'The Cape': Orwell has daddy issues

Week two of "The Cape" more or less held up to the promise of the pilot -- even if the nominal "A" story took a bit of a back seat to a revelation (or at least a very strong implication) about Summer Glau's Orwell.

After introducing the world of Palm City this week, the show went about filling in the back stories of the people (and garments) around Vince. Thus we got some history about the cape, a little bit about Max's past, and a hint that Peter Fleming may have some humanity left in him after all.

That last bit, at least to these eyes, ties directly into what bad guy o' the week Gregor Molotov said when he read Orwell's palm. I mean, Orwell is Fleming's daughter, right?

The episode never came out and said so, but the fact that Fleming is searching for his daughter, her confirming that Gregor's reading of her was right, and the juxtaposed shots of Fleming with the ballerina music box and Orwell doing some acrobatics at Max's. If she's not related to Fleming, then it sure wants us to think that for the time being.

As for that A-story, we learned that the cape dates back to at least the late 19th century, and that for pretty much all of that time it was used to do bad things. Some of those bad things were done by Max himself, who used to call himself "Kozmo" and was part of a long line of Kozmos (sort of like the Dread Pirate Roberts in "The Princess Bride") who had worn the cape over the years.

Gregor Molotov was to have been next in line, but he was caught and sent to prison. He busted out and came back to retrieve "his" cape, revive the name of Kozmo and generally kill anyone who would stop him, his former friend Max included. Vince gets the better of him and says the cape's dark past won't affect him since he's out for someone other than himself.

Monday's episode is likely more representative of what "The Cape" will look like week in and week out, since the pressures of making a weekly drama mean less time to go as big as the show's pilot did. Based on the evidence tonight, that's OK: "The Cape" is still a world we won't mind spending an hour with every Monday.

What did you think of "The Cape" this week? Is it holding your interest?