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by Michael Jay & Matt Bartlett
Quint's car breaks down in a two-pump town where three owners of a bar believe him to be a fairy-tale monster.
Episode four of Homeostasis rolls around, then, with the show stabilising its mix of plot development, surreal and metaphor-heavy situations and a dollop of double meaning nicely after the extended opening episode. Last week's effort was much darker in tone but kept things rolling, so with the trusted hand of Mike Jay steering this one I'm expecting another solid outing for the show.
We open with a road-weary Quint trying to keep his blurry eyes on the road, almost falling foul of a deer prancing innocently across the road (I don't think they're innocent at all, for the record - I think they do it on purpose). Quint checks his map - and this time, pow! There's Deer #2. Quint's airbag goes off in his face and his car skids out of control, crashing into a tree trunk in a scene reminscenet of The Long Kiss Goodnight. Forced to leave the wrecked car and mortally wounded deer behind, he stumbles up onto the Interstate again but there's no-one in sight. Back at the car, he tries (badly) to finish the dying deer off before getting back onto the road, this time managing to hitch a lift from a passing trucker. Quint gets dropped off in the nearest town, staggering into the bar and making a request - COFFEE, GORDON COLE STYLE. O-RE-GON!
Act I opens with a creepy house out in the fields, with equally creepy chanting voices reciting some twisted nursery rhyme as we venture inside. The archaic contents of the house give way to three young brothers in the front room, the youngest watching as the older two continue to chant the rhyme. The boys' grandmother wanders in and starts to tell the boys a story, a moral tale about good and evil that starts with three ne'er do well brothers wreaking havoc in their town. The eldest tries to stop the most evil of the three from doing any more damage, but apparently gets the life sucked straight out of his body for his troubles! Ew. Seems the mudhole the boys used to play in was home to some kind of evil force that had taken Kurt over and made him do all those bad things ("honest, officer! the mud made me do it!"). Kurt begged for forgiveness and the spirit of a white deer (starting to catch up yet?) appeared, curing the eldest brother and making the boys promise never to play near the evil mud (narf) ever again. The eldest of the grandkids doesn't buy the story for a minute (and a bloody long chunk of dialogue it was too - could've done with being broken up a little), but the boys promise to always be good before rushing off outside (once Max, the youngest, has been cooed back to normal by Grandma). There's a fair few typos and grammatical bugs in this bit, unfortunately - could've done with a bit more work in the final edit to tidy it up. Flash forward fifteen years and we're now in the present day, where Max and his brother Mark are running a roadside cafe. We hear Quint wander in and make his coffee request, before a grumpy Max stomps outside to pout his way through a cigarette - the direction indicating he clearly feels his life is fading away stuck in this dead-end town. Mark scolds Max for smoking, mentioning how their deceased Grandma would dissaprove (and how she got 'sick,' ominously), before Max introduces himself to Quint and offers him a place to get set up for the night. Eldest brother Matt arrives, and despite not being too happy that Quint is crashing there it's Max who shows Quint his room. Max makes another 'I coulda been a contender' comment, mentioning the 'evil' in the town he wants to get away from, before leaving an increasingly bemused Quint to his rest. Later, the boys are heading home, Max's attempts to daydream interrupted by his grouchy brothers. They arrive at the house we saw them in earlier, which is spookily just how it was fifteen years ago. The boys go through an almost ritualistic set of chores to close the house down before retiring to bed. Just what is going on here?
Back at chez Peete with Grandma slowly succumbing to the illness that the boys mentioned earlier, although her delerious rants thatthe evil mud is sucking her life away doesn't get much sympathy from Max, once again. With a neat little cutaway we flash forward a few more years, with everything still pretty much as it was - the boys caring for their sick grandmother. Grandma's sedatives finally kick in as she blames the boys for her illness, then pleads with them to save her. Back with Quint as Matt wakes him up and takes him back out to rescue his stricken Nissan, but when they find it, the dead deer on the bonnet has not left a pleasant smell behind at all! Matt asks what happened to the deer, and after stumbling through a story where he witnessed animal control shooting a stricken deer from his childhood, he explains he finished the animal off. Matt, however, knows there's more to this story, and as the links back to the deer Grandma Peete was talking about start to rack up, a quick cut to show Max and Mark going through Quint's things brings us back to Quint and Matt as they return to town. Matt seems distracted and angry, which makes Quint all the more nervous, before Matt pulls into an auto shop to get the Nissan rescued. There's more music playing in the background as the reach the hickiest repair shop in town (what is it with all the music cues this week?), but once Matt's left the auto shop manager gets more talkative, asking what Quint's doing getting mixed up with them and mentioning the 'strange things' the boys' grandmother used to talk about. Quint isn't sure what to make of it and takes his leave, but Matt's been watching the whole exchange - and he doesn't look pleased!
Back at the Grandma's house again, the boys looking shocked as she's just imparted some grave secret or other to them (I must add here that the flashbacks are a little hard to keep up with - in an already disorientating show like this, you need to give the audience some help when you're hopping back and forth in time, otherwise you just get even more lost). The local medic, Dr. Forrest, arrives at the door with Grandma's pills, and as Mark meets him it seems the boys haven't been picking it up for a while! Forrest pushes his way inside but gets a hammer/candlestick to the head (I have to say both because the direction gets a little fuzzy here) for his troubles. Mark starts to beat the bejaysus out of the poor doc, reminding the watching Matt that the doc will kill Grandma if they don't stop him. Forrest manages to make it outside, but the two boys follow him outside, and with one slice of a shovel Matt ends the doctor's role in proceedings. Yikes. So, clearly, there's a whole heckuva lot going on here that Quint's mixed up in (again), so let's hope we start getting some answers soon! A final flash forward takes us to Grandma's death, as the three boys look on in silence. Back at the bar, the three boys discuss what to do, clearly feeling that Quint's murder of the deer classifies him as more of the 'evil' they've fought their whole lives - is a shovel to the skull in Quint's future? Seems the brothers have killed a few people before, victims 'sent' to them by the 'protector,' and they plot to kill Quint that night when he gets back from the garage. Quint meets Mark, who apologises (forward planning there) before letting Quint enter the bar - and whack! There's the shovel. Mark drags him away as we fade out...
Act IV has a Quint-flashback, as he rifles through old boxes of stuff in his home at the age of thirteen. His mother, Gwen, joins him, but when Quint asks why there are so many clippings about the Sente family, saying he read a story about a mother who killed herself and her baby. Gwen ominously says it was the best thing for them, before we jump back to the present, as Quint comes round. He's in the basement as Matt descends the staircase, baseball bat in hand, and Quint can barely defend himself from the frenzied attack that follows. Matt screams at Quint, demanding to know why 'he' keeps coming back, why he sent their Grandma mad, getting his hands round Quint's throat and throttling the life out of him! Mark pulls Matt away and saves the day - or does he? See, Mark's got some rope and wants to do this the quiet way, letting Matt slug Quint out cold before tying him up. Up in the bathroom, Mark is filling a tub with some heavy duty bleach as Max searches the shed for some kind of tool. This is all going a bit Children Of The Corn, isn't it? A storm is kicking up as Max trudges back to the house, where Quint comes to in the basement again. Matt reminds Quint of what happened the first time he came round (as Dr. Forrest can relate), and it's clear now the boys think Quint is the latest incarnation of the evil spirits their Grandma warned them about. Max is still heading back to the bar as a tornado touches down behind him, closing in fast! Mark returns with a damp rag dipped in homemade choloroform, but before he can put Quint out the tornado hits home, shattering the windows in the basement, and in the confusion Quint manages to free himself, stabbing Mark in the arm on his way out. However, with the tornado outside Quint has to seek shelter inside the house, and the two brothers below are soon on his trail. Quint's suddenly running for the bar instead (what happened to hiding under the table, then?), but no sooner has he found his belongings than Max has tripped him up. Max is pinned by debris, however, a victim of the tornado's attack, and Quint leaves him to his fate. Or does he? He sees Mark and Matt trying to free their brother - and comes back to help. They dig Max out, but he's a goner, and the brothers watch as Quint finishes him off as humanely as possible. We dissolve to the last gas station in town as Quint asks for a lift again - and this time, he's heading back to Springfield!
