The Outpost – Bones to Pick

By: Patience Kapfer

After leaving Talon (Jessica Green) bleeding on the floor and Gwynn’s (Imogen Waterhouse) history still a secret, it looks like The Outpost may give the audience some much hoped for answers. Talon awakens on the stone floor in obvious pain and hobbles her way to another room in which the demon is holding a man by the neck above the floor. Talon pleads with him to let the man go, saying “it’s me you want, just stop killing people!” All of a sudden Talon begins speaking in Blackblood and it seems the demon is listening, until he stabs the man in the back and throws him out the window, following quickly behind. Talon falls to the floor defeated, clearly upset that the demon keeps killing and it’s her fault and there’s nothing she can do to stop it.

While Gwynn and the rest of the soldiers are away at Kell’s funeral, Marshal Wythers (Andrew Howard) takes the opportunity to sneak into Gwynn’s room to search through her belongings. He’s not sure what he’s looking for, but whatever it is will give him insight into Gwynn’s past and why she seems to have so much authority over General Calkussar (Michael Flynn). He finds a hidden cabinet and pries open the bottom. Inside he finds a box with a ring and comes to a sudden realization about Gwynn’s true identity. As he’s getting ready to leave, Gwynn’s handmaiden comes in and catches him closing the cabinet. She informs him that General Culkussar will be informed of his intrusion at once and despite Wythers insisting he’s one of the good guys and they can just talk this out, she begins to scream. In his attempt to quiet her Wythers accidentally yanks her neck too far and kills her.

Talon manages to make her way to Janzo’s (Anand Desai-Barochia) basement and he comes in as she’s removing her shirt to get a better look at the wound. Janzo turns away completely embarrassed, but Talon tells him that he has to look at her if he’s going to dress her wound and gives him her permission. He inquires about who stabbed her because it wasn’t a normal blade and he plans to inform The Watch immediately because whoever “he” is shouldn’t get away with this. Talon corrects him and says that it was an “it” that did this and she can’t let it kill anyone else. As Janzo is in the middle of dressing Talon’s wound, his mother bursts through the door telling him to come upstairs immediately. Elinor (Robyn Malcolm) wants to send a letter to the Worm’s supplier and she needs Janzo to write it.

Wythers is called in to speak with Gwynn and her father when she realizes that her handmaid has gone missing. Wythers says that he confronted the handmaid with questions regarding Gwynn’s true heritage (even though we know that to be false). He then corrects himself and says “or should I say Your Majesty.” Wythers goes on to explain that after Culkussar betrayed the King the royal family was executed by the Prime Order – the King, Queen, Prince Alton and Princess Rosmund. In order to preserve the royal lineage, Culkussar had his daughter Gwynn beheaded in place of Rosmund. When asked why he would sacrifice his only daughter for something like that, Wythers says, “Because the King commanded it and you were his most loyal minister.” At this Garret (Jake Stormoen) pulls his sword on his father and says he would be willing to kill him in order to protect Culkussar and Gwynn. However, Wythers informs them that he has arranged two letters be delivered to the Prime Order in the result of his untimely death. Wythers tells Gwynn to give up Talon to be executed and her body to be delivered to the Prime Order and then he will keep Gywnn’s secret safe. She sadly agrees to allow Wythers to execute Talon immediately.

Garret sneaks in to warn Talon that Watchmen are coming to execute her and Gwynn can’t protect her anymore. He tells her to run, but when she bursts outside the basement there are men waiting for her and when she slides back into the basement Wythers and his men are waiting. Garret cuffs Talon and they begin walking her toward the guillotine. On the way the gate opens and Shek (Cokey Falkow) and his men enter The Outpost. Wythers tells him that he’s not welcome and they should just leave. Shek informs him that they are there as honorary ambassadors of the Prime Order. He also says that they will be gone from The Outpost the moment Wythers hands him a body that has dark pointed ears and black blood in its veins. Wythers laughs and says there was no mention of black blood or pointed ears in Magmoor’s message written in his own blood. He then dismisses Shek and carries on taking Talon to be executed.

After being placed in the guillotine, Talon begs Wythers to allow her to kill Shek and then he can kill her. That leaves too many loose ends, if Shek ends up dead then even more Covenant agents will be snooping around The Outpost. At the exact moment Talon is to be beheaded, the demon bursts through a grate in the floor. As it turns to look at Wythers, the fear on the Marshal’s face is palpable. The demon picks Wythers up by the neck and Talon begins speaking in Blackblood again. She tells it to stop and once she is released from the guillotine she tells the demon to leave. Almost surprisingly, the demon listens to all of her demands, he lets Wythers go and disappears back down the grate as Garret enters the room. Garret is appalled and blames her for all of the murders. She says she can’t control it and if she could she would never have let it hurt all those people, even though she was just able to finally control it. Realizing that Talon’s black blood is what allows her to control the demon, Wythers now understands why the Prime Order wants her so badly. When she tells Wythers she’s the only one who can get rid of the demon, he tells her he wants her to fix all of this and make it go away.

Talon goes to pay the blacksmith another visit for help banishing the demon. She tells him that she forced it down into the sewers, but other than that it hasn’t been obeying her. The blacksmith tells her that the demon knows she is the only hope for its kindred, which explains why it just saved her from her execution. He explains that the next time she encounters it the demon may try to bend Talon to do its will, potentially torturing her into opening the way for more of its kind. She is insistent on banishing the demon back through the portal, but she has no idea how to open the portal. Unfortunately, neither does the blacksmith. He says her ancestors took great pains to hide any information about opening the portal. The only thing he knows is that all Blackbloods have the power to control demons, but only one at any time can open the passageway to their world. That power is handed down from father to son and from mother to daughter. Talon says her mother touched her before she died and Talon felt something happen and it seems that makes her come to the realization on how to open the portal. She gives the blacksmith a hug and he tells her to come back when the Lu-Qiri is gone and they can sit and discuss the ways of her people.

Sadly, as the blacksmith is working on a new blade, Shek and his men pay him a visit. Shek asks him where the Blackblood is, but the blacksmith tells him that he’s not going to find one of those at the Outpost. Shek confronts the blacksmith saying he remembers there was a girl in the tomb so many years ago, but the blacksmith indignantly informs him that his arrows never miss. Then the blacksmith says that there is something about the girl  that’s bigger than the both of them, her destiny is not to be killed  by either of them. After telling Shek to leave, Shek takes out his sword and tells the blacksmith he should never have turned his back on him. The smith tells him that he is happy to die today if it means he did some good in this world, and that good is “one remains.” At that, Shek plunges his sword into the smith’s abdomen.

Talon sneaks into the room of Shek’s men and manages to slit one’s throat before the other jumps from bed and grabs his sword. She fights him inside the room and then after he pushes her out a window they continue the fight on a wall outside. The man knocks her to the ground and it looks like this might be the end for Talon, but just then Garret shoots him from behind with an arrow. She takes off running to where she last saw the demon the previous night and Shek and his remaining men follow in close pursuit. It’s all part of her plan to lure them down to where the demon resides and when the men split up the demon easily kills both of Shek’s comrades. The demon manages to corner Shek, who proceeds to shut himself into the corridor where Talon is lying in wait. Shek taunts Talon telling her they did good in eradicating her kind, only making her more angry and vengeful. He also tells her that the blacksmith killed many of her people that night, causing her to remember him from that night in the tomb. Instead of blaming the smith, she continues to blame Shek who tells her that even if she defeats him, she still has Dred and his other men to worry about. At this, she takes her knife and stabs him multiple times, leaving him on the floor.