This episode I actually enjoyed a lot more. It mainly concerns the emotional aftermath of the previous episode's climactic events, but we also see the conspiracy take an unexpected turn, a potential escalation of the conflict, and there's a dramatic stand-off to round it off.
It's confirmed that Ibrahim did die, and only Barclay has survived the bomb detonation - saved by Salt who enveloped him in an air pocket and rushed him to the surface.
There she is imprisoned by UNIT as a video has been released, purporting to be from her, claiming responsibility for the bomb deaths. Barclay has formed a strange attachment to her, and she to him, and so he goes rogue and breaks her out of containment, and the pair go on the run.
Kate meanwhile struggles to hold it together emotionally following the loss of Ibrahim.
The twist in the conspiracy is that the events of last week had nothing to do with them at all - or at least not all of them. Some organisation linked to Sir Keith hired both the assassin and the guy with the bomb - and the US General, Gunsberg, has Sir Keith assassinated, with the murder made to look like it was committed by some extreme environmental group.
Gunsberg and General Dussolier have their own plan - codenamed "Severance" - which the PM is now part of. This appears to be some sort of virus they plan to unleash which will target Homo Aqua - hence the theft by them of some DNA in the second episode.
It needs to be tested first, and Gunsberg wants Salt for this.
Also after her are her own people. A new ambassador arrives at the conference centre - a male named Tide. He explains that because Salt saved Barclay, but not any of her own kind, it means that she's now a wanted criminal - so Kate has a deadline to produce her before he escalates the war. This will involve utilising rust as a weapon.
A large part of the episode is then spent watching the relationship between Salt and Barclay develop into romance and beyond...
It's another relationship I can't quite believe. We're told constantly of Homo Aqua's disdain for the human race, and Salt is their ambassador who's just implemented the dropping of millions of tons of plastic waste on the world's cities, yet she's quick to get it on with a member of this destructive, inferior species - and he's happy to reciprocate. Doesn't sit right.
Barclay thinks that he might be able to negotiate with Kate but they need to get out of London first, and so he arranges to collect his ex-wife's car. UNIT find out about this, and the suggestion is that his daughter informed on him.
And this is where the stand-off comes in, as UNIT close in from one side of Lambeth Bridge and the British Army from the other, for Gunsberg has talked the PM into giving him control over them.
Barclay is captured but Salt dives into the Thames after disabling all the pursuers with a shrill cry...
And that's where we are at, with only a single - slightly longer - instalment to go. It's written by RTD, and recent experience shows that he knows how to blow an ending...
Still no explanation for Salt's gender change. There was an image of the male Homo Aqua in the pre-publicity and I thought that this might have been her in male form - but Tide is very much a different character. She and he are the only ones of this sub-species we've seen, but I don't know if that's significant or not.
If you're wondering what any of the above have to do with witches or waterfalls, then the answer is they don't. The title simply comes from a line by Salt.
No comments:
Post a Comment