Summary
“A Life for a Life” descends into a character-testing labyrinth in search of a trinket that might bring peace, but a last-minute cliffhanger suggests the ultimate intentions of the Blackbloods might be just the opposite.
This recap of The Outpost season 3, episode 3, “A Life for a Life”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
After a surprisingly strong episode last week, “A Life for a Life” delivers another capable follow-up, as the struggle between the Blackbloods and the humans for control of the Outpost finally takes a turn that solidifies the Blackbloods as the villains – or at least seems to. So much for all the fair moral posturing of the previous installment, then, but that development is also saved for right until the end, with things in the meantime evoking some classic adventure properties and Indiana Jones, of all things, as Talon, Janzo, Wren and Yavalla venture into the secret labyrinth they’ve opened and have to deal with its various hazards in pursuit of a mystical “kinj” that’ll supposedly bring peace. But will it?
That labyrinth, hidden under the blacksmith’s house, is the defining set of the episode. It’s a multi-layered test of character, with traps and obstacles designed to test the moral fortitude of those who pass through it, questioning their ability to make sacrifices, whether they’d leave their allies behind to save themselves, and so on, and so forth. Everyone gets a moment to shine, including Janzo, who plunges his hand into fire, and Talon, who gets to show off some fake-looking acrobatics. It’s Yavalla who comes out looking worst, and most suspect.
As far as backstory is concerned, Yavalla confesses to having known Talon’s turncoat father and indeed having been a confidante of his after he abandoned his family and fled to the Plane of Ashes, which isn’t the kind of place that stand-up individuals tend to venture. This entire excursion is in service of Yavalla’s quest to retrieve this nebulous kinj, which she eventually accomplishes via a bite from a fake-looking snake, but its usefulness isn’t made clear until the end of the episode and even then doesn’t bode well for the future.
Here’s how it works, or at least how it seems to work. Yavalla has half. The other half is given – forcibly – to Gwynn and allows the two of them to kind of mind-meld. This puts Gwynn, I think, under Yavalla’s sway, and also allows Yavalla to become privy to Gwynn’s innermost thoughts and feelings – including the fact that Garret is alive and well. Uh-oh. Looks like Yavalla isn’t as keen on fair rule as she suggested.
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