Trollheart

1.1 "Camille"

We open on a school bus trip. A red-haired girl called Camille is looking listlessly out the window and listening to music. Her teacher hands her a test paper which she looks at disinterestedly. A few moments later the bus plunges over the side of a bridge. The titles tell us it is now "present day", and we focus on a collection of butterflies under glass. The case begins shaking as one of the insects breaks free and shatters the glass, flying off into the night sky. An old man sleeps in an untidy house and is suddenly woken by a knocking at his door.

The scene switches to Camille, the schoolgirl from the bus accident, as she clambers over a guardrail, seemingly from over the cliff and walks towards the village that is her home. In a local bar a man pays a woman much younger than he, and his daughter, outside in a car with her boyfriend watches, disgusted. Her name is Lena, and it's pretty obvious what her father has just paid for. The man then goes to attend a grief councilling meeting, where the parents of all the children killed in the bus accident are discussing a memorial which is to be erected on the fourth anniversary of the tragedy. One of the women, Sandrine, tells the group she is pregnant again, and seems happy.

All this time, Camille is still walking home, and as she makes her way there the lights go on and off as if there are intermittent power failures in the village. When she gets home, her mother calls to her, expecting Lena, who we now see is her sister. She is amazed, shocked, delighted and disbelieving to find her daugher, Camille, dead now these four years, eating a sandwich in the kitchen and believing she has only just that morning deaprted on the bus. She knows nothing of the accident, telling her mother she awoke on the side of a hill and has no idea how she got there.

Fearing she is perhaps going mad, Claire calls her husband to come home. Well, she doesn't quite. She calls Pierre, who is the one chairing the meeting, and then when she gets no answer from him she calls the man we saw paying the young girl, whose name is Jerome, and he hurries home, amazed to find his dead daughter taking a bath in her house. Satisfied that she is not losing her mind, Claire wonders what they are to do, and how they can explain this? How can it be happening?

Cut to Julie, a young doctor who is called in the middle of the night to one of her patients, a Mr. Costa. He says it's urgent. The camera focusses on a picture of a young woman and a voice asks "Who were you calling?" As Julie goes to leave a strange, wild-eyed young man enters and asks her if the door code has changed, to which she says no. She leaves and he goes up the staircase to her apartment, knocking but getting no answer. A neighbour tells him the occupant has just left, and he asks is it Adele but the woman says no, Julie. He looks surprised.

Julie meanwhile attends to Mr. Costa, and as she finishes up hears someone in the kitchen, but he says he is alone. When she is gone we see that sitting in the kitchen is the woman in the photograph, looking as if she has just stepped out of the picture this moment, or just finished posing for it. On the way home, Julie encounters a young boy at the bus stop, who watches her as she gets on the bus and then follows her. The strange young man goes to the local bar, The Lake Pub, looking for Adele but is told she does not work there; she now works in the multimedia library. Lena, who is drinking at the bar, offers to show him where she lives.

Pierre turns up at Camille's house and Claire says that her daughter has come back, just as he said she would: it's a miracle. It's clear Pierre is some sort of religious person; not a priest, but a man of deep faith who believes everything happens for a reason. Camille does not trust him when she sees him; she does not know him, and the closeness of the man to her mother and her rather cold detachment from her father bothers her. She does not realise that it's been four years and things have changed in her family.

The little boy gets off at the same stop as Julie but can't get into her building; she is so tired she fails to even see him as she goes in. It's only later, when she looks out of the window she sees him standing in the street, looking up at her. There's a knock on her door, and somehow he's outside. She asks who he is, is he lost, but he won't say a word. When her nosy neighbour comes out and sees the boy Julie quickly names him Victor, so as to dispel any notions the woman might have. The neighbour, Mrs. Payet, tells Julie that someone was here looking for Adele, and goes back into her own apartment, while the boy makes himself at home.

Pierre compares Camille's return to the Resurrection of Christ, but Jerome is not a believer and is not impressed. It's clear now that Pierre is with Claire, and her ex-husband resents both his interest in his wife and also his beliefs, and the way Claire clings to them. However Pierre agrees that Camille needs her family --- the family she thinks she left behind only this morning --- and leaves. When the young man reaches Adele's house he tries to get in but she goes crazy, banging on the door from inside and refusing to open it, screaming "Leave me alone!" Her daughter comes down the stairs to see what is wrong, and the young man, realising he won't get in or perhaps hearing the little girl walks away.

Julie continues to try to get information out of the boy but nothing doing. She agrees to allow him to stay with her for now. In the Lake Pub, the girl who Jerome had paid at the beginning, whose name is Lucy, walks home and goes via an underpass which will figure more in the story as the series progresses. Here she is attacked by a knife-wielding man, who stabs her repeatedly and leaves her for dead. Lena returns home but climbs in her window as she is late, and is startled to hear tapping on her bedroom wall, coming from the opposite room, Camille's room, then terrified as her responding tap is answered! She stares in horror as her bedroom door opens and then her dead sister, her twin, stands in front of her. She breaks down, screaming hysterically as her parents rush upstairs, too late to explain things to her.

Scene changes to old Mr. Costa's house, and we see him pouring lighter fluid over photographs and setting them on fire, as the woman in the picture, bound and gagged, watches in horror from the kitchen. The flames leap up. The fire brigade, attending later, are told by the police that Mr. Costa is gone and the fire looks like arson, but nobody else was in the building when it burned down. The police captain, arriving home, finds Adele in shock, and she tells him it has started again. The young man who had tried to see her finds his grave, and we see his name is Simon Delaitre. Workers at the dam are concerned about the level of the water in the reservoir; it's dropping and showing no signs of stopping. They are even more concerned when they see an old man standing on the edge of the dam. Before they can stop him, Mr. Costa has jumped.

As the first episode comes to a conclusion, we see Camille, four years prior, the day of the accident. Her sister, Lena, is sick, and so is not going on the trip. Camille sulks that she does not want to go either, but her parents say they have paid a lot of money for it and she is going. Then we see that Lena is only feigning sickness in order to have her end away with a local boy, Frederic. As they begin to make love, Camille somehow senses it and runs to the front of the bus, saying she must get off. Just as she does, the little boy, Victor, appears in the middle of the road. Fade to black.

QUESTIONS?
"The Returned" is a series of questions. The first and most obvious is how and why Camille has come back from the dead. Is it possible that she is not dead? Could she have lain on the side of a mountain in a coma for four years and only now woke up, with no knowledge of the passage of time? But if so, why does she look not one day older? What about Simon? Is he dead too? He has seen his own grave, but perhaps that was erected in his absence, and people thought he was dead? What is his connection to Adele?

Why does Camille feel the strong connection with Lena? Is it just a sister thing, a result of their being twins, or is it more? Who is the little boy known as Victor, and where did he come from? Why has he latched on to Julie? Who is the woman who appeared in Mr. Costa's house and why did he set it on fire? Who killed Lucy in the tunnel? What connection has that to the story?

This series will answer some questions, but others will not be so easily disposed of.

CONNECTIONS
There is a definite link now between Adele and Simon, and the police captain appears to factor into that also. Whose child is the little girl?

Other relationships will begin to be clarified in the next few episodes, as everything eventually ties together in one huge mysterious tapestry.

Lena must feel a heavy burden of guilt, knowing that had she not faked illness in order to see her boyfriend that morning she would also be dead; whether she would have come back or not is debatable. So far, it seems Camille is the only one of the children to return. But Lena must feel guilty for being alive while her sister is, well, not quite.

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New character! Bruce Boxleitner joins the second season as commander of Babylon 5, a role he will retain right up to season five.


He will be completely pivotal to the second, third and fourth season arcs and much of the series will revolve around him, yet in the early days he seemed an odd choice...

Season Two: "The coming of Shadows" (Part One)
2.1 "Points of departure"

General Hague from Earthforce Joint Chiefs of Staff contacts Captain John Sheridan, in command of the cruiser Agamemnon and tells him that a rogue Minbari cruiser has been spotted in the vicinity of Babylon 5. Mistakenly believing that he is to rendezvous with the other Minbari ship sent to hunt down the Tregati, Captain Sheridan is told that he is in fact to proceed to Babylon 5, but is to take command, replacing Commander Sinclair, who has been reassigned permanently. It is eight days since the assassination of President Santiago and Sheridan's orders come direct from the new president, Morgan Clarke. On Babylon 5, Garibaldi remains in a coma while Delenn is sequestered in her quarters and will accept no visitors: she is in no condition to.

Hague tells Ivanova, in temporary command after Sinclair's recall to Earth, that her former CO is to be the new liaison to Minbar, and that the Minbari requested him specifically. When she hears who her new commander is to be she comments that it's a controversial choice but is not allowed question it. She served previously under Sheridan so knows him, and his reputation. He's said to be the only human ever to successfully destroy a Minbari warcruiser. A Minbari, possibly a member of the Grey Council or one of their agents, visits Lennier in Delenn's quarters and tells him that the Tregati has been sighted, and that if it arrives at Babylon 5 Lennier is to go to the humans and tell them what he has been told: it's time, he says, they knew the truth.

In typical Babylon 5 fashion, Sheridan's arrival is early and Ivanova has no time to arrange an honour guard. She asks as tactfully as she can why he was given the command, and Sheridan says he was told that he was Santiago's first choice to replace Sinclair, due mostly to his working closely with alien races while out on the Rim with the Agamemnon. She points out that unlike Sinclair, whom the Minbari pushed for the job, his appointment will not be looked upon kindly: they still call him "Starkiller", she says. A Minbari called Kalain comes on board, warning the one who went to see Lennier that something bad is about to happen. He advises him to leave the station.

Sheridan goes to give his "good luck speech" to the crew but is interrupted when he is told there is a Minbari who needs to speak to him urgently, on a matter of grave security. It turns out to be Hedronn, the Minbari who had spoken to Lennier, and he tells Sheridan about Kalain, who is commander of the Tregati, a war cruiser that vanished into exile at the end of the war rather than surrender as ordered by the Grey Council. Kalain and his crew believe that they have been betrayed both by Earth and Minbar, and are a loose cannon, a dangerous one, almost a literal one.

Ivanova asks Sheridan how he destroyed The Black Star, the Minbari flagship and he tells her that he had the asteroid field between Jupiter and Mars mined, then faked a distress signal, luring the hulking cruiser in and causing it to be destroyed by the fusion mines. With it went three of their heavy cruisers. It was about the only real victory for Earth in the war, and the reason why the Minbari hate him and call him "Starkiller". Thinking about it though, Sheridan realises that if Kalain is aboard, and believes the Minbari government betrayed his people, he might strike at their representative, and they rush to the helpless Delenn's quarters, where Kalain has indeed made his way. They stop him, but Sheridan thinks it was too easy, and suspects a diversion. He wonders where Kalain's ship, the Tregati could be hiding?

Since Kalain is here though, and therefore his ship must also be in hyperspace waiting to attack, Lennier obeys Hedronn and goes to speak to Sheridan and Ivanova. He explains that at the height of the Battle of the Line a human was taken aboard one of the Minbari ships, examined by the Grey Council, tortured to try and get information about Earth's defences from their mind. Completely at random, they selected Sinclair but were amazed to find out that the two races shared DNA. Minbari believe that every generation is reborn in the next, but in the last few thousand years the descendants seem to be getting watered down. They discover that Minbari souls are being reborn in human bodies. The two races share a common destiny, and the destruction of the humans would inevitably result in the death of all Minbari.The Grey Council could not of course tell their warriors this, and so simply ordered them to surrender, which they did. But the decision has split Minbari society ever since.

