Falista’s ascension is cause for concern, especially with the influence of the Three upon her, leading Garret to make some rash decisions. Talon and Zed try to get to the bottom of where the Loquiri are vanishing to. Wren faces an awkward conversation with Janzo

Returning in all its glory (!) last week, this instalment of my least favourite genre show is just as bad, lurching from one laughable plot point to the next and scarcely pausing for breath as it does so.

Falista is queen, and Tobin her king. All is well with the world except that in doing so, she has forged an alliance with Two and Three, people with whom Garret in particular has a long and troubling history. Still, he’s the former captain of the guard and has a lot to lose so I’m sure he won’t do anything stup– oh dear

Having tricked their way into a position of influence in The Outpost with all the subtlety required in this show, Two and Three immediately begin consolidating their power, and their former soldiers pick up immediately where they left off. Drinking and gambling are banned, the Nightshade is closed down, and those who oppose the new order are swiftly dealt with. The Prime Order, it seems, are back.

Not that there’s any reason they should be – last I remember, there weren’t many of those soldiers left and they have no real reason to suddenly follow their returned masters again, beyond the plot needing to happen. Also not entirely sure how the combined forces of Tobin, Talon and the Outpost’s own soldiers can’t stop them but again, plot needs to happen, I guess.

Speaking of Talon, she and Zed go off to see if they can find out where all the Loquiri are vanishing off to, but they end up getting ambushed, which serves the purpose of Zed getting to have the same vision of the new baddies that’s been troubling Talon and Falista. Even odds says they all end up teaming up and forgetting all that’s happening now in a few weeks.

Talon’s new friend gets herself into trouble with the law and ends up sharing a cell block with Garret, where she proceeds to heroically grab the exact wrong end of the stick in conversation with him and goes off to get herself into a bit more trouble once released in order to try to pay off her ‘debt’ to Talon. Ho hum.

Oh and there’s a bit of awkwardness as Janzo finds out he’s going to be a father after Zed decides to wind him up rather than tell him when Janzo comes to him to ask about Wren’s newly white ear tips. Honestly it’s sort of sweet to see how excited he gets at the prospect, but of course it’s Janzo so despite Wren wanting to keep it a secret he manages to blurt it out to someone about two minutes later.

As the episode draws to its frantic close, Falista and Tobin have been through about eight different flavourings of character and may be starting to wrest control of their situation (or not, it’s difficult to tell) but once again the best service that this week’s instalment does for my eyes and my sanity is to draw to a close, leaving me wondering what crime I once committed in another life to still be watching this while Emergence remains resolutely cancelled.

Verdict: A series of scenes definitely acted and filmed. 2/10

Greg D. Smith