Last week in Dominion, Claire Riesen shot Zoe right between the eyes. Blaming her for killing her unborn child the Vega leader granted the rebel leader a quick death and this week Lady Riesen learns that she got it wrong. Zoe was unaware of the sniper that David Whele set up and now Lady Riesen feels regret and guilt. In The Seed of Evil, the series finally moves things back to Vega, Julian finally overplays his hand and the town of Mallory takes on added significance.
Arika’s backstory is revealed, at least her beginnings, and Gabriel escapes. Michael is weakened by visions and Noma loses out. David and William are reunited while Gates Foley proves that he is not just a techie. The rebellion moves forward, because Lady Riesen makes a difficult decision and Arika has a wild card that has not yet been played.
In New Delphi, Julian gives Gabriel a drop of “darkness” from the amphora, it is placed in the archangel’s eye. The plan is to destroy Gabriel’s mind allowing Lyrae/Julian to enter the archangel’s body. Back in Vega, Claire and Gates speak with Arika; who tells her captor that David was responsible for the death of Lady Riesen’s baby and she gives up Whele. After their conversation, Arika’s backstory is revealed after she tell’s Claire that, like her, she is nothing like her father.
Cue first part of Arika’s backstory: 20 years previously, Arika is with her father Bobit (Deepak Verma) and they are in their plane. The aircraft is used to provide aid to those who need it and Bobit, her father, turns out to be a “The ends never justifies the means,” type leader. Without any other information, till later in the episode, already it is apparent that Arika, at least, really is nothing like her father.
Whele senior urges the V1’s to fight and they do. He reveals that when he was a V6 he feared that the general populace would rise up. The poor outnumber the rich greatly and even though they do not have the armory weapons at their disposal, David convinces them that just through their sheer numbers Claire Riesen can be defeated.
David heads for shelter at a local bar and Foley’s symptoms get worse. After coughing up more blood, he starts to take a drink and has an epiphany. He remembers Arika paid special attention to the water he drank in her presence. Gates knows she has had him poisoned. Michael, Alex and Noma attempt to get into Vega and find that Julian has placed his eight-ball army all around the city.
As the trio walk toward the city’s walls, Alex reaches down to shake one of the eight-balls. The creature does not react and they move on. The shaken eight-ball, like her colleagues, is in stasis, but she does slowly react to Alex’s touch. Roaring, she leaps up and her movement starts the other eight-balls moving as well. Michael, Alex and Noma are under attack.
In the heat of battle, Michael passes out and has a vision of Mallory. Julian continues to work on Gabriel and trying to drive a wedge between him and his brother archangel Michael.
He succeeds.
Gates challenges Arika about the poisoning. The traitorous leader of Helena bargains with Foley, telling him that she will give him the antidote if he betrays Claire and Vega. In the bar, David sees William. He pushes forward to see his son and William takes time out from speaking to the masses to have a drink with his father.
As the two men drink, William tells his father that “William is dead” and confesses that he is grateful to his father. “Where,” he asks David, “would Jesus be without Judas?” The offspring that Whele senior left in the Arizona desert to die has slipped into madness after his journey of survival.
Convinced that he has broken Gabriel’s mind, Julian gloats. He tells the archangel that he has lost Michael and that soon Gabriel will know what darkness really is. After imagining how great it will to have wings again. Lyrae/Julian enters Gabriel’s body.
In the Vega war room, Claire and Gates learn that Arika did indeed sell out her “partner in crime” David Whele. Foley begins coughing again and after telling Claire that he is alright, they share a moment. Lady Riesen tells Gates that one thing will not change and she tenderly kisses him. The alarms go off because of Michael, Alex and Noma fighting the eight-ball army to get over the wall.
Looking at the cameras Claire sees Alex is alive.
The trio make a stand and fight the eight-balls. Back in the war room, Claire orders that troops leave the reactor and help out Alex. Gates realizes that Alex is “her soldier.” Foley leaves the war room and continues coughing up blood. He is reading from a small book, entering Arika’s room he approaches a plant with red and white flowers. Double-checking his book, Gates grabs a flower and eats it. He then falls over, twitches violently and lays still.
Back at New Delphi, Gabriel spits out Lyrae’s presence forcing it back into Julian. He then controls the Dyad, like a “meat puppet” and he has Julian cut his chains off. Now free, Gabriel proves, through a little “I’ve been here forever type speech” that arrogance (Julian) is no match for hubris (the now “dark” Gabriel.) The archangel forces Julian to run himself through with his own sword.
Back at Vega, Michael, Alex and Noma are rescued by Claire’s troops. The three enter the war room to rapturous applause. Gate pays Arika a visit and tells her that he has cured himself, countering the monkshood with foxglove and that he has talked Claire into moving up Arika’s execution. Arika tells Foley if he thinks she is going to hang, he is mistaken.
Cue another flashback to a much younger Arika losing her father. He dies on the aircraft Helena…Not a bad backstory at all; it explains where Arika got her coldblooded attitude from and where the name Helena originated.
In Vega, the reactor is taken by Whele’s revolutionary troops. David wants William to go with him to the reactor and sends his temporary sidekick outside. The man bumps into Kat (Lex King) who shoots him when he asks if she is looking for someone. “I’m looking for David Whele,” she tells the man’s corpse, “and you’re in my way.”
Julian has survived having a sword shoved through his torso and he escapes from New Delhi. Gabriel searches half-heartedly for Julian and decides he needs to kill his “treacherous” brother Michael instead. Grabbing Pete, Alex’s friend that Julian turned into an eight-ball, Gabriel sets off for Vega after learning that the Dyad’s eight-ball army is now his to command.
Claire and Alex reconnect. Riesen admits it was she who bombed the Aerie. She also tells him about losing their baby. Noma is feeling a little hard done by. She lost her wings and Alex, “What do I have,” Nomes asks Michael. “Honor,” Michael tells her. “More than any other angel…” Suddenly the archangel has another vision of Mallory.
Michael collapses.
The final scene in Dominion shows the town of Mallory and the black angel who spoke to Noma earlier. As he walks into the town, people can be heard saying that “It’s the prophet, the prophet has returned.”
Kudos to Carl Beukes who chewed up the scenery as Gabriel, “The Dark.” The archangel has always been “type ‘A’ personality, but with the added darkness of “God’s wrath” Gabriel is now twice as terrifying. Mad props to Simon Merrells as Julian and Shivani Ghai as Arika and Luke Allen-Gale as the “mad as a box of rocks” William Whele.
Honorable mention goes to Lex King as Kat. Keep your eye on this one, tall, statuesque and overwhelming, this actress is more than impressive. With mere seconds on screen, her character stays in the mind long after her short appearances.
Dominion airs Thursdays on SyFy. This is a great example of a small screen version of a so/so big screen film being made into gold with the right scripts and actors. Do not miss this show.
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