Now that I'm back from my summer program, I can actually watch the episodes when they air, as opposed to waiting for Hulu to have them. Although, my beautiful little MacBook has far superior image quality than my 20+ year old ancient, awful TV . . . but that's another story :)
So this started off a bit anticlimactically/non-linearly, considering that the hacker got into the warehouse at the end of the last episode, and this one starts with Pete and Myka coming back from what seems a normal mission, Artie's lack of sleep notwithstanding. I thought the opening scene here would follow on more directly from the end of last week's episode. But, as soon as Claudia came in, things got pretty interesting. To be honest, this episode had me riveted pretty much start to finish.
I was pleased that "Claudia" doesn't fall into the same trap as "Resonance" -- under-using it guest stars. Both Allison Scagliotti's Claudia and CCH Pounder's Mrs. Frederick are used to the fullest extent possible, providing for great character moments. I loved the glimpse into Artie's past, and, for once, the child actress who plays little-Claudia is actually a good actress. Also great to watch was Artie and Myka's conversation at the very end -- they both have scars from the past and it would be very interesting to see them actually get to sit down and talk about what happened, to Myka in Denver and to Artie in . . . well, we're not actually sure.
Mrs. Frederick is also an asset to whatever scene she's in. She's creepy and smart and knows, well, if not everything, then certainly a lot. She also sets up some interesting foreshadowing here, in terms of Artie's and/or Claudia's future. For right now, I'm forgiving her for being on obvious Cigarette-Smoking-Man-ripoff (much like Myka and Pete are Scully and Mulder) because she doesn't seem to have the pure evil that the Smoking Man does. And, she's a lot more helpful. I'm very interested to see where her character arc is going.
Leena, on the other hand, I'm growing to despise. She does nothing useful. Or if she does, I haven't seen it. She's basically and excuse for Artie to explain whatever's going on in the episode. No offense to Genelle Williams, because I'm sure she's a wonderful actress, but this character is just pointless. On a related note, however, I didn't want to punch Pete in the face once this whole episode, which is a nice change.
Luckily for us science/CGI nerds, "Claudia" does not sacrifice special effects or nerdiness for the sake of the characters. Rheticus' compass is supremely cool, and the idea that he was searching for a way to teleport, which is a kind of holy grail for many people (yes, I'm including myself in that category :D). The idea of being caught in an "in-between place" was done in The Next Generation with Ro Laren and Geordi LaForge being sucked out of phasse (sorry, I can't remember which episode off the top of my head) but it had a bit of a twist here, with Joshua being able to come back occasionally, and those arrivals steadily killing his sister.
Overall, I don't have any major complaints about this episode, it's certainly the best one so far. People are settling into their roles more, and the writers have a better idea of what they're doing. This is a solid early episode for a show that desperately needs as much credibility as it can get (because it's still an awful lot like an X-Files for the new generation at some points).
On a side note, I have surely been spoiled by Hulu's 15-30 second long commercials =)
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