My Review of Class's 1x04: "Co-Owner Of A Lonely Heart"

Written by Patrick Ness
Directed by Philippa Langdale

April (to Ram): "I'm going to get my heart back."

With the previous three episodes all giving Charlie, Ram and Tanya their moments to shine, it was April's turn to get her moment and with this two parter, things are off to a solid enough start. April may be sweet but with the Shadow Kin, she's also given her chance to unleash hell.

The person in particular who got both barrells of April's wrath happened to be her father, Huw, who chose the wrong time to reach out to the family he nearly killed. It seems with this episode we got a bit more on the car accident that left April's mother, Jackie in a wheelchair and seeing April under the Shadow Kin influence try to kill her father twice was certainly something.

In both incidents, Ram was there to hold April back from doing something she'd truly regret but when the episode ended with the Shadow Kin King finally realising where she was, April made the decision to go to the Underneath in order to get her heart back once and for all. Ram of course naturally decided to follow her while April's parents along with Charlie, Matteusz and Tanya didn't have time to do anything to stop either of them.

I have to admit this was a fairly strong episode for April. She seems to be a bit of a perfectionist, character wise and the episode showed her unravel a little while her connection with Ram (despite that horrible Shadow Kin inclusion) came into it's own this week as well. As for the Shadow Kin, at least something is being done with them now.

As for the rest of the episode, I did like Quill meeting the obviously alien/new principal Dorothea Ames (Pooky Quesnel), who seems wildly unpredictable. She certainly managed to make her presence known in a handful of scenes and her offer to remove the Arn from Quill is clearly something the latter will take up in the next few episodes.

- Both Tanya and Matteusz challenged Charlie on his treatment towards Quill. Charlie also tried to get Quill to pose as his guardian for parents/teachers night.
- Quill goes under the name of Andrea according to Ames. Ames is also part of the Governors.
- The killer petals idea has a nice enough subtletly but we also had that planet like things with the Lan Kin from the previous episode.
- Chronology: Not too long since the events of Nightvisiting.

Co-Owner Of A Lonely Heart is a strong enough start to the show's first two part story. I liked the exploration into April's family (though what did she do to her mother?) and getting more information on the Cabinet along with seeing the Shadow Kin world, this was a good one.

Rating: 7 out of 10