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!