As we approach the second half of the first season, 'I Want To Know What You Taste Like' put Brad and Amy's bond to the test, while upping the horror elements and developing other characters relationships.
The search for Winston this week made for some exciting scenes, taking us out of the lab and into the wild. Watching Winston feeding on the poor lady in the cabin and then her eventual turn gave viewers a taste, to great effect, of the vampiric carnage that we can expect to see a lot more of as the series progresses. We also see just how deadly one vampire can be alone, with him turning the workers at the water station into his minions leading to quite the exciting scene as Richards, Wolgast, and others fought them off. All the while, Amy confronts Winston (I don't understand why she just didn't stay in the sun being that he was starting to burn up, but then again it is hard to think straight when you have a vampire on your tail), whence she is eventually saved by Brad.
Speaking of which, Brad and Amy's relationship reached its first hiccup with Amy becoming aggressively independent, and Wolgast not listening to her. Though I think it is important to have conflict, how it was written in did not feel natural and, instead, awfully forced, with Amy siding with Guilder way too quickly just because Wolgast wouldn't get her Wrinkle In Time book back. This felt less like a natural progression in their bond, and more of a sub-plot written in for the sake of adding conflict. More development was needed. However, it did lead to an incredibly emotional scene at the end where the two reconcile and apologize to each other. The chemistry between the two actors is just so on point.
One character who needs a lot more time to build chemistry with Brad is his ex-wife, Lila, who is finally reunited with the rest of the crew whence being confronted by an on the run Winston. Even with the main group, Lila is not given much to work with; however, with her and Brad seperated from the main group, we'll hopefully see more of her next week.
The episode also took time to develop another unlikely bond between Sykes and Babcock. Apparently, the head of the science department developed an affinity for the young deathrow inmate, with the latter convincing Sykes to not only bring her a horror movie for entertainment, but also to watch it with her, as we see in a flashback. Of course, their short lived friendship deteriorates when Babcock turns into a vampire, in which the question of who exactly is evil is asked. The scientists using human experiments? Or the experiements who were victimized and taken over by the savagery of the viral?
It is this very question that creates a quandry for Babcock. The show has made us sympathize human Babcock - a young girl raised under tragic circumstances who finds herself on deathrow due to murdering her rapist step dad and mom who stood idly by. Babcock as a human is sweet and does her best to do good amidst her circumstances, yet when the viral takes over, she is one of the more manipulative and savage of the vampires. We see this in this episode, the title being taken from a line Babcock says to Sykes, about how she can't wait to feed on her, angered by how Sykes manipulated her. Are we supposed to sympathize with Babcock? Or despise her? Things aren't as clear as they are with the more empathetic Carter or slimeball Fanning.
With regards to Sykes, we now understand why she is so determined to turn her back on Project NOAH and help Amy and Brad, this is personal, she sympathizes young Babcock and can't see another innocent human being manipulated.
More guilt ridden than Sykes is Lear who we see degrading emotionally scene by scene after his wife, finding out she has the virus, confronts him of his heinous actions. The scene where he admits being the cause of all this and resolutely states that it is time to kill them all showed us a Lear who has finally decided to take control and undo his wrongs. It was quite the turning point for Lear's character. This all makes it that much more woesome when he is forced to stop euthanizing the vamps due to their sires, Amy in particular, dying along with them.
Overall, as consistently great as The Passage has been, the show has yet to really elevate itself. We got a bit of a tease of the vampiric carnage that awaits around the corner with Winston's escape storyline this week, but the show continues to slow burn to that moment when things go full on crazy. The slow burn has been terrific due to a fantastic ensemble and some great writing building the relationships among the various characters, but hopefully, as we enter the second half of the season, things will start to get as chaotic as we expect this vampire show to get.
8/10
