Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. – Matthew 26:41

It’s all over, right? Charlie’s come back to Jasmine – and just as quickly realized he belongs in Beta – 01′s out of jail, and Essa’s in shackles. Everything is right with the verses. So why, I must ask, is that countdown clock still running? The Vexcor link countdown clock that 01 now controls.

He that troubleth his own house…

After what seems an eternity, 01′s finally left and Bryon’s body has been discovered. Essa wants Sew Sew to bring in 01, even though the video of the boardroom is blank. He agrees to have 01 arrested on her sayso. Some time later Essa is in the boardroom in her mourning whites while the board sits in remotely. A message from Bryon Boxer is wheeled in and played, informing the board that 01 is receiving Bryon’s controlling interest in Vexcor.

Essa…does not take the news well. Neither does 01. After 01 gets notice from the ProbateBot that Bryon’s shares are his – and he utters the classic line, “please hold; your death is important to us” – he goes into an alley and starts throwing and beating garbage cans. This is intercut with Essa’s breakdown in the boardroom as she tries to destroy the message cube. From beyond the grave, Bryon Boxer is still effecting those he “loves” best.

An exoskin spots 01 and shoots him with a tranquilizer.

Please note the time on the countdown clock: 47h80m00s, 47h79m89s, and counting. 90-second minutes, and I assume 90-minute hours. Whether the hours are as long in Alpha as they are here, or there are more hours in a day, I could not guess.

Charlie isn’t happy in Alpha. The apartment – identical to when he left – feels different, the food tastes foul, and the water is even bad. He asks Jasmine about Sew Sew and it escalates into a fight. But it’s not a fight about Sew Sew, it’s a fight about Charlie not being there and he responds by leaving her. Again.

He meets Sew Sew and asks about Jasmine. Then he tells him about Beta and that the activation of the link will destroy it. Sew Sew suggest that the death of Bryon Boxer might have created enough chaos to delay the link and tells Charlie 01 is the prime suspect. Charlie needs to see 01.

01, crazy as ever, chats with Charlie.
“Vexlink open?”
“Nope.”
“Then how’d you get here?”
“The link’s not open and I’d like to see it stay that way. How about you?”
“Does he know?”
“Yeah.”
“I think I made myself pretty clear on how I feel about the link.”

In order to stop the link, 01 needs to get out of jail and needs Essa out of his way. That’s when Sew Sew pulls out his trump card, recorded back in “The Shortening of the Way”, Leonard De Beers saying all the executives who’d gone through the link were being killed. Charlie realizes there must have been a labtech and the hunt begins.

While Charlie and Sew Sew hunt for the tech, Bram Larkin, Essa pays 01 a little visit. In case anyone had any residual doubt who the true face of evil is in Alpha, she burns the items 01 had retrieved from his father. Items belonging to his mother. Helplessly, he watches through the cell wall.

Carl and The Girls of Betaverse

In Beta, the newly integrated Reena/Killer comes to Carl’s apartment to crash. When Blues stops by later to tell Carl about radioactive corpses – not the new speed metal band, but actual radioactive corpses – she sees Reena and pulls her gun. Carl talks her down, convincing her that Reena isn’t a terrorist but a Vexcor scapegoat. N.B. Reena *did* blow up the link, killing several hundred people across three verses. I mean, I support her actions and all, but that pretty clearly fits the textbook definition of “terrorist”.

Blues agrees and brings Carl and Reena to the morgue to see the bodies, bodies of Reena’s captors whom she blew up. An assistant coroner became ill when the bodies were opened, exposing high levels of radiation from within. Their bodies also, quite oddly contain a high concentration of lead, so the three of them are safe being close. Reena doesn’t say anything about having killed them – probably for the best, as I imagine Blues’ trigger finger is still a bit itchy – but does ask if any unrecognized technology had been retrieved with them.

A Lover’s Sacrifice

Charlie tracks Larkin to The Graves, an off-the-grid slum and tech bazaar. Charlie spots his prey and takes off. For a tech, the hooded figure runs fast and gives Charlie quite a workout. When Charlie finally catches up to him, he’s dead.

Back in the morgue, they examine the body. First, the coroner – a wonderfully creepy fellow who reminded me of Renfield – discovers some fake skin, under which is Larkin’s implant. All well and good, but this isn’t Larkin. Someone traded chips with Larkin to give him a head start. A death sentence. Now Sew Sew and Charlie need to figure out the identity of the body on the slab in order to track Larkin, so when Charlie finds a second bit of fake skin, covering a tattoo, he follows the lead.

The corpse turns out to have been a bouncer at the Lunge Klub, which Charlie discovers by bullying a scrawny bouncer who tries “to be intellectually intimidating.” Astute viewers will recognize our funny, scrawny bouncer as an Alphaverse doppelganger of Terry Schachter, the dumb kid who’d gotten hold of Vexcor ID sticks back in “Identity”. Sadly the actor, Brett Goldin, a popular young actor-writer-comedian in South Africa was senselessly and brutally murdered in 2006.

