But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. – Exodus 23:22

After last week’s S&M lovefest between Charlie and 01, it was time to bring together Charlie and Reena. Here we are in episode 14, and the only interaction these two have had is a few seconds during the link explosion and one foot chase through Cape Town way back in episode 2, “Sand”. Reena’s been off on her own, being poked, prodded, shocked, beaten, and abused by everyone in Betaverse, but she’s been doing it on her own. Tonight, a first attempt is made to bring her into the fold.

Charlie doesn’t know if Reena is friend or foe, but as with 01, he’s willing to take the allies he can find in his fight against Vexcor. And she’s a pretty good ally with a great deal of access.

A Crisis of Faith

We haven’t gotten into any detail about the religious beliefs and practices in Alpha, but a reasonable guess would be to assume religion has little grip on the people. What little we know of Gamma seems to point toward the prevalence of new age practices, we certainly know traditional religions are strong here, and Alpha appears to be a world that has given up faith entirely. Faith in one’s fellow man and faith in the future have long since been abandoned in that dystopia; it’s likely faith in a higher power has as well.

But Charlie’s not in Alpha anymore. He’s eating sticky donuts in Cape Town now. He’s becoming a man willing to fight for 10 billion people. He’s becoming one of us.

In that process, nascent spirituality and guilt are gnawing at his soul.

Drawn to a church, Charlie debates a priest and himself, but walks away. This is the first time we see young Gemma haunting him, on the steps of the church. The girl Charlie couldn’t save is trying to save him.

While Charlie’s discussing the finer points of theological theory with the priest, Reena’s dropping off Norman Ord’s package of misdeeds at Karl’s door. If you remember, last week Reena got Norman to print all the records of Vexcor’s illegal dumping – activity he directed himself – by threatening to expose him to security, with a little game of Jekyll/Hyde and Go Boom to sweeten the pot. Tonight she slips those under Karl’s door, presumably because his reputation as a Vexcor muckraker is widespread.

The Eye of the Tiger

01′s getting back in shape, recovering from his gunshot. I’m writing this prior to the SciFi airing, so I don’t know if they’ve stuck with the heavy metal on the soundtrack or swapped it out, but I think it needed a good ’80s power ballad instead. That, or “Montage” from the Team America soundtrack.

Regardless, 01′s getting stronger while Princess watches. On the podcast for this episode over at Charlie Jade Verse Alex Epstein said that Bob Wertheimer was a big fan of the actress, Lisa-Marie Schneider, so the writers gave her more to do. She gets to be involved in one of the best gags this show ever did a bit later on, so I’m happy for that.

After his workout, 01 heads to the shower for a little transdimensional jaunt…only he can’t do it. Whatever hit 01 a few episodes back, when he returned too soon from Gamma, it’s still causing him problems. He is as stuck here as everyone else.

So, unable to head to Alpha to tattle on Julius to the home office, 01 puts Princess to work in pinstripes and a tight bun. A little video manipulation brought to us by magic Alpha technology lets 01 transform the image and voice of Princess into Essa Rompkin. And so we get a great bit that I actually think should have been played out longer. Schneider doing her best impersonation of the ice queen, and Michele Burgers doing a fabulous approximation of 01′s callow lover.

Ord on the Run

Looking through the documents, Charlie realizes Norman’s name is on each one. He tries to find him in the Vexcor computers, but the records have been imperfectly excised. Karl guesses that’s because Norman is looking to get out of town, so Charlie calls in a little help. And so we get the return of Blues Paddock, played by the lovely and talented Rolanda Marais. In a game of cat and cat, she and Charlie each try to get the upper hand. Blues finds a single, paper record of Norman – making the absence of any electronic footprint that much more intriguing to her – and stakes out Norman’s house. She’s given Charlie the address and just has to wait for him to show up.

But Charlie is one step ahead of Blues; he’s gotten to the house before her. Hiding out in the Ord’s backseat, he has Norman and his wife head to his loft.

There, Charlie and Karl learn Reena is working inside Vexcor and is the one who got them the information about the illegal dumping. Norman tells Charlie how to contact Reena – through a posted notice about a missing dog in the Vexcor gardens – in exchange for passage out of Cape Town. He and his wife flee to Johannesburg, their first stop before leaving the country. A friend of Karl’s – someone who worked in the apartheid-era underground railroad – will help the Ords escape Vexcor’s grip, finally.

The Barber of Seville

I’m guessing a few of you have been looking forward to tonight’s episode to see 01 Boxer‘s little surprise for Julius. I hope it made you all laugh as much as it gets me *every* time I see it. 01 has his counterfeit slate to deliver, and he wants to make him as uncomfortable as possible in the process. Danny Keogh‘s a pro to just keep going no matter what Michael Filipowich throws at him.

Julius tries to lay blame on the attack squarely on Ren Porter. 01 isn’t buying, but goes along for now. He’s hoping his phony message from Essa will take care of his problems with Julius.

It doesn’t. Julius shows up at the Glass Door with the slate in hand and confronts 01. He knows it’s a fake slate. He knows 01 hasn’t been to Alpha or wasn’t able to get Essa to listen to him. But he knows 01 and he share a common goal – to keep the link down. Ren’s pushing hard for the link to be restored and Julius wants to keep that from happening. He makes 01 an offer he can’t refuse.

The Corpse and Stimpy Show

Charlie lurks outside an abandoned building, stalking Reena inside. She’s not alone. Porter and one of his goons tailed Reena from the gardens and are preparing to kill her. Some really nice time jumps are utilized in these scenes to make the action really pop.

• Reena breaks the goon’s neck with a swift kick to his head as he lies on the floor.
• Porter and the goon following.
• Reena with her foot on the goon’s neck: “we’re surrounded by dead people.”
• Porter and the goon looking for Reena.
• Reena quickly disarming Porter and grasping his neck. A Mexican stand-off ensues until the goon lays down his weapon. Reena quickly kills Ren and then takes down the goon.

All of this, intercut with Julius and 01 drinking and scheming about Porter’s death.

Charlie tracks down Reena before she escapes. They have a scene together where we learn Reena
knows 01. We should, in fact, conclude that 01 provided the explosives Reena used on the Gammaverse link site. They talk and realize each other is stranded from elsewhere. But there’s a small problem.

The Reena who killed Porter and the goon is her programmed personality. When reminded too strongly about what she did, the programming takes back over and disarms Charlie before running away. Charlie’s hopes for a new ally have to be delayed.

A bit later, 01 tracks Porter’s chip and finds him dead. With his usual reverence for all things living and dead, 01 relieves himself on the body while ringing up Julius to deliver the good news.

The Gray Suits

One of the men in gray shows up in Charlie’s loft, giving additional weight to 01′s confessions of last week. He’s mysterious and a bit off-putting, but claims to be there to help. As Charlie is about to ask him about Krogg’s memo, he disappears. On the episode commentary, Alex Epstein says that the men in gray come from yet another universe even farther gone than Alpha. They wanted to save Beta from destruction, but might have had nefarious reasons to do so. Listen to the commentary podcasts, people!

The same man shows up once more. Charlie goes to talk with the priest again, sitting in the confessional asking for his advice:

I met this person, this woman and she needs help. Probably more than i do. If that’s possible. She’s lost. Doesn’t even know it.

But the priest’s advice is very utilitarian. He tells Charlie to solve his own problems first, before trying to solve anyone else’s. Reminds him of the stricture on a plane, to put your own oxygen mask on before helping anyone else.

Charlie leaves upset, surprised by the selfish and self-serving advice. Then the man in the gray suit exits the second confessional booth.

Jasmine and Sew Sew

The aftermath of Jasmine’s fatal attack last week is short and sweet. Short, in that Sew Sew makes sure there is no crime in the computers. Sweet, in that Sew Sew makes sure Jasmine knows he wants love, not sex. For the first time since Charlie’s disappeared, Jasmine sees a glimmer of hope for her future. It’s small, and requires her loving Sew Sew, but it’s real. And Sew Sew isn’t a bad man; he’s the last and only good cop in Cape City.

That’s a sliding scale.

Final Thoughts

Another very fine episode where we got to mix characters together and have some fun with the results. Charlie and Reena need more opportunity to play off each other, and Charlie and 01 should still be getting together more, but this was still a good one. It was especially nice to see 01 and Julius together. Michael Filipowich and Danny Keogh really work together well.

What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. – 1 Corinthians 13:12

Alright. So last week was a bit of a feint. 01 didn’t give Charlie 12 reasons not to kill him. But he gave him one. One, excellent reason summed up by Karl: “01 Boxer, that sick bastard, has done more to hurt Vexcor than either one of us.”

Of Human Bondage

More than a clip show, this episode is partially constructed from pieces of the first half of the series, reexamined through 01′s perspective. We obviously can’t trust his version of events completely and neither does Charlie, but with enough clarification, enough physical abuse, and enough filtering, we all come to a better understanding of 01′s motivations and machinations. But it all starts in bondage.

Bondage is everywhere it seems. Charlie’s got 01 tied up to get information out of him. Jasmine has a client tied up for his pleasure in pain. No one gets exactly what they want out of this episode – excepting maybe 01 who seems to enjoy playing with Charlie – but everyone gets something.

