Renee’s brother manages to escape one of Sandoval’s projects, albeit with some assistance from the man in charge. Suffering severe war trauma which has been implanted in his mind, he doesn’t realize how he is being used by the Taelons.

For once someone seems to have prised some emotion out of Jayne Heitmeyer, who is horrified at what has been done to her brother. They share a strong rapport that leads to a powerful confrontation between the two towards the end with Sandoval as a backdrop, being tortured for his crimes. It’s good to see him get his just desserts, and that Renee does at least consider whether he should be saved before helping him.

Meanwhile, back on the mothership, we discover the process by which Renee’s brother was forced into his actions: the Taelons have stolen two of his most powerful emotions in order to give them a test drive. Implanted into Da’an, the Taelon suddenly experiences things he never had before, such as guilt, particularly strongly in a scene with Renee when he confesses that most of his family are on the mothership awaiting a revival which may never come. The problem with all this is just how ludicrous it is. I appreciate that this is sci-fi and the Taelons have converted almost everything to energy at some point, but emotions? Then there’s the fact that they’ve actually been totally removed from the younger Palmer sibling as if they were his lungs. It’s a leap too far that crosses the boundary between ‘realistic’ sci-fi and the kind of thing we got in season two and it spoils what could have been a great episode, in my opinion.

***

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