“Yes Is the Only Living Thing”

Ok. Episode 12. One remaining.

Not entirely sure where to start with this episode- Jake is still reeling from the passing of Katie and we see Jake face her corpse to prepare her for cremation in quite a touching scene.

With Cannerts accused of creating the virus, he’s being sought after by the Paisley Bandits. Jake, protecting Cannerts, tells the Bandits that he has a vaccine after the doctor reveals Katie’s death has revealed some new information about the cells in Thomas’ body. With the main gang member emerging as a more compassionate person than given credit for, we see his actions have  a directly negative effect, when he shoots an infected man threatening his brother, blasting his infected blood all over his brother, exposing him to the virus. Now the Paisley Bandit is relying on Cannerts to provide a solution, or he will kill him and destroy the entire hospital. A bit extreme, but beautiful brotherly love.

With the last episode revealing that there may be a way out of the cordon, we frantically see various characters try to not only try to get the money or goods together for payment, but also we see them struggle with the morality of the decision to try leave. Xander, Teresa, and baby head to Bert’s (her granddad remember!), after bidding adieu to Jana and co. But on realising that there is no food anywhere for them, they are overheard discussing the opportunity to leave. Here we see the grandma step up, offering up some stories and her prized pearls, to enable the couple to make it out. We get some lovely moments here and briefly Teresa’s grandparents forget their worries (no food, and both have some weird infection on their legs…new development for the virus or just lack of meds?). The idea of family runs through this episode quite a lot, the Paisley brothers; Jake and Quentin now relying on each other without Katie; and Teresa acknowledging her family dynamic has drastically changed, with her Gran encouraging her to focus on the baby and a life with Xander.

This episode is incredibly frustrating. And I was trying to talk about this later on but to be honest the episode is largely dominated by Lex and his detective work trying to tie up all the loose ends of badness. There’s a scene where Lex has finally pieced together who’s who and what’s what and (after consulting his father over the phone) he confronts Lommers.

Now why is it that when people in movies/ TV, etc, when confronting people, they never record their conversations! Lex goes to confront Lommers and gets her to confess to everything and then, this is the bit that is frustrating, the scene ends with Lex backing her up. But there is no clear reason given that allows the audience to understand why Lex has acted in this way. It’s like he has given up, creating a strange dichotomy as we see the people in the cordon band together and motivate themselves to attempt to get through the cordon.

With everything that Lex and Leo went through in trying to uncover the truth, it’s interesting to see Lex not using the information the way that we would want him to, confirming that Lex is a terribly flawed character. With news of someone making it though the cordon, Lommers rushes to the scene. When Lex points out that there is no sign of disease on the body, Lommers demands it be cremated immediately. Lex does nothing.

A lot of the focus of the episode centres around Jake struggling to come to terms with his responsibility for Quentin and his grief for Katie. Approaching the Paisley Bandits to get some alcohol, prompting a nice wee chat with head gang member, they discuss loss and seem to find a common ground. Here he sees Jana and her group discussing their imminent escape.

Jake raises the idea of leaving the cordon with Quentin, initially to go together, but Quentin is unsure as it was the last place he’s seen his mum. Returning to the hospital, Jake returns to the spot where he and Katie were intimate. Flashing memories remind him of what he has lost, slumping to the shower room floor, he starts to hallucinate, seeing Katie there with him. It’s an interesting story point as Quentin is initially reluctant to leave the hospital when Jake proposes the idea of escaping the cordon, citing his reason

With Quentin’s attitude  mirrored in Jake’s reluctance to leave the hospital, we are left wondering what Jake’s true intentions are; is he staying there to be of help to Cannerts or is it for the same reason that Quentin gave him at the start; that he continues to feel close to Katie? Either way it is a pretty sad scene when Jake gives Quentin over to Jana to begin the ‘adventure’ to the other side.

This scene follows Lex and Lommers teaming up to brief the army and National Guard, informing them that no one will make it through the cordon ever again. Condemning not only those embarking on the journey through the secret tunnel (which is the majority of the main cast), but everyone else in the city, making the final scene with Jake waving bye to an emotional Quentin, knowing that they will likely never see each other again. The episode closes with us, the viewer, recognise that there will be no happy ending.

Verdict

BRACE! BRACE! This episode has set us up for the fallout next week, where I can guarantee everyone the show has convinced us to like will die. Perhaps, not before the truth comes out. A la Romeo and Juliet; just a little too late.

The episode was OK, hence the 7.5. There’s not much scope left so it is now just a case of watching the last one and hoping for some crazy twist to save everyone or watching them all die.