The Tregati makes its appearance and its second in command demands the return of Kalain. When Sheridan finds that Kalain has killed himself he realises the Tregati has the perfect excuse to attack, believing or accusing the humans of killing their captain. But when he thinks about it further, Sheridan realises that teh Minbari would not start a war, so they are trying to get the humans to shoot first. Then they will be martyrs, honour lost at the Battle of the Line will be restored, and the war will begin again. He signals the other Minbari cruiser that Hague told him had been despatched to hunt down the Tregati, while refusing the order to his own fighters to fire, knowing that the Minbari will not fire the first shot. When ordered to surrender, and then crippled by the other Minbari cruiser, the crew of the Tregati destroy their own ship.

Lennier speaks to Delenn in her quarters in her coccoon, worried about the prophecy that is soon to come to pass, and of a great enemy who is returning. Sheridan gets to give his welcome speech just in time, and officially, in his eyes, takes control of his new command.

QUOTES
Ivanova: "I don't know. I just keep seeing Earth Force One blowing up, over and over in my dreams. You know, all my life I used to think I could handle anything, fix any problem. But when I saw that I realised there was nothing I could do to stop it. I don't think I've ever felt so helpless."

Hedronn: "I would answer your question if I recognised your authority, but unlike your predecessor my government was not consulted on your appointment."
Sheridan: "The president feels that the Minbari had too much influence over an Earth outpost. Times change!"
Hedronn: "And the day that a man such as you is given a position of this importance is a dark day indeed. We lost many of our best warriors because of you, and we do not soon forget such things. If there is a doom upon this station it is because you brought it here!"

Lennier to Kalain: "If you are going to kill me then do so. Otherwise I have considerable work to do."

Ivanova: "I learned a while ago that there's enough guilt in the world to go round without grabbing for more."

Lennier "I told them Delenn, as I was ordered. I only wish I could have told them the rest, about the great enemy that is returning, and the prophecy that the two sides of our spirit must unite against the darkness or be destroyed. They say it will take both of our races to stop the darkness. I'm told that the Earthers will discover all this soon enough on their own. I hope they are right, because if we are wrong, no-one will survive our mistake."

Ivanova: "Logic is good, but what it has to do with Earthforce is anyone's guess."

Sheridan's "Good luck speech": "It was an early Earth president, Abraham Lincoln, who best described our situation: the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. We cannot escape history; we will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we must pass will light us down in honour or dishonour to the last generation. We shall nobly save or meanly lose our last best hope of Earth."

Important Plot Arc Points:
THE BATTLE OF THE LINE
Arc Level: Red
We finally understand what happened at the final stand in the Earth/Minbari war. As the victors prepared to destroy Earth they took one of the humans to glean what they could about its defences, and that person happened to be Jeffrey Sinclair. They were amazed and troubled to find that humans and Minbari share souls, so that by killing their enemy they were in fact killing themselves. With this information they had no choice but to order their forces to surrender. They then ensured that Sinclair, as their first ever human contact, was given the position of commander of Babylon 5 when they signed on to help finance and support it.

Although this clears up much of the mystery from season one, there are yet further and even more shocking revelations about Sinclair and his relationship to the Minbari to be made, but sorry folks: you'll have to wait till deep in season three for those!

We're also told that President Clark knows of the reason why the Minbari surrendered --- it's said he's the only other human with such knowledge. Presumably Santiago told him when he was sworn in as Vice President. But he does not believe it. And Sheridan has his doubts too. The whole thing is a little bit too hocus-pocus for the career officer, and he thinks there is another reason behind this.

DELENN
Arc Level: Orange
When season one ended, Delenn had just gone into her coccoon, for reasons unknown as yet but apparently important to her. So far, we still do not know what those reasons are, but in the final scene in her quarters we see the coccoon showing signs of breaking, perhaps cracking and opening. What will emerge? Is she alive? Dead? Gone?

STARKILLER
Arc Level: Green
A controversial choice for command of Babylon 5 indeed. You might as well put, as far as the Minbari are concerned, Hitler in charge of the Israeli state. Unlike Sinclair, the Minbari have no stake --- and no say, under the Clark administration --- in Sheridan being appointed to head Babylon 5, but they have many reasons to oppose it. His name is a dark one in their recent history, and few Minbari that did not lose some family on the Black Star. His path will not be an easy one.

Notes on the opening of season two
At the end of season one I postulated the question, what now for the residents of Babylon 5? Well, it would seem a lot. A new commander, with the old one reassigned to Minbar. A different style of leadership: though Sinclair fought on The Line, Sheridan has just left behind command of an Earthforce cruiser and is now being asked to play diplomat. He has little time to get used to his new surroundings and familiarise himself with the station and the staff before they are thrust into a crisis. This will, of course, become par for the course.

Revelations too, as we learn of the reason why the Minbari surrendered at the Battle of the Line, and that Sinclair has now been reassigned as ambassador to Minbar, at their request. Garibaldi remains in a coma, and whether or not he is going to pull through is unknown at this time. Lennier foretells the onset of a huge war, and indeed this is referenced in the opening credits, when Sheridan says "It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, the year the great war came upon us all." A darkness is coming, and it will be the kind of darkness that swallows galaxies. Lennier knows of the prophecy which hints that in order to beat this ancient enemy, humans and Minbari will have to fight side by side, so Sheridan's polarising arrival on the station is not good news for this as-yet-to-be-forged alliance.

Note: Technically this season features a new character in Starfury pilot Warren Keffer, but he was put in at the insistence of the network and JMS gleefully killed him off soon afterwards. He doesn't feature that much overall and he's certainly not important to the story arc, so I'm not making a big deal of him. Besides, he was Babylon 5's answer to Erik Estrada's Ponch in CHiPs!

On a personal note, I was sad initially to see Michael O'Hare go, despite what many think of his acting. I had grown used to him, and the replacement of him with younger, more dynamic Bruce Boxleitner was, to me, a shallow network ploy to appeal to the younger demographic of the show. Turns out I was totally wrong: all of this was planned and expected by JMS, and as we will see as the season and future ones pan out, it was the very best choice he could have made. The addition of Sheridan took the show to new levels, and allowed it a freedom it really didn't have under Sinclair's guidance. Without giving too much away, the coming struggles required a younger man, and I had always seen Sinclair as the grizzled father with Sheridan as his hotshot son. Babylon 5 would in fact make Boxleitner's career, and people would and will forever after associate him now with John Sheridan in the same way that Tom Baker will always be Doctor Who, or William Shatner Captain Kirk.

2.2 "Revelations"

Londo is throwing a fit, enraged that two of the permanent members of the Babylon 5 council are not in attendance. Again. Lennier tells him, probably not for the first time, that Delenn is indisposed but he is dismissive of the attache's excuses for his employer. And Na'Toth admits she has no idea when G'Kar will return. As it happens, G'Kar is at this moment heading for Babylon 5, having narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of ships eerily similar to the spider ships we saw in the previous season. Sheridan is approached by Dr. Franklin with an idea to use the alien healing machine from "The quality of mercy" to try to save Garibaldi's life as a last-ditch method. With no other option, Sheridan agrees, but says he will help the doctor by allowing his own life-force to be taken under the doctor's supervision. Franklin is dubious, but they agree to take turns, so they can monitor each other. Before that though Sheridan's sister Elizabeth has come to visit him. They discuss his wife's death, two years ago, and Elizabeth is worried that her brother has not moved on. She points out that Anna was her friend a long time before she became his wife. But Sheridan still hurts, and is not ready to face this yet.

Londo arranges a meeting with Morden, worried that the destruction of the Narn outpost at Quadrant 37 is attaracting too much attention and concerned the action could be traced back to him. But Morden assures him he is quite safe, with complete plausible deniablity and none of his fingerprints on the attack. He does however ask Londo to keep him informed should he hear about anything odd happening out on The Rim. Under the influence of the alien machine, Garibaldi comes to, which is bad news for Jack, who has been monitoring the channels. You remember Jack? He was Garibaldi's trusted lieutenant, the one who shot him in the back. He obviously fears now that if Garibaldi remembers or knows who shot him that he'll be sunk, so he hurries to Medlab, but luckily for him as the shot was from behind, Garibaldi did not see his would-be assassin.

G'Kar, having spoken to Na'Toth of what he witnessed out on the Rim, convenes the council to tell them of his findings, and tells them that he has convinced his government to send a ship to scan the dark ancient planet called Zha'dum, mentioned in the Narn holy writings as the original base of the dark power he believes is stirring again. But Londo, deeming this to fit the category of "anything strange" that Morden wanted to know about, relays the information back to his shadowy benefactor. Lennier, returning to Delenn's quarters, is perturbed to see that her coccoon is broken open and she is nowhere to be seen. A voice from the shadows calls his name, a voice full of pain and suffering, and he finds Delenn in a corner, shrouded in a robe and when he looks at her face he recoils in shock. He calls Franklin to ask for his help, in the strictest confidence. The doctor finds her skin covered in scales, that seem to flake away as he touches them, and what is underneath? Is it skin? He asks Delenn but she does not know: this is the first time such a thing has been attempted by her people.

Sheridan reveals to his sister that he feels responsible for the death of his wife. They had been supposed to meet and take a holiday but he was too busy, and so she took a post as a science officer on a vessel that was going out to the Rim and this ship was mysteriously destroyed soon afterwards. He blames himself for that, and also hates that he didn't say he loved her on their last communication before she left, which turned out to be their last ever. Garibaldi asks Talia Winters to scan him, so that he can find out who shot him. She tells him that anything she finds out is not admissable in court, but he doesn't care: he just wants to know. And so he sees Jack fire at him, and knows who it was that tried to kill him. He is quickly taken into custody.

Garibaldi discharges himself to personally interrogate the traitor, but Jack is cocky, unconcerned. He tells his ex-boss there is a new order on the rise, and he wants to be part of it. Sheridan gets a call from no less than the President himself, who orders him to have Jack shipped back to Earth, along with any material they have on him. Unable to refuse but upset the investigation is being taken out of his hands, Sheridan complies. The Narn ship sent to investigate Zha'dum is destroyed by one of the spider ships, though it's reported as an accident, and the Narn council will not sponsor another such expedition. G'Kar knows this was no accident, and he thinks he knows who to blame, though he can prove nothing. Delenn rejoins the Council, but she is different. She is now some sort of half-human, half-Minbari hybrid. She says she has done this to become a bridge between the two races, to prevent any other war or misunderstanding occuring, and to bring the two races closer together, heal the wounds both are still suffering.

Later, Elizabeth hands Sheridan a recording which Anna sent to her a week before her death. In it she explains how she was going to take the job on the Icarus before Sheridan cancelled; she would have to postpone the holiday anyway. Sheridan's guilt is released and he gets a chance, finally, to say goodbye and to tell her he loves her. Garibaldi tells Ivanova and Franklin that he suspects Psi Corps may have been involved in the assasination of President Santiago. He thinks they may have wanted a man sympathetic to their aims in office, which may be why they tried to endorse his candidacy for vice president, even though their charter forbids such political lobbying or support. This may be backed up by the fact that the ship taking Jack back to Earth has disappeared, taking all the evidence with it.

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QUOTES
Londo: "How much longer will this council be held hostage to its missing members? Your behaviour is inexcusable!"
Lennier: "Ambassador Delenn remains indisposed."
Londo: "Indisposed! She is in a coccoon!"
Lennier: "Yes?"

Londo: "You see? One deserts his post without explanation and the other picks the most breathtakingly inconvenient opportunity possible to explore new career opportunities, like becoming a butterfly!"

