Guardians: Outlook 1x06 & 1x07

by J.J. Estes

The Outlook comes across an abandoned, but highly advanced, station, and the crew is faced with a choice: take the technology and risk destroying themselves with it, or let it be.

The crew happen across a deserted space station, and while James' reluctance to investigate seems alarmingly unprofessional (you get the feeling they're playing up his slacker nature a little too much), there's some nice comedy moments with the ship's science nerds clamouring to come along. Ivan's a bit overly comic, though - we get that he's an arrogant genius, but it's almost like he's being that stereotypical on purpose at times. It's good to see the rest of the Outlook crew doing something, though - there's a larger sense of scale involved by seeing all the little people who help keep the ship going. The mystery progresses nicely as the team discover a set of humanoid bodies, with the crew's differing personalities getting some screen time as they all approach the situation very differently, and there's a good moral issue here - is it right to effectively steal another civilisation's technology, even if they appear to be long dead? Bravo for the Engel/James conversation about the misuse of weapons as well - great character moments. A better episode, managing to weave in some good modern commentary into a fairly typical sci-fi story, and throws some neat little character moments in there too. Okay, so Ivan's schtick is getting a little irritating but this is Outlook back on form.



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by George Willson

Harrison and Stansen are hunted by a man who blames them for what the US government did to him.

With news that neither James nor Anna are making themselves out to be Captain material at the moment, we're soon into a story about the crew taking the chance for some downtime again. This always seems to follow a down note - in episode three it was following a death, and here it's following a very high profile mission failure. As the 'replacement' angle with Engel and Hans gets another development, we're shown the aftermath of the attack from the Teaser, and that somebody or something named 'Goliath' is on the loose, and before long Stansen's daughter is almost kidnapped by some Hulk wannabe. Letting a skeleton fall out of the wardrobe of the guys in charge of things always makes for some good drama, and here it works to great effect. Okay, so Stansen's explanation of the situation clunks along a little despite getting some topical anti-genetic engineering opinions in there, but it's backed up by some touching stuff between Engel and Hans' father. When Jeff the Goliath does make it into the base to attack our guys, that old bugbear of flat stage direction kills any tension that the scenes may have had, but the scene where Jeff and Harrison fall foul of nitrous oxide makes for some good comic relief. A somewhat flat epilogue doesn't round the episode off as well as it could have, so despite getting some good mileage out of Stansen (seeing his paternal side in action is a great piece of characterisation), this loses out by not making Jeff's attack on the base as dramatic as it needed to be.

Guardians: Outlook 1x03 & 1x04

by J.J. Estes & George Willson

While the Outlook crew recovers from their losses, two new recruits are added to their ranks.

After a neat little opener to tell us a lot about Lak and Ruben, the two newbies, and some good stuff as Stansen's acerbic manner bulldozes his way through a press conference, we're into an episode of character development, a change of pace after the action-packed opening pair of shows. The new arrivals do some bonding with the regulars, noticeably Aya and Lakshanya, while Ivan gets a visit from his mother which appears to just be a device for telling more vokda jokes. James, on the other hand, gets a solid story where he goes to break the news of Hans' death to his family, and there's some genuinely good stuff here. Getting called away from the funeral and his reaction to that tells us a lot about how he still feels about his earlier, more disasterous missions. Stansen's motivations get a good moment in a heated discussion with Harrison, and there's even some Anna moments when James finds her all gothed up in a club in Germany - something that's a surprising development about her. However, all this good work is undone by the final Act, where not only do we sandwich in a third new arrival in a rather random little scene, we also get the totally underwhelming announcement that James has made captain, something that should have had a lot more made of it.



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by George Willson

The crew of the Outlook lands on a planet where the locals are celebrating some great change, then wake up to find they have changed bodies.

In what is suprisingly the first actual mission of the show after three episodes, we're into what Outlook will be doing a lot of - Star Trek/SG-1 style Planet Of The Week investigations. The story starts off well enough, a little light on the direction again and laying on the dry humour a bit too thickly, but once the team are down on the planet and interacting with the natives, we get the Twist - the body swap! It's an old sci-fi cliche story that normally allows for some good insight into how different characters view themselves, however, but as the episode rolls on all we really get are lots of jokes at the other crew members' expense, with Ivan relishing being in a woman's body a bit too much for my liking! Anna seems remarkably au fait with the whole situation really, so it's mined more for its comic potential than any real sci-fi issues. There's even a Temple of the Ancients, another prominent SG-1ism. Some character moments finally start to come out at the end, with Aya's natural friendliness starting to bring down some of Rubens' barriers, and we get some more clues as to Lakshanya's unusual opinions on sex, but these don't happen untl Act IV, and the plot itself has moved very slowly up to that point. There's an odd, very underplayed encounter with an 'Aircraft Person' near the end that sticks out as being very underdeveloped, but there's one good Harrison/Engel moment right at the end that links into a more deeper, ongoing plot behind the series. So overall, a bit of a wasted opportunity, taking the overly comic route instead of taking the time to develop our characters a bit more - and let's not forget, three of these people only joined the crew last episode so we've had very little time to get to know them anyway!

Guardians: Outlook 1x01 'Outlook'

by J.J. Estes

The newly selected crew of the Outlook prepares to take their ship on some test runs when an unforeseen danger pushes them into a real challenge.

With two feature-length episodes acting as a prequel to all this, there's the risk of starting off Guardians: Outlook being a little lost, but a wonderfully sardonic voiceover from James at the start brings you up to speed in no time at all. You can spot the Stargate SG-1 influences early on, mainly in the permanently-bemused James and the permanently-cynical Stansen's attitudes to the increasingly outlandish goings on around them. Snappy dialogue throughout, laced with a sharp, dry wit that characterises the whole show - anyone who doesn't have that sense of humour is mercilessly picked on by those that do, although that can get a little tiring at times when scenes are made much longer by jokey interplay between some of the characters (James, Ivan and Stansen for the most part). Several more dramatic moments (like the Act II break) also fall foul of this, which saps a little of the tension away. The arrival of Anna gives the show some good balance, as well as an instantly crackling chemistry between her and James that really lights up any scene the duo are in. The whole UNEF operation demonstrates an admirable sense of attention to detail, with a firm grounding in realism meaning the concepts of a lunar base and the Outlook itself never feel too far from reality, even with the alien involvment at the show's core. The terrorist plot manages to bring a sense of drama to proceedings even if nobody seems to be taking things very seriously - which is true of the style of the show in general, given its frequently tongue-in-cheek tone. The terrorists have a solid reason for wanting to bring the UNEF down, the kind of paranoia that's all too easy to imagine springing up in today's world. All good sci-fi has one eye on current affairs to apply to its own themes and stories, so credit for managing to make the terrorists people we can sympathise with to some extent. The actual writing itself is tight in terms of dialogue, although it feels a little emotionless in places, and the stage direction suffers similar problems by not emphasising bigger moments to capitalise on them - Ivan getting shot in Act III is easily missed, when it should be a bigger moment to bring home the fact that all the previous joking is perhaps not that appropriate after all! The retaking of the ship is well choregraphed, though, so it doesn't feel contrived at all. These people have to fight for their ship and don't get an easy ride at all - and Stansen gunning down the terrorist leader in cold blood is a good, dark moment. The cliffhanger is a good effect too - James' last-second solution makes you wonder why you didn't think of it first, so takes you to the end of the show genuinely intrigued as to what's waiting on the other side for the crew! Overall, some fantastic dialogue and a great level of attention to detail, hindered somewhat by an over-reliance on dry, in-jokey humour, a little too much direct influence from SG-1 and some stilted stage direction, but a good little bunch of characters and a well-developed playground for them to run about in.

The DSR 1x15 'All About A Girl, Part II'

by A.J. Black & J.T. Vaughn

Mia finds herself in great danger when trapped in a precarious position when the bounty hunters, led by a familiar face, make their strike…

And straight into part two of what's turning out to be a very strong story for The DSR. I'll keep the introduction short and get right back into it...

A slightly trippy intro brings us slap bang into Mia's flashback, as she cradles the wounded Darryl - but he ain't dead yet! Something is growling (!) outside and clearly the mission is scrubbed, but while Mia wants to bail and leave, Rhindhart ain't going nowhere without that gold. As his men set charges and blow themselves an escape route back out through the mountain, Mia's not going to leave Darryl to die. No, sir. Switch back to the present as the captive Mia comes round to be faced by Rhindhart once more, finding herself in the vampire equivalent of PBH - the Brotherhood headquarters! But... why is Rhindhart there? He's a werewolf, as you may know - so the plot thickens! Back at PBH, Jai's furiously demanding some kind of action to find Mia, kicking stuff around (nice moment with the window, by the way) when Sara runs in with a transmission from Sonja. Seems the reason Rhindhart was in the Brotherhood HQ was because his Project team have taken it over, and SOnja throws herself on the mercy of the DSR. Which should prove interesting!

Mia is dragged before Rhindhart, telling him of his plan to end the vampire/lupan war by wiping out a large chunk of the vampire population - and he asks Mia to join him. Mia's angry refusal leads us into another flashback, and we're getting tantalisingly close to her secret here as we return to the firefight inside the missile silo in Basra. Rhindhart helps Mia start moving Darryl to safety as his men grab the last of the gold, but something big and nasty is down in the tunnels with them now! Mia gets Darryl into a waiting jeep as Rhindhart goes back for one last bit of gold, but he comes racing out spattered in blood moments later, yelling at her to move it. Something bad is back there, kids. Mia is led into another part of the Brotherhood HQ and meets a scientific-looking guy named Kovas, who whispers to her that they should be able to escape if they tried. Another unwilling participant? Kendall isn't sure whether to trust Sonja, but Jai isn't about to let their only chance to find Mia slip away. Kendall approves the op despite his reservations, and we return to the Brotherhood HQ as Lume, Rhindhart's #2 guy, starts the demonstration of the Wave. Rhindhart drags one of the vamp hostages into the room with the sphere weapon, and a horrified Mia watches as she and Kovas formulate their escape plan. With everyone watching the deomsntartion, Mia is able to slip away into the air vents, before we finally see the Wave in action, atomising the unfortunate vamp and leaving Rhindhart unharmed.

