Alana and Marko’s relationship continues to fracture and my heart continues to break. Think of Hazel! Make it better! But my cries have yet to be heard. I fear the coming darkness, but I can’t look away.
Note: This recap may contain spoilers!
We start off the issue with dear, sweet Hazel being entertained by Izabel. They are soon interrupted by Klara, but cannot understand what the woman is saying because the translator rings are off-line. It’s interesting to read what her native language actually sounds like, even if we have no clue what she’s saying. But Hazel quickly clues into what grandmother is talking about, as she has the ability to pick up language fairly quickly at her young age. It seems Klara is worried about Alana and Marko, just as we all are.
Klara has every right to be concerned, as we soon see with the way Alana’s acting on set. She’s turned into an addict, blowing her lines and jonesing for another hit. Yuma has become fed up, trying to show Alana how her improvised lines that are pulled from Heist’s books might well clue in someone in the audience to start making connections between her character and her real self. And where would that put Hazel and Marko and the rest of them? In danger, that’s where. Alana is sure that Yuma is over-reacting, but her fears turn out to be true, as our favorite reporter duo is shown briefly, with a promise that they’re going to follow this new lead right to Alana’s front door. But that’s a tease for the future, not now.
No, now we have to focus on Prince Robot IV and his sorry mental state. He’s returned home, finally, to pay respects to his dead wife and meet up with his father, King Robot. Dear old dad certainly has some compensation issues going on, judging by the size of his wide-screen head, and he’s also pretty fed up with the constant screw-ups that are occurring with his son. The king is tired of Prince Robot IV’s excuses. Yes, the war messed him up, but he’s also failed in his mission to capture Alana and he will not be given a second chance to track down his wife’s killer. The king has spoken.
But the prince can certainly take on the mission on his own, without the king’s consent. And he will do so with the help of Special Agent Gale, who has returned from cleaning up Prince Robot IV’s mess on Sextillion. The prince is still out to put the blame on someone, and he pulls his gun on the agent, claiming he was responsible for the prince being pulled away from his family. Gale is quick to defuse the situation with the promise of information the prince will certainly want to hear. Gale knows where Dengo has gotten to, because Landfall Intelligence has stashed beacons in all the ships in the fleet. They can track him, and they shall.
Back on the planet, destruction is the name of the game. First we have the destruction of Alana and Marko’s relationship, which is always a source of hurt to witness. Alana gets a ride home from a fellow actress and Marko catches her taking the drugs. Before he can get in too deep on the blame on that, she lashes out about Ginny. And so it escalates. When Alana admits that she may have been high in front of Hazel before, Marko lashes out, throwing the bag of groceries at her. He tries to apologize, but she tells him to leave. They’re breaking my heart!
It may well be that Alana doesn’t have a job or a drug supplier left, though, after Dengo is through. He arrives at the studio just as Yuma and the rest are closing up shop. When his gun and threats are not taken seriously, he proves how serious he is by shooting one of them through the head and another through the chest. Yuma is left to plead for her life and we are left to wonder what she can offer to get her out of certain death. Such a darkness closing in on them all. Where will it end?
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
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