C.R.E.A.M. (Max inadvertantly helps a woman kill her father for the money)

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Dark Angel: Season 1: C.R.E.A.M. (Max inadvertantly helps a woman kill her father for the money)
"She was designed to be the perfect soldier. She was trained as a weapon. But then she escaped. They came after her, and she knew they would never stop looking. She was lucky...a few months later, terrorists set off an electro-magnetic pulse that fried all the computers. The U.S. went from superpower to third-world country overnight. It was easy to disappear. Now she has an unlikely ally. Logan Cale, underground cyber-journalist and crusader. He wants to save the world, or what's left of it. She just wants to find the others like her. Together...who knows?"

When a young woman named Alina Herrero asks Logan to help her find out who "killed" her father, Logan has Max locate the information on him in the police archives. When Max finds out that Alina's father is still alive, she tells Alina where to find him...with surprising results.
Meanwhile, Sketchy gets in trouble when he loses a delivery he was making for a Russian mob boss. Max (with help from Original Cindy) uses her abilities to swindle the mob and win enough money to pay off Sketchy's debt.

THOUGHTS
-Very nice episode, progresses smoothly with some great scenes.

-This episode is titled C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me), a phrase started by the Wu Tang Clan (those rappers).

-Max in that dress...wow.

FAVORITE QUOTE
"Sounds like a story right up your alley. It’s so depressing."
-Max to Logan.

NITS
-Logan gave the cop a color Gameboy and tells the cop they are rare. Yet the GB clearly has no game in it. Aren't the games rare too? And wouldn't a GB Advance be more appropriate, since they would be old by then?

-Max constantly avoids the police drones flying around the city, yet she looks right at a cop before breaking into the police building (actually, this happens in practically every episode).

-...And she's not wearing a helmet on her motorcycle!

-...Or her regular bike!

-...And why does she always wear sunglasses at night?

-How did Max know the buttons to press in the police building? They all made the same noise!

-Not only that, but they make a different noise when she presses them later!

-Once again, I know Max is genetically engineered, but those moves she pulls off in the police archives are still impossible.

-How did Max and Original Cindy know where to look for Sketchy when he's upside down?

In the flashbacks with the balloon, there are several problems:
-Why didn't Lydecker shoot the balloon or something before the kids saw it?
-How did the balloon get there? It must be recent, since it looks clean and is still inflated. Were some other kids playing in the snow with it earlier?
-And why would Project Manticore be close to any civilization in the first place?
-And why do Max and the other kids wear jungle camoflauge when they're in the snow?
-And why does Lydecker just stand there when one of the kids drop-kicks a soldier? Why not order that kid to be reprogrammed or something?
-And why is Lydecker's hair all messed up?

-Max's voice sounds weird when she calls out, "Alina?" in Alina's apartment after Herrero's building is bombed. It almost sounds like someone different said that line (rather than Jessica Alba, that is). Either that, or the line was recorded at another time.

-Alina just "happens" to leave a train ticket on her table so Max can chase her. How convenient!
By Brian Lombard on Wednesday, November 01, 2000 - 5:01 am:

As to why Max always wears her sunglasses at night, it was mentioned in "Heat" that she can she can see in the dark. That cat vision of hers.

Is saving Sketchy's hyde going to become a weekly event? Back in the pilot, Max spent considerable time pulling his fat out of the fire when he cheated on his girlfriend.

Max showed an incredible ability to win at both roulette and poker in this episode. Kinda makes you wonder why in the previous episode, "Flushed," she was so desperate for money that she first hit her firends up for a loan, then carjacked some bad dudes and sold their car to a chop shop.

Nits aside, I'm still loving this series.


By Someone Else on Wednesday, November 01, 2000 - 8:09 am:

I thought she wore them so she can so she can keep track of the visions in her dreams...

:-)


By Mr. Luxury Yacht on Wednesday, November 01, 2000 - 12:07 pm:

The sunglasses still don't make sense, because cats can't actually see in the dark! They can see well in VERY LOW light levels, but if you took all light sources out of the room then they couldn't see at all--they'd be in the same position as any human.

So, wearing sunglasses would actually impair her vision because it would filter out some of the minimal light that is available for her to see by.


By D.W. March on Wednesday, November 01, 2000 - 12:53 pm:

Not too many nits that I saw but a few nonetheless...

Those young super-soldiers have terrible discipline. When one of them goes up to get the ballon, the others just stand around in a tight little knot watching him. They don't make any effort to cover their comrade or protect themselves! Not only that, they disobey an order and assault an officer because of their curiousity!

Also, wasn't there something in the last episode about not getting into a situation if it didn't help the mission? Climbing up a tree to get a ballon doesn't seem like a worthwhile tactical objective in any mission except get the ballon. But if they were playing get the ballon, why was the officer barking at them?

Most casinos would ask a person to leave if they had that kind of luck. I didn't get the impression that Max and Cindy lost even once, except for the first time at the roulette table.

I didn't get the subplot about the girl and her father.

The scenes where Max is breaking into the Police Archives are quite reminiscent of the first few minutes of True Lies.


By MarkN on Thursday, November 02, 2000 - 3:48 am:

Thanks for telling what happened after the casino, folks. I taped the show and the damned station went all snowy on me during the casino scene and then for the rest of the show!


By constanze on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 5:41 am:

I can understand that Max doesn't want to get into trouble with the mob by using her powers in the casions, but I don't understand throwing away the blood money in the train at the end! I thought Max needs money to bribe the cop for the flat and for her expensive medicine. In the pilot, she robbed logan to get money, yet in this episode, she does not take the money and beat the girl up, she throws it out of the train! Even if she has become less pragmatic due to logan's influence and does not want to take "blood money", she could have donated the money to a charity or the like.

-Max constantly avoids the police drones flying around the city, yet she looks right at a cop before breaking into the police building (actually, this happens in practically every episode).

-...And she's not wearing a helmet on her motorcycle!

-...Or her regular bike!

-...And why does she always wear sunglasses at night?


I heartly agree with you!
Maybe her genes or her supersoldier training have given her so much coolness, she can't act against it (that would explain a lot of her behaviour, wouldn't it?)


-How did Max know the buttons to press in the police building? They all made the same noise!

-Not only that, but they make a different noise when she presses them later!


I thought from the pilot that max hearing allows her to recognize different tones. What I don't understand: She presses the right buttons, because the door opens, but despite it, an alarm is triggered!

I guess the guard was awestruck by her beauty *g* to let her get away! He doesn't even try to shoot.


By constanze on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 5:42 am:

Oh, I like the scene when logan gives the gameboy to the cop, saying "this isn't bribery", because that is exactly what it is! ;-)))


By Callie Sullivan on Saturday, October 12, 2002 - 2:08 pm:

When Alina spoke to Logan through the video link, I thought the camera was right beside the TV. Yet when Logan was watching the playback, the POV of the camera suggested that it had been a lot more to her left and higher up. Or were there two cameras - and if so, why?


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