Londo: "Yes, but what if I am asked for another of these little demonstrations?"
Morden: "Then we'll provide it. Simply choose your target. A colony, an outpost..."
Londo: "Why don't you eliminate the entire Narn homeworld while you're at it?"
Morden: "One thing at a time, Ambassador."

Sheridan (about his wife): "Then why do I have to remind myself she's gone? Why when I see something interesting on the news I'll say to myself I must remember to mention that to Anna later? Sometimes I will turn to say something to her; she's not there, but just for a second I don't know why! And then I remember."

Sheridan: "I don't think losing my head of security two weeks into the job is going to look good on my resume!"

G'Kar: "Weep for the future, Na'Toth. Weep for us all."

G'Kar: "I searched for days, going from system to sytem. And then, on a dark deserted world where there should be no life, where no living thing has walked in over a thousand years, something is moving, gathring its forces, quietly, quietly, hoping to go unnoticed. We must warn the others, Na'Toth. After a thousand years the darkness has come again!"

Sheridan: "She said she'd be back before I even noticed she was gone. But she didn't come back, and I've been noticing she's gone every minute of every day ."

Delenn: "What ... am ... I?"

Garibaldi to Jack: "Shooting a senior officer is an act of treason and mutiny. The penalty is Spacing. They put you in an airlock, seal it and open the space door. You spend the next five minutes chewing vacuum till your lungs turn inside out, your eyeballs freeze and your heart explodes. It's the worst kind of death you can imagine. And when that day comes, I'll be there to push the button."

G'Kar: "A human book. I have been studying their literature for a while and I came across this. It would seem they may be wiser than we had thought. Listen: Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" ("The Second Coming, by WB Yeats)

Sheridan: "Gets cold up here sometimes, doesn't it, Lieutenant Commander?"

IMPORTANT PLOT ARC POINTS
DELENN
Arc Level: Orange
The chrysalis is open! Delenn is revealed, and it seems that she has become a sort of hybrid of human and Minbari. She says this is so that she can better understand humans and act as a bridge between them, much as Sinclair is creating another one by living on Minbar. Sheridan, who has no doubt seen Minbari before, is open-mouthed in shock, as is everyone else, save perhaps Kosh, who must know what was going to happen, as Delenn consulted him before she entered the coccoon. Following on from what Lennier said in the last episode, it seems she may have taken the prophecy rather too literally!

THE SPIDER SHIPS
Arc Level: Red
Again we see these, once as smaller ones, perhaps fighters, attacking the retreating Narns as G'Kar tries to lead them to safety at the beginning of the episode, and again when the ship requested by him and sent by his government is destroyed when it goes to investigate the dark planet. Whatever is at Zha'Dum, whoever is responsible for those ships wants to keep it a secret!

DEATH OF A PRESIDENT
Arc Level: Orange
We see further evidence that Clark may have been involved in, or indeed orchestrated the death of his former boss, when he demands that Jack and all the relevant material is shipped home to Earth, whereupon everything seems to vanish as if it never existed.

ANCIENT RACES
Arc Level: Red
G'Kar is convinced that something old and incredibly powerful and evil is stirring back in its old haunts. He's right, and this power will not be the only ancient race to rear its head in the series.

MORDEN
Arc Level: Red
Again we meet the enigmatic Mister Morden, who starts to call in his favours from Londo, asking -- ordering, really --- the ambassador to keep him advised of anything he hears about strange events taking place out on The Rim. It's only due to his squealing to Morden about the Narn ships that they are destroyed, and though G'Kar suspects --- knows, really --- that Mollari has betrayed his confidence, he cannot prove it. Also, he surely finds it hard to believe that, even given their enmity towards one another and the history of their races, that the Centauri would put his own interests before that of the other worlds, of civilisation itself, and side with the darkness? Little does he know how far Londo Mollari will go to realise his ambitions.

PSI CORPS
Arc Level: Red
Again the idea that Psi Corps has its hands on the levers of power in government, even to the point of picking and then ensuring their candidate is put in charge, raises its head. Although the Corps is forbidden to sponsor political candidates it is widely believed that this is exactly what they did, greasing one would assume the right palms or perhaps violating the right minds to make sure they were not caught. The possibility of their being involved in the killing of the previous president is looking more and more likely. Despite Garibaldi's feelings for Talia, he realises she is still Corps and asks her to leave before he outlines his suspicions about the assassination to the others.

Note: On waking from his coma, Garibaldi asks to see the commander. When he hears that Sinclair has been reassigned he is slightly panick-stricken, and the sight of his new commanding officer does nothing to quell that panic, which becomes cold suspicion. He says grimly to Sheridan "I don't know you." For Garibaldi, this is equal to saying "I don't trust you." He will of course learn to trust the captain, but for now he's someone new, and someone new is someone you don't let your guard down with. Not just yet. It's also funny how, since we know his affinity for Daffy Duck cartoons, his first words on waking are "What's up doc?"

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1.2 "Simon"

It's ten years in the past as we open on episode two, and Simon Delaitre is playing bass in a pub rock band, due to be married the next day to Adele. As the band poses for a photograph, a young Lena starts messing on the drumkit, and Simon goes to help show her how to play properly. Adele takes a Polaroid of him with the little girl. Later that night his fiancee tells him she is pregnant but the next day, the day of the wedding, he does not turn up. It appears he has been killed, and Adele's world crashes down. We see, interestingly, that the one who brings her the news is the selfsame police captain that she appears now married to.

Back to the present, and Adele has been shaken by what she sees --- not surprisingly --- as her encounter with a ghost, literally, from her past. Simon, meanwhile, goes to the American Diner where he tries to get some food, but he has little money and the smartarse waiter will not help him, so in frustration he smashes a glass over his head and starts kicking the crap out of him. As he does so, he notices a woman watching him with half-interest, and we can see that it's the woman who was supposed to have burned in Mr. Costa's house. Simon looks at her, runs off.

Julie goes to the police station to see if she can pick up any clues as to whether any small boys are missing, but she does not admit that she has Victor. The officer will not allow her to leave without making a statement, much to her annoyance; she doesn't want to draw any more attention to the mysterious Victor than she has to, but she also feels a duty towards his parents, wherever they may be. Lena is upset that her family seems to be trying to pretend that all is normal, but she will not or cannot or does not want to accept that her sister has come back from the dead.

Simon returns to Julie's flat, asking how long she has been there. She tells him eight years, and when he asks does she know who Simon Delaitre is, and what happened to him, she says she hardly knew Adele and did not know Simon. He leaves, confused. She tells Victor that as far as she can tell nobody is looking for him, but he will not speak. He puts his arms around her though, and she feels a strong connection and a responsibility to the boy, though she can't say why. Adele meanwhile is planning her wedding to the police captain, Thomas, when he gets a call to say that the body of Lucy has been found. She is in fact not dead but not expected to last long. He hurries off, abandoning Adele.

In the church bathroom the sinks all back up with dirty black water, and at the dam the workers observe the slow fall of the water, worry on their faces. On her return to the apartment with Victor, Julie is told by the nosy Miss Payet about the suicide of Mr. Costa. She is shocked, as he was one of her patients, but she doesn't tell her neighbour that. Simon meets Lena in the Lake Pub, and she realises she knows him from somewhere, but it's not until she sees the photograph of her and him, taken ten years ago, that she realises, unbelievably, who he must be. Pierre visits again but Camille is not interested in his spiritual views on her return. Toni, the manager of the Lake Pub, is taken in for questioning by the police on the attack on Lucy Clarsen, and we find that he has been accused of a similar crime in the past, though acquitted. The nature of Lucy's attack is almost a carbon-copy of that crime: the girl was stabbed multiple times and her liver partially eaten. The same has happened to Lucy. Can there be any doubt it's the same man?

Simon goes to visit Adele at her work. Her priest, to whom she has confided about what she saw as the visitation, has encouraged her not to be afraid of him, but to welcome him, and she does, not realising that what she sees before her is not a ghost but a real person. On leaving the library though he is arrested by the police, who have him on CCTV attacking the bartender. A man appears out of the woods and approaches a locked cottage. He breaks the lock and enters. Camille sees her mother embracing Pierre in the garden. This is new to her: she now realises that her parents must have split up. Back at Julie's second-floor apartment, Victor climbs onto the windowledge ... and jumps! When the doctor rushes downstairs to see if he is okay he appears behind her, inside the apartment, smiling from behind the door.

Toni returns to his cottage and finds the lock broken. Inside is a dead dog or wolf, possibly that he has hunted, but when he goes back a moment later the wolf is alive again, and attacks him. He barely gets to his shotgun in time. As he is burying the dead-again dog the man who had come out of the forest appears beside him and shocked, Toni hits him with the shovel, running into the cottage where he barricades the door and begins praying fervently. The other man is banging on and kicking the door, and then suddenly stops. Toni looks out cautiously. All is quiet. Then a shovel hits him and he goes down.

Claire discovers that Camille has left the house; she can't get in touch with Lena either. Lena returns but without Camille. Laure, the police inspector working with Captain Thomas, tells him that Simon Delaitre is, according to their records, dead, and wonders how he managed to fool the system into thinking so. As Toni regains consciousness it becomes clear that the man who has struck him is his brother, Serge. Toni tells him that he died, and Serge looks, as you might expect, confused. Thomas is nonplussed to find that when he gets home the fiancee who was a bag of nerves this morning is now bright and cheerful.

Camille returns home, caustically asking her parents what they thought could possibly happen to her, as she's dead already, but inside she's very upset and confused. Lena tells her about Simon, and that she thinks he is dead also. As Julie gets ready for a shower, we see that there are terrible scars all over her belly...

QUESTIONS?
Leaving aside the big one for the moment, which will pretty much run through the whole series and which won't be answered this season anyway, there are more questions in this episode. If the woman who appeared in Mr. Costa's kitchen did not die in the fire he set, and she is already dead, then unlike zombies of myth fire will not destroy these people. What will? If no remains were found at the fire, did she simply free herself and walk out of the house, leaving no trace? How is it that Victor can jump off a balcony, not hurt himself (yeah, because he's dead, okay I get that) and then reappear inside the building? Can he jump back UP, and is this what he did when Julie went to look for him?

What happened to Toni's brother? Why, on seeing him for the first time, was his instinctive reaction to hit him with the shovel? And is Toni a killer? He says he was acquitted of the crime of the attempted murder of the other woman, but was he guilty? If Lucy is now lying in intensive care of the same wounds, could he be starting his killing spree again? And how does this tie in to the wounds we see on Julie's stomach? Is she the other victim, the one he was accused of trying to murder?

CONNECTIONS

We see here that Adele is planning to marry Thomas, the police captain. There is no confirmation of it, but is Chloe his daughter, or Simon's? She's about nine years old, and that would tally up with when Adele was pregnant with Simon's child. Simon also knows Lena, having helped show her how to play the drums, back when he was alive. The shock of seeing him, exactly as he was ten years ago, not a day older, in that photograph, added to the already massive trauma of dealing with the miraculous return of her dead sister, must be close to pushing Lena over the edge.

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1.6 "Lesser of two evils"

A known IRA terrorist comes to one of MI5's safehouses, with important information which he is prepared to exchange . He mentions Asabiyah, an Al Quaeda splinter group working out of Sudan, and against Harry's better judgement they agree that Tom should go to meet him, to see what he knows, if it's credible. Patrick McCann, the IRA man, tells Tom that they have got wind of a possible attack on one of Britain's nuclear power stations, Sefton B, by the Sudanese movement and asks for thirty hours non-surveillance, for the security forces to turn a blind eye to what the IRA are doing --- "conductin' a little business", as he says --- for that length of time. In return, he'll pass on the full details of the planned attack.

