The DSR 1x09 'A Piece Of The Action'

by Michael Jay

Now undercover inside a dangerous terrorist organisation, Sara struggles to retain her professionalism when an old temptation rises it's head. Meanwhile, the DSR division between Jai & Mia and Ethan & Carson continues to escalate...

So Michael 'Big Mike' Jay makes his debut on The DSR at last, eh? Coming into the second half of a two-parter is never easy, especially following one of the strongest episodes of the season with Brian and Tony's excellent 'Spartans,' but I've got faith in Mike to continue the show's upwards swing in quality, and besides, with Sara going undercover to extract her brother from a dangerous terrorist organisation filled with highly flammable pyrokinetics (ho ho!), how can he go wrong?

Right back where we left her, Sara is facing off against Alex and Jared, the head honchos of the Spartans group, brazenly asking for her brother Danny to be returned to her. Sara asks to be let into the team, and Alex seems to see something he likes in her, accepting her proposal. But Sara! You're Tech Girl, not Field Agent! Oh, gawd, this is going to be like Rachel Gibson's first field mission in Alias S5, isn't it? Alex kisses her, and to her credit she manages to go with it instead of freaking out - and she's in. Whew! Back at PBH, Ross barges angrily into Kendall's office and asks just what in the name of blinkin' flip Sara thinks she's doing out there, but Kendall is as surprised as he is. As Ross rails on Kendall, and Jai and Anton work to track Sara down, Mia's guilt over what she said to Sara to inspire her to go is painfully obvious to us, but so far not the others.

Sara and Alex are driving off to a new location, Sara's earlier show of bravado starting to fade as time goes on, and as the PBH team continue their search Jai asks Mia what she's hiding. It shows the connection between the two that he was able to read her so easily, but then the usually focused Mia showing any sign of hesitation is a dead giveaway if you know what to look for. Mia pulls the family card to try and appeal to Jai's sympathies - and it works. He understands better than anyone how going off book is often the best course of action, so Mia's involvment is safe - for now. We rejoin Sara as she and Alex arrive at his mansion in Ohio, with Jared obviously unhappy in the background with Alex's focus on Sara. She hears some suspicious machinery noises, and sees a young lad in a hospital gown before Alex leads her upstairs to show her more of the base. The sense of mystery is building quite nicely as we flip back to PBH, where the team are busy organising their search mission for Sara. Mia's growing unease seems to have caught Carson's attention, and as Ethan seems to be checking up on her computer access it looks like he's suspicious of her as well. Alex and Jared discuss their plans, which seem to be ticking over nicely, but Jared voices his concern about Sara's conveniently-timed arrival. At PBH, Ethan tells Carson that it was Mia who gave Sara the satellite feeds she needed, but he wants Carson to be the one to rat her out. That's a nicely devious turn from Ethan there, and much more like the guy we saw at the start of the series instead of the joker he's been in recent episodes. Alex and Sara are having dinner, and Sara manages to get more details about what Alex is doing at last - Alex is bringing together people with extraordinary talents (psychics, telekinetics, pyrokinetics etc.) and uniting them as one organisation, developing their talents and giving them a purpose in the world. Shades of X-Men with that idea, obviously, but it's almost too easy a parallel to draw, if you see what I mean, so not something I can flag up as a flaw or anything. Alex makes his move, and as he whisks Sara away to bed, we cut to Jared, watching the whole thing on his monitors and getting more incensed by the moment! You get the impression Sara's going with old feelings here rather than trying to play Alex - that's most likely just her inexperience talking, but either way let's hope she regains her wits once she's through catching up on old times, eh?

Cutting to just after the deed in question, Sara clicks back into DSR Mode as she sneaks away from Alex, grabs a tiny transmitter from her phone to disable the manor's security cameras, and then she investigates the strange noise she heard when she first entered the manor. She peers into a suspicious-looking lab and sees Danny strapped to one of the chairs inside (can you say 'Evil experiments,' kids?), and in obvious discomfort as the room's doctor continues his work. Sara is surprised by Spencer, caught red-handed - but he appears to be on her side, helping her stay hidden as we cut back to PBH - and Mia is also getting caught red-handed as a furious Kendall and Ross confront her about her intel leak to Sara. Jai watches the exchange with concern, but Ethan and Carson are pretty smug about the whole thing. The divided loyalties here seem a little out of character - would those two really take pleasure in seeing Mia get chewed out here? At the manor, Spencer shows Sara a room full of more youngsters like her brother, describing them as 'weapons' that Alex's lab is creating, exploiting their natural abilities for his own ends. Spencer mentions that Danny has a large amount of potential power that Harman is trying to unlock, but before he can go much further an alarm sounds, and the two have to skedaddle. Sara gets back to Harman's room - but she's been found out. Bugger.

As Danny continues to get zapped, Sara is strapped into a similar chair as Harman and Jared look on. Sara shows some real backbone here, as well as the Line Of The Week with:

SARA
I don’t have the benefit of being
able to lift my hand at the moment,
so let’s pretend I’m giving you the
finger.

Genius. There's even a dig at George W. Bush! Harman gets to work on zapping Sara - he claims it's a test to see if Danny's powers are hereditary, but he's also just teaching her a lesson for playing him. Thing is, as she's shocked it sets off an alarm back in her lab, so let's hope one of the team sees it before we get our Sara served extra crispy, eh? Mia confronts Jai about her potential suspension, but he gets in a good little 'honour among thieves' speech which pretty neatly sums up the relationship between the two of them. Anton finally notices the alarm beeping in Sara's lab, bringing it to the attention of the others/ It's a good plot device that doesn't feel contrived - Sara's the tech nerd so it's the kind of gadget that she'd be likely to use, so it feels very in character to have this as the means for the team to track her down. Mia is left out of the mission, but starts to twig that Carson was behind her discplinary with Kendall, so we're heading for another confrontation there. Back at the lab, Spencer wants to get Sara out of the electric chair but finds Jared taking far too much pleasure in her pain. That bastard. I hope he dies in a customarily sick and amusing way. Sara gets a touching moment as she tries to plead with Harman to let her and Danny go, but we get a Villainous Motivation moment as he gives the 'I'm just trying to make the world a better place' speech. It's a fair point - this world we live in is pretty screwed up, so even though the methods are wrong, the goal isn't. Hmm. Gagging her is a great touch, though - just as you feel a drop of sympathy for the guy, he does that! Classic. In the plane on the way to Ohio, the DSR and FBI joint task force is suiting up, and Jai and Anton have a little chat where they both realise Carson is the likeliest suspect for grassing Mia up. This script's littered with good little character moments like that, giving every character a scene or two of quality screen time. At the manor, Spencer bravely cuts the power to the lab to buy Sara some more time, but Jared is soon on his case, attempting to batter the door down. Spencer knows he's only got one shot at an escape here, so he deactivates the EM field covering the manor, effectively 'arming' all the Spartans and letting them use their powers again. We're approaching an X-Men style face off here, and as Jared and Spencer get to it, Harman escapes with Danny and the Spartan kids get a chance to show their captors exactly what they think of them, just as the FBI/DSR people show up! Spencer gets his ass kicked by Jared, but a last-second arrival by some of the kids boils Jared on the spot, and despite a few cracked ribs and some burns, Spencer's not out yet. Harman gets away in his chopper, and as the team try to bring him down, the manor explodes before them! They think that's it - but in a brilliantly cinematic moment, the fire is parted as Spencer and the kids walk out unharmed, Sara along with them. It's a great closing moment to a cracking sequence of action set pieces, and takes us neatly into the last Act.

Jai and Kendall go to see Sara - her injuries mean Kendall's not in Disappointed Dad mode yet, but she's still quick to burst into tears, knowing that she didn' achieve her primary objective - getting Danny back. Spencer is about to be handed over to FBI custody, but Sara asks to see him first, managing to stagger into his interrogation room. Spencer claims not to know where Harman was going, but a moment later says he's planning something big in DC. Bit of a continuity slip up there, methinks, but it still allows Sara to get a quip in before we cut to the PBH debriefing room. With Harman's imminent attack on Washington the new threat, Jai asks to take Mia and Sara along with him - probably as much to give them a chance to redeem themselves as anything else - and Sara recommends bringing Spencer. FBI Guy Ross is far from happy, but Kendall knows by now to trust his team's instincts, so he approves it. After all, he'll add some much-needed firepower so can't hurt to join in, right? With the DSR team en route at high speed, Sara tries to warn the White House security guys of the attack but Harman's already there, forcing Danny to use his powers and get them inside. Danny proves to be a regular one-man army, tossing guards and squad cars around but starting to buckle under the effort, as the DSR team finally arrive. Jai hands Sara a gun, which is a cool touch (Jai isn't the kind of guy to sideline anyone if he knows they'll be useful, after all), and as Harman and Danny reach the Oval Office they find... nothing. The President doesn't work nights. D'oh! Harman's hand was forced by the attack at his manor, which has thrown his plan out of whack a lot, so while a little groan-worthy this is still a pretty nifty way to play this. Spencer bravely sacrifices himself to take out Harman, and as the situation is defused (narf), a grateful Sara grabs Danny and we dissolve back to PBH. Mia gives Carson a sass-shaped piece of her mind, but when Carson tells Ethan he mentions a 'timetable' that they need to move up. Hmm! An internal power struggle in the making? Should be interesting, especially with Kendall's obvious favouritism towards Jai and Mia. Danny and Sara get a good little reunion moment, and that's where we end things.

Cracking stuff. Filled with explosive action and well-written character moments from start to finish, showing a good understanding of the team's very individual mindsets and giving everyone a moment or two to stamp their presence on the episode. This also finishes Sara's journey and establishes her as much, much more than the Marshall clone she's been to date, giving her a backbone under pressure and a few more details in an interesting-sounding backstory. Harman is a believeable, rounded villain with a good and bad side - he shows genuine affection for Sara but doesn't hesitate to use her for his own ends once it becomes convenient to do so - and the rest of the Spartans just about manage to avoid the X-Men territory this episode could have easily veered into, downplaying the psychically-powered kids element and focusing on the human drama at the core of the story to great effect. Definitely the best episode of the season to date, nailing the characters, setting up some intuiging sub-plots for the future and providing a fair few moments of thrills and spills. Flaws? Well, the DSR division seems to have just sprung up out of nowhere, with Ethan back to hating Jai again and acting like he did a few episodes back, and this seems a little out of flow with recent events, and the episode feels a bit long in places which leaves the confrontation at the White House almost feeling rushed. I say almost, because to his credit Mike manages to balance the drama and action elements pretty well, giving everybody something worthwhile to do instead of just showing their face and leaving again. The DSR has been hitting some high standards in recent weeks, so here's hoping the show can keep this form up from now on.