So. A great story, very self-contained in terms of the larger story arc of the show as it focuses almost entirely on the tale of the boys and their struggle against the 'evil,' rather than Quint's own personal journey, but hampered by some very messy pacing, structure and direction that sabotages what had the makings of an excellent episode. The single-minded resolve of the boys to always try to do what's right, even if it means committing acts of great evil, is reminiscent of the brilliantly amoral horror movie Frailty, but as this doesn't really kick in until the last Act, the effect is lost. The flashbacks to Grandma really clutter up and slow down the story - very little happens to further the plot in 75% of them, so why do we keep jumping back to them? And I know it's a niggle rather than a complaint, but giving all three brothers such similar names means it's easy to get mixed up over who's doing what to who in the action. Presentation wise, this is also a little clunky compared to the tight formatting of previous episodes - this needed a more thorough final edit to even out the action and keep the pacing in check. That said, the final Act is genuinely great, amping up the tension as Quint tries to escape the zealous brothers, but despite Quint's act of euthanasia at the climax, the whole story feels very anti-climactic because of that. The implication is obviously that Quint's actions made the brothers see he wasn't evil, but we don't really get any sense of closure over the situation as no sooner has that happened, than we're at the gas station and Quint is off again. So overall, the potential for a cracking episode but let down by some uncharacteristically wonky writing and some glaring continuity holes.
by Jon Nyqvist
The dark army sweeps across the lands of the Afterlife. As the final conflict is upon them, Aurora begins succumb to her mysterious illness!
So! The finale to the wonderful Afterlife, then. Basically comprising of the last two planned episodes shoved together, I'm going to keep this intro short because I want to see if the show can maintain the unfeasibly good standards it's kept for the last few episodes...
Opening with one of those dramatic, cinematic shots that make this show so damn visual, we have Jon and Aurora stumbling away from a literal tide of dark beasties, as the skies turn black overhead and pour down with rain as thick as tar. Eep! As a doom-laden voiceover takes us into a sunlit field, we get a look at Jonathan's tombstone. Er... what? Oh dear. We pull back to find it's his sister Jenny, leaving some flowers at his grave. Aah. Present day. Jenny steps back - and there's Lynn! You remember her - she's the one who taught Aurora how to be such a stone cold badass. And she tells Jenny she has a lot to discuss with her...
Back with Jon and Aurora as they stop for a breather, sharing a rare moment of light relief given the situation. Aurora has a sudden attack of the Darkness, hearing the voice of Pain, the creature she's struggling not to become, ordering her to attack Jon. He's helpless to do anything as she stumbles, very nearly impaling Jon to the nearest tree before her energy thankfully runs out. Talk about your no-win situations! The storm rages on as we move back to Darkwood, the town boarded up against the incoming army. In the inn (narf), Kate and Lianna face the Darkness with no clue as to how to stop it, or even defend themselves. They need a hero! But that can wait. We're in the Real World as Jenny and Lynn talk, set up through a great little dissolve shot from the dark skies to a glass of Pepsi. I know I keep banging on about it, but some of the shots in this series really are inspired. Jenny obviously has something on Lynn in that she saw her take somebody out, but Lynn doesn't seem like she's about to silence Jenny - in fact, it looks like she has plans for her. Capital 'p.' Back with Jon and Aurora, and some heartfelt dialogue leads to Aurora implying that Jon needs to kill her before she turns to the dark side completely. Jon won't do it, of course, lowering his sword and bringing her close for a hug... and Aurora gets an arrow in the back! She slumps to the floor as Betrayal lowers her crossbow, Murder and the army behind her. She fires again, but Jon classily slices the bolt in two, putting his sword halfway through Betrayal's chest before scooping up Aurora and making a run for it. Murder starts after him, but Betrayal has other plans, conjuring up a vortex of the black rain and infusing it with power, as we rejoin Jon scurrying along a cliffisde. He sees his rope (this is where he took out the beastie last week) and starts to climb - but Betrayal's wall of evil water (if there is such a thing) is right behind him, chasing him as he desperately scales the rocks, Aurora on his back...
Back with Jenny and Lynn, as Lynn drives the captive Jenny somewhere and idly mentions there might be torture in her future. Lynn's car arrives at Bridge Manor, where Jenny is unceremoniously dumped into a small, dark room and left locked up, and as she cries to be let out we return to Darkwood. Kate has the villagers gathered inside the Inn, but the rising tensions get a welcome distraction as Jon bursts in, the dead Aurora in his arms. We sweep into a dream as Jon is met by Diana, who tells him he can't save everyone - no matter how much he wants to. Then, however, she tells him that while Darkness is set to sweep over the world, Jonathan is the one element that disrupts its unity - he's Chaos to its Order. This seems to make sense to Jon, who wakes up to find himself resting in a room at the Inn, little Nera watching over him. Nera asks what happened to Aurora, and as Jon comes close to saying he loved her, a hurt Kate hears him talking about her before she steps in. Line Of The Week contender:
JONATHAN
I'd say it's good to be alive, but
the jury's still out on that one.
(beat, serious)
Listen Kate, we need to get
everyone out of here as soon as
possible. There's an army on the
way.
KATE
I was afraid you'd say that. How
many?
JONATHAN
I lost count around "holy crap!"
Nooch. Jon and Kate head downstairs to start assembling the villagers into some kind of defence force, but in the room where Aurora's body has been left, she suddenly rises... This is not good. Aurora's eyes open and the Darkness now covers her whole body - Pain has been born!
Back with Jenny as a mysterious voice tells her he has plans in store for her - which understandably freaks her out a fair bit - before we cut back to see Lynn and the Shadow Man watching her from a monitor elsewhere in the manor. Seems that the Shadow Man and Lynn have been working together, getting people like Jenny to use for their own ends - and rather nastily taking advantage of Jenny's claustrophobia to break her spirit. But there's a shocker to come - as the Shadow Man smacks Lynn for daring to speak up to her, reminding her that she's been his bitch for the last twenty-six years and not the other way round, he reveals one of the show's biggest revelations - Aurora was Lynn's daughter! She never know until this very moment, so Lynn was responsible for both training and betraying her own child without even realising. Boom! A cut back to Darkwood Inn has Jon getting the townsfolk's attention, and a call for some options on how to fight back has Lianna suggesting the Scarlet Knights, a fearsome order of holy warriors. How does she know so much? She used to be one of them! Seems she had to leave when she became pregnant, but the threat of the incoming Darkness should be enough to get them to pitch in and help. However, the party is about to get crashed as Pain strolls casually down the stairs, throwing out a few choice insults before throttling Kate! Jon gets in with a well-placed head butt, the two getting into a knock-down brawl which doesn't seem to be hurting her all that much (she is the embodiment of Pain, after all), before Kate appears with a torch, reminding her that she's now splashed with alcohol. Nooch. Pain decides to bug out and leave the villagers to it, and despite Kate's pleas Jon is straight out after Pain - and this time he knows he has to end it. A quick cut back to Lynn shows her letting out her frustrations on her apartment, smashing the place up before accessing her Men In Black style cache of hidden guns. Girl wants some payback! At Darkwood, Lianna is heading a caravan of people to go and request help from the Scarlet Knights, with Kate casting a longing look after the departed Jonathan as they get moving. Murder is griping that Betrayal is wasting valuable conquering time hunting down the denizens of Darkwood, but when Pain appears and asks to join the gang the detour suddenly seems worthwhile. Murder doesn't seem too fussed about the involvement of the Scarlet Knights, but as the evil trio move on, they're unaware that Jonathan is stalking them from the shadows...
