Renee is having a relationship with a Volunteer agent named Jeff Marlowe, but when a mission goes awry and he is captured and interrogated by the Taelons, she and Liam must decide whether Marlowe can be saved or not.

In its favour, this Renee love story is a lot better than any of the previous ones, as Jayne Heitmeyer actually seems to have a degree of chemistry with the person involved. Maybe it's because she gets her most intimate scenes yet and therefore can't afford not to have chemistry, but the story pretty much stands or falls on her performance.

However, the other aspect that should have been worked on is the plot, and this story really doesn't have much of one. There's a lot of scenes of Renee in bed, but far too long is spent getting to the point, with the mystery of why Renee can still see her lover explained easily enough. He doesn't offer inside information on the Taelons, he doesn't really do anything. He just realizes he's dying and asks Renee to release him from the 'neither alive nor dead' stasis the Taelons are keeping him in. Yes, Da'an and Zo'or do some torturing, but it adds nothing; we all now know that the aliens aren't the most calm and considerate of people.

What's especially irritating is that the events of Atonement seem to have been forgotten about. Hubble is still in charge despite his actions against Sandoval, and Sandoval himself is doing much the same as ever. With such a shock episode, it's not right to forget about it in this way, and for such an arc-heavy show as Earth: Final Conflict, we've come to expect better.

**

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