers her child, but later is comforted by the presence of Bryson and Jared. Her ex-boyfriend assures Mia that even though their relationship didn’t work, they will make efforts to be great parents nevertheless. The season ends with the focus shifting to Paul in the exact moment he suffers from a meltdown and leaves viewers wondering about whether he will make the right call this time or if he is indeed doomed to repeat the cycle of violence again and again.Â
