Why I’m doing this…
Previously on The Cape…
Today’s episode features some of the creepiest interplay we’ve had in this series, which isn’t saying much since everyone save Trip has been able to interact like normal human beings. Speaking of Trip, we see him and his mother Dana so little in this episode in such disposable scenes that I’m willing to just let their scenes go unremarked upon. Will the rest of the episode live up to this? We shall see.
DICE
We open ten years ago, with Peter Fleming at one of his company’s interests. In this case, it involves a young lady who can’t be more than ten named Tracey Jerrod who can functionally predict the future. Remember her age for later. He goes to meet her and she tells him he’s going to kill her dad and she’ll get revenge and then everyone has a laugh about it. She obviously left an impression because ten years later, Fleming unveils a new piece of technology called T.R.A.C.E. which can also predict the future. The real Tracey (Mena Suvari) is present for this and is not pleased.
OUR FATE IS FIXED
Vince is spying on his family and then delivers the Carnival of Crime’s police records to them. He’s upset about this since he’s still a do-gooder but Max claims it’s part of their arrangement and Vince wonders if his life wouldn’t be different if he had ignored Orwell’s message in the first episode, but Max counters that fate is fixed. Luckily, Vince has a plan: if he can pin one of Chess’s murders on Peter Fleming, he can take him down and it just so happens that one of Chess’s first victims was Tracey’s father.
Elsewhere, Fleming is entering a casino while Tracey watches him. She’s still able to predict the future and cozies up to him by feeding him winning dice rolls at the craps table. Once she’s close enough, she replaces the casino’s dice with a different pair that explode when Fleming rolls a six. By that time, Tracey has run off.
GOD IS THE DICE
Fleming is fine, though is doctor is concerned that all the stress he’s been under will cause his “friend” to show up again but Fleming is more concerned about the woman who almost killed him. This is a concern he shares with Orwell and Vince and as they watch the footage of Fleming’s near-death experience over and over again. Luckily, Vince recognizes her as Tracey Jerrod since he worked her father’s murder case. He decides that he should maybe just let Tracey do whatever, but Orwell counters with the fact that if Fleming dies then Vince will never be able to exonerate himself. The pair go to Tracey’s apartment and realize she was the inspiration for T.R.A.C.E. before the woman herself shows up.
CHEMISTRY
She reveals she goes by Dice now and escapes while Vince gives chase. Dice escapes by manipulating things so that she’s captured by Ark Troopers and taken to Peter Fleming in a restaurant, which seems like a bad move on Fleming’s part. Also a bad move: he starts trying to establish a romantic connection with this woman he’s known since he was an adult and she was like ten. He does freely admit that he killed her father and then gives her what she wants: the T.R.A.C.E. prototype. Unfortunately for her, it’s set to go into mass production. While the pair are talking, we’re also treated to some fun cinematography where a split-screen shows us the Cape heading towards the restaurant and Dice’s plan to kill her slowly unfolding. The scene ends with Dice escaping while the Cape saves Fleming from a falling chandelier.
FUNAMBULISM
Luckily, Orwell was keeping tabs on Dice and our two heroes realize she means to do something at the Ark Corporation building. Orwell figures out that it’ll probably be at the party Fleming is throwing to celebrate the start of T.R.A.C.E.’s production and she has a way in through her blogging. The Cape is not so lucky and has to find a different way in and decides the best way is by spending the next two days learning how to walk a tightrope Luckily, he knows a bunch of criminal carnies. Ruvi the mystic and Raia (Izabella Miko), who thus far only been eye candy, are all set to help him. Ruvi teaches him to go into a trance while Raia teaches him how to actually walk a tightrope.
THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS
The party starts and, as Fleming schmoozes with his guests, the Cape successfully beings his tightrope walk while Orwell tases a guard so she can use his computer. She sees Dice enter and things immediately go downhill and not just because Fleming continues to overtly on this girl he knew when she was a minor and he was full-grown adult man. The Cape fumbles and almost falls to his death and all Orwell can do at this point is watch Dice’s plan unfold. Dice, for her part, has thoroughly rejected Fleming who berates her as he did Scales.
Ah, they’re knights. 
Luckily, the Cape recovered and shows up just in time to stop Dice’s plan which involved blowing up the floor the party is on since it also houses the T.R.A.C.E. laboratory. He gets everyone out and then just blows everything up anyway while Dice escapes, though Orwell is on hand to capture her. None of this has helped Fleming’s mood and it forces his Chess side to come out. Vince is also unhappy since he keeps having to save Fleming, and keeps wondering about his fate but it’s revealed to us that Max knew Vince was on his way from day one.
This was one of the better episodes out of the first half of the series, though it wasn’t nearly as good as “Scales”. Dice is an intriguing foe and it would have been nice to see her ply her skills directly against the Cape rather than continually trying to kill Fleming. As mentioned, we’re halfway through the series at this point and it’s still unclear whether or not it deserved the fate it got. At this point, I’m leaning towards no because it’s been entertaining thus far though we will have to see if it ups the ante over the back half of the series. Next week, we’ll begin the end with “Goggles and Hicks”.
Fictosphere Entertainment 