Switch to a DSR safe house in Geneva where Jai and Sonja are discussing their op, with Sonja revealing an interesting detail when she reveals that vampire bloodlust can be surpressed through an energy source channeled throughout the Brotherhood HQ. It's a little vague, however, which is an unfortunate symptom of a lot of the 'science' behind DSR. Back with Rhindhart, and his evil plan consists of using that same energy to supercharge the Wave weapon, but his plans go on hold when Lume tells him Mia has escaped (and Lume calls Mia 'the reason he came.' Hmm!). Mia manages to find herself some guns during her escape, leading us back to Flashback Land as Rhindhart drives Mia and the stricken Darryl to somewhere that can help.He gets to a friendly village and puts Darryl in the care of some acquaintances, before hinting that something went screwy in the mission - and it involved one of his own men. I have a theory, but I'm holding back for now. Back in the present, Jai and Sonja are infiltrating the Brotherhood base when Sonja sees something is going weird with the base's energy supply. Mia almost gets busted by a patrolling guard, but no sooner has she put him down than Jai and Sonja have arrived. Rah. Just as they identify the main generators which need taking out, however, a grenade surprises them, with Jai making Mia and Sonja play dead as he faces the guards. Jai is led away, but once he's gone Mia and Sonja take out the last guard. Time for them to finish the job now that Jai's bought them the opportunity!

Jai is brought before Rhindhart, but knows full well that Mia and Sonja are still out there as we rejoin the girls, and despite things being a little prickly between them, it's clear Sonja's doing this to save somebody she cares about. You guessed it - flashback time. I wonder what Mia's '1-2-3-Flashback!' face would look like? Anyway. In the village safe house, Darryl manages to croak out confirmation that Burke was the one who injured him and killed the others, but also says 'he wasn't a man' before he finally slips away, and poor old Mia can do nothing but cry her little heart out. It's a well-handled moment, made all the more touching by seeing the usually tough Mia reduced to a sobbing wreck over his death. Rhindhart (making plenty of Bond jokes along the way) tells Jai that when activated, the Wave will kill any vamp within two hundred miles, and that Aldo's specs were taken from a much older design - the Wave's original creator is unknown. And it had better not be Rambaldi. Else there'll be trouble. Rhindhart then tells Jai that he knows that the Ahnenerbe have a cure for Connor, and he can help get it, but only if Jai doesn't try to stop the Wave from going off. Mia and Sonja get started on shutting down the generators as we see Lume torturing Kovas, before Rhindhart takes over. He explains about the pretty nasty widget he's using on Kovas, something that cooks vamps good and proper, but before he can get started Jai re-enters - and accepts Rhindhart's offer! Now, anybody who remembers 'Lead/Gold' knows that Jai's pulled this stunt before, so we'll have to see how genuine he's being this time. My guess is not very.

Rhindhart gets his plan set up, but gets told of Mia and Sonja's plan and sends Lume with some other goons to stop them. Jai seems to be enjoying the show as Sonja grabs a gun and leaves Mia to take down the generators, which have sixty seconds to go (cue the music!) before shutdown. The generators click off, but Rhindhart's already got the backups working, and with the Wave starting to power up the girls are still pinned down in the genertaor room. Mia takes out Lume (a little abrubtly, I must say), and up in the main area Jai gets a gun to Rhindhart - then shoots the Wave! Everyone is knocked down just as Sonja bursts in, but she gets bogged down in her own fight as Rhindhart starts giving Jai a good kicking. Mia knocks Rhindhart down once his back is turned, leading us into another flashback as Mia sobs over Darryl's body. Screams from outside get her attention - and a pack of a dozen werewolves are tearing through the villagers outside! Rhindhart tells Mia what's going on, that the Lupans are just trying to protect themselves until the time is right for them to fulfil their destiny (wipe out the vamps, I'm guessing), and we get our American Werewolf moment as Rhindhart changes before her very eyes, kicking Mia around before we switch back to the Brotherhood HQ, a furious Mia keeping Rhindhart at gunpoint as she screams at him for what he took away from her, and we quickly flash back to Mia recovering in a military hospital, but there's one shock here - Mia lost her baby! Her baby? Now Darryl's earlier dying words make sense, and it's a genuine shocker of a moment. In the present, Mia demands to know who was behind this whole operation, and Rhindhart's mention of a French group named 'Projetons' gives a flash back to 'Mage' when the DSR auditor flagged something up of the same name, and Mia realises with horror that this scheme goes right back into the DSR itself! Rhindhart gets away, and Sonja goes to Kovas who appears to be the man she was worried about. Debriefing back at PBH, Kendall explains that Rhindhart's still on the run as we see Kovas debriefing Sonja - and it's revealed that he's her dad. Aww. Jai goes to see Mia, telling her what Rhindhart said about the cure for Connor, and she wishes him luck before heading to a search centre to look up 'Projetons.' And this alerts Carson and Ethan! They mention moving things into the 'second phase' as the curtain falls...

Good stuff. More action-packed than Part One and containing some truly jaw-dropping revelations - Mia's secret is a real kicker, as is the revelation of Carson and Ethan's involvment in the whole scheme that blows the whole thing wide open. The rapid cuts between flashbacks and current action threatens to get a little confusing but manages to stay logical, and things reach a satisfactory conclusion despite Jai suddenly developing Stromtrooper Syndrome as he fails to shoot down the fleeing Rhindhart. So! Some good plots pushed along here, some fantastic character development for Mia that now leaves Jai, Anton, Sara and Mia nicely fleshed out. Problems? Well... no matter how you look at it, the way the Wave is described makes me think of a Mueller device, and the hints at the ancient design of the thing leaves an uncomfortably Rambaldi-flavoured aftertaste to the whole thing. Some clunky, out of character dialogue from Rhindhart creeps in too - he's not really Big Bad material no matter how much he mwa ha ha's his way through things, you know? He's a good henchman to some bigger, more intellectual villain, but here he comes across a bit off somehow. Lastly, Jai's 'yeah, I'll work with you... honest' moment may as well have had him sniggering behind his hand for how (not) convincing it was to us, the audience. Still. A much tighter and more entertaining two-parter than 'Lead/Gold' and one of the strongest DSR stories of the season. It's only those niggles above that knock this down a bit, really, and they're fairly forgiveable.

The DSR 1x14 'All About A Girl, Part I'

by A. J. Black, J.T. Vaughn & Brian L. Lamkin

The DSR begins hunting for a magical weapon with the ability to biologically attack vampiric DNA, which Kendall fears a dangerous group of bounty hunters are after...

Another DSR double bill here, with what looks like some more insight into Mia's past with badass Rhindhart and his vampire posse, so I will dutifully review both halves back-to-back. The two episodes were originally going to be written by A.J. Black and Brian Lamkin, but the old spectre of real life time constraints meant new boy J.T. Vaughn jumped into the breach, and from what I can tell his speedy, high quality writing saved the team's collective bacon. Vaughn's 'Soul Man' script a few episodes back was a very impressive debut, so let's see what he can bring to the show now!

We open in Basra, Iraq, back in 2003 as Mia and Rhindhart duck for cover in the midst of a firefight between US troops and the Republican Guard. Mia leads her squad out across No Man's Land, losing a man along the way (and earmarking Mia's compassionate nature) and advancing on an enemy oil refinery. Later in the day, the assault has made good progress, Mia again showing her big heart as she mourns the fallen Iraqi soldiers just as much as her own. A new sergeant steps out, Darryl Sinclair, and it seems Mia is quite smitten with the dashing young officer. Fast forward to the present day in Tajikstan, with Mia on a DSR op with Ethan and Anton. They're closing in on what looks like a garage sale for paranormal creatures, including a caged werewolf, with Anton picking out a Lupan scientist named Krolle as the main target of the mission. Mia spots a sniper moving into position, but as she moves to intercept she sees Ethan and Anton have fallen into the hands of the Lupans. Quickly rigging a series of explosive charges, she detonates the Lupan trading centre as she swoops in to rescue her two boys, before she finds the wounded sniper neasrby. He was a Brotherhood guy - vampires, if you remember - and they wanted Krolle dead for some kind of weapon he's escaped with. As the dying sniper tells her it's something that could wipe out the entire vampire race, we close on what's been one of the best openers to an episode of DSR all season. Good stuff.

Back in the PBH briefing room when we return, as Kendall and Carson lead the briefing on the weapon that's got the vampires so twitchy. Any kind of Bortherhood vs. Lupan smackdown could lead to human casualties, and the DSR can't sit back and let that happen. Next up is Sara, doing her little cute bumbling thing as she dolls herself up and asks Jai to come with her to Mia's birthday party that evening. Fast forward to the somewhat relaxed party, with Sara fussing around as party liaison as Jai finally turns up. Some nice little character moments all round before Jai tries to go speak to Mia, but Ethan beats him to it. Mia starts to muse (and cue the flashback noise) and we rejoin her with Darryl back in Three Years Ago Land. Rhindhart steps in to break up th emoment a little, but the story soon moves back to Mia's party. The gradual unfolding of flashback details is a trick that Lost has proved works well as a story telling device, so let's see what it gives us to work with here. Ethan raises a toast to Mia, and Jai slips away at last, frustrated by not being able to get a chance to talk to her. Anton finds Sara hard at work in her room, the liberated Brotherhood file having provided some interesting intel as we switch to the next morning's briefing at PBH. Kendall tells the team about Aldo Jones, a brilliant electronics whiz who appears to be involved with the production of whatever weapon Krolle has his hands on. The twist? Jones is a vampire - working on an anti-vampire weapon. Mia volunteers to track Jones down at his favourite nightclub in Singapore, and we join her as she's about to strut over and charm Jones away, before nipping back to her wartime flashback. Darryl and Mia are enjoying a quiet picnic, but with the final push into Baghdad about to kick off, Darryl plans to transfer Mia out of the firing line. Mia can't leave yet, however - Rhindhart's got word of a stash of Iraqi gold nestled away in a village and ripe for the plundering, and Mia's alreadsy signed up to help him reclaim it. Back with Mia as she sleazes her way into Jones' line of sight, but unknown to her somebody else has just entered the club, shooting the coatroom attendant as they make their way inside. Mia pours Jones a glass of champagne - then smoothly tells him that she's laced it with poison, and he's go ten minutes to talk before he dies, unless she hears what she wants and gives him the antidote. And is it possible to love Mia any more at this moment? Mia pushes Aldo for a name for who Krolle's working for, but the mystery assassin takes him out before he can spill the beans. Mia tries to follow the shooter but has no luck (and I've just realised that this whole sequence is a bit of a rip-off of the Alias episode 'Unveiled'), but we get to see who the shooter was - our old vampire friend Sonja!

