An Action-Packed Fight for Equality

Bad day at the office? Try this: Show up for work late. When you do arrive, help half a dozen of your friends hold the place hostage. Then reveal to the boss and the rest of the world that you’re a genetically engineered, bar-coded escapee from a secret Wisconsin laboratory.

Not exactly the way to earn a raise, but when you’re Max, the babe-on-a-bike anti-heroine of the Fox sci-fi series “Dark Angel,” there are bigger things at stake than holding down a job at the Jam Pony X-Press courier service. Primary among them: leading her “freak” brethren in the fight for equality in post-apocalyptic Seattle, circa 2019.

So begins the 90-minute second-season finale, airing tonight at 8:30. It pulls no punches in life-altering revelations for its characters or in action sequences reminiscent of films such as “The Terminator.” No surprise then that the director of that movie, James Cameron, co-created and executive-produces this series and tonight makes his TV directing debut. (It’s also his first directorial project to be seen since the 1997 film “Titanic.”)

In terms of sheer action, this episode of “Dark Angel” kicks as much behind as Jessica Alba’s Max does. The violence climaxes in a nearly six-minute battle pitting her and her allies against an elite squad sent in by Agent White (Martin Cummins) to kill Max and “take out anything with a pulse.” Gunfire crackles; combatants hurtle through glass; fists and chairs fly in kung fu and “WWF Smackdown!” style. Indeed, Amy “Lita” Dumas of the World Wrestling Federation is a guest star.

The message underlying the melee is tolerance for one’s fellow beings, no matter how different they may be. Like in most science fiction, the words of hate expressed by humans for the “mutants” or “transgenics” in this futuristic setting echo those used by today’s racists and zealots.

As for the plot and the dialogue being particularly original: Did we mention how great the action and Alba look?