Once Charlie’s got a name, tracking Larkin’s easy enough. He goes to the dead bouncer’s apartment and disables the lock, hiding around the corner in wait. Larkin runs. Charlie chases him out of the building and into an alley. He tells Larkin his lover’s dead and tells him to come with him. It’s too late. An exoskin scans Larkin’s chip and sends a signal to a hovercraft. Larkin’s burned on the spot, probably fried with microwaves.

Once more to the morgue and Charlie sees Larkin has his lover’s chip. But he’s got a second chip. Leonard De Beers’. Not only does it record the dismantling of De Beers’ body but it has a hidden message from Larkin confessing to De Beers’ death and fingering Essa.

Tough Choices Ahead

That’s it. Sew Sew goes to the boardroom and informs the board. Then he arrests Essa. Her laugh is brilliant and soul-curdling and chilling.

01 appears before the board and vows to serve well. His shares vest and he’s appointed chair.

This is all followed in quick succession by…

• Charlie back at his apartment, pouring himself a victory drink.
• Julius getting a slate in Beta telling him the hunter’s contract has been redirected from Charlie to him.
• Charlie and Jasmine discussing her future. For the first time in her life, someone lets her – no, forces her – to make a choice. She chooses Sew Sew.
• Charlie chooses Beta. Charlie chooses Blues.

As Charlie shows up at Blues’ apartment, we intercut with Jasmine calling Sew Sew and telling him to come home. In these two scenes, only three words are uttered. And volumes are spoken in a four-way acting clinic.

Back in Alpha, 01 tries to get a grip on Vexcor as he sees it spinning out of control. The company had grown to big and too unwieldy and won’t survive without the infusion of raw materials from Gammaverse. No longer the profligate wild child, Chairman 01 must make some tough choices in the hours ahead.

Reena too.

She gets the cube working and sees its message meant for her. She is destined to save Gamma after all. By destroying Alpha.

There’s just one week left. Is everyone else as excited and sad as I am to see this great show come to an end?

“You know how once in awhile you’re stuck in traffic and all of a sudden you remember a dream you’d forgotten, but for a moment you aren’t quite sure if it was a dream at all?” – Blues Paddock

In this slower moving, contemplative episode, it might not seem much really happened. After the fireworks of the last three weeks, this week is something of a pause, an interstitial between what we know and what’s coming. With a smooth, jazz-inflected soundtrack and many quiet moments between Charlie and Blues and between Sew Sew and Jasmine, this is the perfect chance to catch your breath and catch up.

Of course you might have to watch twice to pick out the chronology of each of tonight’s stories. In the hands of the talented Erik Canuel, the screenplay by Sean Carley jumps about quite a lot and cleverly utilizes scenes from prior episodes for all three stories.

Blues Clues

First things first: I’ve got a crush on Rolanda Marais. She imbues so much intelligence and soul into Blues Paddock it would be hard not to have a little crush; combine that with the red hair and impish grin and I’m done for. Charlie’s got a little crush too.

Blues loves a mystery and there’s no mystery greater in Cape Town than Vexcor and Charlie Jade. So she continues on her quest to figure out who the man with no record is and what the company with no scruples is doing.

Although the surveillance cameras inside the police station were blanked out during 01′s escape, at least one camera outside was working. Carl’s maroon Volvo wagon was captured leaving the scene, and with a little digging, Blues and Inspector Archer found Carl’s history of investigating Vexcor and various conspiracy theories. They go to Carl’s to have a chat where we learn Carl left his wife and two-year-old daughter back in the States 16 years prior.

Poking around Carl’s desk, Blues spots the Krogg memo and asks if she can make a copy. Carl tells her he doesn’t “mind if you make copies for the whole damn world.” Nothing would make Carl happier than exposing Vexcor finally.

Charlie lays breadcrumbs for Blues. He can’t tell her anything she can’t see for herself, so he helps her investigate Julius Galt. Julius is said to have graduated from Pinewood College in 1968. Blues has a copy of the yearbook and shows Charlie that Julius was even on the debating team. Charlie challenges her to talk to anyone else from the team.

It’s difficult at first as most of the team members are dead or long gone. But she is able to track down one: Mr. Jensen. He has no recollection of going to school with Julius, though he knows who he is.

Of course the conversation was recorded by Vexcor – presumably by a world-wide tap of all phone conversations with complex heuristics to pull out probable matches. An Alphaverse version of Echelon without legal restriction. In her first appearance, we meet Shikari, another hyper-competent, hyper-deadly Vexcor agent. She brings a recording of the phone call to Julius and tells him it’s been handled. Another agent visited Jensen and injected him with *something* in the arm.

Something which, when Blues and Charlie show up the next day, causes Jensen to hallucinate spiders and have a psychotic break. He suddenly remembered one – and only one – story about Julius, a camping trip with spiders. Vexcor didn’t spend much time programming him, just enough to make him fairly useless.

However, Jensen’s wife remembers where his yearbook is, the real one without Julius’s picture.

Sometime later, Blues finds Charlie eating in a restaurant and tells him Julius’s family is dead. Conveniently, all dead. She wants more answers, but one of Charlie’s headache/visions hits him. Blues helps Charlie back to her place and he collapses on her couch.

