Review: Fades 1.3

"... Ok then."

Halfway through this series, and Fades continues to amaze me. The series continues to mix old horror tropes into new directions with a focus on character that at times feels intrusive. While it was hard to tell at times, this week certainly raised the stakes in the series' mythology, and raised the stakes in the more personal side of the story as well. We were left on a brilliant cliffhanger that left me really wanting next week.
     At home, Paul's relationship with Jay came to the forefront, bonking her for the first time and having the relationship revealed to his sister. As the key feature of their relationship for the first two hours, it felt a little strange when the discovery was cut short when an angry Paul accidentally used his powers to fuse sister Anna's mouth together. Mac became depressed after no one remembered his birthday, until Paul (who's been seeing increasingly more vivid visions of apocalyse, this time with a strange anti-christ figure) remembered and set the record straight. This takes up roughly half of the episode, and Paul only ventures back towards the Angelics when he collapses in Mac's house. In general, I found this side of the storyline to be genuinely human, combining humour and emotional poignancy. I was moved and amused; there's nothing wrong with that.
     Neil, however, was facing a different story. Incredibly wounded from the attack last week, he called upon Angelics from other areas to help him out. They tried to track down the first Fade to escape through, known as Pullus, who we see clips of throughout the episode undergoing a cocoon based transformation. Paul arrived just as Neil began to die of his injuries, and managed to cure every scar and blemish on his body - even his trademark blotted eye is healed. Paul also helps the Angelics to capture Natalie in order to discover the new Fades' limitations, but it's too late - we see at the end of the episode that Pullus has emerged from his cocoon as a human-looking man, the same man seen in Paul's apocalyptic visions. At the same time, Paul is hit by a van and is seen to die, delivering our cliffhanger.

"We were Angelics. I still am."

     Another more touching side to the story was the Mark storyline, which was a lot more involved here. Mark, fresh from last week's revelations, kept badgering Mac's dad about his suspicions surround Neil. On Sarah's request, Neil goes round and tells Mark the truth, translating across Sarah's feelings. This makes his reconsider everything and there's a poignant moment where he has a one-sided conversation with Sarah. Mac's dad is seen to have been promoted beyond his abilities, and is being stressed to find a culprit for the various deaths caused by the Fades. He arrests Mark, who has connections to all of the victims.
     One thing that I thought was impressive this week was the way that the episode raised the stakes everywhere. It wasn't uneven as Being Human oft was in that department, as I'm seeing while reviewing the second series. It also got on with things. Factors that I expected to last the whole series have now been "resolved" in interesting ways, and so it'll be more surprising when we do see how the plot thickens over the second half of the series.
     Other than that, it's business as usual from Fades. With consistantly brilliant performances by all leads, the story has raised the stakes to an even pace, racking up the tension to breaking point. At the same time, 1.3 delivered touching and human developments of our main leads and their relationships, taking the trivial and making it just as good as the supernatural. Maybe it's because I'm the target age range for this channel, or perhaps it's because I've never seen anything like it, but Fades has continued its consistant quality beyond my expectations.

Thanks.