To be honest, I almost gave up on Charlie Jade.  Of all the shows on TVZ, Jade is the one I figured no one was watching.  Then Jeff said if I finished it out, we’d have one of if not the only complete archive of reviews for this show online.  Given the show is three years old and has about as much chance at another season as The Scarecrow and Mrs. King I was hard pressed to move on.  Yes this is th 16th episode, yes there are only three left (technically one left as I’m behind on my DVR watching) so why not soldier on.

Turns out there’s good reason and “The Shortening of the Way” is it.  I hadn’t seen an episode in a couple weeks thanks in large part to all the new shows, the Presidential debate drinking games and my sudden urge to hurt myself playing basketball, but that’s not what this review is about.  This is about what an utter gem of a show Charlie Jade is and we can sadly chalk it up to another unappreciated show that will only live on in producer commentaries, DVDs and fanfic.

So what happened this time around that garnered such love?  Action.  Last episode we were introduced to a new character, a nemesis for Charlie, a killer, a genetically enhanced assassin named Shikari.  If your’e a fan of Survivor you’ll know her as Vanessa Marawa, the first South African winner of that primordial reality show.  I can tell from what her character is doing that it’s her whole purpose not only to kill Charlie, but to pick up the pace of the show.  Charlie now is not only trying to get home and trying to stop Vex-Cor, he’s trying to save his own life.  He almost doesn’t succeed in the later but shockingly he does make it home.

What?  But we have four episodes to go!  I realize that, but I didn’t write the show.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

This outting sees the return of just about every character seen thus far including Darlene and Jody from the first episodes.  Turns out, in fact, that Charlie gets pointers from Jody.  She sees The Invisible People, the same thing Charlie sees in his headache inducing visions, but she’s able to control it and her analogy is charming.  It’s like a sneeze, if you think about it, you lose it.  If you hold your breath, you get a headache, and you end up having to breath anyway.  With this newly acquired sage advice, Charlie is able to freely move to any Verse he wants – including an Unknown Verse all dapled in purple and rife with commune like inhabitants.  Jody douses Charlie in Water and he’s able to physically travel to these places, including his home.  Our last vision is of him walking through an AlphaVerse desert.

This episode also saw 01′s return and go figure he’s dressed as a samurai geisha.  Reena finds him through Karl Lubinsky and 01 is able to find, unlock and free Reena of Malichi’s programming, but not before we see a flashback of Reena blowing Malichi to smithereens.  Blues Paddock shows up shortly to ask where Lubinsky got his classified Vex-Cor file and leaves her home number for Charlie to call her.  Another Vex-Cor exec is sent to Rompkin for HIS ESSENCE, HIS LIFE ESSEEEENCE!  Fresh Gelfling!  Sorry.  Anyway, he’s the last of the Execs to have gone through the link, so he tells Sew Sew (who’s now a Vex-Cor stooge) and it’s now his quest to find out what’s going on – much to Jasmine’s dismay.  And yes her story is becoming useless.  She’s a hooker made good, gone bad, made good again.  And now that Charlie’s back in Alpha, what’s going to happen?

I think the biggest reveal was that Reena and 01 know each other from Gamma.  Story wise that could mean a lot of things for the two characters.

This episode moved well, had few funny jump cuts, not many flashbacks and just enough 01 humor to cut through the droning soundtrack and nearly monochromatic schemes.  It’s one of the best episodes yet but it leaves a weird taste in your mouth wondering what’s going to happen now that Charlie’s back in Alpha, now that the Colonists have found a nuked out blasted Earth.

And because we get to see Jody again, I’m giving this episode four and a half shiny blue stones.