Zero Point Module

emp-athy

2007-06-01T03:29:00.000-07:00

after a major (and we're talking window rattling, cat scaring mother humper of a big honkin' storm-o-doom here) electrical storm blasted over my town yesterday afternoon, I came home from work to find my shiny new modem blinking feebly at me - the IT equivalent of 'the dilithium crystals cannae take it, Cap'n!'

so, ideal opportunity for another VS/writing related topic - what to do when you get cut off from the outside world. this kind of ties in to yesterday's post about delays, and it's more about what practical things you can do when you find yourself in the middle of an unexpected communications blackout.

first off, don't panic! sound advice, and you don't even need a towel to remind you of it. at most, in this day and age, you'll be cut off for a few days, and even if it's a more serious problem or situation (moving house, going away, not paying bills, frazzled modem/computer), then you'll find there are plenty of ways to keep in touch with your crew and adoring public. Internet cafes, libraries - heck, even work, if you're lucky enough to have an office where you can get away with it! If you know a few of your team personally, send them a text or give them a call, explain the situation and get them to pass messages on for you.

have some kind of support network in place, too. If you maintain a website and will miss updates during your downtime, then try to have at least one other person who can access the site, update it and upload any relevant files to keep things ticking over. You can usually do this when you first set the thing up (something we'll no doubt cover later on), so don't be afraid to leave the keys to the kingdom with another trusted colleague if it means things still run on time without you.

at the end of the day, all you can do is exercise some patience until you get yourself back online. there are still plenty of things you can do with your time until then, like plotting, storyboarding, video editing, music editing, web page design - all the things you start out full of good intentions to work on but always end up surfing aimlessly for hours at a time instead. downtime can be productive, so don't wail and gnash your teeth when your modem lights go out - do something to stop you going crazy in the meantime!

how many... before when?!?

2007-05-31T02:53:00.000-07:00

It all seemed like such a good idea at the time - set up three different VS ideas as screenplays, and air them on sister network BVC (set up by my good friend Tony Black), both as a show of support and also a dry run for the ideas themselves.

Thing is, after committing myself to have one movie a month ready throughout June, July and August, I kind of forgot that I'm on holiday slap bang in the middle of June. Right when the first movie is due. Oh, and that with the massively-delayed third season of Faith yet to finish, the last few episodes of that are also due while I'm away.

Arg.

However! This leads me into today's lesson, something I feel is an invaluable aspect of life for any aspiring VS writer: how to handle delays.

You see, at this stage of your writing career, you won't be getting paid. You'll be writing in your spare time, at evenings and weekends, fitting in your work around your day job, and also trying to remember to go out and have a social life in the meantime, because, you know, we all need to go out and meet people. Otherwise we go a bit crazy. So what do you do when you quite simply do not have enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done? Simple. Be flexible.

The more professionally-run VS out there tend to mimic the scheduling of a real TV show as closely as possible, with a three to six month period of downtime between seasons to work on production and planning, then three to six months to actually air the episodes, usually one a week with breaks to allow for extra production time and things like that. Real world TV shows have plenty of little gaps between episodes so production work on the season can be completed, and VS are no different.

There are days when you'll sit down to write and just find yourself staring at a blank screen, the cursor on Final Draft (or Sophocles, or whatever) blinking malignantly at you, mocking your inability to conjure up a single word. Not even that 'INT.' that we all start with. You glance at the calendar. You've got tonight to get this episode ready, and after that it's officially late. So what do you do? Force yourself to write? Struggle through the next fifty pages, no matter what quality, just to get the show published on its due date?

Of course not. Take extra time. Push your schedule back a week. Two if you have to. Allow yourself time to work on the show to the standard you're accustomed to, instead of rushing and releasing something below par just for the sake of it. One of the worst things any writer can do is force themselves to write when the vibe just isn't there, and encroaching deadlines will be the cause of this pressure nine times out of ten. On one hand, you have a responsibility to your readers to maintain some degree of professionalism and not just let your show grind to a halt because you don't feel like writing that week, but on the other, there are many unqiue advantages that a VS offers which can make your life easier.

If you miss a deadline in TV Land, then you're screwed. The show will be late, and may even get taken off altogether so the network can air a repeat or alternate program in its place, and you will very likely not be asked to write again. In a VS, you're your own boss, and as such can shuffle scheduling to suit the constantly-changing situations of the world around you. Also, TV viewers tune in at the same time each week expecting to see their show, and the episode has to be ready and waiting before they even reach for the remote. VS readers tend to catch up on shows in batches of a few episodes at a time, maybe even catching up on a show they've only recently gotten into, and so there's less pressure on you, the harassed showrunner, to deliver the product exactly on time week in, week out.

If you have staff working on future episodes, maybe you can air a double bill down the line to catch yourself back up. Maybe you could even put the show on hiatus for a month, write a few episodes to maintain a buffer against future unexpected delays, and then return with the confidence that when (and it will be 'when,' not 'if') something else happens, you've already got a few episodes in the bag, ready to wheel out as needed.

Your staff are subject to the same pressures as you, don't forget. They may suddenly lose their ability to get online (tantamount to a full on communications blackout in this business), be in the middle of moving house, have to put things on hold while they plan a wedding, be on holiday, fall ill or (God forbid) be in an accident. Or they could just be lazy, in which case you fire their arse and get someone more reliable. Any way you look at it, you need to be prepared to allow for situations that you and your staff have no control over, and accept that real life comes before the virtual series world. When you're earning money for writing, then the job comes first. Until then, remember to give yourself time to be a human being before some script-spewing automaton.

The end result should be a VS that isn't afraid to tweak its schedule to cope with delays, and headaches that you won't be having as a result of trying to be in two places at once. Delays can be your friend. Use them wisely.

he's back!

2007-05-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

control yourselves, gentle readers. yes, after a long (and sadly work-related) break, ZPM is back. but what lies in store for this ol' blog now we're in the year 2-0-0-7 then?

for one thing, not just reviews. oh no. I mean, I'm going to start by putting down a load of reviews I did for BVC stuff, admittedly, but as well as that I'm going to be keeping up with other writers' blogs (you know, those professional ones by people who actually get paid for what they do), and also chronicle my own attempts to break into the screenwriting world at large.

so! onward and upward. and things like that.

Homoestasis 1x04 'Roadhouse Traveller'

2006-08-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

by Michael Jay & Matt Bartlett

Quint's car breaks down in a two-pump town where three owners of a bar believe him to be a fairy-tale monster.

Episode four of Homeostasis rolls around, then, with the show stabilising its mix of plot development, surreal and metaphor-heavy situations and a dollop of double meaning nicely after the extended opening episode. Last week's effort was much darker in tone but kept things rolling, so with the trusted hand of Mike Jay steering this one I'm expecting another solid outing for the show.

We open with a road-weary Quint trying to keep his blurry eyes on the road, almost falling foul of a deer prancing innocently across the road (I don't think they're innocent at all, for the record - I think they do it on purpose). Quint checks his map - and this time, pow! There's Deer #2. Quint's airbag goes off in his face and his car skids out of control, crashing into a tree trunk in a scene reminscenet of The Long Kiss Goodnight. Forced to leave the wrecked car and mortally wounded deer behind, he stumbles up onto the Interstate again but there's no-one in sight. Back at the car, he tries (badly) to finish the dying deer off before getting back onto the road, this time managing to hitch a lift from a passing trucker. Quint gets dropped off in the nearest town, staggering into the bar and making a request - COFFEE, GORDON COLE STYLE. O-RE-GON!

Act I opens with a creepy house out in the fields, with equally creepy chanting voices reciting some twisted nursery rhyme as we venture inside. The archaic contents of the house give way to three young brothers in the front room, the youngest watching as the older two continue to chant the rhyme. The boys' grandmother wanders in and starts to tell the boys a story, a moral tale about good and evil that starts with three ne'er do well brothers wreaking havoc in their town. The eldest tries to stop the most evil of the three from doing any more damage, but apparently gets the life sucked straight out of his body for his troubles! Ew. Seems the mudhole the boys used to play in was home to some kind of evil force that had taken Kurt over and made him do all those bad things ("honest, officer! the mud made me do it!"). Kurt begged for forgiveness and the spirit of a white deer (starting to catch up yet?) appeared, curing the eldest brother and making the boys promise never to play near the evil mud (narf) ever again. The eldest of the grandkids doesn't buy the story for a minute (and a bloody long chunk of dialogue it was too - could've done with being broken up a little), but the boys promise to always be good before rushing off outside (once Max, the youngest, has been cooed back to normal by Grandma). There's a fair few typos and grammatical bugs in this bit, unfortunately - could've done with a bit more work in the final edit to tidy it up. Flash forward fifteen years and we're now in the present day, where Max and his brother Mark are running a roadside cafe. We hear Quint wander in and make his coffee request, before a grumpy Max stomps outside to pout his way through a cigarette - the direction indicating he clearly feels his life is fading away stuck in this dead-end town. Mark scolds Max for smoking, mentioning how their deceased Grandma would dissaprove (and how she got 'sick,' ominously), before Max introduces himself to Quint and offers him a place to get set up for the night. Eldest brother Matt arrives, and despite not being too happy that Quint is crashing there it's Max who shows Quint his room. Max makes another 'I coulda been a contender' comment, mentioning the 'evil' in the town he wants to get away from, before leaving an increasingly bemused Quint to his rest. Later, the boys are heading home, Max's attempts to daydream interrupted by his grouchy brothers. They arrive at the house we saw them in earlier, which is spookily just how it was fifteen years ago. The boys go through an almost ritualistic set of chores to close the house down before retiring to bed. Just what is going on here?

Back at chez Peete with Grandma slowly succumbing to the illness that the boys mentioned earlier, although her delerious rants thatthe evil mud is sucking her life away doesn't get much sympathy from Max, once again. With a neat little cutaway we flash forward a few more years, with everything still pretty much as it was - the boys caring for their sick grandmother. Grandma's sedatives finally kick in as she blames the boys for her illness, then pleads with them to save her. Back with Quint as Matt wakes him up and takes him back out to rescue his stricken Nissan, but when they find it, the dead deer on the bonnet has not left a pleasant smell behind at all! Matt asks what happened to the deer, and after stumbling through a story where he witnessed animal control shooting a stricken deer from his childhood, he explains he finished the animal off. Matt, however, knows there's more to this story, and as the links back to the deer Grandma Peete was talking about start to rack up, a quick cut to show Max and Mark going through Quint's things brings us back to Quint and Matt as they return to town. Matt seems distracted and angry, which makes Quint all the more nervous, before Matt pulls into an auto shop to get the Nissan rescued. There's more music playing in the background as the reach the hickiest repair shop in town (what is it with all the music cues this week?), but once Matt's left the auto shop manager gets more talkative, asking what Quint's doing getting mixed up with them and mentioning the 'strange things' the boys' grandmother used to talk about. Quint isn't sure what to make of it and takes his leave, but Matt's been watching the whole exchange - and he doesn't look pleased!

Back at the Grandma's house again, the boys looking shocked as she's just imparted some grave secret or other to them (I must add here that the flashbacks are a little hard to keep up with - in an already disorientating show like this, you need to give the audience some help when you're hopping back and forth in time, otherwise you just get even more lost). The local medic, Dr. Forrest, arrives at the door with Grandma's pills, and as Mark meets him it seems the boys haven't been picking it up for a while! Forrest pushes his way inside but gets a hammer/candlestick to the head (I have to say both because the direction gets a little fuzzy here) for his troubles. Mark starts to beat the bejaysus out of the poor doc, reminding the watching Matt that the doc will kill Grandma if they don't stop him. Forrest manages to make it outside, but the two boys follow him outside, and with one slice of a shovel Matt ends the doctor's role in proceedings. Yikes. So, clearly, there's a whole heckuva lot going on here that Quint's mixed up in (again), so let's hope we start getting some answers soon! A final flash forward takes us to Grandma's death, as the three boys look on in silence. Back at the bar, the three boys discuss what to do, clearly feeling that Quint's murder of the deer classifies him as more of the 'evil' they've fought their whole lives - is a shovel to the skull in Quint's future? Seems the brothers have killed a few people before, victims 'sent' to them by the 'protector,' and they plot to kill Quint that night when he gets back from the garage. Quint meets Mark, who apologises (forward planning there) before letting Quint enter the bar - and whack! There's the shovel. Mark drags him away as we fade out...

Act IV has a Quint-flashback, as he rifles through old boxes of stuff in his home at the age of thirteen. His mother, Gwen, joins him, but when Quint asks why there are so many clippings about the Sente family, saying he read a story about a mother who killed herself and her baby. Gwen ominously says it was the best thing for them, before we jump back to the present, as Quint comes round. He's in the basement as Matt descends the staircase, baseball bat in hand, and Quint can barely defend himself from the frenzied attack that follows. Matt screams at Quint, demanding to know why 'he' keeps coming back, why he sent their Grandma mad, getting his hands round Quint's throat and throttling the life out of him! Mark pulls Matt away and saves the day - or does he? See, Mark's got some rope and wants to do this the quiet way, letting Matt slug Quint out cold before tying him up. Up in the bathroom, Mark is filling a tub with some heavy duty bleach as Max searches the shed for some kind of tool. This is all going a bit Children Of The Corn, isn't it? A storm is kicking up as Max trudges back to the house, where Quint comes to in the basement again. Matt reminds Quint of what happened the first time he came round (as Dr. Forrest can relate), and it's clear now the boys think Quint is the latest incarnation of the evil spirits their Grandma warned them about. Max is still heading back to the bar as a tornado touches down behind him, closing in fast! Mark returns with a damp rag dipped in homemade choloroform, but before he can put Quint out the tornado hits home, shattering the windows in the basement, and in the confusion Quint manages to free himself, stabbing Mark in the arm on his way out. However, with the tornado outside Quint has to seek shelter inside the house, and the two brothers below are soon on his trail. Quint's suddenly running for the bar instead (what happened to hiding under the table, then?), but no sooner has he found his belongings than Max has tripped him up. Max is pinned by debris, however, a victim of the tornado's attack, and Quint leaves him to his fate. Or does he? He sees Mark and Matt trying to free their brother - and comes back to help. They dig Max out, but he's a goner, and the brothers watch as Quint finishes him off as humanely as possible. We dissolve to the last gas station in town as Quint asks for a lift again - and this time, he's heading back to Springfield!

So. A great story, very self-contained in terms of the larger story arc of the show as it focuses almost entirely on the tale of the boys and their struggle against the 'evil,' rather than Quint's own personal journey, but hampered by some very messy pacing, structure and direction that sabotages what had the makings of an excellent episode. The single-minded resolve of the boys to always try to do what's right, even if it means committing acts of great evil, is reminiscent of the brilliantly amoral horror movie Frailty, but as this doesn't really kick in until the last Act, the effect is lost. The flashbacks to Grandma really clutter up and slow down the story - very little happens to further the plot in 75% of them, so why do we keep jumping back to them? And I know it's a niggle rather than a complaint, but giving all three brothers such similar names means it's easy to get mixed up over who's doing what to who in the action. Presentation wise, this is also a little clunky compared to the tight formatting of previous episodes - this needed a more thorough final edit to even out the action and keep the pacing in check. That said, the final Act is genuinely great, amping up the tension as Quint tries to escape the zealous brothers, but despite Quint's act of euthanasia at the climax, the whole story feels very anti-climactic because of that. The implication is obviously that Quint's actions made the brothers see he wasn't evil, but we don't really get any sense of closure over the situation as no sooner has that happened, than we're at the gas station and Quint is off again. So overall, the potential for a cracking episode but let down by some uncharacteristically wonky writing and some glaring continuity holes.

Afterlife 1x11 'Hope'

2006-08-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

by Jon Nyqvist

The dark army sweeps across the lands of the Afterlife. As the final conflict is upon them, Aurora begins succumb to her mysterious illness!

So! The finale to the wonderful Afterlife, then. Basically comprising of the last two planned episodes shoved together, I'm going to keep this intro short because I want to see if the show can maintain the unfeasibly good standards it's kept for the last few episodes...

Opening with one of those dramatic, cinematic shots that make this show so damn visual, we have Jon and Aurora stumbling away from a literal tide of dark beasties, as the skies turn black overhead and pour down with rain as thick as tar. Eep! As a doom-laden voiceover takes us into a sunlit field, we get a look at Jonathan's tombstone. Er... what? Oh dear. We pull back to find it's his sister Jenny, leaving some flowers at his grave. Aah. Present day. Jenny steps back - and there's Lynn! You remember her - she's the one who taught Aurora how to be such a stone cold badass. And she tells Jenny she has a lot to discuss with her...

Back with Jon and Aurora as they stop for a breather, sharing a rare moment of light relief given the situation. Aurora has a sudden attack of the Darkness, hearing the voice of Pain, the creature she's struggling not to become, ordering her to attack Jon. He's helpless to do anything as she stumbles, very nearly impaling Jon to the nearest tree before her energy thankfully runs out. Talk about your no-win situations! The storm rages on as we move back to Darkwood, the town boarded up against the incoming army. In the inn (narf), Kate and Lianna face the Darkness with no clue as to how to stop it, or even defend themselves. They need a hero! But that can wait. We're in the Real World as Jenny and Lynn talk, set up through a great little dissolve shot from the dark skies to a glass of Pepsi. I know I keep banging on about it, but some of the shots in this series really are inspired. Jenny obviously has something on Lynn in that she saw her take somebody out, but Lynn doesn't seem like she's about to silence Jenny - in fact, it looks like she has plans for her. Capital 'p.' Back with Jon and Aurora, and some heartfelt dialogue leads to Aurora implying that Jon needs to kill her before she turns to the dark side completely. Jon won't do it, of course, lowering his sword and bringing her close for a hug... and Aurora gets an arrow in the back! She slumps to the floor as Betrayal lowers her crossbow, Murder and the army behind her. She fires again, but Jon classily slices the bolt in two, putting his sword halfway through Betrayal's chest before scooping up Aurora and making a run for it. Murder starts after him, but Betrayal has other plans, conjuring up a vortex of the black rain and infusing it with power, as we rejoin Jon scurrying along a cliffisde. He sees his rope (this is where he took out the beastie last week) and starts to climb - but Betrayal's wall of evil water (if there is such a thing) is right behind him, chasing him as he desperately scales the rocks, Aurora on his back...

Back with Jenny and Lynn, as Lynn drives the captive Jenny somewhere and idly mentions there might be torture in her future. Lynn's car arrives at Bridge Manor, where Jenny is unceremoniously dumped into a small, dark room and left locked up, and as she cries to be let out we return to Darkwood. Kate has the villagers gathered inside the Inn, but the rising tensions get a welcome distraction as Jon bursts in, the dead Aurora in his arms. We sweep into a dream as Jon is met by Diana, who tells him he can't save everyone - no matter how much he wants to. Then, however, she tells him that while Darkness is set to sweep over the world, Jonathan is the one element that disrupts its unity - he's Chaos to its Order. This seems to make sense to Jon, who wakes up to find himself resting in a room at the Inn, little Nera watching over him. Nera asks what happened to Aurora, and as Jon comes close to saying he loved her, a hurt Kate hears him talking about her before she steps in. Line Of The Week contender:

JONATHAN
I'd say it's good to be alive, but
the jury's still out on that one.
(beat, serious)
Listen Kate, we need to get
everyone out of here as soon as
possible. There's an army on the
way.

KATE
I was afraid you'd say that. How
many?

JONATHAN
I lost count around "holy crap!"

Nooch. Jon and Kate head downstairs to start assembling the villagers into some kind of defence force, but in the room where Aurora's body has been left, she suddenly rises... This is not good. Aurora's eyes open and the Darkness now covers her whole body - Pain has been born!

Back with Jenny as a mysterious voice tells her he has plans in store for her - which understandably freaks her out a fair bit - before we cut back to see Lynn and the Shadow Man watching her from a monitor elsewhere in the manor. Seems that the Shadow Man and Lynn have been working together, getting people like Jenny to use for their own ends - and rather nastily taking advantage of Jenny's claustrophobia to break her spirit. But there's a shocker to come - as the Shadow Man smacks Lynn for daring to speak up to her, reminding her that she's been his bitch for the last twenty-six years and not the other way round, he reveals one of the show's biggest revelations - Aurora was Lynn's daughter! She never know until this very moment, so Lynn was responsible for both training and betraying her own child without even realising. Boom! A cut back to Darkwood Inn has Jon getting the townsfolk's attention, and a call for some options on how to fight back has Lianna suggesting the Scarlet Knights, a fearsome order of holy warriors. How does she know so much? She used to be one of them! Seems she had to leave when she became pregnant, but the threat of the incoming Darkness should be enough to get them to pitch in and help. However, the party is about to get crashed as Pain strolls casually down the stairs, throwing out a few choice insults before throttling Kate! Jon gets in with a well-placed head butt, the two getting into a knock-down brawl which doesn't seem to be hurting her all that much (she is the embodiment of Pain, after all), before Kate appears with a torch, reminding her that she's now splashed with alcohol. Nooch. Pain decides to bug out and leave the villagers to it, and despite Kate's pleas Jon is straight out after Pain - and this time he knows he has to end it. A quick cut back to Lynn shows her letting out her frustrations on her apartment, smashing the place up before accessing her Men In Black style cache of hidden guns. Girl wants some payback! At Darkwood, Lianna is heading a caravan of people to go and request help from the Scarlet Knights, with Kate casting a longing look after the departed Jonathan as they get moving. Murder is griping that Betrayal is wasting valuable conquering time hunting down the denizens of Darkwood, but when Pain appears and asks to join the gang the detour suddenly seems worthwhile. Murder doesn't seem too fussed about the involvement of the Scarlet Knights, but as the evil trio move on, they're unaware that Jonathan is stalking them from the shadows...

A brilliantly noirish shot of Lynn knocking back a stiff drink and letting the glass fall segues into the caravan from Darkwood splashing onwards, with sombre music accompanying the whole montage as we see Murder's forces tearing a hapless village in its path to shreds. Pain almost clocks Jonathan's presence but he's undetected for now, before a push in shot of Jon's eye pulls back to reveal Jenny's (See? These various cuts and shots may be little things, but they're way better to read than a flat 'CUT TO:' at the end of a scene, aren't they?), as she languishes in her room at Bridge Manor. Lianna wakes Kate up to tell her they've arrived at the home of the Scarlet Knights - a castle at the edge of the ocean, with an army assembling itself at the foot of the peninsula. Lianna says they call this place the Field Of Truth before hiding at the back of the wagon train, as we head into the Knights' camp to find them making ready to tackle the Army of Darkness head on. Their leader, William, appears to have some kind of precognitive ability as he's told of the caravan's arrival, waving past Kate and searching out Lianna. They have History, don't you know. Nudge, nudge. William seems fine with letting the villagers join the party, and as he heads off to 'catch up' (hem hem) with Lianna, we find Jon watching the Army up ahead as Diana joins him. Jon grimly knows he has to kill Aurora, but Diana cryptically hints (is there any other way?) that there might be another option... William and Lianna, meanwhile, clear up a few things - they haven't seen each other for seventeen years, and Nera just so happens to be William's kid! He avoided a witchcraft trial for his second sight when he saved somebody's life, and is now the undisputed leader of the pack. The cosy moment is spoilt as a horn sounds - it's game time! The Scarlet Knights bravely get into formation as the Dark Army erupts from the woods, with Lianna sending Nera back to the castle with anyone else unable to fight. William has a few more tricks - his alchemists have modified their oils to produce brighter, stronger flames against the black rain, so the chief weapon against the Darkness is back on their side. As Kate says - cool.

Another shot of the heartbroken Lynn mourning the daughter she never knew she had leads us into the Field of Truth, as Jon watches the two armies moving into position from the vantage point of a huge ruined temple. The dark beasties surge forward as Betrayal powers up for another magical attack and Pain senses Jon again, before William lets his archers fire at will at the advancing creatures. The flaming arrows do their job but Murder isn't slowing down yet, and as the army pushes on we rejoin Jon - as Pain steps into frame to join him. Their fight begins, with the temple crumbling to bits around them, but Pain's clearly in charge here - even her own pain gets her off, as she puts it, and Jon's getting thrown around as we return to Bridge Manor. Lynn arrives in her sedan, heading through the front gates as we find Jenny about to face the very same torturer she looked in on way back in episode three. The torturer is just about to start cutting when Lynn blasts her way in, even getting space to fire off a wisecrack before her bullet. Like mother, like daughter, eh? Lynn frees the disbelieving Jenny as we get back to the battle in the Afterlife. The Scarlet Knights all ignite their weapons as one, charging to meet the beasties head on. Kate gets an arrow into Murder's back, but that doesn't even slow him down as William shows why he's the boss. He takes out one beast and gets his trebuchets ready to blat a huge Dark T-Rex lumbering into the fray. Pain is still kicking Jon around, but he takes a page from the Xander Harris book of 'How To Beat Unstoppable Evil That You Also Happen To Love,' appealing to Aurora to fight it and managing to get through to her as William's mortars fire in the background. Emotional resonance and rocket launchers, as Joss Whedon would say. The sounds cut out to be replaced by music, as a quick insert of Lynn mowing down the guards at the manor returns us to the battle, as a horrified Lianna sees Betrayal sending torrents of dark water down on the Scarlet army. Jon and Aurora, meanwhile, are actually getting busy if you can believe it, their make out session intensifying as a blaze of brilliant light gets the battlefield's attention. At the manor, Lynn gets Jenny into her car but takes a shot in the chest, courtesy of Shadow Man. Jenny manages to complete the escape, to Shadow Man's obvious frustration, while back in the battle it seems Aurora is her old self again - but now Betrayal wants a piece! Murder is about to kill our Kate when she sticks an arrow in his leg, buying time to escape while Betrayal puts the smackdown on Jon and Aurora. She's too tough for them to handle, but as Betrayal mocks Aurora and prepares to blast her out of the world for good, Jon dives in and takes the shot himself, getting thrown off the temple and into the ocean a hundred feet below... Aurora charges in to attack, but this time she has the light on her side. Literally. A blaze of light weakens Betrayal long enough for Aurora to get in close, whisper her forgiveness - and snap her neck! It's Rachel whose body hits the deck, and with its master gone the dark skies overhead quickly start to clear as well. Sunlight pours onto the battlefield and the Dark Army is routed - saving Kate's bacon in the process - but Aurora cries her heart out for the first time in years as there's no sign of Jonathan! Jenney tries to help the dying Lynn, but there's no saving her this time. She tells Jenny everything is connected again before she dies, and as Jonathan gets a thank you from Diana and wakes up (despite being a long way down in the water), Aurora realises something else has happened - she's pregnant!

Wow. Now that is how you end a series, ladies and gentlemen. None of this Lost style multiple cliffhanger malarkey, no sir. A few deaths, a whole lot of Lord Of The Rings-tastic fantasy battle action, some mano a mano smackdowns you've been itching to see and a final twist to really bring the whole thing to a tasty conclusion. There's a bit of closure in Lynn's story, what with her death and finding out Aurora was her daughter, though Jenny does get left at a bit of a loose end after her escape from the Shadow Man's clutches. Aurora gets her redemption and her payback on Rachel, Jon helps save the world and gets his girl, Kate gets to kick some ass and even the Scarlet Knights work. A lot of effort goes into fleshing them out so they're not just some deus ex machina thrown in at the last minute. All is good. There's so much going on in this that it's hard to pick much more out, so I'm just going to head straight to the final words. Freakin' sweet.

Guardians: Outlook 1x10 'Blind Faith'

2006-08-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

by George Willson

On a planet where people will burn their eyes out for their god, Ruben looks for a chance to regain something of the life he lost.

With the show running a little behind schedule, it's time to get caught up with a review of episode ten, which looks set to provide a little background on Ruben, the stoic security chief who is in need of some more development after the teasing hints at some past family tragedy in 1x03.

We open on the crew watching some kind of ceremony on an alien world. Engel is busy running his translator while Ruben grumbles about the disadvantageous tactical position they're in (which is his job, when you think about it). The team are unaware that they're about to watch a ritual sacrifice, however, and they're horrified to see the man willingly burn his eyes right out of their sockets! Yick.

After the ceremony, Engel converses with the priest to learn more, as an anxious Aya gets her next shot from Ruben - seems she's still recovering from the events of 'AA' and is being weaned off the poisoned water she got hooked on. And yes, James, I get the Monty Python reference. With James a little concerned that any one of them could easily fall foul of the laws of this planet and suffer a similar fate, they find Ruben spaced out and staring at the temple - with a little audio flashback to boot. Later on, Engel is still learning about the ritual, but there a lot of gaps in the sampler's translation of what the priest tells him. And that'd be the Dramatic Irony alarm ringing in the background, then! James notices there's a lack of any blind people in the community, before the team split up to nose around. Ruben seems to be acting a little strangely, and we finally get a god's honest flashback, heading ten years back in time to Brazil. And, my word, he looks happy as he sits in a church service with his wife and kids. But what's this? A saucy Latino chick giving him the eye - and flashes to Ruben being a naughty boy indeed! Back on the alien world, and Ruben re-enters the main temple, offering himself up to be 'cleansed,' as the priest put it - could this be the end of the chief's 20/20 vision?

