Last episode we had a lot of coming back to life. John, the Big Bad Fade came back to life eating human flesh and also helped Natalie, another Fade do the same – and they’re getting an army of flesh eating Fades. Meanwhile Paul, our hero, also came back to life because he’s that powerful an Angelic, and the Angelics have their own Fade, Sarah, snacking on human flesh so she can become real as well (though I wonder how much of that is to help the side of goodness and how much of it is so she can reconcile with her husband Mark who is accused of the murders and pushing her away because he can’t stand the idea that she could be there but be utterly unable to sense her).
This episode we open with Mac’s father, Detective Armstrong looking at an investigation board covered in missing and murdered people – the casualties in the Fades’ quest to gain flesh to manifest. I like this scene if nothing else because there tends to be a lot of series/books in urban fantasy with a high bodycount and very little of the repercussions of that being shown (except hero angst). Here we have a sense of that much loss.
And the large numbers of new, naked fades being born. The good news is that Detective Armstrong’s arsehole, racist boss gets eaten by John the Evil!Fade. good, I was hoping he would be eaten (Walking Dead, take note – unpleasant people get eaten by the undead. Please have Shane eaten now). The escalating missing rate leads to a crisis centre being set up in the school
Meanwhile Paul is out of hospital (I want a Got Well Soon cake) against Doctor’s orders simply because they can’t imagine someone coming out of a coma healthier than when he went in (go go Angelic power) but Mac declares him geekily cured. Can I say for the hundredth time how amazingly good the relationship between Mac and Paul is? I mean the relationships in this series are amazing anyway – Paul and his mother, Paul and Jay, even Anna came into her own this episode – but Paul and Mac are such perfect, real, amazingly portrayed friends who bounce off each other most excellently
This leads to Neil and Paul to have the talk – about resurrection, torture, and trutsting murderers for no damn good reason as well as the Angelics policing and repressing the Fades. hey could also talk about the man’s boundary issues. I dislike Neil’s justification “the past is full of what ifs, I love in the present” because it’s very real – and very common. “Hindsight is 20/20” is used a lot to justify the abuses of the past – abuses that were clearly abuses at the time.
The Fades are infiltrating the crisis centre, replacing staff with reincarnated Fades, harvesting and keeping people to feed on – to bring back new Fades and because they need to keep eating, as Sarah found out when they tried to bring her to the dark side. More and more people are added to the Fade’s larder, the Angelics, Mark and his one night stand (what is the point of these 2 again?) and they kidnap Jay
Can I have a *sigh*. We already had plenty of motivation for Paul to act, we don’t need to kidnap his girlfriend. I am tired of the trope that gets men acting to protect their women – and women who exist purely to be victimised so they can be rescued or help their men grow. This was unnecessary.
The school has become a full blown larder/Fade factory, but Paul discovers a new power – the power to really ruin an immortal Fade’s day, driving off the Fades. In the aftermath, evacuation is finally ordered as Detective Armstrong doesn’t know what’s happening, especially with Paul using his powers publicly – only that he can’t stop it.
And Paul has doubts of his power being used only for mass death – and working with Neil who has a very strong “kill everyone and sort it out later” attitude. Neil is still off on the deep end – and is willing to use anyone to control Paul – including exploiting the people Paul cares about – and kidnaps Mac.
And, in an incredibly powerful moment, Paul has changed his horrific recurring dream and John swears revenge for Natalie’s death
