'That Never Should Have Happened to You' is a line from the episodes cold opening, which saw Richards thwarting an attempted rape on Shawna Babcock by one of the guards at Project Noah in her pre-viral days.
'That Never' brought all the characters together wonderfully, though this was essentially Babcock's story. Sprinkled throughout the hour we got to see key moments from Babcock's past as she telepathized parts of her memory to Richards to garner his sympathy and to stop him from euthanizing her.
It is a big positive to see the show spending time with these antagonists and making us sympathize with them. The young Shawna Babcock especially is a very sympathetic character, portrayed brilliantly by Brianne Howley, as we find out that she was the product of neglectful parenting, to say the least, having been raped by her step dad from ages 8 to 16, while her mom, who continued to treat her like a piece of crap, stood idly by. It is these experiences that led her to murder her parents.
The episode in facts acts as a double entrendre. It is a line from the opening scene, but also, all these events - the sexual abuse, her prison sentence, being turned into a vampire - should never happened to Shawna; she deserved so much more.
Richards certainly feels this way about Shawna. It was great to see him getting soem depth as a character, as we see him slowly losing it due to Babcock being in his head. However, the show made it clear that even before all went to hell, he did have a soft spot for the young delinquent.
Aside from Babcock, was the continued relationship between Mark-Paul Gosselar and Saniyya Sidney kept their strong chemistry going as Amy and Brad. Amy continues to be the resourceful child we had seen right off the bat in the beginning as she counted steps, memorized the keypad code, created distractions, and caused a ruckus to force her captives to reunite her with Brad.
Brad acting like a corny dad checking the closet and under her bed for monsters as she chuckled away was such a heartwarming scene and one that had eerie implications considering the vampires that exist in the basement.
Brad was not the only one who Amy found solace in though. The exchanging of letters under the crack of the door between her and next door neighbour, Carter, was very sweet and cute. It sure will be sad when Carter becomes a full-fledged vampire, though I am sure he will be one with more of a conscious and hopefully someone who will protect Amy on occasion.
Less interesting and least likeable of all the characters in this show so far is Sykes (Caroline Chikezie). She talks a lot about the morals of what Project NOAH is doing but then justifies it with the fact that this could save the world and find a cure. We get a sense she has second thoughts, but do not quite feel it just yet.
More sympathetic is Dr Lear who began putting two and two together - noticing that Fanning and Babcock were communicating with each other based on his astute observation of how they were the only ones not eating like when two people are talking to each other at a dinner table.
It looks like Jonas is turning more and more to the good side as he realizes that things are getting out of control, and we see the potential formation of an alliance between him and Wolgast. That exchange of dialogue between them was interesting in that we got to see the big V word used for the first time when Wolgast asked why the virals were not called vampires since they drink blood and turn to ash in the sun (how he knows this btw is anyone's guess). I thought Lear's reply, "there's no such thing as vampires," would have made a fantastic title for this episode, but clearly, the writers intended 'That Never Should Have Happened to You' to be Brianne's episode - no complaints here.
Elsewhere in 'That Never' was Lila, who we see looking into the 12 inmates her ex recruited for Project Noah, before passing it on to the reporter to look further into the case. Also, I am happy to see Lacy (Kecia Lewis) alive. I felt her apparent death last week was way to quick, there was so much more growth with her character to be had, and am happy to see that she is not only alive and kicking, but locked and loaded and ready to go to war.
The episode packed in so much in such relatively little time, giving us plenty of terror with these virals, while still taking the time to develop the various characters that make up the ensemble, on top of the development of Amy and Brad's strong chemistry. With the fast pace, strong characters and engrossing storytelling, The Passage is quickly becoming must-watch television and an absolute favourite.
9/10
