Class Review: Episode 6 – ‘Detained’
By Leah Tedesco
In ‘Detained,’ our heroes are unexpectedly forced to face much more than their minor infractions at school. Does the truth always set you free?
April, Matteusz, Ram, Tanya, and Charlie in ‘Detained’ (credit: BBC)
*** This review contains spoilers. ***
Just as Class almost began to feel a bit too formulaic, Episode Six, ‘Detained,’ takes a different approach. After five action packed, chaotic episodes, the latest one strips practically everything down by trapping Charlie, Matteusz, Tanya, April, and Ram in one classroom together. Miss Quill has given them detention — seemingly all for various trifling reasons — because she needs a chance to run off to allow the Governors to remove the arn from her brain. We only see her at the beginning and end of the episode.
What Quill and the students do not anticipate, however, is that mysterious forces will turn the detention room will turn into a literal jail cell, outside of time and space. Right after she leaves, a tear opens up outside of the classroom, sending a meteor through the door, causing an explosion. The kids look out the door at an abyss, which they soon learn does not allow anything or anyone to leave.
Other than having to figure out an escape, everyone is curiously dealing with increasing levels of anger… except for Charlie, who is experiencing claustrophobia. They figure out that this is due to the meteor manipulating their emotions. Also, when picked up, it causes a person to have a flashback to a significant moment in their life — one that causes them to face truths about themselves, as well as their suspicions regarding how others perceive them — which they then compulsively share with everyone in the room. Regardless of some of these observations being somewhat skewed, they stir up a lot of relevant and poignant discussion amongst the group. They are forced to deal with matters such as friendship, love, trust, fear, alienation, respect, age, race, and privilege.
Tanya does not, however, let these matters distract her. She picks up the meteor and prompts everyone to ask her questions about it in an effort to channel answers through her. It works, and they learn that there is the consciousness of a prisoner trapped inside — a murderer, whose victims include all of his cellmates. The prison is designed to draw out truths, leading to rage, and finally a desire to kill.
Quill and Charlie in ‘Detained’ (credit: BBC)
Without the meteor’s influence, Charlie decides to tells some truths of his own. In his fury, he grabs the rock and orders the prisoner to divulge more of its own truth, who in turn forces the boy to tell a truth so powerful that he gains the strength to give the prisoner what he was after the whole time: someone to put him out of his misery by killing him. The truth is his desire to use the Cabinet of Souls to eradicate all of the Shadow Kin. The prisoner’s death returns the classroom to its proper place.
"Charlie: He was looking for death. He wanted someone guiltier than him to end his suffering.April: And you stopped him?Charlie: Yes. Because I’m not innocent. Not in my heart. For a Rhodian, a wish is the same as an action."
Just when they think that they are in the clear, the meteor seizes Charlie by the leg and begins to drag him in.
"Charlie: The prison still needs a prisoner – and I’m the guiltiest."
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In the nick of time, Quill returns, both her free will and the ability to use weapons restored now that the arn is gone. She shoots and destroys the meteor with her gun. On Earth, a day has gone by. What she experienced during that time will be revealed in Episode Seven.
Another thing to note is that, at the beginning of the episode, Quill characteristically questions the infallibility of the Doctor when Charlie evokes his words of wisdom regarding genocide. Whether she is right or wrong about what Charlie should do about the Shadow Kin, the importance of questioning authority is valid.
‘Detained’ is my favorite Class episode thus far. It is the spin-off’s equivalent of Doctor Who‘s ‘Midnight,’ which I consider to be one of the finest episodes in the program’s long and distinguished history. Class has been doing its parent show proud, not just with this episode, but the series in general.
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