ZPM RATING:

Pathways 2x08 'The Great Debate'

by Brian L. Lamkin

Gabe and Parker are pitted against one another in a debate assignment at school, but can they overcome their own issues? Sam and Julie ponder over their precarious future, and Parker makes an astonishing choice.

Pathways has been a funny old show so far this season - some good plots and some fantastic characters, but annoyingly patchy episodes that seem determined to cram in as many different plots as possible, instead of concentrating on just one or two and giving them the screen time they deserve. 2x06 was an improvment but 2x07 was back to old habits, so let's see how episode 8 fares.

Parker is doing a Ferris Bueller and having a little trouble getting out of bed, and from the looks of things won't be calling Anna 'mom' anytime soon. He's snapping at James and Anna over breakfast, while Gabe is just skulking around silently and both boys' actions are cause for concern. Seems like another Tuesday night in Sunnydale, as the saying goes...

At Brighton Academy, Sam and Julie meet up with Sam still twitchy about running into Parker - given the illicit snog these two had last week that Parker caught them in - and Julie obviously a little confused about what either of them are supposed to do now. Hey, you and me both, sister. Mark runs into Dom, managing to put his little Comedy Sidekick mouth in it, bless him, as he lets slip that quite a few people now know about Gabe and Dom breaking up (not that a huge amount of people knew they were actually together, but... oh, never mind), and as Dom frets Mark tries to reassure him that things will be alright. Hey, this is Pathways after all! Sorry. Breaking the fourth wall there. So who does Parker go and see? Yup, Alanna. Lovely, ginger Alanna. Mmm. She's doing her best to remain aloof whenever he's around, but it's pretty clear he's doing the guy thing and falling back into old habits, namely heading straight for his ex for some solace. Remains to be seen how long she can keep her defence shields up - there's obviously still something there between them both, so it's just a matter of time before hormones get involved and the mess gets even messier. Parker's day is about to get worse, though, as he gets teamed up with Gabe to write a history presentation on Thanksgiving! Cue comedy trumpet sting...

Gabe tries to get Dom to speak to him, but he's got nothing to say to him - and rightly so. Gabe's screwed up here, and Dom has every right to make him feel shitty about it. I'm not one for all that 'better man' thinking myself - that's just giving people a licence to walk all over you, so bravo to Dom for maintaining his indignant sense of honour after what Gabe's done to him. Over at the amusement arcade, Parker spots Kaia hanging out with Bailey, one of Parker's buds, which Parker's none too pleased about. He confronts them in classic 'Angry Ex' manner, not knowing that Julie's watching the whole thing. Bailey rightly yells back at Parker for having been so distant lately, but as Julie wanders over to try and talk to Parker, his surprise reaction is to order Kaia and Bailey to leave him alone instead! However, all Parker wants to do is tell Julie that's it. It's all over. Can't help but think he's blowing this up more than he should so he can cover his own tracks for whatever his feelings towards Gabe are, though. Back at Chez Jones, Anna comments that it's quiet - too quiet. Upstairs in Gabe's room, he gets a call from Jacob, who Gabe appears to have been avoiding since last week's flamboyant display at the Halloween ball, but Jacob's also taking no prisoners. He tells Gabe to make his mind up or it's all over, and as he ends the call, poor old Gabe's finding his island getting smaller with every passing moment!

Charlie waits with Sam out in the Academy car park, where Sam continues his comedy, Seth Cohen-like fretting about the terrible things Parker's going to do to him when he catches him. Charlie asks him an honest question - is he really gay? It's a fair point - surely he wouldn't get so flustered about Julie kissing him if he was 100% gay? The fact that it's thrown him into such a tizz is interesting character development - doubts over one's sexual orientation coupled with the permanent sense of confusion brought on by adulthood appears to be a recurring theme in Pathways, and it's handling the subject pretty well so far. Charlie drops another bombshell - is he in love with Julie? Sam's inability to give a straight answer to either question is great stuff, and sets up some very interesting drama potential for future episodes! Julie catches up with Gabe on the premise of checking up on him, but all she really wants to do is launch into her 'Parker hates me' moan, but Gabe's got plenty of troubles of his own. United in their miseries, the two cut a typically folorn silhouette as we catch up with Parker again, this time talking to Charlie. The episode's focus on Parker is working well - it's tying all the scenes together and showing him from a variety of perspectives, so good writing on that front. We finally get a mention of what happened to Eric, the guy who tried to date rape Charlie, but frustratingly it's just that Parker 'chased him down.' I want blood and death, damn it! Anyway. Back at Chez Jones, Parker and Gabe start their research, but it isn't long before their respective emo clouds kick in and they're bickering again, Gabe's anger getting outfoxed by Parker's smug veneer. He always seems to be able to turn other people's anger back at them, and use of the skill here means we end Act III on another slammed door as Parker exits Gabe's room. How do the doors stay on their hinges in that house?

Mark finds Sam attempting to drown his sorrows (with virgin daquiris, natch) at the Blaze, and Mark manages to nudge Sam towards a better resolution with Julie. He's the glue that holds this show together most of the time, and he's doing his job here again, bless him. The next day, it's time for Gabe and Parker's presentation, but Parker spaces out and Gabe drags him outside to find out what's going on - and Parker hasn't done his half of the assignment. Quelle surprise! Gabe gets into his typically preachy mode, but Parker cuts right through it and hits the nerve of his breakup with Dom head on. Of course you realise this means war. Sam and Julie meet up, awkwardly tip-toeing through an attempt at clearing the air (which feels more realistic and works a lot better than other make up talks the show's had), before we get our musical moment - a nicely-placed blast of classical music signals the clash of the titans, as Gabe and Parker descend into a blazing row in front of their whole class, forgetting the presentation and forcing Mr Greyson to escort them both outside. Sadly, we don't get to see the aftermath of that, instead fast-forwarding to the evening as a sulky Parker calls on the lovely Alanna. And yes, I'm going to call her that every time I mention her. That's what you get for casting Lauren Ambrose, guys. She's being a lot calmer with him than she has in previous episodes - maybe this is all part of her plan? Whatever the motive, it seems to work - Alanna's bluntness prompts Parker to do what we've been building up to, and we end on a surprisingly tender moment as he finally kisses her.

Much better. Focusing on Parker means we tie in all the little scenes and plots, building towards a satisfactory conclusion and a real sense of character development. While I would have liked to have seen more of some moments (I still think we should see Parker vs. Eric at some point, and the aftermath of Gabe vs. Parker in the classroom would have been pretty fun), there's lots of good stuff here, making this one of the better episodes of the season. So good work, Brian - the dialogue may not have been as witty as last week, but the coherency of the show more than makes up for that. More like this, please!

ZPM RATING:

The DSR 1x08 'Spartans'

by Brian L. Lamkin & A.J. Black

A US government building is bombed in a pyrokinetic attack that leads the DSR into the world of bureaucracy and Sara to a rite of passage involving someone from her past...

Welcome back to Project Black Hole, boys and girls. The show's hit some good form in recent episodes after a slightly wobbly start, so let's hope today's show follows previous examples. Lamkin may only have co-written this time, but his last two episodes were some of the strongest of the season, so the return of showrunner Black may prove a winning combination!

We open on the FDA building in Chicago (not missing the chance to use the 'windy city' line) as a perky youngster named Spencer wanders in from the cold. Turning on the charm, he manouveres past the receptionist and goes to see the boss, Mr. DeSantos. Even when six beefy security guards are waiting for him, he doesn't seem unduly concerned. Mainly because he's about to Flame On, his hands bursting into flames as he sets about toasting the guards and creating a panic. He sets as much of the building as he can on fire as he races out, mingling with the evacuating employees and escaping onto the street - and the building detonates behind him as his fires hit the gas mains.

Act I brings us the chirpy Sara as she wakes up and starts her day, full of pep (and giving me a flashback to the Angel S5 episode 'Harm's Way') but soon running into traffic and other delays, arriving late for work and finding her early buzz fading as it's straight in to business. She's late for a briefing and gets a sharp look from Kendall as she sits, where Kendall tells them someone from the FBI is showing up, so the gang need to be on their best behaviour. The agent arrives, an old colleague of Anton's called William Ross, and he tells the team about the attack on the FDA building, making special mention of its spectacular body count. He's come to the DSR because of witness reports of Spencer and his flaming hands (which gives a nice impression of the DSR sometimes being seen as an X-Files style department that is pointed towards cases with a paranormal slant), which Carson takes as a chance to slip on her Exposition Hat and explain pyrokinesis to you, the children watching at home. With any security footage of the attack missing, Ross asks for the team's help, and Kendall sends them out to investigate, though not before Sara gets a ticking off for showing up late. Meanwhile, Spencer is meeting up with some friends at a bar, who all seem to be in on his scheme as they toast the day's carnage. One of the group, Jared, mentions 'the boss,' before a more timid guy, Danny, asks for some time to go visit his relatives. Spencer describes them all as 'special' - so are they all pyrokinetics? Do we have a team of wannabe evil X-Men on our hands here? Either way, we leave them for now and head for the remains of the FDA building as Ross shows Jai and Anton round the wreckage. Jai makes some calls as Ross and Anton get to talking, the mention of Maggie showing that Anton's still pained over his wife's illness. Jai and Anton check out a pirate video store in their search for the missing surveillance tapes, but as Jai questions the shopkeeper, Todd, he suddenly makes a break for it, forcing the DSR duo to give chase. Todd seems terrified that 'they' will get to him if he squeals, but his attempted jump for freedom turns into a five-storey swan dive. Adios, Todd. Sara slopes back into her place a long way after midnight, but before she can hit the sack there's a knock at the door - it's her brother. It's Danny, from the bar! Uh oh...