Harry is dubious. McCann has assured Tom that the "business" he speaks of is not a terrorist attack, but how to trust a man to whom killing is second nature and who hates the British? He has mentioned that this nuclear attack threatens Ireland too, his homeland being in the line of fire and likely to be as badly affected as Britain if the plan succeeds, but Harry thinks the whole story is concocted as a way to get the security forces to allow the IRA free rein for their operation. He vetoes the deal Tom has tentatively made with McCann, telling him that the IRA man is now under surveillance. He is more worried about what the dissidents are going to do on his homesoil than about some phantom threat to a nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, he gets Zoe and Danny to check the viability of such a thing.

Tom, incensed when he learns that he has been duped, goes over Harry's head and keeps the meeting. Harry is of course furious, the moreso when he finds that the "business" McCann is talking about is an attack on a train station at rush hour. When Tom challenges McCann he snarls that they are at war, and warns him not to interfere or he won't get the information he needs to stop the nuclear plant attack. Tom concocts a plan to fool Harry into thinking they are carrying out his orders, stopping the train station bomb, but in reality they are trying to find out all they can about the other attack.

They manage to force closure of the station by pretending the roof is unsound and advising it could be a serious risk. The bomb goes off but there are no casualties. Harry of course soon rumbles the ruse and is again not happy, but Tom's team have confirmed the make of rocket launcher stolen that could be used against the power plant, and more worryingly, it's shoulder mounted. When he calms down Harry accepts that Tom, Zoe and Danny did the right thing, and now they need the information on how and when that weapon is intended to be used.

Tom goes to keep the rendezvous with McCann but is captured, however the IRA don't kill him, but hand over the information they promised they would. The area around Sefton B is evacuated, another hoax story, this time about an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, and with the information they now have MI5 set about trying to find the two terrorists who have been picked up on CCTV already in the country. At the last moment they're caught and shot, and the danger is averted.

Harry calls Tessa in, tells her he knows about the phony payoffs. She counters by saying she knows he has secrets he would not want brought out into the light. She tries to blackmail him, but he calls her bluff and she is fired. Back at the house, Tom receives a call from McCann, apologising that there is C4 explosive in the laptop he gave him with the details of the planned nuclear station attack. Trouble is, Tom is now outside his house, inside which Ellie and Masie are making cakes, and the new high-tech security door can only be opened with the special passcard, which he has not taken with him and which Masie has got chocolate all over, so it won't work.

Stuck inside the house, with all the alarms set and no way to get out, Ellie gets the laptop and Danny talks her through disarming the bomb, but there is no time. Tom looks in the window helplessly as the police team pulls back to get away from the blast zone.


Harry's World
As Special Branch rush to intercept and arrest McCann, Harry mutters "He'll be long gone by then, and all we'll be left with is the smell of sulphur!"

"Tom, we all know that the word of the IRA is about as permanent as a fart in a wind machine!"

When he suggests killing McCann and Tessa snaps "This isn't Guatamala!" he smirks "Let me rephrase for faint hearts: we bring about a curtailment of his continuing existence through proxy!"

Harry talks about his experiences while serving in Ireland:
"I was in Ireland in 1978. My best friend was a man called Bill Crombie. One day we found ourselves in a rebel pub, looking for an IRA brigade commander. Terrible mistake. I left, he stayed. Bravado. They shoved him in the boot of a car; I could do nothing. I had no field telephone, no weapon. They dumped his body two weeks later. Very hard to identify a body, most of which has been burned away with a blowtorch. The brigade commander's name was Patrick McCann."

After Zoe tells him it's over: "Tom made the mistake of telling me that after his first probation and I'll tell you what I told him, Zoe: it's never over. You may dance with the devil but it's always to his tune."

To Tessa, when he finds out about her phantom agents: "I'm sorry Tessa; I know the service's traditional approach to wrongoers is to smother them with kindness, but I'm going to throw you to the wolves."

The "Need to know"
Of course, word that the nuclear power station is under threat would instigate mass panic, so MI5 spread a cover story involving an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which enables them to evacuate the area and isolate the plant. Understandable, but makes you wonder how many of these stories we hear in real life of gas leaks and so forth are the whole truth?

Also, when Tom's house is about to be blown sky-high the neighbours are evacuated with the story that there is a gas leak. The sudden influx of police gives the lie to that, but then, when the police say, get out, it's usually best to follow their orders.


The mind of a terrorist
McCann: "They do what I think they're going to do, most of Ireland's uninhabitable for the next two hundred years, not to mention everything north of Bristol. Nobody would miss Wales.." McCann is forced into a compromise with the old enemy, because for once what threatens the Brits also threatens his beloved Ireland. It's a pact with the devil. On both sides.

McCann, on the discovery of the planned IRA attack: "We're at war with Britain. There's no such thing as terrorism in wartime. We're striking back, right at your throat. We've had enough of words, we're back in business in a big way. The rules have changed, the gloves are off."

Family
Desperate to keep his lover and her daughter safe, Tom has had the house upgraded to the very latest security system, and entices Ellie back. After the falling out last episode it seems Ellie is prepared to forgive him and moves back in. But fate has a very dark joke to play on Tom, when the laptop he got from the IRA turns out to have been rigged with explosives, and thanks to the high-tech security system both Ellie and Masie are trapped in the house, unable to escape as the countdown timer on the bomb ticks down to oblivion.

Although Harry sees most of his people as an extended family, he is, as we have seen, prepared to be the strict father where required, and with Tessa her avarice is probably not as bad as the fact that she tried to pull the wool over Harry's eyes --- well, succeeded in doing that actually. If it hadn't been for Zoe squealing on her Tessa would still be pocketing payments to agents who don't exist. When Tessa fights back and threatens to blacken Harry's good name, he calls her bluff and has her removed from the building. It surely hurts, and he probably feels betrayed, but in another way he may he relieved, because it seems clear that Tessa was always going to be looking to take his job, either when he got promoted or by having him removed one way or the other. She's an ambitious woman, and at MI5, ambition can be deadly.

The Shock Factor
Can only be the final scenes, where, in the season finale, with everything tied up neatly, a horrible twist in the story leads to Tom losing the two people most dear to him, and knowing that it was his fault. He asked Ellie to come back to the house, he had the new security system installed, which ironically ended up making the house not their sanctuary but their tomb. We don't even know if Tom escapes, or stays there with Ellie and Masie as the bomb goes off: there are about forty seconds left as the scene fades out with him looking in the window at the two girls. And in Spooks, you can take nothing for granted.

Notes on the first season
Now that we've seen the first six episodes and come to the end of the first season of Spooks, it's clear that it was no ordinary spy drama. The simple fact that it ran for ten seasons alone is proof of that. Although not as fickle as US television networks, BBC have been known to dump more than one concept that, if left to bed in, could have been real moneyspinners and ratings successes, so that fact that Spooks received such support from the network is in itself indicative of how great a series it was.

One of the few shows to do things like have its major characters killed off, as we will see in future seasons, turn things around and make it so that the good guys did not always win, Spooks was a series where, appropriately, the lines were always blurred and everything existed in multi-layered shades of grey. Already one major character has gone (Tessa) and two peripheral characters, Ellie and her daughter who, while not important to the main plotline, were the most important thing in the life of one of the most important characters. With these "reality anchors" gone, how will Tom respond? Will he go after the IRA, seeking revenge for their deaths? Will he leave the service, mindful that it was his job that led to those deaths? Did he stay there, outside the house, choosing to die with the people he loved?

One thing is certain. As the series progresses, it will be a brave man or woman indeed who predicts what will happen next, for in Spooks, the unexpected, the inconceivable, the unbelievable and the dreaded are all just part of another average day at the office.

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2.1 "In my time of dying"

The driver of the truck that smashed into the Impala at the end of season one jumps out, approaches the wrecked car and smiles, but moments later the blackness leaks out of his eyes and we can see that he was possessed, and is now shocked at what has happened. A short time later a helicopter airlifts the Winchesters to hospital. Dean awakes in the hospital, takes in his surroundings and goes for a walk. It's only when he sees that the receptionist is completely ignoring him, returns to his room and sees himself lying on the bed that he realises the awful truth.

Sam watches the body of his brother as the doctor tells him there is a lot of brain damage and there's a high probability that Dean may never wake up. Dean, watching from outside his body, snaps at Sam: "Come on! Find some hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on me!" Funnily, and cleverly, Sam later tells his father, who is busted up but otherwise okay, "I'll find some hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on him!" Worried more, it would seem, about the missing Colt, John sends Sam to find it, but his younger son tells him he already has Bobby working on it. John gives him a list and tells him to make sure Bobby gets the items on it for him. And to be careful.

However, when he is handed the list Bobby looks confused. John had said the items were for protection, but Bobby is not convinced, and Sam wonders if there is something else going on? As Dean watches in disbelief while his father seems not to lift a finger to call someone to try to help him, he is startled by another spirit which whooshes by, and following it he comes across a woman choking, but being insubstantial and invisible to everyone he cannot raise the alarm. Sam returns, and despite Dean's desperate attempts to alert him to what is going on, his younger brother seems more interested in why their father intends to summon a demon, rather than seek protection from one? That's what the items on the list are for: John says he has a plan.

As Dean's lifesigns fade and the doctors try to ressucitate him, he sees the spirit he saw in the hallway hovering over his bed, but faces it down, knowing it for what it is, or thinking he does. Dean's body begins to breathe again; he has cheated death. For now. Outside, he finds a girl who seems to be able to see him. She is in a panic. Her name is Tessa, and she may very well be dead. She seems, however, to have accepted it and be ready to move on. As she and Dean walk down the corridor he hears a "Code Blue!" warning and rushes into another ward, to see the creature hovering over the bed where a little girl is lying. He fights it and it vanishes, but too late for the girl. She is pronounced dead. Dean now realises that a Reaper is loose in the hospital. Sam, having believed he has psychically "felt" the presence of his brother, tells his father he has to go somewhere and walks off. John promises to make sure Dean is okay before he thinks of fighting the demon.

Sam returns with a ouija board and Dean, though laughing at the concept, sees that this is in fact a way he can communicate with his brother. After all, technically he's standing right beside him. So he slides the pointer and makes Sam aware that not only is he there, but that he is hunting a Reaper in the hospital. When Sam goes to see their father he is not there, but Sam takes his journal and reads about Reapers. Reading over his shoulder, Dean gasps as he realises that Tessa is in fact the Reaper he is hunting: Reapers, the journal says, can alter human perception, and to Dean, Tessa's philosophical acceptance of her fate was a little hard to take. When he talks to her she admits it, and says he needs to go with her: death is nothing to fear. It's his time.

Meanwhile, John has gone to the boiler room where he has chalked arcane symbols to conjure up the demon. It works, and John says he wants to make a deal. The Reaper tells Dean she can't force him to come with her, but that he can't re-enter his body, and if he stays he will be forever a disembodied spirit. Eventually he will get angry, and resentful, and then perhaps wicked. He will, she says, become the very thing he hates, the thing he and Sam hunt: a monster, an evil spirit. John offers the demon the colt, and the remaining bullet, if he will save Dean. The demon agrees, but he wants one more thing also, something he says means more to him than the gun that can destroy him.

As Dean and the Reaper talk, she is suddenly taken over by a demon who brings Dean's body back to life. Sam is delighted but then their father appears and he looks old and haggard. He asks Sam to fetch him a cup of coffee and while he is gone, John has a long talk with Dean wherein he apologises for not looking after him better, for dragging him into his war and asks him to look after Sam. He then collapses. For some time the doctors work on him, but at 10:41 they call it, and John Winchester is pronounced dead.

