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.
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