That Old Black Magic
Written by Richard Manning
Directed by Brendan Maher
This has got to be one of the most visually stunning episodes of anything I have seen in a long time. That's what impresses me most about this episode. It looks good. Everything taking place in Maldis' little realm is incredible. And then there's the stunt fighting. Was there anyone who didn't flinch when Crais dislocated John's shoulder with that chain? The details were even taken care of- after head-butting Crais, John's mouth seems to be just a little bit bloody. Not pretty, but realistic. Whatever testosterone war was going on between the characters, it worked very well visually.
In the strange order that I get to see these episodes (thanks, Sci-fi channel, couldn't show them in order, could you?), this is the first episode where I really get to see Virginia Hey really act. And can I just say that her talent has been severely underused in the most recent two episodes (again, that I've seen). I spent most of the episode sympathizing with Zhaan, and I will admit to actually being in tears when she had to bring pain to that bird creature. Even know I basically knew the ending of the episode, the final scene had my eyes wide and jaw dropped. Nice job.
And I absolutely loved the scenes with Rygel. Between him performing the Hynerian ceremony of passage on a "dead" John, and that last scene when John wakes up on Moya (although, to be fair, that was more Ben Browder than the Muppet), it added a needed levity after seeing people having to knock their arm back into its socket.
Maldis is a truly scary bad guy. As much as I tended to scream "I hate you!" at the TV whenever he was onscreen, it's kind of hard not to watch him and not think he's just damn cool. (You're still allowed to hate him, though, in case you were wondering.) He's a villain that knows your inner secrets and uses them against you, feeding off your fear and anger until someone ends up dead. And as it was stated at the end, Maldis can someday rematerialize, which I wouldn't mind seeing. I'll just have to work on my aim while throwing things at the TV (maybe this time I can hit him).
This was also my first time seeing Crais, and while I'm not passing judgment till I see the premiere, I liked the contrasts between Crais and John. While the latter wanted a chance to talk, to rationally tell the other the situation calmly and convince him that he did not mean to cause his brother's death, Crais would not listen to reason. He was just out for blood. The problem was that this started to annoy me after a while. I understand his reasoning for wanting John dead, but at some point, it would have clicked to Crais that Maldis was just doing this for his own personal gain, and that he was in just as much trouble as John was. Of course, it could also be taken as a sign of how far gone Crais really is.
The contrast between Crais' hotheaded vengeance and John's rationale also led to some interesting fights, especially the last one, which brought about an interesting angle on John- he was right, he did have Crais right there, ready to kill. And he probably would have, which was why Maldis sent Crais back up to the Peacekeeper ship right then. It's just interesting to see John's range of emotions in that scene: determination to be the one to come out alive, to all-out rage, to that frustration at no longer having Crais there, to that blankness on his face when Maldis was about to kill him. Another kudos to Ben on that one.
THE BIG QUESTION:
Will Zhaan be able to repress her dark side again?
Know what? I'll do this part once the lovely programming people at Sci-fi decide to show me the episodes between this one and Durka returns. I promise you an update then.
GRADE: B+
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