Dominion - S1E8 - Beware Those Closest to You
Previously, on Dominion: “Ouroboros”
Dominion wrapped its 8-episode first season with a 90-minute episode full of double-crosses, dissection, and death. Let’s talk about what happened, and then we’ll discuss what needs to happen in Season 2 including a preview spoiler photo.
Alex and Michael put on a big show to make everyone think they hate each other, but after they leave town, we realize it’s just part of their plan to trap Gabriel. Also in on the plan, Noma and the unwitting Furiad, her former lover, much to Alex’s puritanical consternation. She’s 6000 years old, man, let it go. While they’re waiting for their archangel trap to spring, Alex hallucinates an Obi Wan sword-fighting session with Dead Jeep. Their trap fails because evil is always smarter due to its high level of “strategery.” Noma ends up in Angel jail, Alex and Michael go back to Vega, and Gabriel shows up at the city walls to “surrender.”
Claire and William wed in questionable, and he tries to give her a pass on the wedding night if she wishes. She kisses him like whoa, then says thank you. No, really, thank you. He’s confused just like you are right now.
Everyone questions Michael on whether he’s really the vengeful Hand O’ God, and he explains to Alex that the killing was intoxicating until Gabriel and Uriel beat him half to death and the little boy they spared saved his life because it was the right thing. Then he realized it was just one of those Old Testament “kill somebody for me” tests that he failed. They beat him with what? Sarcasm? Bad wigs? They weren’t even mad. But let’s not dwell on silly things like logic.
Edward Riesen retires from everyone’s foolishness and jacks a truck to try for New Delphi. Mayor of Crazy Town is not a real job, Ed.
Helena Pink Bedsheets bring a head in a box that Arika tells everyone is Evelyn, but she’s been playing a Padme-Amidala for years: Arika IS Evelyn. She’s living in the city right under their noses, and she’s still into the ladies, but her real girlfriend is Uriel, who uses her archangel baby goggles to determine Claire has a little Chosen One Jr percolating. No wonder she moved that wedding up. They hatch a plan to run off with her and the baby, luring Alex to New Helena.
Becca Thorn defends Michael, questions him, and promises to protect Louis, then reports back to Riesen that she thinks angels are vulnerable to electric shock. After Gabriel is incarcerated, she and the newly-expanded Wheles debate killing him vs keeping him for questioning. She wants to try out her new theory that they can be shattered by concussive blasts. Hmm.
Claire catches a whiff of weirdness from David and wonders why he doesn’t want to kill Gabriel right away. David claims to want information and promises they can kill him tomorrow: “May he rot in whatever there is left of hell.” She admits she doesn’t really think he’s an Acolyte. Hohoho! Speaking of weirdness, William deploys his Evil Eyebrows, questioning David’s commitment to keeping Gabriel alive. “I was protecting us,” whipped David says, but a little of Old David flickers through. Look out, Will!
Everyone pays a token visit to Gabriel who is locked in a wing-blocking vest and a Transparent Aluminum (not really) mega-electrified half-globe where he reads all their mail, spills all their tea, and doesn’t so much as spring for a roll of Bounty. For Claire, he sniffs out her secret favorite flower, Desert Sage, and reads PREGNANT on his Angelic HPT. The newly returned Alex goes inside the cell and headbutts him into the zapper, only for Gabriel congratulate him on his newly expectant status and announce that if he dies, errybody gone dah.
Lastly, Michael and Gabriel have their least-snarky conversation ever. Turns out they’re twins, as are Uriel and Raphael, and Gabriel’s voice was the first Michael ever heard in the darkness of Creation. Gabriel starts making a whole lot of sense. Look at this Empyrian steel vest, he says. Look at this cage. This tech didn’t pop up overnight. Michael grasps for excuses but Gabriel’s like, really? Check yourself, dude. Sleeping with the enemy, because let me tell you what I just saw through Louis’ eyes: a Little Lab of Horrors under House Thorn. Oh here go hell come.
Alex confronts Claire at House Whele and she admits she was never going to tell him the baby was his because they are both parental-abandonment head cases andplusalso that baby will never be safe if people find out Alex is the Chosen One. Because they are talking loudly enough for all of Vega to hear, William overhears and is mortified, but after Alex leaves her in the care of two dozen soldiers, he brings her a peace offering bouquet of Desert Sage, saying he knows but it’s ok. Suddenly the dominos in her brain start falling around and around until they spell out Wiliam + Desert Sage + Blindfold = GABRIEL. She has him arrested tout suite and rats him out to David who barely restrains his glee in ridding Vega of his son forever.
In fact, he is more than happy to clean up all this Gabriel mess because he calls for a Blindfold Meeting and while they’re chanting away, David covers the floor in gas and lights it with his blindfold. How the screws have turned. Finally he hauls William out into the desert in his Riddler Green suit and, as thanks for not revealing his own complicity, tosses him a gun and survival supplies and tells him never to come back.
Michael infiltrates the basement lab at House Thorn to find a whole lot of Nope and No Thank You: angel body parts in resin; feathers; photos; x-rays. Bewildered and betrayed, he tells the newly-arrived Alex, “They’re dissecting us,” and rushes to find Louis. There is nothing grosser in angel fiction than wingless bloody nubs, and Dominion obliges: they find an entire disembodied wing and de-winged Louis, strung up high and his chest stitched up after a living autopsy. Naturally he begs Michael to kill him, and he does.
In a Hannibal-clear lab coat, Becca, not understanding how thoroughly screwed she is right now, mumbles a bunch of half-hearted non-explanations about how Michael doesn’t understand, it’s complicated, and she had to becuz. He’s a rational being, Becca, why don’t you explain why you HAD to carve Louis up like Thanksgiving dinner when you had 15 bodies from last week. “I was protecting us,” she says, second time this episode, but he spots Furiad’s blade and the Michael we know is gone, snapping her neck, killing the guards, dueling with a very confused Alex. A slice to the stomach brings Michael back to reality, and in shock and shame, he escapes through the skylight.
Gabriel, liberated by loyal angel corpsmen, saunters in with, “To be fair, I did try to warn you. My brother’s rage knows no bounds.” Once again he offers to guide Alex and renews his threats before heading out to meet with Uriel who officially joins his side.
As Michael flies under the blazing sun, contemplating what he’s done, Claire opens and reads a letter from Alex to the baby explaining what he’s done to protect everyone. He scales the mountain to Gabriel’s fortress and walks in, flocks of angels streaming in behind him.
Season Wrap Up
Problems Dominion needs to work on next season:
Character believability. There was literally no indication that Becca had cause or capability to do what she did, even if you consider the blackmail. They’ve got some great two-faced characters but they really need to cut down on the ambiguous emoting. William is primarily guilty of this.
Whining and pomposity. Everyone dialed it down in the final episode resulting in more menace and sincerity. Let’s keep it that way.
Michael’s emotional range. He vacillates from mildly amused to slightly irritated. I’m sure Tom Wisdom is a cool chap, but he needs to become a much more dynamic character. His snap in the lab was just not extreme enough to show he was a bezerker. Watch Vikings and take notes.
Season 2 SPOILER ALERT
As of press, Dominion hasn’t been renewed yet, but given its appearance alongside Sharknado 2 and Helix at SDCC, it seems likely. This scene was not in the final cut of the show, but it was in the SyFy photo gallery, so don’t read the caption if you don’t want to be spoiled for a major Season 2 new character.
What happens when you’re already a good angel and have a decision to make? You end up with a devil on your shoulder. Enter Lucifer.