MUSIC
Ted Nugent: "Stranglehold"

(and "Bad moon rising" by Creedence again; strangely, NOT "In my time of dying" by Led Zep...)

THE "WTF??! moment"
It's either got to be when Dean goes back to his room and sees himself on the bed, and we realise he's a spirit, or else when Tessa is revealed to be the Reaper. Or, possibly, when John dies, though this has been telegraphed pretty comprehensively. You don't do a deal with the Devil and not offer your soul, especially for your own son.

PCRs
Dean, in spirit form, shouts at Sam: "You're the psychic! Give me some ghost whispering or something!" Referring to the rival network show, "Ghost Whisperer", where Jennifer Love-Hewitt contacts the ghosts of those who can't move on and tries to help them finish whatever business they have here so they can pass over to the other side.

In ghost form, having knocked over a glass to try to get the attention of his arguing brother and father, Dean murmurs, "Dude, I full-on Swayze'd that mother!" Reference to the film "Ghost", starring the late Patrick Swayze.

Even the title is a PCR, the name of a Led Zeppelin song.

Dean says to the Reaper "I think I'll pass on the seventy-two virgins thanks." Reference to Islam, where the righteous are promised that 72 virgins will meet them at the gates of paradise if they die nobly.

BROTHERS
There's a touching exchange between Sam and Bobby as they look at the shattered wreck of the Impala. Bobby suggests writing it off for scrap, but Sam, either confident or desperate that Dean will pull through, tells him that his brother would kill him if he scrapped the car. Bobby, aware Sam is clutching at straws, tries to be pragmatic but Sam will have none of it. "If there's only one part still working, it's enough," he tells his friend firmly. The implication is clear: Sam will refuse to give up on his brother while there is even the slightest chance, no matter that it may be one in a million.

Sort of feeding into that, Sam and his father have a blazing row where the boy accuses John of not caring for Dean (which of course he knows is unfair and untrue), being more interested in destroying the demon. John Winchester counters by reminding his son that this demon killed his mother and his fiancee, and that Sam had the chance to destroy it when it was in his father's body. His son's protestations that that would have meant killing his dad too fall on stony deaf ears: John accuses his son of being weak, and even hints it's Sam's fault that Dean is now in the situation he is. Had Sam had the balls to kill the demon (although that would most likely have meant killing his father, and there's no guarantee that the demon would not just have exited at the moment of death and sought a new body) they would not have been rammed and Dean would not now be hovering close to death.

It's clear that whatever reconciliation the two men reached near the end of the last season, pressures and a mounting sense of guilt and panic has now blown that fragile truce apart.

The ARC of the matter
Although this is only episode one of season two, and you wouldn't expect any huge revelations this soon, we do find out that John knows about Sam, and why the demon wants him. He says he has not told Dean though, who remains, for the moment, in the dark. The possibility of the demon's being destroyed would now seem to be remote at best, as John has exchanged the Colt and its single bullet, along with his own soul, for the life of his elder son.

2.2 "Everybody loves a clown"

The boys have given their father a warrior's funeral, burning his body atop a pyre. A week later, Sam is disconcerted that Dean has not tried to talk about the events leading up to their dad's death, and senses his brother is holding something back. Dean seems angry that, with the Colt gone, they have no way to kill the demon now, even if they could find it. Sam plays Dean a voicemail from their father's cellphone, on which a woman named Ellen offers her help. The boys decide to check her out.

Turns out she runs a bar, a roadhouse, through which hunters "occasionally" pass. She has a daughter, Jo, who seems a little taken with Dean, but for once he's not rising to it. She introduces them also to a guy called Ash, who seems to be something of a genius and believes that using the information in John Winchester's journal he can track the demon. While they wait, Dean sees a newspaper cutting about a family that were murdered in Wisconsin, the child the only survivor. They decide to check it out. The story seems to run that a clown appeared, killed the parents (tore them apart) and vanished into thin air. This is according to the girl, and Dean is dubious: perhaps the girl is just suffering from trauma and there was nothing supernatural about the killing. The girl reports she saw the clown at a carnival, and so it's to there they head first.

On the way they research and find that these sort of murders have occurred three times before, in another carnival, Bunker Brothers, in three different locations. Dean theorises that they might be dealing with a cursed object, which the carnival is taking with it when it goes. They discover that another murder has taken place; same MO, with a child left alive and saying it was a clown that did it. They wrangle jobs on the carnival and begin to investigate. They come across a little girl and her mother. The girl points and says she can see a clown but the mother says there's nothing there, and Sam and Dean know they have to act. They stake out the house, and Dean tells Sam he has found out that the owner of the circus, Cooper, originally worked for Bunker Brothers, the circus where the other murders occurred in 1981. So perhaps Cooper is the one the spirit is attached to, a person rather than an object? As they watch, the little girl opens the door of the house and invites a clown inside.

They get into the house and shoot the clown but it vanishes and they are almost taken for intruders (well, they are, technically, but you know what I mean) and have to leave in a hurry. After a phone call back to the Roadhouse they are advised by Ellen that she reckons the creature is an ancient Hindu spirit called a Rakshasha. These creatures appear in human form, eat human flesh but cannot enter a home unless invited --- rather like vampires --- and so the creature takes the form of a clown, harmless and playful in the eyes of children, and gets the kids to invite it in. The boys now revise their suspicions about Cooper, in the light of new information. Rakshashas have a very slow metabolism apparently, and must feed every thirty years or so, hence the gap in the murders since 1981. They think that maybe Cooper is the Rakshasha, Dean pointing out that back at the carnival the owner showed them a picture of a man he said was his father, but he looked exactly like Cooper, so perhaps they are one and the same person.

How to kill it though? A dagger of pure brass, it would seem, will do the trick, and Dean thinks he knows where to get one. He goes to see the blind guy they spoke to on first arriving at the carnival, who is also a knife-thrower (don't look at me like that! I didn't write this!) but it turns out that he, not Cooper, is the Rakshasha. He vanishes before Dean's eyes while Sam is being held at gunpoint by Cooper, who has found him snooping around in his trailer. They are chased by the blind man, who is now invisible, and end up in the funhouse, where Sam finds a pipe organ (shut up! I said I didn't write this! Leave me alone!) and breaks one of the pipes, causing steam to fly out which then outlines the vague shape of the Rakshasha enough for Dean to see it, call to Sam who stabs it. When the steam clears there is nothing there but an empty suit. The Rakshasha is gone.

Back at the Roadhouse, Ash shows them that he has hooked up his laptop as a sort of early-warning system. If the demon shows its face anywhere in the world, Ash will know about it. Seems the little guy has a lot more about him than the boys initially gave him credit for.

MUSIC
The Chambers Brothers: "Time has come today"

Captain and Tenille: "Do that to me one more time"

Three Dog Night: "Shambala"


PCRs
Dean smirks to Sam "Oh come on! You still burst out crying if you see Ronald MacDonald on the TV!" The annoying mascot for the equally annoying fast-food chain MacDonalds.

The "WTF??!" moment
Don't really see one here. Some surprising things happen, but none really that fit this category.

BROTHERS
In season one we learned that big, tough, macho Dean is scared of flying. Now he has his chance for revenge against Sam, as his kid brother is afraid of ... clowns. Well, isn't everyone? Sam's distaste manifests itself in various ways when they visit the carnival (who here hates them too?), watching a dwarf female clown, being tricked by Dean into sitting in a chair shaped like a clown's face, and so on. Dean obviously delights in rubbing his brother's nose in his phobia.

Sam is reconsidering his future. With the death of their father, he seems to blame himself perhaps for always going against his wishes, not joining the hunt like Dean, and it looks like he might now be intending to make up for it. He mentions that he is thinking of not going back to school, when the demon is finally dead. This has been his aim all along, and Dean is surprised to hear it, moreso when Sam says it's what their dad would have wanted. "Since when did you do anything dad wanted?" he asks. But Sam is now suffering, it would seem, under a double burden of guilt. Maybe he just wants to kill the demon, and all its allies, that were responsible, directly or indirectly, for his father's death. But maybe that won't be enough.

Dean, however, is annoyed at Sam's sudden change of heart. He rationalises that Sam is now trying to make up for all the times he went against their dad, all the arguments he had with him, and Dean just thinks it's a little late to be trying to make amends now. Of course, deep down he's probably feeling a bit guilty himself, if what his father told him is what I think it is...

Later, at the end in fact, Sam admits to Dean that he knows it's too little too late, that he does feel angry, sad and guilty that the last time he saw their father alive he had a fight with him, and accused him of being more interested in his obsession with the demon than in Dean's fight for life. Dean does not admit that he too is not allowing himself to grieve, though Sam knows it. This is underlined strongly when Dean starts smashing up his car, the one thing in this world he loves as much as his brother.

Something has got to give. And soon.

WISEGUY
Dean, whether recovered now from his near-death experience and the subsequent passing of their father, begins to show a little of the old confidence and braggado he used to display, and that we came to love him for. When Sam says they had better be damn sure that Cooper is the Rakshasha before they go stabbing him, he quips "Oh you're such a stickler for details!"

Nonetheless, the old Dean is far from back, as he pointedly does not hit on Jo, Ellen's daughter, even when she makes it clear she is quite obviously interested. He just doesn't seem to have the heart for it anymore, not at the moment anyway.

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Everybody loves a good mystery. And usually a mystery involves murder. Or disappearance. Or both. Why do we love a mystery? Well, on the most basic level I think it's a sense of perhaps gentle arrogance: we believe that we can solve the case before the detective, cop or amateur sleuth investigating it. We like to piece together the clues, work out the solution and race the protagonist to the correct conclusion. There are few feelings as satisfying as hearing the case being solved and thinking --- or saying aloud to any who will listen --- "Yep! That's what I said! Isn't that what I said? Didn't I say he/she did it?" and so on.

But this is a series which I would defy even the most accomplished armchair detective to solve. It's just something of an oddity, where everyone has something to hide and there are more red herrings than you'd find in a fishmongers. Seems the finger of suspicion swings wildly around, pointing first at this person then at that, and fooling the viewer every time. It's incredibly well-constructed and written, with more false leads and twists than likely any mystery you've ever watched or read. Even at the end, when we know who did it, there's yet another surprise, one more final twist along the curving, bending road this short series leads us down.

Shown over five weeks on BBC, "Mayday" is the story of the disappearance of the May Queen, a young girl who is well known in the town, which is never named but may be Surrey, as the series was filmed there. As it becomes clear Hattie Sutton is not coming back, the search for her intensifies as the whole community joins in, but some are more reluctant than others to help. Could they be hiding something? "Mayday" mixes elements of local folklore, pagan belief and of course police procedural with the aura of a good whodunnit and a healthy slice of paranoia and fear, pulling you this way then that, spinning you around till you're dizzy and can't even find which direction you want to walk in.

Starring two very notable actors in Spooks' Peter Firth and Love/Hate and Game of Thrones' Aiden Gillen, the series traces the lives of each of the main characters and how, if at all, they link to the disappearance of Hattie. There are some very unsavoury elements brought up during the five-episode run, and it's quite hard-hitting and uncompromising in its examination of the microcosm of English rural life, and how communities band together to protect, shield or even damn one of their own. As the story unfolds it often becomes less about Hattie and more about those who knew her, with minor dramas and subplots playing out against the backdrop of the investigation.

CAST

Hattie/Caitlin Sutton, played by Leila Mimmack: Hattie, the May Queen, disappears on May Day just before taking her place at the head of the parade, and her twin sister, Caitlin, worries that she may have very well been the last to hear from her before she vanished, as later she plays back a voicemail she received --- but ignored --- from her sister on her mobile and is sure she can hear Hattie being taken.

