The episode starts with a nice moment between Stephen and Marla of the kind that's been sorely lacking, followed by a good reinstatement of the Founder and Hillary's plotting.Unfortunately, things go to hell with John and Cara's childish inability to understand human emotion, with Cara trying to keep Roger away from his family and John taking his shirt off for no apparent reason, getting into a fight and generally sulking.Meanwhile, John's lies cause the Tomorrow People to go into open rebellion(well, one speaking character we've never seen before and a few extras)but...didn't that happen half a season ago?Why is this happening now?And the back story thrown in with scant regard to continuity doesn't help.(What, Roger established the lair now?Wasn't John still with Ultra when he "died"?How did he wind up leader?)
The domestic scenes with the Jamesons drag on a bit long after they've been neglected for most of the series but things kick into high gear once Roger and Jedikiah do some digging and decide on a raid to destroy the Machine.Jedikiah's been softened a bit too much and the plotting isn't holding up very well.(Okay, you can kill humans if time's been stopped.But if, as the test footage shows, you need to kill them one at a time, or at least have a paranormal in the vicinity to disintegrate them, that doesn't seem very practical.And why is Natalie so obsessed with getting to the Founder's other-plain-of-reality Refuge if the world's about to be depopulated?)But there's some nice actions sequences until John makes a poor choice that has consequences(although it's not entirely clear what those consequences are), while in a neat parallel Russell also puts his head on the block to try and protect the pro-Ultra TPs.
Meanwhile, Hillary's torn loyalties come to a head, through some nice interaction with Astrid that show how Stephen is changing everyone for the better.It's not entirely clear why the Founder's treatment of John is what tips her over the edge but the result is her turning suicide bomber.Stephen's sudden appearance outside the Founder's office when he's just openly opposed Ultra is a bit of a "Huh?" moment but that's a nice explosion all the same.
The domestic scenes with the Jamesons drag on a bit long after they've been neglected for most of the series but things kick into high gear once Roger and Jedikiah do some digging and decide on a raid to destroy the Machine.Jedikiah's been softened a bit too much and the plotting isn't holding up very well.(Okay, you can kill humans if time's been stopped.But if, as the test footage shows, you need to kill them one at a time, or at least have a paranormal in the vicinity to disintegrate them, that doesn't seem very practical.And why is Natalie so obsessed with getting to the Founder's other-plain-of-reality Refuge if the world's about to be depopulated?)But there's some nice actions sequences until John makes a poor choice that has consequences(although it's not entirely clear what those consequences are), while in a neat parallel Russell also puts his head on the block to try and protect the pro-Ultra TPs.
Meanwhile, Hillary's torn loyalties come to a head, through some nice interaction with Astrid that show how Stephen is changing everyone for the better.It's not entirely clear why the Founder's treatment of John is what tips her over the edge but the result is her turning suicide bomber.Stephen's sudden appearance outside the Founder's office when he's just openly opposed Ultra is a bit of a "Huh?" moment but that's a nice explosion all the same.