Danny wanders in (as far as he knows, Sara works at a library), and it's clear that a long-running environment of sibling rivalry between the two takes only moments to reignite, as we find that Danny was meant to be at university in Surrey, not showing up at his sister's place in Nevada! Nice little tidbit that their dad works in intelligence too, though, as well as Danny hitting a nerve when he comments on how far Sara has gone to get away from home. Cutting back to Jai, Anton and Agent Ross, who tell Kendall that they have a lead on who was behind the disappearance of the FDA security tapes. Jai suggests stealing them, only to the surprise of Ross, staging a robbery to cover their real target - the account details of whoever paid for the tapes to go missing. Over at PBH, Sara approaches Mia (with a neat 'people only perch when they want something' line) to talk about Danny's suspicious appearance (and we learn Mia has a sister too), but Mia just encourages her to follow her instincts - if she thinks Danny's covering for something, then find out what it is! Danny calls his mate Spencer, but Jared, the ringleader of the little gang, is none too pleased at this and orders Spencer to drag Danny back to work, and fast. We then switch to Anton as Jai's fake bank robbery is set in motion, with Anton making his entry but unaware that the man who caused the FDA explosion seems to have spotted him! Anton tranqs the bank manager and sets about hacking into the files, while Jai and Ethan lead the robbery as a diversion, stunning the guards and taking controls - but missing the young man, who promptly calls Jared to alert him to the attack! Anton's almost ready with the data, but Jai and Ethan are about to get an unwelcome surprise - Jared and two fellow combustibles, kicking the doors down and going Flame On to make life difficult for our boys...

As Jared and his pyros start torching the bank, and Jai and Ethan struggle to take them down (with the pyros doing that annoying Bad Guy thing of being able to dodge bullets), Jared himself marches into the manager's office and destroys the terminal Anton is working at - but the data's already been sent. The team grab the last few customers and herd everyone outside, just avoiding the final blast of flame that chases them out the doorway (woo! Woo! Cliché alarm! But it works here, so I guess I'll let it slide). Sara returns to her apartment to find Danny is busy turning into a typically messy boy's flat, so she confronts him about why he's there, believing he's had a row with their dad and is looking for a place to stay. Danny throws in an emotion card, bringing up the memory of their deceased mother (which is pretty nasty of him, really - he obviously knows how to manipulate his sister, like most brothers seem to be able to!), but it doesn't last for long as Sara rails on him, demanding answers or she's going to kick him out and leave him to fend for himself. Good showing of backbone from Sara there, too - this episode's done a lot to flesh her character out already! With Anton making an observation about the young age of the pyros, the team get a name from the hacked account data, heading to a bar downtown to confront Jorge Romero. Jared's getting ready to move his team out from the bar, but receives a call from 'Alex' - the 'Englishman' that everyone seems so scared of - who orders the full retreat and tells Jared to 'take care' of Jorge. Gulp. As Human Torches one through nine start igniting, Spencer is sent out to find Danny, and by the time Jai's team show up the bar's already up in smoke. They find badly burned bar owner Romero, who manages to utter one last word before expiring - 'Spartans.' Well, technically, it's 'Sp...Spa...Spar...tans...' but we knew what he meant. His last act is to point the team towards a picture frame where the stolen FDA CCTV tapes are held (quite helpful for a charred harbourer of bad guys, isn't he?). Spencer shows up at Sara's apartment to get Danny, who doesn't seem too sold on the idea of going back to work for Alex, and as we enter a Flame Off, cut to Sara, arriving home from work to find her apartment on fire! She rushes inside and comes face to face with Spencer, leaving with the unconscious Danny...

Spencer blasts his way past Sara, and back at PBH she identifies him as the man behind the FDA attack. Kendall can link Spencer to English terrorist Alexander Harman, the brains behind the Spartans group with currently unknown motives and objectives, but nobody seems to notice the fact that Sara apparently recognises Harman from somewhere. Danny is brought before Harman, who tells Jared to take him 'back to school,' before we head back to Sara's gutted apartment, with the equally gutted Sara talking to Mia. Mia knows Sara's hiding something, and it turns out Sara and Harman were an item until he dropped off the radar ten years ago. Mia gives Sara some data to go find the compound in Indiana where the Spartans are based (which seems a tad irresponsible of her, considering Sara's own admission that she isn't field trained and a solo mission like this would be extremely risky), but as the vamped up Sara strides boldly up to the compound's front gates to get inside, it seems Sara has a plan of her own here!

Good stuff. A cracking, fast-paced episode from start to finish. The paranormal elements here sit nicely alongside the more regular high tech spy action, nailing the balance of Alias and X-Files that this series has been promising since episode one. It's also starting to develop its own style at last - as the characters start to develop, it's stepping away from the Alias template. Dropping the Sydeny Bristow Soap Opera elements in favour of more concentrated character stories like this one and Anton's dying wife is doing the series proud, and 'Spartans' finally lets Sara start to grow as a character, showing plenty of new sides to her and elevating her from a female, British version of Marshall into her own person at last. Bravo, DSR, you're doing what you should at last and I for one can't wait to see what's next.

ZPM RATING:

Pathways 2x07 'Masquerade'

by Brian L. Lamkin

The gang attends a massive Halloween party at the Blaze, where nothing is as it seems, and everything will be questioned. When Parker catches Julie and Sam sharing a passionate moment, everything is shattered.

Ah, Pathways. A potentially excellent drama show with an engaging, well-written cast of characters, suffering so far this season with some scatty plotting that's left the majority of the episodes lacking a strong central story to tie all the ancillary scenes together - until last week, when everything fell into place at last. Lamkin retuns to his show for 'Masqueradde,' so let's see if he can continue to nail home the show's strengths without getting bogged down in trying to give every member of his large cast something to do.

We open with Sam and Mark (not the cheesy British pop duo, thank God) looking at something in the Blaze, closed before its normal operating hours. And whatever they're looking at, it's big. Oo-er missus. Nudgeworthy double entendres aside, what they're actually so enthralled by is a giant inflatable pumpkin. Happy Halloween! The banter between these two is actually pretty good, showcasing Lamkin's skill with call and response dialogue sequences. Over at Dom's house, Gabe and Dom are watching some TV, both being so painfully vocal about 'making things work' that you can tell neither one of them is 100% confident about it yet, and as Dom asks if he and Gabe are going to the Blaze's Halloween do together, Gabe's hesitation tells Dom (and us) that something's not right here - and I'll bet it starts with a 'J'!

And there he is - ladies and gentleman, the Devil himself, Jacob Hallows. He bumps into Gabe in the newsroom, and as Gabe tries to pull a voidy Jacob points out that it was Gabe who kissed him the other night, not the other way round. Jacob tries to book in some Gabe time, but he's saved by the Cooper as Alanna wanders past, and Gabe rockets after her. Jacob gets the hint (although Alanna doesn't), and leaves Gabe be - for now. Sam and Mark meet up with Julie, and then Charlie shows up, fresh out of hospital. Annoyingly, though, Eric was sorted out entirely off screen for drugging Charlie - kicked out of school and sent to a juvenile detention centre, maybe, but still, it would have been better to actually see this happening. One of Pathways' annoying habits is focusing too exclusively on its cast sometimes - it doesn't branch out of its established set of faces and locations that often, and in this case a few scenes showing what happened to Eric would have offered a better sense of closure for the story. Plus, I thought Parker was off to kick the guy's ass, so maybe we've yet to see something about that! Anyway. Gabe hazards an apology for his recent erratic behaviour, but Sam isn't buying it for a second, waiting for Dom to leave before pressing Gabe again - but Gabe's still Mr. Avoid The Issue at the moment, so no luck there. At the Blaze, bar owner Kathleen tells Mark they're going to need to cut some staff to get through the current dry spell, but Mark's going to have to do the downsizing! Eep. Mark manages to convince her he's up to the task, but we know Mark better than that, don't we - will Crestview's resident Mr. Nice be able to channel his inner hardass?

Gabe gets home from school to find Parker already there, and the animosity between the two is just as frosty as ever. Parker teases Gabe with some information he seems to have concerning Gabe's posse, and after making Gabe squirm he delights in telling him that the gang are still pretty upset with Gabe's recent behaviour. You have to wonder if Parker does know something, or if he's just messing with Gabe to see how he reacts. Over with Anna and James at a fancy restaurant, James glad for some quiet time which Anna promptly spoils by spotting her friend Sarah and racing over, turning dinner for two into dinner with four in seconds. Julie shows up round Sam's place where Sam is still worried about Gabe, who's eating alone at the local arcade when Jacob pours himself into the chair opposite him. Gabe's trying to play it cool, but when Jacob asks him if he loves Dominic, Gabe's hesitation (or 'major Shatner,' as Jacob brilliantly puts it) says more than words ever could!

You know, as I start Act III I'm getting the same old feeling cropping up again here - there's lots of little scenes but nothing tying any of them together, and despite Lamkin's dialogue being probably the best I've seen all season so far, I'm still waiting for some kind of main plot to stand out from the episode! Anyway. Over at the restaurant, James is clearly a bit miffed at his evening with Anna having so many extra guests, but Anna and Sarah are more interested in announcing their plans to expand the practice. Max (Sarah's fella) is happy, but James is put out at Anna not having him told him about something so big, even to the point that they have to have a Quiet Word about it - and promises to talk more 'later.' You may as well raise the 'Incoming Bust-Up' flag now, guys! At the arcade, Julie shows up, responding to Gabe's invite, and after tripping through some small talk he asks her if she and the others really are mad at her, like Parker told him earlier. Julie sheepishly admits that they are concerned, but almost slips up when the idea of her cheating on Parker is raised - so what's going on here, then? At the Blaze, Mark's doing his best to get the place all Jack Skellington'd up in time for the big party tomorrow, but as Kathleen tries to get him to say which of the staff he wants to let go, Mark gets a nice little comedy routine as he does his level best not to single anyone out. Alanna's on her way back from doing some shopping when Parker pops out to see her, and despite the frosty reception he persists, finally getting her to let him walk her home. So what's going on here then, eh? Hmm. Dominic runs into Jacob, asking him flat out if there's anything going on with him and Gabe, and Jacob says there isn't. At least, not 'right now.' Those last two words leave Dom full of confusion as Jacob wanders off - aww, bless. You can just picture Dom's little face dropping at that. Does he feel threatened by Jacob? Maybe he doesn't think he'd be able to win Gabe back if Jacob got his claws into him? All sorts of potential drama in the offing there.

