Director	Charlie Haskell
Writers	David Brechin-Smith, Peter Cox	Tweet
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

Gina is pretty much a prisoner after refusing to leave a dying Andy alone in Two Gardens in the previous episode. Cynthia wants to add her to the test subject list but Edward has other plans, that strangely involve an initiation of sorts via one of the white coffins kept in the shed out back. Meanwhile Michael is frustrated with how things are going and plans to take everything they have to the Police. Harris has for once shown some initiative and we later learn he has contacted the Cult's Assembly and an Inspector is on the way to Two Gardens.

Faced with pressure from all sides Edward is cracking, and besides openly lying to his followers, he has announced “the commencement” is nigh. Hannah is starting to have some doubts, especially after she spies Jenni in a catatonic state leading to Hannah helping Gina to escape after Andy's death. And if that's not enough to get your motor running, Saul might have just pushed things a tad too far.

The theme of this episode is faith, and just how much you are willing to believe in someone. Edward is asking his followers to take things on faith and is twisting what happens to fit into his world view, regardless of the cost to others. Gina's running coach asked her to have faith in her abilities and to push everything aside. And Michael wants those around him to have faith in his leadership and direction. Clearly Sophie and Harris are playing their own individual games, Gina obversely doesn't heed her coach's advice, and there are growing splinters in Two Gardens.

This season cannot get anymore tense surely. The screws are about as tight as they can go!

I'm still wondering what happened to Dan and just recently the dude who wanted to take his daughter to the local Hospital, but have faith that the writers will cover details in due course.

Via a series of flashbacks we learn how Gina meet Andy, and in keeping with the series Gina is a character with faults and strengths. I don't believe we will actually get a character who is totally good or totally evil in season one. Perhaps if the Americans remake The Cult Dick Dastardly might make an appearance. Any-ways turns out Gina was a runner with a huge future in track and field. After she was run over by a car, while trying to interfere in a junkie tiff, Gina went off the rails and got fully into the drug lifestyle. Later she also introduced a relatively clean living Andy to drugs, hence no doubt the antagonism between herself and Andy's sister Annabell.

Flashbacks in this episode and previous episodes have been used in an exemplary fashion to provide background to the various characters, and to set up their motivations and explain why they react in certain ways to various situations. Gina is clearly feeling guilty over Andy and will do what ever she can for him, unfortunately this proves to be ultimately futile, or so we are lead to believe.

Director Charlie Haskell, who returns after delivering episodes 5 and 6, nails the intensity of this episode with the Audience never quite sure what they are going to be in for. Haskell keeps the multiple plot arcs up in the air, springs a few surprises, and keeps the atmosphere to the forefront. The Director also has time to add a couple of flourishes that had me smiling. Firstly when Hannah looks through the keyhole to see a comatosed Jenni. I'm not entirely sure if Haskell wasn't referencing The Ring with the shot, but regardless it's certainly an impactful POV shot. Equally when Gina is running on the track and keeps looking behind her, the camera gradually catching up to her in a fairly intense dream sequence, till right at the last moment we cut away to Gina bleeding on the road after being hit by the car. Haskell brings across a moment that changed the direction of Gina's life without flogging a dead equine with heavy handed symbolism. You get the feeling, and this is only hinted at, that Gina might have preferred to die right there rather than bring Andy into her later life.

I was starting to wonder if the local law enforcement agency, a.k.a “The Cops”, were unaware of what was going on locally. Thankfully writers Brechin-Smith and Peter Cox are keeping their eyes on their fries with the local Constable turning up to ask Michael if he knows the where abouts of Rick Weaver, the solar panel dude who Saul killed by accident in an earlier episode. The Policeman is well aware of Michael being the last person to talk to Rick, but surprisingly no one has reported various confrontations between the two. Mind you exactly who you would believe in the township is a question with no answer! But nice to see loose ends being tied up and the Authorities not being portrayed as the normal Keystone Cops that some movie would have us believe they are.

With two thirds of the season under our belts I have to say that things are heating up nicely. I'm looking forward to the final third of the season to get the skinny on a number of plot points that are currently dangling tantalisingly in the breeze.

I'm thinking Charlie Haskell has delivered the best episode thus far of season one. You could cut the tension with a knife, a few things got explained, and a few plot foreshadows went down. It was all very atmospheric and I couldn't believe how intently I was watching as the show run through it's forty odd minutes of magic. I'm almost at the stage of proclaiming The Cult as the best ever dark genre television series to have been produced in this part of the World!

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...