Back at PBH, surveillance footage has identified Sonja as the assassin, and despite Jai's obvious sympathies to Sonja's motivations, he pitches in with the mission to track her down and see what she knows. Mia's clearly rattled by letting Sonja get the better of her, as we return to her flashback as she listens to Rhindhart's briefing about the mission to nab the Iraqi gold. This whole sequence is obviously a riff off the movie Three Kings, so let's see if the writers can put some kind of DSR spin on the story. Mia's there without Darryl's approval, but this doesn't seem to bother Rhindhart too much. Sara bursts into Kendall's office to show footage of Sonja stealing a disk from Aldo's lab, presumably with the tech specs of the weapon, and Jai volunteers to bring her in. Kendall sticks Anton and Mia on the case (Sonja and Mia? Oo, the sparks are gonna fly...), and next thing we know we're in Havanna, as Jai steps into an exclusive rest clinic to meet our resident femme fatale. Jai arrives at the clinic, a little perturbed by all the shiny happy people working there, before neatly tranq'ing the surgeon who comes to see him, swiping a keycard and getting into the staff rooms. Jai suddenly goes offline, and as shouts of fighting are heard, Mia is already off and running as we hit the next flashback. She's packing her bag ready for the gold hunt, surprised by Darryl before she can leave. More little character moments slip out - Mia doesn't want to be a soldier, her parents pushed her into service - and as a determined Mia marches off to meet up with Rhindhart, we're back in the present as Mia charges to the rescue. She follows Jai's tracks, smashing a fire alarm to cover her trail as she enters a laboratory and finds Sonja hard at work. She spots Jai, tied up and helpless, but before she can react she's surprised by a gang of Brotherhood goons, but they're no match for our girl as she lays them all down, marching up to Sonja and putting a gun to her head - but Sonja just smiles back? Huh?

Sonja's running some kind of decryption program on the computer, but despite Mia having her bang to rights she knocks the gun away, and then we get the fanboy moment you've been waiting for - Mia vs. Sonja. Oh, yes. Mia gives it a good try, but as more goons spill in Jai is pressed into action, watching Mia's back as she spars with Sonja. The computer finishes decrypting and Sonja lays Mia out at last, but finds Jai between herself and the computer. Mia's back on her feet and with a gun back to Sonja's head, and as Anton finally arrives we move on to a DSR safehouse where Sonja's all tied up (steady now), getting a grilling from Jai and the others. She tells them that Krolle has set up a base in Cuba to develop his anti-vamp weapon, and a group called the 'Project' is on its way to pick the weapon up. Sonja tells them she's under strict orders to work alone, but she's not eaxctly in a position to negotiate as Jai tells her he's coming along too. Mia is far from happy at the flirtation between the duo before we hit another Mia flashback. Rhindhart's team are on their way to the silo where the gold is hidden when a chopper swoops in to intercept - but it's Darryl. And he wants in. Those of us who know how these things go can already sense what may be coming as we jump back to the present, and Krolle's Cuban fortress. A Rambaldi device-esque sphere seems to be the weapon in question, but as Jai's team begin their infiltration outside Sonja points them towards some unwelcome visitors - the Project are here for the goods!

Back in Basra, the looters arrive at the silo and make their way underground, and as Krolle meets the four Project men Jai's team begin to stealth their way into the base, getting as far as the lab as Krolle gushes about the efficiency of his vamp killer, something called the Wave. See, we love our ominous-sounding codewords in the Alias-verse. The head of the Project admires the weapon - then kills Krolle! He removes his hood - and it's Rhindhart! Ba dum dum. Jai's team burst in with a bang, and as a shocked Mia sees Rhindhart, we switch back to the silo in Basra once more. The team find the gold as Darryl waits up top, again pleading with Mia not to get involved, but a burst of gunfire signals the inevitable - and a body wearing Darryl's uniform plummets past to its death. D'oh! Rhindhart's goons grab the Wave, and Mia breaks rank to pile off after him despite Jai's shouts to stay down. Jai makes it outside just in time to see an unconscious Mia getting bundled into the back of a truck and driven away! And there's your cliffhanger...

Well. DSR on top form here, firing on all cylinders and throwing a genuinely action packed and exciting episode our way. After a few recent misfiring stories, it's great to get one that covers so many bases - interesting character development, backstories, espionage action and focus on one of the show's strongest characters in Mia. Okay, so the use of the flashback device here is straight out of Lost and the gold raid itself is either a homage or straight lift from Three Kings, but it works well here. The mystery over Rhindhart deepens here - what led to him becoming a werewolf, and what does Mia have to do with it? And I don't think we've seen the last of Darryl either - something about the way that bit was staged just feels too suspect to me. We'll see. I'll get right onto part two, but this is a very strong set up - managing to blend action and exposition very well in the show's best episode since 'A Piece Of The Action.'

Pathways 2x12 'The Dangers Of Dating'

by Guy Uhler

Sam and Julie decide that it’s time they bite bullet and try and go on a date together. After a disastrous night, where one thing after another has gone wrong, could fate be trying to tell them something?

Guy Uhler makes a return to Pathways, and as we have an episode built around Julie and Sam's attempts to do something about their blossoming feelings (as well as some more Parker/Alanna stuff, I expect), let's see what goes on here. I remain impressed with how this series has sucked me in - after a wobbly start, the season managed to start gaining a better sense of focus, with each episode getting more cohesive and pulling all the various plot strands together. The breezy tone can switch to more serious stuff quite easily, and the ensemble cast remain as strong as ever.

We've seen several early morning routine sequences thus far, and now it's Sam's turn. Falling out of bed and into the shower, he has a pep talk with his reflection before bursting into song, trying on about six different outfits before finally applying his hair gel and makeup, flouncing down into the kitchen to make pancakes before leaving for the day. While this little sequence tells us masses about Sam's psyche, it feels like it's missing a punchline somehow - but maybe that's just me. Anyway.

Sam bumps straight into Julie, kicking off the first Awkward-o-thon of the day as the duo stumble their way through an attempt at light conversation. The duo make their excuses and go their separate ways before we catch up with Gabe in the Banner staff room, and as one student asks for help in his article Gabe does the classic 'I'm going to make everything I say into a thinly-veiled statement about my own problems' thing, and to Uhler's credit this works very well, playing on Gabe's naturally rapid dialogue to good effect. We leave Gabe to catch up with Comedy Mark and Not Out Yet Logan, with Logan finally taking the plunge and asking Mark out on a date, the two clearly on the same wavelength as Mark happily says yes. It's Charlie and Parker up next (have to say that these little scenes are unfolding the episode nicely thus far), and we get our first hint of drama as Charlie spills the beans about the affair Kaia seems to be having with one of the teachers, asking for Parker's help in getting to the bottom of it all. Parker agrees to help, having his own reasons for wanting to get even with Kaia, but doesn't seem too happy about it as a blushing Charlie heads off. Sam and Julie meet up again next, and Sam makes the bold move of asking her out on a date. Stressing that this doesn't mean he isn't gay any more, she agrees, and so the stage is set. You have to beat the dramatic irony off with a stick, but still, you know... stage set.

Anna meets up with James, waiting for the contractor to arrive so they can go over schematics of the new clinic, but as Anna decides it's high time they got a little frisky, Lou the contractor shows up at last. Lou's offering a good deal and Anna is suitably psyched, and things also seem to be back into giggly teenager mode between her and James, with some sweet interplay between them. Mark heads in to see Sam to tell him about the impending date with Logan, and in true rom com style we leave them to join Julie and Charlie, showing both sides of Sam and Julie's impending date and the worries that are accompanying it. In the Blaze later that evening, Mark, Gabe and Charlie are discussing the impending polarisation of their world should Sam and Julie somehow hook up, but as Charlie slips off to see Parker and Logan shows up, Gabe is facing a night in alone until Mark invites him along on his date with Logan. Oh, Mark. Mark, will you never learn?

Act III opens with Charlie and Parker staking out one of Kaia's old makeout spots, waiting patiently despite Charlie's attempts to get Parker to flirt with her. Sam and Julie are out enjoying a posh meal, but as Julie gets a drink spilled in her lap you just know tonight isn't going to go to plan. Gabe is also doing his best to unknowingly screw up Mark and Logan's date, babbling on about his Dominic troubles and emo-ing like a good 'un. Logan's being accommodating so far, but you have to ask just how long his patience will last here. Sam and Julie finish their meal and escape from the restaurant, but as they try to go see a movie (which, as any would-be couple can attest, is an easy way to spend two hours together without needing to say much) Sam finds he's left his keys in his car - and neither of them brought their mobile phones! D'oh. Back with Parker and Charlie, and a bored Parker is just about to head home for the night when Kaia finally shows up - now we're getting somewhere!

After the movie, Mark and Logan seem to still be having a good night, but Mark makes the mistake of daring to comment on Gabe's bad mood, and before you know it Gabe and Mark are having one of those outpurings that inevitably leads to more pouting. Mark manages to blurt out a few home truths to Gabe, namely that he was the one who cheated on Dom so it's hardly appropriate for him to be complaining about it, which not surprisingly goes down like a Slayer record at a wedding reception. Sam and Julie make it home at last, and despite the evening having been a total washout the duo are quick to decide to try it again, and soon. But! There's the moment you've been waiting for - the kiss! Blimey. Mark and Logan go the same way, Logan's reservoir of patience getting him through the evening with enough left over to give Mark a goodnight kiss, but back with Sam and Julie things go a bit south once the duo say their good-byes. Neither of them look sure over what to make of that last kiss, and as we switch back to Charlie and Parker's stakeout, the tension between the two of them is starting to amp up a bit as they come perilously close to kissing, before Charlie's persistence pays off and Mr. Swenson steps into frame. As Kaia and Swenson get stuck into a thorough examination of each other's dental work, we leave Pathways for another week.

Hmm. Not sure what to make of this one - the rapid-fire dialogue flows well throughout, and even if the progression of the story is pretty predictable, it's a good storytelling device to have three couples each trying to have an evening together in some shape or form. There's a good sense of pacing as things roll on, and some nifty characterisation all round as the evening wears on. My issues with this episode are that it's too darn short (43 pages of a dialogue-heavy script is about five pages shorter than normal), and the stage direction is as flat as a pancake which sabotages some of the good moments of tension. The two snogs and one almost-snog should be big moments, but they happen so quickly in the direction that you can almost miss them if you're not careful! So, while this is a pacy, well-written episode in some respects, it falls back from the lazy stage direction and unecessarily short timing of the whole thing.

