The DSR 1x11 'Soul Man'

by J.T. Vaughn

Anton becomes obsessed with a man the DSR believes is in the business of selling souls, who begins to manipulate Anton into believing it will prevent his beloved suffering a painful, drawn-out death...

This week's DSR marks the debut of graphical guru turned staff writer and future showrunner JT Vaughn, a man who is no stranger to the boards of MZP but a relative newcomer when it comes to actual script writing. With his show Cult Hero pencilled in to premiere next Summer, JT's got some work to do to earn his rep as an MZP scribe before then, so how does his first try at capturing the world of Jai Shaw and his buddies come out?

We open in Las Vegas, the glitzy Mandalay Bay casino (I've been there! Ahem. Sorry.) and one chap in particular enjoying a good turn at the roulette wheel, Melvin Douglas. His luck's about to run out, however, as he blows his last stack of chips and prepares to drown his sorrows for the night. A mystery man named Sirkadien introduces himself as Melvin turns to leave, and despite his somewhat cryptic talk of luck and chances, Melvin's not interested. As he tries to leave, Sirkadien catches him up, telling he knows about Melvin's past (ex-CIA) and that he can offer him one last chance to take away his pain. Seems Melvin's game for whatever Sirkadien is talking about, as next thing we know the two are in an upstairs room, but this being The DSR you just know something bad's about to happen, and sure enough, there it is. A flash of white light leaves Melvin a burned out husk, and Sirkadien leaving with a grin on his face. Game on!

Act I gives us Anton getting ready to go to work, clearly still missing having Maggie by his side as he goes about his normal routine. He greets his grown up son Mark, the atmosphere pretty warm between the two as Anton heads for the Reno hospital where Maggie is still a patient. Dr. Radley, Maggie's consultant, has some bad news - Maggie's cancer is spreading, and she's got four months to go, tops. We all remember what kinds of lengths Arvin Sloane was prepared to go to save his wife from cancer (and have to say, this whole storyline has felt a bit second hand as a result), but Anton's a very different kind of man, going to see Maggie and break the news to her himself. Maggie already knows her number's up, doing more comforting than needing any herself as Anton says it's time to take her home. However, he's soon back at PBH in the middle of the night, much to Kendall's surprise. Anton needed some space for a few hours to try and get his head round what's going on, but before Kendall can send him home on leave Anton sees the case file on Melvin's death. Both men would know Melvin personally, you see, and this fuels Anton's desire to get involved with the investigation. The following morning, Anton wakes to find a shadowy figure lurking outside his house, but when he gives chase all he can find is Mark. Maggie finally wakes up and the trio settle down for a family breakfast when there's a knock at the door - and it's Sirkadien!

Act II brings Carson into the show, as she and Anton examine Melvin's body in the morgue, his skin drained of all its pigment. Which is quite a cool, spooky after-effect if you ask me. There's a nice touch as the attending pathologist chews his way through some beef jerky throughout the exam, before he adds another detail - every last trace of electrical energy has been removed from Melvin's body, unheard of in fresh corpses like his. Anton and Carson swap theories, Carson saying there's some vague medical precendence for this, but not as a cause of death, but Anton knows someone did this to him and is determined to find out who. As the two head off, we cut back to Anton's house as Sirkadien settles down with the family. Now hang on, you may be saying, why would Anton just leave his wife and son in the company of this man? Well, read on. Seems Sirkadien has befriended Maggie at the hospital, and so is a trusted figure in her eyes. Seems he's quite adept at worming his way into people's lives! As Mark leaves the two alone, we switch back to Mandalay Bay as Anton and Carson roll up, speaking to the manager and studying surveillance tapes of Melvin's last night. They can't make a positive ID on Sirkadien, so Anton calls back to PBH to get Sara on the case. Jai shows up at last, along with Mia and Ethan who seem to be avoiding one another - and it looks like Ethan's done something to piss her off. Jai speaks to Mia but she's cagey about the details, getting back to work as we rejoin Anton and Carson. Carson is concerned that Anton's grief over Maggie may be clouding his professional judgement, but as he puts her off that idea Sara rings in. Melvin's family have been taken hostage - by somebody claiming to be Melvin! There's a closing shot of Sirkadien coaxing Maggie into swallowing some mystery pills before we black out.

