“Justice Never Forgets” picks up with Marie returning to Godolkin to uncover the school’s secrets. Sam visits Cate in the hospital, in which Cate mentions Emma’s name and drives a nurse to kill herself due to her mind control abilities being unstable. Emma and Polarity form an alliance, with Polarity returning to the school in order to uncover what happened to his son. Cipher and Marie have a tense interaction in which Cipher reveals that Andre knew he was sick and used his powers anyway. Jordan and Marie join Cipher’s class, which ends up functioning like gladiatorial combat, with Cipher pushing the students to their mental and physical limits, relishing in every drop of blood and sweat. Jordan and Marie, after class, have an emotional conversation that leads to them sleeping together, confronting their conflicting feelings about each other and how betrayed Jordan felt by Marie breaking out alone. Emma and Polarity investigate the archive room to discover what Odessa is, stumbling upon a room of Nazi artifacts and files about a group of infants who all died save for one. Emma reveals to the main trio that Odessa is Marie, and the episode concludes with Cate waking up from her coma. 

Following in the pattern of the premiere, this episode was engaging in terms of the antagonist, but ultimately offered nothing special in terms of the main characters or story. The highlight of the episode, aside from Cipher, was Emma’s relationship with Polarity. They played off each other very well, offering entertaining intergenerational banter while also providing substantial emotional depth, given their respective needs for a parental figure and child figure. Additionally, the allure of Cipher remains the most engaging part of these early episodes. The fact that he appears to be a normal person yet still holds so much influence over the university is extremely compelling, enhanced by the charismatic, calculating performance of Hamish Linklater. Specifically, his overseeing a super-powered brawl as a class was compelling. Despite trying to highlight the powers of the students (which it did successfully), the main draw of the fight scene was Cipher’s fascinating reaction to it, as he showed no fear despite his normalcy and implied fragility. That said, the fight scene itself was passable regarding visuals, action, and the other characters. 

Overall, the episode hinges on Marie and Jordan’s relationship. Marie’s personality and actions remain expected and standard with what was established in season 1 and the previous episode. She is absolutely intriguing, given her deep connection to the plot and mystery of the season, but her scenes wind up being predictable loops in which she struggles with the potential damage her powers can cause. Beyond this, her relationship with Jordan is similarly ordinary. While it certainly functions within the plot and builds upon their characters, their line-to-line romantic scenes offer very little in the realm of anything special. Ultimately, the episode continues to be fine, with predictable scenes and mildly engaging character scenes. Emma and Polarity’s dynamic stands out thanks to its charm and uniqueness, but the “hero” of this season, at least in terms of offering a compelling narrative, is Dean Cipher. 

Rating: 6/10