Review"This could be it, another Jonestown!" – Sophie.Gina, with help from Hannah, has escaped from Two Gardens and tells the Liberators about Edward North's “commencement”, something Momentum members Harris and Francis know nothing about. Sophie thinks it may be a mass suicide pact. Sophie convinces Michael that the best way forward is to assassinate Edward North and leave Two Gardens leaderless. She of course has another agenda directed by a mysterious European woman named Claire from a group called the Observers. Claire gives Sophie a CD containing a report about a Momentum compound in Sweden being burned to the ground by the Observers, Sophie passes it via Saul to Edward. And just to add fuel to the fire she also attempts to kill Edward with a long range sniper shot. Meanwhile Hannah and Ryan are getting increasingly concerned about happenings in Two Gardens and agree to leave. Before she can exit stage left, Hannah is hauled before Edward, recovering from the assassination attempt by Sophie, and is then handed over to the tender mercies of Cynthia, even though Hannah claims she has never told Ryan the real reason he is in Two Gardens. Ryan tools up, either to save Hannah or to make good his escape. Another jam packed episode that I don't think I've covered fully in the two paragraphs above. Our primary focus in The Other Woman is the enigmatic Sophie and we finally learn what her end game is, something Michael and the Liberators would not endorse by the way. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that Sophie had a daughter and worked as a cult deprogrammer. When a session with cult member Liam goes wrong, Emily, Sophie's daughter, is snatched by the Cultist and it apparently doesn't end well. Sophie is contacted by Claire, a member of a group called the Observers, who are working at destroying Momentum completely. Once again we have a character, in Sophie, who has reasons for her actions. Whether or not you have any sympathy for Sophie and her single minded determination to achieve her end game, would depend I guess on your acceptance of her methods and the costs of those methods to the people around her. At the very least Sophie isn't a loose cannon as we might have supposed and surely has reasons for her actions. Slightly disappointing episode that needed stronger dramatic writing The Writers might have dropped the ball a bit on Ryan and Hannah's decision to leave Two Gardens, due largely to Edward North lying to the cult members. It seemed to me that the pair made a very quick decision given their past, and why wouldn't, after making the decision, Hannah explain to Ryan the real reason for him being at Two Gardens. An intriguing plot development, and something I hinted at in previous episode reviews, but not enough to overcome the decision Ryan and Hannah seem to make out of the blue. I hate to say it, but the script required dramatic development and for the first time in season one The Cult seems to be slightly contrived in plot development terms. Actually I've never been entirely sure about the whole Cynthia Ross thing, seems diametrically opposed to what Edward North is trying to achieve in other areas. There's a slight hint that the Writing isn't overly strong enough to support what's going down in Two Gardens for mine, more work needed to go into developments there, though admittedly we still don't entirely know what the heck commencement is. Missing from this episode is an underlying theme, or at least one that I was able to discern on a couple of viewings. Considering the last two episodes at least, have attempted an exploration of the human condition, it was a strange not to see something included. While the episode is solid in terms of drama and revealing a few things hinted at previously, it seemed to lack the depth of previous outings, and came up short on the overall art front. Strange to say, but it's the dramatic moments that seem to elude The Cult's otherwise excellent production values, and with no underlying theme the Emperor was slightly naked to be honest. Director Charlie Haskell, here one would imagine finishing his second tour of duty in country, for the most part had me fully immersed in the narrative and delivered some money shots into the bargain that helped with my appreciation of what I was seeing. However for the first time this season I was wondering about the decision on shot selection, the 360 degree camera movement when Liam is being deprogrammed in a rather haphazard fashion by Sophie, and got the real impression that some camera shenanigans were being used where they didn't need to be. There's film as art and then there's simply amateur hour. Haskell for no apparent reason goes amateur hour and it could well be due to the script not being strong enough to support the ideas in this episode. While highlighting what I perceived as being a few problems with the episode I still got full value out of it. The Other Woman goes a long way to answering a few outstanding questions and brings focus on what should be the final confrontation of the season. Can Michael and the Liberators rescue their friends and family from Two Gardens before Cynthia and Edward North enact their “commencement”, or will the Observers plan for things to go Wacko on us come to fruition. Considering we have three episodes left in the season there's sure to be the odd twist still headed our way.
ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ... The episode highlights a lack of dramatic muscle in season one.
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