As Engel asks to get his apparently faulty sampler checked out, we get another Ruben flashback, this time six months ago in New York as Stansen comes to see him. Ruben looks pretty washed up - a parallel to the state James was in before he was brought into the program - with Stansen mentioning Ruben's dismissal from the UN's employ and an apparent blacklisting he's suffering from, offering him a second chance to redeem himself. Then, we get the juicy bit - remember that chick Ruben was seen canoodling with earlier? She just happened to be Carmen Diaz, Brazil's ambassador to the UN, and Ruben was her bodyguard. D'oh! He was kicked out as sexual misconduct charges were raised - and as his wife finds out, she tearfully tells Ruben she's leaving and taking the kids with her. We then see Ruben's official dismissal before jumping back a week (you keeping up with this?) to see Ruben first getting the job as Ms Diaz's bodyguard. He's surprised to see her, letting us know he was a cop and she a city official, so they've known each other for a while. We're finally back in the alien temple, with Ruben still struggling to get his head round what he did to himself - he still can't seem to get over it costing him his family. Ruben calls James and Aya back to the temple, where a newfound sense of peace seems to have come over him. He tells the shocked duo that he's going to stay here and take the test of faith - and if he loses his sight, then so be it!

On the Lander, Lak calls back down with the solution to the malfunctioning sampler - it just needs rebooting. Yes, it's more Microsoft jibes, but they work here with the technofriendly Lak baby-stepping the technofearful Engel through getting the unit working again. Outside, Aya is trying to spur James into action, but he's the kind of man who's always respectful of another's wishes, even if it means leaving a crewman to potentially burn his own eyes out! With Aya needing her medicine and growing increasingly agitated, James tasks Engel to talking to the priest again as they go in search of Ruben. Engel is led into a mine where blinded workers dig valuable, energy-providing stones from the wall - and it's only those who have been 'cleansed' that can do this. James confronts Ruben but he's not budging, showing an alarmingly clear head given what's in store for him. Ruben seems convinced that the cleansing ritual is the only way he can absolve himself for what he did, and as James tries to manhandle him back Ruben reminds us why he's the security James, knocking James on his arse in no uncertain terms. And just when the situation couldn't get worse - Aya collapses!

James gets Aya back to the Lander and shoots her up with some sedatives to keep her calm (although I'm not sure if Aya's snarkiness is an effect of her withdrawal or some slightly out-of-character writing here), before we rejoin Ruben as he prepares to undergo the cleansing. Another flashback shows us Ruben talking to Carmen, the relationship between the two of them deepening a little - Ruben admits sleeping with her was a mistake, and he's just doing his job now rather than spending time with her because he wants to. However, Carmen isn't the kind of woman you want to turn down, and despite sneaking a crafty snog off him Ruben still isn't playing her game, so she (rather melodramatically, it must be said) fakes an assault on herself and runs off to shop him for it. And I must knock some points off for the groan-worthy line of direction that reads: 'She stands so close her breasts are touching his chest.' Yuck! Anyway. Engel manages to arrive at the ceremony just in time, explaining to Ruben that the cleansing is for people who break the law - not a test of faith, as he's been led to believe! Ruben sheepishly steps down, realising his mistake at last, and hands James the medicine Aya needs. Back on the Lunar Base, Ruben is getting chewed out by Stansen, but he manages to leave the office with his job intact. This time. Outside, he apologises to Aya but still doesn't plan on telling her exactly what he wanted to take the ritual for. Ruben retires to his quarters, where there's a touching final shot of his wife back on Earth - holding one of Rubens' paycheques. He's been sending her his cash, to make amends and support his family even though he's not even on the same planet any more. And that's where we leave it.

Not a bad story this week, and an attempt to flesh out Ruben's character in the same way 'AA' gave us some depth on Aya, but unfortunately it doesn't quite click together the way it should have. The mass of flashbacks crammed into Act II really disrupt the flow of the story, and the fact that they jump back and forth through Ruben's past make them a little hard to follow. Lost's approach to character flashbacks may be a well-used device, but it works, and it's a method that should have been applied here. And while Ruben's quest to test his faith (and, you suspect, punish himself for breaking up his family) is a good, strong storyline, his sudden change of attitude is too big a switch, too soon, especially when he almost purposefully endangers Aya by refusing to hand over her medicine. Okay, she wasn't too sick at that point, but she got worse pretty quick so it's a pretty shitty thing for Ruben to have done. Overall, then, a good story that trips up a little through the jumbled flashbacks, despite the backstory we get being pretty intriguing, and Ruben seeming to go from stoic man mountain to brainwashed cult member in a matter of moments.

Homeostasis 1x03 'Shepherd'

2006-08-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

by J.J. Estes

A newspaper clipping leads Quint to a mysterious priest who has his own agenda for Quint.

I've been holding off on these until the season got back on air, but now that the last two episodes have aired it's time to revisit the fragmented world of Homeostasis. I make absolutely no claim whatsoever of being intellectual enough to grasp some of the deeper symbolism and subtleties behind this show, but as a lifelong Lynch fan I just dig things that are weird. When we left Quint Burroughs, he'd just... um... done something. Damn. Maybe I should go back and read the last bit of my old review to catch up! Hang on. Right. It's the one with the party, that's it. Okay!

We open with a flashback (or dream - you can never be sure with this show) showing Quint with his mom Gwen and missing brother Curtis, all trying to get through another sermon at their local church. Curtis doesn't seem to have much time for this religion malarkey, but it isn't long before things go a bit weird - first, Death appears and then everyone else in the church disappears! Quint hears a voice talking to him, as though explaining a modern viewpoint on religion to him - echoing Curtis' words to him, maybe? - before we rejoin Quint in a trashy motel room. There's static on the TV (a common Lynchian device, trivia fans), and we almost get a visit from someone via the TV screen before Quint wakes up for good. His notes feature a clipping that shows Curtis helping to rebuild a local church - our next stop on the path is set.

Quint encounters a gabby clerk at the motel as he pays his bill, and there's another moment of someone in a service position spouting some cryptic dialogue to our hero - it's a theme that's already popped up a lot in the first two episodes, and leads me to think that this is another device for expressing Quint's actual inner thoughts without having him saying anything himself. I think. Quint arrives at the church and bumps into perky church group member Krista, who directs him towards Father Brewer, the Boss Hog of this operation. Quint shows Brewer the clipping of Curtis, but no luck there. Quint heads to a diner for something to eat - and there's that cigarettes thing again, just before Curtis shows up (sort of) to have a chat with his brother. As they talk, it seems Quint's reliving a past conversation he and his brother had around the time Curtis vanished, although when the waitress addresses Curtis directly you'd be forgiven for getting mixed up. But we know Curtis isn't there - so it's likely she's actually talking to Quint. He just doesn't see it that way. A regular diner patron, Doug, strolls in and pulls up the seat next to Quint, engaging him in a little light conversation before giving Quint an idea - Father Brewer seems to hold a large amount of sway over the people of this town. Maybe Quint can convince him to help?

Quint returns to the church and looks for Brewer, diverted from a suspicious-looking door before he passes Krista, who catches up with him. Quint tells her Curtis was there helping out just a week ago (first indication of how much time has passed we've had for a while, I believe), and when he shows her the clipping she remembers him - and says Brewer should too. So why did he act like he didn't? Krista drags Quint over to Brewer's office, and as she pops in to make sure he's not busy (or is she?), Quint flashes back to watching his mother cook dinner back home. Seems that Curtis skips off quite a lot, especially when church visits are looming, but this time Gwen plans on going to find him herself. Back in the present at the church, Brewer says he can vaguely remember where Curtis said he was going, and if Quint returns for the following evening's sermon he'll have the details ready. Trying to get him to come to the church, eh? Hmm. There's also mention of Curtis' 'situation,' hinting at a bigger reason for why he took off. Krista seems happy that Quint's coming back for the sermon, but personally I can't shake an uneasy feeling about the whole setup as we close the second Act. Is Quint being manipulated to get him back into church, after his brother went to such lengths to put him off the idea?

Quint's getting ready in his motel room when Curtis appears again, and they continue their flashback conversation from the diner earlier. It's like being on Curtis' trail lets Quint see echoes of memories they both have sometimes - his way of keeping the memory fresh? Curtis says that Gwen has only ever had two men - one fathered Quint, the other Curtis - and this goes some way to explaining the fragmented family dynamic that the Burroughs' have, indicating it's why she became religious. There's a very telling exchange:

CURTIS
See, whether he exists or not, he's
an imaginary figure, and imaginary
figures don't leave you unless you
want them to.

QUINT
What if the imaginary's real?

CURTIS
You have to add to it to make it
real.

Hmm. Double meanings are a strength of this series - people tend to talk about one thing whilst referring to something else at the same time, and I think there's a lot to highlight in those few lines. Quint ends the conversation thinking some dark thoughts about his mother - but then snaps back to reality, acting like the flashback just ended differently to how it really happened and seeing confused over why. Warring personalities, maybe? Anyway. Quint arrives at the church and takes a pew at the back with Krista, but as Brewer's sermon runs on he spies the Death-like figure from the Teaser in the church, watching the service. Brewer's dialogue about a shard from one of the shattered stained glass windows again resonates with a twin meaning for Quint's current fractured state of mind, but then the Weird returns as everything around Quint starts to become transparent, and with Brewer's doom-laden sermon rining in his ears Quint stumbles back over to the door he was stopped from entering earlier. With good reason, too - once inside, his fear passes but he makes an alarming discovery - a room full of dead bodies!

Quint is surprised by Brewer, who seems remarkably calm about the bodies and even allows Quint to get away, but as Quint rushes back outside he sees Curtis in his place on the pew, and has another conversation with him. Father Brewer returns, and talk to Quint about people needing a purpose for their existence - and Quint realises that the communion wine everybody's busy downing has been poisoned! Brewer's killing people to send them to the next place, people whose existence in this world no longer has any meaning. Quint walks away, knowing he's not going to find any answers here, and as he sees that Krista has managed to get away too, he steps into his Nissan and drives off. A closing vignette shows Krista leaving town, Brewer taking the communion and joining the members of his 'flock' in the back room, before we return to Quint and see he's bought himself a mini tape recorder.

A pretty dark, heavy-going episode there, then. A lot of attacks on the flaws in organised religion throughout, from how it's used as a smokescreen for people to hide from their real problems behind, to how it can literally take your life away and stop you from being you - although in Brewer's case, this is taken a lot more literally. The flashback conversations with Curtis again add evidence to the split personality theory, although now with people remembering having seen Curtis in the flesh we have evidence to the contrary. It's clear Quint can't tell which memories are his own and which are Curtis' at this point, but there's more hints to suggest that Quint is having to add things to what he's actually experiencing to try and make sense of things. As always with Homeostasis, the dream-like, often contradictory nature of what we see happening is hard to decipher at the best of times, but there's a sense of progress for the first time here, as well as a timeframe established by Quint's mention of Curtis having been in town as recently as a week ago. I'm still some way from knowing what to make of it all, I'll admit, but at least this episode manages to put some actual plot development in amongst all the abstract visuals to keep the interest going.

Between The Walls 2x03 'Stripped'

2006-08-16T05:08:00.000-07:00

by Arcadio Reyes

Evelyn finally moves on from her past and sets about changing the way she is... starting with her relationship with Lisa. And when she spots Christian, a chase ensues. Matt finally reveals the nightclub to the family but finds something out about Lisa which could threaten their relationship.

Episode three, then, and this solidly-written drama continues to impress as it rolls on. Lisa's breakdown intensifies, Christian is infuriatngly just out of reach of the struggling Evelyn, and her feud with Della doesn't look like simmering down any time soon. Good stuff. Let's keep things moving, we've got another episode after this one to get through!

Morning again, and with things just as frazzled in both the Hunter and Jones households, the status quo resembles a big old wiggly line of emotions and tensions. However, even though she's amusingly cack-handed at it, seeing Evelyn bustle around and try to sort out resolve her issues with just about everybody makes for some good character moments. In fact, there's lots of good couple-y stuff here - Ally and Matt bounce off each other well, and Nateisha's feisty comments about Della look set to roll on into a big old blaze of indignation pretty soon. And a good comic moment with the onion thing, too. Della's fiery response to Theo's attempt to 'help' contrasts the way the two mothers are dealing with their issues - and that's rapidly becoming a central theme here. However, Della is starting to feel very Betty Applewhite in her 'Mama knows best' attitude here - not helped by the fact that both characters are played by the same actress! Anyway. Marie's picnic manages to show that all it takes is one knock for Evelyn's whole house of cards to come down again, as she spots Christian and runs after him with Marie in hot pursuit, and even with the cab chase he still gets away. He's a spry little monkey, isn't he? Lisa getting caught mid-coke habit by Matt leads to some more good moments between the two of them - the zig-zagging of Lisa's state of mind is absorbing at the moment, but she does need to get some progress on it fairly soon. Seeing Della cut Nateisha down to size promises at more to come, as does Evelyn finally tracking Christian down - and boy, what a moment to walk in on... And now I'm starting to get a tingle in my Spider-Sense about Brian, all of a sudden. Hmm. The conveniently-settled onion thing is one thing, but his dialogue about Connor also seems a little suspect. But maybe I'm just being paranoid. Anyway. As Theo and Della come to a head over the 'Rachelle' thing, there's another Desperate Housewives parallel as the sense of a dark, prison time-worthy secret is dagnled before us. We manage to end on a nice moment as Christian comes home, though. You can almost hear the weepy music as Evelyn grabs him - but what did she get up to with Estovan, eh?

Not a spectacular episode, and with the exception of Christian's return most of the plots are in a holding pattern this week, but there's more stuff set up for later episode with the dark secret of the Jones' and Lisa's attempt to get better - although I personally don't buy that it's that easy for a second. Have to call Reyes on the Applewhite-esque nature of whatever's going on with Theo and Della, though. At least we don't have another relative locked in the basement! So we've got a good little crossover dynamic working now as we switch between the Hunters and the Jones' - the Hunters obviously have more going on, what with the show being about them and all, but there's a growing number of connections between the two families now to keep an eye on.

Between The Walls 2x02 'I Plead My Case'

2006-08-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

by Arcadio Reyes

Evelyn begins to notice Estevon's advances but an old flame returns with a proposition. Matt begins to make plans for the future. Ally finds herself in need of a lawyer when she assaults someone. Christian refuses to head home and finds himself in an unusual situation with Scott. Lisa has her first counselling session but her problems begin to escalate while Della resorts to dirty fighting in her war against Evelyn Hunter.

And we're back. A strong opener set up a well-constructed, complex world of plots, character dynamics and stories just waiting for their time to sparkle, so let's keep the momentum going...

And here's Christian! Hiding out at his friend Scott's house, no less. There's a neat little air of tension between the two as Scott exits, and we get our main players re-introduced through some breakfast vignettes - but there's two uses of ghosts and visions already! What, is everybody in this neighbourhood taking acid or something? Anyway. Lisa's therapy really makes how wonderfully vulnerable and layered her character is stand out, and Marie's little good angel/bad angel turn with the smashed window is a great moment too - maybe she should be the one talking about her anger management issues? She's a mess of rampant emotions and possibly not the best stabilising influence on the fragile Evelyn right now - especially when Tom swoops in to ask Evelyn out, despite how badly things went last time! Evelyn's a bit of a pushover, really. Let's be honest here. The reveal that Jarrell was the one who killed Evelyn's plants works well - we're going to get a showdown Wisteria Lane style some time soon here, and that'll be pretty zesty to watch. This show isn't about daft humour in the vein of Housewives, however, so we'll have to keep an eye on how that escalates. Scott's awkwardness as he starts to move on his feelings for Christian could have easily been annoying but it's actually quite sweet - and offset by the dead kitty Evelyn finds on the doorstep! Brian's neat manouvre on the guy Ally clocks at the psychiatrist's office got a laugh, and adds more brownie points to Brian as the ship we should be getting Ally a ticket for! Ally's diplomatic relations with Theo could put a spanner in that one, though - it's a good bond at the moment, but with Nateisha going all Hand That Rocks The Cradle on Theo, how long before he starts to look elsewhere? And you have to wonder how much longer Christan can drag his sulk out for when even Scott tells him to shit or get off the pot and call Evelyn again. There's a well-written outpouring from Evelyn to Tom later on - although you can already see how he's going to try and use her vulnerability to woo her again - and the pretty saucy post-shower moment with Scott and Christian manages not to feel gratuitous either, to Reyes' credit. Also noteworthy is Evelyn's parting words to Della - not an apology but not an admission of guilt either, even if it does cancel the potential for the street war I was seeing earlier! However... yep, it's Musical Montage time. Ack. I hate those. And it's even more ghosts! Seriously - try to stop using that as a motif so much. It's not helping the show establish its own style.

So another good episode, then - strong writing, some brilliant characterisation (Lisa's breakdown is great, Brian is a hero to all and Evelyn manages to grow a spine for once as well - plus merit to Marie because she can actually be pretty funny) and good movement on all of the plots. I criticised earlier episodes of Pathways for having too much happening at once but being very uneven in its plot progression. Not so here - everything is rolling along nicely, even if there isn't always a strong central plot linking things together week by week (that said, I guess Ally's potential law suit is the thread here). There's just the matter of that ghosts thing - yes, it works, but it's making the show feel like a Six Feet Under rip-off, and that's really unfair given the sterling writing going into this show. But anyway. More, now, again.

Between The Walls 2x01 'Black, White, Shades Of Grey'

2006-08-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

by Arcadio Reyes

The Hunter family attempt to deal with recent events as they struggle to move on and find new beginnings. But little do they know -- this is just the beginning. Evelyn is at breaking point, Matt fears for Lisa's sanity, Ally finally tastes freedom, while Christian is nowhere to be seen. And now, the Johnson family live directly opposite the Hunters... and it's not going to be pretty.

I recognised Between The Walls as a well-written virtual drama series when it arrived on the MZP doorstep a while back, so now that the long-delayed second series is finally underway it's time to give it the ZPM review treatment. The influence of Six Feet Under and even Desperate Housewives is strong throughout, but with the Hunters, showrunner Arcadio Reyes has built up a well-developed cast and some brilliantly convoluted plots to hold the dysfunctional characters together. I'll admit I never read that much of the first series, but I'm fairly sure I know all the main developments so I can dive right into this. I did that for Pathways, right? I'm going to do mini-reviews for the current four episodes while I catch up, then start the proper treatment from 2x05 onwards.

Returning to the troubled life of the Hunter family allows us to catch up on what we missed - an artfully-directed opener shows the grief that both Evelyn and Della are going through, despite the very different circumstances both mothers are in. Ally has troubles of her own as Lisa wakes from a traumatic, baby-influenced nightmare and is still suffering from the chaos of last season. Again, I'm playing catch up to some extent, but I'm able to get the gist of what happened in Season One fairly easily thanks to the opener. Ally's divorce proceedings from Michael exhibits a good, tensely-written sense of drama, with the murder of Connor last season still hanging over Michael and leaving him nowhere to go. Evelyn seems even less in control of things than ever - mother figures and their influence over the family around them is always going to make a good source of drama, and here Evelyn has plenty to be mixed up about. Well, except for getting checked out by the new cook in her restaurant, anyway. Nateisha asks realtor Theo to start a family, but when he tries to back down he almost gets a plate to the face - looks like somebody's got some baby issues here! Lisa almost confesses something about her miscarried baby (and mother's death) to Ally, but that particular revelation gets saved for later (showing an experienced sense of pacing from Reyes). Evelyn's good-hearted attempt to apologise to Della, and the subsequent shooting down, also shows that this show's going to have plenty of strong stories to sustain itself for a while yet. In fact, throughout the episode Della makes a point of being pretty hardline, shouting down Nateisha over breakfast later on and marking herself out as the kind of strong character that shows like this always need. Also good to see everybody demonstrating some kind of flaw - and Lisa's return to her coke habit does not bode well at all! A brief return appearance by Christian keeps that storyline from being lots of moping, and Lisa's closing breakdown is a good way to end what's been an engaging script, making for an easy introduction to a complicated world of relationships. A good season opener should serve as an introduction for any new reader, and this accomplishes that nicely. Good stuff.

However! There's the occasional bit of somewhat cheesy stage direction - lines like 'Two neighbors. Two women, so alike in their pain, but so distant due to guilt and resentment' sound more like voice-overs for a Hallmark movie than lines from a script! There's also a running theme of people having freaky dreams or talking to the dead that feels too much like it's been lifted from Six Feet Under - it's a good storytelling device, but it's already been done and draws some unfortunate comparisons with SFU. Lack of character direction (stuff like (dry) or (snaps) in the dialogue) also saps some of the emotion out of the lines - I know it's a technique that has to be used quite sparingly, but Reyes barely uses it at all, and in a few places the dialogue reads a little flat for it. That said, the strengths of the dialogue and plotting make up for those stylistic niggles, so there's plenty here to recommend.

Oh, and I know where you nicked the title for this episode from, Arc, you sneaky git :P

Guardians: Outlook 1x09 'AA'

2006-08-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

by J.J. Estes

An innocent drink from a pool on an alien world didn't seem like a bad idea, but Aya's about to find out that even the simplest things can lead to trouble.

Guardians: Outlook chugs on with another new episode, although this is a reworking of a script from the original 11-episode series, for those of you who remember that. And I should, given that I wrote that version of it! So this one deals with Aya's curious nature getting the better of her whilst on an off-ship mission, and all being well should leave plenty of room for some juicy character development. Let's move on...

A startling opening scene has James delivering a defiant speech to somebody off screen, before handing his gun to a sick-looking Aya and daring her to end her own life, before we flash back thirty-six hours in the best Alias tradition. Blimey! The Outlook is in orbit over an Earth-like planet with a pre-industrial culture, so given the tech difference it seems a ground mission is out. Anna thinks otherwise, however, her natural sense of diplomacy winning James over as he approves a trip down to the planet's surface. Engel makes a 'oops, did I say that out loud?' slip as he asks for Lakshanya to join the team, and with that little ship set out of harbour we're off into Act I.

Anna wants to lead the ground mission but James isn't having any of it, the power dynamic still very one-sided between them. Ivan catches Aya getting ready and tries to get her to join him in a toast for the road, but she declines, and her at once naive and wise comments about his alcoholism actually give Ivan pause for thought before his next swig. Good to see Ivan's drinking being used as an actual character point instead of just comedy! The Lander flies over some farming settlements, and Engel wisely suggests they try there first. One, so he can get some data into his sampler so they can communicate, and two so they don't scare the bejaysus out of the populace by heading to the big city first. However, James lands right on some guy's farm, and before you know it the team are being led as captives through the city, the reptilian populace looking on. James in unfazed, safe in the knowledge he learned how to captain from the king - James T, in case you were wondering. That's James T. Kirk. Of Star Trek. Come on, people, pay attention! Anyway. Led into the mayor's impressive, Renaissance-style mansion, the team meet the bigwig himself, and as James makes the introductions we skip forward a little to find Aya and Lak eager to shop, and Ruben doing his best to keep the ladies in line. Aya finds a fountain that seems to be a local watering hole of sorts, but as she leans in to take a sample, one of the alien guards looms over her and he does not look happy...

James and Engel leave the mayor's mansion, James apparently having set up some kind of vague trading agreement to Engel's unease, before the duo spot the trouble by the fountain. Motormouth Aya is trying to talk her way out of things, but when James arrives Ruben knows it's Engel who needs to handle this one. His sampler tries to explain that Aya only wants a sample of the water to study, but the guard is firm. No freebies. Aya takes a swig of the water and gets to keep the rest, and as the team get ready to camp out to wait for the city's big chief to arrive and speak with them, Aya continues taking photos of everything in sight. Lak catches her drinking her water sample again, and as night rolls in James makes a call up to the bored Anna in the Outlook overhead. Ivan's playing cards with his boys (or 'work' as he classes it - nice dialogue there too) when James speaks to him, requesting the resident tech genius' help to put together some goodies to trade with the aliens. There's a good moment as Engel calls James on his unorthodox tactics - a little conflict never hurts the group dynamic - before the crew bed in for the night. Aya, noticeably, looks in a bad way and appears to have drunk all of her sample. Hmm. James wakes up to find Aya's jumped ship, and lo and behold, there she is back in the town square, stocking up on water from the fountain. And then James finds her. Busted!

Back on the lander and with the rest of the crew now all woken up, James is busy chewing Aya out, despite her pleas that she can't explain what she was doing. When she mentions feeling thirsty and knowing that only water from the fountain would do, James and Engel don't have to stretch their intuition much to figure out that the fountain is the source of the problem. James leaves Lak to do her best attempt at analysing the water samples as the boys trek back into town to see the mayor, and as a shivering Aya watches them go, we rejoin James' team as they reach the town hall. The mayor gleefully tells the team that the water has addictive qualities, and the leadership use it to keep the people in line! The only way to break the addiction is to go cold turkey, something that is especially painful and also a good motivation to keep the townsfolk in line. Back on the lander, Lak thinks she's identified the rogue element that causes the addiction, but before she can decipher her discovery, she's tasered by Aya, who bolts back towards the city again! The boys arrive to find Lak down and Aya missing, and a stern-faced James resolves to bring Aya back.

James finds Aya refilling her canteens at the fountain, watched by several curious members of the populace, and tells her it's time to go. A tearful Aya seems to be aware of what's happening to her, her science nerd brain able to deduce the situation quite easily, but she's also helpless against the pull of the addiction, not having the physical or mental toughness to resist. Aya starts to freak out, disarming James when he goes to tase her and forcing him to pull his gun, scaring the aliens off by firing some warning shots and dragging Aya kicking and screaming all the way back to the lander. Dr. Unwin and Anna are waiting back on the Outlook, having to strap Aya down to get her to the sick bay after she makes another break for freedom. Next thing we know, we're back on the Lunar Base, with a worried Unwin afraid that despite the fact Aya's going to be okay, she could easily hurt herself from the increasingly violent withdrawal fits she's having. A frustrated Ivan's anguish is clear to see, but Stansen tells James to get in there and keep her calm until the effects wear off. We then get a great little moment as Aya begs James to kill her, and we're back up to the Teaser as he challenges her to do it herself, and Aya's willpower finally catches up with her. Problem solved. A nice little moment between Anna and James leads to another between Ivan and Aya, with Ivan getting a little perspective on his own addiction issues as he comforts the recovering Aya.

Great stuff. A strong, character-driven episode that showcases the main strength of this series - the layers of traits, quirks and details that make up the crew here. These characters have already demonstrated some very good, well-developed three-dimensional qualities (even Ivan, despite the attempts to turn his alcoholism into a running gag), and this episode gives most of them a chance to do something. Well, except Anna, who gets left behind again and really needs some stronger stories besides acting as James' stooge if she's going to keep up with the others! Even though the episode still falls into the show's annoying habit of trying to cram as many dry comeback lines to almost every comment someone makes as possible, the central story here isn't bad and it serves as a platform to get some really interesting stuff out of the crew. So more episodes like this, please. The first season of Stargate SG-1 benefitted from getting plenty of character-focused episodes in early on, so that by the last stretch of the season the entire team was solidly drawn out. With a few more episodes like this, Outlook will have the same advantage.

Guardians: Outlook 1x08 'All The Answers'

2006-08-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

teleplay by George Willson

While exploring an abandoned world, the Outlook's crew finds themselves affected by some unknown agent.

The first of my three catch up reviews for Guardians: Outlook then, and while I get a 'Story by' credit on this, I didn't actually write it, so there we go. After its first seven episodes, G:O has shown that it's got an interesting, slightly darker take on the SG-1 brand of sci-fi, and some nicely layared characters evn though there's a few too many of them to keep up with at the moment, and the over-emphasis on applying the show's trademark dry humour to every situation does take away from some of the potential drama. After the long gap in production between episodes one to seven and then this one onwards, it'll be interesting to see how the series develops from now on. And speaking as a former writer and producer, I can say that and mean it.

The Teaser has the team down in an abandoned alien city, with James and Anna bouncing sarcasm off each other as the resident nerds (Aya, Lakshanya, Engel and Ivan) get to work on uncovering the city's mysteries inside. There's several vodka jokes (again) before Lak finds a diary of sorts, but as the team try to puzzle out what's happened to leave the city deserted, they're unaware that they're being watched by a surveillance camera up in the ceiling...

James and Anna are walking down the city's main street, James remarking that if something did force the population off in a hurry, then it's noticeable that there's no evidence of any kind of mass exodus. The duo head into a similarly deserted museum, but are startled by a tour guide hologram zapping to life before them - and it speaks perfect English! Hmm. Back at the apartment with the Science Nerds, Lak's attempts to hack into the room's computer system end in failure, and James calls in to bring the others back to the museum. James asks the tour guide to give them a potted history of the planet, but by now we should all have picked up on Anna starting to have a little difficulty forming words. Something in the air, perhaps? With Anna getting frustrated by her mystery condition, the two continue thier tour - unaware that a bird-headed statue has stepped away from the wall and followed them! Actually, I was unaware of this at first. This moment doesn't stick out of the direction as much as it could - G:O's minimal stage direction does work against it sometimes. Aya and Ivan continue exploring until Ivan sniffs his way into a bar, and though Ivan takes the opportunity to flirt with Aya she manages to cut him down with some well-positioned technobabble. In the museum, James and Anna hit a dead end when the bird creature attacks, and as Anna fumbles with her weapon, seemingly dropping IQ points by the second, it's Engel who comes to the rescue, shooting it, scaring it away and saving James' bacon.

