When Dark Angel came on the air, it had two strikes against it. First, having an eye-candy lead tends to mean that the producers are hoping that people aren't listening to the dialog. Jessica Alba isn't just typical-Hollywood-starlet pretty, she is shampoo-commercial pretty, and you can't sell beauty products to millions of people unless you are, well, beautiful, in a way that the marketing departments can objectively quantify. Second, it was set in the moribund genre of cyberpunk. It is said that a literary form is dead when it appears on television; it is certainly true that the post-modern dark age setting, the hacker hero, the edgy protagonist struggling against a dehumanizing culture, the images of individual mutilation (genetic or technological) to achieve a competitive advantage, even the ubiquitous sunglasses are all tropes of the cyberpunk genre ("tropes" being a literary synonym for "clichˇs"). The most prominent symbol of the show was the bar-code on the back of the neck, which was the defining image of Generation-X disaffection for about three minutes in 1994.

But in spite of these handicaps, this show managed to construct a solid foundation of psychological and even mythological archetypes that allowed it to tell really interesting stories. In case anybody missed the mythological implications: The villains in Dark Angel were centered around an organization known as "Project Manticore". In mythology, a manticore was a creature with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and a tail with poisoned spikes that could shoot them out like a porcupine. It was the deadliest of a class of creatures known as chimeras. A chimera, in mythology, is a fabuous beast with parts taken from different animals. In genetics, a chimera is a nucleic acid formed by laboratory manipulation, typically to combine genetic material from different organisms.

In terms of being derivative, Dark Angel didn't just draw generically from the literature of cyberpunk, it looks specifically influenced by a role-playing game from the 1980s called "Shadowrun", which had a "cyberfantasy" setting. The main setting for Shadowrun was Seattle, in a world where technological civilization had suffered a partial collapse due to "the Change", a cycle recorded in astrology (the "Age of Aquarius" or the "Sixth Age" of the Mayan calendar) regarding the waxing and waning power of magic in the world. During the Change, latent genetic material in some people became expressed and they became "transhumans", metamorphosing into elves, dwarves, orcs, and other fantastic beings. Shadowrun's Seattle was a divided city, held by rival corporate militias and separated by technological and magical defenses between sectors.

Another theme was the Beauty and the Beast images used in the series. The heroine would ascend to the castle of the broken hero, trying to find ways to heal his broken heart and body. When Max gave Logan her blood to heal him, that was psychologically very powerful. The remarkable love story, of lovers who could not touch, is taking directly from the Beauty-and-the-Beast legend, which originally dates back to Eros and Psyche. The virus that Max carried, genetically tailored to kill Logan, was a direct symbolic link to the drop of hot oil that Psyche dripped on the beastly Eros when she discoverd his true form.

When they got most of the mileage they could out of Logan's illness, they found an exoskeleton to make him a more active character. But they kept the archetype, this time complete with something very similar to the Vincent costume, when they introduced Joshua, the eldest of the "freaks", the animal-form transgenics who lived in the basements and catacombs under Project Manticore.

And yet, the real point of the show is that it wasn't Logan or Joshua who were seeking some degree of normal life, it was Max. She was the one struggling with her human/non-human identity, while Logan and Joshua were perfectly comfortable with who they were. Max was the Beast, marked from birth as a killer. The series was about Max's journey to redemption. In case the image was not clear, they threw in the character of "Original Cindy", so that we'd have the Christian concept of flawed humanity in our subconscious. But Cindy's argument, and Zach's, and Alec's, was that Max should be whoever she was, whoever she chose to be.

And that's why the ending of the series worked so well. Many people are disappointed that the show ending on a major cliffhanger, transgenics backed into a compound surrounded by hostile authorities, with nowhere to run. To be sure, this is a story that could have continued. But while it had an action cliffhanger, it had a very satisfying thematic resolution: the transgenics, led by Max, came out in public to admit who they were, to demand a place of their own in the wider world, to stand together as a new community, unique and valuable. Joshua's flag is the symbol of this resolution. It had the barcode to represent "where they came from", the concept of their original sin of being born better than human, and the dove taking flight, a symbol of peace and liberation, and to Christians a symbol of grace and redemption. This flag encapsulated the entire story arc of the series in a single visual image.

Although it would be easy to pick ten or twenty great episodes, the series did only last two seasons, so for the sake of brevity, here are my five favorite episodes:

5. "Designate This": The first episode of the second season started with a bang. Nana Visitor completed the role of Renfro, with a reptilian grace and twisted maternal obsession similar to the mirror-universe Kira from Deep Space Nine. Max was recaptured to Manticore, and she was introduced to Alec as a "breeding partner" to develop a new generation of transgenics. This is where Max named him Alec, short for "Smart Alec" for his sardonic and self-protective sense of humor. But in the face of Max's hostility, Alec made no attempt to carry out his assignment, which made him a little more human than the other brainwashed drones. Underneath the clean corridors of Manticore, Max met Joshua, the dog-boy, the first experiment in transgenics by the mysterious Sandiman (who Joshua called "Father", in case anybody missed the Beauty and the Beast references). Renfro is killed trying to save Max for unsettling reasons, and then Max ends up starting a fire that burns the complex. The remaining authorities decide to seal the compound to conceal the evidence, so Max and her X-6 friends break the joint open and rescue a large number of transgenics.

