'A Home' is a reference to the community that Vanessa and Julius stumble upon in the woods. The episode largely focuses on them, with the continuing side story of Sam and his twisted obsession with the kid who looks like Mohamad.
Like much of last season, this episode did drag in parts. The show has done a terrific job at developing Sam as this creepy, sadistic intimidating menace. His storyline with this kid who we don't really care about had its moments, but too much time was spent on it. We get the point - Sam is obsessed with Mohamad, let's move on.
Elsewhere, was Vanessa and Julius. Their relationship has really grown over these past two episodes since Vanessa turned him back into a human. Julius has become very protective of Vanessa, and vice versa. It was an inspiring character moment to see Julius open up about his past as a failed boxer and using that as an allegory to Vanessa being out of control.
As the two ventured further into the woods they came across these creepy skin walkers. It is great to see the show diversifying the creatures up a bit and giving us a new class of vamps. More type of vamps could be the shot in the arm this show could use.
The show also introduced us to this home of child soldiers, as Vanessa perceives, run by two caring individuals. A little bit more time in the episode could have been used to develop this community, maybe more action as they defend against some feral vamps.
Regardless, it was quite the twist to find out some of the kids came from the school that Sam was at, tying the two storylines of the episode together.
Time will tell if it was worth saving the confrontation between Vanessa and Sam to next episode, though considering how much time was spent on the two storylines this episode, it would have been nice to see it come to a more explosive conclusion. Also, the episode lacked the punch that a scuffle between two characters would have provided.
The fact their fight will probably not lead to much either, since Mohamad and Sam need to confront each other at least one more time, gives me reason to believe it was not really worth holding it out to next episode. We shall see.
Overall, the episode did a fabulous job in developing the growing relationship between Julius and Vanessa, as well as, further establishing Sam as a menacing and creepy force to be reckoned with. However, the time could have been balanced out better between the two storylines, and the teased scuffle between Vanessa and Sam was the punch this episode needed, but backed out of.
7/10
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