James is a little surprised that Engel, the ship's diplomat, knows how to shoot (and knowing Estes, there's a story to be told there), but elects to bring the team back to the Lander. James wants to scrub the mission and get back to the Outlook, but the Nerds all argue that there's stuff on the planet worth investigating, and they want to stay. James takes Anna back out with him to hunt the hostile birdman down, with the Nerds grumpy at being left behind. James tries to quiz Anna about why she's starting to act like a dropout from special school, and while Engel sneaks back to the museum, Aya observes that the planet has a potentially lethal level of pollutants in its atmosphere, but that the planet is somehow processing them safely. It isn't long before she's back off outside with Ivan and Lak, while James runs into more trouble trying to hunt down his birdman - this time from Anna! She can't even shoot straight any more, but no sooner has James confiscated her weapon than he's found Engel talking to the guide hologram again. James finds the rest of the crew have also abandoned ship and disobeyed his orders, and we end the Act as he angrily orders them back.

With nobody volunteering to help, James is forced to leave the others behind and go hunting alone, his Spider-Sense starting to tell him something screwy's going on. He speaks to the guide hologram and finds that it was listening in on the Outlook's transmissions so it could 'learn' how to speak the crew's language. James asks it next what's going on with the museum itself, finding that its purpose was for them to 'learn.' James gets the power turned off before venturing on inside, while back in the Lander the Nerds are growing increasingly agitated. Their brains are working overtime, and their attempts to find some way to capture their ideas start to lead to a revolt as they attempt to leave the ship. Anna tries to stop them and gets into actual fisticuffs with Ivan and Engel, before Aya shoots her full of sedative and knocks her out. Inside the museum, James finds an observation room that shows the footage from the surveillance cameras all around the city, seeing his crewmates escaping again before the birdman springs to the attack once more. James chases after it and manages to get a shot off just as the power comes back on, disabling the creature only to find it's some kind of machine instead. Investigating its carcass, he's met by the guide hologram once again. It reels off an educational film about something called 'Compound 917,' a chemical formula created by the planet's populace to allow them to mirror their own physical mutations into non-sentient lifeforms. The experiment was a success and the compound was released into the planet's atmosphere, raising the average inhabitant's brain power by fifty percent. James turns to leave - and is told of Compound 919. This was also released into the atmosphere but any potential side effects were never logged. And I wonder why? Seems 10% of the people exposed to Compound 919 went the other way, degenerating mentally and becoming excluded from the rest of the society. With the hologram hypothesising that the city would have removed of the 'waste' caused by people literally thinking themselves to death, James suddenly realises what's happening to his crew and rushes off to find them all again.

James finds Lak and Engel busily disassembling the hologram's systems, but they act hostile towards him when he tries to get them to leave. Finding the unconscious Anna on the Lander, James grabs a taser and goes to find Aya, who's busy in an alien plant shop. Aya's worked out that the planet's atmosphere is making them smarter, but is just as unlikely as the others to leave, leaving James no option but to zap her and carry her away. Ivan is next, busy drinking in a bar as he works on the design for a revolutionary new space engine, and James has to zap him twice to bring him down. James thoughtfully gathers up all of Ivan's plans before moving on, coming back to Lak and Engel. They're still not planning on moving, so James zaps Lak and gets into a fight with Engel. Engel pays no heed to James' attempt to talk him down - so it's the taser for you, young man! Back on the Outlook, Anna wakes up to find James looking in on her, and he hazards a guess that she was part of the ten percent that became stupider from the Compounds. Well, nine percent, as James seems to think he was part of the one percent 'control group' who were unaffected. With Aya anxiously asking James if Ivan has said anything about her, James checks in on the man himself, who is trying and failing to make sense of his notes. Engel is in a similar position, having a new translator system if he can just figure out how to make it! With James leaving Engel after some stinging remarks about his fighting ability, we end the show for another week.

Well now. I have to get one thing off my chest right now - the plot for this episode is more or less a straight lift of the Miranda section of Serenity. A deserted city, a compound in the air that's affected the whole populace with disasterous effects and a backstory of misguided scientific experiments, even down to the ten percent who have an adverse reaction? Sorry, guys, but it's far too close to the bone for my liking. The episode plods along at a fairly standard pace, all the revelations and developments coming in when expected, so in terms of structure the story's pretty good. The flat, minimal stage direction really lets things down - James' final fight with the robot bird (whose existence is never really explained) and scrap with Engel get a bit more meat, but the robot bird's early moments can almost be missed, given how underplayed they are. Virtual series don't have the visual medium to fall back on and so need to put a bit more colour in the script to make it entertaining to read. The dialogue throughout is snappy and well-written, with each character's voice coming through nicely as their differeing personalities respond to the altered atmosphere, so that part's not in question. G:O just needs to start hyping up its action moments a little more. WIth shows as visually striking as Afterlife and The DSR leading the way, there's no need for skimping on direction like this. So to sum up, a half decent episode let down by its obviously lifted plot and weak direction.

The DSR 1x16 'Wake'

2006-08-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

by Michael Jay

Jai desperately tries to find the Ahnenerbe when he discovers his comatose brother Connor is dying of the energy he was infused with...

Woo hoo! 50th post! Ahem.

With the main arc of Season One about to kick off as we enter the final third of the season, I think the time has passed for standalones. We want meaty stuff from now on, darn it! After the cracking Mia-centric two-parter of 'All About A Girl,' Sara's two-parter earlier in the season and the other standout eps during the first half, we've established our crew now, so here's where we need to start kicking the arc into gear. So it's back to Michael Jay, the guy behind arguably one of the best episodes of the season, to take the reins for episode sixteen...

A great opener gives us an artfully-directed return to the opening moments of the series, where Glissman took down Connor and Cassie, then an ominous shot of Connor fading away from his hospital bed, leaving Jai with his head in his hands and a solemn voiceover ending on 'I failed him...'

An opening moment with three vampires shooting up and tearing into a somewhat bedraggled old werewolf keeps the dark tone going, with this episode going off into Somewhere InBetween territory as the butchered werewolf is left on the alley floor. Kendall voices his concern over Jai's round-the-clock campaign to track down Rhindhart, his hopes pinned on the cure for that old 'death' thing that the Ahnenerbe seem to have their hands on. Jai gets a call from the hospital where Connor is kept, and he races over to find the news is grim. Whatever Glissman zapped him with is starting to take its toll on his weary body, and in the doc's opinion Connor's little more than a salad accompaniment now. The doctors are going to switch off his life support, and after that Connor's got about a day left. Ethan and Carson discuss whatever shady business it is they're involved in, and with Mia getting closer to uncovering them Carson thinks it's time to bring her in on it. Sara, meanwhile, is experiencing virus troubles from somewhere within the DSR's servers, but as she explains the problem to Anton she mentions the vampire attack in Boston, which brings us neatly into the relevant mission briefing. Good bit of logical plotting, that. Knowing the rising tensions between vamps and Lupans given the recent superweapon shenanigans, Anton recommends checking these suddenly offensive vamps out before they make things a whole lot worse. Meanwhile, over in Boston, our three vamps meet up with the guy supplying them with the juice they need to restore their bloodlust - and it's our old friend Reynard, the Ahnenerbe guy from 'Mage'!

Anton, Kendall and Jai discuss their game plan. With several more attacks on werewolves in the area, it feels like more than a simple retaliatory to Jai. He's all stoked up for the mission, which has Kendall noticeably curious given Jai's recent obssessive focus on finding Rhindhart. In a rare emotional moment, Jai tells Kendall about Connor's death sentence, earning a reprieve from any more questioning as we switch to see Ethan and Mia. He asks about her current sense of jumpiness, and as she leads him away for a quiet word, the observing Carson is interrupted by Sara, asking for a password to continue her scan of the servers. See where this is going yet? Mia tells Ethan what Rhindhart said about getting his funding from the Projetons account, and Ethan fools her into thinking somebody within the DSR is feeding cash to the bad guys. It's all part of his and Carson's plan as we jump to Boston at last. Jai and Anton are within a stylish vampire den, but unbeknown to them one of Reynard's stooges has alerted him to their arrival. The DSR boys meet Prekop, the local Brotherhood chapter head, and while Prekop seems to be willing to play along with the DSR's peacekeeping plan, Jai tells Anton afterwards that he feels things are going too easily. And he'd be right, what with the bomb in their car that narrowly blows them both up and all!

Over in the Cayman Islands, an undercover Mia and Ethan go to meet Luigi Fiore, the person in charge of the account Mia's been tracing. Mia believes whoever's name the account is in is the mole within the DSR, and after (literally) strong arming Fiore into giving them the access they need, they're away. There's an odd moment as Ethan actually seems to flirt with Mia that doesn't quite fit right, but we're back into the spy stuff as Mia hacks into the bank's servers, sends the necessary info back to PBH and then makes a sharp exit as armed guards try to spoil the party. A quick escape via the river leads to Mia finally relaxing around Ethan again - but little does she know she's being manipulated! Oo, drama. Love it. Anyway. Back in Boston, Anton finds Jai has snuck off to meet the local Lupans and find his 'cure,' and intercepts him before he can get away. Jai tells Anton he knows the Ahnenerbe are involved in the vampire attacks, and is using that as leverage with the Lupans. Throwing Anton's own arguments back at him, Jai sets off on his hunt but leaves Anton behind to at least warn Prekop about what's coming. A good sense of mutual respect between these two comes across here, and it's a well-played moment. On the jet back to PBH, Ethan continues his charm offensive on Mia and seems to be making some good headway, while at PBH itself Sara finds the virus she was looking for. She goes to Kendall and mentions a file called 'Shaw42,' but Kendall tells her to drop it in no uncertain terms, shredding the evidence. Hmm! So what's going on here then, eh? Back in Boston, Jai's shooting his way into Reynard's warehouse as we see some poor sap getting operated on, in true X-Files style. Jai's on a mission as he mows through everyone in the warehouse, lab workers and vampires alike, with some brilliantly choreographed fight sequences as he scythes through the opposition. Jay's a huge fan of Afterlife, and I think it shows in his approach to the fights here - which is no bad thing! Jai catches a glimpse of Reynard, who mockingly shows him a vial of the cure he needs, while we end the Act on a different note, as a third party shows up and shoots down some of the escaping Ahnenerbe men...

Jai smashes his way through to Reynard, but as the slippery villain makes it to his getaway Mercedes, he gets a sword through his chest for his trouble from our new arrival. The new guy swipes the cure, and before Jai can get to the Merc it detonates! We fade to see Jai with the now deceased Connor, with Jai reasserting his motivations for catching Glissman as a sympathetic Kendall looks on. At PBH, Mia gets the name she was looking for - James Shaw! Ethan feigns shock but Carson's smirk tells us they've just played Mia like a big ol' harp in the symphonic orchestra of Sucker. Or something. Meanwhile, we're in for a shock as we close the episode, as the black clad assassin pulls Connor's body out of the morgue, injects him with the cure - and Connor wakes up! He also seems to know his saviour - it's Sonja! Dum dum daah! And that's yer lot.

Great stuff. DSR delivering a solid episode here, plenty of action, intrigue and some great big shocks at the end. The criminally short fourth Act is the only thing that lets this down, really - it feels more like a footnote than an Act itself, but Jay's decision to eschew the standardly uneven Teaser/Act One structure of typical DSR episodes and go for a more standard one hour drama template may have contributed to that. Getting everybody involved in what's goin on earns points back, however, and the three big shockers in the closing scenes are worth the admission price. I'm really torn on the mark for this, but I'm going for '8' purely because of that last Act. Even if we'd had some more dialogue to pad it out, that still would have been something, y'know? Still. There was a '9' in there, just so you know.

Guardians: Outlook 1x06 & 1x07

2006-07-31T05:49:00.000-07:00

by J.J. Estes

The Outlook comes across an abandoned, but highly advanced, station, and the crew is faced with a choice: take the technology and risk destroying themselves with it, or let it be.

The crew happen across a deserted space station, and while James' reluctance to investigate seems alarmingly unprofessional (you get the feeling they're playing up his slacker nature a little too much), there's some nice comedy moments with the ship's science nerds clamouring to come along. Ivan's a bit overly comic, though - we get that he's an arrogant genius, but it's almost like he's being that stereotypical on purpose at times. It's good to see the rest of the Outlook crew doing something, though - there's a larger sense of scale involved by seeing all the little people who help keep the ship going. The mystery progresses nicely as the team discover a set of humanoid bodies, with the crew's differing personalities getting some screen time as they all approach the situation very differently, and there's a good moral issue here - is it right to effectively steal another civilisation's technology, even if they appear to be long dead? Bravo for the Engel/James conversation about the misuse of weapons as well - great character moments. A better episode, managing to weave in some good modern commentary into a fairly typical sci-fi story, and throws some neat little character moments in there too. Okay, so Ivan's schtick is getting a little irritating but this is Outlook back on form.

======================================================

by George Willson

Harrison and Stansen are hunted by a man who blames them for what the US government did to him.

With news that neither James nor Anna are making themselves out to be Captain material at the moment, we're soon into a story about the crew taking the chance for some downtime again. This always seems to follow a down note - in episode three it was following a death, and here it's following a very high profile mission failure. As the 'replacement' angle with Engel and Hans gets another development, we're shown the aftermath of the attack from the Teaser, and that somebody or something named 'Goliath' is on the loose, and before long Stansen's daughter is almost kidnapped by some Hulk wannabe. Letting a skeleton fall out of the wardrobe of the guys in charge of things always makes for some good drama, and here it works to great effect. Okay, so Stansen's explanation of the situation clunks along a little despite getting some topical anti-genetic engineering opinions in there, but it's backed up by some touching stuff between Engel and Hans' father. When Jeff the Goliath does make it into the base to attack our guys, that old bugbear of flat stage direction kills any tension that the scenes may have had, but the scene where Jeff and Harrison fall foul of nitrous oxide makes for some good comic relief. A somewhat flat epilogue doesn't round the episode off as well as it could have, so despite getting some good mileage out of Stansen (seeing his paternal side in action is a great piece of characterisation), this loses out by not making Jeff's attack on the base as dramatic as it needed to be.

Guardians: Outlook 1x03 & 1x04

2006-07-31T05:34:00.000-07:00

by J.J. Estes & George Willson

While the Outlook crew recovers from their losses, two new recruits are added to their ranks.

After a neat little opener to tell us a lot about Lak and Ruben, the two newbies, and some good stuff as Stansen's acerbic manner bulldozes his way through a press conference, we're into an episode of character development, a change of pace after the action-packed opening pair of shows. The new arrivals do some bonding with the regulars, noticeably Aya and Lakshanya, while Ivan gets a visit from his mother which appears to just be a device for telling more vokda jokes. James, on the other hand, gets a solid story where he goes to break the news of Hans' death to his family, and there's some genuinely good stuff here. Getting called away from the funeral and his reaction to that tells us a lot about how he still feels about his earlier, more disasterous missions. Stansen's motivations get a good moment in a heated discussion with Harrison, and there's even some Anna moments when James finds her all gothed up in a club in Germany - something that's a surprising development about her. However, all this good work is undone by the final Act, where not only do we sandwich in a third new arrival in a rather random little scene, we also get the totally underwhelming announcement that James has made captain, something that should have had a lot more made of it.

=====================================================

by George Willson

The crew of the Outlook lands on a planet where the locals are celebrating some great change, then wake up to find they have changed bodies.

In what is suprisingly the first actual mission of the show after three episodes, we're into what Outlook will be doing a lot of - Star Trek/SG-1 style Planet Of The Week investigations. The story starts off well enough, a little light on the direction again and laying on the dry humour a bit too thickly, but once the team are down on the planet and interacting with the natives, we get the Twist - the body swap! It's an old sci-fi cliche story that normally allows for some good insight into how different characters view themselves, however, but as the episode rolls on all we really get are lots of jokes at the other crew members' expense, with Ivan relishing being in a woman's body a bit too much for my liking! Anna seems remarkably au fait with the whole situation really, so it's mined more for its comic potential than any real sci-fi issues. There's even a Temple of the Ancients, another prominent SG-1ism. Some character moments finally start to come out at the end, with Aya's natural friendliness starting to bring down some of Rubens' barriers, and we get some more clues as to Lakshanya's unusual opinions on sex, but these don't happen untl Act IV, and the plot itself has moved very slowly up to that point. There's an odd, very underplayed encounter with an 'Aircraft Person' near the end that sticks out as being very underdeveloped, but there's one good Harrison/Engel moment right at the end that links into a more deeper, ongoing plot behind the series. So overall, a bit of a wasted opportunity, taking the overly comic route instead of taking the time to develop our characters a bit more - and let's not forget, three of these people only joined the crew last episode so we've had very little time to get to know them anyway!

Guardians: Outlook 1x01 'Outlook'

2006-07-31T05:31:00.000-07:00

by J.J. Estes

The newly selected crew of the Outlook prepares to take their ship on some test runs when an unforeseen danger pushes them into a real challenge.

With two feature-length episodes acting as a prequel to all this, there's the risk of starting off Guardians: Outlook being a little lost, but a wonderfully sardonic voiceover from James at the start brings you up to speed in no time at all. You can spot the Stargate SG-1 influences early on, mainly in the permanently-bemused James and the permanently-cynical Stansen's attitudes to the increasingly outlandish goings on around them. Snappy dialogue throughout, laced with a sharp, dry wit that characterises the whole show - anyone who doesn't have that sense of humour is mercilessly picked on by those that do, although that can get a little tiring at times when scenes are made much longer by jokey interplay between some of the characters (James, Ivan and Stansen for the most part). Several more dramatic moments (like the Act II break) also fall foul of this, which saps a little of the tension away. The arrival of Anna gives the show some good balance, as well as an instantly crackling chemistry between her and James that really lights up any scene the duo are in. The whole UNEF operation demonstrates an admirable sense of attention to detail, with a firm grounding in realism meaning the concepts of a lunar base and the Outlook itself never feel too far from reality, even with the alien involvment at the show's core. The terrorist plot manages to bring a sense of drama to proceedings even if nobody seems to be taking things very seriously - which is true of the style of the show in general, given its frequently tongue-in-cheek tone. The terrorists have a solid reason for wanting to bring the UNEF down, the kind of paranoia that's all too easy to imagine springing up in today's world. All good sci-fi has one eye on current affairs to apply to its own themes and stories, so credit for managing to make the terrorists people we can sympathise with to some extent. The actual writing itself is tight in terms of dialogue, although it feels a little emotionless in places, and the stage direction suffers similar problems by not emphasising bigger moments to capitalise on them - Ivan getting shot in Act III is easily missed, when it should be a bigger moment to bring home the fact that all the previous joking is perhaps not that appropriate after all! The retaking of the ship is well choregraphed, though, so it doesn't feel contrived at all. These people have to fight for their ship and don't get an easy ride at all - and Stansen gunning down the terrorist leader in cold blood is a good, dark moment. The cliffhanger is a good effect too - James' last-second solution makes you wonder why you didn't think of it first, so takes you to the end of the show genuinely intrigued as to what's waiting on the other side for the crew! Overall, some fantastic dialogue and a great level of attention to detail, hindered somewhat by an over-reliance on dry, in-jokey humour, a little too much direct influence from SG-1 and some stilted stage direction, but a good little bunch of characters and a well-developed playground for them to run about in.

The DSR 1x15 'All About A Girl, Part II'

2006-07-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

by A.J. Black & J.T. Vaughn

Mia finds herself in great danger when trapped in a precarious position when the bounty hunters, led by a familiar face, make their strike…

And straight into part two of what's turning out to be a very strong story for The DSR. I'll keep the introduction short and get right back into it...

A slightly trippy intro brings us slap bang into Mia's flashback, as she cradles the wounded Darryl - but he ain't dead yet! Something is growling (!) outside and clearly the mission is scrubbed, but while Mia wants to bail and leave, Rhindhart ain't going nowhere without that gold. As his men set charges and blow themselves an escape route back out through the mountain, Mia's not going to leave Darryl to die. No, sir. Switch back to the present as the captive Mia comes round to be faced by Rhindhart once more, finding herself in the vampire equivalent of PBH - the Brotherhood headquarters! But... why is Rhindhart there? He's a werewolf, as you may know - so the plot thickens! Back at PBH, Jai's furiously demanding some kind of action to find Mia, kicking stuff around (nice moment with the window, by the way) when Sara runs in with a transmission from Sonja. Seems the reason Rhindhart was in the Brotherhood HQ was because his Project team have taken it over, and SOnja throws herself on the mercy of the DSR. Which should prove interesting!

Mia is dragged before Rhindhart, telling him of his plan to end the vampire/lupan war by wiping out a large chunk of the vampire population - and he asks Mia to join him. Mia's angry refusal leads us into another flashback, and we're getting tantalisingly close to her secret here as we return to the firefight inside the missile silo in Basra. Rhindhart helps Mia start moving Darryl to safety as his men grab the last of the gold, but something big and nasty is down in the tunnels with them now! Mia gets Darryl into a waiting jeep as Rhindhart goes back for one last bit of gold, but he comes racing out spattered in blood moments later, yelling at her to move it. Something bad is back there, kids. Mia is led into another part of the Brotherhood HQ and meets a scientific-looking guy named Kovas, who whispers to her that they should be able to escape if they tried. Another unwilling participant? Kendall isn't sure whether to trust Sonja, but Jai isn't about to let their only chance to find Mia slip away. Kendall approves the op despite his reservations, and we return to the Brotherhood HQ as Lume, Rhindhart's #2 guy, starts the demonstration of the Wave. Rhindhart drags one of the vamp hostages into the room with the sphere weapon, and a horrified Mia watches as she and Kovas formulate their escape plan. With everyone watching the deomsntartion, Mia is able to slip away into the air vents, before we finally see the Wave in action, atomising the unfortunate vamp and leaving Rhindhart unharmed.

Switch to a DSR safe house in Geneva where Jai and Sonja are discussing their op, with Sonja revealing an interesting detail when she reveals that vampire bloodlust can be surpressed through an energy source channeled throughout the Brotherhood HQ. It's a little vague, however, which is an unfortunate symptom of a lot of the 'science' behind DSR. Back with Rhindhart, and his evil plan consists of using that same energy to supercharge the Wave weapon, but his plans go on hold when Lume tells him Mia has escaped (and Lume calls Mia 'the reason he came.' Hmm!). Mia manages to find herself some guns during her escape, leading us back to Flashback Land as Rhindhart drives Mia and the stricken Darryl to somewhere that can help.He gets to a friendly village and puts Darryl in the care of some acquaintances, before hinting that something went screwy in the mission - and it involved one of his own men. I have a theory, but I'm holding back for now. Back in the present, Jai and Sonja are infiltrating the Brotherhood base when Sonja sees something is going weird with the base's energy supply. Mia almost gets busted by a patrolling guard, but no sooner has she put him down than Jai and Sonja have arrived. Rah. Just as they identify the main generators which need taking out, however, a grenade surprises them, with Jai making Mia and Sonja play dead as he faces the guards. Jai is led away, but once he's gone Mia and Sonja take out the last guard. Time for them to finish the job now that Jai's bought them the opportunity!

Jai is brought before Rhindhart, but knows full well that Mia and Sonja are still out there as we rejoin the girls, and despite things being a little prickly between them, it's clear Sonja's doing this to save somebody she cares about. You guessed it - flashback time. I wonder what Mia's '1-2-3-Flashback!' face would look like? Anyway. In the village safe house, Darryl manages to croak out confirmation that Burke was the one who injured him and killed the others, but also says 'he wasn't a man' before he finally slips away, and poor old Mia can do nothing but cry her little heart out. It's a well-handled moment, made all the more touching by seeing the usually tough Mia reduced to a sobbing wreck over his death. Rhindhart (making plenty of Bond jokes along the way) tells Jai that when activated, the Wave will kill any vamp within two hundred miles, and that Aldo's specs were taken from a much older design - the Wave's original creator is unknown. And it had better not be Rambaldi. Else there'll be trouble. Rhindhart then tells Jai that he knows that the Ahnenerbe have a cure for Connor, and he can help get it, but only if Jai doesn't try to stop the Wave from going off. Mia and Sonja get started on shutting down the generators as we see Lume torturing Kovas, before Rhindhart takes over. He explains about the pretty nasty widget he's using on Kovas, something that cooks vamps good and proper, but before he can get started Jai re-enters - and accepts Rhindhart's offer! Now, anybody who remembers 'Lead/Gold' knows that Jai's pulled this stunt before, so we'll have to see how genuine he's being this time. My guess is not very.

Rhindhart gets his plan set up, but gets told of Mia and Sonja's plan and sends Lume with some other goons to stop them. Jai seems to be enjoying the show as Sonja grabs a gun and leaves Mia to take down the generators, which have sixty seconds to go (cue the music!) before shutdown. The generators click off, but Rhindhart's already got the backups working, and with the Wave starting to power up the girls are still pinned down in the genertaor room. Mia takes out Lume (a little abrubtly, I must say), and up in the main area Jai gets a gun to Rhindhart - then shoots the Wave! Everyone is knocked down just as Sonja bursts in, but she gets bogged down in her own fight as Rhindhart starts giving Jai a good kicking. Mia knocks Rhindhart down once his back is turned, leading us into another flashback as Mia sobs over Darryl's body. Screams from outside get her attention - and a pack of a dozen werewolves are tearing through the villagers outside! Rhindhart tells Mia what's going on, that the Lupans are just trying to protect themselves until the time is right for them to fulfil their destiny (wipe out the vamps, I'm guessing), and we get our American Werewolf moment as Rhindhart changes before her very eyes, kicking Mia around before we switch back to the Brotherhood HQ, a furious Mia keeping Rhindhart at gunpoint as she screams at him for what he took away from her, and we quickly flash back to Mia recovering in a military hospital, but there's one shock here - Mia lost her baby! Her baby? Now Darryl's earlier dying words make sense, and it's a genuine shocker of a moment. In the present, Mia demands to know who was behind this whole operation, and Rhindhart's mention of a French group named 'Projetons' gives a flash back to 'Mage' when the DSR auditor flagged something up of the same name, and Mia realises with horror that this scheme goes right back into the DSR itself! Rhindhart gets away, and Sonja goes to Kovas who appears to be the man she was worried about. Debriefing back at PBH, Kendall explains that Rhindhart's still on the run as we see Kovas debriefing Sonja - and it's revealed that he's her dad. Aww. Jai goes to see Mia, telling her what Rhindhart said about the cure for Connor, and she wishes him luck before heading to a search centre to look up 'Projetons.' And this alerts Carson and Ethan! They mention moving things into the 'second phase' as the curtain falls...

Good stuff. More action-packed than Part One and containing some truly jaw-dropping revelations - Mia's secret is a real kicker, as is the revelation of Carson and Ethan's involvment in the whole scheme that blows the whole thing wide open. The rapid cuts between flashbacks and current action threatens to get a little confusing but manages to stay logical, and things reach a satisfactory conclusion despite Jai suddenly developing Stromtrooper Syndrome as he fails to shoot down the fleeing Rhindhart. So! Some good plots pushed along here, some fantastic character development for Mia that now leaves Jai, Anton, Sara and Mia nicely fleshed out. Problems? Well... no matter how you look at it, the way the Wave is described makes me think of a Mueller device, and the hints at the ancient design of the thing leaves an uncomfortably Rambaldi-flavoured aftertaste to the whole thing. Some clunky, out of character dialogue from Rhindhart creeps in too - he's not really Big Bad material no matter how much he mwa ha ha's his way through things, you know? He's a good henchman to some bigger, more intellectual villain, but here he comes across a bit off somehow. Lastly, Jai's 'yeah, I'll work with you... honest' moment may as well have had him sniggering behind his hand for how (not) convincing it was to us, the audience. Still. A much tighter and more entertaining two-parter than 'Lead/Gold' and one of the strongest DSR stories of the season. It's only those niggles above that knock this down a bit, really, and they're fairly forgiveable.

The DSR 1x14 'All About A Girl, Part I'

2006-07-28T03:25:00.000-07:00

by A. J. Black, J.T. Vaughn & Brian L. Lamkin

The DSR begins hunting for a magical weapon with the ability to biologically attack vampiric DNA, which Kendall fears a dangerous group of bounty hunters are after...

Another DSR double bill here, with what looks like some more insight into Mia's past with badass Rhindhart and his vampire posse, so I will dutifully review both halves back-to-back. The two episodes were originally going to be written by A.J. Black and Brian Lamkin, but the old spectre of real life time constraints meant new boy J.T. Vaughn jumped into the breach, and from what I can tell his speedy, high quality writing saved the team's collective bacon. Vaughn's 'Soul Man' script a few episodes back was a very impressive debut, so let's see what he can bring to the show now!

We open in Basra, Iraq, back in 2003 as Mia and Rhindhart duck for cover in the midst of a firefight between US troops and the Republican Guard. Mia leads her squad out across No Man's Land, losing a man along the way (and earmarking Mia's compassionate nature) and advancing on an enemy oil refinery. Later in the day, the assault has made good progress, Mia again showing her big heart as she mourns the fallen Iraqi soldiers just as much as her own. A new sergeant steps out, Darryl Sinclair, and it seems Mia is quite smitten with the dashing young officer. Fast forward to the present day in Tajikstan, with Mia on a DSR op with Ethan and Anton. They're closing in on what looks like a garage sale for paranormal creatures, including a caged werewolf, with Anton picking out a Lupan scientist named Krolle as the main target of the mission. Mia spots a sniper moving into position, but as she moves to intercept she sees Ethan and Anton have fallen into the hands of the Lupans. Quickly rigging a series of explosive charges, she detonates the Lupan trading centre as she swoops in to rescue her two boys, before she finds the wounded sniper neasrby. He was a Brotherhood guy - vampires, if you remember - and they wanted Krolle dead for some kind of weapon he's escaped with. As the dying sniper tells her it's something that could wipe out the entire vampire race, we close on what's been one of the best openers to an episode of DSR all season. Good stuff.

