The Battle With Winston
Halfway through its first series, The Passage has really kicked into gear and feels like it’s really starting to live up to expectations now. With more plot development and character-driven drama, the latest episode of The Passage is a compelling and gripping slice of vampire action. The episode begins where we left off from before, with Amy suffering the after-effects of using her newfound abilities. With Winston loose in the facility and Amy weakened, Brad and Richards work together to get her to safety. Despite Brad’s wishes, Amy reveals the extent of her powers to the agents and she teams up with them, going on the hunt for Winston who soon escapes into the dense forest around them. With a rift growing between Amy and Brad, this plotline culminates in a climactic fight within an abandoned warehouse late on in the episode where a flurry of gunfire and blood-soaked vampires clash to dramatic effect. While this story develops, Jonas introduces Elizabeth back into the world again after she’s been injected with the virus by the Fanning-controlled agent last week. Upon learning about Fanning’s condition and what Jonas has been doing in the facility all these years, Elizabeth is appauled and rejects Jonas in favour of Fanning, who invades her dreams and tries to pursuade her over to his cause. The main focus this week though shifts to Nicole and it’s here where we learn more about the Doctor’s past and her relationship with Shauna Babcock. Given her minimal but important role thus far in the series, it’s nice to see The Passage focus a little more on its supporting cast. Nicole is a fascinating character too and her confliction over the experiment and her own morals is well written and competently acted. The final ten minutes or so of the episode are really used to set the scene for an exciting end to this thrilling season of vampire action. With the Winston situation under control, Jonas and Nicole make a big decision over the future of Project Noah. Unfortunately, their decision has serious consequences and we leave the show on a big cliffhanger and many plot points left unresolved. The past few episodes have really shown what The Passage is capable of being and it’s great to finally see the series come into its own. The action is well shot for the most part and the various backstories for the different characters really help bring you into this world. For the first time this season, The Passage doesn’t throw in a misplaced track partway through the episode either, saving this for the final resolution instead. It’s a subtle but noticeable change to the music that has quite a profound effect on the tone of the episode. Hopefully Fox don’t cancel this after its premiere season because there’s certainly something gripping here that makes this quite the bingeworthy show. With a bit of momentum behind it and some positive PR, The Passage could be a big hit. Time will tell of course and I’ll be remaining optmisitic over the show’s future going forward. Regardless, The Passage delivers its best episode yet and hopefully this momentum can continue and finish this season on a well-deserved high.
