Forces are moving to a penultimate clash between good and evil.  One man has the answers, skills and desire to save his world from anihilation.  The corrupt and bloated corporation will stop at nothing to see their plan through to the end, even if that means killing and our hero is going to lose friends along the way.

It sounds typical, but after sixteen previous episodes the story of Charlie Jade is begging to finally resemble a familiar mythos.  But it’s not just Charlie involved in this battle but also his friends and even his one time enemies.  Vex-Cor is close to having everything they need, but the glimmering tower is rotting from the inside out and Charlie, 01, Reena and Karl are going to be there to pull the I-beams down around their heads.

“Spin” starts where we left off with Charlie walking through a desert in Alphaville.  He ends up back in Cape City where he’s reunited with Papa Louis, Sew Sew and Jasmine.  None of the anticipated meetings go well; Sew Sew has to tell Charlie he’s with Vex-Cor, Jasmine’s upset because of how long he’s been gone and Papa Louis is taken by Vex-Cor when they find out she’s associated with Charlie.  She doens’t break under pressure and ends up scheduled for televised execution.

Speaking of execution, Brion Boxer heads to GammaVerse and kills Sasha Boxer leaving his Vex-Cor pendant behind on purpose.  01 in BetaVerse seems to sense something going on and heads to Gamma to see his dead wife.  (We also find out that 01 still has mother issues, think of a scene somewhere between Aunti Mame and the end of Neverending Story when Bastian shouts into the storm.)  Charlie tries to save Papa Louis but can’t do it fast enough, but does have time to tell her the truth about Vex-Cor and in a slightly predictable ending, her televised execution becomes a soapbox.  Instead of confessing her crimes against the state/company, she goes on an overlong tear about how Vex-Cor is lying about everything.  There are other worlds and Vex-Cor is stealing from them.   01 kills his father and Essa Rompkin uses Papa Louis’ monologue to spin Vex-Cor in a favorable light saying it could save their ailing world.

Charlie and Jasmine sleep together, Sew Sew never told him what had happened while he was gone.  Poor Sew Sew.

Not a fan of this episode.  The recap above was the entire show.  There were smaller bits here and there but that’s the gist of it and it went by pretty slowly.  My biggest problem was the televised execution and how long Papa Louis was able to just go on and on about all these other universes.  She talked for a good 2 minutes even before the music covered her voice in a TV monitor, unwashed masses, Charlie looking on montage, and then it was another 30 seconds while she wrapped up.  This is in a universe with flying spy bugs, floating crystal monitors the size of buildings and portable hologram projectors.  Are you telling me that when the doped up scapegoat goes off script there isn’t someone at the switch ready to cut to commercial?

I’m also not really happy about the reaction Charlie got when he got home.  Sew Sew and Jasmine were really broken up about him being gone but as soon as he gets back we’re back to the Obsession ad enui we see in the first episodes.  AlphaVerse must be truly in trouble, especially in the thespian arts, because there was no pathos in this episode at all save for Papa Louis.

We also dropped the 01/Reena thread like a bad habit, no sign of Karl or the mystery huntress Shikari, and not a mention of Galt and the links between the Verses.  It was a self contained and almost self egrandizing episode, very much full of pomp and circumstance.  Too many longing looks, too much left unsaid and not enough story movement.  The entirety of the plot in this episode could have been told in 10 minutes of screen time, the rest was art nonsense that at this late in the game should have been abandoned.  “Spin” is the example of why Jade wasn’t picked up because I can see reality TV hungry, explosion craving viewers completely zoning out.  Imagine Twin Peaks but minus the creepy.

I may seem overly harsh on this episode and I am being nitpicky, but I expect a bigger ramp up to the end.  Last week’s episode was nearly perfect, as perfect as this show can get.  This was a let down.

I’m glad Jody and Darlene didn’t get killed last time, but that’s not going to stop me from giving “Spin” two and a half shiney blue stones.