Max is a prisoner, Logan thinks she's dead, but she's planning an escape. However, as Max puts her plan into action, she meets up with her 'breeding partner' and a creature that lives in the depths of Manticore, part of a hidden and even more top secret part of the operation.

After last season seemed to be hurrying along the plotline of finding Max's brothers and sisters, it all came to something of a conclusion as most were found and either escaped or were killed. Here we get to see the next phase of the story, and it looks to hold a lot more potential than phase one. You see, at the end of this story Manticore's base is destroyed, even if Manticore itself isn't quite as dead, and the residents of the genetic research facility are set free by Max to roam free.

As a reminder of what's gone before and setting up of a new premise, the episode works extremely well. The new regulars are brought in carefully and effectively without overpowering the viewer with new faces, and the older faces are made use of thanks to Manticore's cloning bringing us some of the same people again. The more outlandish clones idea (one crossed with dogs etc) could have come across as a little desperate and not very good, but it works nicely here and demonstrates that there's more to Manticore than we knew before. There's also an enjoyable smattering of humour throughout that could do with beefing up more for future episodes.

The big twists are saved for the end though, with Madame X (now referred to as Renfro) taking a bullet to save Max for reasons unknown but relating to her DNA and Manticore being totally destroyed. Then there's the final punch: by kissing Logan, Max infects him with a virus that she still carries even after giving him an antidote. There is no cure for her and so the pair may be separated forever. It's a good way of keeping things interesting between the pair without coming up with a daft 'Oh, dying made me realize I need to live my own life' part.

While describing the various elements that make this good, it doesn't come across as that great, but it's more than the sum of its parts. Tense, exciting and surprising, it demonstrates that the creativity that went into the first season was no fluke, and this year promises to go one better.

****

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