Joshua has been tried and sentenced for betraying the Gua, but Cade Foster is determined to rescue him. Unfortunately, saving Joshua consists of showing a lot of clips from previous episodes.
(U.S. premiere on August 27, 2000)
Written by Chris Brancato, Albert J. Salke, Daniel Howard Cerone, Peter Elkoff and Theresa Rebeck
Directed by Gilbert Shilton
| Nostradamus Says |
In the abandoned halls of industry,
A twice-blessed phantom cajoles
The doubly converted acolyte.
Nostradamus takes the week off. |
JOSHUA: I acted in defiance of what we had become: predators without thought or conscience. |
CAIN: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! |
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GUEST STARS
Venus Terzo – Interrogator
L. Harvey Gold – Technician
WHAT HAPPENED
Joshua’s trial is over. The Gua have been realigning his brain for the last two days, and it has worked.
A Gua interrogator checks the results, and Joshua confesses to helping Cade Foster and the human "scum" against the Gua invasion. She tells him to consider his betrayal, and orders a technician to begin uploading his mind into an orb.
Cade strides into the room. He guns down the technician – though he misses the interrogator, who flees – grabs Joshua and runs. (spoilers)
ANALYSIS
Once upon a time, there was a show called First Wave. It had a handsome leading man, a smart-mouthed computer hacker sidekick and a collection of alien invasion stories that has ranged from dumb to intriguing.
Since about mid-way through its first season, First Wave has also had Joshua, an alien with deep reservations about his people’s mission. In addition to saving Cade’s bacon on a regular basis, Joshua added a welcome note of inner conflict by loving his own people enough to want to stop their invasion of Earth.
Now the most complex personality on the show is stored away in a steel ball. In its place is a new bad guy named "Cain" who ends the episode with a loud evil villain’s laugh.
Is this supposed to be an improvement?
Pictures from better episodes
It doesn’t help that Joshua’s sendoff is a limp cheat of an episode. This show had fascinating possibilities -- for instance, how would Joshua stand up to a Gua psychological experiment? -- that were wasted in a series of clips from previous episodes and tedious arguments between Cade and Joshua.
Joshua spends most of the episode parroting the same old Gua party line. As for the clips, they’re badly padded, filling up several minutes of the episode with "exciting" shots of Cade sneaking around darkened rooms.
Worst of all, the entire episode is rendered meaningless when it’s revealed to be nothing more than an "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"-style hallucination during the upload of Joshua’s personality into storage. Presumably this means Joshua has shaken off his "realignment," but that won’t be important unless and until he’s put back into a body.
In the meantime, the obviously Eeeeeeevil Cain is running around in Joshua’s husk. While Cade Foster’s inevitable shock upon encountering the "new" Joshua will undoubtedly be amusing, it’s hard to see how this character adds to the show.
Joshua was the Magneto of First Wave -- a man with potential for good who’s mostly on the wrong side. Now we’ve got Snidely Whiplash instead.
Roger Cross is a talented actor, and he should be able to make something out of the role of Cain. But unless Brancato and company have a writing miracle in their back pockets, this character "development" is a dumb move.
WHAT WE LEARN
All the other races in the galaxy used to pick on the Gua. The Gua solved this problem by embracing an agenda of galactic conquest.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
It’s unusual to give writing credits for clips from previous episodes, but that’s what seems to have happened here. What’s going on in the First Wave production offices?
REALITY CHECK
Since the entire episode happens in Joshua’s head, any flashbacks he has should be from his own memories – but Joshua wasn’t in "Blind Witness" or "Normal, Illinois", and there are no surviving Gua witnesses to the scenes presented here. Why is he able to visualize the events in those episodes?
TUNE IN SEPTEMBER 10
Cade poses as a Mafia gunman in "Underworld".
Do you watch First Wave? Really? Send your comments to the editor.
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