Afterlife 1x10 'Sunset'

by Jon Nyqvist

The dark ones are on the move, and it falls to Jonathan & company to prevent a plot aiming to make the next sunset the last - literally!

With Afterlife nearing the conclusion of its cracking first season, it's time for our Big Bads Murder and Betrayal to put the final stages of their plan into operation, their army of dark beasties threatening to overrun the Afterlife unless Jonathan and Aurora can stop them. Aurora's in no fit state to do anything at the moment, however - after being left poisoned by the darkness creeping across her body (present since the very start of the season), she's in danger of succumbing and becoming Murder's next lieutenant, and after Jon's failed attempt to cure her in the last episode, what hope remains for our plucky duo?

We open in a flashback ten years into the past, following two men as they stroll the corridors of an Asylum, one of them the mysterious Shadow Man who's been playing such a large part in the fates of our various characters. They're talking about some particularly troubled young girl - a druggie for a mother, abused in the foster home system and finally institutionalised. Ouch. The Shadow Man peers into the cell - and there's Rachel! You guessed it. Good to get a bit more insight into why our resident Big Badette is the way she is - any good villain has something you can sympathise with them about, so that's some great characterisation for you right there.

Back in the Afterlife, Rachel/Betrayal is studying her own reflection (with a neat touch in how her reflection shows her consumed by darkness, despite the pure white dress she's wearing) when Murder arrives to tell her it's 'time.' Betrayal is clearly still pissed that she didn't get to finish Aurora off her own way, but she's going along with Murder's plans for now as we switch over to Darkwood Village to join Aurora, out of bed and practicing using Jon's punching bag. Aurora doesn't feel like talking about what's happening to her despite Jon's obvious (and rather touching) concern for her, but as she mentions the dreams she's been having of a black flood overrunning a city, Jon tells her that he's been having the same dream for the last five years! Going back ten years, we find Rachel now living at Bridge Manor under the tutelage of the Shadow Man, who tells her it's time for her to go to high school at last - and make friends with Aurora! These flashbacks are both short and connecting together some important plot details, so they're serving the episode well and not slowing things down, as happened on occasion earlier in the season. Jon, meanwhile, has called a crisis meeting with Aurora, Kate and Lianna to work out a game plan for tackling Murder's dark army, with Aurora saying she's got some kind of instinctual urge to head west at the moment. Kate recalls being shown some old ruins there by Marius, so Jon decides to go and check it out. We end the Act with a shot of Murder and Betrayal leading their huge army forward, just to remind you that the shite is ready and waiting to be thrown at the old fan...

Back in the past at Bridge Manor, Rachel reports back to the Shadow Man. Her tormented upbringing has made her a master manipulator and she's already putting her skills to good use, worming her way into everybody's heart and, more importantly, Aurora's circle of friends. In the Afterlife, Murder waits at the edge of the Dark Lands for the sun to go down, so he and his army can surge forward and do that old conquering thing at last. As Jon and Aurora set off and leave Kate to lead the village, we cut back to Aurora's beach house nine years ago, as the girl herself relaxes with Rachel and Linda. Rachel slips away, breaks into a bedroom and gets hold of the house's security codes (you putting the pieces together yet?), before we return to the cusp of the Dark Lands. Betrayal and Murder have an interesting conversation, both mentioning a 'he' who must be the Shadow Man, but this guy obviously wields a huge amount of influence over both of them. Hmm! Jon and Aurora stop by a lake, but Jon's caution is well advised as once again, some big slimy tentacled thing makes a grab for them. Thing is, this time it isn't giving up so easily, and as our duo race back into the forest they're pursued by the thing, dragging its bulk out of the lake and smashing through the trees to get to them. Jon realises they're heading for a cliff edge, but the blindly fleeing Aurora doesn't, so with a quick jolt of Hero Juice he manages to set up a rope and hook himself to a boulder, soaring over the edge as Aurora drops off it! He manages to grab her, but as the duo are left hanging over a hundred foot drop with only an increasingly fragile rope between them and a Wile E. Coyote style exit, it's time for a Black Out...

There's trees about twenty feet down, but they're not going to offer much in the way of help given that they're just as far away from the base of the cliff. As the river beast above starts hammering at the cliff and threatening to take Jon and Aurora out in a rockslide, Aurora starts swinging out to try and jump for the nearest tree, and in another of those wonderfully cinematic moments that this show does so well, the duo leap for the trees, making it to relative safety just as the river beast causes a full on rockfall overhead, missing them by moments. They hit the deck, alive but winded, and Jon finds he's dislocated his shoulder. Aurora dutifully snaps it back into place, but time is running out as Murder watches the sun set at last - it's time to move on! Back in the past, there's a nice moment where young Aurora almost knocks down young Jon in the street, before we jump forward to just after Rachel has committed the murders that Aurora was framed for (although the jumps in time do get a little confusing - maybe needed a bit more clarification on what was going on there), reporting back to the Shadow Man and getting ready to ruin Aurora's life as we jump back into the Afterlife as Jon remembers the story of the day it all went wrong for Aurora, eliciting a rare tear from the girl herself as he offers his sympathies. Murder's army is seen approaching the same ruined temple that Jon and Aurora are heading for, with Murder informing Betrayal that the temple will form a conduit for allowing his army to be unleashed back into 'the outside world' - by which I take it he means ours. Eep! Murder brings Betrayal before an altar coursing with power, telling her it's her destiny to break down the barrier between worlds - the 'betrayal of nature itself' as Murder elegantly puts it. Jon and Aurora are sneaking into the camp, which gives us the Line Of The Week (and a contender for Line Of The Season):

JONATHAN
It’s my sword, I swear.

Narf. The duo approach the pyramid and altar at its peak, but at the sight of Betrayal Aurora snaps, rushing out of cover to face her and blowing their whole surprise attack wide open!

Act IV opens with the moment Rachel stabbed Aurora back in the beach house, just to remind you precisely why Aurora's about to tear Betrayal a new one as the two enemies clash on top of the temple, but despite sinking a dagger into Betrayal's chest the bad girl is unharmed. Murder shows up to toss Aurora back into the incoming Jonathan, sending them both tumbling back down the pyramid steps as Betrayal gets to the altar and does her thing. As darkness starts to build within the ocean just off the nearby coast, Jon and Aurora are surrounded by dark beasties at the foot of the pyramid. Murder comes to see them both, challenging them to get past him, but despite the duo's best efforts he holds them off without even blinking, breaking Aurora's arm and a few of Jon's ribs in a typically fast and brutal fight sequence, but the duo aren;t giving up that easily, fighting on despite their injuries as Betrayal's work continues up on the altar. Pillars of pure darkness burst from the altar and surrounding ocean, turning the sky black in a truly awe-inspiring sequence, and with Jon and Aurora close to the edge Murder orders his army to kill them both. The beasties close in, but the heroes have aplan, using the bottles of oil in Jon's backpack to create a blast of flame, dazzling the army for long enough for them to slip away. With Betrayal's magic still busy ending the world in the background, we get our last flashback between Rachel and the Shadow Man, and the biggest shocker yet - he shoots her! We know that this will send her into the Afterlife, but the horror on Rachel's face again makes you feel almost sorry for her as she hits the ground, dead - and Betrayal is born. In the Afterlife, the jet black sky starts to pour with rain, watched by the horrified residents of Darkwood village and Jon & Aurora, seeing the end of the world play out before them as we cut to black...

Wow. In a word. The clever use of Rachel's flashbacks both fill in the last few blanks on her involvment in ruining Aurora's life but also her motivations for doing so - was she born bad, or did the abuse she suffered as a child make her that way? Okay, the chronology of the flashbacks requires close attention to avoid getting mixed up, but when they flesh out Betrayal as both a Big Badette and a person they way they do, you can forgive them that. Villains with layers like that are always a thousand times more interesting than people who are just plain bad, so as Betrayal ends the world it's not only a surprise (you know, you'd think Murder would do it) but also something that you can understand. And that, my friends, is one of the many, many things that makes Afterlife so bloody good. Complex, realistic characters with flaws, emotions and motivations, coupled with tense, dramatic set pieces and mesmerising moments of action, all shot through with a filmworthy eye for cinematography, and here we've got one of the classic styles of genre TV cliffhangers - the 'we're so screwed' moment. This is it now - we've set up what our heroes have to beat and made doing so look virtually impossible. And you're damn sure you need to see how it all plays out. Bring on the finale!

The High Life 1x06 'Mr. Guitar Man'

by Emma Platt & Chris Kelly

Lee embarks on a dramatic new career path, and though the others fear for his sanity he seems happy for the first time in a long while. So how long until the bubble bursts for our harassed leader?

Back with The High Life, whose troubled schedule has proven no obstacle to the continuing adventures of MZP's inner circle. Lee continues to slowly disintegrate into madness, Ian has happily been there for some time now, drama queen Emma pops her stack with alarming regularity, Waylon and Chris continue their comedy double act and Claire remains the sensible one amongst it all - though not without problems of her own. Episode six finds Lee approaching an interesting new career choice in the wake of his dismissal after the disastrous dinner in 'Meet The Roomies,' so let's find out what happens to him. Er, me. You know what I mean.

Waylon and Chris are lying awake in the living room, discussing Lee's new lack of direction following his sacking from the production company. Waylon's concerned that he'll have competition for house slob, but we all know he's too darn good at it for that to ever happen. The duo keep going off topic to make some of those dry in-jokes that always pepper Kelly's scripts, but as Lee storms out to yell at them they realise he could hear every word they were saying. The duo are unrepentant as always, prompting Lee to give Waylon a soaking before retiring for the night.

