Quick apology for missing last week – I was out in San Diego for Comic Con (lucky me!), and when I got back, I spent a lot of time putting together the video interviews that were done out there. I hope you’ve seen them – if not, you can find links to each interview (with Roxanne, Tom, Tony Head, Alan Dale, Chris Egan and Vaun Wilmott) on our Dominion home page. And by the time I finished those, it was just about Thursday, and time for the new episode!
But last week was fabulous, was it not? At the press panel, each cast member told us that we really needed to make sure we saw it, and they were right. Claire discovers that Clementine has been inhabiting her mother’s body, but retains some memory of her former life; Alex learns some more secrets of his markings and uses that knowledge to attempt an eviction (a removal of the possessing angel’s spirit from the body it has taken) on Claire’s mother. David learns William’s Black Acolyte secret, and after attacking the Acolytes is himself taken prisoner and “broken.” The General confronts Arika and makes a deal with her for Helena’s feared “air force” – in reality, one old B-52 bomber, but capable of delivering a bomb to Gabriel’s lair.
Which leads us to last night, the penultimate episode. We’re left wondering which side anyone is on. Uriel? No idea. After promising both Michael and Gabriel that she would be on their side, Uriel’s real allegiance is a mystery. It may be that she is on a side not yet revealed. And Michael? In flashbacks, we see him supposedly saving a child from a massacre in 1900 BC Babylon (according to the Dominion website); at the end of the episode, we learn that he was not saving the child, that he had caused the massacre because he believed that mankind was worshiping the angels rather than God, and Gabriel was the one who rescued man. David Whele refuses to give in to his traitorous son, but William tells him that everything he does is out of love for his father, and that Gabriel plans to save a selected group of humans after killing off the majority. Noma, who resurrects an old relationship with Alex, is revealed to actually be a higher angel, put in place to protect Alex by Michael. Only Alex, still trying to come to terms with who he is and what is supposed to do, has pure motives and an absence of deceit. We think.
Is Michael trying to save humanity now because of guilt from trying to destroy it centuries earlier? Gabriel has hinted that Michael is not what he seems to be, and Alex should now question his mentor’s motivations, his goals and even his word. It was very interesting to see some of Michael’s past, as a destroying, warrior angel rather than a saving angel. Gabriel tells Alex that the Flood, as depicted in the Bible, was a fiction created by man to help understand the event – Noah wasn’t really trying to save animals, he was trying to save people. From Michael. And it was only one instance of violent disagreement between siblings – timeless, ancient siblings who have eternity to fight and to make up, with their jealousy of their Father’s creation (mankind) coming between them. Alex’s markings have already warned him to “beware those closest to you,” (which is the name of next week’s season finale) but we don’t yet know who that refers to. It may be Michael – but could it be Claire? Noma, now revealed to be a higher angel? Or all of them?
Gabriel meets The Chosen One – and learns that Alex is beginning to come into his power, when Alex tries an eviction, attempting to remove Gabriel from Lewis, the higher angel Gabriel has possessed. The realization that Alex has become stronger than Gabriel thought he could be is obvious in his face as the eviction is successful. Alex’s powers will only grow stronger – he no longer needed the Apocrypha to conduct evictions (although they weren’t always successful – as he told Gabriel about the angel who snapped her own neck before it was complete).
The episode’s title, Ourobouros, is an ancient symbol depicting a dragon or snake eating its own tail. William Whele tells his father that David is the Ourobouros – but it could just as easily apply to Michael, continuing to try to relieve his guilt and creating a continuing problem.
At the ComicCon panels, Vaun Wilmott offered this spoiler – that someone important wouldn’t be alive at the end. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s not Alex – big leap, I know. And right now, the most likely candidate is David Whele, last seen looking broken in mind and body – but I wouldn’t count him out. He’s already been brought down – not only by William, but by General Riesen as well, who let him know that any deal David had been making with Arika was based on a false presumption (that Helena possessed a formidable air force). Someone else, So who has a greater way to fall? Whose death would cause a larger impact than David’s? We know the General has a life-threatening heart condition, and Alan Dale told us that we will see him leave the city (which hasn’t happened yet, so we know it will happen next week). I’m not laying odds or taking bets, but my guess is that it would be either William or Becca. We’ll see!
As of this moment, we have no word yet on a second season. This show has a strong following, and last night’s orchestrated tweets caused the hashtag #RenewDominion to trend. Vaun Wilmott says he has two more seasons mapped out, and a general outline for 2 seasons past that – it’s easy to see mutliple locations and storylines coming out of this premise. We haven’t seen Helena or New Delphi – I’d love to see this show expand into new territory. Earlier this year, I covered Revolution, another post-apocalyptic show. Revolution’s first season showed a lot of promise, and the possibility of wider story lines, but the second season mired down in one location (I know, it really had more than that, but other locations were made to be secondary and brief) and a storyline that went over and over the same material. If Syfy gives Dominion another season, I hope that Vaun’s vision is broader than Revolution’s was, and that future seasons will just build on the excitement this first season has created.
