Karen L. Newman has been a published writer since 2004 in the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres. Over two hundred and fifty of her short stories and poems have been published both online and in print. Her books include EEKU (Sam’s Dot, 2005) and ChemICKals (Naked Snake Press, 2007) and her work has been nominated for a Dwarf Star Award. She won the 2005 Mary Jane Barnes Award and two of her poems received honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She edits the online magazine Afterburn SF, which publishes speculative short stories, and is the editor for the print poetry magazine Illumen. She also write reviews for Dark Discoveries. Her reviews have also been featured in Noneuclidean Cafe, The Dream People, Night to Dawn, and Gothic Review.
Unfortunately for me, episode six "The Boyband Superfan Interrogation," is out of tune. As always, the following sentences contain spoilers.
The story opens with Pip stealing Wendy Watson’s art and rubbing Wendy, Lacey, and Nosers’ noses in it. Pip will show the purloined art at The Gate, a showcase for up-and-coming artists. Wendy’s friends urge her to do something about it, even planning things themselves, but Wendy wants to handle it herself.
Wendy is summoned to work where she and The Middleman go to Club Cairo where a warp hole has formed, trapping a duck. Clues lead them to Dr. Elliot Marshall’s house where the heroes encounter his teenage daughter, Cindy, who zaps them and speeds off in a flash on a bicycle. Turns out she’s an alien who offered to help Dr. Marshall receive tenure at the university in exchange for his help stealing equipment from the physics department. Ida calls them, hinting the girl is at headquarters. The Middleman and Wendy rush to save her, but Cindy has grabbed Ida’s battery and stuns the heroes to escape.
Soon the girl is captured and The Middleman and Wendy discover she’s a soldier for Clothar 5 and her mission is to take out the members of Varsity Fanclub, a boy band consisting of five dictators from the planet Pentack. Cindy threatens that her people will destroy Earth if she’s not allowed to complete her mission. The Middleman reluctantly frees her, even though it means the death of Ida.
However, The Middleman and Wendy attend the Varsity Fanclub concert at the Metro Theater in hopes of having an opportunity to help Cindy without her having to use the battery. Unfortunately Cindy is shot and The Middleman has to use Ida’s battery.
Later at The Gate, The Middleman sets off the truth bomb that came in the mail recently to force Pip to admit what he’d done. Back at headquarters Ida is okay after all.
This episode is very predictable and such a letdown after last week. I knew as soon as the truth bomb was delivered that its purpose was to expose Pip. The show seemed stretched out to make it hour-long. It could have easily been cut and aired in a half-hour segment. Consistency appears to be a problem for The Middleman, and I believe that to be because the show uses different writers each week, as noted at Wikipedia.org. The producers need to pick a few good writers and can the rest or, if not, I believe the series will have trouble making it.
Let’s hope there’s a good writer next week.