2-10. If All the World's a Stage, Identity Is Nothing But a Costume.

Lito is startled at his transformation into his new role...

Running Time: Approx. 52 minutes. Written by: Lana Wachowski, J. Michael Straczynski. Directed by: Tom Tykwer.


THE PLOT:

Lito arrives in Hollywood for the audition Dani secured - and almost blows his chance by relying on too many acting tricks. Fortunately, director Kit Wrangler (Andy Dick) gives him another chance, which Lito is able to capitalize on with some assistance from Sun. But even after landing the part, Lito worries that he is a fraud and that the world will soon discover that he isn't really a good actor. He admits his fear to Hernando, who observes that "there is nothing more frightening than having a dream come true."

In Kenya, the election draws near. Capheus attends a rally for his supporters, and is stunned when he sees the sheer size of the crowd. He attempts to deliver a speech about unity and tolerance - Only for it to be interrupted by violent protesters paid by the opposition, complete with an attempt on Capheus' life.

Meanwhile, Whispers finds Will at his most vulnerable, and lives up to his name by giving quiet voice to all of Will's guilt and doubt. And in Seoul, Sun's infiltration of her brother's gala has been successful - leaving her to prepare to face her brother, and decide what she will do when they meet...


CHARACTERS:

I love that Lito doubts his own abilities as an actor. He earned fame in Mexican cinema through over-the-top action movies, not generally a repository of great acting. Though Hernando and Dani recognize how much he has brought to those roles, it likely weights on his mind that he has yet to try to carry the kind of material Burt Lancaster did in his beloved From Here to Eternity. Also, though he lands the part, he does so thanks to Sun's intervention - His first reading, which is all him, is a disaster. Almost certainly because of his anxiety and self-doubt, but it likely fuels his doubts that he was only able to secure a serious dramatic role through the help of one of his Cluster.

Capheus is also experiencing a seismic shift in his life, which is brought home at three key points in this episode. When he leaves for the rally, he starts to instruct the driver on the best route, only for one of the political operatives to cut him off. "You're not a bus driver anymore," the man tells him. At the rally, he is struck momentarily speechless by the size of the crowd, until Jela whispers his support in his ear: "Just drive the bus." After the rally is disrupted, Capheus experiences a moment of despair, certain that the violence will overshadow his intended message. His family and supporters assure him that the people at the rally heard him and understood his message, reassurance that seems to lend him strength and determination for the final leg of this journey.


THOUGHTS:

If All the World's a Stage, Identity Is Nothing But a Costume is a much quieter episode than I had expected. The BPO plot is barely touched on, and Sun's confrontation with her brother is clearly being held for the season ender. Instead, the episode focuses on Lito and Capheus, and the changes happening in their lives. Capheus' rally ends in one of those chaotic set pieces that this series, with its film-like production values, pulls off so well - But until that point, the episode is almost entirely character-centric.

I think it's also my favorite episode of the season.

Narrowing the focus to two strands results in a stronger connection with Lito and Capheus. There are minimal cutaways to the other characters, leaving our attention squarely on these two. As different as the stories are, they still complement each other in surprising ways. Both characters are told that their old lives are now behind them: Lito, when Kit dismisses his previous action films; Capheus, when the political operative tells him that he is no longer a bus driver. Both rely more on the support structures from their old lives than on the Cluster, as Hernando eases Lito's doubts and Jela and his mother ease Capheus'. As different as the settings and tones may be, the two strands thus feel very much of a piece with each other.

The other characters are not forgotten, however, even if they are largely confined to scenes that bookend the main part of the episode. Whispers' Iago-like approach to Will is particularly interesting. Not just because the villain pushes the most traditionally upright of the heroes into an ill-timed heroin indulgence (something foreshadowed a few episodes earlier, when Kala only narrowly diverted Will from the drugs) - But also because of Whispers' final words before he reaches for the heroin, as he tells Will that they are getting ever closer to each other. One of my biggest regrets about this series' premature cancellation is that I am certain Whispers has an interesting story all his own, one that I doubt the feature-length finale - burdened as it will be with resolving as many active plot threads as possible - will have time for.

Overall, while this series has almost always managed to envelop me in its world, this episode drew me in even more strongly than usual. Though it is often a challenge to individually score episodes of a series that is so heavily serialized, I still find myself awarding this particular installment full marks.

