This is the final episode of the second and last season of Femme Fatales. It’s also the longest, clocking in at almost one hour. It’s an ambitious undertaking; does it live up to the attempt? Read on to find out.

It’s directed by Robert Meyer Burnett and written by Buckaroo Zang and Bob Layton. It should be noted that Bob Layton is a very accomplished comic book artist writer, and that’s significant because this story focuses on a woman who takes the identity of a superhero.

Betsy Rue plays the hero. I won’t say her civilian name; that would be a spoiler. But she becomes the costumed vigilante known as Libra. She has impressive martial arts and acrobatic skills and is armed with a baton that is also an electric taser. She became Libra with the goal of taking down mob boss Dimitri Uzi Olesky (Ilia Volok), whom she believes is responsible for the death of her mother years earlier. Adam Huss stars as Max, who has been working undercover for the police in Olesky’s organization, to get evidence to arrest Olesky because he believes that Olesky had Max’s father (who used to work for Olesky) killed. Initially working separately, Libra and Max cross paths and team up to get Olesky.

The episode follows this show’s tradition of finding ways to tie some stories into previous episodes with returning characters. We learn that Olesky rose to power in the city after the aftermath of the death of Mr. Ryan, the mob boss (played by Stephen Macht, who appears in a flashback) who first appeared in The White Flower and was then killed in Angels & Demons which lead to the war for control of the mob that was seen in Family Business.

We also see that before she became a superhero, Libra had been wrongly committed to a psychiatric ward, the same one from Crazy Mary, with Steve Railsback returning as Dr. Duryea, although since he was (SPOILER ALERT) beaten to death at the end of that episode, it means that Libra’s time in that hospital was before the events of that episode.

Another patient in the hospital at that time is the killer from 16 Minutes Of Fame, but I won’t say who it is since I didn’t spoil that in my review of that episode. During this sequence, the character of Lacey Rivers, the famous actress played by Kit Willesee in Behind Locked Doors, part one and part two, and Jail Break is referenced (but not seen).

Christine Donlon returns as Violet McCready from Bad Medicine, still working as a nurse. Also, in another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene, I swear I think I see Christine Nguyen as a topless waitress in a nightclub, same as in Family Business.

I believe those are all the callbacks to previous episodes, at least those are the ones I noticed.

So, as I said, it’s an ambitious story, but I find it a bit too long. It’s presented as one episode on my DVD, and that’s how it’s credited on IMDB, but I guess it’s possible that it aired as a two-part episode on TV. But watching as a single episode, it drags a bit. I’d say that the whole flashback sequence in the psych ward could have been cut without hurting the story. Although I guess I’m glad it wasn’t, but that’s where we get one of only three full sex scenes.

Libra has sex with Andy, a nurse (or he may be an orderly) in the psych ward, played by Colin Tary, and Jennifer Roa plays the local D.A. who is sleeping with Max. And there’s also a scene where Libra seduces Max after she rescues him from some of Olesky’s thugs. A few other nameless women are shown naked or topless, including two who are in brief sex scenes with Olesky.

It’s a decent enough episode to end this series on. I’ll give it a Chacebook rating of THREE AND A HALF STARS.

Jason Majercik is selling this UNRATED 4-disc DVD set of Femme Fatales season 2 for $29.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.