The Elysium Season 2 would’ve aired between the 11th September 2016 and the 16th October 2016. It would’ve consisted of 6×60 minute episodes, like Season 1, and it would’ve been produced by Left Bank Pictures for BBC One in the UK, CBS in the USA and Netflix internationally. Jane Espenson would’ve remained as show runner, with the co-executive producers changing, with only Anne Kenney remaining in her position, three new co-executive producers joined, who were, Simon Ashdown, Adrian Hodges and, former Doctor Who Companion, who had now retrained mainly as a writer (but also still acted, but to a lesser degree), Emer Kenney, who would also pen Episode 3.
HAIL TO THE CHEIF
Season 2, Episode 1
Written by TONI GRAPHIA
Directed by PHILIP JOHN
TX Date – 11 September 2016
This episode would focus on Julie and Calem, and the political storyline of the season. We see Julie as a political activist in this episode, doing interviews, making speeches and causes a lot of headaches for politicians in office. We see her on Callista’s questions (hosted by Eddie), we see her meeting with government officials, trying to get them to change their policies, including a meeting with Calem, but most importantly, we find out that she’s actually working for Roddy, who has now disappeared from the public eye, after he was sacked by Ajacos, in the finale of Season 1. Roddy and Julie are planning to get Julie into a high position in the government, so essentially Roddy can use her as a puppet. Julie doesn’t quite realise this and thinks that this is much more of a mutual partnership. Julie, and Jan, are obviously in this episode, not in the mines, and both of them are very clean and very healthy, living in a cosy little cottage in the new capital city of the Scallatti, which now, about 8 months later, is more of a large English town, rather than just the Government Building standing alone in a clearing, but the town is built in that very same clearing, and the Government Building stands in the middle of it.
The second part of the plot, for this episode, sees us see the other side of this story, as we focus on Calem, now Ajacos’ Chief of Staff, as Syd fled with Richard in the Season 1 finale. We get an important scene of her meeting with Lea, as Lea asks if she can go and find out more about the Lone Cizzauran, but Claude has banned the Scallatti from interacting with the Cizzaurans, at risk of provoking another conflict. However, Calem cooks up an excuse for Lea, relying on the fact that it’s the Cizzauran Karrina Festival today, and it would be helpful to have an official, like Lea, there. This has ramifications for Calem, as she gets a dressing down from Claude, but her and Ajacos end up persuading him that it was the right thing to do. Following Julie’s increased criticism of the government, but immense talent, Ajacos, makes the decision with the help of Claude, to use her to fill the vacant Vice President position. Ajacos makes the announcement on television at the end of the episode, and Julie and Roddy are extremely overjoyed. The episode then ends with Claude having a secret conversation with Dani, as she warns him that Callista Daily have some dirt on Julie that he might be very interested in.
Although Richard doesn’t appear in this episode, and every other main character is, he is still credited as a main character, because he appears in the form of a picture on a screen, as Ajacos, Claude & Calem discuss Richard and Syd’s disappearance.
THE SOULLESS NIGHT
Season 2, Episode 2
Written by ANNE KENNEY
Directed by PHILIP JOHN
TX Date – 18 September 2016
This episode, like the remaining episodes of the season, begins with a previously segment of the previous episode, before a caption reads: “12 hours earlier”, and we cut to Richard waking up, in a cold sweat, inside a hut. It’s revealed that he and Syd have been seeking refuge with a Rhaighr tribe, in the neighbouring continent, about 290 miles away from where the Capital City stands. It turns out that while this tribe was aggressive towards Richard and Syd to begin with, over the 8 months they have begun to trust them more and more and they have evolved into members of the tribe, in some ways, with Richard and Syd’s behaviour evolving too, becoming more and more Rhaighr-like. Also, as Richard is quite the romantic, he has found himself in a relationship with Syd, after those 8 months. The episode mainly revolves around two plot threads, firstly Richard and Syd, deciding that they want to leave the Rhaighrs and try and return to the Scallatti, and try and reclaim their old lives. But also, we see Thrreodhrirr, and her guards, come and visit the village, for some sort of state visit but also an inspection in some ways, and she goes berserk about Richard & Syd being in the village, let alone becoming members of the village. The chief of the Bhrrysla village, Eyrrberthrr, defends the two of them being there, and telling her that they are not the enemy. Thrreodhrirr asks for Eyrrberthrr’s pike, to which he shakes his head, knowing that she wishes for him to die. He tries to fight her, but she soon manages to grab the pike before she stabs it into him, for his insolence. She tells her guards to grab Richard & Syd, and they leave, flying up into the air, Richard & Syd clinging to the Rhaighr’s claws. When the journey is nearly over, Thrreodhrirr brings everyone to a stop, as she says she can hear an odd noise, the sound of music. Berzhrr says that it’s the Cizzauran Karinna Festival. Thrreodhrirr slyly chuckles to herself, before ordering them all to fly over and ‘crash the party’. A battle ensues between the Rhaighrs and the Cizzaurans, which Richard & Syd witness from behind. Richard nearly runs out across the village, as he sees Lea, from a distance, fighting along with the Cizzaurans. As the battle ends, Richard and Syd spot Utnapishtim and Tena, at the other side of the village, having a word with Lea. Syd says that they’ve got to go, and the two of them run on through the forest, away from everything. But they come face to face with Thrreodhrirr again, as she grasps her claws into them and takes them the rest of the journey back to the Stambhrrm village, the Rhaighr capital.
