And Your Heart Will Fly Away

Andromeda Episode Review

In which Tyr has crap taste in women.

What Happened

Tyr is contacted by a woman he was once hired to kill, but instead chose to seduce. He built her a refuge on an inhospitable ice world, where she's been alone for the past few years, safe from an obsessed lover named Nez. Now, this man is on Andromeda, trying to get Tyr to hand Desiree over to him. There's some fuzzy B-plot about an indestructible weapons platform that Nez, a crippled scientist-guy, built and which is now stalking the ship for some reason.

There's also a few moments where Beka thinks Desiree is a killer, but it turns out that she's really an altered Nietzschean woman, Tyr's childhood sweetheart. A member of the Kodiak pride, Desiree was sold into slavery after the massacre that killed Tyr's family. In the end, and for reasons that are not really explained, Desiree chooses to stay on the ice world.

The Good

• Tyr finds Desiree. Judging from her reaction, I'm going to guess it ended badly.
• Beka: "Yeah, that would be my first choice if I was getting dumped: a Nietzschean hit-man."
• Okay? Tyr's nickname for Desiree is Medea? That tells us some really unflattering things about her character.
• Beka realizing that Tyr is serious about Desiree: "He actually cares what she thinks."
• Beka: "I thought you once said that you could never be with a human woman."
  Tyr: "I did - to you." Ow. That's just mean.
• Fine. Desiree is Kodiak, and "Medea" is her real name, not Tyr's twisted nickname for her. That explains why he's so interested in her, but not why we had to stuff all this explanation into the last three minutes rather than bring it up earlier when it could be properly dealt with.

The Bad

• There are crew members? When did Andromeda get more crew? Isn't that the sort of thing you could dedicate a line of exposition or even a whole episode to?
• Lover boy doesn't even wait until they are out of the cargo bay before taking a shot at Tyr? Where did Trance and Harper go? Shouldn't Andromeda be sounding some sort of alarm about the gunfire?
• Desiree: "Untested love is ultimately worthless." Huh? I think she's been alone on that planet for too long.
• Nice Speed Racer hairdo, Nez.

The Cliche

• The ex-girlfriend who shows up mostly to make the potential love interest jealous.

What Did I Think?

Good idea, with Desiree and the Kodiak back-story, but the whole ice planet / out of control weapons platform / wheelchair-bound scientist guy really just confuse things.