Linus, played by Max Fowler: Much of what happens is seen through the teenager's eyes. He is in love with Caitlin but she does not seem interested. When her sister goes missing he tries to comfort her, yet wonders if his own father may not be involved? What IS it he is keeping in the closet that he forbids Linus to see?

Malcolm, played by Peter Firth: A local businessman who is trying to develop a new housing estate in the area, Malcolm is reluctant to join the hunt for Hattie, though he is persuaded, more out of a sense of shame than anything else. Why is he so reticent?

Fiona, played by Sophie Okenodo: A local woman who used to be a police officer, but has retired in order to look after her three children. She seems to have history with Everett, Linus's father, and is married to local cop

Alan, played by Peter McDonald

Seth, played by Tom Fisher: A local man who seems to have a special relationship with the nearby forest, may be insane and is brother to

Steve, played by Sam Spruell: A local man who also has history with Hattie's family.

Everett, played by Aiden Gillen: Local lothario, an uncompromising man who spends most of his time, when not womanising, playing video games and drinking. He does his best to look after Linus after the tragic death of his wife in suspicious circumstances.

Gail, played by Lesley Manville: Long suffering wife of Malcolm, who begins to wonder if her husband is involved in the young girl's disappearance.

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2.4 "A distant star"
New character! (Sort of...) Lt. David Corwin, played by Joshua Cox, though only given small roles in this episode is slowly over time brought more to the fore, to the point at which he gets his name on the credits. He's never totally indispensable to any storyline, and there are no plots revolving about him, but he does get lifted from obscurity into almost-regular appearance territory.

The Explorer-class deep space cruiser Cortez arrives at Babylon 5 after five years in deep space, in command a good friend of Sheridan's. Franklin takes the opportunity of putting all command staff on a strict diet when he has to order Garibaldi to watch what he eats as he recovers from his gunshot wound. The security chief is not happy, as he was planning to prepare Banjacouda (sp?), an Italian fondue. But the doctor nixes that, saying the ingredients are not healthy. Captain Maynard, in charge of the Cortez, does not dismiss rumours that there may be something living in hyperspace, which most people had discounted as old spacer tales. His arrival on the station, and his questions to Sheridan about whether this is really what he wants --- he knows John always wanted to captain his own Explorer-class ship --- hit a sore spot and Sheridan is irritable and snappish. He didn't really want this job, he admits only to himself, but as he says to Maynard, when the president calls it's hard to say no.

Delenn is visited by a representative of her people, who tells her that there is concern that since she has metamorphosed into a hybrid she may not be considered one of their own. He hints that she may need to be replaced, and tells her that he will go to the Grey Council to seek their guidance. The Cortez heads back out into deep space, but an accident onboard knocks out their guidance system and they're now trapped in hyperspace, unable to lock on to the jumpgate signal. Picking up their distress call, Sheridan sends a squadron of fighters to try to locate the massive ship, but in hyperspace the normal rules of astronavigation don't apply, and it will be a long shot. With the first fighter stopping just inside the jumpgate and locking on to its beacon, the next locking on to that and so on, moving out, the Starfuries can create a kind of chain extending out into the deep well of hyperspace, with the last in line broadcasting his signal in the hope that the Cortez will pick it up and be able to follow them home.

After some time they're able to locate the huge ship's signal, but just as they make ready to bring her home one of those spider ships appears from nowhere and destroys one of the Starfuries, knocking out Keffer's inertial navigational system. With commendable intelligence, he fires his lasers in the direction of home, and the Cortez is able to lock on to the jumpgate signal and make it back to Babylon 5. Keffer, however, is stranded in hyperspace. Then the spider ship appears again and he is able to follow its flight path to make his way home. Garibaldi and Franklin settle their differences when Garibaldi explains that he makes the banjacouda in memory of his father, who used to cook it, and the two share the meal. After an interesting talk with Delenn, Sheridan realises that he's exactly where he's supposed to be, and dismisses any misgivings about his job, more comfortable now in his skin than he has been for a while.

QUOTES
Garibaldi: "One more thing: don't say anything to Doctor Franklin about this."
Orwell: "Okay but it's gonna cost you."
Garibaldi: "It's gonna cost me for you to say nothing to somebody. How much to say nothing to everybody?"
Orwell: "Oh, you couldn't afford it!"

Delenn: "Understanding is not required, only obedience."
Minbari: "To our own kind, yes. But are you our own kind any more Delenn? We have a right to know."

Ivanova: "Figures! All my life I've fought against imperialism. Now suddenly, I am the expanding Russian frontier!"
Franklin: "But with very nice borders."

Sheridan: "A friend once quoted me an ancient Egyptian blessing. God be between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk. "

Sheridan: "If the primates we came from had known that politicians would one day come out of the gene pool they'd have stayed up in the trees and written off evolution as a bad idea!"

Delenn: "The universe puts us in places where we can learn. They are never easy places, but they are right. Wherever we are, is the right place, the right time. Pain sometimes comes; it's part of the process, constantly being reborn."

IMPORTANT PLOT ARC POINTS
Spider ships
Arc Level: Red
Captain Maynard of the Cortez makes reference to "something living out in hyperspace", out beyond the Rim, and there's the definite feeling that it's something like these ships, or perhaps the huge, weird one we saw last season out by Sigma 957. Then we see the spider ships again, this time in hyperspace, twice: once one knocks out Keffer's nav, and destroys his squadron leader, then another --- or possibly the same one --- leads him home. It's clear these things, whatever they are, are becoming more frequent and also getting closer to known space.

Delenn
Arc Level: Red
Now that she has made the full transition to hybrid, Ambassador Delenn has problems among her own people, who are loath to accept her as still one of their own. There is talk that she may be removed as Minbari representative to Babylon 5, but only the Grey Council can make that decision. She tells Franklin that her people supported her going into the chrysalis and going through the transformation, but this is a lie. We saw one of the other Minbari, perhaps a Grey Council member, watch her at the beginning of the season and remark that she was supposed to wait but went ahead on her own. She of course does not want humans --- or anyone --- to know that her action was not sanctioned by her government. Such knowledge could put her diplomatic status under threat. If the Babylon Council learn that she is making unauthorised decisions, not only will they find it hard to trust her but they may butt heads with the Grey Council, who do after all contribute to the funding of the station.

She seems very interested in the new commander, talking with him in the garden, as she did Sinclair in the pilot episode, although of course she did look much different. And she knew who he was, and the hidden history between them. Sheridan she does not know, but she has supreme faith in the universe, and believes he has been sent here for a reason. She is already starting to look and act more human than Minbari, smiling and batting her eyelashes where in season one she was mostly cold and aloof, as most of her people are. This change will only deepen as the seasons proceed, but Delenn will never be anything less than a true Minbari, as we shall see.

ABSENT FRIENDS
Neither G'Kar nor Londo are in this episode at all, not even mentioned. Lennier is not in it either, even though Delenn is.

2.5 "The long dark"

A ship out of Earth's distant past arrives at Babylon 5. Launched over a hundred years ago, it is an old exploration ship and carries one living passenger, a woman.There was another, a male, but it's been established that he was murdered, and with only one other occupant of the ship, Mariah Cirrus is suspect numero uno. Garibaldi talks to a lurker, Amos, who is having horrific visions, and realises the man was in the war, just like him, and is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. When the girl regains consciousness Franklin becomes involved with her. Amos tells Garibaldi that there is something evil onboard, a "soldier of darkness" that has come on the ship. Londo scoffs but G'Kar is interested. The aliens want Mariah removed from the station, telling Sheridan that she has brought the evil here.

Garibaldi discovers that something similar attacked Amos when he was stationed on a moon that was supposed to be dead, during the war. It killed his comrades, but kept him alive, feeding on him. Now the security chief wonders if that connection can help Amos lead them to the alien monster? Franklin finds that Mariah has had dreams --- or she thinks they're dreams --- in which she felt that something was keeping her alive, feeding on her during her voyage. This sounds too close to what Amos was talking about. Garibaldi asks Mariah if she can find the creature --- Amos has gone missing --- and with her help they track it down and finally kill it.

Mariah leaves for Earth, to mourn her dead husband and try to catch up on a hundred years' lost time, while Ivanova tells Sheridan that they have determined from the ship's logs that the alien had reset its course towards the Rim, a course that would have taken it directly to Zha'dum.

QUOTES
Amos: "I've found that life is, in general, much easier if I forget most of the things that happen to me."

Garibaldi: "You were about to accuse the Centauri ambassador of being in league with the devil. Which might not be far from the truth."

Garibaldi: "You were standing in the middle of the plaza yelling that the Day of Judgement was coming."
Amos: "Did it?"
Garibaldi: "Not that I know, but I may have missed a staff meeting."

Garibaldi: "Nasty way to die!"
Sheridan: "Last I checked there weren't too many good ways."

G'Kar (to Mariah): "Take my advice and go back to the time you came from. The future is not what it used to be."

Ivanova: "You got a plan?"
Sheridan: "Just try not to get killed."
Ivanova: "Brilliant!"

Sheridan: "Something's going on, Commander."
Ivanova: "I know. And between you and me, it's scaring the hell out of me."

IMPORTANT PLOT ARC POINTS
Storm Warning
Arc Level: Red
There's surely more than coincidence in the fact that this creature, called a "soldier of darkness", was heading towards the exact spot G'Kar had said was being used by the ancient enemy once again as their base, where the darkness was gathering its forces? Perhaps all evil things are being attracted towards the nexus of evil. And with Elric's dire and cryptic warning from last episode ringing in our ears, can we doubt he was telling the truth?

ABSENT FRIENDS
Again, neither Delenn nor Lennier are in this episode at all, despite there being a meeting of the Babylon Council.

SKETCHES
Now that we're getting into the second season and starting to learn a little more about the characters, I'd like to open this new section in which I'll draw basic sketches of the people most associated with the series, and add to their personality profile as the episodes and seasons go on.

Dr. Stephen Franklin
We've already seen in season one's "Believers", the first really Franklin-centric episode, how the doctor can be arrogant to the point of believing himself infallible, and how hard he takes that when it turns out he is wrong, and someone pays the price. We've also seen in the previous season his first real love interest, when he hooked up in "The quality of mercy". That episode, too, has linked back into this season, as he hit upon the idea of using the alien machine to revive Garibaldi when all else seemed to be failing.

Now we see him again involved, but this time with a patient. However, like most doctors he is uncomfortable about getting romantic with a patient. It's unethical, it's complicated and the old transferrance of affection thing can always be expected to be in play: a doctor saves your life and is kind to you and you form an affection, even love for them. But it's not true love, more a sense of gratitude and the belief that you should love them. So when it looks like he's falling for Mariah Franklin pulls away, declaring that it is not a good idea at this point, and she agrees. Later however, when she is recovered and therefore no longer his patient, he tries to move the relationship on, but by then Mariah is too overwhelmed with what she has gone through, and just needs time. Ironic, really, as she has just slept for a century.

We've seen his harsher, more authoritarian side, in the last episode, where he demanded everyone go on a diet and monitored that, but then in the same episode he softens when he learns what the dessert means to Garibaldi and in the end shares it with him, enjoying it and realising that sometimes it's not all about regulations. Franklin will always be first and foremost a doctor --- when he suggests using the alien machine on Garibaldi he's prepared to risk his own well-being, health and perhaps life to bring him back. He says he could hardly ask anyone to do something he himself is not prepared to do. This is another thing about Stephen Franklin. Though not by any stretch my favourite character in the series --- close to my least favourite, actually --- he is a man of principles, bravery and a man of action. He is a thinker, but he is also a doer. He has spoken of his ethics before, by telling Delenn that he refused to hand over his research of xenobiology to be weaponised, and he is primarily a healer, a man of peace. The coming years though, will change all of that.

