by A.J. Black
Mia is reunited with a face from her past when she attempts to find out who murdered a werewolf courier, and Jai’s continued thirst for revenge leads him to go off book from the DSR...
So back in action with the DSR crew then - and oh dear, within a few moments Jai is once again channelling the spirit of Sawyer, in disguise as a smooth Texan gambler at an upmarket casino. Typecasting with VS actors is never an easy thing to shake off, but DSR really isn't doing itself any favours here! Anyway - I hate starting with a negative, so let's press on with the Teaser. And it's one of those 'hero in a cliffhanger - flashback a few days' kind of scenarios. I love me some of those. We continue as we flash back 72 hours to a mission briefing, where a border incident involving a Lupan, or werewolf, has aroused the DSR's interest. The casual way the Lupans are mentioned sucks some of the impact out of it - and it would have made a much bigger surprise later when we (or rather Jai, who misses that part of the briefing) learn what 'Lupans' really are. Julian Leesen, the murdered Lupan contact, was part of a clan that included somebody called Rhindhart, a name that seems to have 'history' with Mia. A similarly off-handed mention of vampires again feels underplayed, but there's hints that we're going to learn some more about Mia in this episode, which is good. She was one of the characters who stood out in the pilot (along with Anton), so let's see what her story is!
Act I opens as Ethan confronts Jai about his apparent lack of commitment on the firing range, with Sawyer - sorry, Jai - telling Ethan to stick it in no uncertain terms. You have to agree with Ethan's point here - and also start to realise that we're not really liking this guy who's meant to be our hero all that much! He does seem to like Mia, though, offering to help her on her mission to the Lupans (and seeming remarkably au fait with the concept of werewolves), and that develops a nice sense of camaraderie as Mia gets ready to head out and confront her unfinished business. Mia moves into a DSR-owened morgue, the flickering lighting setting up that Underworld vibe once more, and there's a neat moment as Mia makes a point of calling Leesen by his name, obviously on edge by Dr. Kresak's 'just another body' attitude. Big missed trick with the visual of the werewolf's body, though - don't we get given any idea what it looks like? Same as when vampires storm the morgue - there's a sweet little fight as Mia battles them, but there's a big hole in the visuals here, courtesy of the mis-focused stage direction. And since when do vampires die from being shot in the back? Anyway. Back at PBH (Project Black Hole), Jai is off on another one of those 'I'm an intense guy, I need to go sort out my issues' trips, and the leeway Kendall is allowing him is obviously a sore point among the others. Kendall's almost paternal attitude towards Jai is a nice dynamic - it feels like Kendall also has a beef with this Glissman character and sees Jai as his best chance to get even, and that's bound to lead to some good old fashioned judgement clouding down the line! We end with the captive Mia seeing Rhindhart once again.
Act II gives Rhindhart the Exposition Hat - Lessen was working for him, sent to get a list of the personnel of Res Vadek, a powerful local vampire and somebody Rhindhart would obviously like to get his claws into. With the information decrypted, Rhindhart has a location for where Vadek is keeping his troops, and now it's clobberin' time! Seems that Rhindhart is pulling this stunt on his own initiative, though. There's a hint at a bigger political picture here that seems intriguing - the politics between the vampires and werewolves was a clever part of the story to the Underworld movies, and that's clearly been an influence here. Which, to me, is A Good Thing. Layers are good, people. Rhindhart ships out and leaves Mia behind, and you can't help but like this guy despite that. Everybody loves an antihero, after all! Back at PBH, Ethan learsn to his concern that Jai has rerouted a surveillance satellite to keep tabs on Glissman's forces, something Ethan stomps into Kendall's office to complain about but finds Carson instead. Ethan's meek exit in the face of Carson tells us a lot about her - but doesn't give much insight into how Carson feels about Jai's order one way or the other. Which is also good. Mia is struggling to get free (and do Americans know what Smarties are?), sending a distress signal back to Sara, still doing her Female Marshall thing. With Ethan and Carson now pulling the same 'Where the hell is Jai?' face, we catch up to the man himself, visiting a hospital in Reno - and finding Kendall waiting for him. Jai's visiting the still-comatose Connor, with a nice exchange about his leadership between him and Kendall before they're called back to PBH. One quick time delay rescue later, and the reuinted team catch up to Rhindhart - and it looks like he took out Vadek's forces without too much trouble!