A brilliantly noirish shot of Lynn knocking back a stiff drink and letting the glass fall segues into the caravan from Darkwood splashing onwards, with sombre music accompanying the whole montage as we see Murder's forces tearing a hapless village in its path to shreds. Pain almost clocks Jonathan's presence but he's undetected for now, before a push in shot of Jon's eye pulls back to reveal Jenny's (See? These various cuts and shots may be little things, but they're way better to read than a flat 'CUT TO:' at the end of a scene, aren't they?), as she languishes in her room at Bridge Manor. Lianna wakes Kate up to tell her they've arrived at the home of the Scarlet Knights - a castle at the edge of the ocean, with an army assembling itself at the foot of the peninsula. Lianna says they call this place the Field Of Truth before hiding at the back of the wagon train, as we head into the Knights' camp to find them making ready to tackle the Army of Darkness head on. Their leader, William, appears to have some kind of precognitive ability as he's told of the caravan's arrival, waving past Kate and searching out Lianna. They have History, don't you know. Nudge, nudge. William seems fine with letting the villagers join the party, and as he heads off to 'catch up' (hem hem) with Lianna, we find Jon watching the Army up ahead as Diana joins him. Jon grimly knows he has to kill Aurora, but Diana cryptically hints (is there any other way?) that there might be another option... William and Lianna, meanwhile, clear up a few things - they haven't seen each other for seventeen years, and Nera just so happens to be William's kid! He avoided a witchcraft trial for his second sight when he saved somebody's life, and is now the undisputed leader of the pack. The cosy moment is spoilt as a horn sounds - it's game time! The Scarlet Knights bravely get into formation as the Dark Army erupts from the woods, with Lianna sending Nera back to the castle with anyone else unable to fight. William has a few more tricks - his alchemists have modified their oils to produce brighter, stronger flames against the black rain, so the chief weapon against the Darkness is back on their side. As Kate says - cool.
Another shot of the heartbroken Lynn mourning the daughter she never knew she had leads us into the Field of Truth, as Jon watches the two armies moving into position from the vantage point of a huge ruined temple. The dark beasties surge forward as Betrayal powers up for another magical attack and Pain senses Jon again, before William lets his archers fire at will at the advancing creatures. The flaming arrows do their job but Murder isn't slowing down yet, and as the army pushes on we rejoin Jon - as Pain steps into frame to join him. Their fight begins, with the temple crumbling to bits around them, but Pain's clearly in charge here - even her own pain gets her off, as she puts it, and Jon's getting thrown around as we return to Bridge Manor. Lynn arrives in her sedan, heading through the front gates as we find Jenny about to face the very same torturer she looked in on way back in episode three. The torturer is just about to start cutting when Lynn blasts her way in, even getting space to fire off a wisecrack before her bullet. Like mother, like daughter, eh? Lynn frees the disbelieving Jenny as we get back to the battle in the Afterlife. The Scarlet Knights all ignite their weapons as one, charging to meet the beasties head on. Kate gets an arrow into Murder's back, but that doesn't even slow him down as William shows why he's the boss. He takes out one beast and gets his trebuchets ready to blat a huge Dark T-Rex lumbering into the fray. Pain is still kicking Jon around, but he takes a page from the Xander Harris book of 'How To Beat Unstoppable Evil That You Also Happen To Love,' appealing to Aurora to fight it and managing to get through to her as William's mortars fire in the background. Emotional resonance and rocket launchers, as Joss Whedon would say. The sounds cut out to be replaced by music, as a quick insert of Lynn mowing down the guards at the manor returns us to the battle, as a horrified Lianna sees Betrayal sending torrents of dark water down on the Scarlet army. Jon and Aurora, meanwhile, are actually getting busy if you can believe it, their make out session intensifying as a blaze of brilliant light gets the battlefield's attention. At the manor, Lynn gets Jenny into her car but takes a shot in the chest, courtesy of Shadow Man. Jenny manages to complete the escape, to Shadow Man's obvious frustration, while back in the battle it seems Aurora is her old self again - but now Betrayal wants a piece! Murder is about to kill our Kate when she sticks an arrow in his leg, buying time to escape while Betrayal puts the smackdown on Jon and Aurora. She's too tough for them to handle, but as Betrayal mocks Aurora and prepares to blast her out of the world for good, Jon dives in and takes the shot himself, getting thrown off the temple and into the ocean a hundred feet below... Aurora charges in to attack, but this time she has the light on her side. Literally. A blaze of light weakens Betrayal long enough for Aurora to get in close, whisper her forgiveness - and snap her neck! It's Rachel whose body hits the deck, and with its master gone the dark skies overhead quickly start to clear as well. Sunlight pours onto the battlefield and the Dark Army is routed - saving Kate's bacon in the process - but Aurora cries her heart out for the first time in years as there's no sign of Jonathan! Jenney tries to help the dying Lynn, but there's no saving her this time. She tells Jenny everything is connected again before she dies, and as Jonathan gets a thank you from Diana and wakes up (despite being a long way down in the water), Aurora realises something else has happened - she's pregnant!
Wow. Now that is how you end a series, ladies and gentlemen. None of this Lost style multiple cliffhanger malarkey, no sir. A few deaths, a whole lot of Lord Of The Rings-tastic fantasy battle action, some mano a mano smackdowns you've been itching to see and a final twist to really bring the whole thing to a tasty conclusion. There's a bit of closure in Lynn's story, what with her death and finding out Aurora was her daughter, though Jenny does get left at a bit of a loose end after her escape from the Shadow Man's clutches. Aurora gets her redemption and her payback on Rachel, Jon helps save the world and gets his girl, Kate gets to kick some ass and even the Scarlet Knights work. A lot of effort goes into fleshing them out so they're not just some deus ex machina thrown in at the last minute. All is good. There's so much going on in this that it's hard to pick much more out, so I'm just going to head straight to the final words. Freakin' sweet.
by George Willson
On a planet where people will burn their eyes out for their god, Ruben looks for a chance to regain something of the life he lost.
With the show running a little behind schedule, it's time to get caught up with a review of episode ten, which looks set to provide a little background on Ruben, the stoic security chief who is in need of some more development after the teasing hints at some past family tragedy in 1x03.
We open on the crew watching some kind of ceremony on an alien world. Engel is busy running his translator while Ruben grumbles about the disadvantageous tactical position they're in (which is his job, when you think about it). The team are unaware that they're about to watch a ritual sacrifice, however, and they're horrified to see the man willingly burn his eyes right out of their sockets! Yick.
After the ceremony, Engel converses with the priest to learn more, as an anxious Aya gets her next shot from Ruben - seems she's still recovering from the events of 'AA' and is being weaned off the poisoned water she got hooked on. And yes, James, I get the Monty Python reference. With James a little concerned that any one of them could easily fall foul of the laws of this planet and suffer a similar fate, they find Ruben spaced out and staring at the temple - with a little audio flashback to boot. Later on, Engel is still learning about the ritual, but there a lot of gaps in the sampler's translation of what the priest tells him. And that'd be the Dramatic Irony alarm ringing in the background, then! James notices there's a lack of any blind people in the community, before the team split up to nose around. Ruben seems to be acting a little strangely, and we finally get a god's honest flashback, heading ten years back in time to Brazil. And, my word, he looks happy as he sits in a church service with his wife and kids. But what's this? A saucy Latino chick giving him the eye - and flashes to Ruben being a naughty boy indeed! Back on the alien world, and Ruben re-enters the main temple, offering himself up to be 'cleansed,' as the priest put it - could this be the end of the chief's 20/20 vision?
As Engel asks to get his apparently faulty sampler checked out, we get another Ruben flashback, this time six months ago in New York as Stansen comes to see him. Ruben looks pretty washed up - a parallel to the state James was in before he was brought into the program - with Stansen mentioning Ruben's dismissal from the UN's employ and an apparent blacklisting he's suffering from, offering him a second chance to redeem himself. Then, we get the juicy bit - remember that chick Ruben was seen canoodling with earlier? She just happened to be Carmen Diaz, Brazil's ambassador to the UN, and Ruben was her bodyguard. D'oh! He was kicked out as sexual misconduct charges were raised - and as his wife finds out, she tearfully tells Ruben she's leaving and taking the kids with her. We then see Ruben's official dismissal before jumping back a week (you keeping up with this?) to see Ruben first getting the job as Ms Diaz's bodyguard. He's surprised to see her, letting us know he was a cop and she a city official, so they've known each other for a while. We're finally back in the alien temple, with Ruben still struggling to get his head round what he did to himself - he still can't seem to get over it costing him his family. Ruben calls James and Aya back to the temple, where a newfound sense of peace seems to have come over him. He tells the shocked duo that he's going to stay here and take the test of faith - and if he loses his sight, then so be it!
