We start in breeding cult central! Complete with a prison
full of people the Cult has rejected (the implication is that they’re mentally ill)
and all the reality based cult members dressing up and getting all excited by
the meteor storms and they’re deadly venomous snake (which is so a constrictor
and not venomous). Not only does the storm distract them enough that they don’t
notice one of their prisoners escape, but he manages to steal their pet snake
as well.
See, security here kind of fails.
White is also enjoying the meteor storm and doing the
same chant when his assistant tells him he has a meeting – alas all the
official paperwork and hoops one has to jump through when one isn’t a member of
a covert kill squad any more.
In Terminal City Max has a whole range of contacts
including transgenics who know the full mythological history of the modified
caduceus symbol of the Breeding Cult. But Joshua will not hear that Sandeman
may have been involved with the Breeding Cult since he still puts “Father” on a
pedestal. They also receive a report of a transgenic on the run – Max heads out
to help. She calls Alec whose at work at Jampony reminiscing with another
employee – another new X5. They both head out.
All three of them get into sector 5 with their Jam Pony passes and surge through the police on their bikes, easily pulling out the transgenic and leaving White to have his little hissy fit in their wake. They get him to Terminal City and the safety of the crowd of transgenics.
At Jam Pony Normal continues his crusade against
transgenics, ranting to Alec about the danger of the X series, while Alec nods
and smiles and gets him to give more sector passes to more X5 workers and
encourages him to have them ride motorcycles. As Max notes to Original Cindy,
Normal’s calling to vigilance while Jampony is transgenic central.
Logan’s crashing in Joshua’s old home and contacting
Terminal City for new supplies to set up Eyes Only again – Terminal City has a
lot of excellent technology abandoned when the containment on the bioweapons
failed. All is looking shiny until Max and Logan talk with all their underlying
tension and sadness. Which she doesn’t talk with with Alec because she prefers
to mope – and we find out that, hiding from the transgenics, the escaped inmate
and his pet snake from the Breeding Cult are also hiding in Terminal City. Also
I kind of love the rivalry between the transgenics adapted for arctic
conditions and those adapted for desert conditions. And Max is finally forced
to tell Alec that he told Logan they were a couple. Alec refuses to accept that
– he’s not going to be her bad guy.
Not everything is going their way though, White’s team
has found out something useful: X series body temperature is 3 degrees higher
than normal people’s. Making them easy to pick out with high tech thermal
imaging. His good mood is ruined when his priestess tells him that “he’s
escaped”. White’s worried because he “knows
too much.”
Alec takes the hardware to Logan, refusing to avoid Logan
because of Max’s lie; and Logan is wearing his exoskeleton again even though he
doesn’t need it to walk with Joshua’s blood transfusion, because it vastly
enhances his lower body strength. Alec tries to explain the Max thing to Logan
several times but he doesn’t give Alec chance in between giving him lots of
noble speeches about letting her go and be with someone like herself.
At Crash Max accepts some Original Cindy therapy before
being joined by Alec who tells her he didn’t break her secret and how noble
Logan was. And then they notice new markings on Max’s wrist, like a tattoo.
Only max hasn’t got a new tattoo.
To Terminal City to send pictures to Logan – he theorises
they’re coded to her DNA like her barcode and that he thinks the symbols are
similar to the one’s on Joshua’s medallion – the one he got from “Father”.
Biggs, the new transgenic is irritated by the growing
anti-mutant sentiment but has far more to worry about – one of White’s men
picks him up on camera. He notices he’s been followed but he’s already
surrounded and only just manages to escape.
The escaped Breeding Cult Inmate uses a pencil to fake a
barcode and pass himself off as an X Series called CJ to join the Transgenics
with his pet snake. He claims to be X5 and Max instantly does not believe him.
Not being able to act like a vaguely sensible person for 5 seconds, he destroys
his cover. He tries to spar with Max. It doesn’t go well for him. Just in case
his cover isn’t shattered he also asks about Joshua’s caduceus symbol necklace.
Then the news about Biggs appears on television, his cover blown and everyone’s
distracted. Alec calls Biggs, but he’s attacked by a mob of people with clubs
Max and Alec rush off to find Biggs tied up by his feet
in the middle of a mob – he’s been beaten to death.
