Thursday 25 October 2012

Jormungand: Perfect Order - Episode 3

Operation Undershaft looks all set to capture Koko Hekmatyr within its jaws, with the traitorous R on one side and Hex on the other.... but is one of those parties about to spoil the fun for the other?

With R realising Hex's true intention - that being to kill Jonah - suddenly his view on the entire mission is turned around entirely, and not just because the thought of using a child as a sacrificial lamb disgusts him.  More to the point, R sees Jonah as the leash which is keeping Koko from becoming someone indescribably more dangerous, and thus sees the possibility of the boy's death as a potentially fatal mistake that will cause Koko to cast off the last vestiges of the young girl inside her and become a beast of some kind.


Although his pleas eventually win Bookman over, it looks as though it might be too little too late as Koko and Jonah are set upon by Hex and her assailant, with Jonah the target of the group's actions.  Luckily, Jonah is a little more savvy than even Hex's men expects, which in turn buys him and Koko enough time for R to enter the scene - with Bookman also lending his powers to aiding in stopping Hex carrying out her plan, there's eventually an opening for the duo to escape, but at a high cost.... a cost that sees Koko take some decidedly terrifying and disproportionate action in retaliation.  Has the beast within Koko been released despite R's best efforts?

For all of its good moments and nice ideas, this was easily Jormungand at its best - not perfect by any stretch (Bookman's behaviour throughout was a little hard to believe as credible), but still a superb episode.  Of course, much of the quality of the instalment revolved around Koko herself  - while still as enigmatic as always, seeing her reactions as events unfolded in front of both her and us was in turn moving, distressing and terrifying, and a superb tour de force of characterisation in such a short period of time.  With its ever-insistent soundtrack and some decidedly solid action scenes to back it up, this week's episode of Perfect Order has set the bar high for the rest of the series - I'd love to think that future episodes can clear it.

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