On the Lander, Lak calls back down with the solution to the malfunctioning sampler - it just needs rebooting. Yes, it's more Microsoft jibes, but they work here with the technofriendly Lak baby-stepping the technofearful Engel through getting the unit working again. Outside, Aya is trying to spur James into action, but he's the kind of man who's always respectful of another's wishes, even if it means leaving a crewman to potentially burn his own eyes out! With Aya needing her medicine and growing increasingly agitated, James tasks Engel to talking to the priest again as they go in search of Ruben. Engel is led into a mine where blinded workers dig valuable, energy-providing stones from the wall - and it's only those who have been 'cleansed' that can do this. James confronts Ruben but he's not budging, showing an alarmingly clear head given what's in store for him. Ruben seems convinced that the cleansing ritual is the only way he can absolve himself for what he did, and as James tries to manhandle him back Ruben reminds us why he's the security James, knocking James on his arse in no uncertain terms. And just when the situation couldn't get worse - Aya collapses!
James gets Aya back to the Lander and shoots her up with some sedatives to keep her calm (although I'm not sure if Aya's snarkiness is an effect of her withdrawal or some slightly out-of-character writing here), before we rejoin Ruben as he prepares to undergo the cleansing. Another flashback shows us Ruben talking to Carmen, the relationship between the two of them deepening a little - Ruben admits sleeping with her was a mistake, and he's just doing his job now rather than spending time with her because he wants to. However, Carmen isn't the kind of woman you want to turn down, and despite sneaking a crafty snog off him Ruben still isn't playing her game, so she (rather melodramatically, it must be said) fakes an assault on herself and runs off to shop him for it. And I must knock some points off for the groan-worthy line of direction that reads: 'She stands so close her breasts are touching his chest.' Yuck! Anyway. Engel manages to arrive at the ceremony just in time, explaining to Ruben that the cleansing is for people who break the law - not a test of faith, as he's been led to believe! Ruben sheepishly steps down, realising his mistake at last, and hands James the medicine Aya needs. Back on the Lunar Base, Ruben is getting chewed out by Stansen, but he manages to leave the office with his job intact. This time. Outside, he apologises to Aya but still doesn't plan on telling her exactly what he wanted to take the ritual for. Ruben retires to his quarters, where there's a touching final shot of his wife back on Earth - holding one of Rubens' paycheques. He's been sending her his cash, to make amends and support his family even though he's not even on the same planet any more. And that's where we leave it.
Not a bad story this week, and an attempt to flesh out Ruben's character in the same way 'AA' gave us some depth on Aya, but unfortunately it doesn't quite click together the way it should have. The mass of flashbacks crammed into Act II really disrupt the flow of the story, and the fact that they jump back and forth through Ruben's past make them a little hard to follow. Lost's approach to character flashbacks may be a well-used device, but it works, and it's a method that should have been applied here. And while Ruben's quest to test his faith (and, you suspect, punish himself for breaking up his family) is a good, strong storyline, his sudden change of attitude is too big a switch, too soon, especially when he almost purposefully endangers Aya by refusing to hand over her medicine. Okay, she wasn't too sick at that point, but she got worse pretty quick so it's a pretty shitty thing for Ruben to have done. Overall, then, a good story that trips up a little through the jumbled flashbacks, despite the backstory we get being pretty intriguing, and Ruben seeming to go from stoic man mountain to brainwashed cult member in a matter of moments.
by J.J. Estes
A newspaper clipping leads Quint to a mysterious priest who has his own agenda for Quint.
I've been holding off on these until the season got back on air, but now that the last two episodes have aired it's time to revisit the fragmented world of Homeostasis. I make absolutely no claim whatsoever of being intellectual enough to grasp some of the deeper symbolism and subtleties behind this show, but as a lifelong Lynch fan I just dig things that are weird. When we left Quint Burroughs, he'd just... um... done something. Damn. Maybe I should go back and read the last bit of my old review to catch up! Hang on. Right. It's the one with the party, that's it. Okay!
We open with a flashback (or dream - you can never be sure with this show) showing Quint with his mom Gwen and missing brother Curtis, all trying to get through another sermon at their local church. Curtis doesn't seem to have much time for this religion malarkey, but it isn't long before things go a bit weird - first, Death appears and then everyone else in the church disappears! Quint hears a voice talking to him, as though explaining a modern viewpoint on religion to him - echoing Curtis' words to him, maybe? - before we rejoin Quint in a trashy motel room. There's static on the TV (a common Lynchian device, trivia fans), and we almost get a visit from someone via the TV screen before Quint wakes up for good. His notes feature a clipping that shows Curtis helping to rebuild a local church - our next stop on the path is set.
Quint encounters a gabby clerk at the motel as he pays his bill, and there's another moment of someone in a service position spouting some cryptic dialogue to our hero - it's a theme that's already popped up a lot in the first two episodes, and leads me to think that this is another device for expressing Quint's actual inner thoughts without having him saying anything himself. I think. Quint arrives at the church and bumps into perky church group member Krista, who directs him towards Father Brewer, the Boss Hog of this operation. Quint shows Brewer the clipping of Curtis, but no luck there. Quint heads to a diner for something to eat - and there's that cigarettes thing again, just before Curtis shows up (sort of) to have a chat with his brother. As they talk, it seems Quint's reliving a past conversation he and his brother had around the time Curtis vanished, although when the waitress addresses Curtis directly you'd be forgiven for getting mixed up. But we know Curtis isn't there - so it's likely she's actually talking to Quint. He just doesn't see it that way. A regular diner patron, Doug, strolls in and pulls up the seat next to Quint, engaging him in a little light conversation before giving Quint an idea - Father Brewer seems to hold a large amount of sway over the people of this town. Maybe Quint can convince him to help?
Quint returns to the church and looks for Brewer, diverted from a suspicious-looking door before he passes Krista, who catches up with him. Quint tells her Curtis was there helping out just a week ago (first indication of how much time has passed we've had for a while, I believe), and when he shows her the clipping she remembers him - and says Brewer should too. So why did he act like he didn't? Krista drags Quint over to Brewer's office, and as she pops in to make sure he's not busy (or is she?), Quint flashes back to watching his mother cook dinner back home. Seems that Curtis skips off quite a lot, especially when church visits are looming, but this time Gwen plans on going to find him herself. Back in the present at the church, Brewer says he can vaguely remember where Curtis said he was going, and if Quint returns for the following evening's sermon he'll have the details ready. Trying to get him to come to the church, eh? Hmm. There's also mention of Curtis' 'situation,' hinting at a bigger reason for why he took off. Krista seems happy that Quint's coming back for the sermon, but personally I can't shake an uneasy feeling about the whole setup as we close the second Act. Is Quint being manipulated to get him back into church, after his brother went to such lengths to put him off the idea?
Quint's getting ready in his motel room when Curtis appears again, and they continue their flashback conversation from the diner earlier. It's like being on Curtis' trail lets Quint see echoes of memories they both have sometimes - his way of keeping the memory fresh? Curtis says that Gwen has only ever had two men - one fathered Quint, the other Curtis - and this goes some way to explaining the fragmented family dynamic that the Burroughs' have, indicating it's why she became religious. There's a very telling exchange:
CURTIS
See, whether he exists or not, he's
an imaginary figure, and imaginary
figures don't leave you unless you
want them to.
QUINT
What if the imaginary's real?
CURTIS
You have to add to it to make it
real.
