In which I scream about Crusade

[all_strange_wonders]

 Sometimes the emotional beats of a failed spinoff that was cancelled more than 20 years ago are so immaculate that you just have to stay up past your bedtime silently screaming "Fuck!" at your computer screen.

I mean, Jesus. I would say "there's no reason for the opening scene of The Path of Sorrows to go as hard as it does," but there absolutely is a reason, because it tells us so much about the characters. I mean, we've got Galen going after someone so hard that Max "Morals Are An Inconvenient Obstacle To Corporate Profits" Eilerson looks uncomfortable. And who's Galen going after? Dureena, who is arguably one of his very, very few friends in the entire literal universe. In fact, this scene helps us understand their relationship* because Galen knowns just what buttons to push to get the reaction he needs, and Dureena's first reaction (before the twisting of the knife overrides it) is confusion that he's ragging her for failing.

This is also (in my viewing order, anyway), the first time we see that Galen will use his friends for his own ends. He'll be sorry to do it, but that doesn't stop him. I don't think it's an accident that we see him do this very obviously twice in the episodes we have--here in The Path of Sorrows, and again in The Well of Forever. It sets up a really interesting set of precedents for the character that I wish we could have seen pay off down the line in one way or another.

And then--then! The thing that absolutely fucking slays me every single time I watch this episode! Once he has intentionally wounded her and she has started storming off to deal with that hurt on her own, he says "Stop," and she does. I have watched this episode so many times over the last 23 years, and the emotional punch that packs somehow only gets heavier with time. There's so much that can be read out of the stillness, out of the silence, and I still can't put it into words. Honestly, what the fuck is going on between these two? 

And that's all before the opening credits. Honestly, I can take or leave most of this episode. The three different backstory exposition stories in one episode feels a little clunky, and personally I think they would have been better served by being spaced out. But man, when it hits, it hits hard. 



* Ok, and the followup, where Dureena calls him out on what he did:

 

"Look, you know me, Galen. You know me like few ever have or ever will, and you used that knowledge unfairly." And while he says he required no special knowledge because everyone is afraid of failing, he doesn't actually say he doesn't have any.

Comments

[gwydion]

We loved that show so MUCH and were furious when it got cancelled. The characters were so interesting and nuanced and there are moments that I want to reference because they are relevant and live rent free in my head, but no one knows this show anymore.

Someone stole my DvD out of the back of our truck during a move. Where are you watching it? I've been wanting to rewatch for a Decade.

[all_strange_wonders]

I literally cheered out loud when I read this comment because it has been *so long* since I talked to someone about Crusade who's actually heard of it. I still get hung up on how much potential it had.

I bought the digital version on Amazon since my DVDs are still packed up from our pandemic moves. It looks like it's also available to stream on Amazon, if that's a thing you do. If not, the DVDs are miraculously still in print, and if you have an address/PO box you're comfortable sharing via DM I will make a set show up there posthaste.