While Charlie and 01 dance about finding nuggets of truth amid the pile of lies he spews, Jasmine deals with a surly client. So surly, in fact, that she finally brains him, imagining him as Jobbo. It looks like she’ll get off the streets one way or another; she calls Sew Sew.

Things turn out a little better for Charlie. He learns more about his enemy, realizes he has an ally – if an unstable and unreliable one – in 01, and even gets let off the hook on Katie Grayle a little.

Things turned out perfectly for 01, of course. Not only did he get sprung from jail, but he got tied up and beat up by Charlie. Next time, it’ll be his turn to tie Charlie.

The Secrets of 01 Boxer

Last week we saw Charlie pull 01 out of Blues’ hands right ahead of Vexcor security. We spent a few minutes and saw a few glimpses of the interrogation but never learned anything. This week we learn a great deal, though there are still a lot of questions about what’s real and what’s not.

01 believes Essa is driving the company to ruin and to commit terrible acts. Her hubris and vanity are forcing progress on the link to proceed at a calamitous pace. This is true in both the storybook version 01 tells – himself neatly attired in too-short pants, a jacket and tie, and his hair combed down like a child’s – and later versions which we recognize as closer to “the truth”.

Katie Grayle wasn’t a random innocent, but a Vexcor employee. 01 certainly used her as a pawn in his game, but she wasn’t pulled from the dance floor for no reason. More importantly, 01 didn’t kill her. Vexcor killed at, on Essa’s orders.

Krogg wasn’t killed for publishing his memo about the danger of the link; Krogg was killed to keep Vexcor from reestablishing the link. 01′s actions at every turn have been calculated to slow Vexcor. Without Krogg or a functioning link to transport other scientists through from Alpha, Beta had to struggle to make any progress at all. That was further impacted by 01′s assault on the temporary link in the dry cleaners.

The Men in Gray suits are working in the shadows, controlling everything. They suppressed Krogg’s memo, they killed Krogg, and they killed Krogg’s girlfriend. But wait. Those are lies, aren’t they? 01 killed Krogg. So what of the Gray Men? 01 has obviously seen them and knows more about them than he’s letting on, but what exactly their motivations are and where they come from will remain a mystery for now.

Note how 01 keeps common threads and phrases throughout his various flavors of the truth. In particular and most poignant is Essa’s line: repeated when she’s the floozy to 01′s good son; when she’s the corporate master; and finally, when she’s the face of evil, ordering the death of Katie Grayle.

I will do anything it takes to protect the integrity of this company. The company is everything.

Cutting the Red Wire

Reena finds Norman Ord in the boardroom, covering his tracks before taking off. One of the dozens of Vexcor employees in Beta slipping further out of the company’s grasp, Ord is responsible for toxic dumping. When Reena catches him – as she was surely waiting for him to make his move – she gives him two choices. She can either finger him to Vexcor security, or he can give her all the documents she wants on the company’s illegal dumping activities. He chooses the latter.

When he attempts to send the file, security protocols lock down the room and a bomb hidden under the conference table starts ticking down.

Ticking down? Really? Ticking out loud so Reena can hear it?

Either the bomb is the most sloppy device ever, or Reena planted it earlier. Which one of those do y’all think it is? Which one makes it easier for Reena to choose the right wire? Which one makes more sense when you realize that the explosives in the bomb don’t come from Alpha, Beta, or Gamma?

Yeah, I’m not sure what to make of that either. Somehow, Reena planted a bomb using materials she shouldn’t even have access to, found it, and disarmed it. Think it through and provide your best guesses (people who’ve read ahead are not allowed to participate.)

Final Thoughts

Charlie and 01 are now (sort of) allied against Vexcor. In that 01 knows far more than he’s letting on, this is a very uneven relationship and neither safe nor comfortable for Charlie. He still doesn’t have answers to his questions, though it might be that the answers he does have are for better questions.

Reena’s moving forward on her mission to destroy Vexcor from the inside, but considering how she reacted to the bomb, I’m not sure it’s completely *her* mission. Consider the flashback she had to when she was momentarily content with the world, walking down the street and eating ice cream. Strolling and smiling, Reena came across a Vexcor construction site and her mood and demeanor changed instantly. She’s been on this mission since that moment. Why? And who planted the bomb she disarmed? And how did she know which wire to pull?

Who is Reena?

What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

A couple weeks back, Mike forwarded me an email he’d gotten from someone who’d worked on the show and wanted to thank us for taking an interest in it: Michael Filipowich.

We weren’t actively looking for another interview, but if we had been, he would have been top of my list. His take on 01 Boxer is…well…crazy. But after exchanging a series of emails with him, I’ll tell you this is about the most carefully crafted, well-planned crazy I’ve seen in a long time. He knew exactly what 01 was doing, why he was doing it, and what his endgame was. He took a character who had initially been written as a one-dimensional psycho and fleshed him out into the crazy, funny, scary dimension hopper we know and love.

He was kind enough to answer a few questions for me, taking the time to provide some really thoughtful responses. His take on his character and the show are quite different from everyone else’s and very interesting. One of the great things about film and television is its collaborative nature. It’s that collaborative nature that lets great ideas about characters filter up from the actor to the creators.

Read the interview twice. Trust me. The first time through, you’re probably going to think he’s just crazy. But like 01 Boxer, Michael Filipowich knows exactly what he’s doing and saying.

Pop Critics: I get the feeling from watching your performance, and even your brief note earlier, that you have a very studied approach to acting. I’m assuming you had some pretty formal training. What’s your background?

Michael Filipowich: I come from a long line of criminals and madmen…theater and philosophy in university…before that I was always doing plays and was raised by television…my parents were pretty much non-existent…I now hate both TV and my parents.

Basically my background is in Meisner but I am always taking classes. I have this very estranged relationship with acting – almost toxic – I just can’t leave it but it is a source for endless disappointment, frustration, and angst…actually just today I am teetering on I never want to do this (acting) again.

It’s a dirty business kids please don’t try it at home…don’t stay in school either…just start revolutions en masse!

PC: Continuing along that line, what’s your process like?

MF: My process is always different depending on the project and character and how much I am moved internally. I like to do work with body type and posture and experiment with breathing…where you breathe from dictates your reality. I choose things that I want and go after them as honestly as I can in the relationship with whomever I am playing with.

Clothes are important and look…also depending on how much time I have to prep and how much freedom I am granted – more often than not I claim all rights for myself and the rest is negotiation between me and them. I do what interests me…it is an expensive experiment where others are paying…I don’t care if it’s good or even if it works…I am there to stretch and bring as much presence and energy I can and the rest I leave alone…acting is kind of a battle for me, with myself.

Did I mention revolution?

PC: When production was starting up, how much did Robert Wertheimer and Chris Roland tell you about where they hoped the show would go, and specifically 01 Boxer’s journey? Did you start out thinking you’d been cast as a whacked out sociopath, or did you know he was intended to have a lot of layers?

MF: Bob and Chris were both very good to me but they did not have a clue about things…the show was all over the place and they did not know what was going on.

Sensing this I just started bringing stuff, directing myself and fighting for my guy…the situation and circumstances were roughed in but he was totally one dimensional…I wanted his journey to be as strong as Charlie’s even though he had no real stories written for him and had about 1/10th of the screen time. I had to invent relationships with Essa and Julius because they didn’t exist…I took some cues from the writing but that was changing daily, often right before takes…can you say guerrilla style.

I know a lot of people find the show confusing but I am amazed at its relative coherency. Viva la revolution!

PC: Following up on that, the first time we see 01 in Gammaverse is episode three, “You Are Here”, which you also narrated. 01 seemed pretty together, if maybe a bit devious, dealing with the Vexcor chairman in Gamma and starting to move all the pieces around on the chessboard. Was it your decision or the creators’ to vary 01′s personality so much between the verses?

MF: In the beginning and all the way through 01 always had a mission…for me that was different from the actual, literal plot…he is absolutely Machiavellian…he also had a great deal of trickster energy and some real longings.

The other thing was how to deal with his mutations from jumping universes and he had done it sooooo many times whereas Charlie had only done it a few and Reena only once…and he was originally doing it with a prototype that he ripped off of his dad – kicking it old school. I started to play with a version of MPD [Multiple Personality Disorder] where 01 had different vibrational patterns that were set for him to slip into. He also used drugs, sex and violence.

I remember shooting that scene in episode 3 – it was actually the first thing I shot – the guy playing the chairman turned to me after a take and tried to set me in the direction of respecting him more that I was to kind of be subservient – I just gave him an 01 look – his face got so red…it was awesome.

01 is always playing except when he is not…and you can catch him being real here and there.

PC: When I spoke with Alex Epstein (ed: PC Inteview), he said he didn’t think there was any magical reason you were different from verse to verse, just that you were happy in Gamma because it was far from your father and a much saner world. My gut tells me that’s not how you saw things. Thoughts?

MF: Happy in Gamma…poor Alex Epstein…knowing full well that Gamma is the future 01 is what he needs to be there.

