Episode 1:

So I was wrong about something, I thought the series switched to 30 minute episodes but no in fact it is now 60 minute episodes (or 45 without commercials). So it’s half the length per episode now. To keep these about the same length for now I’ll do the recaps in pairs.

We once again open with a lot of exposition. This show loves to exposit. We get to see the origin of the Shadow. Millenia ago humans had a war with a giant race of insects the last of which decided to take over humans to hide himself rather than be killed. This of course being the Shadow and we witness him take over his first hosts and build an empire where he is able to harvest (literally) the humans of the nearby planets to eventually resurrect himself as we saw last season. Now we also saw him die last season, so why are we seeing this? Well because when Kai absorbed his memories from one of the talking brains he absorbed part of the essence of the Shadow that is now controlling him.

Kai facing the camera with his eyes entirely black.
Well at least his outfit matches his eyes now.

Kai tells the crew that the protoblood they retrieved will only last a few days at most and they need to return to where the Giga Shadow died to see if it had left any larva behind that they could use to create more. They locate a black hole and Xev convinces Stan to perform a very risky maneuver to turn it into a gateway between universes.

They return to the scene of the battle and manage to find a dormant larva floating in space. Kai tells them he knows of the Shadow’s bio vizier Mantrid who could help them to extract protoblood. So they fly off to meet this Mantrid.

a swirling black hole in space with a trail of yellow light being absorbed.
Looks perfectly safe, nothing to worry about.

Now I wanna pause for a moment, Mantrid’s actor looked a little familiar so I looked at his imdb page and while I had actually not seen anything he’s in I did notice one credit. Mantrid is played by Dieter Laser who plays the doctor in The Human Centipede, which is probably the most appropriate franchise to share actors with Lexx.

Anyways we meet Mantrid, a surgeon stranded on a planet with only his assistant/lover(?) (this series isn’t big on labels for relationships) for company. His assistant is a normal human (as normal as we get in Lexx) but Mantrid is a floating head on top of a floating jar with his organs in it. He interacts through a few drones that are basically floating arms.

A man's head floating on top of a murky triangular jar with 2 robotic floating arms flanking him.
This is what happens when you skip leg day in Lexx

He agrees to attempt to create protoblood in exchange for travel off planet. However he secretly wants to use parts of the larva to transfer himself into a robotic pod he’s been building to replace his body and leave the planet. He’s not the only one with a secret agenda as possessed Kai wants to transfer the Shadow essence into the larva and be reborn.

So I’ve got some good news as everyone kind of gets what they want. Shadow tries to kill Mantrid by shattering his jar then downloads into revived larva. There’s a fight with the larva flying around attacking them but they’re saved by Stan flying the moth shuttle into it ramming it. A now free Kai reveals he actually has plenty of proto blood and they get the heck out. The assistant takes Mantrid’s head and an organ from the larva containing the Shadow essence and transfers Mantrid’s essence into the pod creating some sort of entirely new mechanical gestalt being that flies off the planet right before the Lexx destroys it.

a man's head on a table with blue smoke swirling out of his mouth into a machine.
oh no, they let the magic blue smoke out, it won’t work anymore.

The being, still named Mantrid, flies off into space with his robot arm drones trailing after him.

Honestly I think the shift to half length episodes is an improvement as it makes it a bit more focused and meanders a lot less than the longer episodes of the first season. The Mantrid being is an interesting villain to set up but it still feels like they’re fighting the Shadow again after having killed it multiple times. Getting vibes of Myotismon honestly.

The cast for this episode was very light, so I’m going to give ‘outfit’ of the episode to Mantrid’s floating organ jar I showed earlier. He’s technically wearing it, and it definitely makes a statement.

Episode 2:

So for once we in fact do not open with exposition. I know, I’m shocked and astounded as well. We actually open with Xev singing about the Brunnen-G. I’m surprised by how often they actually sing in this show. Not constant but here and there. Stan and 790 annoy Xev by bickering between each other while also singing about how Xev should want either of them instead of Kai.

Xev decides to wake Kai to hang out. Stan mans the controls but does something wrong so Kai wakes up in assassin mode…. That’s a setting? Anyways he shoots Stan in the heart before realizing what he’s doing. They freeze Stan but not before Xev takes the key to the Lexx from him.

A wounded Stan in a cryopod holding his hand up to Xev with a yellow energy passing between tehir hands.
Finally, he lets someone else drive.

They find a medical space station but when they refuse to help as they have no money they intimidate the station by blowing up a moon. (so the Piccolo school of problem solving then?) The space station was pretty close to that moon, I think it might have been orbiting it. Pretty sure that station is dead anyways. Suddenly they are very cooperative. They fix Stan’s heart and put him in a room to recover inside of a giant ziplock bag.

