[DRK] Two

TV Programme: Dark Angel
Season: 2
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 25/07/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 21 days.

I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. Having read the synopsis, it sounded like a very Joshua-heavy episode, which is normally a bad sign. However, the Joshua bits were kept down to a minimum of cringey canine nonsense and complete idiocy, and Joshua almost seemed like just another character for the duration of this epiosde.

It started off well, I must admit. The opening sequence to this episode was reminiscent of the early days of Alias; a tense and supremely cool infiltration into a highly secure building. Then came the humour with it going back and forth between Alec and Max and eventually neither of them got it. It's certainly good to see Alec again, and he actually had a fairly major role in this episode (in some of the previous ones he's been a bit more peripheral).

Alec is giving us a glimpse into what Max must have been like when she first moved to Seattle. He's reckless (like his boxing name being a play on "Manticore" when Ames is presumably still trying to hunt him down) and doesn't even entertain the possibility he might get caught. Jensen Ackles plays his cocky attitude quite well - certainly Alec is a lot more arrogant than Jason Teague (Jensen's character in Smallville) was. The final turn for this storyline has really hit home to him the consequences of what he's done, and he may very well cause problems for the other Manticore escapees.

Max and Logan seem to be back to their typical banter as evidenced early on in this episode. Asha was nowhere to be seen which gave the two of them a nice break. Not that they had a huge amount of screentime, or not like it hasn't all been done before, but I suppose it's been a while since we've seen the two of them seem comfortable together.

The main story of this episode was compelling, varied and completely ruined by the synopsis (!) Joshua had to make a tough decision which would have been tough for any human to make anyway, and meant that the storyline didn't necessarily rely on the canine DNA stuff. It really made you feel sorry for Joshua with the restrictions that are being placed on him, and I guess showed you a braver side to his personality, rather than the moaning side we quite often dwell on. On the other hand it gave Max a real sense of threat because her entire species were being threatened.

While this was an above-average episode for this season, it still only hinted at having a purpose rather than fully demonstrating one. For this reason, my hopes aren't hugely raised about this show, but at least I enjoyed myself watching the episode.