#Pandora Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Pay In Blood

If Pandora Season 2 Episode 6 felt weirdly familiar to you, don’t worry it’s not you.

The best I can figure, the whole Aluna 4 plot was an homage to Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, complete with one of the outlander heroes falling in love with a girl in the victimized town.

Gorch: Name’s Gorch. You already met my daughter, Rachel.

Greg: Not formally.

Gorch: She held a gun on you, boy. Around here, you’re practically engaged.

Meanwhile, Jax is once again tapped to carry out Osborn’s bidding, which then involves Shral asking a favor of her to ask a favor of her mother who has to convince Tierney, her other daughter, to drop by for a chat.

Oh, and Aleka survived her wedding apparently. So, yay! for that.

It’s an interesting choice to use Aluna 4 as a backdrop for a slough of resolution execution.

There’s Ralen’s moment of realization in the mines with Gorch, where he finally (and suddenly) makes peace with Matta’s sacrifice.

Dying (or at least playing dead for a time) can give one time to reflect, I guess.

Ralen: I have just lost my wife. She made a sacrifice that might save us all. I will carry the pain of her loss with me forever.

Gorch: I’m sorry.

Ralen: I’ve been mad at the universe ever since. Self-destructive. But I was wrong. This is my second chance.

For the record, I would like to know why a smuggler and thief like Gorch fights like a Zatarian. Also, what happened to Rachel’s mother?

Despite being a mining settlement, there didn’t seem to be a lot of miners. Gorch, himself, certainly didn’t look the part.

And it was one settlement on a planet known for the precious elemental ore key to energy weapons. Do the marauders have standing orders for thulium at all the other settlements?

I’m not sure I buy Ralen’s effusive pledge of allegiance to Xander’s skills as a commander.

Unlike the silver-screen samurai, Xander’s strategy was doomed for failure.

The entire settlement and his crew (except maybe Jett who would’ve headed home in the repaired Kubrick, I’m sure) would’ve been massacred if Aleka hadn’t shown up.

I would think, for someone who allegedly feels great insecurity in his role as commander, it would be rather galling to realize your girlfriend had to save your butt by asking for help from a princess with a crush on her.

Gorch: What guarantee we have you’ll do what you say?

Xander: Well, you have my word, Mr. Gorch. If that’s not enough, then just shoot us.

Xander may be able to talk the talk, but the only captain-like action I’ve seen is his ability to handle a lot of foreign and sketchy-looking booze.

Despite his admission that they took too many casualties in the battle with the Sumi, he didn’t spend any time with the families of the dead colonists who fought under his command.

I felt that the looks he was getting from the townsfolk weren’t exactly ones of gratitude and, honestly, that doesn’t bode well for Earth Com’s relations with the Outer Rim.

Only Rachel got an offer of ride back to Earth.

An offer she declined, preferring to stay in the only home she’s known,doing… I’m not sure since she’s not a miner either.

But, in a script full of second chances, Greg gets to start over with her too.

Whether you think you can help or not, people are still going to need you.
Rachel

So… does that mean that his whole rhiodine addiction is done? The treatment they jabbed Collins with is a cure?

Or is there going to be another Greg return to the plotline where it turns out Rachel’s long-lost but still alive smuggler mother shows up and Greg taps into the crazy rage and kills her when she tries to recruit Rachel to a life of crime?

It was a star-turn for Jett on Aluna 4 what with him single-handedly repairing the ship, after impersonating Xander with balls-out poise and a heckuva vocal impersonation.

Jett: Captain Xander Duvall, at your service. Hero of Earth. Defender of the cosmos. Handsome devil.

Sumi: Captain Duvall. You destroyed two of our ships!

Jett: Yeah, sorry about that.

Sumi: That’s all you have to say?!

Jett: It was an accident?

Sure, he’s not great in a fight (or during turbulance) and he screams like a tea-kettle, but he comes through in a pinch.

(I’m still not sure whether he was apologizing to the Sumi for hitting him or to Ralen for getting in the way so much.)

Jett: My god, I hate flying!

Greg: You’re gonna hate crashing even more!

Yeah, I’m definitely softening towards the putz although calling Ralen his only friend when Zazie’s been way more involved in his life seemed a little over-the-top.

And what about Zazie? Hmm…

It was a bit underwhelming to have Aleka leave that warning for Jax after seeing Zazie and Tierney talk and then… nothing this week.

Well, maybe not nothing. Since Shral decided he would try to be the least subtle spymaster ever with Jax complementing the role as clueless rookie, I like to believe they’re playing it up for Zazie’s benefit.

Except Zazie wasn’t there when Jax admitted it took her nearly an hour to figure out where to meet Shral. Sigh.

I’m left to wonder if Jax will straight-up confront Zazie about her untrustworthiness or if there’s a trap being laid.

Tierney’s visit with Shral was nearly as short as a Jax-Zazie drink. Her plan to kill the Ancients with a weapon I believe the Ancients invented is ambitious and sort of confusing.

It’s got a lot of South Park Underwear Gnome logic to it.

Step 1: Get hugely dangerous anti-matter plasma weapon

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Kill the Ancients.

And with the revelation that Parallax is supplying Sumi pirates with weapons means that Tierney maybe be doubly-involved if she’s still doing some of her father’s bidding.

I suspect that there’ll be a complex tying-together of the multiple plotlines somewhere down the road. If I squint really hard, I can almost imagine a convergence of the narrative threads.

After you watch Pandora online, answer me this in the comments: Which Seven Samurai homage did you prefer – this one or the film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar?

How do you think Tierney and Eve plan on delivering the weapon to the Ancients?

When will Zazie’s ruse be revealed?

How much longer will Jett last with Ralen and Xander?

Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.