Hmm. Double meanings are a strength of this series - people tend to talk about one thing whilst referring to something else at the same time, and I think there's a lot to highlight in those few lines. Quint ends the conversation thinking some dark thoughts about his mother - but then snaps back to reality, acting like the flashback just ended differently to how it really happened and seeing confused over why. Warring personalities, maybe? Anyway. Quint arrives at the church and takes a pew at the back with Krista, but as Brewer's sermon runs on he spies the Death-like figure from the Teaser in the church, watching the service. Brewer's dialogue about a shard from one of the shattered stained glass windows again resonates with a twin meaning for Quint's current fractured state of mind, but then the Weird returns as everything around Quint starts to become transparent, and with Brewer's doom-laden sermon rining in his ears Quint stumbles back over to the door he was stopped from entering earlier. With good reason, too - once inside, his fear passes but he makes an alarming discovery - a room full of dead bodies!
Quint is surprised by Brewer, who seems remarkably calm about the bodies and even allows Quint to get away, but as Quint rushes back outside he sees Curtis in his place on the pew, and has another conversation with him. Father Brewer returns, and talk to Quint about people needing a purpose for their existence - and Quint realises that the communion wine everybody's busy downing has been poisoned! Brewer's killing people to send them to the next place, people whose existence in this world no longer has any meaning. Quint walks away, knowing he's not going to find any answers here, and as he sees that Krista has managed to get away too, he steps into his Nissan and drives off. A closing vignette shows Krista leaving town, Brewer taking the communion and joining the members of his 'flock' in the back room, before we return to Quint and see he's bought himself a mini tape recorder.
A pretty dark, heavy-going episode there, then. A lot of attacks on the flaws in organised religion throughout, from how it's used as a smokescreen for people to hide from their real problems behind, to how it can literally take your life away and stop you from being you - although in Brewer's case, this is taken a lot more literally. The flashback conversations with Curtis again add evidence to the split personality theory, although now with people remembering having seen Curtis in the flesh we have evidence to the contrary. It's clear Quint can't tell which memories are his own and which are Curtis' at this point, but there's more hints to suggest that Quint is having to add things to what he's actually experiencing to try and make sense of things. As always with Homeostasis, the dream-like, often contradictory nature of what we see happening is hard to decipher at the best of times, but there's a sense of progress for the first time here, as well as a timeframe established by Quint's mention of Curtis having been in town as recently as a week ago. I'm still some way from knowing what to make of it all, I'll admit, but at least this episode manages to put some actual plot development in amongst all the abstract visuals to keep the interest going.
by Arcadio Reyes
Evelyn finally moves on from her past and sets about changing the way she is... starting with her relationship with Lisa. And when she spots Christian, a chase ensues. Matt finally reveals the nightclub to the family but finds something out about Lisa which could threaten their relationship.
Episode three, then, and this solidly-written drama continues to impress as it rolls on. Lisa's breakdown intensifies, Christian is infuriatngly just out of reach of the struggling Evelyn, and her feud with Della doesn't look like simmering down any time soon. Good stuff. Let's keep things moving, we've got another episode after this one to get through!
Morning again, and with things just as frazzled in both the Hunter and Jones households, the status quo resembles a big old wiggly line of emotions and tensions. However, even though she's amusingly cack-handed at it, seeing Evelyn bustle around and try to sort out resolve her issues with just about everybody makes for some good character moments. In fact, there's lots of good couple-y stuff here - Ally and Matt bounce off each other well, and Nateisha's feisty comments about Della look set to roll on into a big old blaze of indignation pretty soon. And a good comic moment with the onion thing, too. Della's fiery response to Theo's attempt to 'help' contrasts the way the two mothers are dealing with their issues - and that's rapidly becoming a central theme here. However, Della is starting to feel very Betty Applewhite in her 'Mama knows best' attitude here - not helped by the fact that both characters are played by the same actress! Anyway. Marie's picnic manages to show that all it takes is one knock for Evelyn's whole house of cards to come down again, as she spots Christian and runs after him with Marie in hot pursuit, and even with the cab chase he still gets away. He's a spry little monkey, isn't he? Lisa getting caught mid-coke habit by Matt leads to some more good moments between the two of them - the zig-zagging of Lisa's state of mind is absorbing at the moment, but she does need to get some progress on it fairly soon. Seeing Della cut Nateisha down to size promises at more to come, as does Evelyn finally tracking Christian down - and boy, what a moment to walk in on... And now I'm starting to get a tingle in my Spider-Sense about Brian, all of a sudden. Hmm. The conveniently-settled onion thing is one thing, but his dialogue about Connor also seems a little suspect. But maybe I'm just being paranoid. Anyway. As Theo and Della come to a head over the 'Rachelle' thing, there's another Desperate Housewives parallel as the sense of a dark, prison time-worthy secret is dagnled before us. We manage to end on a nice moment as Christian comes home, though. You can almost hear the weepy music as Evelyn grabs him - but what did she get up to with Estovan, eh?
Not a spectacular episode, and with the exception of Christian's return most of the plots are in a holding pattern this week, but there's more stuff set up for later episode with the dark secret of the Jones' and Lisa's attempt to get better - although I personally don't buy that it's that easy for a second. Have to call Reyes on the Applewhite-esque nature of whatever's going on with Theo and Della, though. At least we don't have another relative locked in the basement! So we've got a good little crossover dynamic working now as we switch between the Hunters and the Jones' - the Hunters obviously have more going on, what with the show being about them and all, but there's a growing number of connections between the two families now to keep an eye on.
by Arcadio Reyes
Evelyn begins to notice Estevon's advances but an old flame returns with a proposition. Matt begins to make plans for the future. Ally finds herself in need of a lawyer when she assaults someone. Christian refuses to head home and finds himself in an unusual situation with Scott. Lisa has her first counselling session but her problems begin to escalate while Della resorts to dirty fighting in her war against Evelyn Hunter.
And we're back. A strong opener set up a well-constructed, complex world of plots, character dynamics and stories just waiting for their time to sparkle, so let's keep the momentum going...
And here's Christian! Hiding out at his friend Scott's house, no less. There's a neat little air of tension between the two as Scott exits, and we get our main players re-introduced through some breakfast vignettes - but there's two uses of ghosts and visions already! What, is everybody in this neighbourhood taking acid or something? Anyway. Lisa's therapy really makes how wonderfully vulnerable and layered her character is stand out, and Marie's little good angel/bad angel turn with the smashed window is a great moment too - maybe she should be the one talking about her anger management issues? She's a mess of rampant emotions and possibly not the best stabilising influence on the fragile Evelyn right now - especially when Tom swoops in to ask Evelyn out, despite how badly things went last time! Evelyn's a bit of a pushover, really. Let's be honest here. The reveal that Jarrell was the one who killed Evelyn's plants works well - we're going to get a showdown Wisteria Lane style some time soon here, and that'll be pretty zesty to watch. This show isn't about daft humour in the vein of Housewives, however, so we'll have to keep an eye on how that escalates. Scott's awkwardness as he starts to move on his feelings for Christian could have easily been annoying but it's actually quite sweet - and offset by the dead kitty Evelyn finds on the doorstep! Brian's neat manouvre on the guy Ally clocks at the psychiatrist's office got a laugh, and adds more brownie points to Brian as the ship we should be getting Ally a ticket for! Ally's diplomatic relations with Theo could put a spanner in that one, though - it's a good bond at the moment, but with Nateisha going all Hand That Rocks The Cradle on Theo, how long before he starts to look elsewhere? And you have to wonder how much longer Christan can drag his sulk out for when even Scott tells him to shit or get off the pot and call Evelyn again. There's a well-written outpouring from Evelyn to Tom later on - although you can already see how he's going to try and use her vulnerability to woo her again - and the pretty saucy post-shower moment with Scott and Christian manages not to feel gratuitous either, to Reyes' credit. Also noteworthy is Evelyn's parting words to Della - not an apology but not an admission of guilt either, even if it does cancel the potential for the street war I was seeing earlier! However... yep, it's Musical Montage time. Ack. I hate those. And it's even more ghosts! Seriously - try to stop using that as a motif so much. It's not helping the show establish its own style.
