1x03 Episode 3

(321-word review) This episode was more focused on the preparation of one's pieces rather than the moving of them, thereby being a little "uneventful" in a sense, except for the ending, which was significant. While that may lessen the impact for some people, the appreciable entertainment was still there, as it always is with this show; very entertaining, and I love it.

Something that seemed to have as much focus and runtime duration was the expansion of information about James' mother, simultaneously adding more depth to his character. Not only that, the most emotion we've seen, besides the usual, of James was shown and revealed in his interactions with Winter, Lorna, and Thorne, or at least I thought so: and after hardly any screen time in the previous episode, Thorne and Zilpha are back in a more meaningful spotlight, which will likely continue, as their appearances in this episode seemed somewhat kick-off-y; I think we can all agree that he's the most reprehensible character in the show.

More importantly, for me, the characters are much the driver as opposed to the story: maybe as much the driver as the story (when it's getting the job done), especially in instances like this episode, where the components of the story aren't as exciting as the general excitement has reached. That, of course, elevates the episodes where the excitement is at a higher level even further, but it still accomplishes significant elevation with episodes like this one. The characters are undoubtedly a big part of the entertainment; my favorites are James, Stuart, Lorna, and Zilpha.

The second half of the episode was the unmistakable finer half, with the ending as the finest portion within it. The score, as well, is fantastic; while it's repetitive by the usage of those two same score cues, again and again, I don't care: I love it every time the score, in general, starts kicking in, but especially those specific cues.