Act IV opens with the Halloween party about to start, with a chance to get everybody dressed up and crack a few jokes - Sam and Mark have come as Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall from Brokeback Mountain for example, while Gabe has inventively dressed up as Jack Kerouac's 'The Open Road.' Narf. Parker drags Julie away, and Gabe hurries over to Dom, who plops a baseball cap on to win the Least Effort Award for his outfit. Dom is obviously distracted by Jacob's words earlier, but Gabe's doing his best to get into the party atmosphere as we cut away to the Jones residence. Anna sends away some trick-or-treaters but finds James still sulking about her previous announcement. Unfortunately, the argument is settled remarkably quickly (as things so often are in Pathways land), and as we return to the Blaze it's Jacob's turn to make his entrance, all James Bond-ed up as he makes his move on Gabe. Jacob gets the joke of Gabe's outfit straight away (which makes Gabe go annoyingly girly over him - show some backbone, man!), and Jacob slyly remarks on Dominic's absence. Dom shows up just at the wrong moment, however, giving Jacob a chance to twist the knife a little further, and poor old permanently-guilty looking Gabe stutters his way through an attempt at an explanation. Jacob drops his trump card - his kiss with Gabe. Dom's heart hits the floor right there and then, and as he scarpers Gabe is in hot pursuit, throwing a dark look to Jacob - but we all know he'll be back, don't we? In a back room, Julie awkwardly tells Sam that she's losing the spark with Parker - then kisses Sam! Yipes. Thing is, Parker just saw the whole event, pausing to punch the blow-up pumpkin on his way out (and presumably head straight for Alanna). Gabe arrives back home - but this is a long way from being a Happy Halloween. Up the stairs, into his room, slam. The end.

So... darn it, I want to like this show, really, I do. There's some excellent characterisation here - Gabe's tongue-tied attempts to talk to either Jacob or Dominc make for some good moments, and the script is littered with witty, quotable lines that liven up several otherwise fairly average scenes - but leaving the Halloween party to the last Act means that again we have an episode where a large number of only moderately connected scenes pass before we get to the meat of the episode, and then it's all over before you know it. There's some good plots building up now, but using the party environment to spring them on us would have linked things up a lot more effectively. That said, the Gabe/Jacob/Dom triangle is playing out pretty well here, with some well-written, realistically awkward dialogue from Gabe and Dom as they try to work things out. So a good episode with the potential to be a great one, but again I'm still holding out for another episode structured around a central story like 'The Slip' to help hold the scripts together.

ZPM RATING:

Natasha Tyreen 1x03 'Spying Game'

by Sarah-Jane Sheppard

A routine surveillance mission backfires when Jack witnesses a murder, and in order to call off the hit Nat needs to find out who was killed and why, and get the tapes to the right people before the killers catch up with them...

Now, while Natasha Tyreen is one of my shows, a handful of its episodes this season won't be written by me so it seems only fair to include them in here. Besides, this episode marks the MZP debut of the talented Sarah-Jane Sheppard, who's bringing her quirky new drama The Company to our screens in August, so it's a chance to get her some more public exposure to make sure people know who she is. For those who don't already know, Natasha Tyreen follows the adventures of the titular character, a young female private eye operating in the major British city of Birmingham in a near future setting, ably assisted by her partner Jack and her police friend Detective Burton, handling a variety of unusual cases each week.

We open on an abandoned apartment building, with Natasha climbing the rickety stairs to the eighteenth floor, worn out by her trip but here to rendezvous with Jack, the duo operating a video-camera assisted stakeout on the building opposite. NT has quite a light-hearted, chatty style that Sheppard is obviously comfortable writing in, building up the characteristic flow of banter between Nat and Jack very easily. They're observing a potentially adulterous husband, and you get the feeling this is the kind of low-rent job that Nat knows is a necessary evil. Luckily for her, it's still Jack's shift, so she leaves him with some junk food and heads home. Rolling forward the clock a few hours, Jack finally sees something interesting - but in another apartment! Two men are having a heated debate that Jack supplies his own commentary for - before one shoots the other! Jack jumps up in alarm - and gets spotted. Bugger.

Nat returns to relieve Jack but finds their hidey hole in disarray - signs of either a struggle or a very thorough search, and no sign of Jack. A perturbed Nat rushes back to her office, calls Jack's home, but still has no luck. She returns to her own apartment to come up with a new plan, and sees a news report of the shooting Jack accidentally observed. It's not a huge leap of logic for her to work out that Jack must have seen the murder and done a runner as a result, so now all she needs to do is find him. She first heads to the murder scene (pulling a neat trick with a police logo jacket and a tray of coffee cups to get inside), where she encounters her arch-nemesis Detective Jessica Clemens. The two swap a few digs (and again, Sheppard demonstrates a sharp eye for witty dialogue here that elevates what is essentially a talking heads scene into a great little character moment) before Nat is forced to move on, calling one of Jack's friends in an attempt to track him down (and again with the comic moments!). She finally locates him in one of his usual haunts - a strip club (showing the close relationship Nat and Jack enjoy), and after a false start where Nat is mistaken for a wannabe dancer, she finally finds Jack in a back room with Freya, one of his, er, 'friends.' He's been getting trashed while he lays low, filling in the blanks of what Nat already knows. Freya manages to show some character in just a handful of lines through some nicely comic banter with the wine-guzzling Jack, and with a final, greatly quotable monologue about buckets, we end the Act with the duo getting ready to sort this whole mess out.

Act II opens with Nat badgering Burton for some help - he always finds himself stuck in an awkward place with her. There's an obvious closeness, and it's not that he doesn't want to help, just that he typically can't, what with him being a proper detective and her being a private eye and all. Burton tells her that Jessica is considering filing a formal complaint to stop him even talking to Nat, but she keeps asking him until she wears him down, and he slips her the name and address of the victim to go and check out. Nat and Jack stake out the home of Blake Hargreaves, with Burton's intel telling them he was a low-level government employee, fired for misconduct and harbouring an obvious grudge against his former employers. Jack breaks in and Nat hacks into his computer (thank you, male inability to think up complex passwords) to chase up some e-mails. There's mention of somebody dropping off some 'data,' along with correspondence with a former colleague named Aaron Burns. Posing as Hargreaves' niece, the duo get into Aaron's home to question him, and he tells them that Hargreaves wanted him to get involved with something shifty he was setting up, but Aaron wanted no part of it. They don't get a chance to say much more, however, as a burst of gunfire marks the end of Aaron's part in the conversation. Braving the gunfire, Nat goes back inside to grab a suspicious package from Aaron's mail before the duo arrive back at the office one dead cat later - you'll have to read it to see what I mean! The package is a set of DVD-ROMs, but the files on them are encrypted. Nat sneaks them to Burton, who runs them by his IT guy to unlock them, just as Jessica shows up to bust his chops for collaborating with Nat again. They're interrupted as IT bloke Chris cracks the encryption - it's the British Witness Protection Register!

Nat and Burton discuss their find, but Burton blocks Nat's requests for the discs back. She knows she'll need them to get the hitman off Jack's trail, but Burton is professionally obligated to hold onto them. They argue about it but Burton doesn't back down, managing to wound Nat's pride in the process. Back at her office, Nat and Jack have a frantic conversation as they try to come up with a plan 'b,' before inspiration strikes. Nat sets up a meet to hand the discs back - despite not having them. What's she planning here, then? We zip ahead to the handover itself, with a classic Clapper gag as Nat meets Mr. Smith, the hitman with Jack's name on probably an awful lot of bullets. They trade tough talk, with Nat getting a fantastic line out about the difference between fish and fishes before she hands over a dummy set of discs. Luckily for Nat, the hitman doesn't have a chance to call her bluff - Jack's recording the whole thing from across the street, too - but unluckily someone new bursts into the room, shooting Smith and grabbing the discs for himself. The new shooter exits when Nat points him towards Jack, taping the whole thing as a guarantee that no violence will follow, and the hitman ducks out. Unseen by Nat, however, a second hitman shows up, kills the first and heads back in to finish off Nat! Eep...

Luckily for Nat, Jack's seen the new arrival, and he quickly calls Nat to tell her to get out of there. Watching helplessly from the building opposite, her phone runs out just as he explains what's going on, and with a neat little Rear Window homage, we stay with Jack as Nat ducks from room to room, trying to stay one step ahead of the new hitman. Nat barricades herself in but the blockade won't last long, so she dashes through the apartment looking for a way out. She opens a window but elects to hide under the bed instead. The hitman stalks in, checks under the bed - but Nat is just out of sight. It's a credit to Sheppard's writing here that she manages to build up a genuine sense of tension in these scenes - witty repartee aside, there's a real feeling of menace to the new hitman as he tracks Nat down, and as his preset charge blows the lights in the room, he finally pounces! Nat just manages to wriggle free, running off and hiding again (after a comedy 'it's a door! no... it's the closet' moment), but it isn't long before the hitman finds her, finally preparing to have his wicked way with her - until she jabs a gas lighter into his eye! This slows him down for long enough for Nat to almost make it outside, but as he grabs her again just as she exits, the cavalry arrive. Jack called the police, and the hitman is taken into custody as Burton and Clemens come to the rescue. Jessica tries to arrest her as Burton tries to thank her for her help solving the case, and Burton gets to pull rank on her to keep Nat out of jail - this time - but only if she hands over the tapes of the original murder. Jack has no option and does so, and there's a touching little moment between Nat and Burton to remind us of the romantic tension between them as he leaves. Back at the office, however, the duo have a surprise waiting - the real Witness Protection discs! Somebody within the department seems to think keeping them away from the potentially corrupt police is the best thing to do, and as Nat and Jack muse on beefing up their office secuirty, we black out.

Wow. A tremendous episode from start to finish, even if I do say so myself. Sheppard's dialogue leaps off the page, and while possibly a little too joke-centric in places, she more than makes up for that with some genuinely dark moments, as well as a high body count that keeps you, the reader, on their toes until well into Act IV when the situation at the apartment is finally resolved! With every character shining through some sparkling banter, a fast-moving plot that never leaves you behind and the chance to show a new facet to Nat's character - mainly her resourcefulness under pressure - then you've got all the ingredients for a top-notch slice of virtual entertainment here. Great stuff. I know I'm going to get accused of bias for my high mark here, but honestly - this is that good. In fact, I'd rate it above all three of the episode I've done for the show thus far! Ego? Moi? Never.

ZPM RATING:

The DSR 1x07 'Instinct'

by Brian L. Lamkin

After a near disastrous mission in Poland, Jai begins to fear the strangeness of the world he's inhabiting is overcoming him, so he takes some time off and visits a friend in Key West, where he becomes involved with experiments by a doctor attempting to record the instinct of murder.

