Main cast: Scott Adkins (Joe Manda), Lygie Duvivier (Ivy), Kamel Laadaili (Xero Trobes), and Celine Tran (Xero Trobes’s Cheerleader)
Director: Guillaume Lubrano
This episode is linked to Loyal Khondor, but the link is so tenuous that it may as well not be there at all. Our protagonist, Joe Manda, bumps into Khondor at the casino – that’s the link, right there.
Joe Manda is a space trucker who wants to make some good money at the casino, but he’s not having a good day. His efforts to call the casino owner and thug boss Xero Trobes end up with him owing that man a lot of money, with only a day to cough up the money or have his eyes dug out for Xero’s pleasure. He decides to spend whatever time he has left in the arms of a hot woman, only to end up unable to seal the deal with the casino madame Ivy. Maybe it’s the stress, snort. Ivy perks up when she realizes that Joe has a space truck. She has obtained a treasure map from a client, and all she needs is someone – Joe, of course – to bring her to the spot marked X.
That’s the plot of Second Chance. It’s mostly a cheesy space caper, with low budget sci-fi effects, a rachet-looking space chase, and a head-scratching ending that has me thinking, “What are these people trying to tell me? Am I missing something deep and philosophical here?” Still, the cast seems to be aware that they are trapped in some of the lowest levels of cheese hell and camp it up. Scott Adkins is as always cute on the eyes and I always appreciate his dedication in making sure that his body remains so hot to look at. Lygie Duvivier doesn’t have much to do other than to strike a sexy pose in a catsuit, but she does it well. But the star of the episode is Kamel Laadaili, who camps it up and chews scenery like a badass boss, and hilariously enough, his character is only upstaged by Xero’s terrified cheerleader – a woman forced to wear a skintight outfit and, well, cheer Xero on in the most unintentionally hilarious ways.
This is a crappy episode, make no mistake, but it still has enough kitschy charm to make it a “Don’t think, just watch it if you have no better thing to do!” way.
