Cover Her Face
Episode 6 of Jupiter’s Legacy Season 1 begins with Sheldon racing off to save the day after an intimate afternoon with Grace. Leaving his wife behind, she starts sifting through archival photos, pausing on a shot of Sheldon holding their two kids. The next photo shows the dock the group vacated from for this expedition. Speaking of which, our flashbacks to 1932 show Sheldon and the group managing to pay off a captain to see them safely across the waters to the island. However, numerous stories are floating around about ships going missing in the exact spot they’re heading for. With whispers of sea creatures and supernatural occurrences aplenty, the group are further confounded when they see the state of the ship they’re sailing in. With a skeleton crew and a no-gun policy, the group reluctantly set sail. Out at sea, Grace starts to exhibit concerns – especially when she notices Sheldon talking to himself. This continues throughout the voyage, with Grace and Fitz taking Walt aside and speaking to him about Sheldon. Just as they do, the engines suddenly stop. While the group work on trying to fix it to get the ship moving, Grace heads into Sheldon’s study. There, she finds sketches Sheldon has drawn of Chester with his blooded face. Chester’s watch is also there too, which Walt notices and immediately questions his brother over. Both of them are interrupted by the sound of alarms wailing on the ship. A man is found out at sea called Richard Conrad. According to Sheldon, this is the last piece of the puzzle and he’s welcomed aboard by the others. Eventually everything bubbles up and the truth is revealed. Sheldon sobs and holds Walt, admitting that he’s been hearing Chester this whole time. Back in the present timeline, Brandon decides to start dating his ex Ruby again. His conversation with Grace is brief though, as she does the rounds and keeps the other heroes in check. She also stops by to see Sierra and Jay who look close to killing a supervillian. Utopian’s code is certainly starting to wane and Grace sees the disillusioned look in the kids’ eyes as she talks to them. In passing, she also learns that Chloe was in hospital. Flying over to her apartment, Grace warns her daughter to be careful given Hutch is the son of Skyfox. She doesn’t care though, and eventually encourages her Mum to leave. Grace eventually heads back to the battlefield where she finds Ghost Beam, bleeding out and dying at the hands of a villain called Baryon. As the girl fades, she promises Grace that she didn’t break the code. Irate and struggling to control her rage, Grace eventually pummels Baryon into a bloodied mess but tellingly keeps her alive. Now even Grace is starting to doubt Utopian’s code. As the episode closes out, we jump back to our 1932’s timeline where the group make it to the island. Quite what’s here however, remains to be seen.
The Episode Review
Jupiter’s Legacy has had a real issue with its editing and this episode is no exception. Both storylines – that in the present and the 1930’s timeline – are interesting but the way they’re spliced together feels messy and disjointed. The voyage itself could have been a good chance to see Sheldon’s maddening descent while building up good tension in the process. Instead, this journey is cut up with jumps back to the present where we see Grace skipping around to check up on our different characters. To be fair though, Grace’s short segments do culminate in a neat twist at the end, which sees her start to lose faith after pummeling Baryon down. This struggle is certainly interesting but the lack of screen-time with certain characters doesn’t help build up a level of consistency so desperately needed for Jupiter’s Legacy to stand out next to other superhero shows. For example, Ghost Beam’s death could have been a big moment but we haven’t had a lot of time with her so this falls short of expectations. Hopefully the final two episodes can come together and build on the better elements inherent with this show.