The next morning, everyone is surprised to find Lee favouring a day slobbing on the couch with Waylon over going job hunting. Lee can't understand why everyone is making such a big deal out of it, but as Waylon explains it it's his motivation that makes up such a big part of who he is. If Lee's content to sit around doing nothing, what hope is there for the rest of them? Emma and Claire get ready for their day, Emma moaning (as she does) and Claire worried most about the relationship she's having with her boss and the shift in power this could have on her job, but as she heads back outside everyone's back to ripping into Lee and his attempts to relax. The others leave Waylon and Lee to their day and head for work, Chris and Ian complaining about their jobs again before Emma gets another chance to have a girly chat with Claire, attempting to goad her into letting her hair down for once but finding Claire's natural sense of reserve too much to overcome. Back at the apartment, Lee can't handle just sitting around all day (it's true, I can't) and chugs off to get some air, much to Waylon's disapproval, but as he disappears into his bedroom and reappears with... something, we end on a cliffhanger. In The High Life? Like, I know!

Ian's attending his first anger management class at the hospital, but it's already not going well as he's gotten lost on the way and is in a bad mood before he even steps through the doors. Finding the rest of his class taking a picnic outside, he stomps out to join them and finds group leader Serena as placid and welcoming as ever. Ian's in no mood to play along, however, and despite Serena's best efforts to get him integrated with the group, Ian would rather reveal the reason for his anger. Wibbly flashback time! Seems Ian flipped out when he went into work in a bad mood, having been told that South Park was getting axed, and after snapping at several library customers he was brought before the boss, who decided it was for the best that Ian get sent to anger management. Ian's ignorant, defiant attitude to anybody daring to disagree with him is your source of humour here - pigheaded people always make for good comedy. Especially angry pigheaded people. Ian's story isn't quite finished yet, however, as we return to the apartment and find the others being the only people to offer Ian any kind of emotional support, but this isn't enough to get Ian out of his seminar. He returns to the apartment with a 'homework' assignment to write about his 'feelings' towards other people. Lee enters carrying a guitar case, and as the others ask why he never told them he had a guitar, he recounts a story of how they smashed one of his favourite depressing CDs a few days ago. Possessions are never sacred when you share a house with five other people. Seems Lee's been earning a steady wage for himself busking down by the pier, and feels that he's finally found something that he's good at, enjoys and makes money from, never having found all three in one profession before. Leaving Lee, Ian and Waylon to their grief, Emma tries and fails to get any more details out of Claire about her romantic life, while Lee declares that he's now found his niche in life and is going to remain a busker, to disbelief from Ian and Waylon.

Act III opens on a Saturday morning as everybody comes out to see the surprisingly successful Lee at his new spot down on the boardwalk, but as everyone slips off for resfreshments and leaves Chris and Waylon to guard the money, the resident Abbott & Costello spy a hundred dollar bill in amongst the rest of Lee's takings. They're busy deliberating over whether or not to take it when a bright-eyed little girl named Kira skips along. She sings a sad song about how destitute her family is, and Waylon falls for her big old puppy dog eyes as he gives her the hundred dollars. However! The kid's rich, and having suckered our duo she skips away with the cash, forcing Chris and Waylon into hot pursuit. The others hit the apartment, with Emma still trying and failing to get any gossip out of Claire before we return to Waylon and Chris's chase. They track her back to her home, but seeing the affluent suburb she lives in they know they have to try a different tactic to get Lee's cash back...

Knocking on the door, Waylon is struck dumb at the MILF that steps out, and Chris does his best to salvage the situation from Waylon's slack-jawed gaze. Posing as window salesmen, Waylon's over-enthusiastic praise of Kira's mother gets them invited in, and with Waylon convinced he's pulled it's down to Chris to get the job done. At the apartment, Lee discovers that South Park isn't actually cancelled after all, and sets off to find Ian and tell him the good news before his exponentially increasing anger lands him in even deeper trouble, but as we catch up with Ian he's already gone too far - he's quit his job at the library! Or at least, he tries too. His old boss, Mr. Clark, has been replaced by the more pragmatic Mr. Windmill, a man who respects Ian's attitude and encourages it, having no patience for customers himself. With Ian actually earning a promotion and not quite believing his luck, we return to Kira's house as Chris sneaks off to begin his recovery mission. He confronts Kira and demonstrates a frighteningly accurate ability to remember exactly who owes him and what for, before he snatches the cash and runs as Kira yells for her mum. The duo run like the clappers and end up back in a park, but as a stray gust of wind blows the bill out of Chris' hands and into those of a nearby hobo, the chase is back on again as the exhausted duo race after the fleeing hobo.

Another decent showing for High Life, with the writing getting better with each episodes and the different characteristics of the six players continuing to develop. There's a lot going on in this episode, and while it's in danger of jumping around a bit too much at times, there's always something going on and it's only the second Act that really slows down at all. The in-jokes are starting to get better as the show runs on, and the aforementioned gradual improvement in writing quality means this holds together a bit better than last week's show. High Life is recovering well from the loss of its chief writer, and it looks like the episode quality will continue to improve as the weeks roll on now.

The DSR 1x13 'Gold'

by A.J. Black

The raid of the hi-tech Vienna vault to recover the alchemist codex goes well after a setback and Jai remains undercover, but Kendall fears the mercenaries are tempting him back into his old life with their plans to achieve immortality...

Straight into 1x13 so I can see if all the set up of 1x12 pays off, and we have Tony Black remaining in the writer's chair for the concluding half of this mid-season two-parter. There's a little ambiguity being set up over Jai's motives in this one, but to be honest that's not really making itself as big a deal as I think the staff would have hoped. It's pretty clear so far that Jai's still a DSR man, but hopefully we'll see his conscience get twisted a little more as we push on. Jai's switch of alleigance from mercenary to government man is the one fact of his character that hasn't really been explored in great detail this season - we know now that he's still trying to cope with Connor's condition and his hatred for Glissman, so this new angle should help shed a little more light on him and help him develop into a more rounded character.

We swoop down across the Alps to pick up the Gare du Alpine, the luxury passenger train that currently holds both the Painted Lady and Sanetza's codex, a black helicopter catches the train up to deposit Jai and the rest of his merc team down onto the Vienna, the carriage that contains the prize. The fact that we haven't even had introductions for the other two mercs on the team yet already has them wearing big Red Shirts over their black gear, but there you go. La Font is inside the Vienna carriage, a man on the inside as he heads off to carry out part two of his mission - but he passes Anton and Ethan! Sadie is in the train too, passing La Font a keycard before staggering mock-drunkenly into the passenger carriages. Mia is keeping a close eye on Sadie, following her into a passage - and finding a dead security guard, apparently strangled mid-shag! Ruthless. With Sadie now falling firmly into the Xenia Onatopp sphere of bad girls, Mia sees that Sadie is now climbing bravely along the outside of the speeding train, just as La Font uses the keycard to gain access to the Vienna at last. Have to say, it's not as heavily guarded as La Font was making out last episode - he made a big point of 'twenty four hour, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year' coverage, yet with one keycard he's already within visual range? Ethan is tailing La Font, but he's soon in the typical Ethan pose - flat on his arse after being decked by the bad guy - as Saide warns him their operation may be compromised. La Font smoothly switches off the Vienna's security laser grid defences as Jai's team begin their side of the op, but no sooner have they gained access than Jai has tranqed the other two mercs before whipping out a roll of piano wire, starting to garrotte Hibbs! We cut to black from this - what's going on here, I wonder?

Mia locates the downed Ethan, who manages to elicit some TCP out of her at last as Sadie and La Font realise that their strike team has been compromised. Sadie runs into Mia, and after a brief exchange of gunfire Sadie stumbles in on Jai still strangling Hibbs, shooting him in the arm to get arm to get him to stop. Mia turns up and trades gunfire with Sadie for a moment, zipping in for a bit of girlfighting and knocking Sadie down, taking off after the escaping Jai as Sadie swipes the codex and drags the wounded Hibbs away. Anton tries to stop them, but is disarmed by La Font, and he can only watch helplessly as Sadie and Hibbs jump off the train (yes, they jump. Off the train. The moving train. I take it the train isn't going that fast, then!), followed by La Font. On the roof of the Vienna carriage, Mia sees Jai steal away on the helicopter (which appears to be in Sanetza's emply), before we return to PBH for the mission debriefing. I'll just interject at this point to say that the whole train mission felt ridiculously easy after how much La Font was bigging it up last episode - what use were those two other mercenaries? Seems to me like Sadie and La Font could have pulled the whole thing off between them! Jai's double double cross is a great spanner in the works, but still - bit of a wasted opportunity there. Anyhoo. Mia reports on what happened, and both she and Kendall are shocked by Jai's apparent betrayal, but Carson has her suspicions confirmed at last about him. Kendall wants to give him a chance, but as Mia recommends bringing him in for questioning, we switch to the Sanetza villa in Greece, where Jai meets his new employer. Sanetza gets a nice pun with the 'I see you have suffered for my art' line (see, I do notice things like that!), and Jai reveals that he was tasked to sabotage the mission but kill Hibbs. The thot plickens! Sanetza seems pleased and also mentions something he promised Jai (which I think I can already work out, along with who La Font's mysterious 'employer' is), and as we see Hibbs recovering with Sadie and La Font in their safe house, where La Font is ordered to get the Painted Lady back. The codex they have is worthless without it, you see! Back at PBH, Ethan and Mia have a chance to talk at last, but she's not interested in his attempt at reconciliation as Sara tells Anton she thinks she may have figured something out. La Font was consulting Eduardo Nadal, a Spanish historian, about the team he was putting together, and Sara asks Anton to be her backup on a mission to go see Nadal. Kendall is in his office when he receives a call from Jai, although Jai can't bring himself to say anything. Hibbs calls next, arranging a meeting with Jai to talk about some kind of mutual exchange in Baku, and the stage is set for the next round.