Note: It's seldom that one writer, never mind the creator of a series, pens all the episodes but with a very few exceptions this is what happened with Babylon 5. This, then, is one of a very small handful of episodes that is not written by JMS.

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Episode One

In the opening scene we see Hattie Sutton cycle by, dressed as the May Queen, while at least three men, all of whom we will meet shortly, watch her with various possible intentions in their eyes. Some weird Morris-like dancers approach and surround her, but she doesn’t seem threatened and continues on her way. A man dressed like a tree raises his hat and smiles at her as she passes, but when she has gone by his eyes narrow. The next scene is her bike by the side of the road, abandoned, and a long shot into the forest. We see snatches of a girl being pursued.

A woman visits the vet, concerned that her dog is too fat. The vet feels it odd that the woman, Gail Spicer, tells her that her husband, Malcolm, walks the dog every evening, two hours into the woods. She says if Duke were getting this sort of exercise he would not be overweight. Linus, a local teenager watches Caitlin, Hattie's twin sister, making out with some other guy, laying plans to wait till she is older and then marry her. Fiona, a retired police officer, finds the abandoned bike but thinks little of it. Steve, a local man, rushes to stop the festivities from beginning: the May Queen has not turned up yet.

Returning home, Gail finds her husband moping over a huge scale mockup of a village, and challenges him over the alleged dogwalking. He however tells her it’s Duke’s diet that is at fault: she is feeding him on pate, too rich for a dog. Linus returns home, having been chased by local bullies, to find his father, Everett, locking a heavy bag in a cupboard, and being very secretive about it. It becomes pretty clear now that Hattie has disappeared and the police are called. Fiona finds her husband at home, taking a shower and very agitated, angry even. Steve’s brother, Seth, who has some mental problems, wants to go back to the woods, where he intends to stay, being happier there than in the council house he is being encouraged to live in.

Steve goes to visit Hattie’s father, and promises to roundup everyone to help search for the missing girl. It seems he has history with the family. Meanwhile Fiona’s husband, Alan, who is also a cop, storms out of the door. Gail decides to take Duke for “a proper walk”, but when Malcolm realises she’s going to the woods he seems perturbed. Fiona finds blood on her husband’s discarded clothes and sets about washing them. In the forest Duke pulls Gail off-course, towards a structure obviously erected by her husband, a bird hide. From the amount of cigarette butts on the ground around it she realises that this is where he has been spending his time. But what has be been doing? There are ribbons hung up, and dismembered parts of dolls --- heads, arms, legs --- and when she picks up a butt she confirms it is Malcolm’s brand.

Back home she tackles him, and he admits that he goes to the woods to watch birds. It’s clear he’s a man under pressure and has things on his mind about which he has no intention of talking to his wife. Linus meanwhile has his own suspicions, as his father speaks about Hattie in what seems to be a more familiar way than the boy expected; he doesn’t even remember Everett speaking to Hattie, never mind her confiding her deepest fears to him. Asked out on the search, Malcolm refuses to help. Point blank, refuses. Gail however forces him to rethink, afraid of the stigma it will place on the family. Or is it just that?

Seth, meanwhile, remains in the woods and beats a drum, seemingly performing some sort of pagan ritual. The search party break into the home of a listed sex offender living in the area and Steve roughs him up, but Malcolm pulls him away: they have no evidence the man is involved and this is not helping. But the search party is becoming more of a lynch mob as tempers flare and frustrations grow, and when they head into the local kebab shop and find Alan there Steve makes a snide remark about the police not being bothered about finding Hattie. Very brave with about twenty men at his back, indeed.

The search progresses into the woods. Malcolm is the expert on the area, but intentionally leads them astray, away from his hide. It surely wouldn’t look good for him were they to find his little area of the woods, realise he hangs out here and then maybe think back to his initial reluctance to help. In Fiona’s house, we briefly see the shadow of a large figure (Seth?) before the daughter cries out, and a window opening as the intruder runs away. Linus goes to talk to Caitlin, and the tragedy begins to draw them a little closer. She tells him that being Hattie’s twin she knows her sister is dead, even though no body has been recovered yet. Linus talks about his own mother, and says he sees her at certain crisis points in his life, despite her being dead: almost as if she is watching over him.

Going into her husband’s study while he is out searching, Gail notices that the pictures of people protesting against the village Malcolm was developing, and of which all is left now is the huge model, include some of Hattie, and begins to worry. She wants to get into Malcolm’s computer but has not the password. He refuses to give it to her, making her even more suspicious that he is hiding something. In the woods the party find a fire, not too long stamped out, and a crown of flowers, which may or may not belong to the missing girl. Alan returns home, says he needs to talk to Fiona. He tells her tried to help a girl who may have been raped, and she spat blood at him. This, then, it would seem, is the blood she found on his shirt.

Linus talks more about the death of his mother. He doesn’t remember much, as he was very young when it happened. On returning to the house he sees his father is asleep and snags the key to the cupboard, opening it and dragging out the mysterious bag. Just as he is about to look inside though Everett looms over him, punching him and fuming at him for disobeying him. He quickly locks the closet again. In the forest, Steve, alone, yells out for Seth, who is hiding in a tree. Gail looks closer at the village model, and is dismayed to find that one of the figurines that people the model is hanging from one of the trees.

QUOTES
Gail: “People will think we don’t care!”
Malcolm: “I don’t care!”

Steve: “Seth! Seth! What have you done?”
Seth (in tree): “You know what I’ve done.”

Searcher: “I used to think you were a bastard but now I see I was wrong.”
Malcolm: “You weren’t wrong. I’m a complete bastard. A few hours in the woods isn’t going to change that.”

Gail: “What do you need privacy for, anyway?”
Malcolm: “I need to think.”
Gail: “About what?”
Malcolm: “Everything.”

Hattie’s father: “The police keep looking in the house. Upstairs, like she’s suddenly going to pop up from behind the water tank or something!”

SUSPECTS

Already, even though this is only episode one, some very clear suspects are beginning to emerge. But unless they all did it, or had a hand in it, who is the real culprit? Much of what I enjoyed about “Mayday” was the fact that virtually everyone had something to hide, and though in nine out of ten cases that wasn’t abduction/murder, there are some pretty dark stories to be revealed over the course of the next four episodes.

Malcolm: Surely the number one suspect? Why was he so reluctant to join the search? What exactly was he doing in the woods? And, most damning of all, why has he arranged one of his little figures in his mock village in a hanged posture? Earlier, when his wife is badgering him to go out and help look for Hattie, he calls her (Hattie that is) a little bitch. Why? Has he some experience of her? But then again, yes he has: she is someone we find out who was instrumental in the opposition to his building development, which is now in tatters.

Alan: Why was he in the shower, and why was he so impatient with his wife when she pressed him on it? Why would he not let her come in? Whose blood is that really on his clothes? Do we believe his somewhat fanciful story of a girl spitting blood at him? Fiona obviously thinks there’s more to it, as she’s very quick to make sure the clothes are washed, almost as if she feels he may have something to hide, and she intends to help him do so. traehllorT dluow ekil And why isn’t he, as Fiona’s husband and a neighbour, out helping look for Hattie? Steve challenges him on it obliquely, and yes he’s a copper and is tired, with men on the case. But why isn’t he going the extra mile?

Seth: Another major suspect. He’s a big man, seemingly with a low IQ or at least a feeble grasp of reality. He seems to prefer to live out in the woods, and we’ve already seen hints that Hattie was chased into there. Did he see what happened? Or is he in fact the one who took her, perhaps murdered her? What is the ritual he is performing in the forest, and what does he mean when he mutters “You know what I’ve done”? Is that Hattie’s garland found near the fire, the fire he built, or even his own? We’ve seen him at the start wearing one just before the May Queen disappeared. And he obviously has mental issues, as Steve tells him that he has worked hard to get him a house, and he must try to live in it.

Everett: He’s definitely hiding something. What is the bag in the cupboard that he won’t let Linus see, and protects to the degree that he hits his son when he tries to look at it? How did his wife die? Is Everett a serial killer? Why does he not join in the search, and how is it that he professes to know so much about a girl he has, to his son’s knowledge, hardly ever spoken to, if at all?

Linus: Can we discount the troubled teenager? Sure he looks weedy but then we’re talking about a “sweet, innocent girl” here. And he obviously has frustrated feelings for Hattie’s twin. Is it possible he has kidnapped her in order to live out some sick fantasy, wherein he pretends she is Caitlin? Hey don’t knock it: stranger things have happened!

Steve: Although he leads the search party, he’s very keen to place the blame anywhere he can, so you would have to wonder if, given the hinted-at history he has with the Suttons, this guy has something more to hide, and is trying to throw off suspicion from himself? Don’t they say the killer/abductor/rapist always inserts themselves into the search?

SMALL TOWN, SMALL MINDS
If there’s one thing you can be guaranteed about a small close-knit community, it is that they have secrets that they share with nobody, and they don’t look kindly on outsiders. Racism rears its ugly head here, and bigotry too. Okay, so a resident is known to be a sex offender, but Steve has no right to barge into his house and accuse him of abducting Hattie: he’s not the police. Similarly, when the owner of the kebab shop offers to help them search when he has closed up, his offer is waved away dismissively and almost rudely by Steve. When the guy then offers to give them free food though, Steve is the first to increase his order, without so much as a thank-you. In fact, I’d say the self-styled leader of the search team is only one step away from considering the shop owner a suspect because, you know, he’s a foreigner, not one of us, never trusted him etc.

It’s no secret though that Malcolm Spicer has an axe to grind with Hattie, as she publicly stood in the way of the development of the village, something Spicer seems to have sunk all his money and hopes into, and which is now either foundering or dead entirely. One of the guys on the search party praises him for helping with the search, despite the fact that the girl they seek has been a thorn in his side and stood in the way of his plans, and indeed Steve initially when looking for Malcolm’s help says he will understand if Spicer does not want to, given the history of the two families. When it comes down to it though, and Malcolm refuses, Steve calls him selfish and can’t believe he won’t lend a hand, being the man who knows the woods best. Seems in Steve's world, you're either with him, or you're against him.

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2.3 "Bloodlust"

Investigating a series of murders in Red Lodge, Montana, (also cattle mutilations, though the sheriff refuses to see any connection between the two) Dean and Sam uncover evidence that the town may be host to vampires. One of the victims, a girl, has a set of retractable fangs. They meet up with another hunter, called Gordon, but he seems to know all about the vampire infestation and is protective of his hunt; he doesn't want any help. Though he says it's an honour to meet the boys: their reputation --- their reputation, apart from their father's --- seems to be growing. However they are not that easily put off, and follow him to his next kill, saving him when the vampire pins him down. The duo are now, for the moment, a trio.

For some reason, Sam doesn't take to the guy, acting all suspicious and edgy. He leaves and goes back to the motel while Gordon tells Dean about his sister, who was taken by a vampire. That was how he got started in the hunting game. Sam talks to Ellen, who warns him not to ally with Gordon. She knows him, he's a good hunter but he's bad news. She says he's best left alone to his hunts. He goes to buy a drink, and on the way back to the motel room he is jumped and knocked out. When he comes to he is, not surprisingly, the captive of vampires, but one of them, a female, who appears to be their leader, says they will not hurt him. Lenore tells him that they do not drink human blood, only animal (hence the cattle deaths); it's not perfect and in fact they hate it but it keeps them off the radar of hunters like him and Dean. It's a survival mechanism, a compromise they've had to embrace in order not to be hunted down.