4. "Dawg Day Afternoon": This was a bittersweet episode, continuing the friendship of Joshua with the blind beauty, Annie. Annie comes to look for Joshua, thinking that he is avoiding her because she's blind. The news has showed a transgenic, so some of Seattle's less enlightened folk decide to wander the streets looking for freaks. Finding Joshua and Annie in an alley, the band of thugs comes to the conclusion that he is abducting her, so the pair escape down into the sewers (to complete the Vincent/Katherine allusion). Annie learns the truth about him, and her reaction is anger that he did not tell her. There is a ferocious chase sequnce in the sewers with the entire Seattle police covering every exit, while Max and Alec and Logan try to help. Ultimately Joshua's intellect, with help from Max, arranges a situation where Joshua goes free and Annie is safe. But then the sinister Agent White kills Annie, to blame the "freaks", a black dˇnouement sharply contrasting the inhumanity of White's soul against the warmth of Joshua. This episode marked the beginning of the end of the first phase of transgenic history, in which they became known to the public; it began the sequence of events that led to the final confrontation in "Freak Nation".

3. "Fuhgedaboudit": The episodes I liked best about Dark Angel were the ones with an uplifting tone, which contrasted so darkly against the cyber-noir setting. This episode showed another variation on transgenics, this one enhanced in powers of the mind. Eyes Only is following a story about the mob, but is thwarted by a blonde transgenic named Mia, who has the ability to influence people and then make them forget about it. In an undercover setting, Mia gets Max to confess that she's a Manticore survivor who is looking into Dougie, a mob accountant. Shortly thereafter, Mia shows up at Jam Pony and Normal immediately gives her a job as dispatcher. During the episode, Max and Logan discover lapses in their description of events, and they work together to remember what is actually happening in order to figure out what Mia is doing. But it turns out all Mia wants is to protect her beloved Dougie. She helps Eyes Only help the police arrest the mob, with Dougie getting away free with the Mafia money, because after all, Mia and Max are family, sort of.

But the best thing about this episode was the fight between Alec and Max, or "Monty Cora" and the "Curvaceous Killer". Normal bets a lot of money on Alec and loses. Max beats Alex senseless with hostility that seems to be a sublimation of some other kind of passion. The fight scene provides a distraction that enables the climactic confrontation. The thematic link between the elements was the sense of trust between the gender's; Mia's unalloyed devotion to Dougie contrasts with Max's complex fabric of affection and contempt for both Alec and Logan, in their different ways.

2. "Medium is the Message": This was a beautiful story in which Joshua turns his primal instincts into a talent for painting. Alec, in one of his typical get-rich schemes, sells Joshua's painting to a gallery, then encourages Joshua to paint more. To add texture to Joshua's new creations, they tear up some old notebooks and glue them to the canvas. It turns out these are Sandiman's old notes about the original Manticore experiments, with allusions to the mysterious Famliars. So the medium of Joshua's painting contained the message of Sandiman's secrets. In one of the nicest scenes of the whole series, Joshua comes to the gallery to meet the collector, an enlightened woman who does not judge him for his bizarre appearance.

1. "Freak Nation": The infamous final episode of the series, directed personally by James Cameron, was by far the best of the series. The episode is a direct sequel to "She Ain't Heavy", in which Max confronts and then resolves the conflict with her clone Sam, sending her sister and family to refuge in Canada.

This was a great climax for the series. The main characters risk all. Logan's Eyes Only hack is traced by White, and Logan barely escapes for the Familiars arrive. White contacts the Conclave and they dispatch the elite Phalanx unit to bring an end to the transgenics. As a result of the Familiar ritual in an earlier episode, Max's skin is now marked by runes, a profound echo of the barcode tattoo, showing that her genetic code holds secrets far greater than just the Manticore experiments. Alec is helping a pregnant X5 named Janelle, transporting her with a vanload of "freak" transgenics; they are discovered by police and chased, and the nearest point of relative safety is Jam Pony. Max and Logan arrive as well, creating a situation that looks like a hostage taking. The police surround the building, and then White uses federal authority to take control of the situation, allowing him to bring in the Phalanx. In a tense confrontation, the Phalanx enters the building, but the transgenics manage to disarm and capture the Phalanx without a single loss of life. During the confrontation, seeing the humanity of the transgenics against the evil of the Familiars, the normal humans, even including Normal, come to think of the transgenics as good people. Meanwhile, the human-looking transgenics don the Phalanx uniforms (leaving White's people undressed and tied to building supports, and march the "freaks" into the federal vehicles to put them under "arrest". The ruse is discovered, and there is another chase sequence. Having nowhere else to go, they flee to Terminal City, the condemned toxic waste site used by transgenics as a hideout. The police follow in hot pursuit, but find themselves outnumbered inside the ruined building serving as the base of the transgenics. Joshua completes his dove-and-barcode flag of the transgenic tribe, representing a history of struggle and a future of hope. The episode ends with Max revealing herself on camera as a transgenic and being accepted by them as a leader, to demand terms from the police who have come to surround the area. The episode ends in a tense standoff between police and the transgenics, a cliffhanger waiting for a new season that never came.

Despite the unresolved cliffhanger, the episode did resolve the major dramatic questions of the series. Max accepted her identity as a transgenic, and the transgenics came out into the light to demand a place in the world, finding acceptance from at least the normal humans who knew them personally.

I would have liked to see more story with the mystical "breeding cult", I wanted to see how the Terminal City confrontation worked out. James Cameron laid the foundations of a rich structure of stories that could have continued for years to come. But Dark Angel showed us that a person is a person when they decide to be one. It was a powerful story, worth telling.