(Although I really could have passed on hearing about Kit's way of celebrating his Oscar win.  Definitely didn't need that mental image.  And from their expressions, Lito and Hernando would probably agree with me.)

Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: What Family Actually Means
Next Episode: You Want a War?



Review Index

1-11. Just Turn the Wheel and the Future Changes.

Capheus' desperate bid to reclaim his future.

Running Time: Approx. 45 minutes. Written by: The Wachowskis, J. Michael Straczynski. Directed by: Tom Tykwer.


THE PLOT:

After her blackout at her father's performance, Riley finds herself in a hospital ICU. Yrsa visits her to call her a fool and tell her that she is going to die in this hospital. Meanwhile, Will, Nomi, Amanita, and their hacker friend Bug use their skills to buy time for Riley while they figure out what they will do next.

In Kenya, the day has come - The day Capheus has been ordered to bring Silas' daughter to the Superpower Gang. Having built up his courage by watching Van Damme movies, Capheus delivers the girl not to the gang, but to his friend Jela to protect, with instructions for Jela if he fails to return. Capheus clings to a vain hope that he might yet reason with the gang's leader, but the situation quickly explodes into violence - with Capheus relying on Sun's martial arts skills and Will's police training to keep himself alive, before in the end relying on his own strength and driving skill.

Meawhile, Wolfgang hatches a plan to save Felix from his uncle's wrath, while Sun learns that her last hope of freedom is gone...


CHARACTERS:

The benefit of the slow burn approach this series has taken is that, when an action-heavy episode arrives, even the most over-the-top sequences feel like a reasonable progression of the character's journey. This was true of Wolfgang's rocket launcher pyrotechnics in the previous episode, and it's true of the violent martial arts sequence-turned-car chase that forms the centerpiece of this episode. The sequence itself would be quite at home in a big summer action film - But the time we have spent following Capheus' journey to this point (and following Will and Sun, who aid him) lends the proceedings a certain weight. All the actors are excellent, but special mention should be made for Aml Ameen. He anchors this plot thread, and invests so much honest determination in his character that even when his bus is playing chicken with a villain on a motorcycle, it doesn't feel silly - Or at least, we're too invested in his emotions and well-being to laugh even when it does feel silly.

In the other threads, we see Will mentally perched at Riley's bedside as she lies in the ICU. We sense, as Jonas does, that his only thought is reaching her physically as fast as possible - a determination that could be too easily manipulated by Whispers. Bug proves that his friendship with Nomi is genuine when he delivers the very hacking equipment he sold her earlier, stolen straight from police custody. Wolfgang is pure cold calculation as he prepares to use violence to save his friend, while the normally reserved Sun finally explodes with rage at her situation.


THOUGHTS:

Running a mere 45 minutes, Just Turn the Wheel and the Future Changes is the shortest episode of the season. The reason for that is simple; this episode is the most direct, lean, and fast-paced of the season to this point. After a few quick scenes setting up the state of the ongoing arc, the focus settles on Capheus and his plan to reclaim his life from both Silas and the Superpower Gang. From the moment he drives his bus to the warehouse that is the gang's headquarters, the remainder is basically a straight adrenaline shot.

The episode is directed by Tom Tykwer, who collaborated with the Wachowskis on the (in my opinion) unfairly maligned Cloud Atlas. Though not exactly an action film, that movie did feature a few breathless action set pieces, and that same energy is in evidence during the central part of this episode, the tension and excitement punctuated by moments of startling violence. I also very much appreciate that, while Sun and Will provide their skills to help Capheus survive a seemingly hopeless scenario, the final moments of the action see Capheus relying solely on his own strength and skill set.

Most of the other strands are there only long enough to advance those bits of plot, but I did enjoy Bug's reappearance. Michael X. Sommers' performance is a great deal of fun, the character being convincingly sleazy enough to be instantly identifiable as a criminal, and yet likable enough that you can actually believe Nomi's fondness for him. His dubbing Amanita and Nomi "angels" after Charlie's Angels is an amusing running gag at this point, though it may have the potential to become wearisome if it persists.

I love the way the episode ends. Capheus has taken his decisive action, and Wolfgang is about to move forward to his own showdown. But after all the action and violence, and the looming threat of Whispers and his manipulations, we don't end on any of that. Instead, we cut to Sun, talking with Kala from her cell. Her voice is cold, her eyes angry as she puts words to her newfound determination to escape her apparently inescapable fate:

"This is what life is. Fear, rage, desire, love. To stop feeling emotions, to stop wanting to feel them, is to feel death... I take everything I am feeling, everything that matters to me. I push all of it into my fist, and I fight for it."

