Dark Angel
"Flushed"

Airdate: October 17, 2000

Poor little Max. Her seizures have returned full force, and while receiving sympathy from foxy Logan Cale may be of some comfort, without medication, she is in danger of lapsing into a never-waking coma. Call it a glitch in the genetic engineering process. To stop the shaking, Max is in desperate need for Tryptophan (a basic food supplement), which is hard to come by in these post-Pulse days. When she gets it, she scarfs it down as though she were a dope fiend looking for a fix. Unaware of her condition, Original Cindy (the wisecracking black lesbian) mistakes this as a unhealthy drug addiction and flushes all her pills down the toilet.

What's a junkie to do? Well, this one steals money from her friends, steals cars from gangsters, and breaks into hospital supply rooms. The latter offense lands the ailing, incapacitated Max in prison, and later, she becomes a future sex prisoner in the Warden's quarters. Will Logan, Original Cindy and friends be able to get to her before its too late? This is our pouting protagonist's dilemma of the week.

First off, I know I've been critical of Max's rotten dialogue the last couple weeks, but I must say, I got a real kick out of the so-called streetwise slang coming out of Original Cindy (who has taken to speaking about herself in the third person). She gets extra points in her ability to deliver the line:

"Let go of me, you rat-soup-slurpin', rankle-ass, pepper gut, no good skank lovin', donut eating, peep-oppressing po-po sunuvabitch!!!"

... in a fairly convincing fashion. I think she's been watching too much of that roody-poo, candy-ass-whuppin' People's Champ, The Rock on WWF Smackdown.

And how do I feel about Logan? Where Lydecker represents Evil, Logan is just a puppet of the opposite. He has no real character flaws, so it feels worthless to judge him on his actions. Oh, there is one minor, superficial detail I'd like to address to the hair department: Logan's hair is just too damned coifed for him to maintain that crackpot, unshaven look. Either mess up the locks or take a razor to the face!

While on the subject of appearances, I am relieved to say that at least we are spared of Alba Dressed Up Like a Whore (as featured in the "Pilot") or Wet Alba (as seen in "Heat"). I much prefer Sick Alba, even if her seizures are a little uneven. And instead of confusingly edited fight sequences, the creators have opted for the Bionic Woman approach. Now Max demonstrates her superhuman powers in slow motion! I can't wait until they come up with an accompanying sound effect for it.

But seriously folks...

"Flushed" has a strong thematic line that you can read loud and clear throughout the episode; that of overwhelming corruption in the city. A sector policeman takes money under the table so that Max and other residents can live in an old, condemned apartment building; gangsters are racketeering small businesses in Chinatown; a correctional officer takes money off Max in a pat-down; another officer leaks information to Logan, and another who will trade favours for stiletto heels. Top this off, we have a corrupt prison warden who likes to molest young girls.

Even the good guys have to work this way. Logan ends up blackmailing the sector policeman into silence, and Max simply kills her enemies rather than bring them to justice. They do this seemingly without conscience. Perhaps this is the meaning of the dark part of Max's Dark Angel moniker, I don't know. But if anything, it gives us a heightened sense that to get anything achieved in this society, everything is based on who you know. This serves quite well to shed more light on the post-Pulse dystopia of Seattle.

I'm also glad to see that Dark Angel has not yet gone into a villain of the week system (but it's still early). The first half of the story still revolves around Max, mysteries of her past, and this one really plays on her vulnerabilities. Her actions have consequences -- she inadvertently gets everyone in her apartment building "evicted", and she is too weak to use her killing machine powers to escape from jail, even with the help of her cellmate, Break (Abraham Benrubi). This allows for her friends to be showcased in their attempts to save her for once.

Unfortunately, the writers of this show, who are not too strong in the subtlety department, try to cram in too much unnecessary material which just over-complicates things. One such example is an unbelievable, out-of-left-field flashback of Max's experiences as a young child living in an abusive foster home, and how she was unable to help her sister who was getting the brunt of this violence. I guess being imprisoned as a lab rat in a military prison isn't bad enough? This seems like unnecessary cruelty.

The only purpose for this backstory is to give Max something to identify with when she meets Maria, a young girl who is living in the Warden's quarters as his servant. It is implied that he is sexually abusing this poor girl. As if that isn't motivation enough for Max to want to kick the sick bastard's ass and get Maria the hell out of there! But no. In order to make the warden become even more evil, he must take on the spirit of her drunken foster dad as well. Is this really necessary? Giving Max this guilt complex is a little too much to swallow at this point.

Lydecker and his henchmen also make a sudden, fruitless appearance late in the third act. Why bother? Max has enough problems what with her health, the warden, Maria, or simply the fact that she's trapped within the guarded walls of a prison! His incompetent SWAT team never gets close to Max anyway, so what's the point in including them? Before they arrived, I saw potential in a scene when Max is fingerprinted and photographed at the time of her arrest. Now that she's been catalogued in a computer, it would give Lydecker the edge, to track her down; something to crop up in a future episode?

But no again. Thanks to the perfect computer skills and the inside connections of the wealthy Logan Cale, all evidence is erased. "Flushed" ties up every single loose string by its conclusion. Order is restored. Infuriatingly happy music plays over the final scenes. But if it's between happy endings or Max's deep thoughts atop the Space Needle, I think you know which one I'd pick.

-- Julie Ng

Dark Angel airs at 9pm EST/8pm MNT, Tuesdays on FOX.

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