Deadly Class, Episode 4 Review: “Mirror People”

Oi with the John Hughes references already, but if you were wondering what detention looks like at King’s Dominion, it’s a lot like The Breakfast Club. Kids who aren’t usually friends coming together to sneak into a room of confiscated contraband and do tricks like Evel Knievel on a motorcycle. It gets to the point that Chico and Marcus share a moment during their weekend sentence, when Chico turns on The Cure song, “In Between Days.”

The perfect closed environment to debate nature versus nurture, Marcus is on the side of nurture while Chico sides with nature and choice, but another big theme of this episode is family and when you consider the very different home life Marcus had from everyone else, you can begin to understand why he might be more inclined to pick “nurture.”

After all, unlike the others, who don’t want to grow up to be like their parents, Marcus’ were alright. “Things always work out,” Marcus assures Saya, explaining that it was something his dad used to say, but I don’t think it’s a common sentiment among King’s Dominion alumni and if lack of nurture is to blame for the worlds’ ills, what chance do these kids have of choosing different paths?

Lex’s father’s an abuser. Saya’s cousins are trying to kill her on behalf of her brother. Willie’s dad was a gangster. Chico’s brother is dead, and Petra’s dad killed her mom and stored her eyeballs in the fridge.

Marcus is an orphan and while absence makes the heart grow fonder (and we know everything wasn’t always great between his parents because Marcus hints as much in the first episode), as far as we’re aware they were decent people, and while Marcus is wishing they were alive, Lex is wishing his dad were dead, and the episode ends with him asking Marcus to go to Vegas with him and help kill his dad.

Other thoughts on “The Mirror People”:

• While the episode title could be a reference to children being reflections of their parents, it could also be the mirror we see Maria reflected in when she slips her passport into her back pocket.
• (Vague) Comic Spoilers Corner: While the show has deviated from the comics before (in the comics, Marcus is the one who deals a lot of drunken insults at the party in episode two, not Lex), Petra doesn’t share that story about her mom until much later in the series and to a different person. The outcome is very memorable, too, leaving it to question whether the show is going in a different direction with her character, or simply changing the moment.
• Chico running away from Saya’s cousins and pushing Jaden (Graeme Meekison) to his death doesn’t necessarily make him a coward (just someone who isn’t willing to stick his neck out for others, a la Marcus with the frying pan), but if Maria had been there, would Chico have stuck his neck out for her?
• Anyone else find the contraband heist flat since it barely takes them any effort to break into the room?

Deadly Class airs Wednesdays at 10 PM EST on the Syfy Channel.