Taylor, Hayley and their new companion encounter other humans, but the salvation they’d hoped for quickly turns into something else entirely.

Continuing the thread established in the previous episode, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the intent of this show is to explore the edges of the Pacific Rim universe that either got skirted around entirely by the movies or else received very little attention. Last time out, there were hints that the PPDC maybe wasn’t the all-consuming force for good it liked to paint itself as. This time, we examine the scavengers who exist at the periphery of the conflict.

What’s even better is that the scavengers themselves are very interesting. Or at least one of them is. Mei is a young woman who apparently acts as the number two to the overlord of their little operation, and it quickly becomes clear that she’s a more complex character than she might first appear. Sure, she’s tough, no-nonsense and clearly well in with the boss, but there’s also a hint there that she might not be as irredeemable as some of her colleagues – I suspect she will become a fixture of the cast going forward.

Shane, the leader of this group, on the other hand, seems to be really quite nasty – much worse than Ron Perlman’s Hannibal Chau, capable of doing absolutely anything to get his own way. Taylor instinctively senses that keeping the existence of Atlas Destroyer secret would be a very good idea, but can he and his little sister really outwit adult thieves and criminals who’ve been living on their wits for years?

It’s a tight twenty minute instalment and even more so than the previous episode it leaves the viewer on a cliffhanger, ensuring that you’ll want to get to the next episode quickly, which I assume given it’s a Netflix show released in a binge culture is the entire point. It’s still not necessarily doing anything ground-breaking for the genre as a whole, but it’s certainly holding my interest as an extension of the universe established by the movies for now.

Verdict: Still going in the right direction but time will tell if it all works out. 8/10

Greg D. Smith