Act III feeds us some more info on the vampire race, with the facility raided by Rhindhart proving to be built for genetic research. According to Sara's decoding, seems the vamps have created a drug that has allowed them to breed some of their most famous weaknesses out of their system over the generations, making them more human than monster by the sounds of it. Which begs the question - what makes them vampires any more, then? There's another mention of this mysterious Brotherhood, some kind of vampire hierarchy who have been producing the vamp supressant drug. Seems Vadek was playing with the properties of the drug - presumably to find a way to bring the more violent vampire habits back into their DNA - and with another of Carson's now frequent 'I don't like you, Jai Shaw' moments, we move back to Vadek's genetic facility. Rhindhart suggests playing on Vadek's love of the ladies to get inside, so Mia is forced to tart herself up to get access to his heavily guarded mansion. Over at PBH, Kendall again sticks up for Jai to Carson, while Jai's gamble with the surveillance pays off, as Vadek was recently seen meeting members of the Ahnenerbe! Jai gets a little glint in his eye at the prospect of opening up a big ol' can of some old school whup ass.
Act IV has Mia getting a location for the start of Vadek's move into US territory, when Rhindhart pulls a double cross - he wants to be the one who takes down Vadek, sending his boys in to raid the villa. It's nicely in character to pull a stunt like that, though, so marks for that. The team reconvene and we cut to the same Texan casino we opened on, with Jai currently AWOL. Jai's already at the casino, having followed his own lead to get there, and starts channelling Sawyer once again as he swans around, looking for Vadek. Vadek's got a lab full of supervamps downstairs, but doesn't get much chance to settle in before Jai bursts in to his private sanctum - but now we see that the gun against his head belongs to Mia. Good twist, well set up from the start. Jai and Vadek fight, and Jai stakes him - seeming again to be pretty open-minded to the concept of vampires, particularly how to kill them. Is this guy a closet Buffy fan or something? Rhindhart gets ready to nuke the genetic lab hidden beneath the casino, and despite getting the drop on him Mia lets him go. The hints at a deep backstory between these two is very juicy, and as Rhindhart skips out you're already looking forward to seeing the guy again. Back at PBH, Kendall debriefs Jai - or more accurately shouts at him for killing Vadek - and Jai's character shows signs of cracks as he admits he'll try being a better leader. Shouldn't he be turning on his heel and marching out of the office? His stated intent to try harder seems very out of character from what we've seen of him thus far. Jai's a loose cannon who has no problem breaking the rules to get his man, it should take more than Kendall's Disappointed Father act to get him to change his spots! As Ethan and Carson plot to oust Jai from active service, we leave on Mia, thinking back to whatever the hell went down in Basra with Rhindhart. I look forward to finding out - she's an interesting character who clearly has a lot of hidden depths to be mined.
So let's take a look back at 1x02. A neat little story is shot in the foot by it's underwhelming treatment of the whole vampires and werewolves mythos, sucking all the atmosphere out of the story and leaving you feeling distinctly unimpressed with the whole thing. Jai Shaw should be our Everyman, an outsider brought into this fantastical world, and his reactions to what he encounters should mirror our own, allowing the writers to introduce the new races and characters their own way and build up more of an air of intrigue about them. Instead, Jai deadpans his way through the revelations that vamps and wolves are running round our planet, and this leaves, you, the reader, feeling similarly apathetic about them. And that's a real shame - Rhindhart's an excellent character, and the clues towards Mia's backstory continues to make her stand out, as does the growing political machinations between Ethan and Carson. So while there are good points to this story, the execution kicks it in the nuts and throws it down the stairs and spoils the whole episode. The DSR has the potential to be a much better show than it actually is at the moment - the scope for development in both characters and setting is excellent, but it really needs to start tackling its own universe more effectively to start reaping the benefits of its rich backdrop.
ZPM RATING:
No comments:
Post a Comment