We begin with another epic voice over from Santanico
about her freedom (and these voice overs ARE epic, I have to give them that)
and both her quest to bring her old overlords down – and theirs to hunt her
down.
Now to Seth and his own little intimidating speech about
stealing stuff which is also semi epic
And then to Scott who has his chains broken by a ragged
man in a very bad condition – clutching snakey vampire-fangs in his hand.
Apparently, his own fangs. I think this may be Carlos but he is in such a
terrible ragged condition it’s hard to tell. Carlos was ordered into the
Labyrinth under the orders of Narcisco last season…
Upstairs, Narcisco is recovering from having his face
ripped off and dealing with Malvado who is not impressed with the poor victims
Narcisco is dredging up. He doesn’t seem best pleased that Carlos beat the
Labyrinth. After some grooming, Carlos is looking more himself again and Malvado
wants to know about a prophecy apparently revealed in the Labyrinth, something
about a massive new blood supply. He demands that Carlos explains it; but
Carlos babbles a lot about Dora the Explorer and the man who “knows the answer”
Whoever that is. While he’s not that coherent, Malvado offers him Narcisco’s
job if he can find this person who knows the prophecy.
Carlos and Scott go back under the club, and Carlos is
not having a happy fun time down there nor is he especially coherent. Down
there they’re attacked by the newly Calebros Professor Aiden Tanner. Yes, Sex
Machine still lives. Alas.
He recounts how he was found while dying and turned into
a Calebros. Then they find Narcisco who also wants Aiden – Scott tries to stop
them taking him since he can win favour but Carlos folds and hands him over.
Carlos is all humble and submissive to Narcisco.
Aiden is dragged up to read the prophecy – which he can’t,
not entirely. But knows of a Codex that will be able to translate it. Which he
describes as being “someplace safe”. To earn his place in his new family,
Malvado tells him to go find this codex.
He goes out, in daylight, using a parasol. Yes he’s not exactly great at being a vampire.
Seeing that Carlos may not be the best star to hitch his
wagon to, Scott approaches Narcisco and asks how he can climb up the
organisation. Narcisco tells him to kill Carlos
Scott goes hunting Carlos – and fails badly. Especially
since Carlos has cast himself new, metal fangs from his old sword. I’m with
Scott – who sensibly runs.
Over to Ranger Freddie Gonzales who is having terrible
vampire dreams. His paranoia has caused him to deck his house in solid shutters
though his wife isn’t a huge fan of them. Still his life is adorably domestic
despite his ongoing flashbacks and notes full of vampire-related drawing (which
his wife finds and is suitably disturbed by – though they could be
meso-American sketches) and the stakes her takes to work with him.
His first stop is to the burnt out car containing the
bodies that Richie set up to look like the Gecko brothers – and he seems to
fall for it, declaring to all the press that the Geckos are now dead. Though afterwards
he confesses to Earl, his old mentor’s grave that he definitely lied. He did it
to try and protect his family – he tearfully says how he couldn’t do it. He is
also really disturbed at the idea that something ominous I coming – it probably
doesn’t help that he has a hallucination of zombie Earl trying to kill him. The
attack leaves a Y shaped mark on his arm – another symbol.
When Freddie goes home he finds his wife going through
his notes – she’s not a fool and knows it’s all about his nightmares and fears.
He just tries to intimidate her into backing off but she’s not accepting that –
she also hits back that he’s hardly making her feel safe. As a bonus, she’s
also interpreted some of his notes which he was confused by – revealing them to
be referencing astronomy (she has checked out Professor Turner’s book) –
including a mark that matches the new scar on his arm
Using her new clues he goes star gazing and goes to a
location on the map where he hears a child crying. Between hallucinations of his
baby daughter he finds a body – he digs it up and finds 4 more. 5 bodies
arranged in a star.
