Director	Michael Duignan
Writers	David Brechin-Smith, Peter Cox
Starring	Renato Bartolomei, Latham Gaines, Gareth Reeves, Kate Elliott, Danielle Cormack, Scott Wills, Sara Wiseman, Rachel Nash, Andrew Grainger, William Wallace, Lisa Chappell
Genre	Thriller
Tagline	None Listed
Country

Review

In another jammed packed episode Michael accepts an invitation by Edward North to visit Two Gardens in order to speak to Ryan. Michael soon learns that Ryan and the others don't want to leave two gardens, and more importantly they weren't the ones who sent the envelopes and photos to the Liberators as we saw in the first episode. Meanwhile Francis asks Sophie to find out from the imprisoned Cynthia what she did to Jenni, Sophie is more interested in why something was done, and how it will aid her personal agenda.

In a further series of flashbacks we learn how Michael, Ryan, and Nathan's family situation went to hell in a hand-basket. Nathan pushed his mother down the stairs of the family home apparently due to the voices telling him to do it. Clearly Michael then put Nathan into care due to anger over the death of his wife, remorse at covering up the murder, and his inability to handle Nathan's mental lapses. Ryan had also left home due to the situation, and was no doubt therefore made all the more vulnerable to Edward North's advances.

Things get a whole lot more complex in this episode with new levels of intrigue being added. Edward North is more interested in Michael than he is in getting Cynthia Ross back, making you wonder just what value Edward sees in Michael. I wasn't entirely sure, but in one of the flashbacks in this episode Michael was shown collapsing with blood running from his nose. Considering Andy has a brain embolism, this was demonstrated to be a fact rather than manipulation by Cynthia, could it be that Edward North has some sort of an agenda for people suffering from similar symptoms? Might it be that Ryan is simply a conduit to Michael, and is Michael Edward's real focus?

With further mystery being added new kid on the block Director Michael Duignan keeps the standard high.

Increasingly it's become clear that Sophie, the de-programmer, has her own agenda that dictates what actions she takes. While prepared to help the Liberators she will make deals outside that group in order to further her own course. Sophie is single minded and quite ruthless in the pursuit of her goals and if it costs the Liberators then that's a price she's more than willing to pay. Clearly Sophie has made some sort of a deal with Cynthia, though this happened off screen so we don't know exactly what the details of the deal are, and what Cynthia needs to do to hold up her side of the bargain. So there's some more “wheels within wheels” action going down there, clearly Cynthia isn't being dictated to by whatever plans Edward North has. Shock plot development also going down here, but no spoilers, watch the show to see what happens.

Further juice is being added by Edward viewing the outside world with an increasing amount of distrust, either Edward is becoming more paranoid as the Liberators keep the pressure on or we are definitely heading toward some sort of climactic explosion as pressures become too great to bare. Cynthia and Saul are certainly playing their own games, and Andy might also put a spike into Edward's plans. Unfortunately the character of Ryan is being completely misused, with Ryan's initial growing scepticism about what Edward might be up to giving way to total acceptance of his leadership in this episode, even when Michael pushes the spectre of Jenni at him. The character of Ryan simply does not stack up in the overall context of the first half of the season.

One of the overriding themes of Homecoming is just how far people will go to get to their goals. Clearly Sophie will do anything it takes to realised her agenda, and will change alliances as opportunities arise to further her aims. Francis also was prepared to do whatever it takes to find out what has been done to Jenni, with Harris and Gena still holding to the middle of the road social conditioning. Clearly neither Harris or Gena are going to be an asset to Michael, who is also prepared to go to some lengths to get things happening. The episode asks how far would you go to rescue loved ones.

A new Director for the episode in Michael Duignan who maintained the strong professional appearance of the season. Duignan was notable for some strong use of shoulder cam and for absolutely nailing the close ups, not overused and impactful when going down. With so much going on in each episode it's becoming increasingly hard to concentrate on the Crew, but Duignan appears to have got the best out of his team and looks like a very promising find for New Zealand cinema going forward.

Finally that yellow flower cropped up again, an on going motif that has to be of importance. Very nice use against the pretty colourless New Zealand bush.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...