Review: Pariah Nexus “Doctrine and Discipline”

“Doctrine and Discipline” is on the short side for episodes on Warhammer+. at just under 19 minutes, this week’s episode could have felt as short as it was, but there was so much going on this week, and it centered around the Salamander that appeared at the end of “A Mark Presented.” What I want to get into is this fantastic opening! I touched on it last week, but I watched it like three times today. Seeing all of the detail, and the camera panning around the scenes where the Necrons were attacking all sorts of Space Marines and citizens. It’s the simple things done that impress me the most here.

How the narrative played out was masterful. We see this mysterious Salamander, who’s later reveals his name to be Sa’kan. His issues trying to get from his crashed gunship to civilization to link up with other Space Marine chapters goes to shit real quick when his wreckage is getting infiltrated by humans driven mad by Necron experiments. When he makes it to a safe area, he meets up with a small group of survivors. These survivors are in bad shape, but at least win over the Salamander to gain his mercy and help.

There’s something I need to touch on during “Doctrine and Discipline.” When Sa’kan was walking through the husk of the city, he was able to get some information to pop on his helmet’s HUD, which allowed the prior battle involving the victims to play through, with him walking through it. For the love of god, this is how information gathering is supposed to be.  The way the first two episodes have been presented is so out of the box, it feels fresher than anything else so far.

This all changes when they meet up with the lone Sister of Battle from last week, who we find out is named Danica. Danica is in full survival mode, since she’s the one of two survivors from her battle…the other being her grunt. When Sa’kan’s tiny group of survivors pops their heads out, Danica is ready to kill them all so they can receive “The Emperor’s Mercy.” She straight flipped out, and was ready to kill anything that wasn’t a part of the army. That’s…par for the course for some reflective observations outside this lore.

All in all, I am loving Pariah Nexus. I am so impressed with how this story is playing out. Warhammer and Storyforge killed this. Showing how poised Danica was last week, and the complete breakdown this week is textbook PTSD. What I love is the parallels that keep getting drawn. Sa’kar is showing mercy, which is almost unheard of to Danica, who wanted to kill them. It’s the role swap here that made this even tastier. At this point, Warhammer and Storyforge cannot do wrong. The only thing I ask for during Pariah Nexus is to show the beginnings of the Necron invasion, so we can see why it all went wrong. I just want more.