Mid-Season Fight For Supremacy
Episode 5 of Daybreak begins with an animated introduction, ending with a Japanese-styled theme hanging over the entire episode. We begin with Wes and Josh discussing the homecoming dance and what to do with all the rescued prisoners. As they talk, we cut back and see Wes and Turbo together and being intimate. The latter however, is hell-bent on killing Josh and offers Wes an ultimatum – kill Josh or see everyone die at the hands of Turbo. Eli and Wes come to blows some time later over the secret, leading Wes to contemplate keeping Eli outside as food to the ghoulies. However, he’s unable to follow through and instead lets him back in where he reveals he’s going to tell Josh everything he knows. This secret romance between Turbo and Wes threatens to overthrow everything built so far too, as Turbo is given some words of wisdom by Mona over what will happen if he makes peace with Josh. She slaps him across the face as the first signs of weakness seep across in a smile, allowing her to take charge of the situation. Eli and Wes eventually formulate a plan together to kill Josh with a venomous tiara at the homecoming dance. However, at the dance itself Angelica struggles with her feelings for Josh while Turbo’s dance party is a disaster. Mona forces the golfers to dance together and as they pledge their allegiance to one another, Turbo loses his temper and smashes the speaker. As everything reaches its crescendo, Wes spills his heart out to Josh only for Wes to suddenly be announced as the homecoming king. This means the poisoned crown is his. Realizing he’s not a samurai after all, he sits down and prepares for the end as the crown hovers over his head. However, before he can go through with his sacrificial death, he punches the crown to the ground and tells everyone what’s really going on. Together, they formulate a plan to set up decoys while everyone hides. When Turbo arrives and hits up the place, he and his minions winds up surrounded as the two groups prepare to fight to the death. With a big climactic finale and plenty of interesting plot reveals, it’s ultimately the clever Japanese-themed parts that keep this episode unique and intriguing. I really like the idea around self-sacrifice teased in this episode and it certainly plays into Japanese plot tropes too. Although it’s a bit of a shame Daybreak doesn’t follow through with this idea, there’s enough here to make for a decent episode nonetheless. The door is left wide open too and the ending certainly promises quite the dramatic conclusion to follow. Quite what will happen next though remains to be seen.