When the spell has passed, Charlie and Blues come to each other. Attraction, confusion, and fear all pull them close to each other while in Alpha, Jasmine is drawn to Sew Sew in gratitude, compassion, and sorrow. A thunderstorm rages in Beta, the humidity and rain contributing to Charlie’s visions. And in Alpha, Sew Sew sees a vision of Charlie in the mirror as he and Jasmine, Charlie and Blues, lie in post-coital embrace.

Blues makes breakfast and Charlie…tries to tell her their one night together was just that. She’s been hurt before: “you said I had no reason to trust you. That I’d…that I’d have to believe my own eyes. Well, this part Charlie, this I’ve seen before.”

Blues watches Charlie leave, which is fortunate for him as she spots Shikari – leather-clad and all business – coming around a corner in pursuit of Charlie. Just as Shikari gets a bead on Charlie, Blues whips her car in front of Charlie to save him. And now it’s time for Blues to get answers.

In visuals with no dialogue, Charlie tells Blues everything. The universes. The accident. Vexcor.

Sew Sew did a little shopping for Jasmine. His longing shows in the lines of his face, the slight crack of his voice, and the slump of his shoulders. So there should be little doubt when Essa Rompkin issues a barely veiled threat against Jasmine that Sew Sew will accept her offer to come work in Vexcor Security.

Essa needs Sew Sew contained and Sew Sew needs to provide for Jasmine. Both get what they want; Sew Sew can afford to buy Charlie’s apartment and take care of Jasmine and Essa can keep Sew Sew under her control. Time will tell if either got what they truly need, however.

But for now, Sew Sew has Jasmine. She’s grateful to the gentle man who wants only to take care of her and demands nothing in return and shows it to him the only way she knows how. She may not ever love Sew Sew the way she loves Charlie, but she does have feelings for him.

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.

Typical supervillain horsefeathers. Can’t wait to hear this guy’s monologue. ‘I am the palindrome. Feel my power. Power my feel. Palindrome the am I.’ Peter Piping weirdos. – The Middleman

Middleman HQ 6:16pm

Etched mirror pictograms are being left at crime scenes and the Middlegang are trying to work it all out. Unsuccessfully, it seems. They’ve been at it for hours and the theories are getting worse and worse. “Sometimes putting your nose to the grindstone just gives you a bloody nose.”

Wendy’s illegal sublet 9:59pm

Wendy cooked. A Cold Pocket is on offer to Tyler because after all, “Hot Pockets are the American empanada.” Because Tyler’s three hours late, he brings a diamond tennis bracelet. His problem is that he spent too much of his childhood watching badly dubbed versions of Dallas and always wanted to bring his lady diamonds. Plus, he kinda loves her. Normally, that might be considered an unfortunate turn of phrase, but she kinda loves him too so he pulls it off.

The Middlewatch and Tyler’s phone go off simultaneously and both young lovers agree to take one last call before putting their respective communication devices on ice for the night. Middleman’s got a truly crazy theory but Wendy puts him off. Unfortunately, Tyler has to go, but he’s there until his ride arrives. Oops. Manservant Neville sent a chopper. He’s going *now*.

Wendy’s illegal sublet 9:39am

Wendy and Lacey discuss Tyler’s confession, but Wendy’s worried Fatboy will change Tyler. Lacey tells Wendy it’s only his circumstances that have changed, not him. Just like when she started her job, Lacey had to learn to cope by putting fewer eggs in the Wendy basket. And Tyler does love her.

Wendy and Middleman en route to a toy factory. After stealing a beryllium sphere and an oscillation overthruster, the mysterious mirror-leaving thief has hit a toy factory? What could he possibly want there?

Duke of New York Toy Factory 10:01am

The thief has left a third etched mirror at the scene, this one of a river. Putting the pieces together, The Middleman realizes it spells out the palindrome “a man, a plan, a canal.”

But he doesn’t care about the palindrome or the inevitable palindromic monologue once he finds out what the 100,000 baby doll eyes the thief made off with were made of. Turns out the factory owner “went green before Ed Begley, Jr. made it cool.” So he’s made the eyes out of polydichloric euthimal (a popular imaginary chemical: Google it!) Middleman loses his cool!

Back in the Middlemobile, Middleman has Ida run a search through the OCD. With the materials he has, The Palindrome can build a machine to create a quantum singularity, opening a door to another dimension. All he needs is power. Ida tracks a source spiking to 1.012 GW to…

Carpenter Rd. Transformer Station 88 seconds later

Middleman and Wendy spot The Palindrome and his final mirror – a (Panama) hat. Wendy heads around back while Middleman takes the frontal approach. No one can shoot because of the ionized polydichloric euthimal in the air, but Middleman figures he can get the villain to wax on and on and on about his plan. He’s oddly reticent. No long monologue, no clever gloating. Nothing. He turns on the device and is sucked through the quantum singularity.

The Middleman is knocked out by a piece of singularity-sucked debris and Wendy is pulled through.

Where am I? How long have I been out?

Wendy comes to in a horrible aerosol-soup parallel universe where Fatboy Industries runs the world. Manservant Neville wears a goatee! He must be evil.

Wendy gets into immediate trouble with a jackbooted thug. She’s got no Fatboy ID and has to hide out from black-visored security.

