Retro Girl Remembered.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
PlayStation's Powers is back for its second season, featuring the "Who Killed Retro Girl?" storyline that kicked off the Brian Michael Bendis/Michael Oeming comic series over fifteen years ago. Season 1 may have had a handful of flaws, but I did like the idea of not starting things off with Retro Girl dead. Getting to know her (as played excellently by Michelle Forbes) was a good thing as we now enter a world that's mourning her shocking, unceremonious death.
Better too, this time around, is the chemistry between Sharlto Copley's Walker and Susan Hayward's Pilgrim. Perhaps the fact that they're not allowed to work together on the Retro case, because Walker's too close (and eventually a suspect himself), made for a better opening dynamic. Because they both miss each other. And know they work better together than anyone else they'd get paired with. And all of this while the Powers Division itself is under the gun for the "Wolfe Debacle," which was another nice touch since there were so many sloppy parts to the Wolfe arc last year that I'm glad someone, whatever the reason, is being held accountable for it within the show.
Also, a Walker mourning Retro Girl is a much better Walker than the guy last season who was a mess over losing his powers. Especially since we never truly came to know how Wolfe took those powers. Here, there's a more relatable pain for the viewers - a lost love and a cop going a bit rogue outside the system. Which brings me to the fact that this episode, aside from Calista testing out her powers and Zora light-cubing her way out of the hospital, was light on "powers." The murder case was the most important aspect, along with how Retro's death affected those close to her and the world at large.
It's still a strain to like Calista, even despite her violent reconciliation with her abusive father (William Mapother) and her subsequent decision not to kill him. She was all over the place in Season 1 and because of that I'm still waiting to see where she lands this year. And speaking of haphazard characters, Krispin was back as well. Fortunately though, he wound up getting sacrificed at the end - in a faked suicide (I'm assuming) - for the sake of the larger mystery. Meaning, the shadowy secret person who put him and "Kaotic Chic" up to the Retro murder. Because we did sort of get a hard answer on the murder itself. Those two did it, but with the aid of Triphammer tech that allowed them to take out one of the world's most powerful heroes. The question remains though: Who ordered the hit?
So the "Who Killed Retro Girl?" query's been answered, to a point. There's still a mastermind out there and a few new faces who could morph into red herrings down the line. There's Michael Madsen's SuperShock, a hero who retired forty years earlier and appeared briefly here to brutally lift Walker in a fit of grief. There's Cobalt Knight (Enrico Colantoni), Retro and Shock's old partner, now a senator. Plus, Tricia Helfer's Agent Lange, who seems the least likely of the bunch - but who knows? I just appreciate the fact that things feel streamlined a bit and more focused on the police work itself.
The Verdict
The scale still feels small and the special effects are still shoddy, but the Season 2 opener wisely focused in solely on Retro Girl's death, the possible ramifications of this loss, and the possible suspects who could have orchestrated the attack.
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