Talon and Zed finally reach their destination, but what they find isn’t quite what either expected. Elinor comes up with an innovative plan to break the siege on The Outpost. Janzo’s search for the Plagueling cure continues. Naya faces her old master once again.

Last week, I had two fixed ideas in my mind of major plot points which I felt the show was telegraphing fairly obviously and which would play out this time round. And I was almost completely right.

First up there’s an immediate follow on from the end of last week’s episode, as Garret grabs his stuff and heads off to complete his mission on a sleeping Gwyn. What could possibly stand in his way, now that he’s not been taking his special, Prime Order-supplied medicine for a while and he’s managed to slip alone into Gwyn’s room wherein the very piece of incriminating evidence that Dred specifically mentioned is kept? What indeed…

Still, at least that quick resolution leaves us to get on with another plot point – the small matter of the besieging army at the gates of the Outpost, attempting to starve them out. How on Earth could they possibly defeat this numerically superior force before the Prime Order arrive? Turns out, I gave a little too much credit to Elinor last time out, because the plan they end up coming up with is the exact one I’d already assumed she was pursuing. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see the show’s writers thinking a little bit outside the box, after a fashion, and I suppose that the result of this plan makes for some interesting (by the standards of the show) moral condundra to be pondered by our heroes in years to come.

Talon and Zed find the place they were looking for, and it turns out to be disappointing but not a total waste of time. It does however lead to Talon beginning to question the swarthy, secretive man from another place that she slept with last time out, in what I’m sure the writers feel is a twist that came from absolutely nowhere. Bless. At any rate, that mistrust Talon tends to carry for anyone anyways may well prove to be well-founded.

And at the Citadel, Nya finally gets to confront her old master, Dred, as he lounges in his cell. All Nya’s come for is her family, the safety of whom has been her primary driver in betraying everyone she knows and loves. I wonder if anyone can guess what Dred tells her about that when she confronts him? The meeting isn’t without satisfaction for the character though, although I wonder whether the writers are now just going to leave her story there or not.

All things considered, this was an episode of my least favourite fantasy drama which I at least felt was fun (of the kind where I’m laughing at, rather than with it, but still). It’s so achingly predictable narratively that the only real entertainment to be had is accepting how very dumb it all is and laughing along at that dumbness. Where it wants to be earnest drama, it often just feels like slapstick comedy as a consequence. Still, it’s almost over.

Verdict: Still hard to tell whether the show is getting more predictable or I’ve just attuned myself to it. Either way, it’s at least fun to watch this week, in its way. 6/10

Greg D. Smith