Well, better late than never. I had a major deadline at school this past week, but the review should be on time for tonight's episode.

Firewall was a painfully cryptic episode as far as I and my own father can tell. We spoke on the phone two nights later and went "What the hell?!" together. I do mean "painfully" as in "to the point where it hurts"; there is only so much I can take when it comes to riddles and mind games. I pray that the revelation and exposition process isn't nightmarishly slow. Pun intended.

Again they get my respect for the CGI. I could tell that the hall Helen and Declan were walking down didn't really look like that, but it was still very solidly modeled. I also loved how they did the giant salamander abnormal, especially how it interacted with the real set environment. There were seams in the part where it flung Declan into the alley wall, but when Henry and Bigfoot put it in its enclosure it seemed very real. I would love to know how they pulled that one off.

I could even respect the acting in this episode. Robin Dunne, who usually seems to just be playing himself when he plays Will and barely trying, was really into the PTSD Will he needed to be in this episode. Also, thank you, writers, for finally remembering that Will is a forensic psychologist! That fact about his character seems to have been forgotten since the second episode of season 1, which was the last of the material based directly on the original web series. Took you guys long enough. As far as everyone else goes, Ryan Robbins and Christopher Heyerdahl again gave us an outstanding set of performances as Henry and Bigfoot. They're both really good at playing animalistic characters, especially when both smell something unusual.

Now about those abnormals. What the heck was all that? Not only were they some of the most bizarre humanoids we've seen so far, but clearly they had suits on. Those suits cut off at the middle of the lower leg, even though they didn't seem to at the neck. This is one half of where this episode got horribly cryptic. We sat through an hour of material with zero explanation and I, for one, happen to be someone who is easily aggravated by an episode of something like that. I can't be alone there, can I? Not counting my dad?

Speaking of dads, the place that the elder Dr. Magnus indicated to Helen in Will's dream looks like steampunk heaven. I wonder if it will all still be intact by the time the sanctuary team finds it. It seems wondering is the theme of this episode, such as why the title is "Firewall" apart from the forced repression of Will's memory of the spirit realm (also, Robin, if that boxers-only scene was your idea, we don't need to see all that. Loosen up, if you get my drift). The rest of this season's episodes had better expose more substantial parts of what the hell is going on with these weird white hairless people and Steampunkland from the last scene. Confusing the fans should be on the list of things a TV series just should not do during its later seasons.