Max’s housemates decide to flush the tablets that stop her seizures down the toilet, leading her to undertake a life-saving that lands Max in prison.

It’s good that much of Max’s life centres around accidents. Her friends, believing her to have a drug habit, attempt to do her a favour by getting rid of her drugs. What they don’t realize is that their helping could cause Max to die. Plus there’s the added danger that when Max is caught burgling a hospital, her information will reach Lydecker and she’ll become an immediate target due to her barcode.

With all these things at stake, it’s a shame that the episode doesn’t really have much pace. Once Max is in the prison things slow down considerably as she makes a poor attempt at an escape that leaves her in the Warden’s house. When the story then throws a sexually-abused child into the mix as well, it all seems too much. This aspect of the plot doesn’t have the power it could have done and Max spots the symptoms easily, due to past experience when she was staying with another girl. What would have worked better is if Max had been wrong; the emotional ramifications of what she does would have made things far more interesting, but despite it never being completely clear that she’s right, we’re just led to believe that she is.

There are good points; Logan’s efforts to track Max and keep her identity disclosed, plus the sub-plot about the police officer on the take are all nicely handled. The prisoner Max is put in with is really cool and needs to be in more episodes and Original Cindy is on top form. There are just too many concepts that require further exploration here and not enough time to do them all justice. Plus, Max isn’t her usual self, which dulls down the story a little and Lydecker turning up and hunting Max down, only to find she’s gone is going to get old fast. A good story then, just not a great one.

***

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