Julie and Calem do not appear in this episode, but as they are featured in the previously recap, they are still listed on the opening credits as normal.
HER ACHILLES HEEL
Season 2, Episode 3
Written by EMER KENNY
Directed by PHILIP JOHN
TX Date – 25 September 2016
This episode once again opens with a recap of Episodes One and Two before cutting to a “12 hours earlier” card, and this time we focus mainly on Eddie, in the Callista Daily offices, and his relationship with his producer, Dani. The episode begins with the Callista’s Questions with Julie, that we saw in Episode 1, with Eddie interviewing her. Meanwhile, we see Dani meeting with the board of directors at Callista Daily who tell her that they are worried about her, especially due to a number of complaints about her conduct, from anonymous but senior members of staff, and the fact that it’s Remembrance Day tomorrow, worries them, as she’s in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly. Dani rebuttals by saying that the broadcast of the Karinna Festival, that evening, will prove that Callista Daily can still handle this kind of thing, in despite of the interrupted broadcast of the state dinner, the previous year. But the board of directors tell her that she needs to watch her back. Dani is in an especially bad mood, and Eddie comes to see her soon after, telling her that he wants to investigate Julie, as he thinks that she might find herself in high office, very, very soon. Dani, feeling the pressure from the board, approves it, but says that she will veto it, if needs be.
We then cut the episode into cut, as we follow Dani, dealing with the preparations for the broadcast of the Karinna Festival, for the evening, including meeting with Lea, and arranging a film crew to go with her, for the broadcast, and the next day, the broadcast of the Remembrance Day celebrations the following day. Eddie, on the other hand, spends the episode investigating Julie, interviewing manly people who know her including Administrator, Lieonotis, Roddy, Captain Hurati, and multiple other mines, giving us our first look down the mines, since the strike, and it’s a much more polished, safe and professional operation. However, throughout all of this, Eddie discovers something. Julie has an extremely ‘dirty past’. He finds out that she was arrested multiple times and had ties to a prominent gang throughout the 12 mining ships of the fleet. Eddie digs even deeper and finds out that she used to be a prostitute, and her first daughter, Collie’s, father was in fact one of her clients. Eddie finds most of this through, meetings with members of this gang, and the security camera tape black market, who have tapes of Julie’s activities for sale. When Eddie brings all this information back to Dani, she freaks out, and Dani tells him that Callista Daily isn’t a tabloid or gossip magazine, but a serious news organisation. Dani says that keeping this secret, is a matter of respect and privacy, and ‘revealing the truth’ is not relevant, in this case. Eddie flips out, and goes to the board of directors, who order Dani to publish the story, as well as telling them that if she acts in this way once more, they will be forced to suspend her. However, a transmission comes on the monitor, as they are about to publish the report, of Ajacos announcing that Julie is the new Vice President. Eddie smiles and says that their figures are going to be so high now, exposing the new VP on her first day. Dani tells Eddie to hold fire, as she says, that they need to let Julie begin working, for a day or two, at least until they release the story, otherwise it will be meaningless.
The episode then ends with Dani phoning Claude and telling him everything.
THE KARINNA FESTIVAL
Season 2, Episode 4
Written by SIMON ASHDOWN
Directed by PHILIP JOHN
TX Date – 2 October 2016
Again, this episode opens with a recap, before cutting to a “12 hours earlier” caption. This time the focus in on Lea, and the Cizzaurans. We open with Lea and Dien overseeing the building of the new, Scallatti wide, power network, using the cables that Lea discovered in the Season 1 finale, and that the Scallatti are now mass producing. She then goes on to meet Calem, and we see the 5-minute scene from Episode 1 again, whereby Lea gets permission to attend the Cizzauran Karinna Festival, and then we get the scene where Lea meets with Dani, from the previous episode. Lea also meets with Julie, in a scene we didn’t see in Episode 1, whereby Julie offers her some advice, on the Lone Cizzauran, telling her he responds to music.