There was so much going on in Gamma that you didn’t see…in Freudian terms higher self – Gamma; lower self – Alpha; mask – Beta. It’s like when a man goes out to an S&M club, gets loaded, things get out of hand, but has self awareness and a mission, and a longing…days later he stumbles home…his clean wife his adoring obedient children.

Gamma 01 is who he is – alpha and beta are his exorcisms.

PC: 01′s personality varied a lot; did his motivations vary as well, or were they pretty consistent from verse to verse? What *were* his motivations, in your eyes?

MF: 01 pushes for truth…he cannot stand bullshit…he is wounded and needs to heal…he is all powerful but impotent…he needs to father and mother himself and bridge the darkness and rage in himself to make a different choice…even though he was filled with hate there was still a kernel that wanted to protect, to save.

He was the classically abused child…never seen, never touched, to me he was Pinocchio always trying to turn into a real boy…looking for a boundary…ultimately facing fears in the hopes of breaking through to realization.

PC: You mentioned that you looked at the show differently from the producers. Could you elaborate on that?

MF: To me the show is very religious – a man stripped of everything and thrown into a hostile environment, wandering in the desert. Charlie goes looking for 01…man’s search for truth…the balance of the Tao…the eternal recurrence…the Tibetan Bardo…the nature of consciousness…free will, mind control…reality.

Bob and Chris wanted to make a show about a detective. Anything else you read into it is divine intervention.

PC: About the dumbest thing I think the writers did is keep you and Jeffrey Pierce separated as long as they did. That first time you two shared the screen was electrifying. Did you know ahead of time how good that was going to be? Did you push to get Charlie and 01 together sooner and more often?

MF: They were always worried about putting Jeff and I together…I swear they said this – “we don’t want to blow our load too early” – wow. I always thought they needed to come together early and that the opening episodes were weak – not enough electricity to grab.

Jeff actually pitched the idea to start with episode 13 and then go back which would have worked better. Too many non-creative people making decisions hurt the show

PC: An actor you did get a lot of screen time with was Danny Keogh. Just now I was trying to think of a comparable dichotomy of performance styles on screen and East of Eden popped into my head with the way Dean visibly discomfited Raymond Massey. Were you trying to push buttons like that, or was Keogh playing along the whole time?

MF: Danny was my favorite…he was awesome…we never spoke really off camera…I thought he hated me…then when the show wrapped he came up to me and was all gushing about the great time he had with me.

Danny is a tough dude, he is for real…yes I was pushing buttons but unlike the Gamma guy he just came right back…I loved him.

PC: So I know you’ve seen my comparison of you to Daffy Duck (ed: “Devotion” recap). Here’s the whole insane quote:

Filipowich is a short fuse, a real-life Daffy Duck. His silences are more frequently broken by unexpected mania than a wry smile while his tightly coiled muscles bear the threat of sudden violence or passion. The closest comparable actor I can think of is Joe Pesci, though Katee Sackhoff shares similar traits of unpredictability.

Two questions on that. First, how close or far off is that to your own view of yourself as an actor? Second, rabbit season or duck season?

MF: Interesting you choose Daffy because Looney Tunes were a big inspiration for 01. In episode 14 when I sneak up on Julius I improv the line – “come into my shop let me cut your mop, it’s free”, Looney Tunes Barber of Seville…wow man you got it. So I don’t think that you were seeing the actor but definitely the character…Daffy was a template. In episode 10 maybe where I beat a dude down…I put a lot of cartoonish moves in which were mostly cut out…but there is this like weird little step thing that I do. (ed: It was actually ep 11, “Thicker Than Water”)

Also that one scene where I paint a road on the side of a cliff and walk right through but then fall, but as I’m falling I pull out my cell and order a huge umbrella from acme which gets delivered to me while I am still in the air and I open it and safely float to the ground but then a Vexcor anvil falls on my head and my teeth become piano keys.

Duck hunting season but I keep my feathers numbered.

PC: What projects do you have coming out that you’d like us to keep an eye out for?

MF: If you don’t mind going blind from watching stupidity I have some delicious straight to DVD action films coming out, starring washed up action stars…I am involved in producing a couple of shows, one is a reality show and the other is called My Mom’s a Bookie…and I’ll be making a grande nonfat to your specifications somewhere in the San Fernando valley.

This one’s for Nathan.

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

Well I may have killed a few people, I may have even enjoyed it. But you want to walk away from 10 billion people. And they’re all going to die without your help. Which one of us is a psychopath? – 01 Boxer

Remember a few weeks ago when Charlie and 01 got a minute or two together on screen and it sparkled? What do you think about an entire act of the two together?

I had a chance to interview Michael Filipowich a couple weeks back; we’ll be posting that Wednesday morning. In that interview I found out just how lucky we all are the writing chores changed hands. The first guys…well, here’s Filipowich:

They were always worried about putting Jeff and I together…I swear they said this – “we don’t want to blow our load too early.”

Yikes. Fortunately, tonight we got an episode designed to bring them together.

Except for Reena in her own little nightmare world, still not incorporated with the rest of the cast, every moment of tonight’s episode led to the end of Act 3 when Charlie took 01 away from the police station. Everyone played his part, working either with or against Charlie, and we get the best episode yet.

We also get a lot of questions that won’t be answered for another week.

Meet Blues Paddock

Rolanda Marais tells us all we need to know about Blues Paddock early on. Investigating the death of a Gemma Gitano lookalike and two others at a Vexcor facility, she walks her partner through what happened. He tells her she must be watching too much CSI, but we can see he’s impressed. Then he asks if she’d like to have some fun, because 01 has been seen hiding at his club. But Blues is having fun. Her job is who she is.

She’s a bit like Karl, in that she sees shadows and conspiracies and connections all around her. Also like Karl, she’s absolutely correct to see those things. While she’s not interested in picking up 01, she’s very interested in interrogating him. Two dead Vexcor executives alongside a hired gun, plus the strange events surrounding the link explosion, plus 01 Boxer’s apparent murder of one of his companions add up to too many coincidences for Beta’s Dana Scully.

She knows there’s more to the link explosion than Vexcor’s letting on, so she questions 01 about it. Wants to know why he was there, wants to know if he can identify anyone else filmed at the scene. She pops in a tape and we see both Reena and Charlie, but 01′s too busy barking like a dog and humming the Wicked Witch’s theme to answer her questions. Not that he’d answer if he weren’t otherwise occupied. Blues keeps pushing because she knows 01 knows something.

Her spidey sense is further stimulated when Charlie shows up to cart off 01. No fool, she sees right through his masquerade. Then again, who’s ever seen a Fed with Friday shadow and a suit that nice? The sunglasses and attitude were enough for Inspector Archer, but he was also the one who had to deal with all the paperwork. That bit of bureaucracy probably falls on his shoulders too often; he has the look of a man wearied by procedure.

Charlie Jade, Eff Bee Eye

Back at Karl’s apartment after seeing the Gemma lookalike plummet to her death – and shooting her killer and accomplice – Charlie tells him she was just another pawn in Vexcor’s three-dimensional chess game. It’s been a month since Gemma traded herself for Charlie’s freedom, but he can’t accept she’s gone; he keeps searching instead of doing anything proactive. And Karl’s grown tired of the narcissism and selfishness cheapening Gemma’s sacrifice.

Charlie’s here in Beta for a reason. Gemma sacrificed herself for a reason. And it’s not so Charlie can get back to Jasmine.

If Krogg was right, everyone in Beta is doomed. But Charlie isn’t listening. He’s still forlorn about Jasmine who, it appears, has stepped up her appointment schedule with johns and subs.

He leaves and Karl fumes.

Sometime later, Karl comes to Charlie’s to apologize. Sorta. “Mostly not.” While Charlie works on an exoskin, using one of Vexcor’s bugs for his own purposes, Karl tells him he thinks he knows a way for Charlie to get home. He’s reluctant to tell him, almost holding it back as a bargaining chip for Charlie to do something, anything, to help save his universe. But that’s not Karl’s nature.

Karl figures if 01 could take Katie Grayle (the poor, lost dead girl from the pilot) home with him, he can take Charlie.

Which makes the rewiring of the exoskin fortuitous as Charlie uses it to locate 01 at the Glass Door. The little bug scurries along the floor, dancing between hobnailed boots and stilletto heels in its search for 01. It finally finds him, hiding out in a VIP room enjoying himself with Princess. 01′s used to being spied on – growing up with Bryon Boxer he’d have to be – so it’s not a surprise he notices the bug and crushes it without it interrupting coitus.

Finished with his private party, 01 figures now might be a good time to take a powder. He heads toward the back door and meets Charlie, who’d like him to meet his little friend. 01 decides the better part of valor is getting the hell away from the man with the drawn gun, so he joins Archer’s party instead. 01′s a fan of bondage anyway, so the handcuffs are a welcome addition to his wardrobe.

Charlie and Karl formulate a plan to break 01 out of the police station, where Charlie will impersonate an FBI special agent with authority to take possession of 01. The writers get a little commentary on American politics with this, as Karl’s prepping Charlie for his role. He tells him to keep his sunglasses on and act superior. And he admits being shocked by how easy it was to convince Archer to hand over 01: “A phone call and a couple pieces of paper and he went for it. You say terrorist these days and eveyone shuts their brain off.”

