Friday, August 1, 2014

Dominion 1.06: “Black Eyes Blue”

“You keep telling me I’m destined to lead. to save mankind and here I am capable of helping this one possessed soul. I can’t accept that.”
- Alex

Things are finally getting interesting and Alex is becoming far less whiny and irritating. He’s spared Claire’s mother but told people she’s dead (and Rysen seems to think it so as well). Michael is royally pissed that Alex has kept her alive and he’s even less thrilled that Alex wants to try an eviction. Alex is adamant about saving her since Claire had such little time with her mother. Michael doesn’t think Alex can do it and it’s apparently very dangerous to try. And they’re going to need a book from Uriel to even attempt it. Michael tries to bribe her with art but she really wants a gander at Alex’s tattoos. I really like what they’re doing with Uriel. She’s so devious and interesting. We also lean that there have been angel possessions for thousands of years, what humans assumed were demonic. Alex points out that the book is faded and maybe that’s why no one has succeeded in evicting an angel from a human body. So now if he wants to save Claire’s mom, he’s going to need to figure out what the prayer is.

Speaking of Claire, she found the music box her mother was trying to leave as a wedding present and Rysen claims it as his own gift (well Claire assumes it was him and he doesn’t contradict him). Unfortunately, her little blackmail attempt in the prior episode didn’t seem to stick because heel is going ahead with the no confidence vote in the Senate. Rysen wants Claire to be there though for support. Or maybe to take his place. We’ll find out. And it seems Wheel is suspicious of William because he sort of passive aggressively confronts his son before worship. That really isn’t going to end well. William tells one of his acolytes to gather everyone together and tell them to temporarily disband until he can find a way to get his father off the scent. His follower does as he’s told but some of Wheel’s guards show up and start gunning people down. William takes a dark turn when he decides to take matters into his own hands.

Alex discovers that his tattoos seem to unlock the prayer in the book. I have to say I really like the way the scene was shot as the ink flowed down his body onto the page and Uriel and Michael came into frame. Anyway, Michael pays Claire’s mother a visit and basically tells her she sided with Gabriel by taking a body and she has nowhere to go. She explains that she regretted the decision when she realized what she’d done and she tried to live an honest and redemption-filled life after that. He’s still not buying it.

Claire and her father meet with Arika (well Claire is there only briefly because Alex drags her away to see her mother. More on that later). Rysen uncovers the myth of Helena’s air force by telling her that he knew a general who flew out there during the war and he lost all of his aircraft except a bomber and some helicopters. Arika isn’t too surprised that he called their bluff. It seems that Rysen is trying to get in on the Wheel hate going on. Too bad they still have the hiccup that is the leader of Helena.

Down in the vault where Alex has been keeping Claire’s mother, Alex finally persuades Claire to talk to her mom to decide if she really wants him to kill her or not. She can’t believe her father would have a relationship with an eight ball and she’s just so upset by the whole thing. But the end of the conversation, she is coming around. She thinks that maybe her mother can be saved. And on cue, Michael shows up with the book. Let’s get this eviction started people. I have a feeling the danger to Alex is the eight ball could try to move into him. Well it turned out I was wrong about the eviction. Alex reads the prayer (although not very forcefully) and it seems to work at first. Her eyes go from back to blue and she and Claire hug. But there’s nothing anyone can do when she starts gasping for breath. Her mother’s soul is long gone and the angel was what kept the body alive. Claire is furious with Alex for basically killing her mother and she takes off. Hey, at least Alex tried. You gotta give him credit for that. And I have to say I was surprised by Michael’s expression after it initially worked. I kind of got my hopes up for a bit, too before I realized with half the episode to go it couldn’t last.

Claire heads home and confronts her father on the subject. She basically tells him that once she and William are married, Rysen will step down because no one would be able to trust him after what he did (though she says she understands why he did it). Claire is really starting to come into her own and tell people what to do. Before Rysen gets his tongue lashing from Claire, he gets to gloat a bit at Wheel. He moved the no confidence vote up and he also has made a new alliance and plan with Arika. They’re going to take out the current leader of Helena and then Vega will basically govern them. I have a feeling Wheel’s night is only going to get worse when William comes to “deal” with him. It seems that William doesn’t have the balls to shoot his father but he does cold cock him. And then things get creepy and ritualistic. He sort of indoctrinates his father with the rib-cracking ribbon. Yuck. And Claire also has to make a hard choice. Apparently her mother was still alive and so she suffocates her. I guess it was the only humane thing to do in the situation but still disturbing. We end with Uriel trying to draw out the tattoos and decipher them. Michael promises her the painting for her silence on the matter and not speaking of the markings to Gabriel. He also seems to want her to try and work out deciphering them. Overall this episode moved things along nicely. The only downside was we didn’t get any angel fights or wings. But I guess you can’t have it all.

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