Back in the PBH briefing room when we return, as Kendall and Carson lead the briefing on the weapon that's got the vampires so twitchy. Any kind of Bortherhood vs. Lupan smackdown could lead to human casualties, and the DSR can't sit back and let that happen. Next up is Sara, doing her little cute bumbling thing as she dolls herself up and asks Jai to come with her to Mia's birthday party that evening. Fast forward to the somewhat relaxed party, with Sara fussing around as party liaison as Jai finally turns up. Some nice little character moments all round before Jai tries to go speak to Mia, but Ethan beats him to it. Mia starts to muse (and cue the flashback noise) and we rejoin her with Darryl back in Three Years Ago Land. Rhindhart steps in to break up th emoment a little, but the story soon moves back to Mia's party. The gradual unfolding of flashback details is a trick that Lost has proved works well as a story telling device, so let's see what it gives us to work with here. Ethan raises a toast to Mia, and Jai slips away at last, frustrated by not being able to get a chance to talk to her. Anton finds Sara hard at work in her room, the liberated Brotherhood file having provided some interesting intel as we switch to the next morning's briefing at PBH. Kendall tells the team about Aldo Jones, a brilliant electronics whiz who appears to be involved with the production of whatever weapon Krolle has his hands on. The twist? Jones is a vampire - working on an anti-vampire weapon. Mia volunteers to track Jones down at his favourite nightclub in Singapore, and we join her as she's about to strut over and charm Jones away, before nipping back to her wartime flashback. Darryl and Mia are enjoying a quiet picnic, but with the final push into Baghdad about to kick off, Darryl plans to transfer Mia out of the firing line. Mia can't leave yet, however - Rhindhart's got word of a stash of Iraqi gold nestled away in a village and ripe for the plundering, and Mia's alreadsy signed up to help him reclaim it. Back with Mia as she sleazes her way into Jones' line of sight, but unknown to her somebody else has just entered the club, shooting the coatroom attendant as they make their way inside. Mia pours Jones a glass of champagne - then smoothly tells him that she's laced it with poison, and he's go ten minutes to talk before he dies, unless she hears what she wants and gives him the antidote. And is it possible to love Mia any more at this moment? Mia pushes Aldo for a name for who Krolle's working for, but the mystery assassin takes him out before he can spill the beans. Mia tries to follow the shooter but has no luck (and I've just realised that this whole sequence is a bit of a rip-off of the Alias episode 'Unveiled'), but we get to see who the shooter was - our old vampire friend Sonja!

Back at PBH, surveillance footage has identified Sonja as the assassin, and despite Jai's obvious sympathies to Sonja's motivations, he pitches in with the mission to track her down and see what she knows. Mia's clearly rattled by letting Sonja get the better of her, as we return to her flashback as she listens to Rhindhart's briefing about the mission to nab the Iraqi gold. This whole sequence is obviously a riff off the movie Three Kings, so let's see if the writers can put some kind of DSR spin on the story. Mia's there without Darryl's approval, but this doesn't seem to bother Rhindhart too much. Sara bursts into Kendall's office to show footage of Sonja stealing a disk from Aldo's lab, presumably with the tech specs of the weapon, and Jai volunteers to bring her in. Kendall sticks Anton and Mia on the case (Sonja and Mia? Oo, the sparks are gonna fly...), and next thing we know we're in Havanna, as Jai steps into an exclusive rest clinic to meet our resident femme fatale. Jai arrives at the clinic, a little perturbed by all the shiny happy people working there, before neatly tranq'ing the surgeon who comes to see him, swiping a keycard and getting into the staff rooms. Jai suddenly goes offline, and as shouts of fighting are heard, Mia is already off and running as we hit the next flashback. She's packing her bag ready for the gold hunt, surprised by Darryl before she can leave. More little character moments slip out - Mia doesn't want to be a soldier, her parents pushed her into service - and as a determined Mia marches off to meet up with Rhindhart, we're back in the present as Mia charges to the rescue. She follows Jai's tracks, smashing a fire alarm to cover her trail as she enters a laboratory and finds Sonja hard at work. She spots Jai, tied up and helpless, but before she can react she's surprised by a gang of Brotherhood goons, but they're no match for our girl as she lays them all down, marching up to Sonja and putting a gun to her head - but Sonja just smiles back? Huh?

Sonja's running some kind of decryption program on the computer, but despite Mia having her bang to rights she knocks the gun away, and then we get the fanboy moment you've been waiting for - Mia vs. Sonja. Oh, yes. Mia gives it a good try, but as more goons spill in Jai is pressed into action, watching Mia's back as she spars with Sonja. The computer finishes decrypting and Sonja lays Mia out at last, but finds Jai between herself and the computer. Mia's back on her feet and with a gun back to Sonja's head, and as Anton finally arrives we move on to a DSR safehouse where Sonja's all tied up (steady now), getting a grilling from Jai and the others. She tells them that Krolle has set up a base in Cuba to develop his anti-vamp weapon, and a group called the 'Project' is on its way to pick the weapon up. Sonja tells them she's under strict orders to work alone, but she's not eaxctly in a position to negotiate as Jai tells her he's coming along too. Mia is far from happy at the flirtation between the duo before we hit another Mia flashback. Rhindhart's team are on their way to the silo where the gold is hidden when a chopper swoops in to intercept - but it's Darryl. And he wants in. Those of us who know how these things go can already sense what may be coming as we jump back to the present, and Krolle's Cuban fortress. A Rambaldi device-esque sphere seems to be the weapon in question, but as Jai's team begin their infiltration outside Sonja points them towards some unwelcome visitors - the Project are here for the goods!

Back in Basra, the looters arrive at the silo and make their way underground, and as Krolle meets the four Project men Jai's team begin to stealth their way into the base, getting as far as the lab as Krolle gushes about the efficiency of his vamp killer, something called the Wave. See, we love our ominous-sounding codewords in the Alias-verse. The head of the Project admires the weapon - then kills Krolle! He removes his hood - and it's Rhindhart! Ba dum dum. Jai's team burst in with a bang, and as a shocked Mia sees Rhindhart, we switch back to the silo in Basra once more. The team find the gold as Darryl waits up top, again pleading with Mia not to get involved, but a burst of gunfire signals the inevitable - and a body wearing Darryl's uniform plummets past to its death. D'oh! Rhindhart's goons grab the Wave, and Mia breaks rank to pile off after him despite Jai's shouts to stay down. Jai makes it outside just in time to see an unconscious Mia getting bundled into the back of a truck and driven away! And there's your cliffhanger...

Well. DSR on top form here, firing on all cylinders and throwing a genuinely action packed and exciting episode our way. After a few recent misfiring stories, it's great to get one that covers so many bases - interesting character development, backstories, espionage action and focus on one of the show's strongest characters in Mia. Okay, so the use of the flashback device here is straight out of Lost and the gold raid itself is either a homage or straight lift from Three Kings, but it works well here. The mystery over Rhindhart deepens here - what led to him becoming a werewolf, and what does Mia have to do with it? And I don't think we've seen the last of Darryl either - something about the way that bit was staged just feels too suspect to me. We'll see. I'll get right onto part two, but this is a very strong set up - managing to blend action and exposition very well in the show's best episode since 'A Piece Of The Action.'

Pathways 2x12 'The Dangers Of Dating'

2006-07-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

by Guy Uhler

Sam and Julie decide that it’s time they bite bullet and try and go on a date together. After a disastrous night, where one thing after another has gone wrong, could fate be trying to tell them something?

Guy Uhler makes a return to Pathways, and as we have an episode built around Julie and Sam's attempts to do something about their blossoming feelings (as well as some more Parker/Alanna stuff, I expect), let's see what goes on here. I remain impressed with how this series has sucked me in - after a wobbly start, the season managed to start gaining a better sense of focus, with each episode getting more cohesive and pulling all the various plot strands together. The breezy tone can switch to more serious stuff quite easily, and the ensemble cast remain as strong as ever.

We've seen several early morning routine sequences thus far, and now it's Sam's turn. Falling out of bed and into the shower, he has a pep talk with his reflection before bursting into song, trying on about six different outfits before finally applying his hair gel and makeup, flouncing down into the kitchen to make pancakes before leaving for the day. While this little sequence tells us masses about Sam's psyche, it feels like it's missing a punchline somehow - but maybe that's just me. Anyway.

Sam bumps straight into Julie, kicking off the first Awkward-o-thon of the day as the duo stumble their way through an attempt at light conversation. The duo make their excuses and go their separate ways before we catch up with Gabe in the Banner staff room, and as one student asks for help in his article Gabe does the classic 'I'm going to make everything I say into a thinly-veiled statement about my own problems' thing, and to Uhler's credit this works very well, playing on Gabe's naturally rapid dialogue to good effect. We leave Gabe to catch up with Comedy Mark and Not Out Yet Logan, with Logan finally taking the plunge and asking Mark out on a date, the two clearly on the same wavelength as Mark happily says yes. It's Charlie and Parker up next (have to say that these little scenes are unfolding the episode nicely thus far), and we get our first hint of drama as Charlie spills the beans about the affair Kaia seems to be having with one of the teachers, asking for Parker's help in getting to the bottom of it all. Parker agrees to help, having his own reasons for wanting to get even with Kaia, but doesn't seem too happy about it as a blushing Charlie heads off. Sam and Julie meet up again next, and Sam makes the bold move of asking her out on a date. Stressing that this doesn't mean he isn't gay any more, she agrees, and so the stage is set. You have to beat the dramatic irony off with a stick, but still, you know... stage set.

Anna meets up with James, waiting for the contractor to arrive so they can go over schematics of the new clinic, but as Anna decides it's high time they got a little frisky, Lou the contractor shows up at last. Lou's offering a good deal and Anna is suitably psyched, and things also seem to be back into giggly teenager mode between her and James, with some sweet interplay between them. Mark heads in to see Sam to tell him about the impending date with Logan, and in true rom com style we leave them to join Julie and Charlie, showing both sides of Sam and Julie's impending date and the worries that are accompanying it. In the Blaze later that evening, Mark, Gabe and Charlie are discussing the impending polarisation of their world should Sam and Julie somehow hook up, but as Charlie slips off to see Parker and Logan shows up, Gabe is facing a night in alone until Mark invites him along on his date with Logan. Oh, Mark. Mark, will you never learn?

Act III opens with Charlie and Parker staking out one of Kaia's old makeout spots, waiting patiently despite Charlie's attempts to get Parker to flirt with her. Sam and Julie are out enjoying a posh meal, but as Julie gets a drink spilled in her lap you just know tonight isn't going to go to plan. Gabe is also doing his best to unknowingly screw up Mark and Logan's date, babbling on about his Dominic troubles and emo-ing like a good 'un. Logan's being accommodating so far, but you have to ask just how long his patience will last here. Sam and Julie finish their meal and escape from the restaurant, but as they try to go see a movie (which, as any would-be couple can attest, is an easy way to spend two hours together without needing to say much) Sam finds he's left his keys in his car - and neither of them brought their mobile phones! D'oh. Back with Parker and Charlie, and a bored Parker is just about to head home for the night when Kaia finally shows up - now we're getting somewhere!

After the movie, Mark and Logan seem to still be having a good night, but Mark makes the mistake of daring to comment on Gabe's bad mood, and before you know it Gabe and Mark are having one of those outpurings that inevitably leads to more pouting. Mark manages to blurt out a few home truths to Gabe, namely that he was the one who cheated on Dom so it's hardly appropriate for him to be complaining about it, which not surprisingly goes down like a Slayer record at a wedding reception. Sam and Julie make it home at last, and despite the evening having been a total washout the duo are quick to decide to try it again, and soon. But! There's the moment you've been waiting for - the kiss! Blimey. Mark and Logan go the same way, Logan's reservoir of patience getting him through the evening with enough left over to give Mark a goodnight kiss, but back with Sam and Julie things go a bit south once the duo say their good-byes. Neither of them look sure over what to make of that last kiss, and as we switch back to Charlie and Parker's stakeout, the tension between the two of them is starting to amp up a bit as they come perilously close to kissing, before Charlie's persistence pays off and Mr. Swenson steps into frame. As Kaia and Swenson get stuck into a thorough examination of each other's dental work, we leave Pathways for another week.

Hmm. Not sure what to make of this one - the rapid-fire dialogue flows well throughout, and even if the progression of the story is pretty predictable, it's a good storytelling device to have three couples each trying to have an evening together in some shape or form. There's a good sense of pacing as things roll on, and some nifty characterisation all round as the evening wears on. My issues with this episode are that it's too darn short (43 pages of a dialogue-heavy script is about five pages shorter than normal), and the stage direction is as flat as a pancake which sabotages some of the good moments of tension. The two snogs and one almost-snog should be big moments, but they happen so quickly in the direction that you can almost miss them if you're not careful! So, while this is a pacy, well-written episode in some respects, it falls back from the lazy stage direction and unecessarily short timing of the whole thing.

Afterlife 1x10 'Sunset'

2006-07-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

by Jon Nyqvist

The dark ones are on the move, and it falls to Jonathan & company to prevent a plot aiming to make the next sunset the last - literally!

With Afterlife nearing the conclusion of its cracking first season, it's time for our Big Bads Murder and Betrayal to put the final stages of their plan into operation, their army of dark beasties threatening to overrun the Afterlife unless Jonathan and Aurora can stop them. Aurora's in no fit state to do anything at the moment, however - after being left poisoned by the darkness creeping across her body (present since the very start of the season), she's in danger of succumbing and becoming Murder's next lieutenant, and after Jon's failed attempt to cure her in the last episode, what hope remains for our plucky duo?

We open in a flashback ten years into the past, following two men as they stroll the corridors of an Asylum, one of them the mysterious Shadow Man who's been playing such a large part in the fates of our various characters. They're talking about some particularly troubled young girl - a druggie for a mother, abused in the foster home system and finally institutionalised. Ouch. The Shadow Man peers into the cell - and there's Rachel! You guessed it. Good to get a bit more insight into why our resident Big Badette is the way she is - any good villain has something you can sympathise with them about, so that's some great characterisation for you right there.

Back in the Afterlife, Rachel/Betrayal is studying her own reflection (with a neat touch in how her reflection shows her consumed by darkness, despite the pure white dress she's wearing) when Murder arrives to tell her it's 'time.' Betrayal is clearly still pissed that she didn't get to finish Aurora off her own way, but she's going along with Murder's plans for now as we switch over to Darkwood Village to join Aurora, out of bed and practicing using Jon's punching bag. Aurora doesn't feel like talking about what's happening to her despite Jon's obvious (and rather touching) concern for her, but as she mentions the dreams she's been having of a black flood overrunning a city, Jon tells her that he's been having the same dream for the last five years! Going back ten years, we find Rachel now living at Bridge Manor under the tutelage of the Shadow Man, who tells her it's time for her to go to high school at last - and make friends with Aurora! These flashbacks are both short and connecting together some important plot details, so they're serving the episode well and not slowing things down, as happened on occasion earlier in the season. Jon, meanwhile, has called a crisis meeting with Aurora, Kate and Lianna to work out a game plan for tackling Murder's dark army, with Aurora saying she's got some kind of instinctual urge to head west at the moment. Kate recalls being shown some old ruins there by Marius, so Jon decides to go and check it out. We end the Act with a shot of Murder and Betrayal leading their huge army forward, just to remind you that the shite is ready and waiting to be thrown at the old fan...

Back in the past at Bridge Manor, Rachel reports back to the Shadow Man. Her tormented upbringing has made her a master manipulator and she's already putting her skills to good use, worming her way into everybody's heart and, more importantly, Aurora's circle of friends. In the Afterlife, Murder waits at the edge of the Dark Lands for the sun to go down, so he and his army can surge forward and do that old conquering thing at last. As Jon and Aurora set off and leave Kate to lead the village, we cut back to Aurora's beach house nine years ago, as the girl herself relaxes with Rachel and Linda. Rachel slips away, breaks into a bedroom and gets hold of the house's security codes (you putting the pieces together yet?), before we return to the cusp of the Dark Lands. Betrayal and Murder have an interesting conversation, both mentioning a 'he' who must be the Shadow Man, but this guy obviously wields a huge amount of influence over both of them. Hmm! Jon and Aurora stop by a lake, but Jon's caution is well advised as once again, some big slimy tentacled thing makes a grab for them. Thing is, this time it isn't giving up so easily, and as our duo race back into the forest they're pursued by the thing, dragging its bulk out of the lake and smashing through the trees to get to them. Jon realises they're heading for a cliff edge, but the blindly fleeing Aurora doesn't, so with a quick jolt of Hero Juice he manages to set up a rope and hook himself to a boulder, soaring over the edge as Aurora drops off it! He manages to grab her, but as the duo are left hanging over a hundred foot drop with only an increasingly fragile rope between them and a Wile E. Coyote style exit, it's time for a Black Out...

There's trees about twenty feet down, but they're not going to offer much in the way of help given that they're just as far away from the base of the cliff. As the river beast above starts hammering at the cliff and threatening to take Jon and Aurora out in a rockslide, Aurora starts swinging out to try and jump for the nearest tree, and in another of those wonderfully cinematic moments that this show does so well, the duo leap for the trees, making it to relative safety just as the river beast causes a full on rockfall overhead, missing them by moments. They hit the deck, alive but winded, and Jon finds he's dislocated his shoulder. Aurora dutifully snaps it back into place, but time is running out as Murder watches the sun set at last - it's time to move on! Back in the past, there's a nice moment where young Aurora almost knocks down young Jon in the street, before we jump forward to just after Rachel has committed the murders that Aurora was framed for (although the jumps in time do get a little confusing - maybe needed a bit more clarification on what was going on there), reporting back to the Shadow Man and getting ready to ruin Aurora's life as we jump back into the Afterlife as Jon remembers the story of the day it all went wrong for Aurora, eliciting a rare tear from the girl herself as he offers his sympathies. Murder's army is seen approaching the same ruined temple that Jon and Aurora are heading for, with Murder informing Betrayal that the temple will form a conduit for allowing his army to be unleashed back into 'the outside world' - by which I take it he means ours. Eep! Murder brings Betrayal before an altar coursing with power, telling her it's her destiny to break down the barrier between worlds - the 'betrayal of nature itself' as Murder elegantly puts it. Jon and Aurora are sneaking into the camp, which gives us the Line Of The Week (and a contender for Line Of The Season):

JONATHAN
It’s my sword, I swear.

Narf. The duo approach the pyramid and altar at its peak, but at the sight of Betrayal Aurora snaps, rushing out of cover to face her and blowing their whole surprise attack wide open!

Act IV opens with the moment Rachel stabbed Aurora back in the beach house, just to remind you precisely why Aurora's about to tear Betrayal a new one as the two enemies clash on top of the temple, but despite sinking a dagger into Betrayal's chest the bad girl is unharmed. Murder shows up to toss Aurora back into the incoming Jonathan, sending them both tumbling back down the pyramid steps as Betrayal gets to the altar and does her thing. As darkness starts to build within the ocean just off the nearby coast, Jon and Aurora are surrounded by dark beasties at the foot of the pyramid. Murder comes to see them both, challenging them to get past him, but despite the duo's best efforts he holds them off without even blinking, breaking Aurora's arm and a few of Jon's ribs in a typically fast and brutal fight sequence, but the duo aren;t giving up that easily, fighting on despite their injuries as Betrayal's work continues up on the altar. Pillars of pure darkness burst from the altar and surrounding ocean, turning the sky black in a truly awe-inspiring sequence, and with Jon and Aurora close to the edge Murder orders his army to kill them both. The beasties close in, but the heroes have aplan, using the bottles of oil in Jon's backpack to create a blast of flame, dazzling the army for long enough for them to slip away. With Betrayal's magic still busy ending the world in the background, we get our last flashback between Rachel and the Shadow Man, and the biggest shocker yet - he shoots her! We know that this will send her into the Afterlife, but the horror on Rachel's face again makes you feel almost sorry for her as she hits the ground, dead - and Betrayal is born. In the Afterlife, the jet black sky starts to pour with rain, watched by the horrified residents of Darkwood village and Jon & Aurora, seeing the end of the world play out before them as we cut to black...

Wow. In a word. The clever use of Rachel's flashbacks both fill in the last few blanks on her involvment in ruining Aurora's life but also her motivations for doing so - was she born bad, or did the abuse she suffered as a child make her that way? Okay, the chronology of the flashbacks requires close attention to avoid getting mixed up, but when they flesh out Betrayal as both a Big Badette and a person they way they do, you can forgive them that. Villains with layers like that are always a thousand times more interesting than people who are just plain bad, so as Betrayal ends the world it's not only a surprise (you know, you'd think Murder would do it) but also something that you can understand. And that, my friends, is one of the many, many things that makes Afterlife so bloody good. Complex, realistic characters with flaws, emotions and motivations, coupled with tense, dramatic set pieces and mesmerising moments of action, all shot through with a filmworthy eye for cinematography, and here we've got one of the classic styles of genre TV cliffhangers - the 'we're so screwed' moment. This is it now - we've set up what our heroes have to beat and made doing so look virtually impossible. And you're damn sure you need to see how it all plays out. Bring on the finale!

The High Life 1x06 'Mr. Guitar Man'

2006-07-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

by Emma Platt & Chris Kelly

Lee embarks on a dramatic new career path, and though the others fear for his sanity he seems happy for the first time in a long while. So how long until the bubble bursts for our harassed leader?

Back with The High Life, whose troubled schedule has proven no obstacle to the continuing adventures of MZP's inner circle. Lee continues to slowly disintegrate into madness, Ian has happily been there for some time now, drama queen Emma pops her stack with alarming regularity, Waylon and Chris continue their comedy double act and Claire remains the sensible one amongst it all - though not without problems of her own. Episode six finds Lee approaching an interesting new career choice in the wake of his dismissal after the disastrous dinner in 'Meet The Roomies,' so let's find out what happens to him. Er, me. You know what I mean.

Waylon and Chris are lying awake in the living room, discussing Lee's new lack of direction following his sacking from the production company. Waylon's concerned that he'll have competition for house slob, but we all know he's too darn good at it for that to ever happen. The duo keep going off topic to make some of those dry in-jokes that always pepper Kelly's scripts, but as Lee storms out to yell at them they realise he could hear every word they were saying. The duo are unrepentant as always, prompting Lee to give Waylon a soaking before retiring for the night.

The next morning, everyone is surprised to find Lee favouring a day slobbing on the couch with Waylon over going job hunting. Lee can't understand why everyone is making such a big deal out of it, but as Waylon explains it it's his motivation that makes up such a big part of who he is. If Lee's content to sit around doing nothing, what hope is there for the rest of them? Emma and Claire get ready for their day, Emma moaning (as she does) and Claire worried most about the relationship she's having with her boss and the shift in power this could have on her job, but as she heads back outside everyone's back to ripping into Lee and his attempts to relax. The others leave Waylon and Lee to their day and head for work, Chris and Ian complaining about their jobs again before Emma gets another chance to have a girly chat with Claire, attempting to goad her into letting her hair down for once but finding Claire's natural sense of reserve too much to overcome. Back at the apartment, Lee can't handle just sitting around all day (it's true, I can't) and chugs off to get some air, much to Waylon's disapproval, but as he disappears into his bedroom and reappears with... something, we end on a cliffhanger. In The High Life? Like, I know!

Ian's attending his first anger management class at the hospital, but it's already not going well as he's gotten lost on the way and is in a bad mood before he even steps through the doors. Finding the rest of his class taking a picnic outside, he stomps out to join them and finds group leader Serena as placid and welcoming as ever. Ian's in no mood to play along, however, and despite Serena's best efforts to get him integrated with the group, Ian would rather reveal the reason for his anger. Wibbly flashback time! Seems Ian flipped out when he went into work in a bad mood, having been told that South Park was getting axed, and after snapping at several library customers he was brought before the boss, who decided it was for the best that Ian get sent to anger management. Ian's ignorant, defiant attitude to anybody daring to disagree with him is your source of humour here - pigheaded people always make for good comedy. Especially angry pigheaded people. Ian's story isn't quite finished yet, however, as we return to the apartment and find the others being the only people to offer Ian any kind of emotional support, but this isn't enough to get Ian out of his seminar. He returns to the apartment with a 'homework' assignment to write about his 'feelings' towards other people. Lee enters carrying a guitar case, and as the others ask why he never told them he had a guitar, he recounts a story of how they smashed one of his favourite depressing CDs a few days ago. Possessions are never sacred when you share a house with five other people. Seems Lee's been earning a steady wage for himself busking down by the pier, and feels that he's finally found something that he's good at, enjoys and makes money from, never having found all three in one profession before. Leaving Lee, Ian and Waylon to their grief, Emma tries and fails to get any more details out of Claire about her romantic life, while Lee declares that he's now found his niche in life and is going to remain a busker, to disbelief from Ian and Waylon.

Act III opens on a Saturday morning as everybody comes out to see the surprisingly successful Lee at his new spot down on the boardwalk, but as everyone slips off for resfreshments and leaves Chris and Waylon to guard the money, the resident Abbott & Costello spy a hundred dollar bill in amongst the rest of Lee's takings. They're busy deliberating over whether or not to take it when a bright-eyed little girl named Kira skips along. She sings a sad song about how destitute her family is, and Waylon falls for her big old puppy dog eyes as he gives her the hundred dollars. However! The kid's rich, and having suckered our duo she skips away with the cash, forcing Chris and Waylon into hot pursuit. The others hit the apartment, with Emma still trying and failing to get any gossip out of Claire before we return to Waylon and Chris's chase. They track her back to her home, but seeing the affluent suburb she lives in they know they have to try a different tactic to get Lee's cash back...

Knocking on the door, Waylon is struck dumb at the MILF that steps out, and Chris does his best to salvage the situation from Waylon's slack-jawed gaze. Posing as window salesmen, Waylon's over-enthusiastic praise of Kira's mother gets them invited in, and with Waylon convinced he's pulled it's down to Chris to get the job done. At the apartment, Lee discovers that South Park isn't actually cancelled after all, and sets off to find Ian and tell him the good news before his exponentially increasing anger lands him in even deeper trouble, but as we catch up with Ian he's already gone too far - he's quit his job at the library! Or at least, he tries too. His old boss, Mr. Clark, has been replaced by the more pragmatic Mr. Windmill, a man who respects Ian's attitude and encourages it, having no patience for customers himself. With Ian actually earning a promotion and not quite believing his luck, we return to Kira's house as Chris sneaks off to begin his recovery mission. He confronts Kira and demonstrates a frighteningly accurate ability to remember exactly who owes him and what for, before he snatches the cash and runs as Kira yells for her mum. The duo run like the clappers and end up back in a park, but as a stray gust of wind blows the bill out of Chris' hands and into those of a nearby hobo, the chase is back on again as the exhausted duo race after the fleeing hobo.

Another decent showing for High Life, with the writing getting better with each episodes and the different characteristics of the six players continuing to develop. There's a lot going on in this episode, and while it's in danger of jumping around a bit too much at times, there's always something going on and it's only the second Act that really slows down at all. The in-jokes are starting to get better as the show runs on, and the aforementioned gradual improvement in writing quality means this holds together a bit better than last week's show. High Life is recovering well from the loss of its chief writer, and it looks like the episode quality will continue to improve as the weeks roll on now.

The DSR 1x13 'Gold'

2006-07-24T06:33:00.000-07:00

by A.J. Black

The raid of the hi-tech Vienna vault to recover the alchemist codex goes well after a setback and Jai remains undercover, but Kendall fears the mercenaries are tempting him back into his old life with their plans to achieve immortality...

Straight into 1x13 so I can see if all the set up of 1x12 pays off, and we have Tony Black remaining in the writer's chair for the concluding half of this mid-season two-parter. There's a little ambiguity being set up over Jai's motives in this one, but to be honest that's not really making itself as big a deal as I think the staff would have hoped. It's pretty clear so far that Jai's still a DSR man, but hopefully we'll see his conscience get twisted a little more as we push on. Jai's switch of alleigance from mercenary to government man is the one fact of his character that hasn't really been explored in great detail this season - we know now that he's still trying to cope with Connor's condition and his hatred for Glissman, so this new angle should help shed a little more light on him and help him develop into a more rounded character.

We swoop down across the Alps to pick up the Gare du Alpine, the luxury passenger train that currently holds both the Painted Lady and Sanetza's codex, a black helicopter catches the train up to deposit Jai and the rest of his merc team down onto the Vienna, the carriage that contains the prize. The fact that we haven't even had introductions for the other two mercs on the team yet already has them wearing big Red Shirts over their black gear, but there you go. La Font is inside the Vienna carriage, a man on the inside as he heads off to carry out part two of his mission - but he passes Anton and Ethan! Sadie is in the train too, passing La Font a keycard before staggering mock-drunkenly into the passenger carriages. Mia is keeping a close eye on Sadie, following her into a passage - and finding a dead security guard, apparently strangled mid-shag! Ruthless. With Sadie now falling firmly into the Xenia Onatopp sphere of bad girls, Mia sees that Sadie is now climbing bravely along the outside of the speeding train, just as La Font uses the keycard to gain access to the Vienna at last. Have to say, it's not as heavily guarded as La Font was making out last episode - he made a big point of 'twenty four hour, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year' coverage, yet with one keycard he's already within visual range? Ethan is tailing La Font, but he's soon in the typical Ethan pose - flat on his arse after being decked by the bad guy - as Saide warns him their operation may be compromised. La Font smoothly switches off the Vienna's security laser grid defences as Jai's team begin their side of the op, but no sooner have they gained access than Jai has tranqed the other two mercs before whipping out a roll of piano wire, starting to garrotte Hibbs! We cut to black from this - what's going on here, I wonder?