Not everyone, however.

Blues picks up the scent off Charlie right away and tests him. First, she invites him into a room to pick his brain about procedure. It’s a self-locking interrogation room. She trips him up right off the bat with a question about “the Agency” but lets him continue for a moment before dropping the hammer on him: “It’s a Bureau, not an Agency. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Should have corrected me. They always do.”

Then she drops the second hammer. She’s got photos of Charlie at the link explosion and wants to know who he is and what he wants with 01 Boxer.

Charlie plays it cool. Blues was clever and tricky and wanted Charlie to see that, but he’s not a fool. He spins it the best he can, but she’s not buying.

Blues steps out for a minute to get prints lifted off some of the papers Charlie’s handled and sees Archer handing 01 over to some cops. A second set of transfer papers have come through, this time to bring 01 to central booking. Knowing these are fake as well, she gets the head of the team to trip up and pulls her weapon. Archer and the rest of their colleagues surround the fake police and get them to put down their weapons. Blues heads back to Charlie to figure out how he knew the police station was so easily breached. (This, by the way, is a bit of sloppy writing. There’s no way Blues would step away until the standoff was completely resolved and the fakes in custody. But Charlie needs to be brought out of his locked room for the next bit to happen.)

The head of the extraction team – and let’s be real, we knew it was one of Ren Porter’s teams from the moment they walked in – pulls a cellphone from his back pocket, saying he’s going to make a call. He’s not tackled or otherwise subdued (also a bit unrealistic) and punches in a number. His team cover their ears. Charlie sees and yells for Blues to do the same, too late, as he covers his own. The cell phone is an audio grenade that takes the police out of commission.

Charlie grabs Blues’ gun and wings the team leader, then grabs 01. He gets 01 outside where Karl is waiting, as loyal and reliable as ever.

That’s Leadership for You

At Vexcor meanwhile, there’s a bit of tension in the air. First Julius browbeats a physicist who doesn’t share his concerns about Krogg’s report. Tossing in some more exposition in case anyone doesn’t remember its ramifications, Julius tells her if Krogg was right then bringing the link online may destablize the membrane and collapse Betaverse out of existence. The physicist is confident that won’t happen, but needs the link to come online so she can get more data to verify. Which of course would put the link online and risk destroying Beta. Julius tells her they’re holding the test.

Ren hovered in the background during the conversation, and afterward has a walk-and-talk with Julius. He asks why Julius suddenly believes Krogg’s memo, wondering out loud if Julius is keeping the link down to avoid dealing with home office. Julius counters by saying he could accuse Ren of letting Charlie go on purpose just to make him look incompetent and hands him pictures of the dead Gemma lookalike. How much Reena overhears of this conversation isn’t clear, though it’s obvious the CEO and head of security should keep these conversations out of hallways.

Regarding the dead executive, Ren says she was getting ready to run and was killed to send a message, but someone intercepted his team. He can’t stablize the workforce while the link is down, and the longer its stays down the more employee drift they’ll have to contend with. He doesn’t have the staff to keep everyone in check.

When Ren finds out 01′s in custody he puts a plan in place to extract him. They can’t kill him now, because they don’t know if 01 managed to get home to Alpha after being shot. Julius is holding Ren responsible for the failure, and when the link comes online he’ll hold him responsible for trying to kill 01. Ren’s stuck with few outs and he knows it, but he’s nothing if not a loyal Vexcor employee.

Cleanup Operations

In the aftermath at the police station, everyone’s recovering slowly. Bloody noses and bleeding ears all around and no one’s going back to active duty until they’re fully checked out. Blues goes to check the station’s surveillance cameras, but is informed that they malfunctioned for the duration of the incident. Except…the officer telling her this is Ajax, the cooly efficient blond from Vexcor security.

We’ve seen her before: she moved Gemma out of her apartment in “Identity” and cleaned up the mess at Kunjani back in “Betrayal”. If all of Ren’s people were as good as Ajax, he’d have a lot fewer problems.

In fact a little while later, Ajax gets rid of one more of Ren’s problems with a slashing strike and a bottle of acid.

The Big Finale

So here’s an interesting fact. Act 4 of this episode, the great warehouse interrogation, is actually episode 13, compressed. So if you liked upside-down bondage and tough talking, just wait until next week when that’s all you’ll see.

Because of that, I don’t want to say too much about what we saw in the warehouse tonight. We can go into much greater detail, and actually know what the 12 reasons for not shooting 01 are, if we wait a week. But I can’t pass up on at least a little commentary…

01 makes some subtle and not-too-subtle racist comments toward Karl before Charlie sends him to the car. Crafty as always, 01 wants to get Karl’s defenses up before trying to get between him and Charlie.

Do you know how many people you have to kill to get one of those renovations by the waterfront? Not to mention a high-class hooker to be your slave…I’m sorry, was I not supposed to mention the slave part?

After a long night of give and take, in which 01 makes Charlie question himself and his motivations, Charlie finally asks 01 why he shouldn’t kill him. 01′s got 12 reasons.

Karl’s shocked when 01 walks out under his own power, and he and 01 do a little dance. Charlie doesn’t trust him, but he believes him enough to be a reluctant ally. A reluctant ally for our reluctant hero.

Other Thoughts

I didn’t say much about Reena because, honestly, I don’t know what to say. She had a dream that told her to go back in time and not blow up the reactor, basically. What that means, and why she had it now, I don’t know. It was pretty to watch, though, the nightmare.

Also, I haven’t mentioned them before, but you should definitely be checking out the episode podcasts over at Charlie Jade Verse.

Beyond that, let’s just say a hearty welcome to Blues Paddock. We’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the coming weeks.

Important Programming Note

Don’t forget to come back Wednesday morning for our EXCLUSIVE interview with Michael Filipowich.

What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

See, I told y’all stuff was gonna happen, right? Holy hellfire! While this episode has some very nice character moments slipped in, it’s really all about story. A lot gets pushed forward, some ideas that had been dropped for weeks get brought back to the forefront where they belong, and we say goodbye to at least one old friend. Despite all the spackle the new writers had to use to hide the gaps between the old way and the new, this episode crackles.

Before we jump in, don’t forget to check out our exclusive interview with head writer Alex Epstein.

Karl Breaks

We’re leading off with Karl because this episode is all him and Tyrone Benskin knocks it out of the park. Karl serves two important purposes on the show. He’s our proxy – the dumb character who needs to have things explained to him so they can be explained to us – and Charlie’s guide. Those are both thankless tasks. If you’re always laying pipe, it can be hard to get anything meaty to do.

Tonight, Karl gets one of the meatiest stories this show’s done. Reena’s torture gave Patricia McKenzie a lot to work with, but nothing quite like Karl’s breakdown in the woods. The sight of him collapsing before the prospect of being necklaced was something else. His fear came to life in that scene, breathing the gasoline fumes right alongside him. It was a really nice touch by the sound editors playing crowd noise beneath the early part of the scene, climaxing with the sound of a tire bursting into flames.

Serpentine and cold-blooded, Langley Kirkwood‘s Ren Porter doesn’t need to yell to be frightening; he’s scariest when he smiles. The little look of frustration he gives when the first match doesn’t light might be my favorite moment in an episode filled with great moments. The banality of it, in contrast to the horror with which Karl is being threatened, makes it that much more real.

Karl’s final betrayal, leaving Charlie at Kunjani like Jesus at Gethsemane, was his most painful. Surely he knew in the woods that Ren was right: even if Karl didn’t talk, they’d find out about Charlie eventually. But here…I think Karl had really convinced himself that they just wanted to talk with Charlie. Seeing the guns and realizing his role, it’s a wonder he didn’t hang himself.

Charlie Was an Official Pastry Judge

Maybe it’s just me, but Charlie’s irritation and impatience with himself tonight seems like a commentary about the progress of the show to this point from Robert Wertheimer and the new writers. He’s irritated that he’s been sitting around wasting his time instead of digging hard into Vexcor. That’s a similar assessment to the one we’ve had. Rather than being an active agent in his story, Charlie’s been sitting back, waiting for people to come to him.

I’m exaggerating to a point, but the first eight episodes were far less about Charlie looking for answers than they were about Charlie reacting to Beta. Even in “Diamonds”, where he and Karl learned Vexcor is planning to implant chips in everyone, Charlie didn’t make his discovery through some deep investigation of Vexcor. He made it trying to get back his stolen ring.

Tonight, Charlie’s taking the fight straight to Vexcor.

A drive around town with Karl to take photos of Vexcor construction sites turns up nothing unusual. They could be up to something nefarious, or could just be expanding. Then it hits him. Mapping the sites, Charlie sees they form a perfect circle under Cape Town. Vexcor is replacing the link site in the desert with an even larger site right under the city.

While Karl has his encounter with Ren, Charlie checks out Vexcor’s home office. Unable to get past the building’s firewalls from the outside, he sneaks in. First he overhears some employees discussing Julius’s new office – the “temple” – and the link home. then he connects his phone/tricorder/sonic screwdriver to the network. What I couldn’t tell was whether he tapped and took it, or if he left it connected for now.