The steadily-improving DSR is back, with another Brian Lamkin episode to hopefully follow on the good form that recent episodes have shown. Let's just hope that old bugbear of the Act Four Nick Of Time Resolution doesn't crop up again in 'Instinct,' because a hastily contrived and often groan-inducingly convenient series of final scenes have scuppered recent episodes.

We open in a dingy cell, where a disorientated young woman named Jenna finds herself on a set from Saw, with an unconscious man on the ground before her. She tries to wake him up without any luck, but as she turns away - wham! He grabs her arm. Oo, classic horror moment. Gotta love it. The man comes to, introducing himself as Kurt, and with some quick cross-examination the duo realise the last twenty-four hours are a blank for both of them. Jenna starts looking for a way out, but the more pragmatic Kurt takes his time coming round, trying to reason with Jenna as her panic sets in. The duo start bickering before a voice addresses them over some hidden speaker system (aptly described as 'slimy'), telling them they're the latest pair of subjects for test #47. Narf. He says one of them has been injected with a mystery substance, and will soon start exhibiting the effects. Jenna starts to freak out again, and as she wilts to the floor in terror, that's where we leave them for now...

Back at PBH, Not Sawyer grabs Mia on his way to a mission briefing for a trip to Poland. Seems Jewish guys have been showing up murdered (and Ethan throws in another of his 'nobody gets me' quips - which is becoming quite an endearing character trait), and while everyone is quick to jump to a paranormal answer, Jai states the obvious - serial killer! He's shot down for his opinion, of course, as Sara and Carson go on to suggest the killings could be the work of a golem - and that puts Glissman back at the top of the suspects lists. Jai, Mia and Anton are to head out to Warsaw to check it out, and Kendall takes a moment to ask how Maggie's doing, the strain of his wife's illness clearly weighing heavy on Anton's mind. Mia confronts Jai in the armoury, asking him where his head's been at lately, and also if he's really able to handle the full scope of the world he's stepped into here. Mia's obviously forgetting the circumstances that brought Jai into this - he hasn't had much choice to say 'no' and walk away, has he? Anyway. The trio arrive in Poland to meet Agent Gustaw, who puts on his Exposition Hat to tell how the golem wiped out his squad. Jai and Gustaw Redshirt head out to snoop around, hanging out in a Jewish neighbourhood in case the golem decides to make a fresh appearance. And appear it does, knocking Gustaw through a wall as Jai opens fire. Nice work on the description of the beastie, too - Lamkin's got a good eye for detail on these things. The golem gets its hands on Jai, but Anton saves the day and manages to resist yelling 'Headshot! w00t!' as the golem drops.

Jai debriefs with Kendall, asking for some time off to help get his head round the weird and wacky world he's all wrapped up in at the moment. Kendall recognises the need for time to adjust and grants our fella some leave, being the cuddly father figure that he is. Mia obviously doesn't want him to go, mainly because she's worried he won't come back, but she knows she can't stand in his way. Jai arrives at a condo in Key West to meet Hibbs, an old friend from his merc days it seems, and who doesn't know that Cassie is no more. *sniff* The two buds go out for a beer, and Hibbs fills Jai in on what he's been up to - locals have been going missing, and Hibbs has been lending a hand to try and find them. He asks Jai to join in, and despite officially being on vacation Jai agrees to help out. The duo meet Dr. Kingston, the man leading the search, who tells them of a likely-looking abandoned building nearby. Hmm. My Spider-Sense is already tingling about this guy, so let's see how this develops. Jai shares the sentiment, wary of Hibbs as the group approach the building, a former prison according to Kingston. The guys enter the building and split up, but it isn't long before Jai is attacked, finding himself in the small cell with Kurt and Jenna before Kingston shows up, sinking a syringe full of ominous yellow fluid into Jai's neck! See? Spider-Sense. Never wrong.

Back at PBH, Mia voices her concerns about Jai to Kendall, before going to Reno to see his brother Connor, still laid up in his coma. Someone's left a note on his bed, however, and Mia seems surprised by its content as she reads it. It leads her to call Hibbs, who tells her that Jai's in big heapum trouble. Mia is next seen calling an emergency team meeting at PBH, telling the others what Hibbs told her - Jai's gone missing himself while helping out on the missing persons situation. Mia, Anton and Ethan arrive in Key West to meet Hibbs, but Hibbs' awe of Kingston should have clued you all in by now to the fact that he's obviously in on it. Let's hope one of our lot cotton on before too long, eh? Anton and Ethan head off with Kingston as Mia goes to see the recovering Kurt and Jenna, who don't remember much except that they were being experimented on. They vaguely remember a man showing up, but that's it. Anton finds a link to the prison where we, the audience at home, know Jai is being held, so as the trio head off to check it out we catch back up with Jai, who gets another shot of the yellow serum and seems to be on the verge of Hulking out! Mia and the team are racing out to the prison in their Jeep, but as it suddenly loses a tire and crashes, who should show up but Hibbs, now proudly wearing his Bad Guy Badge as he prepares to have his wicked way with the stunned Mia. She fights back but he knocks her cold, and when she wakes up she's become part of the next eperiment - she's in the room with Jai! Kingston watches via video monitors with unfettered Mad Scientist glee as we black out...

With Carson's help, Ethan and Anton start to work out what Kingston could be up to, and as we rejoin Jai and Mia we're about to get a practical demonstration! Jai's about to go all Cannibal Holocaust on her, but as Kingston watches Hibbs starts to twig that he's not going to get what matters most to him - his money. Mia starts getting through to Jai's drug-addled brain, but Kingston has the microphone, ordering Jai to kill her as Hibbs grows more horrified with what's going on. Jai's approaching fever pitch, but that's when the DSR team storm in, and in the confusion Hibbs takes down Kingston and tells Ethan how to get Mia out of there. She scampers out of the cell as Jai gets free at last, missing Mia by a fraction. Flash forward a week, and Jai goes to see Kingston in maximum security, asking why he was chosen. Kingston tells him he's been trying to understand the nature of evil, unleashing it in various test subjects through the serum and monitoring the effects, picking people with more potential for inner darkness - people like Jai. Jai throws a defiant soliloquy back at him, but there's the sense he doesn't quite believe his own words as he leaves Kingston to rot in solitary. Mia is waiting outside, and we end the show as the duo head off into the sunset.

A solidly written episode from start to finish then, finally getting a good Act IV moment that didn't feel forced or contrived at all. Lamkin sprinkles in a few snappy lines here and there, but this is a more serious episode despite the B-movie monster moment in Act I, which throws you nicely off track before the main story kicks in. So, not spectacular, but the kind of standard that the DSR should have no trouble hitting from now on. Jai continues to move away from his origins as a Sawyer clone, and Mia continues to impress as well. Ethan's fading into the background a little, so hopefully he'll get more to do now after his early showcase episodes, but that's less of a complaint and more of an observation. Good work all round.

ZPM RATING:

Lost 2x02 'Survival'

by Ian Austin

As Danielle recovers, Sayid takes a group down to check on those who stayed on the beach. But when Danielle reveals a shocking revelation, Shannon rushes to catch up the them, worried for their safety. Meanwhile, Jack and Locke search for a missing Kate.

Its premiere showed that there's some clever and very different ideas at work behind this show, so Lost Alternate Season Two is back with 'Survival,' a Charlie-centric episode that should hopefully continue on from the very different start to the season. However, while the writing itself was of a high standard, the structure of the story itself got a little confusing, with a lot to try and establish in a short space of time that left the episode tripping over itself a little. Let's see if 2x02 manages to learn from that!

A gunshot and a woman named Mary seemingly on the receiving end of it takes us straight into Charlie's flashback, waking in his crappy apartment in a crappy part of town. He's going cold turkey, apparently, and not having much luck with it as he starts tearing his apartment to pieces looking for something. He finds his phone, calls his dealer and we jump back to the island, where the feverish Danielle is still being cared for by Sun. Already, there's a distinct voice coming out in the stage direction here - Austin is clearly a writer who likes to feel more like he's chatting casually to his readers than standing on a soapbox dictating a story to them. Shannon and Sayid are at loggerheads over what to do with her, but as Charlie tries to ask where Hurley is, he gets ignored - something that happens to him a lot, as we know. It seems there's a bunch of people waiting on the beach who aren't convinced that the Others are dangerous (huh? did they miss, you know, the kidnapping and death?), so Sayid gets Charlie with Newbies Eve and Logan to go persuade the Beachies to come back. Eve makes an odd comment about not wanting to go with Charlie because she can't stand Catholics (which seems a little strange - Charlie's not exactly the type to bang on about his religion, is he?).

Down in the jungle, Jack's about to head through a steel door to get into the hatch (hang on, have I missed something? Dana sort of found this other entrance last week, but then it was Jack and Locke emerging from it - so something's not flowing right here) when Locke and Dana show up, and the two have an angry clash. Jack wants to go inside to look for Hurley, but Dana persuades him to go back to the caves first. Jack gives up a little too easily if you ask me, and then there's two moments between Jack/Dana and Locke/Dana which have Foreshadowing written all over them before we rejoin Sayid and Eve in the jungle. Sayid pauses to observe an out of place cactus, while Charlie and Logan are trekking through the rain (and Charlie's already falling into the trap of saying 'bloody' and bleeding' every thirty seconds) and obviously not getting on all that well. Have to say, the new characters this show's thrown at us are sticking out a bit too much at the moment - the idea is obviously that they've been here since the start, but Eve marks herself out as a potential flunky for Locke with her hope for what's inside the hatch, while Charlie hears a voice from his past that launches him into the next Flashback - Charlie meeting some unsavoury characters to get hold of his next fix. The fixer, a surly chap named Simon, hands him a gun and it seems they're about to push Charlie to more desperate measures to keep him coming back for more. We return to the Island and see Kate tied up inside her tiny room (with the colourful stage direction starting to grate a lot by this point - and is there any need to use the phrase 'fucking petrified' in capital letters?), and with a nice self-referential moment where she does the Count To Five Technique for staying calm, her mystery captor appears. She asks Kate what she's doing on her island, and we black out.

