Talon sets off in pursuit of Garrett and Gwynn. Gwynn begins to realise this isn’t the Garrett she knows. Janzo continues his work on the Plaguelings.

Last week I wrote that I was sure the little cliffhanger the episode had left us with would be easily resolved the next week so we could crack on with whatever distraction the show had for us next. I wasn’t wrong either – the resolution of the whole ‘Garrett rides off with Gwynn to take her to the Prime Order’ wheeze takes just under half the episode before it’s done. I’m left to ask myself why I am supposed to believe in the Prime Order as this massive threat which looms large over the world when they seem to be so easily outwitted/defeated all the time.

Anyway, what’s more important than whether or not Gwynn is rescued from the clutches of her ex-boyfriend turned Prime Order Assassin (although can we call someone who has yet to actually kill anyone except their own unarmed father an assassin, per se?) is all of the drama that surrounds it. Talon finds herself with an ally on her mission, but not the one she asked for. Nonetheless, the one she gets is useful in their way, and is of course wounded unto death(ish) in a way that the show’s history teaches us will doubtless be sorted out by one of Janzo’s potions (seriously, how is the son of the local Bar-owner the person in charge of solving all medical emergencies as well as conducting all disease research?)

Speaking of Janzo (if I must), he’s not having much luck here at all. The cure to the Plaguelings is proving frustratingly difficult to pin down for him, and given his legendarily poor ability at lying (and the aforementioned fact that he’s the only person with two braincells to rub together in the Outpost itself) it doesn’t take anyone long to work out that it was him who freed Nya. So whereas he’s vital to Gwynn for various reasons (healing her rescuer, figuring out Plaguelings and working out what exactly has been done to Garrett) he’s still left in no doubt as to where he stands.

Zed meanwhile seems to spend most of the episode sulking at Talon for one reason and another. She paused their quest for the key to save Gwynn. She won’t do what he wants when he wants it to be done. She puts the interests and lives of humans over those of her own people. And so on. They have a couple of half-hearted debates about it, during which you’ll wish you could be watching anything else, even Janzo flirting, and then – as is the way with this show – they come to an agreement anyway despite having not really seemed to agree on anything much.

It tries to close out with another big cliffhanger which might have worked better if it wasn’t so obviously telegraphed by both the script and the delivery, but then this is The Outpost, where things like narrative cohesion and subtlety are things which happen elsewhere. There’s no Elinor this week either, which is a genuine shame because Robyn Malcolm is one of the show’s few joys, especially while Marshall Wythers is ‘dead’ (I mean come on, we know that The Three can resurrect people so odds are he’s not staying that way).

Verdict: Sorts out its main issue as quickly as I expected and spends the rest of its time essentially running in place. Is it nearly over yet? 4/10

Greg D. Smith