'The Outpost' Season 3 Episode 5 Review: As Yavalla flees with Tobin's army, does the show need a fresh plot?
Spoilers for 'The Outpost' Season 3 Episode 5 titled 'Under Yavalla's Control'
Yavalla, the only High Priestess of the Blackbloods, who was going to bring peace between them and humans, has been captured. After acquiring the kinj, Yavalla (Jaye Griffiths) was determined to take over the Gallwood Outpost with her not-so-little army of bees. But before that could happen, Talon (Jessica Green) and Zed (Reece Ritchie) intercept and manage to lock her behind bars successfully along with Gwynn (Imogen Waterhouse) herself and a bunch of others.
In the meantime, the plan of action is that Janzo (Anand Desai-Barochia) and Wren (Izuka Hoyle) were tasked with looking for a solution the infected people and the kinj itself.
But, of course, given that we're watching a show on The CW, Yavalla manages to escape. Not so surprisingly, a lot of things following her arrest work out in her favor. Now it turns out that she cannot die either. On top of that, she also managed to get someone on the outside to free her and all the other infected people. After Gwynn passes on her kinj to a rat — yes, a rat — Yavalla directs it to pass it on to Tobin.
Once it is planted in Tobin, she has him come back to free them. Following this, the group flees the Outpost, taking Tobin's army of hundred-odd soldiers with them. And with that, the rest of the outpost including Talon, Garret (Jake Stormoen), Zed, Janzo, Wren and the mix of humans and Blackbloods must join their hands "in unity" to defeat Yavalla's dreams of ruling over the people.
This comes after yet another drag of a pep talk by Talon — why do we need Yavalla for peace at all, why can't we just stay in peace? How was this something that the characters didn't stumble upon by themselves? That way, they would have to deal with Yavalla at all.
Secondly, why introduce a kinj that is spread through a contact in Season 3 when the show started with Plaguelings in Season 1 — creatures who could spread the plagueling infection by coming in close contact with another person. This newfound pandemic on the show is redundant and engages similar reactions like Season 1. What with Janzo working to find a cure, the Outpost in danger, a lady love interest lurking around, the threat of the infection - Season 3 is, frankly, not interesting.
At the moment, 'The Outpost' enjoys a strong fan following — perhaps the reason behind its overconfidence in using old tools. But sooner or later, viewers are going to get just about enough of these characters put in similar situations. And it will then be time for them to reinvent. When the show first came out, comparisons with HBO's 'Game of Thrones' were abundant. But now, it can hardly contain to be itself, let alone pretend to be better.
'The Outpost' airs on Thursdays at 9 pm ET on The CW.