“I’m pretty much trapped in Alan Parker‘s 1982 theatrical film version of The Wall.”

An evil hallway in an evil parallel universe. 11:52 am

Huh. First time chyron in the episode that isn’t a palindromic time. Not sure why, but with this being The Middleman I have to assume it means *something*. Echoing the first scene Wendy had with Noser, evil Noser asks about Shaft. That’s doubly cool, as Isaac Hayes was in Escape from New York as the very Duke of NY. Of course this time, losing beat the band means getting a bellyful of buckshot.

Wendy enters the apartment and finds it to be an exotic lounge run by Lacey. Joe 90′s there. He’s an evil lawyer who works for Fatboy Industries. Lacey hates Wendy for getting her sent to Fatboy Darning Camp. Wendy was supposed to meet Lacey for a protest rally but sold her out.

Noser comes to throw her out but Fatboy strorm troopers show up. Wendy and Joe 90 take off outside and Joe 90 bails. Wendy hops into a Hruck Bugbear driven by Father Pip. Oh yeah, that’s right. Pip’s a celibate, honorable, heroic man in the evil parallel dimension. Wendy finally, completely realizes she’s in a mirror universe and tells Pip, explaining it as being like Star Trek. “You mean the sci-fi series from the ’60s starring the great George Takei?”

The regular universe. Middleman HQ 12:21 pm

Middleman keeps watching the recording of the events and he and Ida figure out The Palindrome is probably The Palindrome from another universe.

Evil parallel universe Middleman Headquarters, 12:33 pm and 21 seconds…

Heidi Marnhout, playing the evil-verse’s version of Ida, does a fantastic impersonation of Mary Pat Gleason. Spot on, other than being hot and all. She tells Wendy to skip the backstory; as long as she’s got money, she can hire them. Evil Middleman is shirtless and working on the Middlehog while Ida gets into a tanning booth.

Middleman guesses that Wendy’s a Middletrainee and got sucked through a quantum singularity. He won’t help unless Wendy pays. But Wendy’s only got greenbacks, not the pinkbacks of the Fatboy controlled world. She does, however, have the diamond tennis bracelet Tyler gave her. That buys Middletime. Sidebar: this mirror Middleman’s a bit of a potty mouth and it strikes Wendy: “Wow. Profanity really does cheapen the soul and weaken the mind.”

Both universes’ Idas figure out who the Palindromic opener-of-wormholes is at the same time. He’s Ivan Avi of 1997 Plissken Circle.

The home of Ivan Avi. AKA “The Palindrome”, 1:21 pm

(Simultaneous in both universes, of course.)

Middlemen come to take Ivan Avi into custody and he destroys his machines.

Regular Universe Middleman HQ, 2:59pm (and one minute later in mirror world)

Interrogation commences. Ivan-without-goatee was born in the mirror world. A horrible universe. At the age of 13 during his bar mitzvah, he had a freak limbo accident and severed his pineal gland. Those led to visions of a better world of “anti-trust laws, lead-free toys, non-aerosoled soup.” He realized he was seeing this world through the eyes of his mirror – who also lost his pineal gland in a freak accident. They learned to communicate – the sensitive artist born in the horrible mirror world and the not-so-nice twin born in ours. They decided to switch places.

If Middleman and Wendy could fire phased polaron cannons at the same black hole at the exact same instant…

Ivan-with-goatee gives Wendy the message, then takes her weapon. Evil-Middleman shoots him dead. Ivan-without-goatee only knows his brother is dead.

Evil-Middleman doesn’t have the phased polaron cannon anymore. He sold it to Fatboy Industries already. And he’s not going to help Wendy steal it from Fatboy. Wendy’s disgusted by him and can’t understand how he and her Middleman can share the same bodies and minds, but Ida clears things up.

Evil-Middleman wasn’t always so evil. Not until he lost his Middleboy – Tyler Ford. Tyler was killed by an unknown gunman with a red, anodized ray gun and this mirror Middleman hasn’t been the same since.

So Wendy asks Lacey for help.

An evil loft in an evil parallel universe, 5:15pm

Wendy offers Lacey the apology the mirror Wendy couldn’t offer. Lacey accepts and blackmails Joe 90 to help them sneak inside…

Fatboy Command (in an evil parallel universe), 6:16pm

Joe 90 helps them in. Oddly, there are no cameras allowed on Fatboy premises. He can’t get them into Manservant Neville’s private offices, but Wendy hacks the lock. She does recognize the combination, though.

Back at evil-MiddleHQ, Ida tries to convince her Middleman to do right and help out Wendy, but he’s a hard sell. She finally gives up and walks out on him.

Wendy grabs the cannon and is about to leave when Lacey presses a red button – seriously people…never, never, never press the red button, even accidentally – and wakes Manservant Neville from cryogenic sleep. But wait…isn’t he running the world with an iron fist?

Mancicle Neville recognizes Wendy. He tried to return control to the people but ?she? betrayed him?

Oh. Evil-Wendy.

Evil-Wendy doesn’t like things happening beyond her control, not since her father disappeared when she was 14. When she realized Fatboy was going to run things, she joined them and worked her way up. Then when Manservant Neville was going to return control to the people, she put him in cryofreeze and took over, running the company and the world.