Mia locates the downed Ethan, who manages to elicit some TCP out of her at last as Sadie and La Font realise that their strike team has been compromised. Sadie runs into Mia, and after a brief exchange of gunfire Sadie stumbles in on Jai still strangling Hibbs, shooting him in the arm to get arm to get him to stop. Mia turns up and trades gunfire with Sadie for a moment, zipping in for a bit of girlfighting and knocking Sadie down, taking off after the escaping Jai as Sadie swipes the codex and drags the wounded Hibbs away. Anton tries to stop them, but is disarmed by La Font, and he can only watch helplessly as Sadie and Hibbs jump off the train (yes, they jump. Off the train. The moving train. I take it the train isn't going that fast, then!), followed by La Font. On the roof of the Vienna carriage, Mia sees Jai steal away on the helicopter (which appears to be in Sanetza's emply), before we return to PBH for the mission debriefing. I'll just interject at this point to say that the whole train mission felt ridiculously easy after how much La Font was bigging it up last episode - what use were those two other mercenaries? Seems to me like Sadie and La Font could have pulled the whole thing off between them! Jai's double double cross is a great spanner in the works, but still - bit of a wasted opportunity there. Anyhoo. Mia reports on what happened, and both she and Kendall are shocked by Jai's apparent betrayal, but Carson has her suspicions confirmed at last about him. Kendall wants to give him a chance, but as Mia recommends bringing him in for questioning, we switch to the Sanetza villa in Greece, where Jai meets his new employer. Sanetza gets a nice pun with the 'I see you have suffered for my art' line (see, I do notice things like that!), and Jai reveals that he was tasked to sabotage the mission but kill Hibbs. The thot plickens! Sanetza seems pleased and also mentions something he promised Jai (which I think I can already work out, along with who La Font's mysterious 'employer' is), and as we see Hibbs recovering with Sadie and La Font in their safe house, where La Font is ordered to get the Painted Lady back. The codex they have is worthless without it, you see! Back at PBH, Ethan and Mia have a chance to talk at last, but she's not interested in his attempt at reconciliation as Sara tells Anton she thinks she may have figured something out. La Font was consulting Eduardo Nadal, a Spanish historian, about the team he was putting together, and Sara asks Anton to be her backup on a mission to go see Nadal. Kendall is in his office when he receives a call from Jai, although Jai can't bring himself to say anything. Hibbs calls next, arranging a meeting with Jai to talk about some kind of mutual exchange in Baku, and the stage is set for the next round.

Over in Bilbao, Spain, Anton and Sara are ready to meet with Nadal to get some more answers. Nadal seems unaware of La Font's true intentions, but no sooner has he mentioned something called the 'Obscura Circle' than bang! He's dead. Anton heads off in pursuit, kicking off a pretty cool rooftop chase for the sniper as Sara raids Nadal's office for more info. She finds some handy-looking files but is confronted by a goon as she tries to exit, and despite almost getting past him she's halfway towards getting strangled when Anton swoops back in to save her. The team analyse the files back at PBH, and it seems La Font was tracking the genealogical roots of five contemporaries of Sanetza Snr. Carson confronts Kendall about his insistence to believe Jai's switched sides, and Kendall angrily rebukes any of her accusations. Sara and Anton have a chat to historian Daneen (from 'Mage'), who reveals that the Obscura Circle is all about a posse of dark alchemists looking to perfect a formula called the 'Transmutation.' and that formula is what's encrypted into the Painted Lady. Jai, meanwhile, is on a private jet with Sanetza when he's asked about the DSR, with Jai saying he just wants to get 'even.' More cryptic refences are made to the Transmutation before we return to PBH as Daneen presents his findings. Surprise, surprise, the five mercs La Font assembled (or thought he had, given Jai's switcheroo) are the direct descendants of Sanetza Snr's posse of alchemists - the Obscura Circle, the next generation (and yes, I'd figured that out. Because I'm clever). Kendall decides to offer to trade Austin for Jai, but they don't know that Jai isn't with La Font, blowing his cover as they contact La Font! The DSR team head for a rendezvous, not aware that La Font is one step ahead of them, as he meets with Jai in Baku to swap the codex. And Kendall wlaks out with Austin. Eep! The headache-inducing standoff (because now everybody knows Jai is Jai, but I'm waiting for it to settle down so I can work out who's working with who) leads us into Act III...

We don't wait lonf for our answer, as Kendall, Jai and Hibbs are dumped into the water! Hibbs gets to a knife and fress the trio from their bonds, and as they reach the surface again it's time Jai explained himself to the two guys he's just screwed over. At a safe house, Jai reveals that Sanetza offered him the means to cure Connor (aha! I was right), and the guys figure out that Sanetza is trying to work around a legal decree in Sanetza Snr's work that stops him from reforming the Circle himself, using La Font to get it done. Credit where it's due - that's actually a pretty clever plan, and makes a lot of sense. And as Sanetza Jnr and La Font relax on their way to their next location, you can figure out for yourselves who La Font was really working for (I got it wrong. I thought it'd be Glissman, so more kudos to Black for the misdirection here). Kendall gets the rest of the DSR team moving as he and Jai have one of those surrogate father.wayward son talks, and it comes across pretty well, with Kendall's faith in Jai being rewarded at last. Meanwhile, at PBH, Mia and Ethan spark off again, and Mia reveals it all comes back to when Ethan ratted on her back in 1x09 (by blowing the whistle on how Mia helped Sara out). Sanetza, meanwhile, has been located, buying back a property in Sardinia used by his ancestors (stickler for tradition, obviously), but as Kendall is informed he decides that he, Hibbs and Jai should go in first. The trio break into the mansion's grounds, heading through a service tunnel when Jai hears something, some kind of underground machinery. Hibbs isn't interested, but runs straight into Sadie and gets the team busted, but as she offers him a place back in the team, we black out once again.

Act IV gives us a captive Jai and Kendall (not having much luck today, are they?), while Hibbs gloats (and Jai gets off a joke to Sadie that won't make much sense unless you know more about the actress playing her), and Sadie tells Jai that if he kills Kendall, he can have a place back on the team. Sadie's clearly a willing disciple of whatever La Font and Sanetza are planning, and waits as Jai trains the gun on Kendall... and shoots Hibbs. But he's only got one bullet, and lets Sadie go rather than fight her. She's clearly made an impression on him one way or another, but you have to question a guy who only seems to like women who could take him in a fight! The bond between Kendall and Jai is restored as the duo head downstairs to stop Sanetza, disrupting the ceremony as Kendall waxes lyrical about the Transmutation being the key to immortality (getting the 'lead into gold' line that links to the episode titles, detail fans), but Sadie shows up to spil Jai's party. Jai and Kendall can only watch as Sanetza and the others plunge their hands into the strange distillation device that all the fuss is about - but are instead killed as molten lead surges out and cooks them from the inside out! However. The lead turns to pure gold, which somehow revives the fallen villains (o-kay...), before killing them - again. Jai blinks in surprise, as the rest of us do, and Kendall offers these words of wisdom:

JAI
What happened? The formula worked.

KENDALL
(wonders)
Maybe that’s exactly what the
original Diego Sanetza wanted
everyone to think.

Uh... what? So... if Sanetza's formula didn't work, why go to so much trouble to hide it? Am I missing something? Jai and Kendall return to PBH, with Kendall publicly giving Jai his backing again. Mia's still pissed off, and Carson takes Ethan to one side to discuss their 'plan' in more detail (remember that? going back to earlier in the season there). Mia gives Jai the cold shoulder as he tries to speak to her, and it's lights out for another episode.

So... what was that all about, then? We go from mercenary double cross to a high tech train robbery, ending in a Raiders Of The Lost Ark style quest for immortality that kills off all our villains with very little explanation or consequence. There's one thing that keeps sabotaging Black's scripts - he's great at setting a story up (the revelation about Sanetza's plan in Act III is noticeably clever), but he just can't seem to finish them off properly, to do his set up justice. We needed to make more of the train robbery, getting into it at the end of 1x12 so we could have had Jai's attack on Hibbs as our cliffhanger, then make more of the actual lead & gold sequence instead of wrapping the whole thing up in a handful of pages. And while we're on that subject - what happened? Why did they all die? I really didn't get that at all. If the Transmutation was a failure, why were the instructions hidden so carefully? I'm open to some kind of explanation on that score, because I may have missed something, but as it stands the conclusion to this really didn't make much sense at all. That said, there's good moments here - the train raid works well (although it could have been a lot longer), there's some good character growth on Jai's part (at last), and Sara gets more field time which is always handy. This is a story that promised much but stumbled at the final hurdle, which is a real shame as we could have had a killer on our hands here.

The DSR 1x12 'Lead'

2006-07-24T03:46:00.000-07:00

by A.J. Black

The theft of a priceless occult painting drives Jai back into a life he thought he'd forsaken, and an uneasy alliance with an old friend, and old enemy...

The first of two more or less two-parters in a row for The DSR now, so I'll endeavour to do back-to-back reviews to do the story justice. And not because I'm behind or anything. Heavens, no. Right! Showrunner Tony Black is back in the saddle for this one, so let's see what he turns up...

A skyscraper in central Madrid is where we start, as a stealthy female thief scales the side of the building and laser-cutters her way inside. She locates a Renaissance painting depicting a classically-beautiful woman (a nod to Page 47, perhaps?) before we flip back over to PBH. Sara leads the briefing as she tells the assembled team that the stolen painting was something known as the Painted Lady, but as the significance of that is lost on the others, she lets Kendall take over. The Painted Lady's artist, a 14th-century Spaniard named Sanetza, wevaed some of what he knew of the occult into his final work, but he took its secrets to his grave. The painting is up for auction in London, so with the plan being to let the sale go ahead and then nab the buyer, the team are off to London town. Jai and Sara are undercover at Sotheby's, with Anton on cover (and yes, while I get the 'Zefram Cochrane' in-joke, it's a bit of a groan because the old nicknaming thing is what made Jai such a Sawyer clone early on, a trait which had been thankfully absent from recent episodes). With Ethan and Kendall also observing, it's all quiet until Jai spies a chap named La Font, an old mercenary acquaintance of his. Convinced he's the man the team are after, Jai sets his sights on the guy as we end the Teaser in true Alias style (by which I mean you suddenly realise we're almost ten minutes in and we haven't even had the title sequence yet).

Ethan's background check tells him La Font is just as much a crook as Jai used to be, but Anton reports in that the insurance investigators have located the painting. If they get it first, the DSR won't be able to track it to the original thief, so Jai leaves Sara to watch La Font as he scoots off to help. Anton confronts the two Spaniards down in the loading bay and gets a fight for his trouble, but up in the auction the Painted Lady is revealed in all its glory. So what's the fight down in the loading bay for, then? The plot thickens! Jai saves Anton's bacon, but as they rejoin Sara she informs them that La Font bought the painting for £68 million. I'm assuming the two Spaniards just had the wrong painting, or something... because I'm actually a bit confused at the moment. Anyway. La Font makes a phone call to someone about 'the gathering' before we return to PBH the next day. Jai's inside intel on La Font is a big help as the team try to assess his involvment, with Ethan volunteering Mia for an infiltration op on whatever 'gathering' La Font is heading for. Back in Madrid, Diego Sanetza, descendant of the original painter himself, is told his men failed to get the painting and orders a search for whoever bought it. At PBH, Carson (remember her? She hasn't done much for a while) confronts Kendall about what Jai knows concerning La Font, before Kendall and Jai drop their bombshell of a plan - Jai's going in with Hibbs (who you may remember as the merc working for the creepy doctor back in 'Instinct'), assuming they can persuade him to come along. Jai drops in on Hibbs at his cosy Californian penitentiary cell, but in a surprise move decks the guard and drags Hibbs out with him. My first impression was that Jai's staged all this to fool Hibbs into co-operating, so we'll see if I'm right later. So I can be smug.

Act II opens with the prison break still in progress, as Hibbs pretends to have Jai at gunpoint to get past the guards and wardens on duty, demanding a helicopter and getting one. As Jai and Hobbs head for the chopper, however, the downed guard wakes up and blows the whistle on Jai's plan, forcing the duo to get the helicopter in the air under a hail of gunfire. Jai sneaks something onto the radio as he flies to safety in true A-Team style, and back at PBH Sara announces with a grin that she can track the chopper and listen in. Go team. Sadly, Hibbs is now packing a loaded gun, but can't have everything, eh? With Sara feeding him intel via a hidden earpiece, Jai manages to cook up a cover story to keep Hibbs off his trail, Jai claiming to have killed Owen Austin, Hibbs' contact, and getting the location of the scheduled meeting with La Font - Cyprus. A club, no less. Cue dance music soundtrack moment. Big up! Big up! Ayia Napa massive! Ahem. Jai and Hibbs head for the Castle, a club built out of, wait for it... a castle. And who should be there but Mia, slipping Jai a tracking dot as she melts back into the crowd. Sara's also out in the crowd at the club, ready for backup as Mia slips one of the bouncers a sicky pill to get him out of the way. With Ethan and Anton also melding into the club staff, the gang's all here as La Font finally makes his appearance. The real Owen Austin shows up, but Sara gets a chance to flex her flirt muscles as she diverts him, allowing Ethan to step in and keep Austin busy while Jai and Hibbs meet up with La Font. Keeping up with all this? Good. Austin gets away from Ethan (decking him good 'n' proper, like), and is about to blow Jai's cover when Anton drags him away, so Jai is free to slip La Font the tracking device and get the time and place of the next meeting. You know, one day, an Alias-verse mission is going to run without a hitch. Just saying. One day. Maybe. Santeza, meanwhile, is onto La Font and preparing to fly out and spoil the party...

Carson is complaining about keeping Austin in custody at the start of Act III, while Sara gushes to Mia about how great it was to be out in the field again. Looks like we're opening a new chapter in Tech Girl's life, and I hope more gets made of it. Sara's last field excursion in episodes 8 and 9 made for some of the best moments of the season yet, so take note, DSR staff! Ethan arrives to tell the girls they've got La Font's location, but Mia is still blanking him (what are we, twelve?) as we join Jai undercover over in Graz, about to meet the elusive La Font at last. Hibbs talks about Jai's lack of 'fire' since losing Connor and Cassie, trying to bait him into reacting but Jai admirably keeps his cool. At least we're approaching Jai's issues from another angle for a change! Jai and Hibbs are escorted into La Font's private estate and tech-friendly apartment, seeing three more mercenaries in attendance as we return to PBH. The DSR team are listening in and have teams surrounding the area, but Kendall wants to wait until La Font's said his piece before they move in. La Font reveals the painting (and identifies the girl we saw stealing it as Sadie), telling them that they need another artefact to decode the message in the painting for La Font's still-unnamed 'employer.' Santeza (the 13th century one, that is) wrote a valuable codex which contains the cypher for deciphering the information hidden in the painting, currently kept under constant guard inside a luxury passenger train that rolls all round Europe. La Font says it's a six-man job, so should lead to some good action (let's face it, some of the best set pieces in Alias took place on trains - Season Four's opener, for example!), before taking his leave and leading posh Brit Sadie to sidle up to Jai to introduce herself. Carson orders a 'go' for the DSR squads to swoop in, and as they cut power to the complex Jai, Hibbs and Sadie arm themselves against the impending assault. Jai takes on the estate's security team, hoping to give the DSR squad a helping hand - but a tranq dart in his neck tells us he's been backing the wrong team! The masked men swoop in - and it's Santeza's men, here for La Font and the painting!

Jai wakes up in a fairly typical interrogation room, where Santeza asks him if the 'circle is complete,' but when Jai confesses ignorance Santeza realises he can use him, telling Jai they'll need each other to stop the 'great work' from being carried out. This is already a bit too Rambaldi-esque for me at the moment, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now. At DSR, Kendall agonises over hesitating to give the 'go' order now that all communication has been lost with Jai, while La Font, Hibbs and Sadie discuss their next move. Jai stumbles into the safe house, managing to give away just enough intel to maintain his cover as he tells the others that Sanetza has the Painted Lady now, and is going to store it with the codex on the train. La Font decides to continue with the plan, while Jai sneaks off to tell Sanetza he's in - a double double cross! I think. We end it there (although a 'To Be Continued' would have been nice), and while Jai's last line of 'I know where my loyalties lie' may be trying to get some of you to think Jai's gone back to his old ways, personally I don't buy that for a second. But anyway.

Another decent episode. Nothing spectacular, but this is all set up for the next episode and the second half of this particular story, so hopefully we'll see all manner of payoff in episode 13. First halves of two parters don't have to feel like all setup, though - 'Spartans' proved this quite effectively - so this could have thrown a few more flashes and bangs our way to be entertaining in its own right, to be honest. That's not really a major criticism, though - we've clearly got a great second half set up here, so let's see where things go from here. Hard to comment too much until I've read 'Gold,' so my only main concern so far is the Rambaldi-style plot behind this. A code hidden in a painting from a 13th century European who had an interest in the occult? It's a bit too close for comfort, to be honest.

Pathways 2x11 'Swords & Stockings'

2006-07-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

by Richard Gentile

The Brighton Academy drama club prepares to put on their version of Romeo & Juliet, but with Alanna and uber-bitch drama queen Lynn Raynes at each other’s throats, the cast and crew might not make it to opening night.

It's play time in Pathways this week, with the lovely Alanna's troubled production of 'Romeo & Juliet' finally making its Crestview debut. However! With Mark and Logan's tryst being uncovered by head bitch Lynn, I think we're bound to see plenty of behind-the-scenes drama with this one. I'm already visualising an episode where the play itself is just an extended metaphor for events in the real world, but we'll have to see!

Opening on the sixteenth century-styled auditorium, Mark stumbles on as Romeo, tripping over his feet and the lines as he tries to do the infamous balcony scene. The 'this is all a nightmare' alarm is already ringing, even without Mark getting his sword stuck in the ladder on the way up. Juliet draws back her veil - and there's Logan. Slightly concerning image there if you ask me, and as Mark reels back he ends up falling backwards Buster Keaton style, finally jolting himself out of the dream. Oh, Comedy Mark, as I henceforth dub thee. Wilt thou ever learn?

Mark trudges through the school halls as Sam bounces over, camping it up as only he can as he discusses Mark's sort of relationship with Logan. Sam gives Mark an encouraging hug as Lynn walks past, ready to start postering the campus. Thing is, as Alanna points out, those aren't the official posters. Lynn didn't like them - presumably because there wasn't enough of her on them - and despite Alanna's rising blood pressure continues to staple her own posters up as fast as Alanna can tear them down. Over at Anna's office, she and Sarah are discussing plans for their new clinic when Sarah raises a good point - why not ask James? He's a builder, he's been wanting to get involved anyway and would most likely be a heck of a lot cheaper, but Anna is determined not to mix business and pleasure. Sarah wisely doesn't push her luck, but this is one issue that's bound to pop its lid in true drama style some time soon. Over at the theatre, Comedy Mark and Logan have a potentially tender moment broken as a furious Alanna marches in, ranting and raving about Lynn's new advertising drive and grimly resolving to do something about the situation. And this can't end well.

Parker hurries through the crowds to catch back up to Alanna. He's still on the offence and she's running defence, to use an American Football analogy, but Alanna does seem to be warming to him as she tells him all about her Lynn trouble. Parker offers to help, eager to impress her, but Alanna's off to see Mr. Mead instead, leaving him wearing his lost wittle puppy face. Comedy Mark and Logan get their moment at last - when nobody else is around, natch. You can see that Logan's freeze-outs whenever somebody walks in on them is going to cause Mark to wear some serious poutage before too long, but from the evidence we've got here it seems Logan's going to make a good guy friend for him. Eventually. Charlie, meanwhile, is running late when she overhears Kaia and Mr. Swenson having one of their 'special' meetings, but nothing too heavy is going on just yet as Sam arrives to drag Charlie away, Charlie's professional suspicions are buzzing but Kaia's secret is safe for now as we catch up with the final dress rehersal. Things are going smoothly... for about five seconds, and then, yep, you guessed it - Lynn screeches at another actor and starts throwing accusations of conspiracy all round (Carry On movie fans will already be saying 'infamy, infamy! They've all got it in for me!'). Mr. Mead tries to defuse the situation, but Lynn isn't listening - and she quits. A clever ruse to force Alanna to ask her to come back? Leaving the show without its Juliet the night before it opens is doubtlessly a calculated move on her part, so let's see how she handles this one...

Mead drags Alanna and Lynn off to try and sort things out, but all it takes is the threat to make Alanna the show's Juliet to bring Lynn back round. Playing to her ego, Mead saves the day and the show, and we leave the rehersal to return to Chez Jones. Anna makes a bad job of covering a phone call she's making to another contractor as James walks in, and Anna quickly spills the beans. James is losing his temper (with a nod to Parker's constant anger management), revealing that communication and trust issues screwed up his last marriage, and Anna knows she's just pushed the big red button as we return to the theatre - and it's opening night! That was quick - bit of a wonky time lapse there, considering it was still final rehersal a few scenes ago, but there you go.Sam, Gabe, Julie and Charlie are making their way inside, bumping into Mark's mother who tells them of the post-show party before finding her seat. There's one last shocker as the lights go down, however - Dominic shows up with a girl! Say what now? The play is soon underway, allowing us a montage moment as we catch everyone's reactions (and Sam's comic fidgeting), showing Dominic dividing his attention between his date and looking at Gabe, and Parker discovering a soft spot for Shakesperian romance round the back. Lynn gets hit full on by a dodgy spotlight and loses the flow, forcing Alanna to whisper most of the balcony scene's lines to her to keep things moving, but the inevitable confrontation is brewing. As Alanna and Lynn start openly sniping at each other, drowning out Logan's own soliloquy, things soon develop into a full blown catfight (and Sam as good as spills his popcorn in the excitement), the balcony collapsing and depositing both scrabbling girls onto the stage. It's something straight out of a John Hughes movie, perhaps, but it does the trick here!

Mr. Mead frantically gets the curtains down as Alanna and Lynn's catfight starts to trash the stage around them, panicked actors and bemused spectators clearing out of the auditorium as everything goes a bit Animal House. Sam, Charlie and Julie wade in to help as Gabe escapes to find Dominic, and behind the curtain Mead is busy berating Alanna and Lynn as Mark's mother swoops in, adding her own frustration to the row as she lays into both girls for ruining her little boy's big night. Outside, Gabe finally bumps into Dom (with Parker observing from a distance), but in true Gabe style he trips up and says he was looking for Parker instead. Dom sheepishly admits that he's out on a date with his mystery blonde (Tara, apparently), and as Gabe's heart breaks with the sound of a thousand sobbing emos, Tara appears in true 'oblivious to heartache all around her' style. Surprisingly, it's Parker who swoops in to rescue Gabe, and despite making a big show of how much Gabe owes him (even so far as a to have comic 'ugh! gay boys smell funny' moment), when he sees the state Gabe's in he can't help but feel bad for him. A furious Mead orders both girls to single-handedly clean the entire auditorium top to bottom, but once he leaves the comedy of the situation hits them both, and the girls erupt into laughter. Have to wave a Niggle Stick at that one - not sure they'd be giggling that quickly. Meanwhile, Anna has relented and let James in on the clinic plans, and things are all honey bunnies and rainbow candy between them both again. They're just getting frisky when Gabe and Parker return, and again there's a moment of laughter between two supposedly mortal enemies when asked how things went. Parker and Alanna share a lunch the next day, Alanna surprised to find that Parker showed up to watch, and it's clear he just scored a major brownie point as we leave them for now.

A fairly standard ep this time round, then, with the farcical moments of the play giving us a good central story to bounce everything else off. This is a pretty light-hearted story with only a few dramatic moments - James showing his angrier side and Dominic's revelation - and even if the final Act shared laughter between Alanna & Lynn and then Gabe & Parker feels a little sudden, it kind of works. So! Not much to say about this one, really. Fairly standalone for the most of part, pushing a few more plots along and providing a neat little comic interlude for the season. Lamkin's still the best writer in terms of witty dialogue, but there's some good stuff from Gentile here which shows that all of the show's staff are on the same page now in terms of episode quality, which can only be A Good Thing.

Afterlife 1x09 'The Cure'

2006-07-18T04:34:00.000-07:00

by Jon Nyqvist

As Aurora's mysterious condition becomes rapidly worse, Jonathan sets out to find a mythical healer in search of a cure. What he finds turns out to be quite different...

Back to the Afterlife with you, then, for another slice of top notch fantasy action in what is rapidly becoming cementing its place as one of the best shows on MZP at the moment. Last week (he says, quickly checking back) we had Jon and his buddies trying to escape the clutches of the Lord of Murder, with a body-swapping villainess and two deaths making things more than tricky for our heroes. They managed to make it back to the town of Darkwood, but our closing shot was of Aurora gradually succumbing to the poisonous magic Murder infected her with, so let's hope things can only get better for Aurora as we head back in...
Everybody's bummed out in Darkwood Inn. Kate's mourning the loss of Marius, and her pain is washing over the whole pub in waves as we track upstairs to find Aurora, still afflicted by the terrible visions of pain that Murder left her with, as Jonathan looks on helplessly. With no other way to vent his anger, he sets up a rudimentary punching bag and lets rip, watched from afar by our two Big Bads themselves, Murder and Betrayal. Murder is patiently waiting for Aurora to finish her transformation into Pain, at which point she'll join them in a triumverate of terror, but Betrayal has other ideas (let's not forget that she's the reincarnated form of the younger Aurora's teenage nemesis Rachel), and sneaks off to finish the job!

Jonathan wakes from a fitful night's sleep to be greeted by the Queen of Cryptic herself, Diana. Diana tells Jonathan of a being that may be able to help Aurora, but getting a cure out of it won't be an easy task. Like that'd stop our Jon Boy! Pausing to administer an Unrequited Sexual Tension-creating gesture to the sleeping Aurora (because while technically he's slept withher, it was in fact Betrayal in disguise... keeping up? Good), he's off on his merry, getting his Action Hero Kit together as Kate peeks in on him. Kate doesn't want a warrior like Jon leaving the village now that Murder's forces are on the move, but she knows why he's going - to save Aurora. Kate can't understand why Jon would risk his life for her, but can't stand in his way as he leaves to do the hero thing. She manages to wish him good luck as he leaves - just as Lianna and her kids arrive (remember them? Rory saved them from her old bandit crew back around episode four). Lianna settles her family into the inn as we rejoin Jonathan, trekking LOTR-style across the wilderness. He pauses to grab a drink of water - but attracts the attention of a white tiger, who pounces towards Jon and forces him to fight back. He dodges it a few times but is saved by the... well... tentacle. Seriously. A big honkin' black tentacle snaps out from the lake and drags the tiger to its doom, and Jon takes the hint to leg it before whatever's lurking beneath the water comes back for dessert! We change scenes to catch up with a familiar face - Trias the bandit who usurped control of the Ravens from Aurora but was left with one less eye as a result. Trias has been interrogating local peasants to try and track Aurora down without success, but in so doing the Ravens' stranglehold on the local territories is slipping. Trias only cares about finding Aurora, however, but he's about to get some help as a red-haired woman slinks into his throne room - and it's Betrayal!

Kate is shaken out of her thoughts as Lianna appears for a chat later, sharing their tales of woe over a drink. You have to ask how long before Lianna finds out Aurora's upstairs, and what she's going to do about it when she does! We rejoin Jon, camping out in a chill wind at the foot of a mountain and trying to cook some dinner, Diana popping up again to offer some culinary advice, and point him towards the next waypoint - you guessed it, right up the mountain. Back with Trias, Betrayal tries to seduce him but he manages to resist - for now. She's led away to a room by herself for the night as Trias settles down to plan his raid on Aurora in the morning. A drunk Kate and Lianna are busy talking when Kate finally mentions Aurora, and that she's upstairs - and incapacitated. Lianna knows she's got a chance here to get some payback for the murder of her husband (although she doesn't know yet that Aurora and the leader of the Ravens are/were one and the same), as we rejoin Jon and Diana as he asks her if there's anybody else out there in the Afterlife willing to fight the Darkness - and she answers that if there is, then they may well be at the top of the mountain! Hmm. Back at Darkwood Inn, Lianna creeps in on the comatose Aurora, recognising her as the woman she nursed back to health, and then descending into fury as she puts the pieces together. Aurora killed her man. This can not end well. She digs the knife in and start to draw blood...

... but Nera stops her! Lianna tries to get her daughter out of the way, but Nera speaks for the first time since she was attacked by Raven thugs many years ago, managing to get Lianna to leave. However! It seems Nera isn't so ready to forgive Aurora either, telling her she 'doesn't deserve death' as she exits - and Aurora wakes up! Jon is still climbing that darn mountain as Trias and Betrayal ride towards Darkwood - and here's the Line Of The Week!

BETRAYAL
Well well, aren’t you perceptive?
For a one eyed man, anyway.