So another good episode, then - strong writing, some brilliant characterisation (Lisa's breakdown is great, Brian is a hero to all and Evelyn manages to grow a spine for once as well - plus merit to Marie because she can actually be pretty funny) and good movement on all of the plots. I criticised earlier episodes of Pathways for having too much happening at once but being very uneven in its plot progression. Not so here - everything is rolling along nicely, even if there isn't always a strong central plot linking things together week by week (that said, I guess Ally's potential law suit is the thread here). There's just the matter of that ghosts thing - yes, it works, but it's making the show feel like a Six Feet Under rip-off, and that's really unfair given the sterling writing going into this show. But anyway. More, now, again.
by Arcadio Reyes
The Hunter family attempt to deal with recent events as they struggle to move on and find new beginnings. But little do they know -- this is just the beginning. Evelyn is at breaking point, Matt fears for Lisa's sanity, Ally finally tastes freedom, while Christian is nowhere to be seen. And now, the Johnson family live directly opposite the Hunters... and it's not going to be pretty.
I recognised Between The Walls as a well-written virtual drama series when it arrived on the MZP doorstep a while back, so now that the long-delayed second series is finally underway it's time to give it the ZPM review treatment. The influence of Six Feet Under and even Desperate Housewives is strong throughout, but with the Hunters, showrunner Arcadio Reyes has built up a well-developed cast and some brilliantly convoluted plots to hold the dysfunctional characters together. I'll admit I never read that much of the first series, but I'm fairly sure I know all the main developments so I can dive right into this. I did that for Pathways, right? I'm going to do mini-reviews for the current four episodes while I catch up, then start the proper treatment from 2x05 onwards.
Returning to the troubled life of the Hunter family allows us to catch up on what we missed - an artfully-directed opener shows the grief that both Evelyn and Della are going through, despite the very different circumstances both mothers are in. Ally has troubles of her own as Lisa wakes from a traumatic, baby-influenced nightmare and is still suffering from the chaos of last season. Again, I'm playing catch up to some extent, but I'm able to get the gist of what happened in Season One fairly easily thanks to the opener. Ally's divorce proceedings from Michael exhibits a good, tensely-written sense of drama, with the murder of Connor last season still hanging over Michael and leaving him nowhere to go. Evelyn seems even less in control of things than ever - mother figures and their influence over the family around them is always going to make a good source of drama, and here Evelyn has plenty to be mixed up about. Well, except for getting checked out by the new cook in her restaurant, anyway. Nateisha asks realtor Theo to start a family, but when he tries to back down he almost gets a plate to the face - looks like somebody's got some baby issues here! Lisa almost confesses something about her miscarried baby (and mother's death) to Ally, but that particular revelation gets saved for later (showing an experienced sense of pacing from Reyes). Evelyn's good-hearted attempt to apologise to Della, and the subsequent shooting down, also shows that this show's going to have plenty of strong stories to sustain itself for a while yet. In fact, throughout the episode Della makes a point of being pretty hardline, shouting down Nateisha over breakfast later on and marking herself out as the kind of strong character that shows like this always need. Also good to see everybody demonstrating some kind of flaw - and Lisa's return to her coke habit does not bode well at all! A brief return appearance by Christian keeps that storyline from being lots of moping, and Lisa's closing breakdown is a good way to end what's been an engaging script, making for an easy introduction to a complicated world of relationships. A good season opener should serve as an introduction for any new reader, and this accomplishes that nicely. Good stuff.
However! There's the occasional bit of somewhat cheesy stage direction - lines like 'Two neighbors. Two women, so alike in their pain, but so distant due to guilt and resentment' sound more like voice-overs for a Hallmark movie than lines from a script! There's also a running theme of people having freaky dreams or talking to the dead that feels too much like it's been lifted from Six Feet Under - it's a good storytelling device, but it's already been done and draws some unfortunate comparisons with SFU. Lack of character direction (stuff like (dry) or (snaps) in the dialogue) also saps some of the emotion out of the lines - I know it's a technique that has to be used quite sparingly, but Reyes barely uses it at all, and in a few places the dialogue reads a little flat for it. That said, the strengths of the dialogue and plotting make up for those stylistic niggles, so there's plenty here to recommend.
Oh, and I know where you nicked the title for this episode from, Arc, you sneaky git :P
by J.J. Estes
An innocent drink from a pool on an alien world didn't seem like a bad idea, but Aya's about to find out that even the simplest things can lead to trouble.
Guardians: Outlook chugs on with another new episode, although this is a reworking of a script from the original 11-episode series, for those of you who remember that. And I should, given that I wrote that version of it! So this one deals with Aya's curious nature getting the better of her whilst on an off-ship mission, and all being well should leave plenty of room for some juicy character development. Let's move on...
A startling opening scene has James delivering a defiant speech to somebody off screen, before handing his gun to a sick-looking Aya and daring her to end her own life, before we flash back thirty-six hours in the best Alias tradition. Blimey! The Outlook is in orbit over an Earth-like planet with a pre-industrial culture, so given the tech difference it seems a ground mission is out. Anna thinks otherwise, however, her natural sense of diplomacy winning James over as he approves a trip down to the planet's surface. Engel makes a 'oops, did I say that out loud?' slip as he asks for Lakshanya to join the team, and with that little ship set out of harbour we're off into Act I.
Anna wants to lead the ground mission but James isn't having any of it, the power dynamic still very one-sided between them. Ivan catches Aya getting ready and tries to get her to join him in a toast for the road, but she declines, and her at once naive and wise comments about his alcoholism actually give Ivan pause for thought before his next swig. Good to see Ivan's drinking being used as an actual character point instead of just comedy! The Lander flies over some farming settlements, and Engel wisely suggests they try there first. One, so he can get some data into his sampler so they can communicate, and two so they don't scare the bejaysus out of the populace by heading to the big city first. However, James lands right on some guy's farm, and before you know it the team are being led as captives through the city, the reptilian populace looking on. James in unfazed, safe in the knowledge he learned how to captain from the king - James T, in case you were wondering. That's James T. Kirk. Of Star Trek. Come on, people, pay attention! Anyway. Led into the mayor's impressive, Renaissance-style mansion, the team meet the bigwig himself, and as James makes the introductions we skip forward a little to find Aya and Lak eager to shop, and Ruben doing his best to keep the ladies in line. Aya finds a fountain that seems to be a local watering hole of sorts, but as she leans in to take a sample, one of the alien guards looms over her and he does not look happy...
James and Engel leave the mayor's mansion, James apparently having set up some kind of vague trading agreement to Engel's unease, before the duo spot the trouble by the fountain. Motormouth Aya is trying to talk her way out of things, but when James arrives Ruben knows it's Engel who needs to handle this one. His sampler tries to explain that Aya only wants a sample of the water to study, but the guard is firm. No freebies. Aya takes a swig of the water and gets to keep the rest, and as the team get ready to camp out to wait for the city's big chief to arrive and speak with them, Aya continues taking photos of everything in sight. Lak catches her drinking her water sample again, and as night rolls in James makes a call up to the bored Anna in the Outlook overhead. Ivan's playing cards with his boys (or 'work' as he classes it - nice dialogue there too) when James speaks to him, requesting the resident tech genius' help to put together some goodies to trade with the aliens. There's a good moment as Engel calls James on his unorthodox tactics - a little conflict never hurts the group dynamic - before the crew bed in for the night. Aya, noticeably, looks in a bad way and appears to have drunk all of her sample. Hmm. James wakes up to find Aya's jumped ship, and lo and behold, there she is back in the town square, stocking up on water from the fountain. And then James finds her. Busted!
Back on the lander and with the rest of the crew now all woken up, James is busy chewing Aya out, despite her pleas that she can't explain what she was doing. When she mentions feeling thirsty and knowing that only water from the fountain would do, James and Engel don't have to stretch their intuition much to figure out that the fountain is the source of the problem. James leaves Lak to do her best attempt at analysing the water samples as the boys trek back into town to see the mayor, and as a shivering Aya watches them go, we rejoin James' team as they reach the town hall. The mayor gleefully tells the team that the water has addictive qualities, and the leadership use it to keep the people in line! The only way to break the addiction is to go cold turkey, something that is especially painful and also a good motivation to keep the townsfolk in line. Back on the lander, Lak thinks she's identified the rogue element that causes the addiction, but before she can decipher her discovery, she's tasered by Aya, who bolts back towards the city again! The boys arrive to find Lak down and Aya missing, and a stern-faced James resolves to bring Aya back.
