Deadly Class, Episode 3 Review: “Snake Pit”

While episodes one and two got us well-acquainted with the various factions at King’s Dominion, “Snake Pit” simplifies matters to Rat versus Legacy with a hazing week leading up to the big dance (no rats allowed).

Following her decision to go upstairs with Viktor last week, Petra’s storyline takes the fore when Viktor asks her to go to the dance. While at the time, her leaving with him seemed to be triggered by Billy declaring his love, Petra has feelings for him, and while she gets a lot of flak from her friends, Viktor is surprisingly convincing about liking her for who she is, without wanting her to change. You can see why she would say “yes” for reasons other than pissing Brandy off, but when it all goes terribly wrong, Billy’s words of comfort – “It’s normal to want to be a part of the normal world” – pair her storyline with Maria’s. Like Petra, Maria voices a desire for a normal life but as long as she’s trapped inside her abusive relationship with Chico, it seems unlikely she’ll get it.

The other thing Maria and Petra share, though, is good friends. When Chico tries to poison Maria’s friendship with Saya, Saya doesn’t fall for it for a second (where other shows would’ve thrown them into a massive fight), and when Petra gets a makeover from the cheerleaders, Marcus and the rats reap revenge, while Billy asks her to dance to Chris de Burgh’s “The Lady In Red.” Veronica Mars is getting rebooted this year but between Billy’s romantic gesture and the class warfare, Deadly Class could be a worthy successor (and if you know how much I love Veronica Mars, that’s the highest compliment).

Other thoughts on “Snake Pit:”

• Last review I questioned the sincerity of Jürgen singling Marcus out, but you can’t argue with his putting in his notice at King’s Dominion, a decision which (while leaving Marcus high and dry) shows he’s willing to die for his principles.
• It’s not like being on the inside was helping him change the system (though one wonders if this means we’ll be seeing more of Marcus’ newly introduced Fundamentals of Psychopathy teacher (French Stewart)) but having made his last stand around the final exam, will Jürgen come back to help the rats when the time comes?
• And when should we be expecting the final exam? The show is moving at a fine pace but there are a few major plot points that take place between now and then in the books (the final exam encompasses volume four). Mentioning it this early makes it sound like something you might expect in the season finale, but in the books you weren’t prepared for it at all, so the show is really building up the hype in advanced (not that it won’t be earned) while also putting Marcus on alert. As we learn this episode in Atypical Combat Skills, improvisation is where Marcus excels, so maybe being warned isn’t such a good thing.
• I like that the show keeps acknowledging Marcus’ time on the streets, with his minimal reaction to the secret ingredient at lunch.
• Chico is the only other student besides Marcus that we’ve seen kill a man and he continues to be the biggest physical threat to Marcus and his friends.
• One of my favorite lines this episode is when Willie tells Marcus, “quit keeping it real at me and focus on the game.” It encapsulates both their characters so well: Marcus with his running political commentary and Willie with his desire to stay out of the fight.
• While the opening tag continues where we left off last week, with the introduction of animal-loving, vicious roommate F*ckface, he then gets dropped for the rest of the episode. The closing tag similarly comes out of nowhere, with a hit being placed on Saya by her own people. The Yakuza are the group we’ve seen the least on the show, but I imagine this might have immediate consequences come next week’s “Mirror People.”

Deadly Class airs Wednesdays at 10 PM EST on the Syfy Channel.