Earth: Final Conflict: Atavus High

The atavus find a new source of willing footsoldier material in the shape of school children as a dispossessed teen attempts to lead his peers to becoming hybrids.

Okay, for once I'm going to try to be nice about this show, as much as I can anyway. The idea of children being hybridized and their humanity stripped at such a young age is actually a pretty scary one. These people are giving their lives up to become part-alien, which may seem cool but will instead get them killed. The fact that there are still more potential victims out there at the end of the episode leaves a bad taste, and hopefully we'll see some signs of the atavus coming more into power as the season progresses.

Unfortunately, there are still problems. The teenage girl dating the newly-formed atavus is a bit on the unconvincing side and doesn't really scream out 'rebel' like her father thinks she does. Sheeplike and easily led might be better. The story seems to trundle along adequately enough, only there's a lot of talking without a vast amount happening most of the time.

Renee tries to be a mother figure with little success, Street does next to nothing again, and somehow an atavus is killed using a thermal lance. Now, from past experience I thought this merely injured them until they self-healed. Renee's been trying to find out what kills them for weeks, and I could have sworn she hadn't found anything still.

It's not really the worst episode there's been all season, but I'm afraid I still can't rate it highly as it's still pretty devoid of excitement and surprise revelations.

**

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