James finds Aya refilling her canteens at the fountain, watched by several curious members of the populace, and tells her it's time to go. A tearful Aya seems to be aware of what's happening to her, her science nerd brain able to deduce the situation quite easily, but she's also helpless against the pull of the addiction, not having the physical or mental toughness to resist. Aya starts to freak out, disarming James when he goes to tase her and forcing him to pull his gun, scaring the aliens off by firing some warning shots and dragging Aya kicking and screaming all the way back to the lander. Dr. Unwin and Anna are waiting back on the Outlook, having to strap Aya down to get her to the sick bay after she makes another break for freedom. Next thing we know, we're back on the Lunar Base, with a worried Unwin afraid that despite the fact Aya's going to be okay, she could easily hurt herself from the increasingly violent withdrawal fits she's having. A frustrated Ivan's anguish is clear to see, but Stansen tells James to get in there and keep her calm until the effects wear off. We then get a great little moment as Aya begs James to kill her, and we're back up to the Teaser as he challenges her to do it herself, and Aya's willpower finally catches up with her. Problem solved. A nice little moment between Anna and James leads to another between Ivan and Aya, with Ivan getting a little perspective on his own addiction issues as he comforts the recovering Aya.
Great stuff. A strong, character-driven episode that showcases the main strength of this series - the layers of traits, quirks and details that make up the crew here. These characters have already demonstrated some very good, well-developed three-dimensional qualities (even Ivan, despite the attempts to turn his alcoholism into a running gag), and this episode gives most of them a chance to do something. Well, except Anna, who gets left behind again and really needs some stronger stories besides acting as James' stooge if she's going to keep up with the others! Even though the episode still falls into the show's annoying habit of trying to cram as many dry comeback lines to almost every comment someone makes as possible, the central story here isn't bad and it serves as a platform to get some really interesting stuff out of the crew. So more episodes like this, please. The first season of Stargate SG-1 benefitted from getting plenty of character-focused episodes in early on, so that by the last stretch of the season the entire team was solidly drawn out. With a few more episodes like this, Outlook will have the same advantage.
teleplay by George Willson
While exploring an abandoned world, the Outlook's crew finds themselves affected by some unknown agent.
The first of my three catch up reviews for Guardians: Outlook then, and while I get a 'Story by' credit on this, I didn't actually write it, so there we go. After its first seven episodes, G:O has shown that it's got an interesting, slightly darker take on the SG-1 brand of sci-fi, and some nicely layared characters evn though there's a few too many of them to keep up with at the moment, and the over-emphasis on applying the show's trademark dry humour to every situation does take away from some of the potential drama. After the long gap in production between episodes one to seven and then this one onwards, it'll be interesting to see how the series develops from now on. And speaking as a former writer and producer, I can say that and mean it.
The Teaser has the team down in an abandoned alien city, with James and Anna bouncing sarcasm off each other as the resident nerds (Aya, Lakshanya, Engel and Ivan) get to work on uncovering the city's mysteries inside. There's several vodka jokes (again) before Lak finds a diary of sorts, but as the team try to puzzle out what's happened to leave the city deserted, they're unaware that they're being watched by a surveillance camera up in the ceiling...
James and Anna are walking down the city's main street, James remarking that if something did force the population off in a hurry, then it's noticeable that there's no evidence of any kind of mass exodus. The duo head into a similarly deserted museum, but are startled by a tour guide hologram zapping to life before them - and it speaks perfect English! Hmm. Back at the apartment with the Science Nerds, Lak's attempts to hack into the room's computer system end in failure, and James calls in to bring the others back to the museum. James asks the tour guide to give them a potted history of the planet, but by now we should all have picked up on Anna starting to have a little difficulty forming words. Something in the air, perhaps? With Anna getting frustrated by her mystery condition, the two continue thier tour - unaware that a bird-headed statue has stepped away from the wall and followed them! Actually, I was unaware of this at first. This moment doesn't stick out of the direction as much as it could - G:O's minimal stage direction does work against it sometimes. Aya and Ivan continue exploring until Ivan sniffs his way into a bar, and though Ivan takes the opportunity to flirt with Aya she manages to cut him down with some well-positioned technobabble. In the museum, James and Anna hit a dead end when the bird creature attacks, and as Anna fumbles with her weapon, seemingly dropping IQ points by the second, it's Engel who comes to the rescue, shooting it, scaring it away and saving James' bacon.
James is a little surprised that Engel, the ship's diplomat, knows how to shoot (and knowing Estes, there's a story to be told there), but elects to bring the team back to the Lander. James wants to scrub the mission and get back to the Outlook, but the Nerds all argue that there's stuff on the planet worth investigating, and they want to stay. James takes Anna back out with him to hunt the hostile birdman down, with the Nerds grumpy at being left behind. James tries to quiz Anna about why she's starting to act like a dropout from special school, and while Engel sneaks back to the museum, Aya observes that the planet has a potentially lethal level of pollutants in its atmosphere, but that the planet is somehow processing them safely. It isn't long before she's back off outside with Ivan and Lak, while James runs into more trouble trying to hunt down his birdman - this time from Anna! She can't even shoot straight any more, but no sooner has James confiscated her weapon than he's found Engel talking to the guide hologram again. James finds the rest of the crew have also abandoned ship and disobeyed his orders, and we end the Act as he angrily orders them back.
With nobody volunteering to help, James is forced to leave the others behind and go hunting alone, his Spider-Sense starting to tell him something screwy's going on. He speaks to the guide hologram and finds that it was listening in on the Outlook's transmissions so it could 'learn' how to speak the crew's language. James asks it next what's going on with the museum itself, finding that its purpose was for them to 'learn.' James gets the power turned off before venturing on inside, while back in the Lander the Nerds are growing increasingly agitated. Their brains are working overtime, and their attempts to find some way to capture their ideas start to lead to a revolt as they attempt to leave the ship. Anna tries to stop them and gets into actual fisticuffs with Ivan and Engel, before Aya shoots her full of sedative and knocks her out. Inside the museum, James finds an observation room that shows the footage from the surveillance cameras all around the city, seeing his crewmates escaping again before the birdman springs to the attack once more. James chases after it and manages to get a shot off just as the power comes back on, disabling the creature only to find it's some kind of machine instead. Investigating its carcass, he's met by the guide hologram once again. It reels off an educational film about something called 'Compound 917,' a chemical formula created by the planet's populace to allow them to mirror their own physical mutations into non-sentient lifeforms. The experiment was a success and the compound was released into the planet's atmosphere, raising the average inhabitant's brain power by fifty percent. James turns to leave - and is told of Compound 919. This was also released into the atmosphere but any potential side effects were never logged. And I wonder why? Seems 10% of the people exposed to Compound 919 went the other way, degenerating mentally and becoming excluded from the rest of the society. With the hologram hypothesising that the city would have removed of the 'waste' caused by people literally thinking themselves to death, James suddenly realises what's happening to his crew and rushes off to find them all again.
James finds Lak and Engel busily disassembling the hologram's systems, but they act hostile towards him when he tries to get them to leave. Finding the unconscious Anna on the Lander, James grabs a taser and goes to find Aya, who's busy in an alien plant shop. Aya's worked out that the planet's atmosphere is making them smarter, but is just as unlikely as the others to leave, leaving James no option but to zap her and carry her away. Ivan is next, busy drinking in a bar as he works on the design for a revolutionary new space engine, and James has to zap him twice to bring him down. James thoughtfully gathers up all of Ivan's plans before moving on, coming back to Lak and Engel. They're still not planning on moving, so James zaps Lak and gets into a fight with Engel. Engel pays no heed to James' attempt to talk him down - so it's the taser for you, young man! Back on the Outlook, Anna wakes up to find James looking in on her, and he hazards a guess that she was part of the ten percent that became stupider from the Compounds. Well, nine percent, as James seems to think he was part of the one percent 'control group' who were unaffected. With Aya anxiously asking James if Ivan has said anything about her, James checks in on the man himself, who is trying and failing to make sense of his notes. Engel is in a similar position, having a new translator system if he can just figure out how to make it! With James leaving Engel after some stinging remarks about his fighting ability, we end the show for another week.