Jack returns to the caves to check on Danielle, with Sun doing what she can to help out. When Jack learns of Sayid's trip into the jungle, he starts freaking out - but now I'm getting confused again. Why is everybody still so convinced that the Others are coming? I thought Charlie and Sayid went to some effort to tell everyone that it was all a setup by Danielle? Although, I suppose Jack won't have spoken to them yet. Anyway. Jack asks for Locke's help finding Kate, and for some reason Locke seems to be enjoying the power this request gives him over Jack. Sayid and Eve think they're being followed - but it's Charlie and Logan. D'oh. Logan disses Sayid but quickly backs down when Sayid gets in his face, before Lostzilla shows up for the first time this season! Sadly, the comically drawn out 'roooaaaaarrrr' stage direction saps any kind of tension that its appearance could have had - more Lostzuki than Lostzilla. And I know nobody's going to get that reference. Moving on. Eve is happy to sit and wait for the beast, and Logan waves the Obvious Flag by telling her how much like Locke she is. Yes, we get it already. Eve and Logan come to angry words about their respective opinions of Locke, which for some reason flips Charlie back into a Flashback - doped up, he's with Simon and some other goons as they meet a chap named Romero (yeah, very subtle pop culture reference there), backed up by goons of his own. They're here to make a trade - and we see Mary at last, a terrified sixteen year old girl in Romero's custody. The plot thickens!

Jack and Locke are out looking for Kate, with Locke seeming to lap up Jack's frantic search attempts as he calmly steers him the right way. They find a spatter of blood, footprints - and then a dead end. Locke seems to think whoever has Kate is doing too good a job of hiding her, and we cut from that to Kate, still being interrogated. Her captor is threatening all kinds of violence if Kate doesn't start telling the truth - or at least, do so in a way that convinces her - but pushes Kate a little too far when she actually cuts her. Logan seems suspicious about Eve, but Sayid clearly trusts Logan a lot less, dropping the old 'manifest' card to highlight his suspicions. At the caves, Danielle wakes up and asks Shannon what's going on, and Shannon suddenly displays a fluency in French - but as Danielle freaks her out and Shannon runs off, we cut back to Danielle - who's fast asleep. Aha! Freaky Dream time. Good stuff. Sayid and the others reach the beach - but everyone's gone. Eve finds a diary that seems to suggest that the Beachies waited patiently but were surprised by someone, and as Logan starts to bug out he and Sayid finally come to blows. Logan runs off but Eve makes sure Sayid doesn't chase him, while Kate's busy being interrogated still. She loses a bit of her little finger (ouch!) before the captor says she can't let Kate go, because 'they' would find her. Hmm! Charlie catches up to Logan, who seems to be working himself into a frenzy about something, attacking Charlie before he finally calms down. Shannon stumbles into frame, followed by another Newbie, Andrew, and then Laura. Charlie gets out the best line of the episode before the group head for the beach - and we hear a gunshot! Uh oh. Charlie flips back to Flashback CIty, where the trade for the scared Mary goes tits up when somebody shoots Simon, and Charlie scurries for cover as things go all Sin City around him. Back on the island, Sayid's got a bullet in his shoulder from somewhere, passing out as Eve grabs his gun, reeady to defend them both.

Shannon races out onto the beach, freaked out that Danielle told her somebody's going to die because of her, and all hell breaks loose as Shannon does her best to take charge. There's obvious emphasis on making more of Shannon in this season, so bravo for that, and her determination to get Sayid fixed up and back to safety marks out her character growth. Kate gets injected with a mystery black substance as Jack and Locke have found a hole. Locke seems to think Kate's down there somewhere (that old 'everything happens for a reason' thing), and tells Jack to go back to the caves while he searches for Kate. A few digs between the two about Boone leads to a nice face off, before Jack ventures down the hole to look for Kate. On the beach, Laura is preparing to dig the bullet out of Sayid, while Jack reaches the bottom of the hole, which is where Kate is being held. Or was. There's no sign of her, and Jack has no option but to climb back up. Laura gets the bullet out, but as Charlie catches up to Andrew, BLAM! He's dead. So what was the point of him, then? Eve takes a grazing from a bullet before Logan shoots back and hits someone at last. The others start to head back to the caves, but Eve spots a blood trail leading along th ebeach and decides to follow it. Charlie struggles to save Andrew as he Flashbacks to the dark alleyway again, and as Romero tries to drag Mary away, Charlie pulls a gun on the fearsome people trafficker. Romero tosses some heroin Charlie's way, and it slows him down for long enough for Romero to drag him away.

Jesus, this episode feels like it's been going for a long time now. We're into the last little segment now, as Jack arrives back at the caves just as Sayid is brought in (chest wound? might want to check that, guys), and as Jack gets to work on him we're back to Charlie, where Andrew has slipped away. Charlie stands, frustration washing over him as the rain starts again, and we end. So... what happened to that moment we saw at the start, then? It looked like Charlie's flashback was leading to some kind of resolution, but it feels like it just ended too soon.

A muddled and annoyingly over-directed episode. The conversational and overly jokey tone of the majority of the stage direction takes you right out of the script, so it feels more like you're listening to somebody who loves to hear themself talk recount the story to you than watching it yourself - or maybe watching the episode with a very verbose director's commentary to accompany you. It pushes the page count way over acceptable levels, and a lot of it is wholly unecessary. There's also a distinct lack of subtlety here that was prevalent in the last episode - Lost is a show that revels in slowly unfolding mysteries and simmering plots, gradually building up the clues as time goes on and never failing to surprise you. At least, the real version does. This show so far is whacking the audience over the head with plot hints at every available opportunity, with over-enthusiastic stage direction that feels at times like an excited child who can't wait to tell you what he learned at school today. Some degree of restraint is going to have to be introduced fairly rapidly here - tone down the direction and stop being in such a hurry to tell us what's going on! Let us find things out at our own speed, because there's no better feeling with Lost than having a theory of yours confirmed or turned on its head later on in the season, built up from clues dotted throughout the preceeding episodes. People here are repeating information and having repetitive conversations that don't seem to push any plots forward all that much, and after two episodes it doesn't feel like we've moved very far forward. Instead, we've got a clutch of new characters to get used to and a slew of new plots that are already starting to trip over themselves. The continuity wobbles aren't helping either (the Dana/Jack/Locke sequence outside the Hatch being the most noticeable), so all in this show needs to start getting a lot tighter if it's going to work.

Charlie's flashback had the potential to be quite good and character building, but his lack of activity in the rest of the episode lessens the impact consdierably. This episode isn't focused on any one character, and as a result Charlie's development gets sidelined. There are some good pieces of dialogue, and a decent knowledge of how the various characters tick is evident in some of what goes on, but Lost must try harder and start showing more coherence if it's to maintain interest - the ideas are here, but they're being sabotaged by some wonky writing and erratic structuring at the moment.

ZPM RATING:

Afterlife 1x06 'Escape'

by Jon Nyqvist

Jonathan and Aurora are re-united, but it's far from a heart warming reunion. Both still imprisoned by Trias, they plan a daring escape with the help of some old friends...

Let's see where we're at with Afterlife, then. Last episode was all about Aurora's trials as she suffered the effects of the Devil's Tear, reliving her worst memory and giving us more insight into what makes her tick - and a terrifying night of abuse that gave birth to the Aurora we know and love today. However, this is where it all kicks in. Jonathan and Aurora, back in black for the first time since the jaw-dropping pilot. At last.

And this show still knows how to kick things off with a bang - throwing Jonathan into a pitched battle with an unseen assailant - all we see of his opponent is flashes of hair and weapons. The fight's pretty evenly matched so far, as despite being outclassed in the fighting department Jonathan's still showing his trademark resilience, but things are about to take two surprising turns. After some kind of signal to his attacker, we see them at last! It's Aurora! We get about a second to process that before she sinks a sword into his chest! Jonathan hits the deck, and Aurora looks coldly up to Trias, mockingly applauding her from up in the stalls. Wham!

It's Alias territory as we jump back in time two days (it's an old device - open with a shock and then leap back, so you can take your time building up to the opening moments again), as we follow Vergil scurrying through the shadows of Raven Hill Manor. He's heading for the dungeon, where Trias is busy interrogating Jonathan. Well, maybe 'interrogate' is too strong a word - Jonathan's as affable as always, despite his situation. You have to love an old school wisecracker like Jon at times like this. Trias leaves Jon alone - and then who should show up but Diana. Jon groans, the sporadic appearances by this phantom starting to grate on him by now. Flicking over to Aurora's cell, Vergil pays his former boss a visit. He's busy cooking up an escape plan, but he's going to need some help - and it looks like he's found it, with two mystery hooded figures who owe Jon a debt (the villagers he saved way back in 1x01?) ready to infiltrate the arena on Vergil's orders.

Jonathan has a vision of an army of nightmarish creatures swarming out of a dark forest before waking up back in his cell - our potential Big Bads, by the looks of them! Jon finds Vergil waiting, giving him a part to play in the escape plan. Jon's naturally suspicious, but it's the only lifeline he's got at the moment, so he goes along with it. Over by the arena, Vergil's two assistants are burying two barrels of something over by the main arena gates. Anyone who's seen Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves will be nodding by this stage, but I won't spoil things just yet. Jon tells Trias he was Aurora's lover - and this gets an angry reaction out of Captain One Eye. Trias stomps off past Aurora, and it's Vergil's turn to play as he suggests a great way for Trias to take his revenge on Aurora. He's a wily one, is Vergil, and making a strong case for Make Me A Regular to boot! Diana pops back to reassure Jon he'll be out of there soon, while we see that Vergil has successfully talked Trias into following his idea, whatever it is. Vergil meets his assistants again - the game is set. The next morning, Jon wakes up (and is that a cheeky Lost reference in the close ups of the eyes snapping open?) and is dragged out to the Arena, as is Aurora. Jon is led into the arena - there's no obvious way out here, and a crowd baying for blood and not caring whose it is. Aurora is led out (with a neat slow-mo moment), and Jon starts to put the pieces together at last...

The plan is whoever draws first blood gets to be the one who 'kills' the other, so it's time for the moment you've been waiting for - Jonathan vs. Aurora. These two have a brilliantly choreographed fight - with pauses to throw a few quips at each other throughout - and it's clear they have a good understanding of each other. Aurora's the better fighter, but Jonathan's smarter, keeping things even. There's a moment where they both find themselves pressed close together where the old UST pops up - nicely summed up by the direction 'They linger slightly longer than two people trying to kill each other should.' Nice. Their fight continues, another dazzling display of combat, until Aurora strikes the 'killing' blow - and their words from the Teaser are cleverly reversed now we know the story behind the battle. Aurora's prize? Death by crossbow. Hey! Now, that just ain't fair. Thank the Lord for Vergil and his two merry hooded figures - Marius and Kate! Rah. In a neat sequence of slow-mo cuts as everything kicks off once again, Marius and Kate set off the explosives they buried by the gate, and there is a customary earth-shattering ka-boom. With Marius picking off Trias' crossbowmen, it's down to Aurora and Jon to fight their way out, and the efficiency with which they do this makes for a great moment. Back to back, covering one another, doing the hero thing. Go team. The gang meet up just outside the gates, with escape hinging on something called 'The Reaver' - but Vergil takes an arrow! Noo! Trias smugly lowers his longbow as we black out once again...