Regardless, Charlie heads underground. Karl’s been burned and would be in too much danger if he stayed around, and Charlie needs to sow confusion within Vexcor by making them wonder if he’s an employee of one of their Alphaverse competitors.

This also means Charlie’s going to have to stay away from Paula for now, but she makes that both easier and harder by telling him to stay away permanently. He stalks her and almost decks her dad and she thinks he’s dreamy. He kills a few Vexcor security agents in her restaurant and suddenly he’s bad news? Man, women are fickle.

Realistically, Paula’s been a complication that doesn’t add much to the story, so it’s no wonder the writers took this opportunity to get rid of her. More time for Jasmine, now.

01 ♥ Essa

We started off this week where we left off at the end of “Devotion”, with 01 Boxer wounded and hopped off to Gamma.

By the way, this might be the best, last chance to see that third tap in the shower. So rewind and take a look.

01 stumbles into a beach house, bloodied and weak, and makes his way upstairs. As he collapses, a woman sees him and screams. Knowing 01′s history with the fair sex, we might assume this poor woman is frightened by the intrusion of the strange, bleeding man. That’s a nice bit of sleight-of-hand from the writers, as we’ll find out by episode’s end that the woman is in fact 01′s wife and mother to his two children.

The crazy sociopath is a loving family man in Gamma. Bet my wife wishes *I* lived in Gamma. Hell, 01 probably takes out the trash without being asked, he’s so downright decent in that ‘verse.

So what gives? Well, we know that 01′s trying to protect Gamma from whatever evil plans Vexcor has for it. That’s one reason for him to put himself through the obvious torment of the other ‘verses. In addition, last week we saw the bargain he’s made with the devil, his father, to trade his blood for his mother’s remaining possessions. Presumably all the bargaining power Brion Boxer has over his son revolves around those items.

From his fever dreams, we can see 01 is not a man happy with who he is. Filled with provocative images and an underlying Oedipal theme, his convalescence is more for the psychic wounds he’s suffered so long away from home than the physical injuries. Reborn by episode’s end, 01 looks ready to tackle Vexcor, his father, and Essa with newly restored clarity of purpose and sanity.

Reena and her Party Dress

Speaking of provocative images, this is the first time we’ve seen Reena smile since…um, I guess that set of photo booth pictures? Seriously? It took over two months to let Patricia McKenzie smile. Two months of misery, pain, torture (literally), and guilt. Tonight she smiled. And wore a dress. Personally, I think she should wear dresses all the time, but that’s got less to do with Reena and more to do with my crush on P-Mac.

This week she did have to come to grips with the loss of Rosalie, but knowing her friend’s gone to a better place makes it easier on her. Burying her in the backyard was probably not amongst her happiest moments in life, but if the body is just a vessel, she can take comfort that Rosalie’s soul has transcended.

We also had a few small signs of what’s to come ahead. The water in Rosalie’s house appears to be turned off. Presumably other essential services – phone and electricity – will be soon to follow. Beyond that, Reena knows she’s but a temporary guest here. She can’t stay too long before someone realizes what’s happened. She figured that out when she skipped to answer the phone, then let it keep ringing.

Reena’s going to be moving on soon. But at least she’ll have money from her new job at Vexcor thanks to Rosalie’s final gift: her identity.

Final Thoughts

Charlie’s going to go back to the mystery of Elliot Krogg. Specifically, what was in Krogg’s report? That’s probably pretty important, as the rogue scientist thought the link was too dangerous to bring up. With Reena inside Vexcor, there should be some interesting events unfolding. Her new job in the mailroom should allow her access to most everyone and everywhere in the building, so it’s going to be interesting to see how “the new face of terror” gets around without being noticed.

Finally, Karl. He’s pretty f’d up right now. It’s going to be a rough road ahead for him.

What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

I have mixed feelings about this episode. It’s the best of the season so far, I think. A compelling case can be made for “And Not a Drop to Drink”, as it opens the kimono on inter-dimensional travel, 01′s unique abilities, and the importance of water to the scheme of things. But tonight…it’s something else.

Then again, this is also the last episode under Writing Regime #1 (WR#1). Things you’re starting to understand? Things that you’re figuring out? Some of that’s just going to change next week and beyond. And trust me when I say it will get a hundred times better and cooler. It takes a few episodes until the second team – Alex Epstein, Denis McGrath, and Sean Carley – really takes off, but even in next week’s episode, “Betrayal”, you can see marked improvement. That slowness that was evident early in the season goes away fast as things ramp up quickly.

But that ramping starts tonight, even if it still looks like Charlie Jade is spinning his wheels.

Missing Persons

Charlie heads to the Glass Door to confront 01 Boxer about another missing girl. If you want me to point at the one thing obviously wrong in these first eight episodes, it is this: this is the first time these incredibly charismatic actors have shared a scene. Jeffrey Pierce and Michael Filipowich command the screen in subtly different ways.

Pierce burns slow, with the taciturn stoicism of heroes of times gone by. John Wayne and Gary Cooper made careers out of these traits. Clint Eastwood honed them to a fine edge, where a squint spoke volumes. Pierce is at his best when he plays to that same strength. In stark contrast, Filipowich is a short fuse, a real-life Daffy Duck. His silences are more frequently broken by unexpected mania than a wry smile while his tightly coiled muscles bear the threat of sudden violence or passion. The closest comparable actor I can think of is Joe Pesci, though Katee Sackhoff shares similar traits of unpredictability.

Sadly, this is just a short scene, but we can expect more to come.

As Charlie’s been investigating 01, he’s found another in a string of missing persons. Karl convinces him to push forward, even when Charlie’s convinced this particular girl’s disappearance has nothing to do with 01. A quick money drop by pops leads to the boyfriend of daughter Aliah. Using the classic “enhanced coercive interrogation technique” of tossing a ball against the doofus’ head gets him to confess that Aliah ran away on her own and has taken up with a motivational guru.

“You are what you choose to be”

Mancuso Keyes is a guru to the rich and fabulous, helping them take control of their lives. Helping them be what they choose to be. This catchphrase echoes Charlie’s military training and we see a series of flashbacks throughout the episode filling in more about that period in his life. It wasn’t the army and it wasn’t the police. Charlie Jade, enemy of all things Vex-Cor, used to be a Vex-Cor security officer.

In his first flashback, Charlie recalls an innocent training exercise. A squad, closing on a blockhouse, establishes position and flushes out the occupants with tear gas. As the occupants come out, weapons hot, the security personnel mow them down. When the exercise is done, the dead disappear, as though in some sort of training simulator. A behavioral specialist welcomes them as the sons and daughters of the Vex-Cor family.

In his second flashback, the setting is the same but Charlie now leads the squad. However the end result is quite different. These aren’t simulated people who exit the blockhouse. These are real people, armed but unable to defend themselves. How and why they were there is not explained, but knowing the rules of Alphaverse and the ways of Vex-Cor, we can surmise they were enemies of the company, given weapons in order to justify their summary executions.

When Karl tells Charlie that Keyes worked as a behavioral specialist for Vex-Cor security, he recalls the same, stirring speech as it was delivered after the fatal training exercise. The words have less meaning this time, unable to raise the proper devotion to mother company. Angry over the memory of his manipulation at Vex-Cor’s hands, he ups his pressure on Keyes.

Seeing that Keyes has advanced tech that can knock out a Vex-Cor bug, Charlie tries one last time to talk with Aliah. But she’s not listening. Keyes and Charlie talk alone and Keyes has one final insight for Charlie:

I’m a teacher. You know? It’s like horses. Before you can train them you have to break them. Yes. Like you were broken and reborn.

Charlie’s final flashback, on these words, is a gruesome scene of torture gone awry. No cute ball-on-the-head questioning occurred here. This was blood, and pain, and death. As is usually the case, Charlie himself was not the perpetrator of the violence. Here, he observed only the aftermath, but the impact of the scene is written in the lines of his face.

Brion Boxer: Vampire?

What? I mean, WHAT?

Essa tells 01 that Brion needs to see him; 01 tells her to make him come to the office. When he arrives, the two of them are hooked to some kind of machine. Brion, at death’s door is barely conscious for the procedure. Something is sucked out of 01 and injected into Brion. I’ll assume, in the absence of any other theories, that it’s just blood. There must be something special about 01′s blood, some life-giving properties. Whether these are general, or specific to Brion in his condition, I could not begin to guess.

When the procedure is complete, Brion is a new man – youthful, vigorous, energized. 01 is wearied, but appears to be alright. The price Brion pays is a small box containing possessions of 01′s mother. Theirs is a classic battle between father and son for the love of the boy’s mother. The hatred and contempt each holds for the other is palpable. The bounds that hold them together are now more patently visible. 01 can’t leave. He needs for his father to retain nothing of his mother’s.

Back in Beta, some of 01′s odd behavior now makes a little more sense. Broken and damaged, he holds onto his mother in the only way this child has figured out. He puts on her lipstick, dallies with her mirror, and tries in small ways to become his mother.

