Containment - Episode 7: Inferno
Previously on Containment, “He Stilled the Rising Tumult”
Day nine of the cordon and it’s nothing short of a complete and utter shit show. Food stores are running out; looters and tweakers are running the streets and Nakatomi Plaza, I mean Bitscan, is under siege. Faced with keeping themselves safe, it’s every man for himself.
Papa Was a Rolling Stone
Outside the cordon Lex visits a shelter and has a sit down with his derelict father. They share smirks, and stoic glances, while rehashing the bad old days. You immediately see where Lex gets his zeal for life and enthusiastic demeanor… Papa Lex offers his words of wisdom and Lex offers him a place to stay that isn’t he basement of a church.
“Life changes, surprises you.”
Images: The CW
Mom Knows Best and the Attack on Bitscan
In the chaos of the cordon, Leanne being kidnapped and general uncertainty for her own life and the life of her unborn child, Teresa experiences complications. The efforts to comfort Teresa cause strife between Xander and Leanne. When he tries to offer options of support for his girlfriend Leanne pulls the, “you’ve never had a baby” card. As a result, Xander takes a page out of the Joe West Black Fatherhood handbook and lets Leanne know he will not stand for any additional stress on the mother of his child; and they need to put their conflict to the side for the time being. Leanne agrees.
The tweakers are scurrying through stairwells and vents to gain access to chemicals needed to get and stay high, like 28 Days minus the zombies. Tony decides it’s a good idea to negotiate with them and gets a hatchet to the back for his troubles.
On her return from resetting the power, Jana retrieves the sat phone from the dead kidnapper and molly-whops a tweaker in the stairwell. During the tussle, Lex is on the other end of the sat phone hearing it all-go down; this is his breaking point. Lex decides to scale the wall of the cordon to save his Jana. Because nothing is easy in the Infection Apocalypse, Lex is arrested by military police.
As the tweakers contaminate the clean spaces of the lab, the crew is forced to MacGyver a bomb. After the dusts settles, one of the surviving tweakers bites Leanne, even if she isn’t infected she still has to self-quarantine. It’s a moment that should feel very sad but Leanne was portrayed as such a shrew, you’re thankful she won’t be seen for a while or ever again.
The episode had a bit of action and more impending sense of danger, mixed in with a few personal moments. I’d written off Xander and Teresa as a throwaway couple but this episode showed more of a connection and commitment between the characters. While we don’t get to see a different side of Lex we did get a look into what makes him who he is and what colors his approach to conflict. I remain unsure why they are so heavy handed with the racial tension in this universe. A higher-up called Lex’s father an n-word and his violent response cost him his career as a police officer. What that has to do with Lex in this moment is not clear: Channeling anger to action? Using the white man to lift you up and not hold you down?
This is another episode that focused on the fall-out as a result of the cordon and stayed mum on the disease origin and potential cure. Hopefully in the coming weeks we’ll get more answers to the origins of the infection.
