Main cast: Rachel Ward (Sara), Marshall Napier (Tom), Anthony Hayes (Damien), and Bryan Brown (The Host)
Director: Samantha Lang

In a time before the Internet, people actually had to make VHS tapes of themselves to be submitted to dating agencies. Imagine that! Third Party revolves around this scenario, and if the previous episode suggested that this series is going to be about kiddies acting precious in a Goosebumps-style manner, this episode will be more at home in The Hitchhiker. There is no denying the adult themes in this episode – as the yummy Bryan Brown says in the opening segment, it’s all about how far one will go to seek pleasure.

Tom is getting ready to meet Sara, whom he’d picked for his date from a selection at an agency. He pulls open a drawer, and whoa, it is full of female lacy underthings. There’s no evidence that he wears these things himself, so maybe they are trophies of some sort. He picks a dark lacy pantyhose, sniffs it, tests it like it’s a glove, and packs it with his other things. Meanwhile, there are news of a serial killer out on the loose. Ooh. Meanwhile, Sara wants someone who is willing to test the limits, and the things in her suitcase will raise a few brows as well. Did I mention that the police are looking for a serial killer in the neighborhood?

This episode does everything it can to suggest that either Tom or Sara is not whom they claim they are, or maybe they both are shady, so any cynical viewer will expect some kind of twist that will pull out a third option of some sort. Indeed, this is what the episode does, and I’m kind of conflicted about it. I mean, I like it, because looking back at the entire episode, it has done nothing to really commit itself to any idea that it leads the viewer into forming. On the other hand, I can understand why some people say that this episode is a waste of time, because it deliberately breaks several rules of this kind of show altogether. The whole episode ends up being about the twist, so to speak, and that twist will likely polarize viewers, leaving some to feel that that they have been misled or even trolled.

All things considered, though, this is an alright episode, one that is far better than the opening episode. Once the twist is revealed, this episode turns out to be nothing fancy, but hey, getting there is quite intriguing, and the sexy stuff isn’t so bad for what this show is. Nice try – here are three oogies for the effort.