Episode 5 of “The Lazarus Project” created more food for thought about the role of the lead character and the nature of the Project than I expected it to do. Given that the nuclear device was finally detonated, I expected more of a bang for my buck. There were some interesting plot twists but also some of the same old dysfunctionalities that plague this series.

Finally, the bomb goes off. The lead-up sees Rudy (Alec Utgoff) and George (Paapa Essiedu) going off in their semi with trailer across the Ruthenian border. While Ruthenia has been used as a region designator, clearly it is not an independent entity in our world. I couldn’t help but think of Ruritania in “The Prisoner of Zenda” movies.

But before they can cross, they are confronted by Rudy’s gang. It seems that Rudy is not the original caretaker of the bomb but posed as one after the original was offed. A shoot-out occurs in which George is unbelievably the only survivor, albeit with a non-lethal (of course) shoulder wound.

George is forced to detonate the bomb in the middle of nowhere. But no worries, this sets the stage for George to reconnect with the Project, which flies him home on a charter jet with a rock band.

This scene on the plane seemed to have no purpose. All we see is the band and their entourage getting wasted and George patching himself up.

Back at the Project HQ in the UK, George, who I think is a terrible liar, equivocates about his reasons for leaving to go to Romania after the bomb. Incredibly, the secure location for his interview with Wes (Caroline Quentin) and Archie (Anjli Mohindra) is a bathroom!

Of course the world is freaked out by a nuke going off. But George can’t get Sarah back until the time-loop re-set. How is he going to make this happen?

I have reached the point where the lead character, George, has become irretrievably evil to me. In “Lucifer,” you had the Devil as the lead, but as a loveable antihero. You cannot say the same for George, who will do anything if it serves his ultimate goal.

By the end of this episode, not counting the people he kills with the nuke, George’s personal kill list has grown to more than just the random one-off killing of Shiv. Even if these killings never occur with the re-set of the time loop, what does that say about his character? So I give “The Lazarus Project” kudos for making us consider the question of how responsible for your evil actions are you if they ultimately never occur in your current reality.

My own reaction is that the time loop does not exonerate George in the least. So nothing he does in the future in this series will ever make me like him again.

Sadly, there are no other significant characters for me to care about either. The cluelessness of the agents and leaders of the Project make them seem at best ignorant and at the worst patheticly inept. I don’t know enough about Sarah (Charly Clive) to care about her.

On the other hand, I begin to see how George might be the perfect candidate to succeed Wes as the leader of The Lazarus Project. He has proven himself to be ruthless in his pursuit of an objective. He would be able to re-set the time loop multiple times, as Wes did, even if it forced Janet to give birth over and over.
This episode made me think about the whole nature of Wes’ leadership of the Project. Who chose her in the beginning? How long has the singularity been there and used by humans? Who controls the singularity? Who does Wes report to when she orders a re-set?

But the most critical question becomes: who will succeed her as leader? One could assume that either Shiv (Rudi Dharmalingam), before his disgrace, or Archie would be logical candidates. But given their participation in the dysfunctionality, which I have documented in previous episode reviews, of the Project, they seem unsuitable to me. Hence, the possibility that George might be the most ruthless to be the successor.

I also wondered, given the visit of Wes and George to the Russian Embassy in London, what do other diplomats think Wes is the head of? Do other governments, or even the UK, know about the singularity?
Everyone in the Project, which is at least multicultural, seems to be British. Is the UK the executor of the singularity for the world?

I wish that we would get some of these more interesting questions answered. The soap opera lives of the principal characters in this drama become less and less interesting with each episode.

But as with most science-fiction series, I always have hope that the scientific aspects of the show will eventually be the center of the plot.

When George wakes up one day and finds himself reliving a day from months ago, he thinks he’s lost his mind. All of his recent milestones have been undone, including his success at work and his marriage to the love of his life Sarah. Worst of all, he seems to be the only one who has noticed what’s happened.

That is, until he meets Archie, who recruits George for the Lazarus Project — a secret organisation that has harnessed the ability to turn back time every time the world is at threat of extinction. Like George, those who work at Lazarus are the few people on earth with the ability to remember the events that are undone when time goes back. Alongside colleagues like Archie, standoffish Shiv and their steely leader Wes, George works to prevent global catastrophe — including trying to track down the formidable Rebrov, a wanted criminal intent on detonating a nuclear warhead and destroying the world.

Then a freak accident harms someone close to George. Lazarus won’t let him turn back time to undo it — unless there is the threat of global extinction. Now George must choose to stay loyal or go rogue, as he is faced with the question: if you had the power to rewrite your past, what would you sacrifice to do it…?