The Deadly Ally is certainly an interesting fourth episode. On the surface, it’s mostly standard fare that we’ve come to expect from the series so far. But the ending takes an unexpected twist, the type that could either energize a series or bring it to ruin.
Before we get to the ending, let’s talk about the rest of the episode. The Mechanoid’s defense against the Entity acts as a pretty decent parallel to the methods the Daleks used back in The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy. Their defense, as opposed to blind rage, is what manages to hold off enough time for the Strategist and Mechanoid 2150 to devise solutions to the Entity’s attacks. There’s also a nice line from the Strategist, where it mentions that the Emperor forgetting about it is what allows it to survive.
The ending, however, is what is the most interesting. After the Mechanoid Queen leaves the Emperor to die, the Strategist and Mechanoid 2150 manage to send the Entity back to its home dimension, saving the Emperor from complete death. With that, the Emperor and the Strategist confront the Mechanoids, who promise that even if the Daleks flee back to Skaro, they will be destroyed.
That ending opens up some interesting prospects. On one hand, I wasn’t expecting the main enemy to be defeated this early when I first watched the episode. With that, the series could go into a new and interesting direction for its final episode.
However, there has also been a series before that killed off the main threat before the finale. That series, the once all popular Game of Thrones, would end the White Walker threat in the third episode of a six episode season. Fans were quick to criticize this decision, and the series would only go down from there.
After this episode, Daleks! stood at a crossroads, and all eyes were on the finale.
