Summary
In another fine instalment of The Passage, “Whose Blood is That?” leaves us with a juicy cliffhanger after a solid hour of mystery development.
Another week, another fun-filled hour of vampiric television courtesy of the consistently-improving Fox show The Passage. “Whose Blood is That?” once again relied on liberal use of flashbacks, this time delving into the enigmatic Death Row prisoner turned guinea pig Carter (McKinley Belcher III), but it also delivered a tense present-tense standoff that forced Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and his rival Richards (Vincent Piazza) to reluctantly work together.
The Carter business was a smart reversal of our expectations, after his initial rejection of Fanning (Jamie McShane) and Babcock (Brianne Howey), and his swapping of notes with Amy (Saniyya Sidney), led us to believe that he might potentially be a good vampire. No such luck. Fanning uses his tragic backstory to stoke his anger and resentment, forcing him to basically abandon what remains of his humanity as the virus begins to take more and more of a hold of him. It’s a sad deterioration that, admittedly, takes the story in a more interesting direction; Carter hulking out as a full villain at the end of “Whose Blood Is That?” and presumably being welcomed into the bad vampire clique was undeniably effective as a result.
Amy, meanwhile, is being tentatively approached by Babcock and Fanning, and while her relationship with Wolgast continues to develop, seeds of doubt are also being planted there. This is a surprisingly demanding role for such a young actor, and Sidney, still The Passage’s clear MVP, is selling the hell out of it. But the writing has to be given a share of the credit – Amy is just smart enough without feeling as though she’s had a peek at the script, but there’s still an element of childlike vulnerability there that’ll hopefully persist in humanising her even as she succumbs more and more to the virus. (There are shades of The Girl With All the Gifts here, which is no bad thing.)
Elsewhere in “Whose Blood Is That?”, Project Noah’s staffers continue to suffer from the influence of the virals, most notably Sergeant Paulson (Adam Aalderks), who has taken up a sniper’s perch and is demanding safe package away from the facility. This obviously requires the negotiation expertise of Wolgast, who is more than willing to help out considering he’s still on an information-gathering mission – and Paulson has information. Too much information, as it turns out; Richards can’t let on that Babcock is puppeteering him, and so executes Paulson before he has chance to spill. But he’s able to offer Wolgast a few juicy nuggets, including what seems like Fanning’s ultimate plan: He wants to manipulate the humans into letting the virals loose.
Just in time for the end, we learn the source of the episode’s title: During Carter’s transformation, he attacks Dr. Jonas Lear (Henry Ian Cusick), who manages to escape, albeit with blood on his face. Whose blood is that? Whose blood indeed.
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