Well now. I have to get one thing off my chest right now - the plot for this episode is more or less a straight lift of the Miranda section of Serenity. A deserted city, a compound in the air that's affected the whole populace with disasterous effects and a backstory of misguided scientific experiments, even down to the ten percent who have an adverse reaction? Sorry, guys, but it's far too close to the bone for my liking. The episode plods along at a fairly standard pace, all the revelations and developments coming in when expected, so in terms of structure the story's pretty good. The flat, minimal stage direction really lets things down - James' final fight with the robot bird (whose existence is never really explained) and scrap with Engel get a bit more meat, but the robot bird's early moments can almost be missed, given how underplayed they are. Virtual series don't have the visual medium to fall back on and so need to put a bit more colour in the script to make it entertaining to read. The dialogue throughout is snappy and well-written, with each character's voice coming through nicely as their differeing personalities respond to the altered atmosphere, so that part's not in question. G:O just needs to start hyping up its action moments a little more. WIth shows as visually striking as Afterlife and The DSR leading the way, there's no need for skimping on direction like this. So to sum up, a half decent episode let down by its obviously lifted plot and weak direction.
by Michael Jay
Jai desperately tries to find the Ahnenerbe when he discovers his comatose brother Connor is dying of the energy he was infused with...
Woo hoo! 50th post! Ahem.
With the main arc of Season One about to kick off as we enter the final third of the season, I think the time has passed for standalones. We want meaty stuff from now on, darn it! After the cracking Mia-centric two-parter of 'All About A Girl,' Sara's two-parter earlier in the season and the other standout eps during the first half, we've established our crew now, so here's where we need to start kicking the arc into gear. So it's back to Michael Jay, the guy behind arguably one of the best episodes of the season, to take the reins for episode sixteen...
A great opener gives us an artfully-directed return to the opening moments of the series, where Glissman took down Connor and Cassie, then an ominous shot of Connor fading away from his hospital bed, leaving Jai with his head in his hands and a solemn voiceover ending on 'I failed him...'
An opening moment with three vampires shooting up and tearing into a somewhat bedraggled old werewolf keeps the dark tone going, with this episode going off into Somewhere InBetween territory as the butchered werewolf is left on the alley floor. Kendall voices his concern over Jai's round-the-clock campaign to track down Rhindhart, his hopes pinned on the cure for that old 'death' thing that the Ahnenerbe seem to have their hands on. Jai gets a call from the hospital where Connor is kept, and he races over to find the news is grim. Whatever Glissman zapped him with is starting to take its toll on his weary body, and in the doc's opinion Connor's little more than a salad accompaniment now. The doctors are going to switch off his life support, and after that Connor's got about a day left. Ethan and Carson discuss whatever shady business it is they're involved in, and with Mia getting closer to uncovering them Carson thinks it's time to bring her in on it. Sara, meanwhile, is experiencing virus troubles from somewhere within the DSR's servers, but as she explains the problem to Anton she mentions the vampire attack in Boston, which brings us neatly into the relevant mission briefing. Good bit of logical plotting, that. Knowing the rising tensions between vamps and Lupans given the recent superweapon shenanigans, Anton recommends checking these suddenly offensive vamps out before they make things a whole lot worse. Meanwhile, over in Boston, our three vamps meet up with the guy supplying them with the juice they need to restore their bloodlust - and it's our old friend Reynard, the Ahnenerbe guy from 'Mage'!
Anton, Kendall and Jai discuss their game plan. With several more attacks on werewolves in the area, it feels like more than a simple retaliatory to Jai. He's all stoked up for the mission, which has Kendall noticeably curious given Jai's recent obssessive focus on finding Rhindhart. In a rare emotional moment, Jai tells Kendall about Connor's death sentence, earning a reprieve from any more questioning as we switch to see Ethan and Mia. He asks about her current sense of jumpiness, and as she leads him away for a quiet word, the observing Carson is interrupted by Sara, asking for a password to continue her scan of the servers. See where this is going yet? Mia tells Ethan what Rhindhart said about getting his funding from the Projetons account, and Ethan fools her into thinking somebody within the DSR is feeding cash to the bad guys. It's all part of his and Carson's plan as we jump to Boston at last. Jai and Anton are within a stylish vampire den, but unbeknown to them one of Reynard's stooges has alerted him to their arrival. The DSR boys meet Prekop, the local Brotherhood chapter head, and while Prekop seems to be willing to play along with the DSR's peacekeeping plan, Jai tells Anton afterwards that he feels things are going too easily. And he'd be right, what with the bomb in their car that narrowly blows them both up and all!
Over in the Cayman Islands, an undercover Mia and Ethan go to meet Luigi Fiore, the person in charge of the account Mia's been tracing. Mia believes whoever's name the account is in is the mole within the DSR, and after (literally) strong arming Fiore into giving them the access they need, they're away. There's an odd moment as Ethan actually seems to flirt with Mia that doesn't quite fit right, but we're back into the spy stuff as Mia hacks into the bank's servers, sends the necessary info back to PBH and then makes a sharp exit as armed guards try to spoil the party. A quick escape via the river leads to Mia finally relaxing around Ethan again - but little does she know she's being manipulated! Oo, drama. Love it. Anyway. Back in Boston, Anton finds Jai has snuck off to meet the local Lupans and find his 'cure,' and intercepts him before he can get away. Jai tells Anton he knows the Ahnenerbe are involved in the vampire attacks, and is using that as leverage with the Lupans. Throwing Anton's own arguments back at him, Jai sets off on his hunt but leaves Anton behind to at least warn Prekop about what's coming. A good sense of mutual respect between these two comes across here, and it's a well-played moment. On the jet back to PBH, Ethan continues his charm offensive on Mia and seems to be making some good headway, while at PBH itself Sara finds the virus she was looking for. She goes to Kendall and mentions a file called 'Shaw42,' but Kendall tells her to drop it in no uncertain terms, shredding the evidence. Hmm! So what's going on here then, eh? Back in Boston, Jai's shooting his way into Reynard's warehouse as we see some poor sap getting operated on, in true X-Files style. Jai's on a mission as he mows through everyone in the warehouse, lab workers and vampires alike, with some brilliantly choreographed fight sequences as he scythes through the opposition. Jay's a huge fan of Afterlife, and I think it shows in his approach to the fights here - which is no bad thing! Jai catches a glimpse of Reynard, who mockingly shows him a vial of the cure he needs, while we end the Act on a different note, as a third party shows up and shoots down some of the escaping Ahnenerbe men...
Jai smashes his way through to Reynard, but as the slippery villain makes it to his getaway Mercedes, he gets a sword through his chest for his trouble from our new arrival. The new guy swipes the cure, and before Jai can get to the Merc it detonates! We fade to see Jai with the now deceased Connor, with Jai reasserting his motivations for catching Glissman as a sympathetic Kendall looks on. At PBH, Mia gets the name she was looking for - James Shaw! Ethan feigns shock but Carson's smirk tells us they've just played Mia like a big ol' harp in the symphonic orchestra of Sucker. Or something. Meanwhile, we're in for a shock as we close the episode, as the black clad assassin pulls Connor's body out of the morgue, injects him with the cure - and Connor wakes up! He also seems to know his saviour - it's Sonja! Dum dum daah! And that's yer lot.
Great stuff. DSR delivering a solid episode here, plenty of action, intrigue and some great big shocks at the end. The criminally short fourth Act is the only thing that lets this down, really - it feels more like a footnote than an Act itself, but Jay's decision to eschew the standardly uneven Teaser/Act One structure of typical DSR episodes and go for a more standard one hour drama template may have contributed to that. Getting everybody involved in what's goin on earns points back, however, and the three big shockers in the closing scenes are worth the admission price. I'm really torn on the mark for this, but I'm going for '8' purely because of that last Act. Even if we'd had some more dialogue to pad it out, that still would have been something, y'know? Still. There was a '9' in there, just so you know.