Over in Bilbao, Spain, Anton and Sara are ready to meet with Nadal to get some more answers. Nadal seems unaware of La Font's true intentions, but no sooner has he mentioned something called the 'Obscura Circle' than bang! He's dead. Anton heads off in pursuit, kicking off a pretty cool rooftop chase for the sniper as Sara raids Nadal's office for more info. She finds some handy-looking files but is confronted by a goon as she tries to exit, and despite almost getting past him she's halfway towards getting strangled when Anton swoops back in to save her. The team analyse the files back at PBH, and it seems La Font was tracking the genealogical roots of five contemporaries of Sanetza Snr. Carson confronts Kendall about his insistence to believe Jai's switched sides, and Kendall angrily rebukes any of her accusations. Sara and Anton have a chat to historian Daneen (from 'Mage'), who reveals that the Obscura Circle is all about a posse of dark alchemists looking to perfect a formula called the 'Transmutation.' and that formula is what's encrypted into the Painted Lady. Jai, meanwhile, is on a private jet with Sanetza when he's asked about the DSR, with Jai saying he just wants to get 'even.' More cryptic refences are made to the Transmutation before we return to PBH as Daneen presents his findings. Surprise, surprise, the five mercs La Font assembled (or thought he had, given Jai's switcheroo) are the direct descendants of Sanetza Snr's posse of alchemists - the Obscura Circle, the next generation (and yes, I'd figured that out. Because I'm clever). Kendall decides to offer to trade Austin for Jai, but they don't know that Jai isn't with La Font, blowing his cover as they contact La Font! The DSR team head for a rendezvous, not aware that La Font is one step ahead of them, as he meets with Jai in Baku to swap the codex. And Kendall wlaks out with Austin. Eep! The headache-inducing standoff (because now everybody knows Jai is Jai, but I'm waiting for it to settle down so I can work out who's working with who) leads us into Act III...

We don't wait lonf for our answer, as Kendall, Jai and Hibbs are dumped into the water! Hibbs gets to a knife and fress the trio from their bonds, and as they reach the surface again it's time Jai explained himself to the two guys he's just screwed over. At a safe house, Jai reveals that Sanetza offered him the means to cure Connor (aha! I was right), and the guys figure out that Sanetza is trying to work around a legal decree in Sanetza Snr's work that stops him from reforming the Circle himself, using La Font to get it done. Credit where it's due - that's actually a pretty clever plan, and makes a lot of sense. And as Sanetza Jnr and La Font relax on their way to their next location, you can figure out for yourselves who La Font was really working for (I got it wrong. I thought it'd be Glissman, so more kudos to Black for the misdirection here). Kendall gets the rest of the DSR team moving as he and Jai have one of those surrogate father.wayward son talks, and it comes across pretty well, with Kendall's faith in Jai being rewarded at last. Meanwhile, at PBH, Mia and Ethan spark off again, and Mia reveals it all comes back to when Ethan ratted on her back in 1x09 (by blowing the whistle on how Mia helped Sara out). Sanetza, meanwhile, has been located, buying back a property in Sardinia used by his ancestors (stickler for tradition, obviously), but as Kendall is informed he decides that he, Hibbs and Jai should go in first. The trio break into the mansion's grounds, heading through a service tunnel when Jai hears something, some kind of underground machinery. Hibbs isn't interested, but runs straight into Sadie and gets the team busted, but as she offers him a place back in the team, we black out once again.

Act IV gives us a captive Jai and Kendall (not having much luck today, are they?), while Hibbs gloats (and Jai gets off a joke to Sadie that won't make much sense unless you know more about the actress playing her), and Sadie tells Jai that if he kills Kendall, he can have a place back on the team. Sadie's clearly a willing disciple of whatever La Font and Sanetza are planning, and waits as Jai trains the gun on Kendall... and shoots Hibbs. But he's only got one bullet, and lets Sadie go rather than fight her. She's clearly made an impression on him one way or another, but you have to question a guy who only seems to like women who could take him in a fight! The bond between Kendall and Jai is restored as the duo head downstairs to stop Sanetza, disrupting the ceremony as Kendall waxes lyrical about the Transmutation being the key to immortality (getting the 'lead into gold' line that links to the episode titles, detail fans), but Sadie shows up to spil Jai's party. Jai and Kendall can only watch as Sanetza and the others plunge their hands into the strange distillation device that all the fuss is about - but are instead killed as molten lead surges out and cooks them from the inside out! However. The lead turns to pure gold, which somehow revives the fallen villains (o-kay...), before killing them - again. Jai blinks in surprise, as the rest of us do, and Kendall offers these words of wisdom:

JAI
What happened? The formula worked.

KENDALL
(wonders)
Maybe that’s exactly what the
original Diego Sanetza wanted
everyone to think.

Uh... what? So... if Sanetza's formula didn't work, why go to so much trouble to hide it? Am I missing something? Jai and Kendall return to PBH, with Kendall publicly giving Jai his backing again. Mia's still pissed off, and Carson takes Ethan to one side to discuss their 'plan' in more detail (remember that? going back to earlier in the season there). Mia gives Jai the cold shoulder as he tries to speak to her, and it's lights out for another episode.

So... what was that all about, then? We go from mercenary double cross to a high tech train robbery, ending in a Raiders Of The Lost Ark style quest for immortality that kills off all our villains with very little explanation or consequence. There's one thing that keeps sabotaging Black's scripts - he's great at setting a story up (the revelation about Sanetza's plan in Act III is noticeably clever), but he just can't seem to finish them off properly, to do his set up justice. We needed to make more of the train robbery, getting into it at the end of 1x12 so we could have had Jai's attack on Hibbs as our cliffhanger, then make more of the actual lead & gold sequence instead of wrapping the whole thing up in a handful of pages. And while we're on that subject - what happened? Why did they all die? I really didn't get that at all. If the Transmutation was a failure, why were the instructions hidden so carefully? I'm open to some kind of explanation on that score, because I may have missed something, but as it stands the conclusion to this really didn't make much sense at all. That said, there's good moments here - the train raid works well (although it could have been a lot longer), there's some good character growth on Jai's part (at last), and Sara gets more field time which is always handy. This is a story that promised much but stumbled at the final hurdle, which is a real shame as we could have had a killer on our hands here.

The DSR 1x12 'Lead'

by A.J. Black

The theft of a priceless occult painting drives Jai back into a life he thought he'd forsaken, and an uneasy alliance with an old friend, and old enemy...

The first of two more or less two-parters in a row for The DSR now, so I'll endeavour to do back-to-back reviews to do the story justice. And not because I'm behind or anything. Heavens, no. Right! Showrunner Tony Black is back in the saddle for this one, so let's see what he turns up...

A skyscraper in central Madrid is where we start, as a stealthy female thief scales the side of the building and laser-cutters her way inside. She locates a Renaissance painting depicting a classically-beautiful woman (a nod to Page 47, perhaps?) before we flip back over to PBH. Sara leads the briefing as she tells the assembled team that the stolen painting was something known as the Painted Lady, but as the significance of that is lost on the others, she lets Kendall take over. The Painted Lady's artist, a 14th-century Spaniard named Sanetza, wevaed some of what he knew of the occult into his final work, but he took its secrets to his grave. The painting is up for auction in London, so with the plan being to let the sale go ahead and then nab the buyer, the team are off to London town. Jai and Sara are undercover at Sotheby's, with Anton on cover (and yes, while I get the 'Zefram Cochrane' in-joke, it's a bit of a groan because the old nicknaming thing is what made Jai such a Sawyer clone early on, a trait which had been thankfully absent from recent episodes). With Ethan and Kendall also observing, it's all quiet until Jai spies a chap named La Font, an old mercenary acquaintance of his. Convinced he's the man the team are after, Jai sets his sights on the guy as we end the Teaser in true Alias style (by which I mean you suddenly realise we're almost ten minutes in and we haven't even had the title sequence yet).

Ethan's background check tells him La Font is just as much a crook as Jai used to be, but Anton reports in that the insurance investigators have located the painting. If they get it first, the DSR won't be able to track it to the original thief, so Jai leaves Sara to watch La Font as he scoots off to help. Anton confronts the two Spaniards down in the loading bay and gets a fight for his trouble, but up in the auction the Painted Lady is revealed in all its glory. So what's the fight down in the loading bay for, then? The plot thickens! Jai saves Anton's bacon, but as they rejoin Sara she informs them that La Font bought the painting for £68 million. I'm assuming the two Spaniards just had the wrong painting, or something... because I'm actually a bit confused at the moment. Anyway. La Font makes a phone call to someone about 'the gathering' before we return to PBH the next day. Jai's inside intel on La Font is a big help as the team try to assess his involvment, with Ethan volunteering Mia for an infiltration op on whatever 'gathering' La Font is heading for. Back in Madrid, Diego Sanetza, descendant of the original painter himself, is told his men failed to get the painting and orders a search for whoever bought it. At PBH, Carson (remember her? She hasn't done much for a while) confronts Kendall about what Jai knows concerning La Font, before Kendall and Jai drop their bombshell of a plan - Jai's going in with Hibbs (who you may remember as the merc working for the creepy doctor back in 'Instinct'), assuming they can persuade him to come along. Jai drops in on Hibbs at his cosy Californian penitentiary cell, but in a surprise move decks the guard and drags Hibbs out with him. My first impression was that Jai's staged all this to fool Hibbs into co-operating, so we'll see if I'm right later. So I can be smug.

Act II opens with the prison break still in progress, as Hibbs pretends to have Jai at gunpoint to get past the guards and wardens on duty, demanding a helicopter and getting one. As Jai and Hobbs head for the chopper, however, the downed guard wakes up and blows the whistle on Jai's plan, forcing the duo to get the helicopter in the air under a hail of gunfire. Jai sneaks something onto the radio as he flies to safety in true A-Team style, and back at PBH Sara announces with a grin that she can track the chopper and listen in. Go team. Sadly, Hibbs is now packing a loaded gun, but can't have everything, eh? With Sara feeding him intel via a hidden earpiece, Jai manages to cook up a cover story to keep Hibbs off his trail, Jai claiming to have killed Owen Austin, Hibbs' contact, and getting the location of the scheduled meeting with La Font - Cyprus. A club, no less. Cue dance music soundtrack moment. Big up! Big up! Ayia Napa massive! Ahem. Jai and Hibbs head for the Castle, a club built out of, wait for it... a castle. And who should be there but Mia, slipping Jai a tracking dot as she melts back into the crowd. Sara's also out in the crowd at the club, ready for backup as Mia slips one of the bouncers a sicky pill to get him out of the way. With Ethan and Anton also melding into the club staff, the gang's all here as La Font finally makes his appearance. The real Owen Austin shows up, but Sara gets a chance to flex her flirt muscles as she diverts him, allowing Ethan to step in and keep Austin busy while Jai and Hibbs meet up with La Font. Keeping up with all this? Good. Austin gets away from Ethan (decking him good 'n' proper, like), and is about to blow Jai's cover when Anton drags him away, so Jai is free to slip La Font the tracking device and get the time and place of the next meeting. You know, one day, an Alias-verse mission is going to run without a hitch. Just saying. One day. Maybe. Santeza, meanwhile, is onto La Font and preparing to fly out and spoil the party...