Lenore tells Sam that the vampires are leaving town tonight, and they just want to be left alone. She asks him not to hunt them, and to prove her sincerity she lets him go. When he tells Dean about what he has heard his brother is naturally sceptical. He also doesn't seem to care: "If it's supernatural we kill it," he says, "end of story". But Sam is not convinced. Just because something is supernatural, he tells Dean, does not mean it's evil, and they hunt evil, not everything they can't explain. He tells Dean also that he can see what's happening here: his brother has latched on to the older, more experienced hunter as a father figure, a sort of surrogate for John Winchester. Dean ia annoyed but deep down he knows Sam is right. Sam tells him Ellen warned them off Gordon but Dean will not listen.

They realise too late that Gordon must have been listening to their conversation, and as Sam has described pretty closely how to get to the nest --- even though he was blindfolded he was able to note details of the journey --- the hunter must have gone after the vampires. Dean wants to help but Sam convinces him they should stop him. Gordon meanwhile paralyses Lenore with Dead Man's Blood, and then sets about torturing her to get her to reveal the location of the rest of the vampires. When Dean and Sam see how unnecessarily cruel he is being, bordering on psychotic, they begin to wonder. Dean tries to reason with him, says he understands about the vampire who killed his sister, but Gordon sneers that the vampire didn't kill his sister; it turned her, and he killed her, without a second thought.

Now the boys know Gordon is out of control. He knows about Lenore and her crew not drinking human blood, but he doesn't care. To him, all vampires are evil and it's just an excuse to keep killing. He then says he'll prove that vampires can't change their nature. He slashes Sam with the knife he was about to use to despatch Lenore, and drags him towards her, forcing the bloody arm in front of her. He drips the blood onto her tongue and her fangs extend, Gordon crows in triumph, but Lenore shakes her head, retracts her fangs and turns away. Seeing the proof that she is trying to avoid human blood, Sam helps her get away while Dean fights Gordon, eventually knocking him out and leaving him tied up.

As they take in this new information, Dean now worries if what they have been doing, their cause, their mission, is morally right? What if some of the things they killed did not deserve to die? How blurred the line between good and evil has become, and how black and white have melded together into a very fuzzy grey, a border the boys are going to have to perhaps consider more carefully from now on before crossing over it.

MUSIC
AC/DC: "Back in black"

Journey: "Wheel in the sky"


PCRs
None in this episode

BROTHERS
Whatever misunderstandings they may have, how much they may fall out, even now in the aftermath of their father's death, Dean and Sam look out for each other. After taking out his frustrations on the car last episode, Dean has rebuilt it and is much happier. There are of course sitll tensions between them: Dean has always seen Sam as somewhat less committed to the cause than he is, not least because he came late to the fight and is younger, but also because he's a "college boy", and Dean harbours a sneaking contempt for those better educated than him. He thinks that often Sam thinks too much when he should be just diving in like Dean. So the revelation that these particular vampires are not drinking human blood, and its acceptance by his brother sets Dean's teeth on edge. He can't believe it as easily as Sam, and he thinks his kid brother is being fooled.

But there's more behind it. Deep down, some part of Dean must scream that this cannot, must not be true! If it is, then the boys must question every time they've killed a supernatural being, from Reapers to phantoms, and wonder if they did the right thing, or was it just instinct, instinct which may have been based on a false premise. In an epiphany similar to what we saw in "Angel", the "Buffy" spinoff show, Dean wonders if maybe not everything that is supernatural is evil? If that's the case, they have a lot of cold hard thinking to do. sih sdneirf, dna But if it is the case, then Sam is right, and that must bug Dean as much: that his brother was prepared to allow for the possibility, whereas Dean --- good old straight-talking, straight-shooting, gung-ho Dean --- couldn't even think of such a thing.

Still, when Sam is threatened by Gordon Dean turns his gun on him, and in the end he sees that Sam was right, and helps him to "rescue" Lenore and allow her to escape. But more than that: Dean surely must see in Gordon a vision of how he himself might become --- might already be --- a savage, unprincipled, sadistic killer whose only goal is to kill things. Gordon killed his own sister, and now perhaps he's out for revenge, but it looks like he's just got the bloodlust of the title of this episode and can't stop, or doesn't want to. Rather interesting and surprising too, that in an episode with such a title and being about vampires, it's in fact the human who is the focus of the lust for blood, not the creatures of the night. The chances are that in another life he might have been a serial killer --- the instinct is there --- but being a hunter allows him to indulge his psychopathic predilections without any fear of consequences or punishment. Dean wonders has he really become like Gordon?

CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
Vampires, again, plead for the basic right to existence. As we saw in season one, they seem to be willing to coexist with humans, though Luther and his clan don't swear off human blood. Even so, it's becoming apparent that at least some vampires know that to attract the attention of hunters is suicide, and it's much easier to keep a low profile. Even Luther rages that bringing Dean and Sam to their nest will only result in others finding it too. But in that season one episode, John was not preapred to listen to the somewhat plaintive cry of Luther, shooting him dead instead. Here, his sons seriously consider the proposal, and eventually act on it, leaving them with something of a conundrum to sort out, and a big spanner thrown in the works of their mission, which up till now has been crystal clear and unchallenged.

The ARC of the matter
Not really any arc stuff in this episode, although it's likely that since they didn't kill him, Gordon will be back. Whether or not he ties into the arc is something we will have to see. But this episode, like the last one, is pretty much self-contained. There is a shift in the boys' worldview of course, which is important and will impact future episodes, down the line.

2.4 "Children shouldn't play with dead things"

On a visit to their mother's grave, the first time the boys have ever been there, and with considerable resistance from Dean, Sam buries their father's dogtags in the soil and tells his mother that he reckons his dad would have wanted her to have them. On the way out Dean accosts him about the grave of a young girl, around which all the grass has died in a perfect circle, which he thinks is a bit odd. As no pesticide was used on the ground around the grave, what would make every living thing die in a perfect circle around it? Unholy ground? Dean is convinced there's a case to be answered, but Sam thinks he's just avoiding their mother's grave. He goes with him nevertheless when they visit the girl's father, a professor at her school who teaches ancient Greek.

Unable to find out anything that helps them, Dean has a row with Sam who says he's inventing a hunt in order to avoid having to go near their mother's grave. Dean storms out and goes to break in to the apartment that Angela, the girl who died, apparently in a road accident, occupied, but her room mate is there. After calming her down, Dean finds out that Angela's boyfriend, Matt, killed himself last night by cutting his own throat, and that before that he had been saying that he had seen Angela everywhere he looked. Dean begins to think he is actually on to something now. When he tells Sam what he has found out, his brother has to admit that maybe something is going on. Doesn't mean Dean isn't avoiding facing the grave, but rather than just a coping mechanism or a distraction, this so-called hunt he is working on seems like it might be real.

Dean says he visited the boyfriend's house and everything living there is dead --- plants, even goldfish --- but that reading Angela's diary, which he stole, she does not seem the vengeful type. If anything, he says she seems "too nice". While interviewing her friend, Neil, they discover that Matt was inadvertently responsible for Angela's death, as he had cheated on her and upset her. Perhaps if that's the case then Angela's revenge is over, but to be sure Dean thinks they should burn her bones. The fact that she's only a week dead, and they'll have to burn the whole corpse, doesn't seem to faze him as it does Sam. But they go anyway and open her grave. The coffin is empty.

They find strange symbols on the side of the coffin, which Dean recognises as being similar to the ones in the book in the professor's office. They go to talk to him again, virtually accuse him of using necromancy to bring back his daughter --- the symbols were used in ancient rituals to bring back the dead: "full on zombie action!" as Dean puts it --- but he genuinely does not seem to know what they are talking about. He throws them out. Meanwhile, Angela has returned and met up with Neil, and they kiss. When the guys read Angela's diary they realise that if the professor really didn't bring her back, then maybe Neil did. They break into his house and find the basement, with dead plants confirming that this is where the resurrected girl has been staying, but both she and Neil are gone.

When they work out where she has gone, they end up in the home of Lindsey and Angela, the guys having figured out that Lindsey was more broken up about Matt's death than her roommate, so must have been the girl Matt was cheating with. They find Angela there and shoot her with silver, but she gets away. They head to Neil's office, where they tell him they know everything. He tries to misdirect them but they realise Angela is hiding in the cupboard when they see the dead plants. Hatching a plan, they make up a ritual and say they have to get back to the cemetery to perform it. This is partially true: the lore on killing zombies is so confused that they're not sure what is real and what is Hollywood. The silver helped but did not kill Angela --- well, re-kill her --- and now they believe their best hope lies in returning her to her grave and basically staking her into the ground. But to get her there they have to play this elaborate game.

It works. When they've gone, Angela makes Neil take her back to her grave, intending to stop, ie kill the guys, but they are ready for her. She has already killed Neil, believing he was going to leave her, and after a short fight they manage to get her into the grave and pin her there with a long metal stake. She screams, shudders and is still. It's finally over.

On the way out of town Dean stops the car and reveals to Sam that he knows, or suspects, that he's the reason their dad died. He thinks maybe the demon was involved, but he knows that there's no way he could have made that "miraculous" recovery unaided. Surely he remembers the Reaper being possessed by the demon and telling him it was his lucky day? He now thinks that he's just like Angela: what was dead should stay dead. He was as good as dead, and he should not have been brought back. His father --- their father --- paid the price for his survival, return, call it what you will, and Dean now carries the guilt of that, to add to all the other burdens he hauls around with him. Sam is unable to say anything to comfort him, because he knows that the chances are that what he says is all true. It's far too much of a coincidence that just as Dean recovered --- miraculously --- John died, and he knows their father exchanged his life for Dean's.

And there's really nothing you can say about that.

MUSIC
None

PCRS
Dean snarls to Dr. Mason "Haven't you seen Pet Semetary?" The Stephen King book and later movie about reanimated corpses.

Dean says to Sam "Dude, you've been watching too many Romero flicks!" George Romero, famed director of zombie movies such as "Dawn of the dead" and "Evil dead".

WISEGUY
Even with, or perhaps because of, all the tension between he and Sam, Dean can still manage a wisecrack, and when they see Angela is gone from the basement and Sam asks if Dean thinks she has gone after someone, he quips "Nah, she's probably just gone to rent "Beaches"!"

Again, after they shoot her and she legs it: "Damn! That dead chick can run!"

BROTHERS
Sam worries about Dean. His obsession with this hunt, his refusal to believe it's nothing, his avoidance of their mother's grave, it's all building to something, and though he is in the end right about Angela, it all comes pouring out of him at the end of the episode, when he reveals that he feels responsible for their father's death. He isn't dealing, because he can't deal. How can you accept the fact that your father died in your place? How can he feel any different to the zombie Angela, coming back from the dead when she should have been resting in her coffin? That's where Dean believes --- knows --- he should be now. He wasn't meant to be saved: as the Reaper told him, it was his time, and he should have died. But his father did something, made some deal, and Dean lived while he died.

Sam can offer no words of encouragement, because he surely suspects all this is true. He is concerned though, prior to the outburst, that Dean is just lashing out, looking for something to kill, something to take his frustrations out on. Which he is. He almost attacks the professor when he mistakenly thinks the girl's father has brought back his daughter, and Sam has to pull him away before they're arrested. He's seen how Dean was with Gordon, and does not want his brother to end up like him, a bitter, twisted, sadistic killer who glories not only in the hunt but in the kill, and asks no questions as to whether it's justified or not.

The ARC of the matter
Again, nothing specific, though the idea of John Winchester sacrificing himself for his boy is again brought up and into the light, and will in fact prove pivotal to part of the story arc later.

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