Afterlife 1x05 'High'

by Jon Nyqvist

Aurora, now a prisoner of the Ravens, is tortured by Trias in a most cruel way. She is given a drug called "Devil's Tears" which forces a person to re-live their most horrible memory...

When we left the excellent Afterlife, Aurora was facing off against a pack of thugs led by the villainous Trias after she bravely tried to defend a simple family from Raven thugs, and it seems the trials are a long way from being over for her. Let's dive back in - the much-hyped Jonathan/Aurora reunion isn't far off now, and I'm itching to get to the good stuff, especially with 'What Doesn't Kill You...' finally nailing the balance of real world flashbacks to Afterlife action.

Aurora faces Trias and his goons, the fire consuming the homestead around them closing in. The tension rises as the two exchange a few customary quips, before one of Nyqvist's now trademark blistering action sequences kicks in, and with a series of dazzling moves Aurora takes down two goons before her recent exertion takes her tool. She's good, but even she can't tackle seven goons while still sporting injuries herself - and it's good writing to make her fail like that. We love kick ass heroes and heroines, but we love ones who don't always win even more. Aurora is beaten down and Trias orders his men to take her alive, but our girl's not done yet. She takes out three more thugs before finally hitting the deck, but even with her last vestiges of strength she tries to take Trias down. She's finally knocked out, but this brave fight has won her even more brownie points as far as I'm concerned.

Aurora wakes up in a cell to find Vergil looking in on her - her one true ally and supporter. Aww. Vergil says he'll look for a way to help, but has to scoot as Trias shows up. Trias remarks how physical torture won't work on someone as used to pain as Aurora, so he has something else in mind - the Devil's Tear. It's a very rare herb that will root out a person's worst memory and force them to relive it - so, obviously, the worse the person it's used on, the more powerful it will be, and for a chick like Aurora, this story's not going to end in a tale of sunshine and hollow chocolate bunnies. Trias blows a handful of the plant's dust onto her, and as Aurora spaces out we go into Flashback Mode - and back to school. It's nine years back, and a teen named Gordon is reading a paper outside Williamson High School before the 17-year-old (and blonde) Aurora joins him. A serial killer is stalking their city, but these two only have eyes for each other. Or do they? Is there something more sinister to Gordon? Is Aurora about to learn a hard lesson in life? Am I putting on my Fifties America TV Announcer voice for no real reason? Ahem. Anyway. Aurora meets her friends Rachel Linda, with everyone still busy chatting about the killer, until the hunky teacher Kyle enters. Oo, and we get Aurora's surname! Or, at least, what it was at this stage in her life - Sinclair. Aurora Sinclair. Cool. Aurora shows she's clearly too clever for this class before we follow the trio of girls outside, bumping into a creepy janitor - and we're already building up a list of possible suspects here. Gordon, the boyfriend? Kyle, the teacher? Old Man Withers, the janitor? It's like Scooby Doo but minus the dogs. Aurora heads home, showing a magnificent beach house and absentee parents who leave her plenty of cash. You have to wonder how our girl went from living in The OC to becoming a high-kicking assassin, and already we've got a great story building here. Aurora settles down to soak up some sun, but unknown to her. somebody's watching...

Vergil looks in on the drug-addled Aurora, and as Trias shows up to gloat Vergil gets a plucky line in about Trias being scared of Aurora (good man), before we return to our girl's flashback. She's dressed up as Elektra? With sai daggers to match? Ya-huh? Oh, it's alright - it's a fancy dress party, with Gordon arriving as Batman. He missed a trick there to show up as DareDevil. Seems Aurora lives with her aunt, and doesn't see her much - her aunt's a social animal, and this seems to bother Aurora although she acts like it doesn't. They arrive at the high school for the dance, which is a themed superhero costume party. Genius. Rachel predatorially eyes up Gordon, before he sneaks off with his jock buddies to go, like, totally do some stuff, dude. The dance rolls on, and we learn that Gordon and Aurora haven't done it' yet. She's one of those 'my first time has to be special' girls. Hey, nothing wrong with that. Unless you're Gordon The Jackass, who slopes off with Rachel instead! The loathsome cad. The night rolls on and Aurora goes looking for Gordon, finding him in the locker room - and all over Rachel. Uh oh. Aurora storms off, but as Gordon tries to chase her Aurora shows a flash of her future self as she lays him out, threatening a violent end on him or Rachel if they come near her again. She stomps off home, but the following morning brings a not too surprising but still nasty revelation - Gordon's dead, and Aurora's the prime suspect!

