THE CAPE “Scales on a Train” Season 1 Episode 4 – This one really belonged to Vinnie Jones, who’s really got inside his character of “Scales” on The Cape – the lizard-faced mobster who’s not unlike a more realistic version (well, in a way) of Killer Croc from Batman. What a great villain.
The deal-making between The Cape (David Lyons) and Scales after the thug is scorned by mastermind Peter Fleming (James Frain) and ripped off for money shows the gray area our hero is going to have to deal with. For the most part, this episode really moved a long at a clip to match it’s setting – a train.
Add the costume party element (Fleming’s white cowboy sheriff’s outfit was wonderfully ridiculous), a would-be second Cape to help the real deal, plus Max, Rollo and Ruvi planning to rob the train and the story took all sorts of twists and turns.
Lots of good stuff here, such as Scales being obnoxious to the train’s hoi polloi guest, outing Fleming as Chess only to be laughed at and best of all, a flashback to his youth as a freak just before Rollo tosses him in a cage. His little revenge on the same Fleming private police force toady who was snotty to him early in the story was just desserts.
While the runaway train angle was a bit cliche, it worked, forcing The Cape, clearly pained about it, to work with Fleming – an mechanical engineer – to cut the rise hose to make the train breaks some into play. Fleming’s (James Frain) over it all, treating it like a game made it all the better.
There were some superfluous elements, such as Orwell’s (Summer Glau) presence on the train when she didn’t do all that much. Also The Cape/ Faraday’s flashbacks to time with his son Trip triggered by images, an excuse to take us to his son present day, refusing to let his mom’s boss – he hadn’t met him yet – into the apartment. The sentimental ending with The Cape leaving Trip a birthday present and card was an nice bow on the whole package though.
So, “Scales on a Train,” in some ways, was perhaps the most solid episode so far of The Cape. Next week: Enter an assassin.
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