The police come in, their assumption that the bodies are
undocumented migrants, and see that all of them have Y-shaped marks cut into
their heads. All of them died by bite-mark to the neck and their knees broken –
and, by Freddie’s visions, they were all buried alive. Their legs were broken
by obsidian weapons.
He goes looking for some answers which means looking for
Professor Aiden Turner (Sex Machine). He finds his run down far – and finds his
safe
On the roads, the scary, newly unleashed Regulator is
stopped by the police, a corrupt cop trying to shake him down. It does not go
well for the cop – The Regulator eats his eyes and sees what he saw. Including
Seth
Seth is still trying to get fake IDs – and avoiding the
sexual advances of the nice lady providing them – and preparing another heist
in between training Kate in various criminal ways. She’s been doing a fair bit
of research and recruitment as well. They also get the news that the Gecko’s
deaths have been faked.
They argue, it’s not all good between them. He doubts she’s
ready for any heist, while she tells him Richie left him (Seth is clinging to
the idea that he was kidnapped) and she calls him on his desperate denial that
the Calebros exist. She also throws her own losses at him – her brother and her
father, he’s not the only one grieving here, especially since she had to kill
her own dad.
Kate is now working with her Calebros contact, Rafael,
and helping lure victims to him (a man who was trying to lure her to a private
place – and she under aged at that). Looks like Rafael’s talk about finding
victims last episode means finding people who are deemed to deserve to die.
They manage to be all romantic over the new corpse he’s just made.
He joins Kate and Seth for a planning session – and Seth
is really suspicious, confronting Rafael about the religious and superstitious
things he sells and who to. Rafael dodges the question, claiming he’s just
selling nonsense to people who will pay him, avoiding the whole idea of being a
Calebros.
Time for the theft – with Seth acknowledging her work and
skill and even calling her a partner. They begin – with Rafael giving them
updates, Seth seducing and chloroforming the woman making him fake IDs, and
Kate finally managing to break open a door at the back of a hair salon. All
part of a plan to steal cash gathered by the guys running protection rackety on
the market. This comes to Seth making his little speech about theft we opened
the episode with.
They leave – and run into The Regulator who shoots Rafael
and chases them. He’s completely immune to gun fire. Which means they have to
run from them, shoot the minions of the Protection Racket guy and even take on
the nice lady who runs the hair salon and has a shotgun (who clearly didn’t
appreciate Seth’s speech). Alas, she’s killed by the Regulator’s impressive
gun.
He holds them at gun point, planning to use them to get
Richie and Santanico – when he’s attacked by Rafael. Calebros aren’t stopped by
being shot in the neck. But they are stopped by sunlight, unlike the Regulator –
and Rafael burns to ash trying to stop him.
In their getaway car, Seth confronts Kate about Rafael
being a Calebros – she admits to knowing but that he was going to help her find
her brother. He rages that her whole family is dead, including Scott and she
screams at him to stop the car. He kicks her out with half the money they stole
– with a simple thanks she leaves. She’s not ready to let her family go.
He drives off. Then comes back for her and gives her the rest of the money and the car
Kate continues to impress me – her calling Seth on his
self-destruction was a particularly powerful moment. She has lost as strongly
and as epicly as him – more so – but he is spiralling into depression and
anger, lashing out and pouting. I loved her complete rejection of his
oh-so-special manpain. I now want to know where she goes from here – I think
her story above all else intrigues me
Freddie’s pain and paranoia are really well acted and
well done, including how it’s damaging his family and his peace of mind. I also
like Margaret’s reaction to them. She’s not happy about being frozen out and is
both reacting to that – and his attempts to intimidate her while also asserting
her own intelligence. It’s a nice touch.
I kind of have mixed feelings about “Sex Machine”, he’s a
ridiculous, comic and fairly repulsive character, but he’s also an academic. It’s
not how we normally see our academic experts depicted on television and I’m
intrigued by the novelty if nothing else.
I am surprised by the lack of Santanico and Richie in this episode - I thought they would be the main characters and the main focus of the second season.