She kills Joe 90 and is about to kill Wendy and Lacey when Sensei Ping’s training comes to good use. Wendy knocks her out and takes her glasses and jacket. She and Lacey will be escaping with one of the classics: the pretend to be your evil doppelganger with a gun to your friend’s head ploy. But Evil-Wendy comes to too quickly.

Fortunately Middleman remembered he’s a hero. And Lacey realized he’s hot.

The geographical center of an evil parallel city, almost 9:29pm

Middleman and Wendy set up the cannon as she thanks him. She tells him he can fight. Tells him he should fight. Wendy steps through to her Middleman who salutes his twin. Then evil-Middleman offers Lacey a job fighting evil.

There’s no place like home, 11:11pm

Middleman’s a bit unsettled. Thinks he’s close to being like his mirror, but Wendy reassures him. Tells him his inherent goodness in all versions of him is what saved her. Which becomes clearer back in the mirror world. Middleman has taken off his facial hair, joined forces with Lacey, and reverted Ida to her proper Mary Pat Gleason form.

And Wendy’s happy. Really happy.

Shout outs

One look at evil-Middleman should tell you who he was modeled after. And knowing that, it’s no surprise that as Wendy tried to Escape from the Mirrorverse, there were a lot of references to another classic escape movie.

• Officer Russell and Officer Van Cleef
• Duke of New York Toy Factory
• Carpenter Rd. Transformer station
• 1997 Plissken Circle

Final Thoughts

Man. What an awesome finale. We might not get another season (boo!) but at least we got a solid 12 with a satisfying ending. Having *finally* gotten my copy of “The Collected Series Indispensability”, and read it this past weekend, I’ve got to say that as much as I enjoyed it, I’m happier with the ways the TV path diverged. I’ve loved this show since the pilot and it never got old for me. It just got better and better as the season progressed.

Everything, from the goofy pop culture references to the repetitive time and location chyrons to the way it wasn’t afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve once in awhile made this the best new thing this summer. So let’s get our M&Ms and send them to ABC Family with very polite requests to return the show next year.

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.

Blood. Blood’s thicker than water. But then blood’s just a synecdoche for family. And what is family?

The relationship between a father and son, certainly is family. So is that between lovers. Two orphans, watching each other’s backs and surviving on the streets through cunning. That’s family, too. In a world where six companies control everything, company is family as well.

Back in “Devotion” we saw some of Charlie’s training with the Vexcor security forces. At that time, they were welcomed into the fold by a behavioral specialist: “Vexcor is your future. Vexcor is your family. And you are its sons and daughters.” The familial relationship is cultivated within Vexcor to ensure its employees treat Mother Company with the respect and sense of duty required.

It’s with that in mind that Charlie tells Gemma he reports to Essa Rompkin. Gemma’s a company girl: loyal to Vexcor, even if she disobeys her superior. She doesn’t think Julius has the best interests of the company at heart so she goes along with Charlie’s plans. Only when they fall apart does she lie to Karl and tell him she always knew Charlie couldn’t belong to Vexcor. She believed him, but realizes Charlie needs to hear differently.

A Gypsy In the Fold

We start off this week where we left off last: Charlie and Gemma at the now empty reservoir. Figuring her for a loyal employee, he tells her he’s not a spy from another company, but on a mission from home office to monitor the goings on here. She tells him her department was looking to “move the water resources to where they can be better used,” or, as we might say here in Beta, “steal the water.” Having just seen millions of liters of water disappear, he tells her he’s seen 01 Boxer travel using water and suspects a connection.

As they drive back to Cape Town, they catch up a little, discussing their names. Charlie picked ‘Jade’ because it sounded cool, he likes the color, he really doesn’t remember. I imagine a last name is important to most C3s who rise to the level of C2, but it doesn’t signify for Charlie. Gemma’s does.

In a flashback to their youth, we see Gemma and Charlie watching the dancing figure from the holoprojector, dressed in gypsy scarves. Gitano is Spanish for gypsy. Her name honors where she came from, even if was the key to her future.

Julius Galt, distracted by thoughts of his magnificent and expensive new office, is barely able to concentrate on the serious matters that plague Vexcor in Beta. He offers Ren his current office, but Ren is more concerned about he drift affecting so many employees making them want to go native. Julius tells him to watch them, but Ren doesn’t have the manpower to follow ordinary executives when they start to slip.

Sitting on the beach, Gemma tells Charlie she hates Beta. She hates how they treat cancer, poisoning the victim just enough to try to kill off the cancer before they kill off the patient. Her ideal world is more orderly, more structured, and more controlled. Charlie says it must be hard for a scientist to see somthing like that and she tells him how she became an engineer. She falsified everything: name, rating, even education. She learned on the job, getting a few lucky breaks on the way.

In another flashback, Gemma tells Charlie she’s taking the place of an apprentice housekeeper. But she’s not going to clean out the house, she’s going to clean it. Sure a C1 will eventually recognize her inherent worth and talent and send her to school. “I’m gonna rise, Charlie. I’m gonna get myself a last name.”

