Jencyclopedia

A woman wants to get a life and stop hiding behinds her books.
A man wants to overcome the ultimate physical and mental challenge.

I had this nice thing going where I was watching the 1998 series in parallel with this series, and I would watch the ’98 fifth episode, then the ’21 fifth episode, so I could kind of see how they both progressed at the same time, but because they played an extra episode of this series on Sunday, now that’s thrown off.

Elena is being all awkward when she greets Javier, which is weird, because she was okay with him in the previous episode. They didn’t really interact much in the previous episode, but it still feels weird to have this interaction here. It feels like I watched the episodes out of order.

I like Isabel’s reaction to suddenly being in the past, wearing a costume. I feel like most guests in the original series weren’t all that excited, but her reaction seems really genuine.

I can’t think of any fantasies in the original series where a guest encountered their past self, which is kind of surprising. Although, I guess since you can’t change the past on Fantasy Island, Roarke wouldn’t grant someone’s fantasy if it was “talk to my past self and convince them to do things differently”.

Elena: Ouch. That can’t feel good.

You mean… “in the vernacular, you have fallen… and you can’t… get up”? This scene is very like one of the scenes in the 1998 pilot.

Isabel is the first guest in this series who is staying on the island (well, I mean, other than Ruby). Hopefully this doesn’t happen too often, or Elena may have to kick Ruby out (6×9 “The Winning Ticket”).

• Guests:
  • Isabel Marshall, a copy editor
  • Brian Cole
• Similar fantasies:
  • Extreme survival: 1998 pilot
  • Authors and books: 2×3 “The Last Whodunnit”; 2×4 “Best Seller”; 4×12 “The Heroine”; 5×11 “Wuthering Heights”; 6×4 “Natchez Bound”
  • Staying on the island: 2×2 “The Big Dipper”; 2×11 “Carnival”; 2×25 “Amusement Park”; 3×12 “Marooned”; 3×21 “Jungle Man”; 4×5 “The Love Doctor”; 4×24 “Paquito’s Birthday”; 5×4 “The Last Cowboy”; 1×1 “Mel Loves Ruby”
• Time travel: Isabel Marshall travels back to R.S. Coldwater’s time.
• Disappearing act: Elena disappears after sending Brian Cole on his fantasy.
• Not leaving on the plane: Isabel Marshall returns to Rachel Coldwater’s time.
• Age gap:
  • Caitlin Stasey (Isabel): 31 / Gillian Saker (Rachel): ? = ?