Andromeda Episode 58: The Right Horse

Beka’s old friend (and former lover) is in prison for stealing DNA; she busts him out and they go on the run.

Episode Summary

While Hunt is at a strategy summit on Xinti, Beka visits the planet Veras to act as a character witness for her old buddy, Able LaDrone, who’s on trial for DNA theft. Because the Verasites base their society on complete truthfulness and forbid lying, Beka gets incredibly frustrated when everything she says in her testimony is considered a lie.

Fed up, she beats up the Veras guards and escapes to Andromeda with Able. A Veras ship pursues them.

On the Run

Able explains that the “DNA-based compounds” he stole can either save a bunch of lives or kill a bunch of lives depending on whose hands it falls on. So it’s like the Genesis Device in Star Trek? It seemed a bit vague.

Beka and the Andromeda crew try to wiggle out of their predicament with Veras but to no avail. Hunt returns to the ship and helps fake Able’s death. The Verasites go home satisfied, and Able has his freedom.

Thoughts

I liked the Beka focus and the fact that Hunt took to the backseat and had a relatively smaller role this episode. The beginning scene of Beka testifying in front of the Veras was quite comical; I thought it was just a quick cutaway gag and that the remainder of the episode would focus on Hunt at the summit, but I was wrong.

Other than that, it was a run-of-the-mill episode with a good old fashioned fake death at the end as the solution to everyone’s problems. The topsy-turvy plot and romance angle reminded me of a joyless version of season 2’s A Heart for Falsehood Framed, even down to reusing the same music cue.