Gemma asks Charlie where he’s living in Betaverse. It’s the first time he’s heard the term and is confused, but covers.

Boxer on the Ropes

There are some sharp cuts between Alpha and Beta tonight as we see Bryon Boxer’s condition worsening at the same time as 01 is regaining his strength. Starting off in Alpha where Essa finds Bryon Boxer in the boardroom. He complains he’s growing weaker every day as his “molecular integrity decays” and Essa promises when the link is online they’ll track down 01 and give him a transfusion.

In Beta, 01 calls Princess to come help him at the Glass Door.

Some time later, Essa finds Bryon collapsed on the boardroom floor. He tells her he needs an immediate transfusion.

We immediately cut back to Beta to find 01 out looking for Princess. He tracks her down outside a club with a pretty boy and takes her right off his arm. Guy, the guy, tells 01 it’s not a problem; he can have her. 01 then proceeds to beat the crap out of him. One quick headbutt to the nose puts Guy down, then he kicks and kicks and kicks. “That’s for Nathan.”

Bringing Princess back to the club, he quickly gets her back in his thrall. She tells him the police think he killed Jeanette and he tells her to front the club, but their fight and the fight with Guy was all just foreplay. He takes her on a liquor-stained tabletop.

Back in Alpha, Bryon tells Essa that anyone who’s been through the link will have the “molecules that are phasing in the correct dimension” to help him. They’ll just need to separate those out. So later, she brings in an accountant who’s been through the link 13 times.

Some more sharp cuts follow:

1. Beta: Karl and Gemma talking. He wants to know why she’s in Beta and she tells him she works for Vexcor and does what she’s told. “Vexcor? They’re greedy, corporate monsters!”
2. Alpha: Essa gives the accountant his limited options. In exchange for helping the company, the accountant’s wife will receive a promotion, and she and his daughter will be reclassified as C1s.
3. Beta: Gemma tells Karl she belongs to Vexcor, it protects them. Karl says, “you sound like you were brainwashed.”
4. Alpha: If the accountant doesn’t help, he’ll be fired, his wife will be fired, and they’ll spend the rest of their lives as C3s. He reluctantly agrees and signs the life insurance policy. Extracting those molecules is a complicated and ugly process.

When Essa finally gets the beaker of extract, she’s at her desk going through the dead man’s wallet. A photo of his family and a few ounces of white liquid are all that remain of him, the sum total of his worth to Vexcor.

Gemma Turns

Gemma will never truly betray Vexcor. It’s not in her makeup to betray the only mother and father she’s ever known. But she doesn’t believe Julius is acting in the company’s best interests and uses that to justify her actions. Along with her lingering guilt over abandoning Charlie as a child, her desire to help Vexcor leads to all her actions.

When she meets with Julius, he has finally read her report on water level fluctuation and changing pressures, but doesn’t believe it to be important. She tries to explain that the reservoir is empty, completely, but he isn’t listening. He thinks she’s overreacting. She wants the physics departent in Alpha contacted and Julius reminds her the link is down. Then she overplays. She tells him she’s heard 01 can travel without the link.

Gemma: Mr. Galt, I’m not trying to go over your head. I’m–
Julius: –There is no one over my head! Here in Beta, I’m commander-in-chief, president, and king. Until the link is back up, you work for me.
Gemma: I work for Vexcor, sir.

Her insubordination is too much for Julius and he exiles her to Botswana. As she’s leaving, he asks if she’s heard from Charlie. She lies.

Continuing to play on her loyalty to Vexcor, Charlie tells her if he can get back home, he can deliver her report. Therefore, he needs to find any records Vexcor has on 01. They head to see Karl to make their next move.

When Ren tells Julius that Gemma is missing, Julius tells him he ordered her to Botswana. She was raving about the reservoir being empty and has lost her mind, but Ren tells him he talked to their people at the site and the water is all gone. Noting the stacked coinncidences that all surround Charlie’s appearance and disappearance, Julius wonders if Charlie can travel like 01.

Using stolen ID sticks, Charlie sneaks into Vexcor. Gemma and Karl track him and talk him through. Spotting Ren, Charlie ducks into a restroom where he has a long vision of Jasmine showering. He calls out to her and she reacts, as if to a spectre. Charlie keeps watching as another man joins her, but the sight is too much for him. He loses it and becomes unresponsive.

Gemma talks him out of it. She tells him, “Charlie, do you remember? I left you. But you never left me. Not even once. Don’t leave me know.” Getting a grip on himself, he gets back up and leaves the restroom and Jasmine behind, telling himself it can’t be real. As he walks out, Jasmine seems to follow with her eyes.

Back in control, Charlie heads out and sneaks into the nearly completed office. He hacks into the computer using Julius’ ID stick but has some problems navigating. Gemma’s advice to treat it like any other home office computer is of no help, but he does start finding files. He can’t find anything linking 01 to the water seepage or travel, but he does find Elliot Krogg’s Memo 221 which he sends to Karl.

I think this was the first time Gemma’s eyes were truly opened to what Vexcor is when Karl tells her 01 killed Krogg.

Ren and some goons come in after the memo is sent and take Charlie captive.