That’s only some of the time, of course. Mostly, he gets stoned and screws women in Beta. That’s what our world is for, I guess.

Not that any of that lasts for long, as Julius makes the call. He gets 01 to stay at the club for another 15 minutes, just long enough to die. Fortunately for 01, the assassin is incompetent. He kills 01′s companion and manages to hit 01 in the shoulder, but fails to kill his target before 01 hits the shower and the third tap on his way to Gamma.

While I imagine this security agent is not long for the world, things can’t be much sunnier for Ren and Julius, can they? With 01 alive, their lives are in his hands.

Reena’s Friend

My favorite thing that happens when WR#2 takes over? Reena gets to suffer a bit less. Hey! I should be happy tonight. She’s recovering from her fall against Rosalie’s car, but no one’s trying to rape her, brainwash her, program her, or cut off her nose with giant, rusty scissors. In a nice place by the beach, she can finally let her guard down a little and try to rest in…what? Rosalie’s dying? Jesus!

With an infection rate of somewhere around 20%, South Africa is one of the most affected nations in the world. Calling it an epidemic there is no exaggeration, so it’s little wonder the creators of Charlie Jade would make it a plot point at some time. Sadly, it comes when Reena has her brief respite. Her time in the sun passes, as she must help her new friend shuffle off this mortal coil.

Even when she’s doing good, Reena can’t help but hurt people.

Those familiar with comics, and feminist commentary on comics, will be aware of the term “Women in Refrigerators”. When watching the first half of Charlie Jade, I frequently feel as though Reena’s suffering serves no real purpose and falls in that category. So for me, it’s nice to see Patricia McKenzie get something more to do this week than get smacked around. She does a nice job with the quiet scenes at Rosalie’s house. Imagine what she might do with actual plot developments.

Final Thoughts

Um, things are rough for Jasmine? Does anyone care right now? They gave her what, 45 seconds? Skip her, or give her something to do.

Things are heating up between Paula and Charlie. I think those kids are in for a…no. Not really. That’s another weird sidetrack.

In the end, I think this is the best or second best episode of the first eight. If you’ve made it to here, I can only conclude you’ve decided to ride the show all the way to the end and I salute you. you’ve made an excellent choice that will be rewarded in the weeks ahead.

Coming Up

I’m excited to let you know we’ll have our exclusive Pop Critics interview with Alex Epstein up this Wednesday. Be sure to come back for that so you can be ready for the changes to come starting with next week’s excellent episode.

What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

That wasn’t a slow one at all, was it?

This is usually the point where those of us who are fans of this fantastic show can stop promising it’ll all be worth it if you just hang on a little longer. This is the point where the newbies become converts and start proselytizing right alongside us. This is also where we see the real crime of SciFi‘s quick hook.

Had the network stood by this show until this week’s episode, and had they been smart enough to then promote next week’s episode with a marathon of the first five episodes, they could have picked up a lot of new viewers. Because all of you remaining, those who’ve been patient through a month of slower, mysterious episodes, would have been telling all your friends to give Charlie Jade a second look. Oh well.

Instead, it’s just us: the ones who already knew, and the small band who trusted us this far. Good for us! Let’s dive in, shall we? Trust me. The water is fine.

01 Gets Off…

…of Betaverse!

Finally acting like an actual PI, Charlie’s on a stakeout outside the Glass Door. He spots a mysterious man in a gray flannel suit and gives chase but the man seems to vanish into the ether. Charlie’s reminded of Jody’s Invisible People from back in episode 2, “Sand”. After losing the mysterious stranger, Charlie turns a corner and spies 01 having a little party in the alley behind the club. Because he’s a PI (and not because he’s a perv, or anything) he peeps.

As 01 gets close to climax, he pulls out a bottle of water and pours it over his head. At first he starts to fade out, then he finally disappears! Now, *that’s* an orgasm. N.B. this is one of many, Many, MANY scenes throughout the course of this series that make it clear why it should never have been broadcast at 8pm. Either the SciFi execs never watched, or they never intended it to remain on Fridays.

Charlie spots the dry footprints on the pavement and finally makes some sense of the footprints he’d seen back in the pilot.

Besides making things clearer for Charlie, this should start answering some of our questions:

• How does 01 travel?
• How did 01 appear out of the bathroom at the Glass Door back in “Sand”?
• How did 01 get into Elliot Krogg’s hotel room in “You Are Here”?

Of course, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We don’t know everything.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Charlie pawns his ring to buy a car, picking up a sweet Audi which can’t be too cheap. The pawnbroker must be right when he says, “this is a very unusual ring.” Charlie again spots the man in the gray flannel suit.

Charlie will espy the mysterious stranger twice more in the episode, finally taking his wallet at knife point. He doesn’t strike me as cut in the Vex-Cor mold, neither is he like Reena’s captors. Who he is, and who he works for will remain a mystery for now.

The Three Faces of 01 Boxer

In Gamma, the local Vex-Cor chairman walks along the beach leading a delegation of what appear to be political representatives. They come upon 01 Boxer, who stands serenely in the surf as the waves caress his feet. Pointing to an island just off-shore, the chairman talks of the need for a “permanent home for fanatics, militants, revolutionaries.” 01 pictures the cells of Robben Island while the chairman speaks.

This 01 Boxer is not the petulant child of Alpha, nor the psychotic malcontent of Beta. His persona, in fact his entire physical bearing, changes from verse to verse. Michael Filipowich does a great job capturing the subtle and not-so-subtle changes 01 undergoes as he travels, but why does 01 change at all? Charlie certainly seems the same in Beta as in Alpha, so what makes the 01 who casually killed a man in Beta the same man who contemplates the horrors of Robben Island and says “it must never come to this” while in Gamma?

This man of contradictions is the only thing keeping the tenuous connection between the verses in place. As Essa’s courier, he keeps the lines of communication between the home office and the Beta and Gamma branches up. Using encrypted slates, the messages between the worlds are kept secure from prying eyes. Except obviously, 01 can hack the slates.

Watching Julius’s most recent message to Essa, 01 learns a temporary link will be reestablished in three weeks. He immediately heads for the shower and another verse.

Reena’s Torment

Okay, I don’t know about the rest of you but of the tortures Reena endures throughout this episode, it is the music that hurts me the most. Maybe the electrodes to the skull hurt her more, I don’t know, but the music would make me lose it. Of course, that’s the point. This isn’t interrogation: it’s brainwashing. I don’t know who this group that captured Reena last week is – Vex-Cor, random terrorists, or something else entirely – but I can tell you what they’re doing. Breaking her down for some higher purpose.

On a side note, because I’m not going to talk much about Reena this week, on Saturday I finished “Y: The Last Man”. I’m not going to say much, other than I cried a couple of times which is pretty damn impressive for a comic. However, it struck me that for the film adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra‘s masterpiece, producers could do a hell of a lot worse than casting Patricia McKenzie as Agent 355. I’m just sayin’.

Jody and the Invisible People

At his favorite restaurant, Charlie tells Karl about 01′s disappearing act and flirts with Paula. Quick tangent: do you guys think he goes for the service, or the ceviche? Regardless, things are looking good for those kids, I tell ya. Which of course makes the cut to Alpha to see Jasmine and her plight that much more poignant. Charlie’s possessions are being taken by the state. Jasmine is a possession. Jasmine is of no use to the state.

Charlie heads back to the desert to get some answers. Jody’s mom is still a wacko with a gun, but the reasons start to make more sense. Jody recognizes a picture of 01 Boxer and her mother becomes more defensive. Charlie tells her it all has to do with water. Then she tells him about the water.

Before Jody was born, her parents lived in a town near the reactor where the groundwater became contaminated. People got sick, there were birth defects, it was bad. Charlie visits the town, now buried by the shifting sands of the desert, and finds another blue stone. He also finds a conveniently located faucet dripping water.

On investigating the town’s history, he learns a pharmacist, Aaron Bridger, was charged with dumping “outdated cough syrup down the toilet” and served 11 years. Obviously the contamination was from the Vex-Cor facility, but he was set up. Charlie has an address, so he and Karl go to investigate.

Bridger died three months earlier, but his wife Andrea agrees to talk to Charlie. She lost everything because of Vex-Cor – her child, her husband, her home – and came to Cape Town where she set herself up as a psychic. She can’t read people’s minds, but she does see a grim future of “poverty and filth, armed soldiers, violent confrontation everywhere.” But Charlie recognizes the world she sees is not the future. It is his home.

The reluctant hero does something finally and truly heroic. He buys Andrea Bridger passage to Patagonia and cuts the chip from her arm. Patagonia, because it has no value to Vex-Cor and he believes Andrea will be free of her visions at last.

This chip is almost certainly the same as the ID chips Vex-Cor uses in Alpha. Now we know they have the tracking ability in Beta, so expect to see more about the chips themselves in the weeks ahead. Andrea gets in a cab immediately and Charlie waits behind. Knowing Vex-Cor will be signaled once the chip is removed, he lies in wait. What we get is one of the best close quarter fights you’re likely to see this year.