Carson is complaining about keeping Austin in custody at the start of Act III, while Sara gushes to Mia about how great it was to be out in the field again. Looks like we're opening a new chapter in Tech Girl's life, and I hope more gets made of it. Sara's last field excursion in episodes 8 and 9 made for some of the best moments of the season yet, so take note, DSR staff! Ethan arrives to tell the girls they've got La Font's location, but Mia is still blanking him (what are we, twelve?) as we join Jai undercover over in Graz, about to meet the elusive La Font at last. Hibbs talks about Jai's lack of 'fire' since losing Connor and Cassie, trying to bait him into reacting but Jai admirably keeps his cool. At least we're approaching Jai's issues from another angle for a change! Jai and Hibbs are escorted into La Font's private estate and tech-friendly apartment, seeing three more mercenaries in attendance as we return to PBH. The DSR team are listening in and have teams surrounding the area, but Kendall wants to wait until La Font's said his piece before they move in. La Font reveals the painting (and identifies the girl we saw stealing it as Sadie), telling them that they need another artefact to decode the message in the painting for La Font's still-unnamed 'employer.' Santeza (the 13th century one, that is) wrote a valuable codex which contains the cypher for deciphering the information hidden in the painting, currently kept under constant guard inside a luxury passenger train that rolls all round Europe. La Font says it's a six-man job, so should lead to some good action (let's face it, some of the best set pieces in Alias took place on trains - Season Four's opener, for example!), before taking his leave and leading posh Brit Sadie to sidle up to Jai to introduce herself. Carson orders a 'go' for the DSR squads to swoop in, and as they cut power to the complex Jai, Hibbs and Sadie arm themselves against the impending assault. Jai takes on the estate's security team, hoping to give the DSR squad a helping hand - but a tranq dart in his neck tells us he's been backing the wrong team! The masked men swoop in - and it's Santeza's men, here for La Font and the painting!

Jai wakes up in a fairly typical interrogation room, where Santeza asks him if the 'circle is complete,' but when Jai confesses ignorance Santeza realises he can use him, telling Jai they'll need each other to stop the 'great work' from being carried out. This is already a bit too Rambaldi-esque for me at the moment, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now. At DSR, Kendall agonises over hesitating to give the 'go' order now that all communication has been lost with Jai, while La Font, Hibbs and Sadie discuss their next move. Jai stumbles into the safe house, managing to give away just enough intel to maintain his cover as he tells the others that Sanetza has the Painted Lady now, and is going to store it with the codex on the train. La Font decides to continue with the plan, while Jai sneaks off to tell Sanetza he's in - a double double cross! I think. We end it there (although a 'To Be Continued' would have been nice), and while Jai's last line of 'I know where my loyalties lie' may be trying to get some of you to think Jai's gone back to his old ways, personally I don't buy that for a second. But anyway.

Another decent episode. Nothing spectacular, but this is all set up for the next episode and the second half of this particular story, so hopefully we'll see all manner of payoff in episode 13. First halves of two parters don't have to feel like all setup, though - 'Spartans' proved this quite effectively - so this could have thrown a few more flashes and bangs our way to be entertaining in its own right, to be honest. That's not really a major criticism, though - we've clearly got a great second half set up here, so let's see where things go from here. Hard to comment too much until I've read 'Gold,' so my only main concern so far is the Rambaldi-style plot behind this. A code hidden in a painting from a 13th century European who had an interest in the occult? It's a bit too close for comfort, to be honest.

Pathways 2x11 'Swords & Stockings'

by Richard Gentile

The Brighton Academy drama club prepares to put on their version of Romeo & Juliet, but with Alanna and uber-bitch drama queen Lynn Raynes at each other’s throats, the cast and crew might not make it to opening night.

It's play time in Pathways this week, with the lovely Alanna's troubled production of 'Romeo & Juliet' finally making its Crestview debut. However! With Mark and Logan's tryst being uncovered by head bitch Lynn, I think we're bound to see plenty of behind-the-scenes drama with this one. I'm already visualising an episode where the play itself is just an extended metaphor for events in the real world, but we'll have to see!

Opening on the sixteenth century-styled auditorium, Mark stumbles on as Romeo, tripping over his feet and the lines as he tries to do the infamous balcony scene. The 'this is all a nightmare' alarm is already ringing, even without Mark getting his sword stuck in the ladder on the way up. Juliet draws back her veil - and there's Logan. Slightly concerning image there if you ask me, and as Mark reels back he ends up falling backwards Buster Keaton style, finally jolting himself out of the dream. Oh, Comedy Mark, as I henceforth dub thee. Wilt thou ever learn?

Mark trudges through the school halls as Sam bounces over, camping it up as only he can as he discusses Mark's sort of relationship with Logan. Sam gives Mark an encouraging hug as Lynn walks past, ready to start postering the campus. Thing is, as Alanna points out, those aren't the official posters. Lynn didn't like them - presumably because there wasn't enough of her on them - and despite Alanna's rising blood pressure continues to staple her own posters up as fast as Alanna can tear them down. Over at Anna's office, she and Sarah are discussing plans for their new clinic when Sarah raises a good point - why not ask James? He's a builder, he's been wanting to get involved anyway and would most likely be a heck of a lot cheaper, but Anna is determined not to mix business and pleasure. Sarah wisely doesn't push her luck, but this is one issue that's bound to pop its lid in true drama style some time soon. Over at the theatre, Comedy Mark and Logan have a potentially tender moment broken as a furious Alanna marches in, ranting and raving about Lynn's new advertising drive and grimly resolving to do something about the situation. And this can't end well.

Parker hurries through the crowds to catch back up to Alanna. He's still on the offence and she's running defence, to use an American Football analogy, but Alanna does seem to be warming to him as she tells him all about her Lynn trouble. Parker offers to help, eager to impress her, but Alanna's off to see Mr. Mead instead, leaving him wearing his lost wittle puppy face. Comedy Mark and Logan get their moment at last - when nobody else is around, natch. You can see that Logan's freeze-outs whenever somebody walks in on them is going to cause Mark to wear some serious poutage before too long, but from the evidence we've got here it seems Logan's going to make a good guy friend for him. Eventually. Charlie, meanwhile, is running late when she overhears Kaia and Mr. Swenson having one of their 'special' meetings, but nothing too heavy is going on just yet as Sam arrives to drag Charlie away, Charlie's professional suspicions are buzzing but Kaia's secret is safe for now as we catch up with the final dress rehersal. Things are going smoothly... for about five seconds, and then, yep, you guessed it - Lynn screeches at another actor and starts throwing accusations of conspiracy all round (Carry On movie fans will already be saying 'infamy, infamy! They've all got it in for me!'). Mr. Mead tries to defuse the situation, but Lynn isn't listening - and she quits. A clever ruse to force Alanna to ask her to come back? Leaving the show without its Juliet the night before it opens is doubtlessly a calculated move on her part, so let's see how she handles this one...

Mead drags Alanna and Lynn off to try and sort things out, but all it takes is the threat to make Alanna the show's Juliet to bring Lynn back round. Playing to her ego, Mead saves the day and the show, and we leave the rehersal to return to Chez Jones. Anna makes a bad job of covering a phone call she's making to another contractor as James walks in, and Anna quickly spills the beans. James is losing his temper (with a nod to Parker's constant anger management), revealing that communication and trust issues screwed up his last marriage, and Anna knows she's just pushed the big red button as we return to the theatre - and it's opening night! That was quick - bit of a wonky time lapse there, considering it was still final rehersal a few scenes ago, but there you go.Sam, Gabe, Julie and Charlie are making their way inside, bumping into Mark's mother who tells them of the post-show party before finding her seat. There's one last shocker as the lights go down, however - Dominic shows up with a girl! Say what now? The play is soon underway, allowing us a montage moment as we catch everyone's reactions (and Sam's comic fidgeting), showing Dominic dividing his attention between his date and looking at Gabe, and Parker discovering a soft spot for Shakesperian romance round the back. Lynn gets hit full on by a dodgy spotlight and loses the flow, forcing Alanna to whisper most of the balcony scene's lines to her to keep things moving, but the inevitable confrontation is brewing. As Alanna and Lynn start openly sniping at each other, drowning out Logan's own soliloquy, things soon develop into a full blown catfight (and Sam as good as spills his popcorn in the excitement), the balcony collapsing and depositing both scrabbling girls onto the stage. It's something straight out of a John Hughes movie, perhaps, but it does the trick here!

Mr. Mead frantically gets the curtains down as Alanna and Lynn's catfight starts to trash the stage around them, panicked actors and bemused spectators clearing out of the auditorium as everything goes a bit Animal House. Sam, Charlie and Julie wade in to help as Gabe escapes to find Dominic, and behind the curtain Mead is busy berating Alanna and Lynn as Mark's mother swoops in, adding her own frustration to the row as she lays into both girls for ruining her little boy's big night. Outside, Gabe finally bumps into Dom (with Parker observing from a distance), but in true Gabe style he trips up and says he was looking for Parker instead. Dom sheepishly admits that he's out on a date with his mystery blonde (Tara, apparently), and as Gabe's heart breaks with the sound of a thousand sobbing emos, Tara appears in true 'oblivious to heartache all around her' style. Surprisingly, it's Parker who swoops in to rescue Gabe, and despite making a big show of how much Gabe owes him (even so far as a to have comic 'ugh! gay boys smell funny' moment), when he sees the state Gabe's in he can't help but feel bad for him. A furious Mead orders both girls to single-handedly clean the entire auditorium top to bottom, but once he leaves the comedy of the situation hits them both, and the girls erupt into laughter. Have to wave a Niggle Stick at that one - not sure they'd be giggling that quickly. Meanwhile, Anna has relented and let James in on the clinic plans, and things are all honey bunnies and rainbow candy between them both again. They're just getting frisky when Gabe and Parker return, and again there's a moment of laughter between two supposedly mortal enemies when asked how things went. Parker and Alanna share a lunch the next day, Alanna surprised to find that Parker showed up to watch, and it's clear he just scored a major brownie point as we leave them for now.

A fairly standard ep this time round, then, with the farcical moments of the play giving us a good central story to bounce everything else off. This is a pretty light-hearted story with only a few dramatic moments - James showing his angrier side and Dominic's revelation - and even if the final Act shared laughter between Alanna & Lynn and then Gabe & Parker feels a little sudden, it kind of works. So! Not much to say about this one, really. Fairly standalone for the most of part, pushing a few more plots along and providing a neat little comic interlude for the season. Lamkin's still the best writer in terms of witty dialogue, but there's some good stuff from Gentile here which shows that all of the show's staff are on the same page now in terms of episode quality, which can only be A Good Thing.