Cabletied to a chair, Charlie is still antagonistic to Ren, challenging him at every turn. Charlie asks him if he learned his “tough guy talk at Vexcor security orientation” and mocks him for being prevented from killing him. Since Julius wants to know if Charlie can travel, Ren can’t just kill him. After Ren takes out his frustration by having his goons hit Charlie a few times, Charlie challenges him more directly: “Hey hero. Why don’t you tell your friends to hit the road and you and I can take a walk. You saw what I did to the last guy who had your job, didn’t you?”

Gemma calls and offers a trade. Her for Charlie. Her silence for Charlie. Then she continues the theme of the scene and questions Ren’s manhood: “Come on. You’re just a simple C2. How are you ever going to earn being in that boardroom if you can’t make a decision on your own?”

Ren’s only solace in the scene is mocking Charlie after accepting the deal. “How does it feel being rescued by a hydrologist? Hero.”

Gemma lies to Karl and says she always knew Charlie couldn’t be working for Vexcor. She also lies to herself and says she’ll be fine. She’s one of them; they won’t hurt her. That’s just how they do business.

I see trees of green, red roses too

Alone, Karl prints off Memo 221. With each sentence, each word, he grows more irate and concerned. More intercuts with Alpha, now with Essa examining the accountant’s wallet. Karl realizing the price Vexcor is willing to pay and Essa seeing that price up close.

The trade goes down and Charlie gets back to Karl’s. Gemma’s gone, and Ren will ensure her silence. Karl wants to confront him about the memo, but Charlie is too despondent.

A series of slow, graceful shots follow of the beauty of Cape Town: children playing, couples on the beach, Table Top mountain, the Atlantic crashing on the shore. A series of shots demonstrating the majesty of creation. At least this corner of creation.

Karl comes to Charlie’s apartment but he’s still upset and doesn’t want to listen. He’s almost in a fugue state as Karl shoves Krogg’s report in his face and tells him to read it. Then he just tells him what it says. If the link goes online and becomes permanent, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma will collapse on each other. In the middle, Beta will just disappear.

Theories on Bryon Boxer

Here a few theories about Bryon and his problems, please add your own in comments:

• Bryon is really from Gamma. He invented the link years and years ago and traveled with it to Alpha which he found ripe for the picking. With his vastly superior technical knowledge in a world primed for corporate control, he was able to found Vexcor and quickly rise to a position of near-dominance in short order. But, living so far from his home universe and without access to any particles vibrating with the correct frequencies, he grows sick. 01, or anyone who travels, picks up the rare particles he needs.
• Bryon used the link so much in his youth that his body became unstuck from his reality. Now he needs special particles that are generated through link usage to keep him balanced.
• The link has an addictive effect when used with the frequency and duration Bryon once used it.
• Bryon comes *from* Linkspace. He belongs to none of our universes, but is a creature of the space between. His essence is therefore out of sync in any of the three worlds and needs to be replenished by stealing the traces of link-vibrating particles others pick up when traveling between the worlds.

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.

What makes you who you are?

Does your identity come from what you do? Where you come from? Something else? I met a girl one night, a friend of a friend of a friend, and asked her what she did. She told me she “tried to do one thing a day to bring her joy.” Now, the pragmatist in me wanted to kick her out of my car. But the guy looking to get lucky said, “that’s a beautiful answer.” Did she answer my question?

Tonight’s episode asks that question several times.

Is Jasmine a C3 or a C2? Is her identity so tightly coupled to Charlie’s that she now lives a shadow life, waiting for him to return like Penelope waiting for Ulysses? Or is she an independent agent, coping with life the best she can?

What of Gemma Gitano? Is she the little girl living on the streets with Charlie, or is she the Vexcor hydrologist with a manufactured past and a programmed future?

Finally, who is 01 Boxer? Is he the happy, loving husband and father in Gamma or the sociopath in Beta?

Things in Alpha are Sew Sew

In a callback to the pilot, Jasmine buys coffee from the same vendor as Charlie. The two of them exchange some words about Charlie and when he might be back, but it has the feeling of a formula they use to get by. Sew Sew Tukarrs comes by and starts hassling Jasmine. David Dennis has a really unusual way of reading lines that always seems menacing, and it really works in this scene. The tension remains high, because I’m never quite sure what he’s about to do.

Jasmine has clearly gone back to her comfort zone as an escort, and Sew Sew seems unhappy about that, as though it personally effects him. He scans her and sees she’s reading as a C2 which he knows is clearly illegal, but he’s not looking to arrest her, or even to blackmail her. He just wants to take care of her.

We’ve ignored Sew Sew’s story for weeks now. In fact, he didn’t have an independent story before, instead only reacting to Charlie and his disappearance. Now he’s got a mission. Two, actually. Firstly, he’s trying his best to worm his way into Jasmine’s life. Whether for unrequited love, or some more nefarious purpose, he’s slowly working that front. Secondly, he’s investigating a large concentration of disappearances, more than 85 Vexcor employees, including Elliot Krogg and Julius Galt.

More than 85 Vexcor employees and their families.

