The DSR 1x10 'Mage'

by A.J. Black

Jai gets a lead that Glissman and the Ahnenerbe are looking for the resting place of an ancient amulet, leading him to an uneasy alliance with a beautiful, supernatural intelligence operative...

Ah, DSR. Now filling the Alias-shaped hole in our world since the final episodes screened a short while back, recent episodes have shown a dramatic rise in quality after the patchy opening stories, so all being well the momentum will continue with 'Mage,' a story that promised a bit of femme fatale action from the start by casting the slinky Asia Argento as this week's major guest star!

The flashforward and then flashback stylistic device of [i]Alias[/i] gives us a great opening shot, with Jai pursuing his nemesis Glissman down a dark tunnel, with things getting all Reservoir Dogs before we snap back four days, finding ourselves in the Syrian desert watching a convoy of trucks roll across the dunes. The convoy is led by a chap named Reynard, who aims his truck stowards a half buried ziggurat (blockier Aztec version of a pyramid, fact fans) in the sand. A gaggleof mercs disembark from the trucks and make their way into the temple, and as a real [i]The Mummy[/i] vibe starts to creep in, the soldiers explore the ancient temple further. The team blast their way into a smaller room and find a small, ominous sphere waiting for them, but no sooner has Reynard got his eager hands on it than the gunfire starts, with a gang of Arabic men descending on the mercs. Their leader, a big fella named Salla tells Reynard to 'return the power to its resting place,' but Reynard shoots the guy down and escapes with the goods - revealing a swastika tattoo on his hand as he goes. So, that'd be the Ahnenerbe, then! The riff on The Mummy isn't particularly subtle, but we're setting up a good little story here so far, so let's plough on.

Over at PBH, Mia and Ethan seem to be babysitting an auditor named Bridger, who's busy going over the minutiae of their expense accounts. He flags up an anomaly in the funds marked as 'Codename: Projetons' (which I'm bookmarking just in case it means something), but as Ethan puts him off and Bridger continues, Jai swings by to see Kendall. Jai's off to see his brother in the hospital, leaving as Kendall takes a call from a Dutch guy named Pieter, which seems unusual enough to get Kendall on the next flight to Amsterdam. He meets up with Pieter in one of the old university libraries, where it's revealed that Pieter's been doing some investigations into Lothar Glaub's work (man, that's going back a fair few episodes!), and it seems both the DSR and Ahnenerbe would be interested in the results! Kendall follows as we pick up Jai and Mia going to see Connor in hospital. Hope for Connor's revival is fading, but Mia's there to offer Jai a little emotional support as we return to PBH for a team briefing. Seems Pieter is an expert on the occult, and as Kendall shows the team a clay tablet with the promise that they're on their way to tracking down the Ahnenerbe, we cut to the villains themselves, operating out of one of those warehouses that companies seem to build specifically for nefarious organisations to turn into their headquarters. Reynard hands the half-sphere to the waiting Glissman, who studies the same clay tablet the DSR kids were just shown, and as he flexes his leather-gloved hands ready for the next phase in this week's Evil Plan, we black out...

Act II continues the DSR briefing. The tablet is covered with symbols from the ancient language of cuneiform, which Glaub made a copy of for his geneaology studies and which will tell the DSR what it is the Ahnenerbe are up to. Jai and Ethan are signed up for the op, but Mia speaks to Kendall of her conern at letting Jai anywhere near an Ahnenerbe case, what with his tendency to fly off the handle at the merest mention of Glissman's name. She's well-informed - she's seen the effect they've had on Jai's life with her own eyes - but Kendall is adamant that Jai has to finish the job himself or he'll never learn to live with his anger. We catch up with Pieter, Jai and Ethan as they head for a bank in Munich to retrieve the duplicate tablet, with Jai doing a Ripley and scampering through the air ducts as Pieter and Ethan infiltrate the bank itself. Jai, however, is being observed by some shadowy figures from the next building along, but is unaware as he continues on his way. Down in the bank, Ethan saves Pieter from a cover-blowing retina scan by setting off an alarm, knocking out the manager and heading into the vault. However! The three figures last seen observing Jai abseil down into the foyer as the bank patrons rush towards the exit, as Jai and Ethan hack into the vault and retrieve the tablet. Thing is, the leader of the new arrivals, a foxy lady named Sonja, gets a gun to Jai's head just as Ethan and Pieter join him, but in a quick scuffle Sonja's two men go down and Jai turns the tables on her. She reveals she's part of the 'Brotherhood' - meaning vampires - and to Jai's surprise Ethan lets Sonja knock out Pieter and take him away, as the two DSR guys make off with the canister. Back at PBH, Ethan debriefs before Kendall tells Jai what he needs to know. The Brotherhood are the ruling party inside the world's vampire population, the DSR enjoying a Kendall-negotiated ceasefire with them to mean they don't come to blows if their agents cross paths in the field. Their rather bold plan is to genetically engineer themselves to be more human before announcing their existence to the world. Jai's far from happy, but is assured that things have gone according to plan as we close the Act.

