NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of “Powers” are present in this review
As interesting as it was to get a peek at the backstories of SuperShock and Retro Girl last week, there’s no denying that the previous episode of Powers was missing a little something. Fortunately, “Chasing Ghosts” marked a decent improvement this week, presenting a shocking revelation about Krispin, and cementing Morrison as the season’s new big bad.
The Morrison material isn’t too bad so far, though it’s still a bit of a nuisance that the show appears to have changed its direction halfway through Season Two. Maybe the Retro Girl murder mystery just wouldn’t stretch across a full ten episodes, but even so, it feels like we’re getting part of a third season that’s mashed into the second season. Still, at least the show is managing to do its new case pretty well so far, furthering the sense of paranoia in the wake of the Retro Girl incident that was established pretty well last week.
If anyone was suspicious this week, even beyond the clear reveal that Morrison is still out there at the end of the previous episode, it’s SuperShock. SuperShock forced Walker into a remote cabin, SuperShock’s apparent secret dwelling, where he fed him drugs that disabled his movement, essentially forcing him to rest. From there, Walker tries to leave again, once he regains his movement, and SuperShock appears to aggressively grab him in the wilderness, though turned out to be saving him from falling off an unseen cliff. The subsequent monologue by SuperShock about being weary, and possibly agreeing that humanity needs a reset, continued to instill this sense of great uneasiness with his character. Morrison being an active threat further muddies the waters. Who is the real enemy here? Fortunately, Powers is so far doing a good job of keeping people guessing.
Another great mystery, and one that the show pretty much brought up out of nowhere, was Krispin suddenly springing back to life! Apparently, Krispin may have been a Power this whole time, and one who apparently has the ability to come back from the dead (why it took him this long, I don’t know), allegedly making him immortal. Krispin spends most of the episode stumbling around town, tormented by the ghost of Marigold, who is done up in some hilariously ghastly make-up to reflect that she died from having a building dropped on her by Heavy earlier in the season. It sounds a bit goofy, but it sort of works. Some of the Marigold ghost material is a bit on-the-nose and silly, and occasionally creates a bit of tonal confusion when she really hams up being dead, but mostly, Krispin’s confusion and shock at being alive, and likely being a Power, was well conveyed. It was also quite funny to see the reaction of Cross in the epilogue scene, which has Krispin walking back into Powers Division to register, after jumping off a building. As you do.
Calista also got an interesting new conflict this week, when her father takes a bank hostage, and demands that Calista come to help him get away with the money. Cross tries to get New Unity involved, or at least Zora and Calista, since Martinez is oddly missing, but Calista appears to disobey orders, until she eventually drops in on her own terms, and confronts her father. This was an interesting way to build on Calista’s earlier moment of maturity from the beginning of the season, when she spared her father’s life, inadvertently leading to the present situation. It was also effectively shocking and dramatic to have Calista fly up, then activate her father’s bomb vest and let the bastard explode, proving herself as a hero who gives second chances, but not thirds. Zora’s concern over Calista’s safety doesn’t really register, since Calista is probably just fine, but Calista being willing to murder her own father when she thinks he’s run out of worth is something that the show hopefully keeps exploring over the season’s final two episodes.
This primarily leaves Pilgrim and Kutter to do most of the police work, as they must hunt for evidence related to Morrison. Even the interpersonal drama between these two isn’t bad this week, with Pilgrim still refusing to commit, and Kutter eventually getting fed up, and deciding they should just be colleagues again. Unfortunately, after over twenty record store inquiries, which is where they begin looking for Morrison after some help from their regular sound guy, Kutter picks the right one, and ends up stabbed before he can properly get to questioning! The episode ends with Pilgrim trying to frantically call for medical attention for Kutter, who is rapidly bleeding out. It doesn’t look good for Kutter, that’s for sure, though the show never explicitly spelt out that he’s dead. He could pull through, especially since he was stabbed in the gut, which, while uncomfortable, still gives him a fighting chance. Hopefully, Kutter pulls through, since it would be kind of trite to have him finally break up with Pilgrim, then get killed right before Pilgrim has to debate whether she should actually fix the situation.
As annoying as it is that Powers is still moving pretty far from the original Retro Girl murder plot, at least, “Chasing Ghosts” represented a good expansion to the new mystery of SuperShock and Morrison. Sure, a few moments didn’t really work, and the hammy Marigold ghost sometimes felt a bit out of place on what’s normally a pretty serious-minded show, but overall, at least Powers seems to be moving in a fairly decent direction for the season’s last two episodes. After all, if you can’t even trust SuperShock anymore, who can you trust?