I’ve heard great things about the bathroom fight in Eastern Promises, and Burn Notice has some of the best hand-to-hand on the air right now, helped greatly by star Jeffrey Donovan‘s black belt. Still the claustrophobia in this fight, the mix of grappling with striking, and the way water plays such a crucial element make it very intense. A couple of the punches are a bit roundhouse for my taste, but there are a lot of elbow strikes reminiscent of Krav Maga and other more practical styles. There’s never a doubt that Charlie will survive, but when his head was underwater, there was a moment I actually believed he might do so by shifting out of the verse.

Instead, he kills the Vex-Cor security agent.

Beaten, bloody, and limping. Charlie heads back to the desert. He fills his bottle from the leaking tap and pours it over his head. No screaming, no crying, just a silent drop to his knees when he doesn’t dematerialize. Nicely, quietly played by Jeffrey Pierce.

What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

Things are still moving a little slowly this week, and we have to make do with no narrator this week, but by episode’s end quite a lot will have happened. Watch closely.

Four Funerals and a Riot

Simultaneous funerals in Alpha, Beta, and Gamma verses for the victims of the three explosions. Julius out in the windswept desert, Essa shedding glycerine tears in her office, and of course a shot of paradise. Elliot Krogg gets his day in the sun as well, but it ends not in tears but screams as rioters arrive and disturb the proceedings, overturning his coffin and desecrating his corpse. Charlie and Karl watch from a distance as Karen (Elliot’s girlfriend) is taken away by 01 and Vex-Cor agents.

01 bugs a meeting in Julius’ office in which Elliot’s potential involvement in the attack is debated. Julius sticks with the party line, right up to calling Elliot’s death a suicide, but the others lay the blame on 01. As we’ve seen what 01 is capable of, all I can say is that these people are gonna get it.

Bottle + Head = Oweee!

Things are tough for Reena. Capetown is nearly in lockdown in search of the terrorist with the R5 million bounty on her head. As nothing else ever happens in town and there are no South African TV shows (these poor folks in Betaverse don’t even get Charlie Jade) her picture is on every TV 24-7. On those rare moments it’s not taking up the full screen, it’s being shown behind Julius Galt and another of his carefully stage managed press conferences.

A kid recognizes her and chases her into an alley. Peeking back around a corner, Reena takes a bottle square on the noggin. Then she levels the kid with one punch and tosses him in a dumpster. Even dizzy, she’s a badass.

Spotting a drug dealing ambulance driver, she jumps in his van and surprises him with a knife to his throat. This is NOT going to go well.

The next morning, the ambulance driver is stoned out of his mind and Reena is still reeling. He wants to PARTAY, but passes out. Reena takes his money, finds his gun, and tries to sleep in an empty tub.

When Reena’s new roomie finally wakes, he sees Reena’s face on the television. He thinks he’s going to have a massive payday, but Reena hogties him with tape and rolls him on the floor. She’s still weak, still dizzy, and still needs sleep. Unfortunately, she did not secure him well.

He makes a call, looking for the reward, and the security forces head out. A second group intercepts the call and beats them there, killing the ambulance driver and taking off in a van with Reena. Okay, what? Who the hell are these guys in masks who don’t hesitate for one second before killing the poor sap who lives here?

Is it Safe?

Karen has been secured in a safehouse where she is interrogated by feds. Flashing back to 01′s brainwashing of her from last week, she starts naming names. All the people who were meeting with Julius earlier. 01′s plans are starting to make some more sense now, though who these people are and why he wants them out of the way are still a mystery.

Charlie shows up, thanks to a tip from one of Karl’s informants, and the agents take off with Karen. One lone agent remains behind and tries to stand down Charlie, but she’s clearly scared and tentative. Charlie calmly informs her, “you want to take a bullet for a paycheck, I’m more than happy to give you one.” She hands over her gun and he knocks her out. See? More of that winning charm that the ladies likeee so much.

Karl’s upset by Charlie’s approach, but comes around a little when Charlie tells him Karen had been given a drug that doesn’t even exist in Beta. The same drug 01 used on mystery girl Katie Grail in the pilot. Realizing 01 is going to kill Karen when he gets what he wants, we start to see the first signs that he might actually be a hero, if a reluctant one. Lost, confused, angry, he wanders the streets of Capetown.

Having his first really long vision of Alpha, he spots Jobbo who we’ll meet later. Broken out of his vision by a soldier, he’s taken away in a truck. Civil rights certainly are in short supply in Capetown since Reena’s been outed as a terrorist. Of course, sloppy Beta security forces can’t hold Charlie for long; he escapes and quickly steals a car.

Unable to get home and looking for a scrap of comfort he heads to Paula. Since he’s a badboy, she invites him back to her place. He takes a long, hot shower – one can only imagine how much Charlie’s been stinking up Karl’s place – and finds the clothes Paula leaves out for him. The men’s clothes, along with a razor, let Charlie know Paula’s not always lived alone.

While Charlie’s bathing at Paula’s, things aren’t going so well for Jasmine back in Alpha. She’s come home to find Jobbo, her former “employer”. With a performance similar to Robert Knepper’s T-Bag from Prison Break, Toni Caprari finds the right balance between charm and extreme creepiness, in this scene leaning heavily toward the latter.

On every television 24-7, runs Reena’s picture and news of the hunt for the terrorists responsible for the Vex-Cor explosion. But above the fold on the newspaper – the one wrapping the fish and chips Paula bought while Charlie was showering – is a story about Elliot Krogg‘s funeral. With a photo of Conklin. One of the more frustrating things about these early episodes is how easily information drops into Charlie’s lap.

He takes off to find Conklin and rescue Karen.

Plan 01 From Alphaverse

Dr. Conklin shows up at the Glass Door during 01′s pedicure. 01 takes foot care very seriously, so he’s none too pleased with Conklin’s whining about terrorists breaking into the safehouse, and his “position in this community,” but 01′s got dirt on Conklin. When Conklin informs him that Karen has given up the names she was programmed to reveal, 01 tells him to kill her.

Julian’s becoming quite the regular at the Glass Door. This time he’s upset because the feds are poking around Vex-Cor’s files.

01: Who are they looking for?
Julius: Tell me.
01: It’s too early for dumb-shit games, Julius.
Julius: Take a wild guess.
01: Everybody I don’t like.
Julius: Krogg’s girlfriend implicated the entire board of directors you son of a bitch.

Now the plan comes into focus. The entire board is arrested and 01 leaves Julius in place, with the clear implication that he can take him out at any time. Next week should bring some interesting changes to the Vex-Cor board.

The State of the Verses

Here we are, four episodes in:

• Charlie’s embracing the role of hero
• Paula’s got the hots for Charlie
• Things are looking grimmer and grimmer for Jasmine
• Reena’s been kidnapped/rescued by armed men in masks
• 01 controls the board of Vex-Cor

Did I miss anything? What did everyone else think?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

(this recap was posted on Tuesday morning at 4 A.M. EST, just so it appears RIGHT after the show originally aired at 3 AM. Nice job, Sci Fi Channel!)

After what was effectively a two-hour pilot to set up the universe, it’s time to get down to business and let poor Charlie Jade have a clue what’s going on.

01′s Turn to Talk

We change up narrators again with this episode. This time, 01 Boxer has the duties. As befits a sociopath, he has a bit more fun with the job than his predecessors. Where Charlie was all business and Reena was melancholy, 01 is just having fun with all this adventure.

The adventure starts off early with Reena rollin’ a white dude (a Vex-Cor employee) to get some scratch. I can only assume that Gammaverse, like the Federation, has no concept of money or commerce. It must be a shock for this poor innocent to have to *pay* for things. 01 finds the mugging funny, even if he wishes not everyone hated the family business. They just want to make money, after all!

01 is surprised, but happy to find out Reena’s in Beta. He clearly has the best view of what’s really going on because he can see all three ‘verses. It’s unclear if he has other knowledge that gives him a further leg up on everyone. Regardless, with another piece on his chessboard, 01 is more confident he can make things work to his advantage.

Charlie is still staying at the shelter from last episode and Karl comes by to offer him a job. A hundred rand a day and a couch, assuming Charlie can find it beneath the books and clutter. As they’re leaving, a beggar asks Karl for change and he obliges. The following morning, Charlie will have a slightly less pleasant exchange with the same fellow.

The Hunt for Reena

Karl is convinced that Charlie’s an alien. He can think of no other explanation for the very alien way in which Charlie sees the world and the ignorance he shows of it. Not recognizing a picture of Nelson Mandela is merely the most current manifestation of his ignorance. Charlie of course knows he’s not an alien, even if he doesn’t know where he is.

Karl and Charlie decide they need to track down Reena. I tell you, it’s times like this I really appreciate Charlie’s detection abilities. He must have been a heckuva PI in Alpha.

Reena’s not having the best time in Beta. Seemingly getting sicker by the minute, she finds a seedy hotel and rents a room for a week. I don’t know the conversion rate between dollars and rand, but I know d-bags when I see them: he overcharged her. This world is not just foreign to her, it almost seems to be killing her. The way Patricia McKenzie looks at everything, as though the light hurts her eyes, really sells the pain she feels here.