When the episode cuts to black a second after that declaration, it's honestly a surprise that it ends there - But I can't think of a better place to leave off before the finale.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode; What Is Human?
Next Episode: I Can't Leave Her



Review Index

1-3. Smart Money Is on the Skinny Bitch.

Sun displays her martial arts skills, not aware

 that she's about to fight two battles at once.

Running Time: Approx. 48 minutes. Written by: The Wachowskis, J. Michael Straczynski. Directed by: The Wachowskis.


THE PLOT:

Will is a hero after successfully arresting Jonas, but his injuries landed him in the hospital. When he insists on leaving, it's over the protests of the attending nurse, who talks about "unusual brain activity." Will tries to see Jonas, but his newfound status is not enough for the FBI to agree to that, and he is left wondering if he truly did the right thing.

In Korea, Sun is frustrated with attempts to contact her father regarding business irregularities. She relieves her anger by entering a kickboxing match. When her opponent objects to fighting a young woman, the referee smirks at him, telling him that "the smart money" is not on him, but on Sun.

In Nairobi, Capheus prevails on his friend, Jela (Paul Ogola) to help him buy AIDS medicine for his dying mother (Chichi Seii). Thanks to Jela's bartering skills, he is able to obtain some from a drug dealer... But when his bus is robbed by thugs calling themselves "the Superpower Gang," the drugs are stolen - leading him to desperate action to try to recover them, unwittingly pulling Sun and Will into his fight!

All the while, Nomi's surgery looms ever closer, with escape seeming like an impossibility...


CHARACTERS:

Up to this point, Sun and Capheus have been the least developed of the regulars. The first episode gave them arguably the least to do of all the characters, and the second episode all but ignored them. This installment is tasked with rectifying that, turning them from the sketchiest of sketches into proper characters. It does the job well, and does it in different ways.

Capheus is more or less of an "Everyman" character. He's a bus driver trying to earn enough money to get by while caring for his mother.  He's an open character, so we learn this fairly openly. He talks with his friend about his childhood wish to be "a zebra," while he flashes back to watching zebras with his mother. His main actions of the episode are focused first on getting drugs his mother needs, then on recovering them. There's no mystery, because he's a man with nothing to hide (so far).

Sun is a closed character. She speaks little, and has no interest in revealing herself to others. Instead, we learn about her by watching her in action - Listening to, and dodging, a banker's messages. Curtly attempting to see her father, then taking out her anger at being refused by destroying the smug secretary's desk. The fight at the end, in a ring where she seems to feel more sense of belonging than in her office. We don't know what drives her yet, but we can see her personality - Not in words, but in actions.

The episode also touches base with the other threads. Lito is drawn into an uncomfortable meeting with Joaquin (Raúl Méndez), Dani's criminal ex-boyfriend, the conversation ending in a way that indicates all is far from settled. Riley, barely seen in the previous episode, is given a bit more backstory, as she talks with two friends about her childhood in Iceland and her relationship with her father (an actual positive relationship! ...He'll probably die soon). So even as the focus of the episode narrows to just a few characters, we see the other threads inching forward as well.


THOUGHTS:

Smart Money Is on the Skinny Bitch more or less replicates the formula of the previous episode, building up the characters while also managing to move forward in both subtle and overt ways.

This becomes the first installment to end not on a cliffhanger, but instead on a revelation: In urgent need, Capheus is able to draw on Sun's martial arts skills and Will's police training to face down the street gang. His bus is named after martial arts star Jean Claude Van Damme, and a woman on his bus watches the fight and admiringly comments that "he really is Van Damme!"

It's a strong action set piece, in no small part because the show has so steadily built to this point. We don't know exactly why the three are able to share in the fight, but we have seen enough flashes of each of them experiencing the others' lives that we understand what is occurring without having to be told. The resulting action is clean, well-shot, and effective, and ends the episode with us comprehending why someone might consider these people either dangerous or worthy subjects for experiments - The array of skills any of them can tap into would potentially make James Bond look like a Smurf.

Beyond that, this is another solid chapter, in a show that's becoming progressively more involving as it goes along.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: I Am Also a We
Next Episode: What's Going On?



Review Index