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Home TV REVIEW: Claire is Slowly Becoming Dominion’s Hidden Gem in “Black Eyes Blue”

TV REVIEW: Claire is Slowly Becoming Dominion’s Hidden Gem in “Black Eyes Blue”

BY The Screen Spy Team

Published 10 years ago

TV REVIEW: Claire is Slowly Becoming Dominion's Hidden Gem in

By Liv Tadesse

Claire is slowly becoming Dominion’s hidden gem.

The revelation of Claire’s mother has set the ball rolling in Alex’s storyline and, to even greater effect, deepened Claire’s characterization. With it comes the drive Alex needs to explore his powers as the Chosen One. But the consequence of this initiative is a lack of knowledge. A successful exorcism doesn’t translate to Claire’s mother being alive and well, and Alex, charging ahead without asking any questions, leads to an appropriate aftermath, in much the same way that Claire took her father’s power without realizing how his abilities would effect interpersonal relationships.

Dominion handles themes of suspicion and distrust throughout the series with a fairly subtle hand. Aside from the anvils of certain ending scenes, this emphasis carries from the warnings Alex’s tattoos imparted to Claire, who largely remained a picturesque Daddy’s girl until Riesen lied to her directly, rather than by omission. It will be interesting to see whether Alex’s half-failed exorcism will effect their relationship. Their last scene together saw Claire exercising a new ruthlessness in front of Alex. So far, her moments of flexing her proverbial arm have only been directed towards those who have threatened her,  but with Alex looking on more saddened than alarmed by her bloody hands, the Romeo-and-Juliet romance may not unfold in the next few weeks in such a so cut and dry fashion.

Perhaps it’s a little too obvious in a show about power plays to seed distrust in every character, but yet again Dominion proves that it excels in showcasing details. The scene that left the greatest impact in this episode was the moment where the 8-ball tells Claire why her mother called her Izzy. While Claire’s mother lost the battle to officially name her daughter, she refused to call her anything other than the name she had chosen. The description of Riesen’s anger at her refusal is chilling when factoring in the absence of information on how he started up a relationship with his wife, who it seems was much more likely to heed his words possessed than not.

Unlike their fellow humans, true distrust in Vega hits its peak when any of its citizens face Michael, who received a bone of characterisation this week as well. He seemed unusually disturbed by the 8-ball, who then made it clear that it wasn’t so unusual. Michael is in search of his own redemption, mirroring the 8-ball’s quest, but where it becomes uniquely his is that it is without the requisite human influence. Helping humans out of pity is one thing, sympathizing with their plight so much so he imprints a uniquely human ideation is another.

The preview for next week appears to delve more into Michael’s internal and external conflicts. I expect that will produce more material for Wisdom to sink his teeth into a la Anthony Head, who continues to outshine most of the cast. With the latter half of the series heading our way, here’s to a climax worth the characterization built up thus far.

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