In Gamma, 01 is at the site of a car wreck. A little red car, this is the one Reena and her beau were in during the pilot. The Vex-Cor investigator has a picture of the young lovers and 01 takes a good long look. His body was found; not hers.

Sometime later, Vex-Cor agents show up at the hotel and the manager lets them in her empty room. As they search, he leaves. He rounds the corner and bumps into Reena, who has gone out for coffee or tea. He looks extremely guilty, looks back toward her room, looks at Reena, and she figures it out. She throws the hot beverage in his face and takes off. Another foot chase and another chance for Reena to escape with her superior foot speed and agility. That’s where McKenzie’s dance background really comes in handy. By the end of the episode, her photo has been broadcast everywhere and she finds herself hiding out in the sewers, sick and alone.

The Mad Scientist

While Reena’s getting sicker and more homesick, 01 reports back to the home office with the slate from Beta and Gamma. As we’ve known since the pilot, sabotage in Gamma started a chain reaction that ran up the line. The loss of life was heavy and the destruction of the link facilities was complete. Talk turns to Elliot Krogg who was seen driving away from the test site in Beta. Turns out he’d been recalled to Alpha a month prior and had disappeared. He’s apparently gone native.

In Beta, Elliot and his girlfriend Karen are at a train station waiting to depart. He steps away to get a drink and she’s nabbed by the police with a bag full of money. A lot of money. Elliot takes off.

Outside the Glass Door – which 01 has just bought for a song because the owner was “mysteriously” killed – 01 meets Julius. 01 wants to know about Elliot Krogg and pushes and prods Julius until he gets the information he wants. Elliot’s girlfriend has been arrested.

Meanwhile, Karl and Charlie watch security video that Karl received anonymously. They see Krogg driving away from the test site. Charlie says he saw that, too and Karl gets upset. He thinks Charlie’s “not playing straight.” Charlie suffers yet another of his splitting headaches, this one accompanied by a vision of Alpha.

At Krogg’s house, Charlie spots a surveillance bug like the one he found in the pilot. He grabs it and disables it. Karl’s more than a little freaked out by the technology and doesn’t believe it at first. Charlie mocks him: “Vex-Cor’s been using this stuff for 20 years. I thought you said you live here.”

Checking the feed back at Karl’s, Charlie sees 01 at Krogg’s house. Now he’s pissed.

01 bails Krogg’s girlfriend out of jail, but only to kidnap and drug her. He wants to know where Elliot’s gone and with whom he’s working. What’s interesting though, is that he doesn’t kill her at the end. Instead he asks, “do you remember all the things we talked about, Karen? You won’t forget? Names, dates, places?” Shortly thereafter, he shows up at Julius’ office to tell him Karen’s been arrested.

Then it’s off to Elliot’s hotel room for a little more drug-enhanced interrogation. Elliot denies involvement in any sabotage, but is deathly afraid of whatever will happen if the link is completed. And now 01 knows what that is. By the time Charlie gets there with Karl, Elliot Krogg is no more. He’s been hung in the bathroom.

A couple of interesting things to note:

• the front door of the hotel room is probably locked
• Elliot doesn’t hear it open
• 01 comes out of the bathroom where we hear running water
• when Charlie and Karl arrive a little later, the door is locked

Charlie spots 01 on the street and takes off. He doesn’t find him, but ends up standing in front of a billboard PSA for missing persons, one of whom is our mystery girl from the pilot.

Something to Stalk About

Charlie’s a handsome fellow, but he must have some magic juju as well. Because here he is, hanging outside the restaurant where Paula works. The restaurant where just last episode he nearly beat her father with a cricket bat. Does she call the police? Does she tell her father? No. She runs across the street and flirts with him. It’s true what they say: girls love the bad boys.

I understand Charlie’s motivations here. She’s an exact match of his beloved Jasmine. Jasmine who’s having a rough time of it. In Alpha, apparently C3s can be the property of others. Jasmine belonged to Charlie. As the authorities have declared Charlie dead, all of his assets – including Jasmine – belong to the state now. They have no use for her, so she’ll be cut loose.

She meets up with Sew Sew who found Charlie’s car in the desert. It’s not looking good for Jasmine.

But back in Beta, Charlie’s got a new favorite restaurant. At the end of the episode, he and Karl are sitting there trying to figure out what it all means. It finally strikes Karl that Charlie must be from a parallel universe, “someplace just like this, only better. And much worse.”

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

Two episodes in, and there’s still not much going on. The action will pick up in the next few episodes, but there were still too many questions left over from the pilot. Most remain unanswered – and we’ve gotten some more in the process – but I think the writers have given us just about enough at this point to move forward. If nothing else, we know more than Charlie does.

When last we saw Charlie, he was lying unconscious in the desert, being poked by a weird little girl. That’s where he still is – dreaming about Jasmine, remembering the dead mystery girl, the accident, and the woman at the site. Weird little girl Jody pokes him again and he finally wakes up.

You’re alive! You’re one of them, aren’t you?…The invisible people. I see them all the time.

In Reena’s words

For the rest of the episode, Reena narrates. Even when our focus is on Charlie, it’s filtered through her perspective.

Wandering around a temporary camp set up for evacuation and relief efforts, Reena hears that the bomb she set off killed 200 people here in Beta. We see her anguish over that fact, coupled with the sure knowledge that more died in her own world as well. Throughout the series, Patricia McKenzie does a fantastic job showing Reena’s vulnerability. She doesn’t want to be here; she didn’t want to hurt anyone. But as guilty as she may feel, she’s not going to hang around to get questioned by the police. She jumps on one of the trucks transporting people to Cape Town.

Vex-Cor chairman (in this ‘verse, anyway) Julius Galt (Danny Keogh) answers reporters’ questions about the accident, but doesn’t know what caused it yet. Karl Lubinsky (Tyrone Benskin) – who’s been hovering around, picking up the strange pieces of blue glass, and taking pictures – comes up to Galt and confronts him. Galt obviously knows Lubinksy as a conspiracy nut. Of course we know there really is a conspiracy.

A quick side comment on names in Charlie Jade: they were not chosen at random. Draw your own conclusions about J. Galt.

Karl meets weird Jody and she points out Charlie, telling Karl, “he used to be invisible, but I think he lost his powers.” Twenty years chasing conspiracies and aliens and this guy knows to listen when a crazy girl speaks. Time to start stalking the guy with stubble.

There’s a bit more of Charlie dazed and confused at the service station until Karl finally offers him a ride to Cape Town – the home of the mystery dead girl. On the ride, Karl tells Charlie he believes aliens run Vex-Cor. Karl may know something’s going on, but he’s as much in the dark about the truth as Charlie.

Psych(okiller) 01

The board has informed Essa Ramkin (Michele Burgers) that they need someone to travel between the ‘verses to assess the situation. Apparently there’s only one person who can travel unaided – 01 Boxer (Michael Filipowich). This goes over great, as Essa tries to flex her power to prevent it and the board shuts her down. Then we finally meet 01 in all his glory.

Expecting to be put in charge of operations in Beta and Gamma, it’s a slap in the face to be offered a position as “special envoy”. It’s even more of a slap when Essa calls him the “company courier”. She thinks he’s a sociopath who belongs in prison. Can’t say I disagree.

But how exactly can 01 travel between the ‘verses?

Running with Scissors

While Charlie crashes at “his place”, Reena sleeps on the couch at Gordon Bolt’s. A very old, very scary dude who used to work for Vex-Cor, Bolt wants to know where Reena came from and how she got here. His interrogation with scissors is pretty scary, and they did a great job of building the tension in the scene. The scissors were so threatening that it almost seemed anti-climactic when he pulled the gun on her, until he blew the back of his own head off. Now Reena is truly alone in this strange world.

Charlie meanwhile is also looking for a friendly face. He goes over to Papa Louis’ place, but of course she isn’t there. Karl Lubinksy is, though, bearing breakfast.

A quick drive by Charlie’s office -another deadend – and Charlie finally thinks to ask about the Glass Door. I’d start to question just how good a PI this guy is, but I’m trying to cut him some slack being so far from home. That’s why I’m also not going to question why next he was hanging out in a parking garage instead of heading over to the club. Besides, we know he was there so he could see Jasmine/Paula. Meeting Jasmine’s doppelganger further cements for Charlie just how lost he is.

At the Glass Door, 01 and Julius Galt meet. 01 hands over a “slate”, which is apparently an encrypted communique from the home office. Oh yeah, and 01 killed a dude. Boy does not fool around

Showing up hours late, Charlie arrives as the police wheel out the body and sees a flyer posted for the dead mystery girl from the pilot. Pieces are coming together, even if Charlie’s world is coming apart.

Far from home

Demonstrating his remarkable detective skills once again, Charlie grabs a bite at the very same soup kitchen as Reena. She bolts. In a pretty exciting foot chase, Reena gets away, leaving Charlie gasping on a rooftop. The episode ends with Charlie alone and Reena in voice over saying, “I never knew who he was, but he was there when the world changed. Back then I could tell he was even more lost than I was.”

How about everyone else? More or less lost than Charlie?

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.