"I'm beginning to understand this war you've created. It's not about some dark, mythical beast that lives beneath the City. It's about what evil men do to each other."
Jude uncovers the awful truth: The Institute plans to create an artificial personification of The Heart (an evil force which manipulates London's destiny) which they believe they can control. Jude discovers that this reincarnation will be performed by Severin using three elements: blood willingly given from a body full of rage, marked with the number of the new revolution (or Kali, who has the clone number 777 on her arm); the essence of a mind filled with the fire of God (or the infant savant Loki, sent to New Gethsemane to obtain the altered human genome sequence); and the crucible - which Jude comes to believe is him. The race is on to prevent these elements combining which will allow the agent of the Heart, the White Queen - in the form of Jude's former girlfriend Cora - to again walk the Earth.
Comment
Dollhouse Burns continues in much the same way as it started, with even more apparently random elements added to the mix. The zombie Milton (Dead Meat and Thirteen) is recruited by Jude to help him, though quite why this might be is unclear, and we are reintroduced to Loki (Membrane) though why he is being tortured on a spinning wheel is hard to fathom. Jude has Samuel Pepy's secret diary (explained, as is the fate of Jude's girlfriend Cora, in Thirteen) and this provides all the tantalising clues (and plot explanation) for Jude to figure out what is going on.
Throughout this story, Terrence Hardiman is mesmerising as Severin, giving a controlled and powerful performance. Unfortunately Jude is impotent - his nature is to record and not to take action - Milton is an unexplained zombie who seems to know more than he is letting on, and that just leaves the capable Kali to try and sort things out - but as she is intimately involved in Severin's plans, this proves harder than she thinks.
Thankfully there is a twist at the end, with Severin having bred a clone of Kali which will work as well as the real thing. And a showdown between Jude and Severin ends with Jude foolishly leaving Severin with his required essences to resurrect the White Queen.
But then it ends. There's no proper explanation, no real ending. It just stops with the White Queen being reborn and walking off ... what happened to Kali being the reincarnation of the Anti-Christ? Although visually rich and rewarding, this is not enough, and the lack of an understandable conclusion given all the build up is supremely disappointing.
As I mentioned, the visuals and scenic design are excellent. The strange mix of ancient and modern in Severin's underground laboratory is very impressive, and as usual the make-up and prosthetic effects are faultless. The performances are likewise all strong, with perhaps the exception here of Jude and Milton who don't gel as perhaps they might.
The second series of Urban Gothic was perhaps not as strong as the first series, mainly due to co-creator Tom deVille's episodes this time being too obscure to understand, leading and pointing to an epic conclusion which never happened. However there are gems like the sublime Necromance, the gorily superb Eater and the visually innovative Sandman and The End along the way to make up for it.
| Credits | |
| Written by | Tom deVille |
| Directed by | Chris Bould |
| Starring | Fraser Ayres (Loki Brown)
William Mannering (Milton) Tyber O'Neill (Jude Redfield) Kelle Spry (Rachel Winter) Ania Sowinski (Kali Cunningham) Terrence Hardiman (Severin) Fiona Southworth (Cora/The White Queen) Sam and Hannah Bould (Zombie Kids) |
Click here for full credit list | |
