Summary
The potential of rescuing Lilith seems greater than ever in “New World Order, Part 1”, but the ongoing war between the Order and Praxis threatens not just that plan but the world itself.
This recap of The Order season 2, episode 9, “New World Order, Part 1”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
With Alyssa, of all people, now established as a potential new villain, The Order season 2, episode 9, “New World Order, Part 1”, opens with Salvador helping her break her bond with the Vade Maecum. It doesn’t look like much fun.
Meanwhile, Jack and Randall are on the beat, which Randall is extremely dissatisfied about. They’re serving at the pleasure of the Grand Magus, tracking Praxis members and investigating uses of bad magic. During a stakeout, they witness a loud noise and a huge flash of red light, and find the Praxis members they were trailing turned to puppies. In the building, Jack runs into Alyssa, who hits him with a spell. The building is also stuffed with all the Order’s items stolen from the vault.
The wolves take this latest information to Vera and Kepler, though they don’t get credit for returning a third of the stolen inventory. They reckon Alyssa was researching something, given the presence of books and pizza. Vera wildly overpraises the wolves, one assumes to annoy Kepler, who’s disparagingly dispatched to order champagne for a party. Vera also warns Jack to prepare for dark days ahead — she clearly knows more than she’s letting on about the red flash and the puppies.
Angus, it turns out, is still fuming about the wolves, which just makes him seem irrational at this point. At the party to celebrate the wolves’ promotion to the Magistratus, Nicole approaches Randall claiming that the book recovered in the raid is the one they need to bring Lilith back. There’s some tension within the group, though, as Randall and Jack are suspicious of Randall missing stakeouts to do secret work for the Grand Magus.
Salvador and Alyssa are running some kind of magic clinic while they’re on the lookout for an incantation that allows the use of magic without sacrifice. Alyssa is worried about the “eruptions”, and that people might get hurt if they don’t put a stop to them. She also states outright that she still has feelings for Jack, though Salvador clearly doesn’t have much concern about his wellbeing. Meanwhile in The Order season 2, episode 9, Nicole and Randall figure out that if they get Timber’s hide locker back from Praxis, they can forge a direct tether to Lilith.
The problem with this plan is that it requires Jack to ask Alyssa for the locker. They also plan to keep it from Hamish. Using Alyssa’s taste in pizza, Jack’s able to find her easily and talk her into sitting down for a chat with him. Alyssa believes Praxis does everything the Order claims to stand for, and she’s willing to overlook their methods of doing it since she’s sick of being told what she can and can’t do. But she’s apparently not sick of Jack since their argument leads directly to a bedroom. Before they crack on, though, Jack asks for her help in retrieving the hide locker. Alyssa says Salvador will want something in return — Jack says he’ll warn them when the next raid is due. He’s willing to betray the Order for his friends.
The kissing continues with Hamish and Vera, but it’s interrupted because Hamish has figured out what the eruptions are: all the tourists improperly casting spells thanks to Praxis, who’re destabilizing the magical energy field. All these eruptions are going to lead to a major cataclysmic event, which is obviously something that’s best avoided. Hamish also has information about all the upcoming Praxis raids, which is why Jack and Randall approach him and request a tip-off so they can help Lilith. It turns out they don’t need the truth serum they brought along, but Hamish tells them to drop some in his coffee anyway for some useful plausible deniability.
They’re interrupted by Gabby screaming through a portal, but not at them — at Angus and his chums, who’re meddling with the Cretian loom. It causes an eruption in the temple, which prompts Vera to present to Kepler and the Gnostic Council with a request for Imperium — temporary authority so that she doesn’t have to keep reporting to the Council while she goes after Praxis. The request is denied, but Vera invites the council members on the next raid so that they can see what the Order is up against.
When this occurs, Bennet, the excitable councilman, ends up dead from another eruption. Hamish blames Jack for passing the information on the raid to Praxis, but Jack argues that there’s no proof Praxis caused the eruption. As a result of all this, Kepler, now with another eye injury, grants Vera Imperium, which suggests that she set up the eruption to facilitate this (hence her ushering Hamish out of the room right before it.) This is further confirmed when Jack confronts Alyssa and Salvador about the eruption and neither of them knows anything about it. He suggests they parlay. Salvador agrees as long as Vera does, and leaves Jack the hide lockers as a gesture of goodwill.
Randall and Jack look over the hide lockers, and since Salvador isn’t Midnight, and Lilith isn’t dead therefore she can’t be Timber, they reason she must be Alpha, which has some important world-building connotations. Vera, while annoyed with Jack for negotiating behind her back, agrees to parlay in the hope of avoiding more unnecessary death. She and Salvador bind and they chat, and Salvador says she wants the incantation that allows the use of magic without sacrifice.
Meanwhile, Gabby checks out the hide lockers with the intention of demolishing Lilith’s but determines she’s better than that. One of the lockers opens, though, and off-camera we hear her scream.
With Alyssa’s unintentional help, Jack is able to figure out how Salvador acquired Alpha’s hide. When negotiations break down, Salvador tries to kill herself in order to kill Vera, but Vera is able to shoot her dead, freed from the binding. Alyssa doesn’t take this well, and magics both herself and Salvador out of there. “Is that what you meant when you said dark days were ahead?” asks Jack. “Pretty much.”
