Wednesday Reviews

So this is part one of the season finale. Cole and Cassie are back in 1957 trying to stop a paradox that could destroy time, while Ramse and the others are in 2045 trying to find and kill the Witness at a place called Titan. We still don't know what Titan is or what it symbolizes, but I imagine we'll find out next week. This episode was a little more low key than I was expecting, but the intensity of the ending made up for it. We spent lots of time with Cole and Cassie, and their relationship continued to develop as they spent eleven months in '57 working undercover to find their target. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned and they failed... looks like it's up to Ramse now.

But that didn't go so well either. Ramse and crew find the Witness, only to be taken out just as in the past Cole and Cassie finally kiss and acknowledge what we've knows all along- they're in luurve. Their moment of passion juxtaposed with the brutal end waiting for Ramse and his crew was tough- it was especially hard seeing Zeit go down (I'm really liking her) and Deacon as well (ditto there). And why did Jennifer, at the very last moment, refuse to go? Although I'm sure she'll show up like the veritable cavalry in the next one, it seemed odd.

So this had the usual  12 Monkeys excellence. I have no idea where they're going but this episode seemed to tease that Cole may be the Witness. That could very well be a red herring- who knows at this point? But he and Cassie are together- at least for the moment- that's progress! And the Ramse sequences were well done- that action scene when they took out the cannibal scavengers' camp was intense. This is a show that's firing on all cylinders, as it has all season- too bad it's almost over.

 Some observations:

Opening sequences are a specialty of this show- they always nail them. Here the montage of Cole and Cassie getting dressed in 50's wear to the music was nicely done.



Dark Matter is back! Season 2 starts off with part of the group in lock up after being captured at the end of last season. They're all on Hyperion-8, a max security prison on an airless moon- not exactly easy to escape from. One and Five are separated from the rest though and are held in somewhat more comfortable surroundings- they're not being charged with crimes like the others are. They find out from Six that he's a member of the GA (Galactic Authority) security forces- it was his job to bring them in. Five feels particularly betrayed as she and Six were close last season.

A lot of this episode serves to reacquaint us with the characters. Two gets in a fight to remind us what a badass she is, and meets an equally tough inmate named Nyx who may just be able to help them. Six is increasingly mistrustful of the authorities as he learns some disturbing things, and Three as usual tries to game the system but comes up empty.  And we even get a bit of Android, although I hope she plays a larger role in future episodes. It was also nice to see Franka Potente (of Bourne Identity fame) show up!

It's an effective season opener, I slid right back in with these characters easily enough even though I was a little rusty on their backgrounds. They do a good job bringing us back up to speed- One is investigating his wife's death, Three is believed to be the killer but the evidence is slim, and so on. The shocker is at the end though- One gets killed by a familiar face from last season. So what will happen now that One is history?

Okay on to episode 2 "Kill Them All.' I watched these back to back so it's a Dark Matter twofer. We have some new faces show up (the woman pulling the strings at the beginning and end was on Orphan Black) and lots of intrigue... and a prison break. Lots happens here including some ruthlessness from Five and a change of heart from Six. Everything seems to be building to an imminent war between the Mikkei and Ferrous corporations over the white hole technology- near as I can tell- like I said lots happening.

Shaddick (played by Franka Potente) is trying to get the inmates to talk and the warden is trying to kill them, and Truffault from the first season even shows up to offer them a deal- she's trying to pry one of the crew members away to save themself and help her. But the crew have other ideas- with help from Nyx and Arax from episode one they stage a jailbreak. All chaos breaks loose and they manage to get away but not without cost. Six is badly injured but they get aboard the Raza and are off- with a few new crew members. And apparently with a mole on board... again.

This show isn't as polished as Continuum, say, or 12 Monkeys and the action scenes are not as good, but it's a fun show