James returns to the
Risen because gods forbid he spend 5 minutes with his wife and child. I’m
choosing to think this is a terrible director decision to try and cram
everything into this improbably short season and not because James is just an
arsehole.
He takes Elisha to
the other Risen while explaining about the whole Boundaries changing and their
old hide out being ransacked and all - she claims ignorance but James is super
suspicious of her now he knows she’s also one of the Risen, possibly caused the
others to Rise and hasn’t told any of them.
All Elisha is
interested in is finding John Doe - or William as we now know - she’s terrified
that Norgard has him and insists that Norgard will kill him. Norgard is also
the utter worst and she insists she was just a contractor there. She doesn’t
know how she came back from the dead, she died of a seizure and Norgard was
experimenting on her. Which seems… dubious to experiment on your own
researcher. She insists she cares about the others and she came to Yoorana and
the head of Norgard to try and find some answers - and protect them from Nicola
the ultra big bad
James is similarly
doubtful and intends to check with Norgard for himself. And because he doesn’t
trust Elisha he’s going to handcuff her to the stove and leave her guarded by
Kirstie
But first we have
awkwardness with James and Kate - starting with him walking in on her having
sex with super sexy neighbour Owen having sex (thank you for the far far too
brief visual). So she’s pissed. Unfortunately she decides she’s also coming
with him to Norgard. And when James objects (I mean she’s has no credentials or
reasons to do so while he is a police officer) she stomps and growls that he
can’t tell her what to do
She also decides to assume the identity of a detective. Despite having no qualifications. No badge. No credentials. No ID. She puts on a baseball cap which totally is a detective disguise. Oh and she’s also dressed as… as… honestly I can’t think of a job which would consider her clothes remotely professional.
And this is why I’m
increasingly disliking Kate. Because her asserting her independence and
resisting James’s control would be good. Her being a little annoyed and put out
by the whole ex-husband is now married with a kid is understandable. But her
asserting her agency feels like, well, Spunky
Agency. She isn’t making a lot of sense, is generally unpleasant and not making
a whole lot of sense. She is expressing her agency but her agency isn’t making
a lot of sense and is generally annoying
Just in case we had
any questions as to who is actually evil, Nicola takes William to Norgard to
reveal his history (including being flogged and executed as a murderer) - and
that Elisha knew who he was. She also has ominous evidence that Elisha has been
feeding her information - she has samples from all the Risen. It looks dubious
but Elisha did mention she was trading information in the hope for answers
But if there was any
evil doubt, Nicola decides the best way to experiment on the Risen is to tie
John down and cut off his fingers to see if they can make them regrow
Yeah, definitely evil
there.
Luckily for John he’s
guarded by both a highly gullible scientist and this while highly secure
facility is guarded by one person (when James and Kate visit they wonder what
top secret research facility has a guard. I wonder what top secret research
facility only has one guard).
So John escapes
pretty easily - which is what distracts Nancy from her terrible interview with
James and Kate. They do get to speak to her using John’s police credentials but
other than getting her to admit that Elisha worked with them, Nancy isn’t
impressed and gives little away. She’s clear that they didn’t experiment on
Elisha and scoffs at the very idea of the dead coming back to life
That last gem was
contributed by not-detective Kate who is just bad at… everything.
They leave still with
no idea of who to trust but Kate does read Elisha’s notes. She doesn’t
understand them but does give us a brief idiot’s guide to stem cells.
John/William avoids
them - but does go to see Elisha, confronting her about her knowing who he was.
Especially now a number of flashbacks have brought his memories back. He was
wrongly accused and he was in the navy. Elisha knew this - and more, she says
she deliberately brought all the Risen back so she could resurrect him. Yes,
things just got a lot more complicated
Charlie, meanwhile,
is being used by Paddy to trap his house because Charlie is a complete doormat.
Until he has flashbacks about when the house was a hospital and he was a
patient during the first world war - when he was “treated” with electroshock
for his severe shellshock.
He runs and ends up
with Kirstie because they’re good friends (and she’s avoiding Elisha and
wondering about finding her murderer). As they talk, he kisses her, to which
she makes a comment about him not knowing who he was
This points to us
having two bisexual characters, both of whom have referenced past same-sex
relationships and both of whom have completely discarded or forgotten them with
little thought or emotion to focus on opposite sex relationships. I wonder if
this season will even remember Charlie is bisexual - and Elisha seems utterly
indifferent about the woman she was living with but is overwhelmingly obsessed
with William.
And time for another
storyline in this already very very very very very full show. So i was all
wrong about Beau’s family - Phil isn’t his brother, he’s his mother’s partner.
And he and Phil have a bit of a rocky relationship (I don’t think granny’s
overly impressed either). Oh and Beau’s mother works for Norgard for extra
complexity
Phil may claim he
wasn’t hurt in the oil fire but he has some severe scars on his back. And he
tries to bond with Beau, making up for past issues so he can talk very very
creepily about death and how it’s important. He’s also creepy with fire. And
generally creepy. When Beau talks about seeing the dead come back to life after
all this creepy death talk, Phil wants to know all about it until Beau takes him
to where he found Paddy
Phil searches the
area thinking he’s alone, not realising Beau is watching him, until he finds
Vic’s dead body. Which Phil promptly performs a form of mouth to mouth on and
sucks the knowledge out of him, getting Elisha’s name and reducing that
inconvenient police corpse to dust.
No really. Yes this
full show just got even more complicated. He also takes Vic’s phone.
Over to Sarah - she
has a visit from the Health Visitor who is super awesome and kind and
understanding and really good at explaining post natal depression and why Sarah
feels so desperate and helpless as a mother. Not helped when she has a terrible
scare in a park and is judged for not looking after her baby properly. She
admits to James she thinks she has some issues still with Post Partum
depression but is really honest and open and trusting. And James tells her all
about what he’s been up to with the Risen. Which is useful because she does a
far better job of calming down Chris, the cop who wants to contact the feds
about the missing Vic
And Sarah sends Phill
a message about Elisha and where she is… I assume she’s actually texting Vic?
Honestly this whole show is getting very very very very confusing.
And I say, again, 6
episodes are not nearly enough. Not close to enough. Now we have Phil the
corpse eater and Elisha now remembers William from when he was alive a hundred
years ago? Throw in Nancy and the lab and Kirstie and Paddy (including some
really horrible flashbacks that reveal Kalinda, the woman he “fell in love
with” was actually a slave he beat on suspicion of theft who then saved him
from a snake bite rather than let his awful carcass die. This can only be gross
and revolting as we present this as his one true family he cared so much about
while conveniently ignoring the whole abused slave thing).
None of this is going
to be covered in anything resembling detail or focus. It simply can’t be.
