Tag: Gord

Between: War (recap and review)

Jennette McCurdy in Between as Wiley
Last week’s episode, End of the Rope raised the stakes and really put things on the boil for the characters of Between and this week in War, they continue to show just how bad things can get in the beleaguered community of young survivors.

Adam’s father wakes him up in the prison to take him to safety. Pat is eaten up with guilt over killing Amanda and Chuck arms his lads with the intent of arresting the Creekers for his sister’s death. Gord tells Hannah she should have let him know she was married and the Mennonite girl returns to her community. Wiley wants to talk to Chuck and Pat’s sister tells her it is a very bad idea.

Chuck and his police force head to the Creeker residence and the family is not there. They find the car, that Pat struck Amanda with. Frances talks Gord into taking the milk into town for Melissa and the kids she looks after.

Adam’s father tries to take him to the tunnel that he used to get into Pretty Lake. The boy learns that not only is there no cure but that his dad worked on the virus. His father tells Adam that he is not immune and that there is no protection against it. Samantha tells Chuck that she knows the Creekers were responsible for Amanda’s death and tells the boy that Pat is there having confessed.

Adam and his continue to talk. Soldiers arrive and Adam’s dad says that they are early and that the military will kill the kids to prevent the spread of the virus. The soldiers, he says, do not know that their masks will not protect them and they believe they are inoculating the children to save them, not kill them. He coughs up blood and dies. Afterward, Adam stands by a door and looks ready to leave Pretty Lake.

Ronnie, Wiley and baby Jason, along with Tracey show up to save Pat. As things spiral out of control, Chuck takes aim at the elder Creeker to shoot him, Wiley jumps in the way demanding that she be killed for Amanda’s death as well. Gord and Melissa show up and big sister forces Wiley to tell Chuck who Jason’s father is and it is revealed that Chuck’s dad is the father. Jason is his brother.

The soldiers rush to “round up a 1,000 kids” and give them the injections. The group at the church; Chuck and the rest, begin to break up when Adam arrives. He tells them that the soldiers outside are there to kill them all. Chuck argues that it cannot be true and Adam points out the lack of communication with the outside world, no television, land-lines or cell phone signals. He also reminds them of the plane being shot down. The government, Adam says, are cleaning up their mess.

After striking Adam, the soldiers are overpowered and Wiley says that if Adam is wrong, “We’re all screwed.” All the kids are being taken to the prison of their shots and Wiley learns that Adam came back to save the kids. Gord and Adam dress up in the soldiers uniforms to escort the group to the prison and stop the soldiers from injecting the kids and wait for them to die. Mark says he can help them get to the control room at the prison as he was an inmate.

While Gord and his group head for the prison, Melissa and Wiley clear the air about the baby and their relationship. Two more soldiers appear and take them to the prison. The plan seems to be working as Gord and the guys follow Mark to the control room. Meanwhile the soldiers are injecting the smaller children.

As Wiley and Melissa are being transported, the soldier driving begins to choke and he dies. The van crashes. The guys are caught out by two other soldiers and the group split up after overpowering the duo. Adam makes it to the control room and as he begins to lock the prison down, his father turns up, not dead after all.

When questioned about it, Adam’s father explains that they are the only two who are immune to the virus as he used his own DNA to make the stuff. It was never meant to be used but Art Carey “went rogue” and infected the town of Pretty Lake. Adam has to shoot his father to save the remaining kids.

The rest of the show is a race between soldiers dying and kids being murdered and a huge dose of irony.

By the end of Between the price of survival has been dear. Two main characters die and there are a couple of heart-stopping moments when it looks like Frances will be killed as well. Rather interestingly, the whole idea behind the virus is population control, similar to the back story behind another Canadian series, The Lottery.

Adam learns that not only can father’s lie, but that governments do as well. Dad may have come back to get the boy, but at the price of killing the rest of the kids in Pretty Lake and the government knows this is happening. The cell phones come back on so the prime minister can tell the kids about the injections. Like the short lived Canadian series The Lottery, the underlying message of Between is that government’s lie and that we are all expendable for the greater good.

The episode War continues to show just how bad things can get in the contaminated area. This Netflix series has turned the corner from a slow uninteresting start to a show that should not be missed. Jennette McCurdy has grown into her character, Jesse Carere has made Adam believable and the rest of the cast are rocking their roles out of the park. Between should be re-named Unmissable.

Between: End of the Rope (recap and review)

Publicity poster for Between
Between, the Netflix Canadian answer to The Tribe has finally gotten past its slow and illogical beginnings in End of the Rope. Taking until episode five to get things moving may not have been the best game plan in the world, but at long last the show has picked up pace and gotten interesting with a few twists thrown in for good measure. The show tried to invigorate its plot and action last week when Ronnie attempted to rape Wiley while under the influence of booze and Oxy.

It looks like the new mother’s decision to stay with the Creeker’s for a break was not the best of all ideas. The only member of the ostracized family who thinks clearly is the sister, apparently, as later Pat decides that holding Wiley and, the newly named baby, Jason hostage in order to get antibiotics for Annie is the way to go. Ronnie is going through withdrawal on top of suffering from a major headache after sis smacked him with the business end of shovel in mid “Wiley attack.”

Gord is called to town after Vince, one of Chuck’s hockey team “cops,” gets very ill; vomiting, running a fever and unable to move. The “country doc” says the boy has a burst appendix and Chuck says he will fly him over the fence for treatment. Gord warns against this action saying that authorities outside the fence will shoot the plane down. Kevin, another hockey cop, says his grandpa taught him a little about flying and he will take Vince.

Later the lads stand and watch as the plane makes its hesitant takeoff and within seconds of becoming airborne the aircraft is shot down with a rocket. Chuck and Gord have a fight after this and the boy in charge orders Gord to stay of it. Amanda discovers Jack missing and goes to find him. She finds Harrison’s (the diabetic boy who stole the car in last week’s show) sister with the dog.

Adam searches Art Carey’s house and finds that the man had access to the Pretty Lake prison and has a key card to room 14. He goes to investigate. Once inside the prison, the woman prison guard locks him in and confronts Adam with a shotgun. He runs and she shoots at the boy chasing him through the facility.

Ronnie, who earlier flushed all the Oxy down the toilet, starts to lose it because Jason will not stop screaming. Amanda sees Jack run off and goes chasing after him. Wiley and Pat go back to get some antibiotics and bump into Melissa at the drugstore. After some harsh words they get the drugs and are driving back to the Creeker home. While discussing Ronnie, the Amanda runs in front of the vehicle and is run down. She dies and Pat tells Wiley they have to get out of there.

Hannah, the Mennonite girl who went to school with Gord, treats his wounds after his fight with Chuck and moves in with him and his sister. Earlier she took some oil for the milk cows to treat their mastitis and when a bearded mennonite shows up, Gord thinks he want the liniment back, but it turns out that Hannah is married and he wants her back.

Ronnie goes after the baby and his sister with a knife and comes close to killing himself. Adam almost dies and is saved by the last person he expects to see behind the fence. Things in Pretty Lake have “gone South” with the force of an avalanche. Three, or more, dead and it looks like their problems are far from over. Jennette McCurdy is picking up as Wiley and the rest of the cast are getting into their characters and becoming that little bit more believable. Well done Between, you have upped the game and made the show more enjoyable because of it. Keep it up.