Black Lagoon S01E02 - The ship in the sky

BLACK LAGOON
Series 1, Episode 2

"Now where is this fast food ship-in you were talking about?""

So, here we are. Episode two, for those of you who didn’t believe I would come around to do it today (mostly my co-author here).

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

 
RECAP: Part 1 of the series’ opener introduced us to Rock and the Lagoon company which are now being chased by some military extreme group in a chopper while the crew is trying to navigate their torpedo boat through the South China Sea. Episode Two incoming.

"Dead? Come on, there's worse - like no ship to rocket launch."

This time, we are starting again in Tokyo. Rock’s boss declaring our guy dead. Again. And then we’re back where we left off, Rock throwing the merchandise (a.k.a. machine gun) into the air. We get to see yet another outburst of Rock which includes kicking a torpedo launcher, oh well, guess I wouldn’t mind that either in that exact moment. Meanwhile, Dutch and Benny figure out that the Special Forces guy is toying with them, leading them directly into a dead-end. Trying to turn around and not running into the trap just set, they get shot at with some serious caliber and have no choice but to continue to "ship" deeper into the dead-end. While the chopper stands down above an old ship wreck, waiting for them to turn back which they at some point have to, the Lagoon company is preparing for a plan, except they don’t have one. Yet. So, while they’re finally resigning (and I can’t blame them), Rock comes up with the hopefully saving idea. And damn, what a plan he has in mind. 

"Yeah, motherf**ker, we got a flying boat."

And there is the execution of our plan: speeding up. Firing a signal flare to lure the launched missiles away from the boat (pretty clever at that but I kind of doubt that two missiles would fall for the same signal glare) and then, and that is the highlight of this opener and I’m in love with that move, jumping into the sky by using the ship wreck we came across earlier as a jumping romp. Leaving the military guy freaking out, they launch their on-board torpedoes (remember, torpedo boat, comes in handy at this point) with one of them directly hitting the guy in the face, then exploding. Without a doubt, the bad ass moment of this very episode. But with that comes in my opinion the first big mistake the show has made. We clearly see the second torpedo not reaching its target but instead it’s falling back down in the water or, which would be more likely, onto the boat. Instead the boat comes clear and a few seconds later we hear and see the big explosion of what previously was the best equipped chopper ever.So where exactly did the second torpedo go? It couldn't logically be in the explosion but I guess they wanted us to look at it that way. 

"Group image? Go for it, it won't get better."

Back on solid ground, our heroes are saved and now we get to see Balalaika, the Lagoon company and Rock’s boss together in one place. Balalaika (the woman with the burned face in case you should have forgotten) tells us about “Hotel Moscow” which we will get to see and hear plenty more of in the continuing series. While Rock’s boss offers our guy his life back, Rock refuses which is clearly the right choice or you do intend to work again for some asshole who declared you dead multiple times before. And Balalaika now shows some respect for Rock which she doesn’t show very often, believe me. And then, the closing part: Revy invites Rock to join the team. And he accepts. 

Switch to a later time. The Lagoons are blocking a transport ship while Rock’s boss gets congratulations from the other CEO's back in Japan. Now, Rock asks (and yes, he really asks them) the crew on board the transport ship to surrender to them. But of course, they wouldn’t listen. Income does Revy with her rocket launcher. Result: boarding complete. Mission accomplished.

Then, lastly, Rock’s boss is shown to indeed have a family. But what comes without a surprise, he isn’t the big caring type. In the South Seas Rock and Revy have to catch the opening time for a restaurant, so they’re packing stuff up and leave. End of the opener.

"High expectations, eh?"

So, what is there to say about the second episode? – Ep.1 delivered a strong opening with a more than solid cliffhanger. Ep.2 however does not manage to quite fulfill the high expectations set by this first episode. Especially, the ending scenes (including and mostly the Balalaika showing respect thing) don’t make that much sense until now. Well, of course, they do to some degree. But why is it so damn special that she respects Rock? Seems normal. Well, for her it isn’t. And to earn her respect you normally have to do extraordinary things. We will get introduced to that in later episodes but not in this one which sadly costs this episode a star.  

In addition to that, there also is one small plot hole. Why in hell’s name didn’t they just leave the boat and went hiding on the island? Why I don’t see it as striking as you could see it, my co-author did swear to kill me, literally, if I didn’t include that here, so, folks, there you have it. 

"What the f**k are you lookin' at?"

The characters are again developed, not as big as previously but very satisfying and I think the show did a solid job here. Everyone got their deserved screen time, everyone got some more characteristics and everyone is shown doing what they do best. But nothing more, so there goes another star on my list because you could easily let it slip and in the beginning this is not the best way to go, sorry.

Other than that, the episode is a fun ride, once more, and delivers such a stunning action sequence that almost everything else can be forgiven. I mean, where did you see that one (the jump) before? Right, nowhere. While we are also introduced to some famous beer (if you don’t care about the ‘R’ instead of the ‘N’, you’re fine) and a lot of cigarettes, its nevertheless animated but great setting shots we get to see here boost the episode above average.

**SPOILERS OUT**

So while Ep.1 was the clearly better part of the two-part opener, Ep.2 is strong but fails to completely persuade.

Still, because of the very good action sequence and setting, it is still like scratching the 4-star mark and scores 3 stars overall. It was a close call to be fair but it is deserved. It’s that damn premiere effect again.Next episodes are then again getting better and better during the course of the series, so keep your heads up - and more importantly, your guns ready. At best, your 9mm Cutlass.