Senator McKinley, front and centre in the mutant hunting,
mildly disapproves of the mob violence but emphasises how scary transgenics
are. As he leaves the podium he pokes White to deal with their escapee. Max is
not amused and wants them to load up with the most lethal weapons they can –
they’re going to rescue the captured transgenics White has. She also gives them
her suspicions about CJ – confirmed when they find a bag full of snake he’s
left behind
White’s assistant, Otto, goes with a team to Jam Pony to
give Normal grief about hiring a transgenic. Sketchy recognises him and tells Cindy
who hurriedly finds and takes Max’s and Alec’s personnel file before they can
search them. Only Sketchy knows what she did and asks what she’s doing – are there
more transgenics and is she trying to protect them – he sees she has Max and
Alec’s files – he asks why. She pushes back – why does he think
Max gets to interview CJ. He claims he’s “not crazy” and
he was locked up because of his dad who was up to his neck in the Cult before
he got out and turned his back on them. He left the cult because he knew his
son, CJ, wouldn’t survive their initiation process. He knew because he was a
scientist and tested his son’s DNA, much to the Cult’s disapproval. He doesn’t
know what the initiation is for since he didn’t pass it only knows that he
father wanted to use science to change things and they called it “heresy”. So he left and went out and founded…
Mantecore. Before the government took over.
Yes, his father is Sandeman. Max wants him to help her
find Sandeman
Meanwhile Alec and Joshua are steaming at Biggs and
remember the men who were spouting crap about transgenics in the area. They
decide to go have a word with them – let the vicious beating commence! Unlike
Biggs they’re not beaten to death, Alec just tells them to get out of town.
Going to the meeting with Sandeman, CJ and Max are
interrupted by White and his goons – and, Surprise! White is Sandeman’s son as
well, CJ is his brother. Max is captured. Because she went running off without
telling anyone where she was going. Because she’s smart like that
Ames White promises CJ he’s not going to go back to the
asylum since he captured Max (and yes, White changed his name). He rips Max’s
clothes exposing more of the symbols appearing. White can apparently read them
and says they’re his usual stuff about the “meek inheriting the earth” he says
no, the strong will inherit, which is what their Cult is about. CJ realises
that Max is the one Sandeman was talking about and begins babbling while White
asks about his son. Realising he’s made a mistake, CJ tases White and frees
Max.
They sneak out and find a line of transgenics being
loaded on a van for transport (WHY? That many transgenics in one place should
have been able to escape, surely, especially since they all seem to be X
series?) Max charges in taking out all the guards (see?) including Otto while
CJ fires a machine gun to help. She gets in the van and CJ stands in the
doorway as a human shield. White shoots him. Max closes the door and White and
all his goons fire at the armoured van because, y’know, that’ll work. Max escapes.
In Crash, Cindy and Sketchy talk transgenics and Max’s
secret and her slapping him down, pointing out what a friend Max has been to
him. “So what if she were made in a lab, she’s the best person you know.”
Logan and Max continue their awkwardness of awkwardness
(and the ice transgenic and desert transgenic keep up their massively fun
rivalry)
CJ has been thrown back in the asylum – gagged and straight jacketed.
Arrgh, see see see? We have Max working with the
transgenics, uniting them, bringing them together, building a network that
helps support each other. This could have been an epic storyline for the whole
of season 2! Not weird reptiles that spit green goo, not mind control and
mafia, not hallowe’en episode I can’t even begin to describe, not the super
computer psychic or the many many times Max brushed/breathed on/whatever Logan and
everyone ran around wailing.
Show us the different transgenics by making them characters to talk to, even bit characters like this episode, get some idea of who they are and at least match their odd appearances to discernible and realistic goals on the part of Manticore rather than just throwing up weird and wonderful monsters that need to be killed. We could have brought in some of Max’s group and established a base – Crit, Sil, Jondy. It could have been a lot more.
This is what season 2 could have been!
Is it a sign that they finally realised this that they
even changed the opening credits back to the ones they used in season 1? Completely
with removing that damn ridiculous voice over?
The downside, of course, is the appropriation. Not only
the repeated and gross use of tr@nny as a slur for transgenic, but also
referring to mob violence against the transgenics as “lynchings”. You could
present anger and attacks without using real oppressions and outright slurs
that are already in use. We could do without the “crazy” CJ babbling
incoherently as well.
I give this 4 fangs in a desperate act of mourning for
what this season could have been