Aurora in her cell is doing her best to fight the drug's effects, but Trias can tell it's working as we cut to the past, and Aurora is in the local police precinct, being interviewed by Detective Powers (a shout out to the excellent comic of the same name?). Aurora rightly points out that her angry threats at Gordon won't make a very solid case, until Powers pulls his trump card - Gordon was killed with one of the sai daggers from Aurora's costume, which of course have her prints all over them! Outside a courthouse, Aurora makes bail and has to fight her way through a crowd of reporters, the police keen to pin the other two recent murders on her. Aurora's lawyer advises her to lay low, seeing as she's still the only suspect, and Aurora returns home to meet her Aunt Rhea at last. Rhea's packing for a vactaion - for herself. Seems she'd rather head for Europe than stand by her niece. Man! Aurora snidely remarks how Rhea only took her under her wing to get access to Aurora's mothers' money, and Rhea cuts back with a remark of her own before she heads off, leaving Aurora all alone. And her timing couldn't be worse - Gordon's jock buddies are waiting outside, ready to get some payback on Aurora for his murder!

Aurora tries to call Linda but finds that the town's opinion has been swayed against her, and with no allies left Jack and his buddies make their entrance, starting to smash up her home as they close in on her. Aurora takes a few hits before she springs to action, charging away from the gang and racing through her home in a desperate escape bid. She's knocked down again, hitting the deck just out of reach of the phone, and as Jack and the others close in, we get a nasty shock - Rachel's at the window, watching the whole thing! We mercifully switch back to Aurora in her cell, flipping back to find the boys gone but Aurora clearly having received some pretty hardcore abuse. She's in a state of shock as Rachel struts into the room, and Aurora can barely believe what she's hearing - Rachel is the killer! She used Aurora's fight with Gordon as her cover, and there's even a neat flashback to show how Rachel got hold of one of the daggers from her costume. Bravo. Rachel raises a knife, but this triggers something deep within Aurora - as the direction says, this is the moment where 'the teenage high school girl dies, and something else is born.' Rachel plunges the knife down, we cut to white and hear doctors racing to save her. Aurora flatlines - and then recovers. In her cell, Aurora remains unbroken, and Vergil is clearly glad that the Devil's Tear didn't work - but in a neat camera shot, Aurora's nails are digging into her hands so much that blood is flowing onto the floor. This girl's tough, but she's not quite that tough. In the past, Aurora wakes in a quiet hospital room, where a mysterious voice informs her that as far as the rest of the world is concerned, she's dead, and offers her a new life. Can you guess who it is yet? Yup, it's Lynn. And Aurora Mk. II is born. The End.

So that's Aurora's worst memory, then. Her high school sweetheart was brutally killed by one of her deranged friends, and the retaliation from his friends left her abused and beaten, before Rachel herself came back to stick a knife in her chest. It's an excellent story - a genuine whodunnit with a few surprises and gives us acres more insight into what makes Aurora the way she is. We know how she learnt her trade, but we never knew why before now. Great stuff, sprinkled with typically classy action, intelligent camera shots and the usual witty dialogue. My only real beef with the ep is it suffers from the problems of 'Twin,' being based almost entirely in flashback, but as opposed to 'Twin' here the flashback story itself is fantastic, which kind of saves the episode. I know we're close to the Jon/Aurora reunion and then the show will kick off, so getting all these flashbacks and backstories out of the way works in some ways, but I'm itching to see where the show goes next, so I hope we get some real Afterlife plot advancement now. We can save more history stories for later - I want action! And death! And fire!

ZPM RATING: