By Jacob
Okay, there was a lot of gloom and doom coming the past few weeks, but SyFy is saying that the timeshifted totals are outperforming their expectations -- and with a few more episodes this brilliant, I'm fairly certain they'll have the critical support anyway. So an early-morning bombing causes the Twelve Worlds to go even more nuts about the Graystones, and Jordan Duram (who gets more and more interesting and admirable every week) finally gets his warrant to search not only the Graystone home, but the Athena Academy. Clarice continues to melt down, warning her compatriots across the board, and the GDD comes away with essentially nothing.
...At least until Daniel goes on Sarno, coached to a thimble-sized shell of himself. Amanda pulls her signature move of going apeshit at the most inconvenient possible time, but of course this time it totally saves the day. Their impeccable intimacy and teamwork on live TV manages to charm both Sarno and the viewing public. Especially when Daniel creates a plan on the fly to open-source all holoband IP, figuring that without profit motive -- just like the legalization of drugs years ago -- there won't be a shadow economy in which kids do these fucked-up virtual things in the first place.
Like the show in general -- which has probably become my favorite show on TV as of this week -- this scene is a stunning display of what science fiction can and should be doing, and rarely does: Addressing the issues that matter now, in a timeless way. Then he does his own version of the Amanda Move by admitting that "he" created a virtual copy of Zoë, who explained to him about why these kids are joining cults in the first place. It's cut short, but still pretty effective, and the Graystones come out looking a lot better than they did last week.
Along those lines and in other Zoë news, she and Philomon continue to fall beautifully and terrifyingly in love, this time actually dancing together, in a scene that cannot really be described, but once again underscores the point that Philo is so adorable/amazing that forty years hence they'll still be trying to get human bodies working so they can do it with him. (Hint: She looks a lot better with your holoband on, Philo.)
Of course, now both Clarice and Amanda knows for sure about the existence of the avatars, which is huge; meanwhile, Lacy's getting closer with Keon -- rebuilding a motorcycle and awkwardly high-fiving like the straight-edger nerds they are -- and trying to get Zoë's robot body to Gemenon. And Grandma Ruth continues to be totally bad-ass, leveling her Tauron rage at Amanda and having a fabulously terrifying talk with little Willie about the benefits of Our Thing -- and Joseph of course changes his mind about the hit on Amanda about ten times.
Sam spends the whole episode tracking Amanda, and finally nabs her after the Sarno appearance, leading to another really unnerving bravura scene when Amanda realizes she's about to get murdered Tauron-style. Of course, he doesn't go through with it, but messes with Joseph for a good long while before admitting it anyway, because nobody has ever deserved to get fucked with quite as much as Joe Adama. week: Tamara Adams rocks her new Dark City eXistenZ on the 13th Floor of the Matrix.