Round Two: Stateless

Stateless: Season 1, Episode 2 “Incognita” (B+)

The first episode of this series was interesting but didn’t provide too much indication of where it was headed, and I found that this installment really clarified who the main characters are and what we can expect in the coming episodes. I’m glad that focus wasn’t too much on Sofie’s sobering backstory, omitting big names Dominic West and Cate Blanchett entirely in favor of her family interactions and the man she compelled to spirit her away from her psychiatric hold while she only spoke with a German accent with everyone at the center, desperately trying to get deported. The first woman she spoke to offered the best summary of her situation: wanting to leave the country should be no problem, if indeed she really was German. Cameron is absolutely a nice guy, and this job is going to make him miserable since he rightly doesn’t see any reason to treat the people he’s guarding poorly. Ameer was so elated to be in Australia and couldn’t understand why he needed to make up a surname, but the devastating news that only one of his family members survived is going to haunt him. I’m very intrigued by the new addition to this episode, Asher Keddie’s Clare, who arrived to a mountain of backlogged paperwork and promptly climbed up to a rooftop to try to negotiate directly with the Sri Lankans before the helicopter showed up. Coming up with the idea about the restricted military airspace was clever, but that’s not going to help her deal with the guilt she’s being made to feel and the public relations problems that she’s facing along with the fact that she’s going to be helpless to change the fates of so many people.