Stan lying on a bed in his boxers while inside a clear bodybag.
Make sure you get name brand or you don’t get that proper freshness seal.

While he recuperates the head surgeon takes Xev out to dinner to get to know her better. Xev’s options being snarky robot head, zombie or someone named Tweedle she leaps at the chance leaving the others to watch Stan. The Doctor takes her to the cafeteria of the hospital which exists in the…. blood dimension(?).

a few restaurant booths help up only by a walkway floating in front of a background looks like blood cells.
Don’t move the mouse or the screensaver will end ruining the illusion.

Then I feel like we’ve missed a scene here because suddenly the doctor knows about how she has the key to the Lexx and that it’s some sort of weird energy passed from person to person. He tries to convince her to go on adventures with him and leave the others behind. “you should seize your fate.” “ugh, can’t we just have sex instead?” When she refuses he drugs her and knocks her out. Meanwhile they pipe gas into Stans room to freeze Kai and carry him off leaving 790 behind to panic about Xev being in danger.

2 men in silver hazmat suits carry off Kai who is frozen and stiff.
No I told you, he doesn’t come to live until you put the beret on him and say the magic words.

Apparently there’s 3 doctors here working together to figure out how to kill Kai and steal the key to the Lexx from Xev. Seems the doctors are tired of pretending to care about people and want to just steal the ship and escape and do whatever they want. Speaking as someone with over 12 years of customer service experience: Mood.

Xev is strapped to a table where they’re going to run tests on her to try and extract the energy key. During this a little old lady patient comes into the room to thank the Doctor for taking care of her. He decides ‘oh fuck this, I’m evil’ and tells her:

  1. He hates her and all his patients
  2. She was never sick
  3. They screwed her up so she’d have to come back and pay them more

Then kicks her wheelchair out of the room and directly into space. I have several questions about this scene:

  1. How did she get into the surgery room with no one stopping her
  2. Why is the surgery room in a black void
  3. Why is the surgery room right next to the airlock
  4. Why is the airlock a white void
An old woman in a wheelchair floating in the middle of the screen as a white void opens behind her.
Hey finally a place with worse healthcare than the United States.

5. And finally, why is the airlock remote controller by a Nintendo 64 game controller

a bald man in scrubs holding a gray Nintendo 64 controller,
Put Kai in smash you cowards.

So anyways they experiment on Xev and inject her with a green substance that slowly kills her to make her release the key. The head doctor begins to absorb the key but a tech warns him she’s not entirely human and is in fact part reptile, referring to the lizard dna she absorbed back in episode 1. Instead of dying she actually fully transforms into a large cluster lizard (the brain eating worm things) and kills the surgical team working on her and rolls away to rescue Kai.

A large segmented worm creature is coiled on top of a surgical bed.
Bet you regret not just sleeping with her now.

790 hacked Stan’s hovering hospital bed, got on it somehow (seriously HOW?) and followed Xev. Kai meanwhile is restrained by the other 2 evil doctors who are seeing if they can use some sort of radiation to atomize him. Apparently protoblood makes one very durable and they don’t want him coming after them. They turn the dial to 11 just as Xev rolls in and pushes him out of the beam taking his place. Kai deflects some of the energy to kill the doctors and then turns off the beam but it’s too late.

Xev turns partially back to human in time to wish everyone a tearful goodbye and returns the key to Stan before dissolving into a pile of yellow goo. Kai then picks up a nearby punch bowl to gather some of the eau de Xev to take back to the Lexx.

Kai hunched over a small pool in the floor holding a punch bowl of a yellow liquid while Stan and 790 look on.
I got some vodka that’s gonna great with this.

Stan wants to destroy the entire medical station but Kai talks him out of it and they fly off. Mantrid arrives immediately after their departure now accompanied by a large swarm of his arm drones, he rapidly dissolves the station creating even more drones and flies off.

A space pod with three legs on the right, a space station in the middle and a swarm of flying robot arms on the left.
This is what you get for denying my coverage.

I appreciate that they made the lizard DNA thing actually plot relevant and it was a rather nice goodbye scene for Xev. The final scene with the drones definitely gives a sinister hint of a looming threat.

The outfits were rather tame this episode, it largely took place on a hospital so we just saw various surgical outfits so instead I’ll give you hair of the episode with this guy’s half fro.

2 doctors in scrubs standing side by side. One is a blonde woman while the other is a man with sandy hair. The man's hair is extremely poofy and curly and is sticking very far out in all directions.
For a doctor this seems like a very impractical hairstyle.