The first half of the episode sees Lea visit the Sennekh village, where the festival is taking place, and she meets with Ghavett, who is looking after the Lone Cizzauran, who they have now named Vahseligan. Also, many residents of the Horretz village, have come to the Sennekh village, to enjoy the festivities. We see Lea, once again trying to communicate with Vahseligan, but to no avail, then she remembers what Julie said to her and she begins to sing to Vahseligan, and to her delight, he responds back. There are no words in his singing, one tune. Lea quickly, gathers the Cizzaurans round, and they all begin singing a traditional song to see if this evokes some sort of memory. It does and Vahseligan responds, seemingly, knowing the lyrics already as they all join in and have a sing along. This goes on for hours, up into the beginning of the festival. Meanwhile, Lea does the rounds the rest of the Cizzaurans, getting to know them and enjoying herself, especially as she meets with a Cizzauran scientist, Atehnet, and they connect over their love of science.
Hours later, and the festival begins, as Ghavett begins the ceremony, igniting the festival, which in itself is a large annual event, almost like Christmas for humans, whereby they praise their Goddess of Music. Song and dance erupt and Vahseligan becomes increasingly present throughout, enjoying the festivities more than most other Cizzaurans, which they are all really shocked about, as he hasn’t said a word or responding to any of them in 8 whole months. Lea becomes to connect to Vahseligan, and he still hasn’t even said a word, but through non-verbal communication and the melodies he sings, the two form their own language.
However, before long, a troop of Rhaighrs land in the village, causing much panic and uproar, led by Thrreodhrirr. The battle breaks out, and we see much more of it, than in Episode 2, as this time, we are right in the middle of it, following Lea, and we see that it becomes a mix of fighting and of music. The Cizzauran fight back with their style of music, sounding something more like Earth’s Native American style, all the while it’s enunciated by physical action, while the Rhaighrs use their own Death Metal style of music, becoming an imposing and solid force. Eventually, with the help of Lea and the Callista team, who are broadcasting the event live (whereby we see Dani & Eddie watching it on a monitor back home), using the Scallatti’s own Celtic-like style of music, they manage to fight the Rhaighrs off, but not before first, Lea spots Richard hiding in the forest, before running up. Afterwards, the festival continues barely untouched, but Utnapishtim and Tena arrive, speaking to Lea and asking if she has seen her brother at all. Lea says that she hasn’t seen him and 8 months, and she is extremely worried about his whereabouts, before Utnapishtim and Tena hurry off, after being told by Lea where to stick it.
THE THREE
Season 2, Episode 5
Written by TONI GRAPHIA
Directed by PHILIP JOHN
TX Date – 9 October 2016
Again, this episode opens like the others, with the previously recap and the “12 Hours Earlier” caption, before we instead focus on Utnapishtim and Tena, and this episode really is the most different of the season, as finally we start to delve a little more into their backstory. The episode mainly follows Tena’s perspective of the entire thing, with her point of view, as she goes about her day, and bumps into the 4 other storylines. She’s currently undercover, in the way she was with Richard last season, within one of the new Scallatti cities, about 100 miles from the capital. She’s working in a place called Manor Hall, which holds the Scallatti’s security service, and she’s undercover as the typist to the Managing Director, Keo Larrs Errlyl. However, underneath the building, a mile below, the Flagship is buried, with a singular lift leading from Manor House. Inside the Flagship, it is revealed, is the Three’s base of operations, of which Tena is a prominent member of, and the new Recruitment Director. The episode revolves around Tena, with the help of Utnapishtim and the other members of the Three, recruiting Keo to the Three, in much the same way as she tried with Richard, and this time it is successful. The episode also dives more into the backstory of the Three, and we find out that Tena was recruited from birth, as her father was a prominent member of the Three too, and we get the assertion that Tena was involved in the destruction of the Barrac. We also meet another elder, who, like Utnapishtim, is one of the ‘Three’. This is Shamash, and she seems somewhat superior to Utnapishtim in some ways, but in others her inferior, making her seem more like an equal overall. We see that there is also a little tension between Tena and Shamash.
After Keo has been recruited, the plot diverges for the last ten minutes, as someone, who we don’t know the identity of, phones Tena up and tells her that he thinks he’s spotted Richard & Syd on the television coverage for the Karrina Festival. Tena and Utnapishtim, joined also by Keo, now, rush off to the Sennekh village and we see them asking Lea about Richard once more. The episode finally ends with Tena picking up the phone, and telling the man, at the other end, that they’ve gone, and there’s no sight of them. We then see that Tena has been talking to… Roddy. It seems that he is in fact a member of the Three.
