Review: In The Flesh Season 2 Episode 5

The answers to all the mysteries may finally be revealed in the penultimate episode of season 2 of In the Flesh. Episode 5 focuses on Simon, the PDS sufferer and now love interest to Kieren. We find out his journey as a recovering PDS sufferer.

A lot of this episode is told in flashbacks; Simon was at an institute where they were experimenting on the “Rabids” after the Uprising. A Doctor was wanting to find a cure to help the “Rabids”. Simon was one of the “Rabids” experimented on with the new drug. One day Simon responds to the drug being tested and starts to speak. Through the flashbacks it is revealed that the Doctors are able to administer the same dose level to other “Rabids” and soon they are becoming more “human”. The Doctors decide on a name for the condition, Partially Deceased Syndrome.

Simon’s sad story is that during the time of the Rising he attacked his mother and killed her in his rabid state. His father disowns him. This leads him to join the First Risen group where he met Amy, which was how he eventually came to Roarton.

This episode is mostly used to set up for the final episode. The councillor, Maxine, believes a Second Rising is going to happen through intelligence information gathered when Simon is followed to meet one of the disciples of the Undead Prophet. Simon is told that he has to kill the First Risen, who he believes is Kieren.

Amy is experiencing odd symptoms and may be turning back to being a human. She has started dating Stephen, now the former aide to Maxine. Kieren is accused of setting the two Rabids free from the Doctor’s surgery. He runs the risk of being sent back to the Treatment Centre unless he confesses to the crime he didn’t commit.

This episode is very dark. It felt like there were still a lot of loose ends to tidy up, and I wasn’t sure by the end of this episode whether they would be able to do this in one more episode. The writers waited until the penultimate episode to reveal any of Simon’s past and I do feel this was rushed at times. By the end of the episode, one of the best cliff-hangers of the second series is revealed. I would say episode 5 was one of the best episodes of both series.

I couldn’t wait until the last episode to find out Maxine’s plan, whether Simon could really kill Kieren and whether Amy could be a key to a true cure for the PDS sufferers to become human again.