Afterlife 1x09 'The Cure'

by Jon Nyqvist

As Aurora's mysterious condition becomes rapidly worse, Jonathan sets out to find a mythical healer in search of a cure. What he finds turns out to be quite different...

Back to the Afterlife with you, then, for another slice of top notch fantasy action in what is rapidly becoming cementing its place as one of the best shows on MZP at the moment. Last week (he says, quickly checking back) we had Jon and his buddies trying to escape the clutches of the Lord of Murder, with a body-swapping villainess and two deaths making things more than tricky for our heroes. They managed to make it back to the town of Darkwood, but our closing shot was of Aurora gradually succumbing to the poisonous magic Murder infected her with, so let's hope things can only get better for Aurora as we head back in...
Everybody's bummed out in Darkwood Inn. Kate's mourning the loss of Marius, and her pain is washing over the whole pub in waves as we track upstairs to find Aurora, still afflicted by the terrible visions of pain that Murder left her with, as Jonathan looks on helplessly. With no other way to vent his anger, he sets up a rudimentary punching bag and lets rip, watched from afar by our two Big Bads themselves, Murder and Betrayal. Murder is patiently waiting for Aurora to finish her transformation into Pain, at which point she'll join them in a triumverate of terror, but Betrayal has other ideas (let's not forget that she's the reincarnated form of the younger Aurora's teenage nemesis Rachel), and sneaks off to finish the job!

Jonathan wakes from a fitful night's sleep to be greeted by the Queen of Cryptic herself, Diana. Diana tells Jonathan of a being that may be able to help Aurora, but getting a cure out of it won't be an easy task. Like that'd stop our Jon Boy! Pausing to administer an Unrequited Sexual Tension-creating gesture to the sleeping Aurora (because while technically he's slept withher, it was in fact Betrayal in disguise... keeping up? Good), he's off on his merry, getting his Action Hero Kit together as Kate peeks in on him. Kate doesn't want a warrior like Jon leaving the village now that Murder's forces are on the move, but she knows why he's going - to save Aurora. Kate can't understand why Jon would risk his life for her, but can't stand in his way as he leaves to do the hero thing. She manages to wish him good luck as he leaves - just as Lianna and her kids arrive (remember them? Rory saved them from her old bandit crew back around episode four). Lianna settles her family into the inn as we rejoin Jonathan, trekking LOTR-style across the wilderness. He pauses to grab a drink of water - but attracts the attention of a white tiger, who pounces towards Jon and forces him to fight back. He dodges it a few times but is saved by the... well... tentacle. Seriously. A big honkin' black tentacle snaps out from the lake and drags the tiger to its doom, and Jon takes the hint to leg it before whatever's lurking beneath the water comes back for dessert! We change scenes to catch up with a familiar face - Trias the bandit who usurped control of the Ravens from Aurora but was left with one less eye as a result. Trias has been interrogating local peasants to try and track Aurora down without success, but in so doing the Ravens' stranglehold on the local territories is slipping. Trias only cares about finding Aurora, however, but he's about to get some help as a red-haired woman slinks into his throne room - and it's Betrayal!

Kate is shaken out of her thoughts as Lianna appears for a chat later, sharing their tales of woe over a drink. You have to ask how long before Lianna finds out Aurora's upstairs, and what she's going to do about it when she does! We rejoin Jon, camping out in a chill wind at the foot of a mountain and trying to cook some dinner, Diana popping up again to offer some culinary advice, and point him towards the next waypoint - you guessed it, right up the mountain. Back with Trias, Betrayal tries to seduce him but he manages to resist - for now. She's led away to a room by herself for the night as Trias settles down to plan his raid on Aurora in the morning. A drunk Kate and Lianna are busy talking when Kate finally mentions Aurora, and that she's upstairs - and incapacitated. Lianna knows she's got a chance here to get some payback for the murder of her husband (although she doesn't know yet that Aurora and the leader of the Ravens are/were one and the same), as we rejoin Jon and Diana as he asks her if there's anybody else out there in the Afterlife willing to fight the Darkness - and she answers that if there is, then they may well be at the top of the mountain! Hmm. Back at Darkwood Inn, Lianna creeps in on the comatose Aurora, recognising her as the woman she nursed back to health, and then descending into fury as she puts the pieces together. Aurora killed her man. This can not end well. She digs the knife in and start to draw blood...

... but Nera stops her! Lianna tries to get her daughter out of the way, but Nera speaks for the first time since she was attacked by Raven thugs many years ago, managing to get Lianna to leave. However! It seems Nera isn't so ready to forgive Aurora either, telling her she 'doesn't deserve death' as she exits - and Aurora wakes up! Jon is still climbing that darn mountain as Trias and Betrayal ride towards Darkwood - and here's the Line Of The Week!

BETRAYAL
Well well, aren’t you perceptive?
For a one eyed man, anyway.

There's one last surprise in store, in one of those trademark cinematic shots that serve Afterlife so well, as we pull back to see Trias has brought a hundred bloodthirsty thugs along with him! Eep... Jon's approaching a cave up in the mountain as we return to Darkwood, just as Trias' army rides past a watchtower on the outskirts of the village (after a neat little moment with the guard on watch). The guard manages to light a smoke signal, alerting Kate back in Darkwood as we cut to the icy cave Jon has finally clambered into. He narrowly misses a falling icicle, sliding down a slope and into the depths of the cave. Back at Darkwood (the jump cuts from scene to scene really helping build the growing tension here - Buffy used a similar trick in the episode 'Touched'), Kate is now in charge as she orders the villagers to safety, packing Lianna in along with them. She races back to Aurora's room, knowing that she's the only one the Ravens want, but Aurora's gone. Kate runs off - missing Aurora, stood right behind the door. Aurora hears the approaching army and spies Trias at its head, so as she slips away we cut down to the main square just as the horde of Ravens dismount. Gosh, this is exciting, isn't it? The village is deserted, so as the Ravens start to tear the place apart we return to Jon in the ice cave. There's a chasm before him with a pathway of sorts composed of tall pillars of ice, Golden Child style, so Jon takes the plunge and leaps for the first one. Which, of course, breaks under his weight, forcing him to leap from pillar to pillar as they crumble beneath him. A John Woo moment closes the scene as Jon sails through dead air, managing to stick his sword into the wall opposite, hanging over the abyss as the pillars of ice crash beneath him.Classic. Back at Darkwood, Trias finds to his anger that the villagers have hijacked an old Raven stronghold for their own, ready to fight off any attempt to dislodge them. As Betrayal gets ten Ravens sent back to the village to keep looking for Aurora, Trias prepares to march on the fortress, ready to slaughter every last villager for their defiance. There's a quick shot of Jon stumbling across something impressive inside the cave, as the last words go to Kate and Lianna, knowing that Aurora isn't with them and getting ready to face almost a hundred murderous bandits...

Now, that in itself would be an excellent cliffhanger for the episode, but there's still another Act to go, as we catch Aurora doing her Metal Gear Solid routine, slitting one thug's throat and then downing another with a handy guitar. What a waste! Jonathan, meanwhile, has found a cathedral sculpted out of ice deep within the cave, glowing with unearthly light as he heads inside. Back at the Raven fortress, it's all gone a bit Return Of The King as the besieged villagers struggle against the Raven onslaught. Crossbow bolts rain down from all sides as a battering ram is wheeled out (and no, they didn't bring it with them - Nyqvist makes a point of describing it as a 'recently cut down tree'), but the smugly watching Trias hasn't noticed Aurora creeping up on him, garrotte-style guitar string in hand... At the Cathedral Of Ice, Jon converses with some mystical-looking beings of light, but they aren't exactly forthcoming with help. After telling him there's no hope for Aurora (but some cryptic mentions of 'Hope' which I picked up on), they beam him back to the foot of the mountain, and even without the fists-pounding-into-mountain moment, this is about as low as it gets for him. Back at Darkwood, however, we're about to get Trias vs. Aurora, Round Two. Oh yes. She fails in her attempt to guitar string him to death, the duo drawing swords and getting ready to Mortal Kombat each other. The fight is as breathtaking as ever, but despite taking a bad wound, Aurora finds her darkness has one advantage - it heals her up! She catches the surprised Trias off guard, slamming him into a tree and finally finishing him off. Job done. The fortress doors are about to fall under the Ravens' attack, but Aurora has the best way to end this one. She skewers Trias' head to the fortress walls, and as the Ravens leave in disarray, Aurora leaves the cheering villagers behind. I think that settles her debt to them quite nicely, don't you? Betrayal watches her go, melting back into the shadows (and the touch with her hair staying visible for a beat longer is just one of the little details that make this show so colourful) as we dissolve back to the Inn. Aurora is up in bed as Jonathan returns, glad to see her up and about but discouraged by her telling him that the visions are still there - she's just numb to them now. The ominous words of the beings in the cathedral echo in Jonathan's ears as we black out...

Fan-bloody-tastic. The longest episode yet, and the addition of a few extra pages adds that little extra that I've been looking for in this series. Okay, so the Jon/Aurora epilogue feels a little too brief, but when the rest of the episode is this magnificent I really can't nitpick like that. Absorbing, atmospheric location, a brilliantly-paced sense of amping the tension as we flick between Jon's mountain climb and the siege at Darkwood, some trademark spectacular action and the usual polish of witty dialogue, plus some more development into both the backstory of the Afterlife itself and the overall arc for this latter half of the season. Jonathan is like every 80's action hero you wanted to be, his journey through the ice cavern the stuff that great films are made of. Aurora, by contrast, is like one of those kick-ass martial arts chicks in the movies you were never allowed to rent from the video shop, the unashamedly old school sense of adventure and thrills here making a perfect companion to the fantasy setting, the two genres blending together seamlessly. Okay, so Aurora is sidelined for a lot of the episode again, but Kate's star turn keeps things on track, and the last-minute development in Aurora's final fight with Trias pumps up the intrigue a little more. This feels like a good closing chapter to this chunk of the story - Aurora's back and on her feet and the Ravens are banished - now we've got three episodes to take out the Big Bad. Wonderful stuff.