With Sara unable to translate the tablet, Kendall agrees to let the Brotherhood have it so both sides can find out what it says, and as Jai and Ethan let Sonja run a decryption device over the tablet, Pieter is released back into their custody. There's a breif attempt at a Buffy joke by Ethan, but Sonja's all business as she prepares to share the translation with the DSR boys. The tablet tells of an amulet that points towards the location of a powerful sorcerer, which the Ahnenerbe want for their own plans. By getting the amulet first, the DSR can strike a major blow to the Ahnenerbe's scheme, so as Kendall leaves Jai and Sonja to work on tracking down the Ahnenerbe, Ethan and Pieter head out to Damascus to speak to a contact of Pieter's. And who is this contact? Salla! Not dead after all. As if any of you thought for a second he would be. Salla agrees to help them find the second half of the amulet, if only to keep it out of Glissman's hands, before we rejoin Jai as Sonja noses in on him looking at the files on the Ahnenerbe. They don't get much chance to bond before Ethan calls in with the amulet piece's location - the Black Sea. While I've got to ask how Jai's able to talk with breathing appartus in (Clanger of the Week, maybe?), Jai and Sonja surface in a sunken temple like the ziggurat we saw earlier, heading off to investigate as Ethan waits overhead in a helicopter. But what's this? Trouble on the way! Jai's out of radio range (already?), but there's one last surprise in store. The team find the amulet, but as Jai takes it, he's at gunpoint again - from Sonja!

Sonja claims to only be following orders, but a garbled transmission from Ethan distracts her long enough for Jai to leap in, kicking her gun away and jumping in for one of those 'Oh, wait a second - I've just realised how much I want to bone you' moments (eliciting a quick roll of the eyes from me, I must admit) before Reynard shows up! Damn. If only Jai and Sonja weren't so busy trying not to shag each other, they might have been okay! Still, Sonja's quick enough to take out Reynard's two goons, before Jai tackles Reynard and Sonja escapes with the amulet. Jai comes close to killing Reynard in fury, but hesitates long enough for Reynard to pull a grenade, making his escape as the temple starts to cave in behind him. Jai makes it to the surface (noticeably sans his diving gear), and at Ahnenerbe HQ Glissman puts the amulet together and is rewarded with the map he needs. With Ahnenerbe assets mobilising at a dig site in Northern Italy, the DSR team have their location. Jai requests to lead the team in, and Kendall puts Mia on the squad as well - most likely to keep an eye on Jai. As Jai tools up in the armoury, she swings by to speak to him, concerned as always that his thirst for revenge will scupper the mission. Not that that's actually happened yet. Anyway. Mia's got a similar vendetta in her past, and is almost moved to a rare display of tears as she remembers it, but there's no talking Jai out of this one. Over at the dig site in Sienna, the Ahnenerbe have just successfully excavated the coffin of the mage everyone's seeking (showcasing some alarmingly extravagant resources at their disposal), but a quick grenade sends the bad guys into retreat, with Glissman carefully removing a small crescent of wood from the coffin before he leaves. Starting to put the pieces together by now? Good. Glissman ducks down into the excavated tunnel, with Jai breaking rank to chase after him, finding ourselves back in the Teaser as he purses his nemesis. Glissman drops the crescent, but a stray bullet stops Jai shooting him, allowing Glissman chance to pull a Wile E. Coyote and jump off a nearby ravine, disappearing into the darkness below. Back at PBH, the coffin is revealed as some kind of ancient cryo-suspension unit (which is a bit of a stretch, even for this show), and a frustrated Jai stomps off to be with Connor again. We cut downstairs - remember that strange bit of liquid Glissman injected into the crescent beofre he dropped it? Well, it's starting to activate the mage's coffin, so that can't end well...

Right then. A typically solid episode, lacking the character-driven sparkle of the last two episodes (we know Jai goes off the handle with the Ahnenerbe now, so the only new development here was Mia almost admitting one of her many secrets) but a good romp nontheless. The episode was marred by a few logic holes (like Jai's difficulties with his scuba gear and the idea that anybody could have rigged even a rudmientary cryo unit a thousand years ago, even with 'magic' involved), but nowhere near as groan-inducing as earlier shows, and the obvious recurring character that is Sonja was a good addition. Not sure I liked the way the sexual tension between her and Jai was shoved in our faces, though - he's still mourning his wife, last time I checked, so the slow-burning affection he has for Mia feels a lot more realistic than suddenly wanting to bone Sonja in the middle of a fight. Still, maybe that's just me. So, overall, not too bad, and the developments in the Ahnenerbe's Evil Plan made for some interesting reading too.

ZPM RATING: