TV Review: Dominion “The Flood”

By Liv Tadesse

With “The Flood” Dominion continues to prove that where its plot is less than dull, the show excels with its characters.

Yet again a rather predictable storyline is used to ramify characterization. David and Riesen are Alex’s human antagonists, but where it seemed early on that David would be Alex’s foil, the conflict between the senators solidifies Riesen as the true foil to Alex. A hypocrite with an even more taboo lover, the comparison only falls flat where the consul lacks Alex’s intuition with people management. It’s a skill oddly absent from the consul, considering his position, but his situations seem to have hardly called for it considering his position of power. On the other hand, Alex lacks that very position, as Frost refuses to take Alex as the Chosen One simply because he knows how low he ranks in Vega’s hierarchy, but it’s not hard to imagine, seeing the way Alex correctly identified and used a vague premonition, that this is similar to how he made his way into Claire’s heart.

Meanwhile, with Alex gaining more knowledge and experience, David is outed more and more for his lack of knowledge and experience. He fails miserably at negotiating with Frost, a contrast to how he played the senators against Frost but one that showed David the former required something more than your high school class clown’s feel of the room. (A starker contrast lies in his quote unquote games with Arika, who tricks him with ease and picks out any of the vulnerable who come her way.) By dismissing Frost and badly misjudging his own son, David comes off as ignorant, although not wilfully so – as Riesen’s situation never called for the kind of soft power his daughter and Alex utilize, David has seemingly gotten by easily with flexing his strength and blackmail. His attempts at negotiations were laughable, and are even more so in retrospect of Arika’s deception.

It’s here especially that Dominion shines in comparison to other male-heavy genre shows. With the end of Uriel’s introduction, the show demonstrates that it is not shy of revealing its only true villain as someone as gullible as a hero. Dominion does not only allow its female characters to manipulate and deceive the majority of its male characters, but the only heterosexual male character to be immune to this behaviour has utilized it as well. The fact that Dominion has included a gay man and has pointed out how difficult his orientation makes Arika and Claire’s brand of psychological games only shows how deliberate this characterization must be. This would be initially troubling, if it weren’t for the variety to the other female characters of the cast, with the show even surprisingly deciding to delve into apparently sympathetic 8-ball behaviour through the angel Riesen is sleeping with next week. (It’s unclear whether Uriel will rank with Arika and Claire’s differing perspectives on the coded behaviour or whether she’ll lean more with Noma and Thorn.)

Just as refreshing is Dominion’s equal and non-patronizing stance on male vs. female nudity – something barely noticeable if it wasn’t for the wealth of genre cable shows that try to squeeze in as much female nudity as possible.

The action seems to be ramping up for next week’s episode, hand in hand with a deeper exploration of the mythos. Here’s to Dominion hopefully matching its characterization with correspondingly enjoyable plot.