Act III opens on Douglas' upper clas suburban household, as Anton and Carson join the local police force amassing outside. The hostage taker is identified as a man named Bains, a man left mentally ill after a mission Douglas sent him on went sour several years ago. Now, he's claiming to be Douglas! Sara reports in that there was a large wire transfer from Bains' account, and as she traces it Anton puts on his Hostage Negotiator Hat to speak to Bains. Anton heads inside as Sara confirms the receiver of Bains' cash - and it's Sirkadien! No surprise there, but the fact that Anton has missed this means he's going in blind, which makes for some good tension. Jai asks Ethan what the beef between himself and Mia is, and finds out Ethan made a remark at Jai's expense that she took offense to. Jai lets it slide, telling Ethan to say anything he wants to his face next time. Still a long way from being friends, then, these two! Back at Chez Cochrane, Maggie pops some more of Sirkadien's pills and goes to bed, with Mark a little concerned as he checks the bottle afterwards. At the hostage situation, Anton speaks to Bains on the phone, who is adamant that he's Douglas and is growing more agitated by the second. Anybody not worked this out yet? The SWAT team are about to move in, so Anton stalls them by saying he'll go in alone to speak to Bains first. The twitchy Bains keeps Anton at gunpoint as he brings him inside, with some neat 'I'm crazy, me!' dialogue as Anton scopes out the situation. I already have a nasty feeling how this is going to go, but let's keep an open mind for now. Anton plays along, reminding Bains/Douglas that they used to know each other and getting the missing parts of the story out of him, as around him the other pieces start falling together - Sara ID's Sirkadien and passes an image on to Carson, while Mark calls Dr. Radley and learns that Maggie was never prescribed any pills for her cancer, and that Sirkadien's been dosing her up on tranquilisers! Mark panics, but hears a noise outside and nervously steps out to investigate, and would ya believe it, he gets thunked on the head by Sirkadien. Dun dun duh! Sirkadien looks in on Maggie, telling her 'it's time' as Bains/Douglas finishes his/their story. He mentions that Sirkadien has talked about curing Maggie, which gets Anton's interest, before Bains says he paid to have Douglas' 'soul' put inside him. What the? Carson wires Sirkadien's photo to Anton who (with the help of a quick flashback) twigs what's going on, but as he tries to leave Bains jumps him, but his gun going off in the struggle sends the SWAT team inside, shooting Bains dead. Anton doesn't stop to explain, racing back home as we black out again.

In a greatly-paced series of quick jump cuts, Anton's car screeches to a stop outside his house, and he barrels inside to find Maggie and Sirkadien doing some kind of energy transfer - and it looks like Maggie's losing out! Carson talks to Kendall, the two managing to deduce the connection between Anton and Sirkadien as Anton draws his gun on the man himself. Sirkadien presents his argument - Maggie's dead no matter what. All he's doing is giving her soul the chance to be reborn in another body, to live on past its time. It's actually a pretty valid argument, making the audience's sympathies towards Sirkadien shift a little - when you can understand what the supposed villain is doing, then things beome much more interesting! Anton's far from convinced, putting his gun to Sirkadien's head, but he warns Anton that reversing the process may not leave Maggie the same. Anton orders him to do it, and with another zap of energy Maggie returns to life, leaving Sirkadien out cold as Carson and the cavalry finally arrive outside. Sirkadien is now in PBH custody, just another freak of nature for Carson and Sara to study, but Sara reveals a twist - Sirkadien is dying! Anton is unrepentant, but when he returns home he finds Maggie far from happy with his decision to bring her back. She says that her cancer is gone, but something feels wrong inside her. She can't be around him until she figures it out, so with an unnerving final message of 'Maggie loves you,' she leaves, and as Anton slumps in defeat, we close things for now.

And there we are, then. Solid debut from Vaughn there, showcasing a good understanding of the characters and stepping up to the challenge of an Anton-centric episode admirably. Anton's an interesting guy anyway, and one of the strengths of DSR is the fact that any one of the regulars can carry an episode single-handed if the story is up to it. Here, it's Anton's connection to Sirkadien that works, allowing both some degree of smypathy for the villain and also putting Anton through a real amount of turmoil, leading up to the final moments. My one niggle is that Maggie's conversation with him at the close of the episode feels far too short, but it gets the message across. The idea of the 'soul' being something almost physical and tangible is one familiar to fans of the Buffy universe, and while its implementation here is a little too close for comfort to the Whedon way of doing things, Anton's personal crisis helps lift the episode up. So, a good episode, let down only by the rather predictable story (even people only half paying attention should have sussed out everything but the final few twists by mid-Act II) and the unfortunately derivative feel to both Maggie's whole cancer plot arc and the execution of the idea of a 'soul' in the DSR-verse (none of which are really Vaughn's fault - that's more of a niggle with the story itself). Tight writing throughout apart from that - not much action, but it's directed well to help it stand out and deliver the required impact. Good work.