Max and Logan are having a full blown angst fest after
they got all excited last episode and never got to actually have sex. They are
now very Frustrated and to deal with those frustrations, Max is trying to leave
town for the day.
This involves a long queue for petrol while reading news stories
about genetic mutants rampaging and even then the tanker is out of petrol
before Max gets any – worse, a man demands patrol, asking how he can get to
Portland and the cop tells him to prostitute himself to truck drivers (this
constitutes the closest Dark Angel gets to touching on gay male sexuality in 2
seasons. Enjoy) and draws a gun in response. A stray bullet hits Max when she
tries to save a child.
Max is rushed into hospital having lost a lot of blood.
On the operating table she woozily tries to leave and demands the doctor do no
tests, grabbing her arm with her super-strength until she is sedated.
A nurse calls Logan and lets him know she’s in hospital
and he quickly arranges to visit and calls his doctor contact to get Max a
proper false identity as Linda Eastman and checking whether anyone noticed Max
is different.
The doc doesn’t have much trouble since the tests haven’t
come back yet with their backlog (the doc who was working on Max complains that
they ran out of sterile gloves the other day) and the only anomaly anyone
noticed was Max’s vice-like grip. Logan arrives to reassure Max she doesn’t
have to head for the hills, she can stay and heal, he has everything covered.
Except there’s a mix up in the samples and the lab tech
mixed up Eastman with Eastwood. He tests Max’s blood and finds a super
dangerous virus that is mutating! Panic panic panic! The CDC is called, quarantines
and White’s group gets information about a woman with a barcode on her neck and
sends a team. And Max wakes up to CDC people she isn’t especially happy to deal
with.
White barges in pretending to be FBI to take Linda
Eastman, which shows that, for a secret government conspiracy he knows sod all
about how these things work. The CDC people inform him in no uncertain terms
that when it comes to quarantine what he says goes. White is forced to crawl
out but he’s worried about Max exposing them to the world.
Meanwhile Max gets another visit from CDC blokey who admits that she’s not contagious – but she’s not free to go. She has very very very odd DNA and he’s shipping her to CDC headquarters so they can answer all their questions.
Logan has noticed White and is hacking his phones to hear his top secret message to one of his Predigree Transgenic Club to find someone to kill Max. One of the nurses in the hospital is a “Familiar” in the PTC and she gets assassin duty.
The nurse goes to inject Max with something lethal and Logan manages to hack into her heart monitor to communicate a warning to her in morse code. Max leaps up and she and the nurse have a battle which, despite her original victories, ends up with nursey being thrown out a window. And Max making a run for it, still in pain from her bullet wound
The CDC doc starts questioning Max’s doctor who claims
she never needed bloodwork because he barely saw her. But CDC bloke asks if he’s
heard about Manticore… this is interrupted
by people telling him “Linda Eastman” has escaped. Max calls Logan and he
hatches a plan – get to the roof, but the call is staticy due to interference
from the news van.
Max ends up in the closed off top floor, abandoned due to
budget cuts, and runs into White killing the guards. He claims to be on her
side since he has no wish for the CDC to learn about them either. He babbles at her to try and make her come
out of hiding until she hits him in the had with something heavy and metallic.
Now I’d keep hitting him in the head so he never gets up again, but Max, alas,
does not.
She gets to the roof with White following not long after
and they have another battle (since she didn’t kill him!? Why didn’t she kill
him?) in which, being injured she starts losing - but Logan distracts him with
a helicopter, allowing her to kick his leg, hard, breaking it. She gets in the
helicopter and flies away, White ineffectively firing after them –rather than
Max, say, grabbing his gun before he can shuffle after it and shooting him
repeatedly in the head.
Y’know, White being dead would make things a lot easier for Max.
Back home so Cindy can play nursemaid and Max frets about
what happens if the information about her finally gets out there. Cut to the
CDC man passing on his files to someone nefarious in DC
It’s been a while but we have some good indications and
reminders of the dystopia in this episode – the petrol shortage, the secure
hospital etc It was nice to see
The rest? Well there was no meta, more a reminder that
White was out there than any real development of any existing meta. It should
be setting the show up for more advancement next episode.