There's one last surprise in store, in one of those trademark cinematic shots that serve Afterlife so well, as we pull back to see Trias has brought a hundred bloodthirsty thugs along with him! Eep... Jon's approaching a cave up in the mountain as we return to Darkwood, just as Trias' army rides past a watchtower on the outskirts of the village (after a neat little moment with the guard on watch). The guard manages to light a smoke signal, alerting Kate back in Darkwood as we cut to the icy cave Jon has finally clambered into. He narrowly misses a falling icicle, sliding down a slope and into the depths of the cave. Back at Darkwood (the jump cuts from scene to scene really helping build the growing tension here - Buffy used a similar trick in the episode 'Touched'), Kate is now in charge as she orders the villagers to safety, packing Lianna in along with them. She races back to Aurora's room, knowing that she's the only one the Ravens want, but Aurora's gone. Kate runs off - missing Aurora, stood right behind the door. Aurora hears the approaching army and spies Trias at its head, so as she slips away we cut down to the main square just as the horde of Ravens dismount. Gosh, this is exciting, isn't it? The village is deserted, so as the Ravens start to tear the place apart we return to Jon in the ice cave. There's a chasm before him with a pathway of sorts composed of tall pillars of ice, Golden Child style, so Jon takes the plunge and leaps for the first one. Which, of course, breaks under his weight, forcing him to leap from pillar to pillar as they crumble beneath him. A John Woo moment closes the scene as Jon sails through dead air, managing to stick his sword into the wall opposite, hanging over the abyss as the pillars of ice crash beneath him.Classic. Back at Darkwood, Trias finds to his anger that the villagers have hijacked an old Raven stronghold for their own, ready to fight off any attempt to dislodge them. As Betrayal gets ten Ravens sent back to the village to keep looking for Aurora, Trias prepares to march on the fortress, ready to slaughter every last villager for their defiance. There's a quick shot of Jon stumbling across something impressive inside the cave, as the last words go to Kate and Lianna, knowing that Aurora isn't with them and getting ready to face almost a hundred murderous bandits...

Now, that in itself would be an excellent cliffhanger for the episode, but there's still another Act to go, as we catch Aurora doing her Metal Gear Solid routine, slitting one thug's throat and then downing another with a handy guitar. What a waste! Jonathan, meanwhile, has found a cathedral sculpted out of ice deep within the cave, glowing with unearthly light as he heads inside. Back at the Raven fortress, it's all gone a bit Return Of The King as the besieged villagers struggle against the Raven onslaught. Crossbow bolts rain down from all sides as a battering ram is wheeled out (and no, they didn't bring it with them - Nyqvist makes a point of describing it as a 'recently cut down tree'), but the smugly watching Trias hasn't noticed Aurora creeping up on him, garrotte-style guitar string in hand... At the Cathedral Of Ice, Jon converses with some mystical-looking beings of light, but they aren't exactly forthcoming with help. After telling him there's no hope for Aurora (but some cryptic mentions of 'Hope' which I picked up on), they beam him back to the foot of the mountain, and even without the fists-pounding-into-mountain moment, this is about as low as it gets for him. Back at Darkwood, however, we're about to get Trias vs. Aurora, Round Two. Oh yes. She fails in her attempt to guitar string him to death, the duo drawing swords and getting ready to Mortal Kombat each other. The fight is as breathtaking as ever, but despite taking a bad wound, Aurora finds her darkness has one advantage - it heals her up! She catches the surprised Trias off guard, slamming him into a tree and finally finishing him off. Job done. The fortress doors are about to fall under the Ravens' attack, but Aurora has the best way to end this one. She skewers Trias' head to the fortress walls, and as the Ravens leave in disarray, Aurora leaves the cheering villagers behind. I think that settles her debt to them quite nicely, don't you? Betrayal watches her go, melting back into the shadows (and the touch with her hair staying visible for a beat longer is just one of the little details that make this show so colourful) as we dissolve back to the Inn. Aurora is up in bed as Jonathan returns, glad to see her up and about but discouraged by her telling him that the visions are still there - she's just numb to them now. The ominous words of the beings in the cathedral echo in Jonathan's ears as we black out...

Fan-bloody-tastic. The longest episode yet, and the addition of a few extra pages adds that little extra that I've been looking for in this series. Okay, so the Jon/Aurora epilogue feels a little too brief, but when the rest of the episode is this magnificent I really can't nitpick like that. Absorbing, atmospheric location, a brilliantly-paced sense of amping the tension as we flick between Jon's mountain climb and the siege at Darkwood, some trademark spectacular action and the usual polish of witty dialogue, plus some more development into both the backstory of the Afterlife itself and the overall arc for this latter half of the season. Jonathan is like every 80's action hero you wanted to be, his journey through the ice cavern the stuff that great films are made of. Aurora, by contrast, is like one of those kick-ass martial arts chicks in the movies you were never allowed to rent from the video shop, the unashamedly old school sense of adventure and thrills here making a perfect companion to the fantasy setting, the two genres blending together seamlessly. Okay, so Aurora is sidelined for a lot of the episode again, but Kate's star turn keeps things on track, and the last-minute development in Aurora's final fight with Trias pumps up the intrigue a little more. This feels like a good closing chapter to this chunk of the story - Aurora's back and on her feet and the Ravens are banished - now we've got three episodes to take out the Big Bad. Wonderful stuff.

The DSR 1x11 'Soul Man'

2006-07-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

by J.T. Vaughn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pathways 2x10 'What Would William Say?'

2006-07-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

by David McCarthy

As practice continues for the Brighton production of Romeo and Juliet, Mark and Logan are caught kissing by another drama club member, causing Logan to fly into a tail spin, worried that he will lose his part as Romeo if people find out he's gay.

Pathways has been on some fine form recently, recovering from some disjointed earlier episodes to build up solid, engrossing storylines perfectly complemented by the mixed bag of characters running around the set. Episode ten marks the debut of new writer David McCarthy, so let's check out 'What Would William Say?' and see where things go from here, after last week's thankfully schmaltz-free Xmas episode.

At the theatre, Alanna's motley crew of thesps are busy rehearsing their troubled production of Romeo & Juliet, but as lines are fluffed all over the shop Alanna is forced to put her Diva Hat on and call things to a halt. A panicked Mark scurries into the back room to find Logan there ready to help ease his distress - but what's this? A little flirting? Goodness.

Gabe, Sam, Julie and Mark are in their typical spot down in the cafeteria when we return, swapping a few jokes about Superman in lieu of the new movie, before Mark's over-enthusiastic attempt to big up the play sets off everyone's alarm bells that things aren't going according to plan. Well, everyone except Gabe. But he's a bit dense about things like that. Mark tells them about the flirting that may or may not have taken place between himself and Logan, asking for advice but instead leaving the others divided on what he should do next. With Julie, Sam and Mark all in romantic trouble of their own, nobody can really tell Mark what to do next, much to his own inner angst. We cut back to the theatre as Queen Bee Alanna and House Diva Lynn start tearing lumps out of one another, but a quick intervention from Mark sends Lynn on her way, giving Alanna a chance to clomp about and bitch about the production's woes so far (and redheads do clomp about a lot. Get into an argument with one if you don't believe me). Alanna spots Mark keeping one eye on Logan and sends him off to talk to him, obviously liking Mark's soothing presence around the set and wanting to give him a reward of sorts. Sadly, Logan's gone by the time we get there, so we switch to find Parker working out his aggression in the gym as Charlie joins him. Charlie claims to be there on newspaper business, but Parker's off-handed comments are obviously wounding her sense of girlish infatuation. Mark finally bumps into Logan, wringing a confession out of him that Logan actually does like him after all. A lot. And Mark's life just became a lot more complicated...

Logan confesses he was too shy to say anything sooner, so we get a Babble-A-Thon as the eternally meek Mark tries to talk to the newly outed Logan. Logan's clearly more nervous about being outed than anything to do with Mark, so this is one romance that's going to take its time to develop, but at least we've made a start. Logan exits and we switch to The Blaze, with Mark telling Sam and Gabe about today's developments. Sam's joking quickly gets Mark's back up, leaving Gabe to offer some actual, honest to goodness advice about the whole thing. Mind you, Gabe knows a thing or two about having secret relationships, doesn't he? James and Parker return home at about the same time, but Parker's in no mood to have a father/son moment, getting all emo when James mentions Julie and soon stomping off upstairs. We catch up with someone we haven't met for a while here as Kaia flirts with handsome new teacher Mr. Swenson after class, Swenson keeping his distance despite Kaia's saucy advances. Back at the rehearsal, Mark finds himself on the receiving end of Lynn's wrath once again, sneaking backstage and running into Logan. The chemistry between the two is suitably amped by this point, but as they share a quick kiss they don't realise they have an audience - Lynn!

A panicked Logan begs her not to say anything, but as Lynn swans off smugly, knowing she has some good dirt on him to use to her advantage, Mark bleats to Sam about what he should be doing about the whole mess. Sam's trying to push Mark onwards and upwards but Mark's understandably cautious given Logan's desire for secrecy, but when Mark lets slip that he kissed Maddox (which was right back at the start of the season, as I recall), Sam is understandably shocked. Promising to keep things quiet in exchange for constant updates on the situation, we switch from Sam and Mark to Kaia resuming her offensive on Mr. Swenson after school hours. He seems to be keeping his distance, but as the flirting moves up a notch it's clear that something is actually going on between these two after all! Now, this was a surprise to me so I hope this isn't something I've missed from the first season, but nontheless it's an interesting development to show that Kaia and Swenson appear to be having one of those affairs that regularly make the papers. Drama!

Charlie spies Parker grabbing a quiet moment in the cafe and sidles over to talk to him, despite Parker's growing irritation with her. However, as the conversation rolls on and Charlie manages to mask brief moments of hurt feelings with her professional sense of curiosity and perkiness, Parker is clearly starting to warm to her. Only a little, mind, but we all know how persistent Charlie can be when she's got her sights on something, so it's now a question of which will give out first - Parker's moody aloofness or Charlie's innate cheerfulness. But then! It's Musical Montage time, boys and girls. Alanna spies Parker and Charlie taking lunch together and is understandably a bit put out by it all, Gabe smiles at Dom out on the sports field but Dominic's not ready to be all smiles back just yet, and despite avoiding the opportunity to kiss it seems that Sam and Julie are getting cosier every day now! Finishing up at Chez Jones, James answers the phone from Anna, still away at her conference, and despite some lingering awkwardness the overriding lovey-dovery almost manages to win the day. Almost. Because James tells her he loves her, but Anna hangs up and then says it. Hmm. Make of that what you will. Logan heads over to the Blaze to see Mark, promising him that Lynn won't blab but still not as comfortable with seeing another guy as Mark obviously is. Mark's insecurity means he, of course, thinks it's his fault, and despite Logan assuring him it's not we get our final shot of Mark giving a big old Le Sigh to camera as Logan exits.

So there we go. Well written, nicely paced and full of some juicy plot developments, so despite the dialogue not being as witty as one of Lamkin's scripts, this was still a bloody good first dip into the series for McCarthy, and promises much goodness for the future. All the better episodes of this season have demonstrated that focusing on one character or story and having other plots spinning off from that is what makes Pathways work best, so the emphasis on the always watchable Mark does the trick here. Some good characterisation and signs of growth as now it's Mark who's the one wanting to go public, and Logan is the shy newcomer who isn't sure of his feelings or how to handle the attention he'll get as a result. Nice job. More from this guy, please!

ZPM RATING:

The High Life 1x05 'Meet The Roomies'

2006-07-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

by Chris Kelly

Lee soon finds that innocently inviting his new boss round to meet the rest of the team leads to a whole world of troubles, with snotty librarians, agitated skunks and a pack of hyperglycemic schoolkids all set to wreck the evening...

The High Life is a show I'm closely involved with, given that I'm technically one of the characters in it, but since the departure of the big man himself, Waylon Wyche, to seek fame and fortune out in Los Angeles for real, the show's been on a long hiatus while the remaining staff members (myself, Emma Platt and Chris Kelly) get things back to normality. Well, after a break of nine months, the show's back at last with a brand new episode, so without any further ado let's return to the antics of the most famous semi-fictional household on MZP!

We open with a depressed Emma debating over what to do with her new boyfriend - he has his advantages, sure, but he's kind of boring. Lee makes an appearance (God, it's weird writing about myself in the third person), but his very half-hearted attempt to cheer her up is interrupted by a knock at the door - and then another, and another. Somebody's trying to break in! Lee valiantly lets Emma take the lead, but finally yanks her back behind cover as Waylon and Chris burst in. False alarm. Emma makes the classic mistake of daring to imply that coffee might not be the greatest thing ever in front of Chris, the shock of this statement short-circuiting his little brain. The situation is thankfully defused without further incident, and the gang settle down to openly discuss what Emma should do next. Seems Waylon and Chris have done a little hacking to find out some hidden truths about the potential boyfriend in question, and it doesn't paint a pretty picture at all. Mind you, they just have a plan that Emma should marry for money if the group run out of cash, so that's their motivation right there. Emma decides to take Lee's advice, but this is clearly a rare situation, and Emma is left to muse on her decision as Waylon and Chris wash their hands of the whole thing...

We start Act I with Emma out on her second date in a park on a sunny day in downtown LA, with her bloke-to-be Earl prattling away in his boring way as Emma's internal monologue veers alarmingly towards murderous thoughts aimed at both Lee and Earl, whose sleazy routine marks him out as the kind of guy you'd wait to see set on fire before still not pissing on. Meanwhile, Lee swings by to see his boss Mr. Kennery, Lee currently being the only member of the team with actual gainful employment at a production studio. Lee's convinced he's in trouble (with obvious flashbacks to being called into the headmaster's office as a child), but he's actually about to get a promotion! You get the feeling he could easily talk himself into being deported if he's not careful, though... Emma's nightmare date is still, well, a nightmare, and across town at the library Ian is busy complaining about pretty much everything. After exploding at being shushed by a visitor, Ian's quick to vent his rage on anyone within his line of sight before co-worker Amy tries to calm him the heck down, but it's clear there's a different target for Ian's anger - Waylon. Ian's busy planning the perfect murder to remove Waylon from his life, but as Amy tries to stop him going postal on the annoyed library patrons, we're back with Lee and his boss. Kennery wants to do a final evaluation of Lee's work before moving him into his own office complete with insurance and health plan - the American dream! Lee sets up dinner at his apartment to go over the work the team have done to date, and as we leave that particular piece of dramatic irony hanging we move over to Claire at her school. Working as a supply teacher at a primary school would test anybody's patience, even the normally laid back Claire, and when she's not wrestling office equipment from the hands of mischevious five-year-olds, she's busy trying to convince the kids she hasn't murdered their normal teacher and taken her place! The classroom rapidly descends into chaos as we leave the scene for now.

Act II has Lee returning home with his boss, only to be met by Ian openly discussing his plans to murder Waylon and get away with it. Not the best entrance you could have hoped for. Waylon and Chris are out having a drink (again), busy commentating on the various LA stereotypes that wander past before Waylon decides to put Chris' famous luck to the test. He dares Chris to pickpocket a man waiting outside, and watches in amazement as Chris pretends to run into the guy, returning to Waylon's table with the wallet and handing it back moments later, to a chorus of thank yous from the unsuspecting victim. Back at the apartment, Lee is finding that Ian is answering all of Kennery's questions for him, much to his growing frustration, with Ian's honesty not what Lee needs right now. Claire slams into the apartment, loudly vocalising her horrific day at the hands of the kindergarten class, and to Lee's horror Kennery overhead the whole thing. Clearly losing his patience with the inmates of the asylum Lee appears to live in, Kennery tries to get down to business but is interrupted as Emma stomps in, laying into Lee for talking her into the second date and again, all before the watching eyes of his boss! However, Kennery doesn't help by tellng Emma all about the 'relationship' Lee's been telling people round his office that he and Emma had - which is news to Em! Emma drags Claire off for a rant, but to Lee's surprise he's still somehow in line for the job when Waylon and Chris arrive, and it doesn't take much from them to finally break Kennery and have him leave the apartment with a cartoonish slam of the door. Lee sinks into despair as we end the Act, the others still oblivious to what they've just done. Kennery's about turn does seem a little abrubt, but it still works given the circumstances.

Act III has Lee curled up in a ball of gloom in the kitchen, with Claire taking charge of the others to make sure some vague semblance of order is kept throughout the house. It's clear that the others have very little respect for Lee - they'll take him being in charge, but his many neuroses make him such an easy target, it's harder not to lay into the poor guy! Cut to later, and Kennery has somehow been coaxed back for dinner, the gang doing their best to be on their best behaviour around Lee's boss. There's some nice moments of silent comedy as the others start playing charades, before Ian finally spoils the game by blurting out in frustration. Chris manages to engage Kennery in some conversation about the stock market, much to the surprise of the others, and it seems to get the gang through dinner without further incident. Emma and Lee have an awkward conversation later as he attempts to talk his way out of pretending they were an item, with his argument that a lie was better than telling them the truth about his turbulent romantic history. The promise of beer seems to win Emma over - this time. Things are going well at last, but the untimely arrival of a girl guide sends Claire back into a whirlwind of anger, laying into the guide's dad after she sends the girl running off in tears! Kennery is pretty perturbed by this, but when Emma tries to flirt with him it's the last straw (again). Ian, Waylon and Chris chip in and do as little help as you'd expect, and as Kennery finally leaves it's pretty clear that the housemates have just cost Lee his job. Lee slumps in defeat as Waylon tries another shot at breaking Chris' incredible luck, chucking a rock at him - but hitting Ian instead!

Ian recovers in the ER, but is content to bide his time to get Waylon out of the building, having lost a democratic attempt to evict him over dinner. Back at the apartment, Lee is nowhere in sight as the others stress over how in the world they're going to fix his broken sense of confidence. To the accompaniment of a musical montage courtesy of Green Day, Lee's out roaming the streets as Claire busies herself with cleaning up, Chris and Emma fall asleep on each other to continue the hints of romance between the two, and as Lee drowns his sorrows at the nearest bar we black out on the show's comeback episode.

So. It's been a long time coming, so is the return of The High Life everything we could have hoped and more? Well... yes and no. Chris Kelly is still a relatively new writer, and while the standard of writing here is impressively high for such a relative newcomer, it's still a little rough around the edges in places. Having a cast of such strong central characters makes his job a lot easier, however, as the dialogue bounces between the six of them effortlessly throughout the episode. This is the kind of show where you could put any of the characters in any scene and leave them to their devices, and always have something entertaining to watch, but put two or more of them together and things really come alive. It's no surprise that the stronger moments of the script come when most of the gang are together, with some good physical comedy over the dinner table. Kelly also has a very unique way of writing both dialogue and stage direction which, while taking a little getting used to, gives him a nicely distinctive style that's instantly recognisable, something many writers spend years trying to develop! Let's not forget that Waylon Wyche wrote three of the last four episodes, so his sense of humour has been the standard thus far, and any new writer would stick out as something different after that. Faults? The pacing of the episode is a little wonky - Kennery seems to storm out in a huff at least three times, always to return as though nothing happened, and the over-long third Act means the final scenes are too short to have any real impact, but given the show's approach to comedy (blending it within the framework of a traditional drama rather than going for shorter, gag-laden sitcom-style scripts) this is something that still needs a few episodes to develop. The show's characters are nailed down right from the start, it's just the style and structure that need fine tuning now. All in, an impressive return that, while not quite hitting the heights this show is obviously capable of, reminds us why this show is so popular and gets things back on track at last. Things can only get better from here.

ZPM RATING:

Afterlife 1x08 'Murder, Pt. II'

2006-07-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

by Jon Nyqvist

After learning of the terrible things to come, Aurora, Jonathan and the others must find a way to escape the clutches of Murder himself!

Back in with Afterlife, the show that has had two fantastic episodes on the trot and is rightly earning its reputation as one of the best shows going on MZP at the moment. When we last saw our team, Jonathan was unwittingly leading a spy back into camp disguised as Aurora, who was still a captive of the sinister Lord of Murder, busy plotting inside his nightmarish castle with an army of formless creatures of darkness swarming round outside. And my god, it feels good to be able to write a sentence that cool about something. So! Onwards and upwards.

We're back at the crash site for the stolen Reaver air ship, with Marius and Kate desperately trying to keep their meagre fire going as the beasties roaming the dead forest around them get ready to move in for the kill. The whispers are suddenly gone - and there's Jon and Aurora. Or Rachel, as I'll have to call her to stop getting muddled. There's some lovely interplay between the team - Kate's cutting remarks are a moment of brevity despite the current circumstances - before Murder makes an appearance to disrupt the party. And then he leaps in to the attack, heading straight for Kate - but Marius gets in the way, taking the dagger meant for Kate and earning a salute from the crowd for managing to wrangle a vaguely heroic death out of it all. Shocker number one! We're a man down already and we haven't even finished the Teaser yet! Murder advances on Kate, who runs for cover as Jon tackles the villain to the ground, but as he calls for backup from Aurora, he gets an unpleasant surprise as Rachel reveals herself at last, sinking a sword into Jon and leaving him for dead! Shocker number two! Rachel takes off in pursuit of Kate, and as Murder slinks off and Jon blacks out, we end the bloodiest Teaser in MZP history...

A horrifying vision of a child being murdered is enough to snap the captive Aurora out of her magically-induced stupor, but despite finding a handily-sized piece of rat bone to start picking through the chains round her wrists, she doesn't have long before the visions are back, and we leave Aurora to her nightmare once again. Aurora knocks herself out as we exceute a neat match cut to see Kate doing the same, stumbling blindly through the dead forest as Rachel closes in for the kill. Snapping back to the crash site, Jon shows why he's the hero as he bravely cauterises his wound with an ember from the fire, tearing up his shirt to form a makeshift bandage before finding a barrel full of oil within the remains of the Reaver. Diana materialises but Jon's not exactly in the mood for another Cryptic Hint-a-thon at the moment. Luckily for him (and us), Diana's got her Exposition Hat on, and divulges some good details on the mechanics of the Afterlife. Seems a person's soul transmits to the Afterlife pretty much the way it left, only negative emotions are given an actrual physical form - hence the dark beasties. The world we live in is overrun with pain and suffering, and that's reflected in the sheer size of the darkness plaguing the Afterlife. Murder and Betrayal (or Rachel as we know her) are two of the figureheads, drawing dark souls to them like bugs to those neon strip light things, but there's a third on its way - Pain. And that's Aurora. She's struggling to fight the darkness spreading over her, and if she loses she's going to become the show's third Big Bad! Yikes.

Act II gives us Jon putting his plan into action, making some homemade molotov cocktails before setting off in pursuit of Kate and Rachel, following the trail of stray daggers before he hears Kate scream for help. We find her stuck at the edge of a cliff, a sheer drop on one side and Rachel emerging from the forest on the other. Rachel runs through a little moustache-twiddling Evil Speak before Jon hits her with a molotov, cutting her off from Kate and giving him a chance to finish the job. Oh, and deliver another contender for Line Of The Week:

RACHEL
You... You're supposed to be--

JONATHAN
Dead? Technically, I am.

That's our boy. He requests Rachel to morph into some guy he never liked from high school (I love this guy...), but Rachel has other ideas, trying on the face of Jon's sister Jenny instead! If she thinks that's going to slow him down, she'd better think again, as Jon clips her with a dagger and launches into one of Afterlife's trademark action sequences but soon has an unpleasant surprise. Easily the better fighter, he sinks a dagger into Rachel's chest but she's unfazed by the killer blow, knocking Jon back and preparing to finish the job. Jon has a surprise of his own to spring, however, and people paying attention earlier will grin as Jon uses Rachel's sword to ignite his own, dipped in very flammable oil and now giving him a hundred percent bad ass flaming sword o'doom! It's the attention to detail that shines in moments like these, showcasing the sharp eye for clever twists to action that has made Nyqvist's scripts so damn entertaining. Jon slashes Rachel with the flame sword, and sure enough the wound doesn't heal, continuing the weakness all creatures of darkness seem to have for fire. Rachel bugs out, and as the exhausted Jon finally runs out of adrenaline he crashes to the ground, with Kate quick to run to his side. Kate wants to head back to Darkwood, but Jon's not going anywhere without Aurora, so Kate has to let him go.

Back with Aurora and another vision of suffering, Aurora is literally beating herself silly to try and stay focused, with Murder looking in on her and urging her to give up again. Aurora's not going to go down that easily, defiantly telling Murder she's never going to become a monster like him, but Murder doesn't seem too bothered as he leaves her to a fresh round of visions. As Kate nears Darkwood, we catch up with Jon again, getting a severe bout of deja vu as he prepares to break into Killer's Sanctuary again to rescue Aurora - again. He's making his way through a canyon when he hears a rumbling sound, and before he knows it, something new attacks hi - a huge Shadow T-Rex! It's an action fan's dream as Jonathan evades the huge creature, fooling it into charging headfirst into a rockface and bury itself under a ton of rubble - complete with comedy sneeze as the dust settles. Magic. Murder and Rachel know Jon's on his way and are preparing a welcome for him, as Aurora recovers long enough to set about picking her chains again. Jon shows up at the castle, leaving a trail of oil behind him as he sneaks inside. Things are suspiciously quiet, but both the audience and Jon know it's never going to stay that easy for long. He heads for the door Rachel stopped him from entering before, but is surprised as the now free and half-crazed Aurora bursts out, nearly throttling him before he can make her see who he is. Aurora demands to be knocked out so she can be spared the visions, and Jon duly does so, slinging her over his shoulder and making for the castle walls. But of course, things are never that easy. There's an entire army of dark beasties waiting for him. Bugger.

However! Despite Murder showing up to gloat again, Jon has, as we know, a Plan. He jumps over the wall, igniting his sword and setting off the trail of oil he poured out earlier, the line of fire scything a path through the waiting creatures and giving Jon the chance he needs to escape. It's an impossibly cool shot that lights up the scene (no pun intended), but as Jon makes it into the forest his troubles aren't over yet - he's got an entire army on his back! He cuts through a few that get too close before unleashing his final surprise, throwing his sword into the barrel of oil and setting off a handy firebomb, buying him enough time to make good on his getaway. Glorious. Jon reaches the edge of the dark lands, leaping into the river below and letting the waters wash him and Aurora to safety, as Murder can only watch helplessly. Jon and Aurora get washed up on a riverbank just outside Darkwood, with Jon administering some CPR to shake Aurora back to life. The two trade some snide comments (and couldn't hide their attraction if they tried) before Aurora's hit by a fresh vision, and this time it leaves her out for the count. A quick dissolve jumps us forward two days, with a sombre Jon and Kate paying their respects to Vergil and Marius (though not their actual bodies, I'd imagine, given that they're still in the middle of Beastie Central), before the duo speculate on Murder's plans given his blase speeches about 'overrunning the world with darkness' and all that. As Jon asks about Aurora, there's another contender for Line of the Week:

JONATHAN
(smiles)
It’s good karma.

KATE
What?

JONATHAN
It’s a thing... with cows.

There's a last shocker in store, however, as Kate shows Jon the darkness literally eating away at Aurora's body, and from this we finally bring down the curtain on another show.

Wow. Another action-packed thrill ride from start to finish, with Nyqvist's amazing action sequences always staying within the bounds of heroic realism - people do pull off incredible feats and stunts, yes, but there's such care and forethought given to the mechanics of them all that you can't find any fault with them. You don't groan when the tiny hero takes down a beastie the size of a dinosaur, you cheer because it all makes so much sense. Marvellous stuff. If I had to pick faults with this episode, it's that it sidelines Aurora again, something that's happened far too often this series, and it's also too short for my liking once again. That said, those can't really detract from how much fun this was from page one through to the end, so bravo for another solid episode of this cracking show.

ZPM RATING:

The DSR 1x10 'Mage'

2006-07-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

by A.J. Black

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ZPM RATING:

Pathways 2x09 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'

2006-07-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

by Brian L. Lamkin

It's Christmas-time, and Gabe's hopes are soaring when it seems like Dominic might give him a second chance; Anna is falling when past decisions come back to haunt her. Meanwhile, Sam and Charlie put on a Secret Santa party for the GSA.

After a bit of a break from my reviews, it's time to get stuck back in again, and what better place to start than the ever-popular Pathways. While this season started off a bit slowly for my liking, with some unfocused plots and jumpy character development, things really started to slot into place about six episodes in, and we've been seeing some good quality drama in recent weeks. Let's jump back in with episode nine, then!

And it's a Christmas episode! Bloody hell. This is just a pet peeve of mine, but I find the way most American shows treat Xmas episodes as an absolute cheesefest of the highest order. I just hope to goodness that Pathways doesn't fall into this trap, because I'd hate to drop it some marks just because I'm a curmudgeonly old bastard. Bah, humbug! Gabe's on good form as we open, however, with Lamkin's trademark snappy dialogue leading to some great little one-liners. There's also some good little moments of awkwardness as James watches the Anna/Gabe Xmas rituals in full effect, just to drive home the point that they're far from being a happy family just yet.

