In this episode, we get the return of Julian to dog the heals of our earnest paranormal refugees as they struggle to stay under the radar of Ultra.
Julian has teamed up with Ultra in order to get his revenge on Cara for all that she has done to him. Unaware of this new menace, The rest of the Tomorrow People struggle to come to grips with fallout of Johns departure from the lair and the attack on Astrid.
On to the review!
The Good:
More Astrid!
I know, I’m happy for the appearance of one of the few normal characters in this show. This is because she is one of the best parts of the show. Madeleine Mantock gives an excellent performance every time she is on the screen and provides a character that makes for easy entry to whatever story she appears in.
She is dealing with the television variant of PTSD after having been attacked by Ultra twice. She won’t even speak with Stephen and hasn’t been to school for some time. She attempts to contact Stephen to apologize for her behavior and ends up speaking with John. He helps her overcome the feeling of powerlessness that she has developed since the attacks. She communicates the audiences thoughts in regards to what it might be like to live in this world where you are part of the hunted and yet have no powers to defend yourself. John makes it clear that it is scary either way and that you have to not let fear rob you of a life. Astrid then points out that John is doing the same thing and might look to his own fears and deal with them accordingly. Trite but still good.
The whole cat and mouse game is a mixed bag. The one part of it that fits in the good section is the ending. I know, this makes little sense but let me explain. When it comes to big bads, this show has Ultra do most of the heavy lifting. This makes some sense as most paranormals are unable to kill. Every time this has occurred there have been ways that the Tomorrow People could have done the deed and been better off for it. This chase finally shows the team actually exploiting one of these loopholes.
To ensures Julian’s cooperation, Jedekiah has implanted an explosive into his head. It is on a timer and if he doesn’t deliver the Tomorrow People in time, he dies. He makes little progress in capturing Cara and the rest of the gang thanks to the timely intervention of Stephen. He gets a lucky break when Charlotte tries to find John. Julian tortures her to discover the whereabouts of the Lair and goes in with a kill squad. Our heroes lead him on a merry chase through the tunnels and then lock him in a vault with suppressors keeping him from teleporting to safety.
Time finally runs out for Julian.
The Bad:
The entire chase story line just never connects for me. It starts with the premise that Julian is going to get Ultra to help get vengeance on Cara. Instead of playing up the nihilist angle that we continually get beat over the head with they show Julian as more fearful as the appointed time approaches. If he was the scary nihilist, his character would be much more effective here. It would make sense for him to seek help from the people he believes could aid him in his vengeance. Instead, he comes across as an idiot that is way in over his head.
The Ugly:
The bumbling buffoonery that is a normal ultra agent is mind boggling. When the kill squad assigned to Julian follows him into a trap to die, I was just dumbfounded. Why are the Tomorrow People afraid of these people? They don’t seem capable of catching a drunken yak let alone an intelligent teleporter. All we ever see them take down are frightened kids. I want Ultra to be something more than a modern Keystone Cops.
Enemy of my enemy is a solid episode. There are some solid character moments where we get to watch these people grow some. This is nice to see and has me looking forward to the next episode.