EARTH 2-THE ENEMY WITHIN and REDEMPTION

 

EARTH 2-THE ENEMY WITHIN and REDEMPTION

 

If EARTH 2 was great before, it’s …well, greater in these two episodes. Julia’s story continues with her finding a way to appease Reilly…by injecting herself with Uly’s DNA and at the same time, this affects her…by making her desperate for a listening voice so she turns to Morgan who basically rejects her and gets drugged unconscious after she tackles him! At the same time, she doesn’t remember events including leaving Morgan out in the woods or having kissed Alonzo and then left him! She also chases True who twice caught her talking to Reilly. The whole thing really hits the fan when she’s questioned and I must admit the whole fight with Devon, physically, made me angry and it made me even angrier that they’d kill off Devon as she plunged over a cliff! But it was a fake. It was all on VR and I don’t know how I feel about that now. I guess they needed to inject more action into it. The end, with them leaving Julia alone in the woods with a tent…is chilling. This time around Devon made me cry as she didn’t want to leave Julia but it was a group vote. You can tell she wanted to forgive Julia…which is where the next episode excels…

 

REDEMPTION has Alonzo going back to get Julia (the tent looks like a different one) and forgiving her (though Morgan calls it, “following is sword,” crudely). The others come round because…something is shooting at them and injures both Yale…and later Alonzo with almost living bore bullets, a horrible ammo and weapon that bores into someone for an hour while the thing that shot them questions them and then…it explodes!

 

The thing about this is that the ZED (Zero Emotional Deficits) is inspired. Played by the wonderful, creepy, and scary Jeff Kober is one thing but the back story of them being sociopathic killer soldiers, three of which could wipe out a mining community of hundreds in one day…is a great threat for our mostly peaceful band of travelers. I love Devon’s leadership here and her contact with Danziger, who went off alone to scout ahead, is wonderful. Clancy Brown during the torture scenes and the later scenes when Julia, his wrist broken by the ZED, has to instruct Devon on how to remove the living bomb bullet from him, is just fantastic in his non-super heroic real man gestures and responses (“Oh no!”). He tries to remain brave but who would here. Julia’s fooling the ZED and giving Reilly his comeuppance (well, sort of) is also amazingly satisfying. I also love that Reilly gets to meet John, Alonzo and Devon after the whole ZED thing is taken care of. There are more ZEDs on the planet, too!

 

If there is one flaw, it’s why the ZED attacks the base first, then holds Dangizer for questioning, then attacks the base again? He could take them all at once but I guess it has to do with this gathering of info for the Council, which Morgan figures out there must be a reason for an hour wait between the time of impact and the time the bullet kills a victim.

 

I also really like the forgiveness of Julia angle here, something not played up in shows. This was a great storyline and arc and it remains to be seen if the show can give us more (it can and does).

 

Two great episodes. I mean really great.