Act I brings us back to Brighton Academy, with Gabe hard at work at the Banner as Mr Greyson swings by to see how he's doing. There's a reference to Jacob before Greyson tells Gabe that news of his complicated situation at home is spreading round the school, as such rumours are wont to do in the gossip-hungry academic environment. Greyson seems concerned that Gabe's work is slipping outside of the Banner offices, and it's only a timely arrival from Jacob that gives Gabe chance to extricate himself from the situation. Jacob just wants to get Gabe to admit how he feels, but Gabe's still cruising down a river in Egypt (think about it!) so that conversation's a bit of a non-starter. Shifting scenes to pick up the lovely Alanna (and yes, I am going to keep calling her that) in the middle of rehearsal, sneaking out for a stress relieving cigarette just as Parker shows up, and he flexes his Flirt Muscles a bit more. Oo, drama. Alanna's brilliantly wordy retorts to Parkers 'Me Tarzan, you Jane' approach to things is a great way to show how different they are, but as she exits it's clear things are a bit one way between them. So far. Catching back up with Anna and James for a spot of lunch, but James is still feeling a little shut out of Anna's life. He wants to help with setting the new clinic up, but he seems to be forgetting how used Anna is to sorting things out without needing a man around. Making a previously independent woman adjust to life with a man about the house isn't something that happens overnight, which James would do well to remember! Gabe exits the Banner office and (literally) runs into Dominic, so it's time for one of those cute awkward conversations as Gabe trips over himself again. Dom seems in an amiable mood, though, and agrees to Gabe's suggestion that they should 'talk' about things with the holidays coming up. So you just know that's not going to end well.

Act II opens with Sam and Charlie and their GSA meeting, which seems to be steadily increasing in membership as they plan their Secret Santa gifts. There's a little Jewish joke (shades of South Park in Charlie's reply) before the meeting disbands, and the strong friendship between Sam and Charlie gets some screen time. These two make a great double act - Charlie's pop culture retorts to Sam's camp quips make for some good dialogue. Thing is, Charlie knows the GSA isn't taken that seriously at the Academy, and in telling Sam she accidentally mentions his currently 'confused' sexual preferences. Sam's indignant exit says a lot more than words ever could - she's right, and they both know it. Gabe's out shopping with Mark and Julie, the trio experiencing some capitalism burnout when Gabe drops in having spoken to Dominic. The others try to talk to him about it, but Gabe would rather throw himself into some shopping instead, highlighting his nerves about the whole thing. Charlie bumps into Parker, and her giddy attitude round him is waving a big old 'I've Got A Crush On You' flag. You know, beating up somebody who tried to date rape you'll have that effect on a girl. Parker doesn't seem that interested, but everyone watching can see a good little Parker/Alanna/Charlie triangle developing here.

With the Xmas party at the Blaze opening Act III, Charlie manages to make up with Sam (isn't it great how it's a 'huge fight' one moment and forgotten the next? You may complain, but I find that's exactly what teenagers are like!) before we join Anna and James at home. James is still folding his arms and pouting at being left out, and now it's turning into a 'when are we going ot get married?' line of logic. Anna's being backed into a corner here, and I don't think James is going to like it when she finally comes out swinging. Parker shows up at Alanna's rehearsal (hey, isn't that considered stalking? Kind of ironic, Parker having accused Charlie of the same thing earlier!), and Alanna talks him into babysitting Lynn, the company's resident diva. Dominic shows up at the Blaze and gives Gabe a first edition copy of 'On The Road,' which is Gabe's favourite book as I recall, so things get all teary-eyed and sentimental as we head into the final Act.

Gabe is all dizzy over what to do now that Dominic's made the first step towards patching things up, and Sam sneaks over to speak to Julie. Things are still a little awkward between them, but Julie's bought Sam a friendship ring which seems to elicit the right response from Sam, so things look like they're progressing well between those two. Meanwhile, Parker is being subjected to Lynn ranting about bossy boots Alanna, in that way that prima donnas always do about people who don't fall at their feet. Parker makes it clear he's not going to do that, which seems to please Alanna - maybe this was all a test to see whether his approaches towards her were genuine or not? Gabe's night gets a little more complicated when Jacob shows up, but in a rare display of backbone and willpower he tells Jacob flat out that it's over between them. How long Gabe's resolve will last is another matter, but it's good character growth to see him take this stand after recent lapses in self-control. Parker whisks Alanna off for dinner, her defences gradually wearing down, but the episode ends on a sad note as Anna tells James she's heading off to a conference in Chicago for a few days, hoping that the break will do them both good. James as good as pines like a pet as she hangs up, and that's where we leave things.

So, Pathways continues to stay on the consistently good standard of storytelling recent episodes have demonstrated. Nothing too earth-shattering going on here, but solid progress on the major stories of the season, some great dialogue and plenty of instances where a character's feelings are demonstrated more in what they don't say, showcasing an excellent sense of development and growth as well as the writing skill of Lamkin in getting this across. The longer scenes help this enormously - the show's earlier episodes suffered from being very jumpy, but now we've settled into a style that suits the way Lamkin tells his stories perfectly. And points for resisting the urge to end on a cheesy musical montage or some other schmaltzy Xmas-episode cliche.

ZPM RATING:

Afterlife 1x07 'Murder, Part I'

2006-06-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

by Jon Nyqvist

After crash landing their newly stolen Airship, Jonathan, Aurora and their new allies find themselves deep in "dark" lands, surrounded by terrible creatures, and something worse...

After getting the season back up to the high standards of its opener at long last with the brilliant 'Escape,' it's back to the world of Afterlife in our first major arc episode, the first half of a two-parter that introduces the Big Bad and should also provide plenty more great Jonathan and Aurora moments. 'Escape' showed that this show is at its strongest when those two get the screen time they need to play off each other, so by those requisities the second half of the season should prove even better than the first. In theory.

Opening with a cool little shot of Aurora hiding the patch of darkness still festering away on her hand (and reminding us of that particular plotline in case any of you had forgotten), Jon arrives to lead her out onto the Reaver's main upper deck, pointing out the Evil Forest currently heading towards them. Or, rather, the airship is heading towards the forest in a distinctly crash-beckoning direction. Kate stumbles out onto deck, clinging to Jon in true damsel style as Aurora points out that crashing isn't the problem - a stray spark igniting the very flammable bag of gas over their heads is. Kate takes a moment to throw some more abuse Aurora's way, which leads to Aurora grabbing her and making it pretty clear she'll cut her throat if she tries anything like that again. Jon lays Aurora out and gets ready to throw her off the ship, but as Aurora comes to her senses it seems she wasn't in control of her action - she has Evil Hand Issues. Lindsey McDonald would sympathise! Jon knows something's up but also knows they'll have to deal with that later - gathering the others up on the deck (and with a neat angle showing Aurora sticking to the shadows where she feels she belongs), he outlines his plan. Jump. The Reaver starts to cleave its way through the dead trees, and the crew make a leap for freedom, smashing their way to the ground as the airship finally goes up in flames - and highlighting hundreds of evil creatures of darkness waiting out in the wilds! Uh oh...

Jon stumbles into frame, following Kate's cries of alarm to find her hanging up in a tree. There's a few quips (naturally), before a quick climb and a heroic grab has the two of them on more solid ground, and as they climb to the floor we follow them as they search for the others. With sinister shadows tracking the two as they move through the eerily silent forest of dead trees, they locate Marius and Vergil, battered but alive, and as Kate sighs with relief Jon notes darkly that Aurora is nowhere to be seen. Jon takes off in the direction of her likely crash site, finding a clearing and a handy bolt of lightning to point out blood on the rocks around him. He calls out for her, but the sudden arrival of more beasties has Jon running for his life, gathering the others in a nice moment of brevity as legions of the creatures of darkness race after him. Jon performs this week's John Woo Moment with a slow-mo drop kick on one of the pursuing creatures, but this splits him up from the others. They arrive at the crash site and use the burning Reaver wreckage to keep the creatures away - but where's Jonathan?

Meanwhile... Aurora wakes up in a black room, on black sheets and wearing a figure-hugging black dress. Symbolism aside, she's woken by a mysterious voice and springs to action, but before she can react she's grabbed by this season's Big Bad - the Lord of Murder. A suitably minimal description of the guy gives us just enough detail to build up our own impression of him, and as he holds the captive Aurora we switch back to the crash site. Kate tends to Vergil, clinging to life by a thread, before being startled by something bursting through the flames - but it's Jon. Whew! Dissolving to later on that night, Diana makes an appearance as Jon sits and muses on Aurora's fate. After making the valid point that despite his anger with her, Jon genuinely cares about Aurora, Aurora herself is being led through a hallway filled with living, hellish paintings by Murder. There's a cool, nightmarish quality to this whole location, well realised and making for a good villain's lair, so kudos to Nyqvist for creating such a distinctive location for his Big Bad to prowl around in. The paintings take on a more sinister quality when Aurora sees a younger version of herself, taking out her first mark, and Murder hints that every act of murder creates another one of the creatures running around the forest outside, one of which is close enough even now to grab Aurora! Murder starts to choke Aurora, angry that she never fulfilled her potential, and prepares to stab her when a new player emerges, stopping Murder from killing herbut treating her to a worse punishment instead - a kiss. This kiss unleashes hundreds of intense visions of atrocity on Aurora's mind, leaving her screaming in agony as we nip back to the crash site. Jon's getting ready to trek out in search of Aurora, much to Kate's horror, but with his dying breath Vergil tells Jon it's his purpose to find her, and then that's it. Game over. Well, he didn't do so bad considering how badly he was banged up, and while the moment of his death is pretty underplayed, it does its job of instilling a little more fire in Jonathan's heart as he sets off to find his woman. There's a cool Pitch Black moment as he grabs a torch and races through the sea of beasties outside the fire, parting the waves as he makes a run for it, and as he sprints into the night that's where we end the Act.

Jon is one step ahead of the creatures, and with a handy lesson in orienteering from Diana he's off on his way again, though not before we get the episode's jump-worthy moment as a creature leaps through her to get at him! Nyqvist always shows a director's sense of drama in his action sequences, throwing in some truly cool shots and moments throughout his scripts, and so far this episode is maintaining that standard! Jon finally arrives at Killers Sanctuary, lit up like a classic Gothic Castle o'Doom, and with the dark beasties hot on his trail he's quick to Spider-Man his way up the outside of the building, but with the vine he's using catching fire and a beastie advancing from above, things look pretty hairy for our plucky hero... In another inspired moment of action, Jon manages to kill the beast attacking him despite his boots being on fire, sending it to its death as he scrabbles in through a nearby window, quickly extinguishing himself. Whew! Jon finds Aurora waiting for him, slinky dress and all, but her seductive advances on him set his alarm bells ringing - what's she up to? As she slips out of the dress, however, Jon's in no position to listen to his inner voice, grabbing Aurora and giving her a darn good seeing to as we tastefully dissolve to the old 'post coital moment.' If only somebody had a cigarette. The duo clamber out of bed, their only way out up in smoke so Aurora aims him towards a door she spotted earlier. As they race off, we cut back to Kate and Marius just as the campfire starts to go out, and as they panic the army of creatures at the edges of their camp start to edge closer... Back with Jon and Aurora, they find the living portraits but are unaware that something is following them. Jon twigs that this all feels too easy, but as Aurora warns him not to jinx things by saying that - he jinxes things by saying that. The floor gives way and plunges them both into a a pit full of waist deep murky water, and as if the Star Wars moment wasn't obvious enough, we even get a 'Something just brushed up against my leg...' Eep! There's some kind of pit monster down there with them, grabbing Jon and pulling him under - but he's no wussy Skywalker kid, taking care of the thing in moments. While under, he found some kind of lever, and without giving much thought to what it could do, gives it a tug. As the two are sucked down through what is basically a giant toilet filled with demon sewage, I'm sure the irony of the situation is not lost on them as they're dumped into another chamber inside the castle. Aurora warns Jon away from a suspicious-looking door he approaches (is anybody else's Spider Sense tingling yet?), but as she hits the lever to open the front gates, they find Murder and a pack of his beasties waiting for them. Crap.

After the now-customary Wiseass Off as the two sides exchange a few cutting remarks, Murder's malicious minions march merrily towards our heroes, though not before Jon gets out a great line:

JONATHAN
(dripping sarcasm)
I'm so glad we took the front door.
No way they'd ever see that coming.

As the duo spring to action, we catch back up with Kate and Marius, Kate getting a nasty chop from a beastie as she desperately searches for more fuel for the fire, and it's pretty clear that unless Jon and Aurora get to them soon, they're going to be beastie-food in no time! Straight back into the action at the Sanctuary, our heroes put on another fab display of ass-kickery to put the twelve beasts before them in the mud, but in the action it seems Murder has slipped away. The duo make their escape - but Murder was watching the whole thing. An Evil Plan of the highest order is obviously brewing here, but there's a surprise in store as Aurora stops to look into a pool of water on the way. It's not Aurora. It's Rachel! Aurora's arch nemesis from her high school days! The one who tried to frame her for murder! And I didn't just have to go back and read 1x05 to remember who she was. Honest. *coughs* Anyway. With that little shocker out in the open at last, we flash back to the Sanctuary - and there's the real Aurora, still captive, still plagued by visions of evil, and still in need of a damn good rescuing as we end the show for another week.

Rah. This contains all the now-trademark elements of a good Afterlife episode. Cinematic fights and action sequences, snappy dialogue, the electric chemistry and interplay between Jon and Aurora, and now with the addition of Murder we have a Big Bad and a strong central story to tie the show together. The little twist at the end is fairly telegraphed, but even though you know something's not right with Aurora, you're genuinely surprised to see it's Rachel in disguise, especially when you consider that she just shagged Jon and think about how that changes the Jon/Aurora dynamic. Oo, love it. I do, however, have one big complaint with this episode. It's about ten pages too freakin' short! There's some fantastic stuff here but it moves a little too quickly - longer scenes around the camp fire with Kate and Marius would have helped make this a meatier script, and a little more Jon and Aurora is never a bad thing. We also don't spend as much time with Murder as we could have, so an extra scene or two with each and you're back up to a more standard 50 pages. Still. When the worst thing you can say about a script is that you wish there was more of it, I guess that shows what you do have is pretty freakin' sweet.

ZPM RATING:

The DSR 1x09 'A Piece Of The Action'

2006-05-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-05-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

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.

ZPM RATING:

Afterlife 1x05 'High'

2006-05-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

by Jon Nyqvist

Aurora, now a prisoner of the Ravens, is tortured by Trias in a most cruel way. She is given a drug called "Devil's Tears" which forces a person to re-live their most horrible memory...

When we left the excellent Afterlife, Aurora was facing off against a pack of thugs led by the villainous Trias after she bravely tried to defend a simple family from Raven thugs, and it seems the trials are a long way from being over for her. Let's dive back in - the much-hyped Jonathan/Aurora reunion isn't far off now, and I'm itching to get to the good stuff, especially with 'What Doesn't Kill You...' finally nailing the balance of real world flashbacks to Afterlife action.

Aurora faces Trias and his goons, the fire consuming the homestead around them closing in. The tension rises as the two exchange a few customary quips, before one of Nyqvist's now trademark blistering action sequences kicks in, and with a series of dazzling moves Aurora takes down two goons before her recent exertion takes her tool. She's good, but even she can't tackle seven goons while still sporting injuries herself - and it's good writing to make her fail like that. We love kick ass heroes and heroines, but we love ones who don't always win even more. Aurora is beaten down and Trias orders his men to take her alive, but our girl's not done yet. She takes out three more thugs before finally hitting the deck, but even with her last vestiges of strength she tries to take Trias down. She's finally knocked out, but this brave fight has won her even more brownie points as far as I'm concerned.

Aurora wakes up in a cell to find Vergil looking in on her - her one true ally and supporter. Aww. Vergil says he'll look for a way to help, but has to scoot as Trias shows up. Trias remarks how physical torture won't work on someone as used to pain as Aurora, so he has something else in mind - the Devil's Tear. It's a very rare herb that will root out a person's worst memory and force them to relive it - so, obviously, the worse the person it's used on, the more powerful it will be, and for a chick like Aurora, this story's not going to end in a tale of sunshine and hollow chocolate bunnies. Trias blows a handful of the plant's dust onto her, and as Aurora spaces out we go into Flashback Mode - and back to school. It's nine years back, and a teen named Gordon is reading a paper outside Williamson High School before the 17-year-old (and blonde) Aurora joins him. A serial killer is stalking their city, but these two only have eyes for each other. Or do they? Is there something more sinister to Gordon? Is Aurora about to learn a hard lesson in life? Am I putting on my Fifties America TV Announcer voice for no real reason? Ahem. Anyway. Aurora meets her friends Rachel Linda, with everyone still busy chatting about the killer, until the hunky teacher Kyle enters. Oo, and we get Aurora's surname! Or, at least, what it was at this stage in her life - Sinclair. Aurora Sinclair. Cool. Aurora shows she's clearly too clever for this class before we follow the trio of girls outside, bumping into a creepy janitor - and we're already building up a list of possible suspects here. Gordon, the boyfriend? Kyle, the teacher? Old Man Withers, the janitor? It's like Scooby Doo but minus the dogs. Aurora heads home, showing a magnificent beach house and absentee parents who leave her plenty of cash. You have to wonder how our girl went from living in The OC to becoming a high-kicking assassin, and already we've got a great story building here. Aurora settles down to soak up some sun, but unknown to her. somebody's watching...

Vergil looks in on the drug-addled Aurora, and as Trias shows up to gloat Vergil gets a plucky line in about Trias being scared of Aurora (good man), before we return to our girl's flashback. She's dressed up as Elektra? With sai daggers to match? Ya-huh? Oh, it's alright - it's a fancy dress party, with Gordon arriving as Batman. He missed a trick there to show up as DareDevil. Seems Aurora lives with her aunt, and doesn't see her much - her aunt's a social animal, and this seems to bother Aurora although she acts like it doesn't. They arrive at the high school for the dance, which is a themed superhero costume party. Genius. Rachel predatorially eyes up Gordon, before he sneaks off with his jock buddies to go, like, totally do some stuff, dude. The dance rolls on, and we learn that Gordon and Aurora haven't done it' yet. She's one of those 'my first time has to be special' girls. Hey, nothing wrong with that. Unless you're Gordon The Jackass, who slopes off with Rachel instead! The loathsome cad. The night rolls on and Aurora goes looking for Gordon, finding him in the locker room - and all over Rachel. Uh oh. Aurora storms off, but as Gordon tries to chase her Aurora shows a flash of her future self as she lays him out, threatening a violent end on him or Rachel if they come near her again. She stomps off home, but the following morning brings a not too surprising but still nasty revelation - Gordon's dead, and Aurora's the prime suspect!

Aurora in her cell is doing her best to fight the drug's effects, but Trias can tell it's working as we cut to the past, and Aurora is in the local police precinct, being interviewed by Detective Powers (a shout out to the excellent comic of the same name?). Aurora rightly points out that her angry threats at Gordon won't make a very solid case, until Powers pulls his trump card - Gordon was killed with one of the sai daggers from Aurora's costume, which of course have her prints all over them! Outside a courthouse, Aurora makes bail and has to fight her way through a crowd of reporters, the police keen to pin the other two recent murders on her. Aurora's lawyer advises her to lay low, seeing as she's still the only suspect, and Aurora returns home to meet her Aunt Rhea at last. Rhea's packing for a vactaion - for herself. Seems she'd rather head for Europe than stand by her niece. Man! Aurora snidely remarks how Rhea only took her under her wing to get access to Aurora's mothers' money, and Rhea cuts back with a remark of her own before she heads off, leaving Aurora all alone. And her timing couldn't be worse - Gordon's jock buddies are waiting outside, ready to get some payback on Aurora for his murder!

Aurora tries to call Linda but finds that the town's opinion has been swayed against her, and with no allies left Jack and his buddies make their entrance, starting to smash up her home as they close in on her. Aurora takes a few hits before she springs to action, charging away from the gang and racing through her home in a desperate escape bid. She's knocked down again, hitting the deck just out of reach of the phone, and as Jack and the others close in, we get a nasty shock - Rachel's at the window, watching the whole thing! We mercifully switch back to Aurora in her cell, flipping back to find the boys gone but Aurora clearly having received some pretty hardcore abuse. She's in a state of shock as Rachel struts into the room, and Aurora can barely believe what she's hearing - Rachel is the killer! She used Aurora's fight with Gordon as her cover, and there's even a neat flashback to show how Rachel got hold of one of the daggers from her costume. Bravo. Rachel raises a knife, but this triggers something deep within Aurora - as the direction says, this is the moment where 'the teenage high school girl dies, and something else is born.' Rachel plunges the knife down, we cut to white and hear doctors racing to save her. Aurora flatlines - and then recovers. In her cell, Aurora remains unbroken, and Vergil is clearly glad that the Devil's Tear didn't work - but in a neat camera shot, Aurora's nails are digging into her hands so much that blood is flowing onto the floor. This girl's tough, but she's not quite that tough. In the past, Aurora wakes in a quiet hospital room, where a mysterious voice informs her that as far as the rest of the world is concerned, she's dead, and offers her a new life. Can you guess who it is yet? Yup, it's Lynn. And Aurora Mk. II is born. The End.

So that's Aurora's worst memory, then. Her high school sweetheart was brutally killed by one of her deranged friends, and the retaliation from his friends left her abused and beaten, before Rachel herself came back to stick a knife in her chest. It's an excellent story - a genuine whodunnit with a few surprises and gives us acres more insight into what makes Aurora the way she is. We know how she learnt her trade, but we never knew why before now. Great stuff, sprinkled with typically classy action, intelligent camera shots and the usual witty dialogue. My only real beef with the ep is it suffers from the problems of 'Twin,' being based almost entirely in flashback, but as opposed to 'Twin' here the flashback story itself is fantastic, which kind of saves the episode. I know we're close to the Jon/Aurora reunion and then the show will kick off, so getting all these flashbacks and backstories out of the way works in some ways, but I'm itching to see where the show goes next, so I hope we get some real Afterlife plot advancement now. We can save more history stories for later - I want action! And death! And fire!

ZPM RATING:

The DSR 1x06 'Under The Surface'

2006-05-09T08:59:00.000-07:00

by Brian L. Lamkin

Anton is forced to come to terms with potentially losing his wife to terminal cancer when the DSR attempt to hunt down a nest of mole-like creatures under the Nevada desert.

Time for more spycapades from Not Sawyer and his merry band of ghostbusting cohorts. While steadily improving with every episode since the premiere, 1x05 was a bit of a step back with some alarming continuity clangers sabotaging what had been a great story up the final Act. With a new writer on board in the form of Brian Lamkin, who I rate very highly, let's see what his take on the world of The DSR brings us!

Jai's working late when Mia and Sara show up, dolled up for the evening and giving Jai chance to double take at their flagrant display of hotness. Turns out it's Anton's wife's birthday, and he's throwing a big party - but doesn't look like Jai got invited. Aww. He's not the partying kind, though, so while he has work he can be frowning at, he's happy, although a last glance to the departing Mia suggets he'd actually like to see what's going down all the same! Anton and Maggie, his wife, are still clearly very much in love despite both hitting 60, and as Mia and Sara head into their home they find Ethan and Carson. Ethan comments that Jai's probably plotting his downfall (which works for me, because I thought their settling of the feud a few weeks back was way too early), but when Mia sneaks off to look around, she finds Maggie not looking too well - and she faints away! Mia calls for help as we switch back to PBH to see what Kendall's up to. Jai and Kendall are both working late, but as a sudden tremor rattles the building, they rush out to investigate. Quick point - if the whole complex just got hit by a tremor, wouldn't it have knocked all the terminals out of screen saver mode? Anyway. Seems a small town near Reno has just been wiped out!

With the team back from the party, Act I brings us a news report and tells us that Brook Lake, Nevada, has gone done a Sunnydale and just fallen into the ground. Ethan has a lead on some high tech equipment being moved around in Phoenix that may be a possible explanation for the weird seismic readings, so he and Jai head off to check it out. Kendall pops over to Reno to see Anton and Maggie, who's now in the hospital. With Anton clearly broken up about the tumour that Maggie's kept hidden from him, we get a nice switch over to an industrial estate in Phoenix, where 'Money For Nothing' somehow seems to fit perfectly with Ethan playing mercenary to meet with Ravell, a suspect for the Brook Lake incident. Ethan manages to worm his way into a test showing of what could be the weapon that took out Brook Lake, as we switch back to Anton and Maggie, with the kids now sitting with their mother. Anton doesn't look like he's handling this too well as we flip back to Arizona (and good use of these cutaways to Anton to help the passage of time for Ethan and the others, by the way), but Ethan's cover is about to be blown as Ravell marches him out into the desert at gunpoint, ready to show him the weapon first hand! And it's... a worm? A big worm! With teeth! Run away! Run away! Jai swoops in with a chopper (which has already been set up so doesn't feel contrived at all) and scoops Ethan up before the Tremors-inspired beastie can get him, and we black out. I'll just take a moment here to say how impressed I am with this episode so far - Lamkin's got a good handle on these characters (although Ethan is a little too casual), and even if the return of the Jai/Ethan feud feels a little out of character given previous episodes, it actually feels more in character now, if that makes sense. They've gone from loathing to mild annoyance, and for me it sits much better. The dialogue and direction is also up to Lamkin's usual standards, and it's really added a sparkle to this story. The fact that the worm creature's appearance was actually a cool moment is a big deal here, it could easily have come off a bit silly.

The team debrief back at PBH, with Sara discovering a huge network of tunnels stretching across the region. Whatever these things are, they've been busy. The team split up, one half investigating the beasts while Jai and Mia go back to infiltrate Ravell's network. Chucking around words like 'species' and 'genetic engineering' has already given this beastie a necessary grounding in reality, and that's always going to be the key to the fantasy elements of The DSR - one foot in the real world. It's what made early X-Files work so darn well! Anton's back at work despite Kendall's advice, and he seems set on burying himself in work as we follow Jai and Mia over to Phoenix. They identify Ravell's main contact as Tariq Kasam, an exiled Egyptian biologist with an interest in the 'horhaj,' which must be Egyptian for 'worm thingy.' Carson's handy reference to the horhaj feels a bit convenient, but her curt put down of Jai's 'shall I repeat that in English for the less techy members of the audience?' line works well. Anton favours direct action, but Kendall knows that this is just his frustration over Maggie speaking out. Kendall mentions a lost partner of his own, Julia, telling us he knows what Anton's going through. Anton remains convinced he has to do something, however, and we close on a slow-mo hero shot of the team heading out to take the horhaj on head-to-head. Which is a little cheesy, I'll admit, but the sentiment's there.

Mia and Carson are in Dubai, with Mia ready to take a nose round Kasam's suite as Carson distracts him in the bar of the swanky hotel they're in. Carson demonstrates a previously unseen ability to do the undercover agent thing as she chats up Kasam, as Mia has to swap her slinky dress for a maid's outfit to get into Kasam's room, not missing the chance for a one-liner on the way. Out in the desert, the team stop at the crater that used to be Brook Lake and prepare to head down into the tunnels. Ethan's lines here, while funny, do feel very out of character for him. It's a hard thing to flag up, though, because his attempt to look cool in front of the others gets shot down by Jai and it works really well, but it just doesn't sound like the buttoned up Ethan we know so well. The team venture into the tunnels (skilfully avoiding the worm poop) as we cut back to Mia the Maid. She can't get into Kasam's room directly, so she gets into thenext one along and climbs across the perilously thin balcony (and again, a nicely directed moment). She snatches a laptop from the room just as Carson's cover is blown downstairs (and the ghost of Alias returns - how often do guards suddenly appear and wreck an infiltration mission, or covers get blown for no real reason?), and Mia's sneaky exit is spoilt by some random girl exiting the shower (wouldn't she have heard it running?), but two swift moves later we've got two guards KO'd and Mia ready to zip on. I love this girl. She's a black Sydney Bristow without the tendency to burst into tears every five minutes. Mia rescues Carson, and the two girls split with the goods as we rejoin our bug hunters down in the horhaj tunnels. Anton looks like he's walking into a bad encounter in his effort to get some action, while back with Mia and Carson, it's Interrogation Time! Kasam's tied to a chair and it's time for the girls to get their Good Cop/Bad Cop on. Carson smacks Kasam, channeling her inner Dr. Walsh to good effect, as it seems Kasam's a religious nutjob who's got an army of worms in waiting, ready to attack all over the world. It's always the religious ones you have to watch out for, innit? And down in the tunnels, Ravell arrives with some soldiers, ready to spoil Jai's day...

Mia and Carson are headed to Cairo to shut down the command centre for the worms, and with Jai following Anton's lone wolf mission in the tunnels, we're glad to hear Kendall say backup is on the way. Mainly because if they show up just in time, it's won't feel cliched! Seems Kasam's considered a traitor to his country, but with a clever bluff Carson downloads a virus into the lab's systems, so Kasam can pretend to remove it and Carson can hack in and get the schematics of the worm control device. With me so far? Good. Kasam pulls a switch, grabbing a gun and getting shot down for his trouble, and Mia has to grab the plans and scoot, gunfire chasing her out as she bundles herself into Carson's van to get away. Whew! Jai catches up to Anton and does his best to talk him down (which happens a little too easily), but the duo run into more trouble as they find the main hive of the creatures - and Sara and Ethan are captives of Ravell! D'oh. With Mia racing to get the EMP schematics to Jai in time so they can avoid becoming worm food, Jai and the team find they're about to be offered up as sacrifices for the Queen horhaj and its many, many kids who are rushing back to the dinner table. Luckily, a spare EMP has been found at Ravell's base, and Kendall helicopters that over to the hole, and oh, God, it's doing that thing again. The infuriatingly convenient plot device to solve a sticky situation quickly. Grr. Down in the hive, Kendall's EMP drives the worms away so Jai can launch a counterattack, breaking loose as th ebackup squad arrive to secure the hive. There's a b-movie moment as Anton lobs a huge explosive charge into the Queen horhaj's gob, before the team run like fun and escape the tunnels, moments before they're blasted into fragments. Back at PBH, we keep our Jai/Mia shippers happy as she checks up on him, hard at work once again. Lamkin's trademark soap moment comes in as we get the musical montage style happy ending - Jai looks at a picture of Cassie, Kendall one of Julia and Anton looks adoringly in on his kids. The End.