We rejoin the team on the run through the backstreets of Raven Hill, with the badly wounded Vergil offering to sacrifice himself for the others. Aurora considers it but the others are horrified at the prospect, so Jon makes the call. Vergil stays. They need a diversion to get to the Reaver, and Aurora finds herself volunteered (and oh, how I'm going to love her and Jon sniping at each other. I can tell already) to help Jon out. With Trias closing in, the duo are waiting to spring their trap, unaware that another of his goons is about to get the drop on them! Marius, Kate and Vergil make it to a hangar and we see the Reaver at last - a huge airship, jet black and quite possibly the epitome of airbourne cool in this world. Liking it. Back on the roof, Jon helpfully shoves Aurora out of the way of the incoming thug (and, sadly, right off the roof and into the path of more Raven goons), and while Jon has his hands full up top, Aurora's on familiar ground down below - outnumbered and fighting for her life! She should be getting quite good at this by now... So how's Jon going to rescue her? That's right - a beautiful Star Wars homage as he grabs a laundry rope and swings past to scoop her up, echoing his move from the pilot (which he cheekily comments on). Trias gets to the hangar just as the Reaver is ready to fly, and in an emergency call, Aurora gets the navigational sails deployed to stop him blowing up the gas balloons - which, unfortunately, tear off as the ship makes its Millennium Falcon-style escape through the roof. The ship makes it into the sunset, but with Vergil dying from a poisoned arrow (ouch) and no way to steer the ship, they're at the mercy of the winds now. Thing is, those winds are carrying them North, towards the Darklands - and that's where the wild things are, ladies and gentlemen! The duo admit to each other that they've both seen the monsters (although Aurora declines to mention the little spot of doom growing on her hand) - and that's where we leave them.

I love this show now. It's official. Earlier episodes got bogged down in character-building flashbacks, which I appreciate were necessary, but here a full episode of uncut Afterlife action shows how ridiculously fun this show can be. Jon and Aurora are absolute gold when they're together, their relationship covering all the bases from kick arse combat, snappy one-liners and simmering romantic tension, coupled with moments of genuine emotion whenever they allow themselves to open up a bit, As quite closed characters emotionally, it's good to see that they connect with each other on so many levels - there's bags of development potential here. As for the episode itself, there's a few classic homages dotted around, including a real Star Wars vibe to Act IV, and it's only the relative shortness of the script that lets it down - I want more, damn it! So Afterlife returns to the heights set by the pilot at last, and from here on in as we get to the meat of the season's arc, things can only get better.

ZPM RATING:

Lost 2x01 'Hope'

by Alden C. Caele

The hatch is open, the boy has been taken, and everything is thrown into chaos. Locke risks his life to enter the hatch, leaving Jack in a hard position: Go after him and possibly save his life, or go back to the castaways and lead them through the night?

With Season Two about to draw to a close in the States, it's about time I get stuck into the alternate S2 that's doing the rounds on MZP. With a lot of effort going into making this distinctly different from the actual S2 - even to the extent of taking the show off air for a few weeks to alter Hurley's plot and take it away from the one airing in America. That kind of attention to detail is what makes Lost such a watchable show, so let's dive into this alternate take on S2 and see what's what. With the season currently on a development hiatus, there's only two episodes to catch up on too!

Opening where we left off, with Jack, Locke, Kate and Hurley peering into the darkness of the hatch, we don't waste any time with words as we head straight into our first flashback, seeing an eight year old John having a story read to him by a teenage black girl. It's an understated moment, but already ties in with the typically unusual upbring we've already seen Locke have. An older woman named Carrie steps in - and she calls Locke her son! Adopted? Foster? Either way, it's an interesting twist. Locke's got quite an offbeat view of the world, so maybe this will be an avenue to explore how he developed that. Something happened to somebody named 'Jeannie' - Carrie's daughter? Obviously, there's some big old kind of soap opera drama behind the scenes here, but there's a touching moment as Carrie tells Locke to never let anybody tell him what he can't do, words we know Locke has made his mantra. We slip back to the hatch, and already it's clear Caele has a good grasp of the basics of the show's mechanics, using the flashbacks to explain why a character is reacting a certain way to the week's situation. Tensions flare as Locke is determined to go in but Jack wants to head back to camp, leaving Locke behind. He doesn't get very far before Hurley comes rushing over - Locke started to climb down, but the ladder broke - and he fell in!

Jack yells down into the hatch as Kate races off to get some cable, while down in the darkness below Locke wakes up - and hears Boone's voice! So this version of the show will keep in the appearances by ghosts. Good stuff. Thing is, Locke slips in the gloom and falls - over a cliff face? Bit of description missing there, methinks! As an unusually scared Locke pulls himself back up onto the safety of the outcrop, it's Flashback Time again. John's now 13, but Rachel's here with some bad news. About Carrie. Uh oh. They arrive at the hospital, with Carrie trying to put on a brave face despite slipping away more every second. She gives her last big speech, a true Hallmark moment, and we cut back to the Island, the caves this time, to find Sayid and the others. They chatter for a beat before Kate races inside, grabbing the cable and passing a woman named Dana (a new regular, by the looks of it). Back at the hatch, somebody shows up with the cable - but it's Dana. Somebody named Tina apparently gave it to her - but according to Hurley, there's no Tina on the manifest. Uh oh! Jack has to make a choice what to do - if Kate's gone, then maybe the Others are finally making an appearance. With a quick flash back to Boone's death, Jack makes his call. Kate. He races off, leaving Hurley with Dana. But Hurley shows a surprising amount of backbone by preparing to lower himself into the hatch! Is it big enough? Well, we'll find out.

Jack's tearing through the jungle like the devil's chasing him, and after a distant roar from Lostzilla, he finds Kate's jacket on the ground. Moments later, Danielle shows up, badly beaten, and seems to be telling Jack (in French) that somebody's dead! Danielle freaks out but her strength is gone, and as she wilts she tells Jack 'they're going to kill him - and it's all because of you!' Yikes. What has the Doc done this time? We'll have to find out later, as Spider-Hurley has managed to make it safely to the bottom of the hatch. He finds Locke, who shows him that the Numbers are etched into the rock walls down in the tunnel that leads into the darkness (so where's the cliff, then?), and as Locke prepares to find 'The Truth,' we're back at the caves with our favourite couples - Sun and Jin and Claire and Charlie. Claire's still nursing a sore head from Danielle's attempted abduction of baby Aaron, and when Sun asks her why she hasn't been sleeping well, Claire has a quick flash back to Ethan grabbing her. He was pretty brutal with her, kicking her unconscious, and the jolt of this memory leaves Claire understandably shaken. Jack bursts in with the feverish Danielle, and we get our next Newbie in the form of Laura, who helps Jack and Sun start to treat Danielle. Down in the hatch, Hurley and Locke wander through the tunnels, with Hurley anxious to head back while Locke almost slips up by mentioning Boone - and boo! There he is again. Locke's legs start to fail, which Lostaholics will know is linked to his state of mind, and although the moment passes he's clearly growing increasingly freaked out here. He's jumped into the abyss with open arms but found it's a much deeper fall than he was expecting.

In the caves, Danielle's cries of pain get little sympathy from Shannon or Claire, but as Danielle finally settles down, Captain Jack's straight back out there for Kate. Down in the hatch, Locke and Hurley find a huge cave full of mirrors and water - it's the Batcave! Well, not quite. Hurley's done with all of Locke's cryptic Yoda-isms and marches off into the darkness, while Locke sees Boone again and puts on his Flashback Face. It's Carrie's funeral, and as young Locke watches her body committed to the ground, he's in for a nasty shock - there she is, watching him! Visionary encounters with the dead are a well-documented phenomenon (heck, I've had one myself), , but John lets himself get talked out of what he saw too easily. He's only thirteen at this point, after all. Locke wakes up back in the underground tunnels, and Hurley's there - I thought he just went off by himself? Locke is determined to push on, as we head back to the surface. Jack's clearly had no luck finding Kate because he's back to help Locke, and lowers himself into the tunnels to find him. Thing is, just as he hits the bottom, the cable is pulled back - and as Jack yells in alarm, up top we see somebody's knocked Dana out!

In the tunnels, Locke tells Hurley the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, noticing a break in the sequences of Numbers on the wall and taking that as his clue on how to navigate the maze. Sun looks in on Danielle (doing that annoying Talking Out Loud thing), and no sooner has she found a puncture mark on her arm than Danielle's jolted herself awake. Danielle asks for Alex, and as Sun tries to settle her down, she spots Claire ready to pounce. Charlie diverts her, and leaves Sun to comfort Danielle. There's a Sledgehammer Of Dramatic Irony as Sun embraces Danielle - they've both lost a baby, that much is clear. Down in the tunnels, Locke hears the slam of a metal door, but as he goes to investigate Hurley disappears, and as he follows Hurley's distant, shouting voice, he comes to a closed metal door. He forces it open, tumbles into a small room and we head for another Flashback - John's now in his twenties, in his apartment at night, drawing a gun when he hears someone rummaging around (which seems very un-Locke like, so there's obviously more to this to explain his out of character behaviour). He disturbs Anna, a hot young lady he appears to be involved with, who tells him a lawyer called about his mother's will. He assumes this means Carrie, and in the lawyer's office the next morning he finds Carrie's left him a jewelry box. Emphasis is put in the direction on how John's changed a lot since the funeral (although this is a stylistic thing I'm not sure I agree with, as I'll discuss later), and when we rejoin Locke in the room, he finds a vial of clear liquid and a log book. Boone's spectre pops up again, just long enough for Locke to say he's sorry. We zip straight back into the Flashback, with Locke in Carrie's old house as he looks through the jewelry box. Nothing interests him until he finds a piece of paper that leaves him in tears, and next thing you know he's outside, burning the whole house down! The memory of this seems to settle Locke's fears in the room he's found himself in.

