Events start to take shape in episode 3, as the dealers of the Portal drug plan to further expand their business strategy by any means necessary, even if it involves kidnapping someone, and Sarah is pushed to the deep end after getting into huge trouble with her overbearing boss and is more determined to get her hands on Portal.
Although short, there’s still enough that promises something big for the next episodes when the action kicks in. This episode, like the previous two, is pretty much the calm before the storm. Like always, Chelsea Edge’s scenes are the most interesting, and she does give a very nuanced and tragic performance of someone who’s pretty much at rock bottom and is trying her best to escape from that nightmare. The scene where she’s being harassed and berated by her cruel and overbearing boss shows us just how strong Chelsea is as an actress as she’s trying her best to hide her emotions, despite how hopeless her situation is. We also find out that she’s connected to Victoria Connett’s character and we learn this is how she’s able to achieve Portal, so this gives us the sense that all of these character’s paths are connected and are going to collide sooner rather than later.
We get a glimpse of the criminal organisation that is misusing Portal as teased in the first episode, and we learn just how cunning and malicious Chris Kerry’s crime boss can be. The gathering of these crooks may look like something out of a Guy Ritchie movie, but it manages to be solid enough that it thankfully doesn’t go into the whole annoying, Pinteresque gangster shtick that filmmakers like Ritchie has been known for.
However, there are faults to be found here; like before, you do get the sense that you are watching a cut-down segment of a movie, and this is pretty much more of a slow-burner episode that sets things up for the big stuff happens next. Yet, both the cinematography and direction is as solid as before, the performances are great with plaudits still going to Chelsea Edge, and there’s plenty of intrigue in there that makes the whole episode enticing enough that it doesn’t end up becoming stale.
