Summary
“All Along the Watchtower” raises all kinds of questions that can’t possibly be answered in the one remaining episode, proving that this second season of Pandora really doesn’t know what it’s doing.
This recap of Pandora season 2, episode 9, “All Along the Watchtower”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Pandora has never been a good show, but it has mostly been a show with the potential to be good under the right set of circumstances. But it seems that ship has truly sailed in the second season, which has really been one inexplicable development after another to a frankly bizarre extent, and now we find ourselves in the terribly awkward position of knowing that the overarching narrative can’t possibly be wrapped up in one more episode but having no real desire for another season.
“All Along the Watchtower” concerns itself primarily with Osborn’s backstory, particularly him killing his wife for being a traitor, and the proper heel-turn for Admiral Lucas, who was involved in all that, but it also spares time for Jax, Ralen, and Jett to hijack the Dauntless from its humourless new captain, and Xander and Tierney to enjoy a cosy mission of their own. It’s a lot, and little of it makes any real sense if you scrutinize it.
Xander and Tierney’s mission is really a team-building exercise meant to flesh both characters – particularly Tierney – out a bit for the benefit of the audience. It’s the least engaging of the three narrative threads, and that’s saying something. The ship-jacking should be cool, and it has its moments, but most of them are courtesy of Jett, of all people. This guy’s redemption arc has been one of the only truly likable things about this season. He’s still a bit of a creep but at least he has some actual utility.
Anyway, the bulk of “All Along the Watchtower” is devoted to Osborn and Lucas, so let me try and lay out this tangled web as clearly as possible. So, ten years prior, at a dinner with Osborn and his wife, Laura, and for some reason Shral, Lucas tipped Osborn off that Laura was a Zatarian double-agent and that her arrest was going to cost Osborn his job. Naturally, Lucas would assume his position, making it blatantly obvious that she has means and motive to get Osborn out of the way. Nevertheless, he poisons his wife to preserve his role, and Lucas’s admission that she was the mole all along is treated as a major cliffhanger. It’s bizarre.
What’s perhaps even more bizarre is that the overarching plot of the season – Jax uniting all the races of the galaxy to ultimately save it at the behest of the Ancients – has been completely abandoned, it seems. Then again she was only really half-arsing it anyway. Aside from being absurdly hot – something I only mention because the show reminds us of it constantly – I really couldn’t tell you what Jax actually brings to this team, and what her special Pandora importance really amounts to. Now she’s on her way to testify before the Ancients, but to what end? What has she achieved? What, in her current position, can she conceivably do now? The fact that there is only one remaining episode to answer all of these questions is worrying. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the CW never seem to cancel anything.
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