Crossfire
In the run-up to the Presidential elections, the Resistance works to uncover a Taelon plot to have Doors assassinated, ensuring that President Thompson, a Taelon supporter, stays in power, giving Zo'or unlimited power.
Wow. This is my favourite episode of the entire series. I can't believe how good everything came together.
The whole assassination plot was amazing. I was certain that Doors would be the one assassinated so you can imagine my surprise when Thompson ended up being the victim. The surviving victim I might add, since this was an elaborate plan by Zo'or to keep Thompson as President. I think the easiest way for me to review this episode is to give a recap and give my thoughts along the way.
It all begins when a Taelon warrior (genetically engineered human to fight Jaridians), one of the season 2 plot threads, acts suspicious at a Jonathan Doors press conference and sets the whole plot into motion. After doing some detective work, the Resistance realizes that this Taelon warrior has been stalking Doors for a while. Instead of confronting Zo'or with this evidence, Liam decides to wait until after the election. After all, Doors has built quite the lead in the polls, there is no way he is going to lose.
Meanwhile, Da'an is feeling pretty good about himself right now with Doors about to become President and the Resistance about to be officially sanctioned. Zo'or will surely be removed as leader of the Synod now.
Liam warns Jonathan Doors about the possible threat coming from the Taelons but Jonathan takes the threat lightly. Joshua on the other hand increases his father's security. He's just worried about his father's safety. After all, if Doors was going to be assassinated it would be tonight at the final Presidential debate.
Augur and Julia manage to track down the arms dealer who sold the weapon to the Taelon warrior. After being interrupted by more Taelon warriors, Augur and Julia manage to escape with the weapon specs and discover that the Taelon warriors are using weapons that are undetectable by the security scans used at presidential functions.
It's at this point that Liam begins to suspect that the Resistance is being set up and will take the blame if Doors is assassinated. Therefore he doesn't allow any Resistance members to be present at the debate acting as extra security for Doors. Julia disagrees with him and goes to Joshua behind Liam's back, perfectly in character by the way as Julia has been shown to be impulsive, and offers her Resistance cell as extra security. Joshua accepts, after all he's just worried about his father's safety.
That night at the debate Liam runs into Julia and is furious that she and the rest of her cell are there and armed. Of course, he can't remove them without drawing attention so he leaves them to look around. Liam runs into 3 suspicious men all fiddling with a video camera. When he asks to see their identification he notices the implants they have (meaning they are Taelon warriors). He tries to subdue all 3 by himself, but 1 of the warriors gets away. He radios Julia to track down the Taelon warrior that got away while he deals with the other 2. While going after the warrior, Julia and her Resistance cell are arrested by the secret service.
During all of this, the real assassin takes aim and fires at, not Doors, but President Thompson. Sandoval reacts by firing his skrill at the assassin and dissolving him.
Because of the assassination attempt against Thompson, and with Julia and her Resistance cell arrested for carrying out the assassination attempt, Thompson takes a lead in the polls. And yes, despite taking two shots (in the shoulder), Thompson will recover.
Then in what is my favourite scene of the entire episode, Joshua Doors holds a press conference. In it he says that his father was the architect of the plot to assassinate President Thompson and the secret service has a warrant for his arrest. From the beginning of this Jonathan Doors running for President subplot, I was a little confused by Joshua Doors' relationship with his father. In season 1, Joshua was adversarial with his father to say the least. Then in season 2 he supports his father's run for presidency and in effect is his Chief of Staff? I chalked the change in characterization up as just another change for season 2. But this explanation, that Joshua had planned this outcome from the beginning is awesome and is perfectly in character. Of course, it's a bit unbelievable that his plan worked so well given all of the things that could have gone wrong, but I'll look past that since the twist is perfect.
But no, that's not the end. Now re-elected as President, Thompson declares a state of emergency and imposes martial law until the Resistance is completely destroyed. This scene is also awesome, if only for the great visual of the Taelon ships hovering down behind Thompson. And who are tasked to round up the members of the Resistance? The Volunteers of course.
Liam is now in hiding with Augur and Jonathan Doors when he is contacted by Lili. She is in the engine room (I think) of the Taelon mothership and wants to overload the power supply, destroying the ship and killing everyone onboard including herself. Liam, of course, doesn't want to sacrifice innocent lives so he orders her not to do it. This reminded me of the episode "Friendly Fire" where Lili and Liam had disagreements of how far they should take the fight to the Taelons. The apartment where Liam, Augur, and Doors are hiding out is attacked by the Volunteers and Lili loses contact. She takes matters into her own hands and starts the overload.
Now that is a season finale.
RATING: 5/5
Now that I've finished season 2, I can see why some people don't like it as much as season 1 as it does feel like a different show and the first chunk of episodes are not the greatest, but about a quarter into the season it turns a corner and starts some interesting arcs. Overall, in my opinion, I prefer season 1 but season 2 was almost as good. I look forward to season 3 and I'm kind of interested to see if the style of the show will change again and also if any more characters will be killed off (it's a Tribune show after all). With the way the season finale ended, the fates of all the main characters are up in the air.