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Season 2, Episode 6
Written by JANE ESPENSON
Directed by ANNA FOERSTER
TX Date – 16 October 2016
The episode again opens with a previously recap, but instead of cutting to the 12 hours earlier card, we continue with a black screen, before we cut to the sound of trumpets playing the Scallatti Anthem. We see Ajacos and Julie leading the ceremony for Scallatti Remembrance Day, including explaining how important it is that they remember everyone they’ve lost, over an estimated 2000 years. We also cut between all the main characters, as they partake in the two-minute silence. But as Julie begins to make her Vice-Presidential speech, as the silence finishes, all the power cables fall down into the crowd and a large explosion occurs, killing about 150 people in the crowd. Everyone is in shock, watching at home, and Julie is in a state of disbelief.
Lea’s plot for this episode concerns dealing with the aftereffects of this, as she and her think tank developed the caballing based upon Rhaighr design. We also see the fallout of the accident, with Julie and Ajacos, as they have to appear all over the media, which we see coordinated by Eddie (with Dani finding herself shut out of all decisions). Calem is tasked with leading a team to meet with the Rhaighrs to find out more about the caballing from the inventors of it. Roddy and Tena manage to bag their way onto the taskforce. Towards the start of the episode, Claude notifies Julie of the article which will be coming out in the next few days, and Julie’s anxiety builds up through the episode, as she is constantly on the edge, and in terror and fear of it being released, and on top of this she’s having to make many public appearances dealing with the aftermath of the accident.
As the episode continues, Lea and Dien discover that when Kheqren reacts with the caballing and exposed, to the unique radiation of the planet, it begins to exhibit unusual properties, and towards the climax of the episode, Lea realises that these properties are temporal in nature.
In the Rhaighr village, Calem meets with Berzhrr, where they discuss the accident and the caballing, but no progress is really made. Roddy, however, spots Richard and Syd, in a hut, held prisoner, and he goes to investigate. Roddy breaks the two of them out, but when Tena aids in the break-out, Richard & Syd loose trust and make their escape themselves, realising that Roddy is a member of the Three, and they just wanted to capture them. When running through the forest, Syd tells Richard that it’s time, and they have to take this further. Richard is uncompromising at first, but then he agrees.
When Richard & Syd return to the clearing, the now the capitol ‘village’, Richard has another touching reunion with Lea, before he tells her that he needs to speak to the president, Lea says that’s good as she needs to speak to him too, but Lea tells Richard that it’s Remembrance Day, which Richard didn’t realise as he’s kind of lost track of the days. Richard nods his head, and then we see them entering an apartment where they find their parents. We then get a few scenes of Richard & Lea with their parents, meeting again and catching up and we also find out more about the history of Remembrance Day, and how no one really remembers why it started, but it’s now just a commercial holiday, similar to Christmas in America.
As we edge to the last ten minutes of the episode, Eddie’s article about Julie is released, and everything goes crazy. Ajacos tells her that he will publicly stand by her, but he’s going to have to privately suspend her for the moment. Also, Eddie gets a message of approval from the board, and news that he’s in for promotion. Calem, and the taskforce return from the Rhaighr village, empty handed, for Calem to find herself hounded by press asking about the official line on Julie’s business.
Finally, we see a meeting between Ajacos, Richard, Lea, Syd and Calem whereby Lea firstly tells Ajacos about the Kheqren having temporal properties, and explaining that this means, they could potentially travel through time, and that with the right equipment, one of their old starships could be cannibalised for this. Richard then informs Ajacos about the Three and tells him that Utnapishtim, Tena and Roddy are all members. Ajacos says that these accusations are very grave, and asks if Richard is 100% sure, to which he and Syd nod their heads. Ajacos then turns to Calem and Lea and asks for their resignations, as someone has to take the fall for the accident earlier that day and both of them were overseeing the caballing. Lea gracefully offers it but Calem refuses to. Ajacos tells her that she’s fired then, and then to add salt to the wound he tells Lea that she’s too important to resign, but he’s thankful that she at least offered it in a dignified manner.
The last scene of the episode sees Julie making a speech to the public, firstly addressing the accident that happened earlier in the day, and how they must enter into a period of morning, etc… etc… and then she moves onto the allegations made by Callista Daily. She says that all of the allegations are unfounded and false, and the President will back her up on this. She says that the press has too much freedom to say whatever they like, and they must be stopped. She then announces that she will be suspending the operations of Callista Daily, immediately. Before we cut to end credits. However, we see a brief post credit scene, only 10 seconds, of the TARDIS landing on the Elysium.
So, there we have it, the Elysium Season 2. Hope you enjoyed it, and up next is Doctor Who: Season 51, where we will first take a look at the 2016 Christmas Special, before in the same video, delve into Season 51 in general. So, until then, goodbye.
WIDWWA 