So! What did we make of all that, then? Lamkin nailed the show's style and characters down from the start - except Ethan, who seems very off for the whole script. That said, I liked how he came across here, I'm just conscious of him sounding unlike his usual self for the most part. The dialogue was snappy, the action sequences well choreographed, and the initial worm encounter went well, so the only thing letting this down is what I'm christening DSR Act IV Syndrome. Several hideously convenient things happen one after the other to push us to a quick conclusion, and I can't help but feel that several chunks of this script should have been cut here to give more room for Act IV to breathe. As it is, it squashes a lot in and the rushed pace really shows. Mia and Carson's field trip was gold, but probably went on too long and meant that the dramatic scenes in the hive had to be squeezed in, making them feel a little overblown and, dare I say it... daft. DSR would do well to keep an anchor in reality, as it makes the extraordinary easier to swallow, and this was doing a good job until the scenes in the hive, when it stumbled a little. That said, this was cracking stuff for the most part, with Lamkin showing off the good eye for fast-paced action that serves him so well over on Slayer Academy. It's just a shame that things fell apart a little towards the end - less is always more with big monsters, and after keeping them a largely unknown quality for most of the script, we ended up getting too much of them in the finale. I appreciate, however, that the line between Alias and X-Files that DSR is straddling at the moment is a fine one, and while the show has yet to really nail that delicate balancing act it's getting better all the time, so good things lie ahead.

Lines Of The Week:

ETHAN
Can I just say one thing?
(beat)
Big worm!

and how can I forget:

ETHAN
I’ll protect you.

SARA
(weakly)
Not exactly making me feel better.

ZPM RATING:

Pathways 2x05 'They Wouldn't... Would They?'

2006-05-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

by Brian L. Lamkin

Tensions rise between Gabe and Dominic as questions linger about their relationship and where it's headed. Jacob becomes insistent that Gabe make a decision about what's going on between them, and Sam becomes concerned that Gabe might be making the wrong choice.

Back with Pathways, the popular drama series that boasts an array of well-rounded characters but some frustratingly slow-moving plots this far in. There's lots of good stuff in the offing here, so the show just needs to start kicking some of this development into gear now.

We open in the Bronze - sorry, the Blaze - with Gabe and Dom enjoying a quiet night out. Together, for a change, instead of being all sneaky and stuff. But what's this? Gabe was somewhere else last night (as we know, out with new boy Jacob), and had a worried Dom calling round all his friends trying to find him. As someone who's been in a similar situation myself, I know that the fallout from this is that all of your friends now know you were missing, and you have to become much more careful about your story because there's an exponential number of people who need to be told it! Anyway. After the awkwardness of that encounter, Gabe heads home and has another butting of heads with Parker, but even though he gets away with it this time it seems like Gabe's luck is going to run out very soon indeed.

Act I opens with a family breakfast - Anna knows Gabe's been stopping out late but seems to be treading that fine line between caution and freedom with Gabe. By letting him get away with a bit of youthful rebellion, she knows it'll stop him going too far off the deep end again - like, say, running away to Miami. At school, Gabe sits with Sam, Mark and Julie, only for Alanna to swing by and drag Mark off for drama stuff. Julie seems to think Alanna's got it in for her, but her paranoid rambling about it doesn't do her any favours, much less her barbed comment to Gabe about Dominic which gives him cause to get up and walk off, doing the 'you hurt my feelings but you're my friend so I won't say anything... yet' dance. Alanna and Mark are doing some acting exercises, and we get another hint to the enigma that is Alanna Cooper - her family has enough money to 'pretend they don't exist.' Witness Protection? The plot thickens indeed! Kaia gets sent to see a new teacher because she's clearly not giving two craps about her schoolwork, and Gabe and Jacob have another little chat in the newspaper office. Jacob surprised me by coming right out and basically telling Gabe that they're an item - they met, what, last week? - and that he needs to make a decision on what he wants to do. Okay, woah. Stop a second. They've been on one date! Jacob doesn't have any right to start making demands on Gabe this early, and Gabe backing down and letting Jacob push him around was particularly infuriating. However - this feels like purposeful character direction here. I think we're supposed to feel Jacob's being unfair, because this rapid turn of plot feels way too jarring otherwise and I know Lamkin's a better writer than that! A point proven as he throws in a final surprise to close the act - Sam heard the whole thing.

Act II has Sam stressing to Charlie about what he should do next. Go public? Stay quiet? Have a quiet word with Gabe? He's got no idea, and as Gabe and Dom have an awkward lunch where Dom says he thinks things are moving too fast, it's clear nobody else has any idea either. There's a sweet moment with Alanna and Mark as she tries to assuage his fears about the shifting dynamics of his friendship group, but over with Parker and Julie it's clear there's another side to Alanna. We already know this from the agressive message she left Parker last week, but now Julie's feeling the heat as well. Gabe slinks back home, but Anna's not there to shout at him, just reassure him that he can always talk to her when he needs to. Gabe slopes off to bed, and we close Act II. As you can tell from the short paragraph, not much happened in this Act, but more on that later.

Act III has Dom asking for Sam's help in figuring out what's bothering Gabe, but Sam does his best to dodge out of it before meeting the others for lunch, bemoaning the potentially explosive situation he now finds himself in. Julie's more concerned with the fact that he talked to Charlie first, but Sam stresses that they need to have some kind of intervention with Gabe to find out what the heck's going on. Mark draws the short fry and has to be the one to go speak to Gabe. D'oh! Alanna and Julie have a confrontation at the bus stop, with Alanna confirming that yes, she's Parker's ex, but lies to Julie and says she's a long way over Parker now. Julie is rightfully suspicious and storms off in typical Julie-ish indignation. Mark shows up at Gabe's place to try and speak to him about what's going on, but Gabe throws down the Righteous Indignation card, not confirming or denying any of Mark's claims and instead herding Mark out of his room.

Act IV opens with Parker and Alanna finally meeting face to face, and Alanna's not at all happy about the face off she had with Julie, telling Parker to sort his woman out. Hints here that Alanna knows Parker's bisexual and that this was what split them up, which is interesting, and also gives Alanna a HUGE amount of power over Parker, given that she could easily destroy his whole life in Crestview with a few carefully-released facts. Seems she's building up a friendship with Mark for some more sinister purpose now too! Nice juxtaposition at the end of the scene, with Parker calling Julie 'harmless' as we cut to the incensed Julie getting angry over Gabe's actions earlier. Thing is, Dominic shows up as the trio try to figure it out - and then so does Gabe. He storms off (again) and Dom chases after him, but as Gabe echoes Dom's own words and asks for some space, Dom twigs that there's another guy and stomps off, leaving Gabe to muse over how he just screwed up a good thing...

A better episode, but still plagued by Pathways' usual problems - too many things going on at once and very uneven story development. Jacob's sudden arrival last week and the breakup this week feels like it's happened far too quickly. I'd like to give Lamkin the benefit of the doubt here, but as the episode went on it didn't feel like this fast pace of this story worked the way he wanted it to. So we'll just have to see how it goes. The short scenes here were another complaint - it was hard to get into the swing of any of the stories because we spent so little time with each one, jumping from location to location. Lamkin works best when he has enough room to bounce his characters off each other, building up a good rapport (and the Sam/Mark/Julie scenes here are best for that), but all too often we cut from one scene just as you're settling in, and the whole episode feels very choppy as a result. Some plots are unravelling nice and slowly (Alanna being the main point of interest), but the show's need to feature every one of its regulars in every episode means you get a lot of unecessary little scenes that interrupt the flow, and also leave less room to spend time on the main plots of each episode. That may be the show's style, I'll have to read Season One to be sure, but so far I'm finding that Pathways needs to start focusing on one or two stories a week instead of trying to advance forward about five.

ZPM RATING:

The DSR 1x05 'The Ultra Directive'

2006-05-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

by A.J. Black

Carson admits to Kendall about her being blackmailed, which leads the DSR to discover a secret CIA project going back 50 years called 'Ultra', which involved creating psychic spies, which Kendall it seems was party to as a young man...

It's yet to tap into it's true potential, but after a shaky start each episode's been better than the last so far for the adventures of Not Sawyer and his team in The DSR, so let's see if 'The Ultra Directive' can continue the upward swing in quality!

We ended on a good old-fashioned Alias style cliffhanger in 'ESP_ionage,' so we're right back into the action as the captive Jai and Ethan face a sticky end at the hands of fearsome warlord Patrice Lombasa. However, a Caribbean guy (who must have been seen before, so I'll have to check back) looks set to break up the party, training a laser-sighted rifle on Daniel Ratner, the psychic chap with dubious loyalties who got Jai and Ethan into this mess. He's not that psychic, though, as no sooner has he yelled a warning than he becomes the episode's first causalty, gunned down and giving Jai the window to tackle Lombasa to the ground. Ethan grabs a gun and opens fire on the incoming guards as Jai takes on Lombasa - and finds that seven foot of muscle is never an easy thing to take down, until Jai gets a lucky shot in, disarming Lombasa and giving him a Number One Cut courtesy of his own hacksaw. Ouch. The dying Ratner just has time to say there are more like him, and the word 'ultra,' before he checks out, and from that shocker we're back into LA, waiting for Carson to meet Mr. Blackmail. Carson was behind the hit on Ratner! Blimey. She's obviously in this deeper than we realised. Thing is, as she gets back to PBH, she boldly marches straight into Kendall's office to tell him what's going on. So she has a spine after all! Good on her. Now let's see what Kendall makes of this...

Carson spills the beans, and Kendall appears to hide the fact that he recognises the name 'Jonas' as Carson lays out the full ugly story. Jai and Ethan return from the field and let the others coo over them - the expected 'hey, you're alright, man,' moment between the two crops up, as does another hint at the attraction between Mia and Jai. In the debriefing, Jai mentions 'ultra' and this gets a reaction out of Kendall - seems Carson isn't the only one with something to hide here. Carson tells the group about Jonas, but by admitting that she was approached to work for him and passing it off as a purposeful attempt to work as a double agent instead of the blackmail it actually was, she successfully swerves round the issue of her loyalty - although there's a hint that Jai doesn't buy her story at face value like the others seem to. Must be his Sawyer Sense. Narf. With the rest of the team at her back, Carson makes her next rendezvous with Jonas, sitting down for a coffee in a hotel bar as Jonas hands out the assignment. One note - Mia's explanation of what she's doing to get Jonas to swallow a tracking device is a little clunky, and sticks out as some For The Benefit Of Americans styled exposition. Despite showing a little suspicion of Carson's willingness to play ball (and that's bad play on her part - she's clearly no field agent), Jonas takes the bait, and with Carson sneaking a tracking device into his coffee, we're all set. Meanwhile, with Kendall, he meets with a similarly shady chap by the name of Greer, who's also a part of this 'Ultra' business. And the skeletons just keep on falling out of the closet, don't they? It's a wonder they have any room to hang their clothes up sometimes. Mind you, working in a field like the DSR would tend to accumulate all kinds of shady things like this, so I'm finding all these murky pasts adding a great deal to the atmosphere, and the fact that there's a more paranormal slant to them is helping push this away from Alias territory. Not by much, but it's helping.

Act II continues the conversation, further incriminating Kendall as it emerges he and Greer worked in a program called Ultra back in the Seventies, working to create people like Falen and Ratner, but after the program ended in '79 and they walked away, Dr. Hinds continued the work, and Greer appears to be Jonas' boss! Kendall's in a tough spot here - if the DSR team uncover his background with Ultra, he's in deep shit, so he's going to have to take steps to keep his involvment out of view while not obviously hindering the DSR's op. Hmm! After Carson tells the team that she's been ordered to kill three more men, presumably more of Hinds' test subjects, and Jai plans to grab them and fake their deaths, Kendall rather clumsily tries to get Carson to swing towards assassinating them instead. He's obviously afraid they'll expose him if they talk, but Carson's angry reaction forces Kendall to back down. For CIA, they're not very good at this whole compartmentalising/subterfuge thing, are they? Anyway. Mia and Anton are tracking Jonas, surprised to see him enter a givernment Defense building, signalling just how high up this particular conspiracy goes. However, Jonas meets with Greer who is happy to tell him both Kendall and Carson are planning on shopping him, so things are about to go South for the team in a pretty big way! Sara's identified one of Jonas' targets, an Isareli merchant with terrorist links named Dinasik, and despite Kendall's obvious concern over how close to home this investigation is going, Jai leads the team out to snatch Dinasik and get some answers. Jonas busts into Mia and Anton's safehouse but they're not there - they're back at the DARPA building, with Anton ready to do some James Bonding and sneak his way inside. Oh, this can't end well...

In Tel Aviv, Jai and Ethan are spying on Dinasik as he makes an appearance - and I have to say, the sudden loss of tension between these two is actually a little jarring. I know they went through a lot together last week, but it feels as though the arc of their relationship has peaked too soon, and could easily have gone on further into the season. As it is, we already have a good team in Mia and Jai, so the switch away from the Jai/Ethan Odd Couple routine feels somewhat premature. Still. Ethan and Jai snatch Dinasik from a mosque as Anton gets into the DARPA building, but no sooner has he gotten into Jonas' office and started checking the Ultra files than they've started to delete themselves! He tries to salvage what he can, as back in Tel Aviv Jai and Ethan are dragging Dinasik to their car when three black vans full of angry Israeli soldiers show up. Uh oh... Anton is on his way out when he's rumbled by security, and a concerned Mia races in to rescue him as he fights the two guards off - but finds Greer waiting for her! He warns her to stop the investigation into Ultra, but as Anton piles out of the building with security in hot pursuit, Greer slips away and the duo have no choice but to beat a hasty retreat. Carson meets Jonas, but he's not a happy bunny - he challenges her about the fact that the DSR are onto him, but in so doing makes Carson see the connection Kendall has to all this - and you have to wonder if Jonas did this on purpose or not - and it's not long before she kicks Kendall's door down to call him on what's going on. He's forced to his admit his involvment, and a shocked Carson runs off in tears - but as Kendall chases her into the car park, another of those ever-present black vans smashes into her car, and a helpless Kendall watches as Jonas snatches her!

As Kendall starts to brief what's left of the team on Carson's kidnapping, Jai and Ethan return - with Dinasik. Turns out he's part of Mossad (Israeli Secret Service, as Kendall handily points out and sets off the Exposition Alarm once again), and he fills the team in on some backstory - Ultra was indeed a program designed to create people like Falen and Ratner, supposedly shut down in the 70s but which remained active through the work of people like Hinds. With Ultra still operational now, and the 'Directive' of the episode's title referring to a scorched earth policy with regards to any security leaks (like, say one of their former agents putting on the Exposition Hat in DSR headquarters). Greer calls in to order Kendall to hand over all the files on Ultra or risk Carson's life, and we see the captive Carson leaning of Kendall's full involvment at last - and he's still a good guy. He opposed the project and walked away. Well, that's something. Back at DSR, Dinasik's Plot Device ability - sorry, Remote Viewing - is allowing the team to track Carson down, they burst into the location Dinasik gave them, but there's nobody home. Somebody altered the co-ordinates - but who? No prozes for guessing as Kendall shows up at an abandoned quarry, the real co-ordinates, ready to hand the Ultra files over to Greer. Quite how Kendall pulled this switcheroo off isn't revealed, and it does feel a tad contrived. Kendall tries to negotiate the safety of the escaped psychics, but Greer's not having it, telling Jonas to shoot Carson - and in storms Jai, shooting Jonas down! I'm guessing Sara must have decoded the correct co-ordinates pretty sharpish, then. Kendall chases down Greer, and despite trying to take him alive is forced to shoot him. Before anyone else arrives, Kendall smashes the Ultra files and tosses them into the quarry. Greer leaves some dying words - don't trust Carson! Back at PBH, with Dinasik and the other Ultra refugees in Witness Protection, it seems the story's over for now. Carson's confidence in Kendall is shaken, and she lets him know this as we close the episode.

Hmm. Have to say, this episode is a step back from the standards of the last few. Several leaps of logic and contrived deus ex machina moments crop up in the last Act, sabotaging the well-structured build up of the first three, and Dinasik may as well have had Plot Device written all over him for what he contributes to thing. I'm finding this 'remote viewing' idea to be far too conveniently realised, meaning the DSR team don't have to work that hard to find their targets. Hopefully, we won't see this used for a while, because it made what should have been a dramatic last-second save by Jai a slightly groan-worthy 'oh, of course he gets there just in time' moment. Bad DSR. You can do better here - there's a feeling that the stories write themselves into corners at times, needing some leaping of plot holes to get the story to its intended conclusion. Also the dropping of 'Jai Hates Ethan.' It makes sense, character development wise, but we're only five episodes in here. More could have been made of this. So, overall, an episode that started well but loses out from some jerky plotting in the last Act, knocking the rest of the pretty decent episode off kilter. A shame, because we were building up to some good stuff here.

ZPM RATING:

Afterlife 1x04 'What Doesn't Kill You...'

2006-05-03T05:30:00.000-07:00

by Jon Nyqvist

Beat up and near death, Aurora is rescued by a family who too has suffered greatly. As Aurora gets back on her feet in the care of the family, memories of her first "assignment" come back to haunt her.

Back with the always-enjoyable Afterlife now, as we have the next Aurora-centric episode. This show's cinematic eye for action sequences and snappy dialogue makes it a firm favourite of mine, although I'm still waiting for the split nature of the show to settle down - the cuts between the Afterlife and the real world and the alternating focus on Jonathan and then Aurora has left the show's first three episodes feeling somewhat disjointed, but even so it's still good fun to sit through.

1x04 opens with a wagon-bound family travelling down a dusty countryside road. Despite the potential for cliches here, Nyqvist somehow always manages to avoid them, with Lianna and her two little girls projecting their characters in just a handful of pages. The wagon train encounters a body on the road, and it's none other than our favourite hitwoman Aurora! It's the first time we've seen her since Trias chucked her off a balcony, and she doesn't seem to have had a good run of luck since then.

Act I takes us back into Aurora's past, as an 18-year-old version of her spars with Lynn. Well, I say 'spar,' 'gets her arse kicked' would be a more accurate description. This is Aurora minus the eight years of training, you see. After a cheeky Karate Kid reference, Aurora signals her commitment to this life, with a telling line about 'not wanting to be part of a world where she's the victim.' Some past trauma that she needs to overcome, perhaps? Interesting... Back in the Afterlife, Aurora is being cared for by Lianna, and we flash forward a week to find Aurora's all better, although Lianna doesn't need a degree in Dramatic Irony to know that Aurora spells 'trouble.' Well, not literally. You know what I mean. Anyway. Grandma Tia's less than thrilled at the prospect of Aurora being in the family farm, but as Aurora joins them for dinner there's still plenty of suspicion floating around. Aurora gets the hint and prepares to get out of the family's hair first thing in the morning.

After Vergil arrives back at Raven Hill in Act II to find Aurora deposed and Trias back in charge, Aurora wakes from a fitful night's sleep to find Lianna's oldest but silent daughter Nera looking in on her. As Nera leans in, she suddenly morphs into a hideous beastie ('HR Giger would scream like a girl at this thing,' as the stage direction so wittily puts it) and attacks her - it's Freaky Dream Of The Week! Aurora's frantic screaming wakes the whole house, and when Lianna tries to come to her rescue she gets a boot in the face from the wildly thrashing Aurora for her trouble. Aurora finally drags herself back to the land of the living, and it's time to flash back to the Real World once more. A nervous Aurora waits in her hotel room for Lynn to arrive, bringing a briefcase holding a gun and a dossier - it's the night of Aurora's first kill! We cut back to the Afterlife as Lianna repairs Aurora's stitches, and she tells the story of why Nera is mute. Lianna's husband stood up to black-clad men who showed up one day to demand protection money (members of Aurora's Ravens?), and when he refused they came back a few days later, leaving little Nera beaten and abused in a field and her husband missing, presumed dead. The story gets a tear out of Aurora - looks like she knows what happened is probably her fault, directly or otherwise. Back at Raven Hill, Trias asks Vergil if he knew why Aurora was so interested in finding Jonathan, but the ever-loyal Vergil ain't saying a thing. Trias isn't too fussed - as we saw last episode, he's already got his hands on Jonathan and he plans on torturing the truth out of him all by himself! Back on the farm, Aurora wanders out into the sunshine and finds an unlikely friend in Nera (the real one, not the freaky Giger one), who seems happy to have Aurora around. Aurora's about ready to be on her way again, but over breakfast Lianna pleads with her not to go looking for revenge - whether she believes Aurora's going to come back in one piece or not, she clearly seems to be growing to like our young assassin, but Aurora knows what she has to do. Out in the front garden, liitle Jakob is busy playing swordsman when a fresh gang of thugs show up - and it looks like it's time for Aurora to defend her new family!

Act III, and Lianna hears a scream and races outside to find the Ravens threatening Jakob - but as Nera tries to pull a Psycho and get some stabby payback on one of the goons, things quickly go even more south than they already have... and Enter The Aurora. Splat. Bye bye, Goon #1. We'll miss you. A blur of motion later and everyone but Smiley, leader of the thugs, is on the ground. Man, some of the moments in this show need to be filmed! A horrified Smiley recognises Aurora at last, distracts her and gets away, and despite what could have been a classic 'hit fleeing villain in the back' moment, he escapes, off to tell Trias that she's still alive. As Aurora slowly turns to see the shocked Lianna and her family watching her, it's flashback time. Young Aurora is sizing up her mark in an exclusive nightspot, but we're not with her long before we're back at the farm, and as Lianna angrily rails on her, Aurora reveals something about her by accident. She slips as she mention's Nera's name, specifically the abuse she suffered at the hands of the Ravens, and Lianna double takes as we all realise that maybe Aurora has more in common with Nera than was first made apparent... Meanwhile, back at Raven Hill Manor, Trias is told of Aurora's return and prepares to ride out to sort her out once and for all, while Aurora tries to persuade Lianna to pack up and go before the Ravens come back. But what's this? Lianna lays out Aurora! Looks like that old maternal instinct is alive and well after all, eh?

Back in flashback territory as we begin Act IV, Young Aurora is fixing her make up when Lynn angrily tells her to get her head back in the game. Aurora seems to know what she's doing, but Lynn is obviously not convinced as Aurora struts back onto the dance floor. Back on the farm, the captive Aurora finds Nera looking in on her, clutching a knife - will the bond between these two get Aurora out of a tight spot? Out front, a tense Lianna tries to negotiate the safety of her family in return for handing Aurora over, but as Trias is led into the room where Aurora lies, he's about to get a nasty surprise of the Aurora kind - Nera cut the ropes! Aurora takes out Smiley, grabs Lianna and sets the room on fire, taking out all of Trias' goon squad, but luckily Nera and Tia get the rest of the family to safety. Another gloriously cinematic moment follows as Aurora strides towards Trias, the raging flames behind her giving her the appearance of a Fury with one hell of a migraine and looking for somebody to punish for it, but she's quickly surrounded by more Raven thugs. The stand off cuts back to Young Aurora, busy seducing her target, suave playboy Van Beckett - and putting four rounds in his chest without blinking. If you were ever in any doubt that this girl was a stone cold killer, there's your proof. But back in the Afterlife, we don't get to see what happens to Aurora - we follow Lianna as she leads her family to safety, and Aurora's fate remains unknown...

Wow. Afterlife finally kicks into the higher gear it's been promising since the pilot, the slow build of tension throughout the episode and careful use of flashbacks meaning this episode's structure really clicks into place. At the moment, Aurora's a much stronger character than Jonathan and this really gives her a chance to shine, demonstrating her more noble, moralistic side as she does her level best to keep Lianna and her family out of danger, offering to leave twice before her mercy backfires and she's almost sold out, as well as a more tender side to her with the interaction with little Nera. This girl could carry the whole show on her own, to be honest, and the flashbacks here serve to enhance the main story instead of obstructing it as they did in 'Twin.' Bravo. Great stuff all round.

ZPM RATING:

Pathways 2x04 'Into The Wild'

2006-04-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

by Guy Uhler

Feeling as though he is stuck in a routine, Gabe gets the chance to mix things up when Jacob asks him out for a night of fun. But is too much of a good thing...too much? Meanwhile, Anna and James must attend a fundraiser event at Brighton Academy.

Pathways is a funny little series thus far. With a well-fleshed out cast and some snappy writing, all it's lacking thus far is stronger plotting for each episode. As it is, we're three episodes in and precious little has really gone on, but there's enough here to keep coming back to for a while yet, what with all the dramas and micro-crisises that make up the average Crestview student's day...

We open with Mr. Greyson offering Gabe a spot on the Crestview Banner, the academy's newspaper, which Gabe seems pretty taken by. The Banner offices are well-equipped and pretty appealing for anyone with an eye for journalism (another Veronica Mars nod, perhaps?), but Gabe's attention is also caught by Jacob, whom the stage direction refers to simply as a 'tanned God.' Nooch. Jacob's already graduated and is just helping out so he can use the academy's computers for his own work, and as he exits Gabe seems to have found one more reason to work at the paper!

Gabe and Dom find Charlie and Sam manning her Gay-Straight Alliance stand, putting on a recruitment drive that sadly seems to be raising very little interest. Gabe signs up but Dominic is less keen, fixing a pout firmly on Gabe's face as Dom heads off to class. Sam keeps up his best Logan Echolls impression to tease Gabe about the trouble in paradise, but it seems Gabe's paranoia about how long he and Dominic will be together isn't going to go away any time soon. Anna meets her friend Sarah, who's busy fretting about letting herself fall for her new boyfriend (just to prove that the love lives of the adults on this show are as erratic as those of the kids), and over with Alanna and Mark, they're busy casting for the academy's production of 'Romeo & Juliet.' Logan takes centre stage to win the part of Romeo, making with the googly eyes at Mark for his heartfelt speech. The group have a discussion in Blaze to end the Act - which ends on an odd note, like we're in the middle of a scene.

Act II has some dialogue between Jacob and Gabe. There's an obvious mutual attraction here, but their conversation flows pretty well, showing that these two can obviously bounce off one another quite well. Should be an interesting dynamic - with Gabe obviously losing confidence with Dominic (already! bloody kids), you can see where his interest is going next. Parker seems set on using his knowledge of Gabe's sexuality to break up the happy Jones household one day, but for now Julie's keeping him clear of it. Gabe and Dom are out at the Blaze, but as Jacob shows up to whisk Gabe onto the dance floor, it seems things are about to get a little complicated for Crestview's worst kept secret!

Act III has James and Anna now punting Gabe and Dom off the Cutest Couple pedestal, while over at the Blaze Sam is busy sweating about the evening's impending charity event, which will bring all the students' parents together for a gala ball - although as Anna was just pointing out, it's more like a rich contest to see who can look the most wealthy. Charlie lets Sam in on something the rest of us should have worked out long ago - Julie's jealous of Sam spending time with Charlie because she's in love with him - and Sam seems genuinely clueless about the whole thing. Gabe and Dom have a falling out - Dom knows that if the two go public they're going to cop a lot of flak for it, and seems to be frustrated with Gabe's more idealised view of the situation. Gabe storms off and (surprise, surprise) runs into Jacob (although his description of the row as a 'huge fight' is perhaps exaggerating it a tad), who invites him off to a club in LA and Gabe jumps at the chance to get out of there. The little hussy!

Act IV brings us Anna and James heading into the gala at the gymnasium, setting up a 'signal' so that they can rescue each other from the kinds of dull conversations that always occur at these events. Anna bumps into Frank, some guy who hit on her a long time ago - who just so happens to be Alanna's dad! James finally makes it over but not before Frank's managed to throw an insult at James - and James throws a punch right back. Go James! Over at Club Trix, Gabe once again shows his inner party animal (remember how much fun he was having at the start of the season when he was off partying with Sam?), while James gets a chance to finish his fight with Frank, laying the drunkard out cold before he and Anna make a rapid exit. Gabe sneaks back home to find Parker ready to bust him - but what's this? Parker lets him off? He blames Julie for making him play nice, but it's such a surpise move from Parker that you can't help thinking there's more to his motive here. We close on breakfast the next morning with Anna and Gabe - and it's mentioned that Anna is 'bothered by Gabe's lie' when he says he didn't do much last night. Have to ask - how would she know?

Well, that's episode four down then, and unfortunately it suffers from exactly the same problems as last week. Several smaller plots bounce around the screen, but there's no central story of the week here. If Pathways picked one of the many stories it progresses each week and focused on that, using the other stories as ways to break up the main plot, you'd get a better sense of development with each episode. Instead, each episode is more a series of scenes pulled together than an actual story in itself. While the dialogue is a little flat in places, lacking the usual sparkle of Lamkin's snappy phrasing, there are a few good moments here - but others that are curiously underplayed, which saps the drama out of several bigger moments. Gabe seems a little out of character to start getting angry with Dominic quite so quickly, and God only knows what Parker's up to! So overall, another somewhat muddled episode - Pathways has some great stories brewing here, it just needs to start picking one at a time and bringing it to the surface instead of trying to push along a half dozen plots all at once.

ZPM RATING: