With the Blackbloods ruling the Outpost, the human population is set to work by them digging for some mysterious artefact. As Zed does his best to keep the fragile alliance of his people and the Blackfists together, Talon is walking her own fine line.

Honestly, I could barely remember what happened at the end of the last season of The Outpost, so I had a comb back through my old reviews to find it had impressed me at the end, full of action, drama and the sort of acting it had been sorely lacking the whole time. So I sat down to this opening episode of the third season with renewed hope that something special might continue. Ten minutes later, it was clear my hopes were for naught.

I could sit here and exhaustively list all the various stupid things which occur here, though to be fair the standout is a blackblood (the clue is in the name) getting stabbed by a big sword which runs him through with very red blood spattered all over its blade, but that wouldn’t be fair or interesting, so let’s stick to what just doesn’t work, narratively speaking.

First up, the fact that the humans are toiling away under the tyrannical bootheels of the Blackbloods, which might be a tad more believable if not for the fact that the Blackbloods seem to have become very specifically situationally stupid, to say nothing of inconsistently reasonable.

Then Talon, who is playing along with Zed because he’s the best hope of keeping Rosamund alive because the Blackfists have a hunger to murder her for… reasons. Still letting all her mates get worked to exhaustion and beaten a lot though, so not sure there’s going to be much comfort for them come the big reveal.

Zed himself is, I’m guessing, a character the show will ask us to sympathise with again at some point. Here, he’s curbing the absolute worst excesses of the Blackfists by claiming control in the name of some mystical Blackblood still stuck on the other side, and making nice to Talon trying to persuade her to bring this other person through, though unable to give her any solid reasons why she should.

And Janzo, well Janzo is being set up to have his third love interest in as many seasons, if I’m any judge, and like the previous two she’s totally unsuitable but will probably end up worn down by his ‘charms’, not least because despite that unsuitability they have an unlikely amount of things in common.

It doesn’t help that the episode spends a fair amount of time apparently setting up a slow burn plot which it then burns through in its latter half. The pacing feels all over the place, the exposition bits of dialogue are painfully obvious and the whole thing feels simultaneously overstuffed and barren.

It does at least finally resolve the Most Irritating Love Triangle Ever I suppose, though in fairness that was one of the few sources of tension left to the show. Where it intends to go now feels unclear at this point, and I’m not sure even the talents of Jaye Griffiths can save this one. Still, time will tell, I guess.

Verdict: Disappointing that it’s slid back down to its usual standard after the heights of the last season’s tail end. Here we go again. 5/10

Greg D. Smith