The Outpost – Strange Bedfellows

By: Patience Kapfer

This week’s episode is a bit less eventful in regards to plaguelings and demons, but allows us to delve more into Gwynn (Imogen Waterhouse) and her father’s back story as well as focus on different relationship dynamics between various characters. Even with less focus on the roaming demon, the episode begins with an innocent man tending his chickens meeting an unfortunate end at the hands of the demon. But we soon transition to Talon (Jessica Green) and Garret (Jake Stormoen) engaging in a sparring session. It is obvious that even though Garret boasts his skill and expertise, Talon is clearly a better fighter. Garret is especially curious about where Talon was trained and who trained her, but she is unwilling to tell him her secrets. That is until he tricks her into gaining the upper hand and pinning her using a bit of seduction, for which even Talon falls. Her answer to his question is not at all what he expected though and Garret is in disbelief as she says she trained herself to fight like that and was born with those skills.

As Talon is still pinned underneath Garret, Gwynn enters looking for Talon. Garret rushes to the defensive trying to explain why they were in such a compromising position, while Gwynn is much more interested in taking Talon to have a “girls’ night.” During this girls’ night Gwynn tells Talon that Garret isn’t easily distracted by women, other than herself, to which Talon has to assure Gwynn that she has absolutely no interest in Garret or coming between them. They then go to the bar to play a game called Octor and Gwynn pays for both of them to participate. Talon lets them all assume she’s never played Octor before, but quickly begins to win easily. As the night progresses, the girls order more and more drinks and enjoy some rather inebriated dancing. Everyone in the bar is having a grand old time. That is until one of the men playing Octor realizes that Talon hustled them and draws a knife on her, but Talon is too quick and puts him in a headlock first. The men exit the bar and Gwynn tells her guards to make sure they really left and take that moment to sneak out the back.

Talon wakes the next morning to a snoring Gwynn hogging her bed and a disgruntled Withers watching her sleep. He tells them that his men have been on the lookout for Gwynn since third watch. Garret bursts in furious that they ditched their escorts and went out the back of the tavern and disappeared. Garret forces Gwynn to leave and tells Talon explicitly to stay away from Gwynn. Withers (Andrew Howard) sticks around to have Talon look out her window, where she finds the poor man from the beginning of the episode having been dragged across town by her demon. Withers is convinced that Talon had something to do with his murder and orders her to leave his Outpost and never come back. She has until sundown or he will personally throw her out.

After her unpleasant encounter with Withers, Talon goes to see the blacksmith (Kevin McNally) again. She tells him that she’s going after the demon today, but he tells her she’s barely begun training and if she faces Baphnoro he will kill her. Talon would rather he kill her than another innocent victim every night as she feels responsible and says the blacksmith should as well. Since Talon says she hasn’t rid herself of every shadow of doubt and fear, the blacksmith says she isn’t even close to ready to face the demon. The blacksmith tells her that Baphnoro hates her and wants to kill her because her people banished the Lu-Qiri to a wasteland where they have suffered for centuries. So far, the only reason the demon has allowed Talon to live is because she’s the only one who can let the others in and as soon as it realizes that she isn’t going to let them in it will kill her. That is, until she learns to control it – with the voice of command. Unfortunately, there’s nothing more the blacksmith can do to help Talon.

Elinor (Robyn Malcolm) and Withers find themselves discussing Gwynn’s ability to force her father’s hand when Wythers was planning to kill Talon. Withers’ curiosity about the Calkussar family has continued to grow throughout the past few episodes and he takes this chance to ask Elinor what she knows about them. She explains that he was the king’s personal guard and was then paid off when the Prime Order came for the king and subsequently was the one who opened the gate and as a reward, he was made commander of The Outpost. Withers finds it fishy that the king’s guard was able to survive the purge and even get a command post out of it, and that a former king’s guard shouldn’t be taking orders from his daughter. Withers suspects that Gwynn must have secrets about Culkussar, so Elinor tells him about a governess who used to look after Gwynn when she was young that he could interrogate. In exchange Elinor needs Wythers to arrest the Worm (Ric Sarabia) for cutting off Bill’s head and sending it to her.

The governess tells Wythers that she taught Gwynn reading, sewing, the histories, and many other subjects. She also says that Master Calkussar was very particular about Gwynn’s education and that’s the reason she was brought all the way to the Outpost. She also explains that the Calkussars were very private people and she wasn’t even permitted to clean Gwynn’s bedroom. Withers seems to pay special attention to the fact that the governess wasn’t allowed to clean Gwynn’s bedroom.

Elinor has the Worm chained and interrogates him for the name of his supplier. The Worm refuses to give up the name saying that Elinor wouldn’t believe him if he told her. While having a talk with Talon, Janzo (Anand Desai-Barochia) has the unfortunate luck to be under a bird at the wrong time, however, it brings him to the realization of how the Worm is communicating with his supplier. Janzo follows the trail of very specific bird droppings across town and up onto the wall. He finds a section full of pigeons and finds a little rolled up note that is an exact replica to the one he found in the Worm’s pocket. While Janzo is on his hunt, Elinor pays the Worm a visit to enact some enhanced interrogation. Right as Elinor comes to a deal with the Worm, Janzo bursts through the door explaining what he has found. Now that Elinor knows how to communicate with the Worm’s supplier, it is clear that she no longer needs to keep the Worm around. Despite Janzo’s protests, Withers prepares the Worm to be executed for the murder of Bill Chadwick.

At sundown, Withers readies his men to find Talon to remove her from The Outpost, while Talon prepares herself to find the demon and banish it. Talon manages to find the poultry farmers chickens and the location where he was attacked and from there she climbs up and through a window into a corridor lit by torches. She then descends into a dark tunnel, going deeper and deeper in search of the demon. As Talon proceeds into a dark room, she is greeted by the demon that has subtly been following her this whole time. She tells it that she won’t let it kill anymore, but her fear is palpable and the demon is not convinced in the slightest. It scratches her to show her black blood and she commands it to return to its world, which elicits more violence from the demon. As Talon puts her hand on her knife and begins to pull it from its sheath, the demon stabs her directly in the abdomen and Talon falls to the ground with her black blood pooling around her.