Halfway through the season, Bass x Machina reveals the threat our bounty hunter faces, and its link to his past. And Dana is challenged to take hold of her destiny by an enlightened scientist.
Dana and Bass take Lighhorse’s advice and head to Providence. Little do they know, Lighthorse funneled false information to keep them off his trail. We learn Lighthorse’s accomplice is Rivenbark, a former Confederate general who’s invited the country’s brightest minds to a grand science fair. It is under these pretenses that Eugene Starr finds himself in Rivenbark’s company.
While Rivenbark ordered Bass dead, Lighthorse warns the magical women, known as Holy People, to only scare the bounty hunter and to keep their distance. But Anhi, who controls lightning, views the bounty hunter as an agent of the white man, and seeks his elimination.
At Providence, Dana and Bass find a band of female thieves exiting a burning bank. They are led by his next bounty, Dynamite AnnieSutton. Bass prepares to kill the woman, but Dana objects, certain she can be safely apprehended. As they argue, bolts of lightning suddenly strike the woman dead, and quickly target them. Bass finds himself battling the unknown wielder of the elements. Just as he prepares to return fire, he catches a glimpse of his adversary, and is stunned that she resembles Nanye, his dead wife.
Bass is electrocuted, forcing him and Dana to retreat. The injured Bass orders Dana to take him to an Indigenous woman named Etta. Etta’s elusive abode turns out to be an elaborate laboratory, the very place where she constructed Bass’s Aianhil arm. In awe of Etta’s ingenuity, Dana fails to answer with certainty when the woman asks who and what she is. Etta urges that Dana mustn’t wait on anyone else to define her.
As Bass is prepped for surgery, Etta tells Dana how she originally crossed his path. During the war, Bass was captured and imprisoned by Rivenbark, who sought to perfect his mad science on Black Union soldiers. Left for dead, Bass managed to escape and was found by Nanye. Nursing him back to health, the two lived with her people until her untimely death.
The story is cut short as Rivenbark’s troops arrive at Etta’s front door, demanding her presence at the science fair. She orders Dana and Bass to leave, but Dana awakens Bass to assist. Etta eventually surrenders and tells them to meet her at the location listed on the fair’s invitation. The episode closes with Dana reading the invitation to Bass, and repeating the phrase, “For he who holds the fire holds the power.” With much fear, Reeves realizes Rivenbark is the culprit.
Episode 3 is the strongest episode yet, boldly shifting the narrative forward by looking back. We receive the totality of Bass’ loss — from his arm and freedom, to the expectant mother he loved. Imagine thinking those wounds are healed, only to learn both that trauma — and the cause — are very much alive. What made this development even richer, was the historical truth the Bass’s tragic ordeal is wrapped in.
History documents how Black people were dehumanized and reduced to nothing more than bodies for inhumane uses. From George Washington’s dentures to Henrietta Lacks cancer cells, science has made the Black body, and the bodies of other marginalized groups, its testing ground for centuries.
This episode also improves Dana’s character, deepening her beyond comic relief. Etta’s words of encouragement come from a place of experience; a place in which she had to refute the world’s definition of what an Indigenous woman could be or do. The fact that Dana — presenting as a white girl — found this strength outside of her world, speaks volumes to the limitations of whiteness.
Rating: 9/10