And the last little bit is upon us - a brief round of the faces waiting back in the caves leads us to Dana, searching for Locke and Jack. There's a muffled boom and the two boys appear out of nowhere, allowing Dana chance to show her obvious affection for Jack, before we cut to a room somewhere else and see Kate, all tied up and nowhere to go...

Right. Well. Have to say, I'm afraid this didn't really achieve what it set out to do. A good season opener is a tricky thing to write, and credit must be given to Caele for the work he's put in here - his presentation and writing is pretty tight for someone so young, and he's tackling a real powerhouse of a show here with this, but sadly it seems his relative inexperience has shown through. In my opinion, any season opener needs to accomplish two girls - re-establish the characters and setting of the show for a new audience who may not have seen any of the previous episodes, as well as managing to tell an engaging story that will keep the regular fans happy. This doesn't really do either, for a variety of reasons. The story itself is far too fragmented, even for Lost - jumps back and forth to other locations and characters shake up the structure of the episode. We only really need to see the characters not part of the main story once to remind us who they are, and the two new characters don't slot in as seamlessly as hoped. It's a difficult thing to do, I guess - give the impression that they've always been there by downplaying the reaction of the others to them, so in that respect Caele does the best he can, although personally I'd have left them out of this entirely and brought them in over the next few episodes.

There's also a lot of over-direction. Too much emphasis is given on telling the story through the stage direction rather than dialogue, and it sabotages the atmosphere the show is trying to establish. There are also hints to future plot arcs so obvious they may as well have been waving a huge flag saying 'Look! I will be important soon!' Lost is a show that benefits from steadily-paced story development and sbutle hints at deeper stories, so this episode loses points for setting things up quite so obviously. The flashbacks also don't work the way they should - there are two large jumps forward in time, something I don't think any flashback ever tried before, and the end result is that they don't tell us anything about Locke. What they should be doing is backing up his actions in the episode itself, but they seem very disconnected apart from some vague idea that Locke is no stranger to seeing ghosts. The attempt to add some mystery with the events of the final flashback fall flat, because by that stage you're just wanting something in the episode to tie up properly!

There's also a few continuity holes - a cliff face appearing out of nowhere in the caves and then vanishing again, for example - and while the dialogue is pretty good for the most part, it suffers from the aforementioned over-direction, leaving it struggling to compete in a sea of stage cues. The ending also seems very off - Jack heads into the hatch, then he and Locke magically reappear on the surface! It feels like this episode tries to pack too much in. The actual Lost 2x01 took three full episodes to go into the events of the opener, viewing it from a variety of perspectives, and I think 'Hope' falls into the trap of trying to cover all the bases at once.

ZPM RATING:

Pathways 2x06 'The Slip'

by Richard Gentile

Charlie learns the hard way that overworking yourself can lead to consequences. But when she decides to let her hair down and have fun for once, things take a turn for the worst. Alanna fears her brother Brandon might be turning to bad habits again, and Gabe makes a stunning decision.

And we return to Crestview, California. Is it in California? I should really know these things. Anyway. I'm enjoying this show despite what I've been saying about it - there's a host of well-rounded, well-written characters at the show's disposal, so all that's been lacking so far is an episode with one solid, central plot to tie the other secondary stories around. Too many episodes have been a mish-mash of bite-sized scenes that struggle to build any real momentum, so here's hoping that the more powerful story for this week will get out of that trend.

We open in Dean Overmeyer's stately office, with lovely little Charlie in to see the Big Cheese himself. Seems people have been complaining about Charlie running the school yearbook like it was Nazi Germany, which she clearly disagrees with. Swallowing her anger for now and stomping out of the office, we switch to find Alanna Cooper, everybody's favourite nutcase-in-waiting, and we meet a new face - her brother Brandon, a preppy lad talking to a bunch of ripped-jeans wearing rocker kids. Alanna seems less than thrilled about this for some reason, but we'll have to wait to find out more.

In the cafeteria, Julie delights in gossiping about Charlie's meeting with the Dean (much to Sam's annoyance), before Gabe scoots off the second the bell rings. The others are still treading carefully around his troubles with Dominic, it seems, but Sam's more concerned with settling things between him and Julie - which she does. Man! Sometimes, I just wish these kids would fight more. They make friends again too darn easily for my liking. Over in the yearbook office, Charlie is trying a new approach with the staff as they start picking photos, but it's clear the atmosphere isn't likely to change any time soon. Seems Charlie's taken most of the photos so far, as highlighted when she comically struggles to pick one out that isn't by her. Meanwhile, Alanna and Mark are by the stage. She's worried about the company her brother is keeping, and good old Mark gives her a friendly man hug to try and cheer her up. Alanna flinches at the contact (hmm! subtle hint to something there?), but then seems genuinely touched by the gesture. Mark's a little sweetheart, really, and while Alanna obviously has plenty of walls up to stop herself being hurt again, Mark's honesty is doing a good job of working through them. Parker shows up just as Mark leaves - but unknown to either of them, Julie's listening in just round the corner. Uh oh. At Sam and Charlie's latest GSA meeting, Charlie's surprised when a new guy, Eric, admits he's used the meeting to hit on her, and Sam channels his inner Jack from Will & Grace to practically order her to say yes to him. She does, to a chorus of whoops from the crowd. Aww.

Gabe's in the newspaper office, taking a quick meeting with Mr Greyson before Jacob sneaks up, and quite saucily blindfolds him before the two get their snog on. Thing is, Gabe thinks it's Dominic! D'oh. Dom shows up and Gabe manages to get away with it this time, but from his smug look it's clear Jacob's going to go all out to steal Gabe away from under Dom's nose. Ooh, the bastard. Gabe and Dom make an awkward attempt to patch things up, and this feels much more natural than the usual 'let's be bestest friends again!' moments Pathways has an annoying habit of doing. At chez Charlie, she's busy picking her clothes out for her date (yes, several days ahead of schedule. Good character moment there - tells us a lot about the way Charlie works!) when her mother walks in, and her excitement shows that Charlie having a date is clearly a rare occasion indeed! Gabe and Parker cross swords on the dorrstep of the Jones home (and could Parker be any more obvious about his crush on Gabe? if Gabe had ponytails, Parker would be pulling them!), and Anna's brave attempt to get the three of them talking ends in the expected stomping off upstairs. You have to wonder just how long a fuse Anna has, really! Over in Brandon's room, Alanna pops her nose in and reveals a startling piece of history - Brandon used to deal drugs! Dear, dear. The plot thickens with Alanna, currently waving the 'Most Development Potential' flag very proudly, Brandon angrily assures her he isn't, and as we check in on Charlie she seems like a changed woman. Humming to Kelly Clarkson (tch) as she shows off her new, democratically-friendly selection of yearbook photos as Eric pops in to see her. Charlie wants to go out and have some fun (gasp), and he's only too happy to oblige her.

At Dom's place, he and Gabe have gone for the 'make out instead of studying' option, but Dom can sense something's up in Gabe's over-enthusiastic 'we're okay... right?' dialogue. Gabe's signposting his anxiety pretty well (and again, some good writing to show that), but luckily for him Dom's more concerned about the kissing than anything else. Charlie and Eric are down at the Bronze - sorry, Blaze - and slow dancing (to Emeinem?), Charlie clearly throwing herself into letting her hair down. Always the way with these repressed, workaholic types! Jacob intercepts Gabe on his way back from Dominic's, and manages to steal a kiss out of him before Gabe does the Indignant Boyfriend routine and pulls away. Jacob tries again, getting a lot saucier this time, and it's with some degree of willpower that Gabe manages to get away. Jacob's clearly using Gabe's own emotions against him here, probably revelling more in the hunt than anything else, but Gabe's too inexperienced to realise that yet. At the Blaze, Alanna tries to speak to Parker about her brother, but is interrupted by Julie showing up. Being the possessive, neurotic girl she is, Julie now looks like she's put Alanna down on her Shit List as well, but Alanna's not too fussed about what anyone thinks of her. Ever the smooth talker, Parker manages to win Julie over again by assuring her things are a long way past over between her and Alanna, but there's about to be an unwelcome surprise - Charlie's KO'd on the dance floor!

Mark races over and gets an ambulance calls as Julie shows a surprising degree of tenderness as she tries to rouse Charlie (so she can't hate her that much after all, then!) - but where's Eric? Parker intends to go and find out, asking Mark to cover for him as he leaves. Back at Alanna's place, her neat and tidy room a contrast to her brother's (and I'll save my 'why a person's room reflects their state of mind' monologue for another time), and as Brandon comes in the subject of his potential dealing comes up again. Brandon manages to convince her he's still clean, but something tells me he's using her concern against her, making her doubt her own conviction so she'll stop asking him about it. We'll see if I'm right. A frantic Sam arrives at the hospital to find Charlie (with a neat bit of direction as he misses a prime chance to eye up a hunky male nurse), but her mother's with her and has asked for no visitors. Julie tells a horrified Sam that Charlie was slipped a roofie in her drink, and while Sam feels partly to blame for encouraging Charlie to go out with Eric, he knows that Eric is the real culprit here. An emotional Sam goes in to see Charlie, putting on a typically pragmatic display for him despite Sam being on the verge of tears. Sam hugs her, the bon between these two getting even stronger, before we switch to Gabe going to see Jacob (with a line of stage direction marking the purposeful parallel back to an earlier episode, only back then it was Gabe and Dom). But uh oh! What's this? Gabe's given in to his libido at last and gone round to get some loving off Jacob. Tsk tsk. What will the neighbours say?

See? That's what I was talking about. A much more coherent and structured episode, with the focus on the two lead stories (Charlie's night out and Alanna/Brandon), with occasional cutaways to show what the rest of the cast are doing, and it really works. Pathways has characters strong enough to carry long scenes without breaking a sweat, and the show needs more episodes like this to take advantage of that. Thing is, the central event of the episode, namely Charlie getting drugged, happens too late in the day to make much of it, and no sooner has it happened than we're almost at the end of the show! It's a real shame, because it was a good story to show Charlie trying to come out of her shell and meeting the suckiness that is real world head on as a result, and it could have done with making more of either the actual collapse itself or Charlie trying to deal with it afterwards. However, with the unresolved element of Parker going looking for Eric, I'm guessing parts of this will bleed into the next episode, so that should help round this story off. So while it feels a little incomplete, this is a strong episode, well written and showcasing the real strengths that are making Pathways such a hit.

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