While I acknowledge that episode one of season 3 was pretty good, we’ve immediately plummeted into the “jaws” of drivel.  For some unknown reason, the Sleestak worship Malak, a “god” who is just a really loud, obnoxious man (played by Richard Kiel; Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me.)  He happens to have control of a river and can destroy the Sleestak eggs by flooding their caves.  You know, the same ones they were planning on leaving last week because of the earthquakes?  They bring him a tribute that he’s unhappy with so they decide to steal from the Marshall’s.  Even Enik helps them.  Surely they can get a good tribute by stealing from their neighbors.

And I sigh wearily, having had high hopes that my memory of season 3 was wrong.  And look, one episode doesn’t mean my memory was right overall, but it sure was right about this one.  Wow was I bummed… Did the writers forget all that happened?  They had been on such a roll!

Maybe it was just the effect of having a new writer working on the series at this point.  Sam Roeca shows up as the writer of 3 episodes this season and I can’t say I’m excited to see what else he’s got.  One of my biggest complaints is around Enik.  Hey, as a kid, he was the coolest dude in a sundress I’d ever known.  (… actually, come to think of it… maybe also the only dude in a sundress I’d ever known!)  The point is, I liked him because he was intelligent.  He was reasonable.  And now he’s siding with the Sleestak for no readily apparent reason.  Sure, being concerned with your own species is all well and good but he’s been reasoned with by the Marshall’s and probably could reason with them in return.  Instead, he breaks into the temple where the Marshall’s live and steals their supplies just to placate Malak.  

The other issue around this is that we are not sure how much time went by between episodes 1 and 2.  Enik knows Jack and calls him by name, so there must have been some meeting of the two at some point.  Since last episode, Holly has developed a bad sore throat and needs antibiotics which, luckily, Jack has, but they fell into the lake and need to be retrieved.  (I had to laugh when Jack takes his shoes and shirt off, but goes into the water with pants and socks on.  When he gets out, he immediately crams his dripping feet into the shoes.  What was the point!?!)  

Perhaps we can look at one specific area as an overall illustration of how bad this episode was.  Malak has a sliding metal gate on his… abode.  It slides down and no one can enter or leave.  Once closed, he puts a wooden bar across the opening but… why?  Here, just take a look yourself.  If the gate weren’t down, what would that stop?  Maybe a particularly weak creature that couldn’t bend at the waste!  That bar across the door is just laughable.  And that sort of explains the episode to me: weak and laughable.  And when Cro-magnon Malak says “Malak is not a patient guy”… well that took the cake.  “Guy” is a Cro-magnon word apparently.  And for the record, I’m not patient either, particularly with crap writing.

However, Will managed to bring a smile to my face when Malak tries to justify killing the Sleestak.  Will says, “They are living creatures!”  The Marshall’s haven’t had the best time with the Sleestak, but even so, Will values life.  I’ve said it so many times: this is the sort of message Saturday morning television needs.  That’s an important message: despite their differences and the threat the Sleestak represent, Will is against killing them.  Bravo.

What can I say?  Hopefully this is an outlier.  I knew there was little likelihood of getting answers to last season’s mysteries but this was abominable.  Where has Malak been the whole time?  I understand the Marshall’s may not have mapped out everything in the Land, but I find it hard to believe that these guys never intersected before.  I can perhaps give some credence to the idea that the earthquakes revealed previously hidden areas, but that doesn’t really cut it.  Especially with the underground water supply.  I’ve not lost hope over one single episode but it was a letdown and I can only hope that it was a fluke in an otherwise impressive series.  It’s got to get better from here!  ML