After some rough episodes, this is a return to form for Dark Matter. It’s not perfect, but on the whole, it’s a good ride.

There’s a twist that it would be impossible to discuss this episode without spoiling. The twist comes fairly early on, and I won’t spoil the other twists later in the episode, but if you haven’t seen “One More Card to Play” yet and want to come in totally fresh, you might want to leave now.

Cool? Cool.

The episode begins with Two and Three stirring rebellion aboard a Zairon prison ship, but it soon becomes clear it’s not actually Two and Three. It’s Portia and Marcus, their ruthless selves from the other universe.

Yes, the evil universe is back, and they’re about to cause all kinds of problems for the Raza crew.

As mentioned above, this is a return to the kind of rollicking, thoroughly entertaining adventure that Dark Matter is known for. It’s a fun episode, there’s humour, there’s action, there are some good twists, the ending gives us another cliffhanger, and it’s just a good ride all around.

I have to say, I like having Wexler back. I mean, he’s disgusting, but that’s the point. When it comes to “love to hate them” bad guys, there are few better.

It was also interesting to see Ryo continue to lose it, though once again it was too small a portion of the episode.

And once again, Five and Sally steal the show by being completely awesome in every way.

There are still some issues. The new guy continues to irritate, though he’s not in the spotlight nearly so much as past episodes, so it could be a lot worse.

If the ending is to be believed, I’ve gotten my wish, and the new guy is gone. I’m not going to get my hopes up too high, but if he really is gone — or at least reduced to a background character — that can only help the show.

I’ll miss Solara, but if they must be a package deal, he’s more annoying than she was interesting, so this is still a net gain.

Also, I had hoped the return of the evil universe characters might offer some more insight into Portia and Sally’s history, but I was destined for disappointment on that front.

Still, it’s a pretty solid hour of television all told.

Overall rating: 7/10

Man, the casting changes have really not done this show any favours.

We were bound to get at least one episode devoted mainly to fleshing out the newbies, and “Give It Up, Princess” appears to be it. Unfortunately, its focus is not on Solara, but on Jimmy the Idiot Boy.

It’s a long, dull, irritating slog that mostly goes nowhere. In theory it’s setting up something that could be interesting in the future regarding Ferrous Corporation, but we’ll have to wait for the pay-off on that.

I’m repeating myself, but this new guy is terrible. Absolutely terrible. It feels like he was meant to be the show’s comedy relief, but he’s not funny. At all. Not even close.

I’ve been complaining about the show being too quick to kill off its characters, but can this guy please get spaced sooner rather than later? He is the absolute worst thing that has ever happened to Dark Matter.

I feel bad for the actor. He seems destined to be hated, but it’s not really his fault. The writers just gave him a crap part. He’s probably a very nice guy and totally undeserving of how much I’m dumping on his work.

The one piece of good news is that there’s actually a lot of interesting stuff going on in this episode. You just have to look to the subplots.

We get to see Sally the android stretch her wings again, which is always nice (though that Southern accent needs work). I do get the feeling there might be some consequences to her trying to share the upgrade. Should be interesting to see.

I also enjoyed Ryo’s subplot. Mostly all he’s done this season is shake his fist at the Raza like some toothless Saturday morning cartoon villain, but this time he gets a much meatier story to sink his teeth into, and it shows his true character as a ruler and as a man.

I am increasingly suspecting that someone in his court is conspiring against him. I’m just not sure if it’s Misaki or Teku. Misaki seems the much more likely candidate… but that’s exactly what gives me doubts. She’s too obvious. And Teku is definitely smart enough to plot to bring Ryo down without ever giving a hint that he’s disloyal.

Finally and most intriguingly, we get to see Six again, if only briefly. That gives me hope the show isn’t done with him yet. The ending hints he may be in dire straights, but at least there’s the chance he could once again be a full cast member. I’ll cling to hope for as long as I can.

Now, if only one of those plot threads could have served as the focus of this episode, instead of the dumbass.

Overall rating: 6.5/10