Sew Sew and Essa Rompkin (Michele Burgers) duel over those missing Vexcor employees. Essa of course claims to know nothing. With hundreds of thousands of employees in the Vexcor family, she couldn’t possibly know about this missing handful. Besides, many more people are missing in Cape City. Then Sew Sew hits her with the big gun, asking how it is their families are also missing. This is a nicely understated scene from two accomplished actors working hard at cross purposes.

Gamma is Getting Grungy

01 Boxer’s children are playing with a toy boat when they see some nasty pollution start pouring in the water. Checking it with his wife, 01 wonders if it was an old toxic site that wasn’t cleaned up, implying Gamma was not always the paradise it is today. But his wife thinks not. She does remember hearing of some toxic sites out in the desert, however. 01 realizes he needs to leave to take care of things. Especially if there is waste coming through in the desert, he knows it’s because of the link.
Sometime later, 01 is meditating, preparing himself for the pain he’s about to endure:

01: I’m a different man over there. I have no control over myself. It’s like I’ve gone insane.
Wife: It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. You’ve been trying to save our world.
01: You’d be amazed at the things I’ve done.
Wife: You have to forgive yourself, for whatever you had to do.

01 flashes back on his evil deeds, then burns his palm over a candle. He’s hardening himself back up for the journey, as much as it hurts his wife to see it.

01 finally leaves, getting up in the night so as not to disturb his wife. He goes to the bathroom and turns on the shower, but she hears and comes to see him gone. Back in Beta, we get our first indication that the trip isn’t very smooth. That, or just being in Beta again makes 01 physically ill. He reappears in the alley behind the Glass Door and finally manages to drag himself back inside.

Beta Fever

Charlie’s identity crisis starts off early. Looking over the lease for a new place, he realizes he has no identity in Beta. More importantly, he wants no identity here. Staying off the grid means paying cash, not using his name, and staying out of sight. But some things simply require identification, so he finds a forger.

Once Charlie disparages the low-end materials and flashes his wad of cash, the forger goes for his very best stuff. A stolen ID stick from Vexcor. Humorously, its Ren Porter‘s. Charlie finds out the forger’s source and heads there himself.

At the same time Charlie’s with the very highstrung, very geeky kid who supplied the identity stick, Ren shows up at the forger’s. Similar, though slightly different intimidation techniques are applied in both cases. Charlie is always less frightening because the threat of imminent death doesn’t seem real, at least to us watching, whereas with Ren, I think he’d kill his own mother for a better seat in a movie theater. Regardless, Charlie walks off with the 24 identity sticks after being visibly shocked by one of them in front of the kid.

Seeing Gemma Gitano, Charlie flashes back 20 years, seeing himself and Gemma as orphans on the street. They fought together, ran together, stole together, and took care of each other. But when it came time, Gemma ran, abandoning Charlie. The only possession she kept was a holosphere, like the one Charlie left for Jasmine in his will.

After Charlie’s departure, highstrung kid starts packing. Fast. He knows his world’s about to crash down around his head and tries to get out in time, but the cops nab him first. Talking with Blues Paddock (we’ll see more of her in the upcoming weeks,) he explains that he didn’t hack into the credit card databases, the identity sticks did it. But he can’t prove it because they’re all gone. With his phone call, he contacts Vexcor and tells Ren that Charlie was interested in Gemma Gitano.

I admire the kid for being smart enough to recognize Vexcor was his only hope here.

In a slightly amusing scene, Ren and Julius discuss the stolen ID sticks and the Beta fever many of their employees are experiencing. Julius isn’t surprised, as no one was intended to stay away from home this long, but as soon as the link is reestablished he thinks everything will return to normal. He says this, while standing in the middle of a partially complete board room that’s costing Vexcor millions to build. In Beta. Where Julius has been trapped for months.

I don’t think he realizes he’s suffering from Beta fever too.

Precious Gemma

We get our first look at Gemma as an adult, walking around a link facility on a lake. As a Vexcor hydrologist, she’s been trying to talk with Julius for some time about water levels. All he wants to talk about is Charlie. When she lies and says she’s never seen him before, Julius hangs up and sends security agents in to get her moved.

The water, however, is far more interesting. If the levels are changing here, and there’s pollution just randomly appearing in Gamma, there is likely a correlation.

Charlie takes a closer look at Gemma’s ID stick and sees the fake background Vexcor created for her. Upset, he flashes back again to when he was very sick and Gemma was taking care of him.

Meanwhile at Gemma’s apartment, a Vexcor security detail shows up to quickly move her out. Her past has come back to haunt her. The detail is led by Ajax, the same cooly efficient agent who cleaned up Kunjani after the botched hit on Charlie last week. She’s far too good at her job to come from Beta, I think.

Charlie slips into Karl’s place right after Karl gets home. The apartment feels empty without Charlie living on the couch, but Karl feels too much guilt to appreciate Charlie’s return, even as Charlie lets him off the hook:

Like i said, everybody breaks. You didn’t betray me, Karl. You did what you had to do to survive. That’s not betrayal, that’s human nature. Somebody else did the same thing. Long time ago. Back then I didn’t know the difference.

Now Charlie does know the difference, and he needs Karl’s help finding her.

They track down Gemma’s apartment, but it’s already emptied. The only thing left, hidden in a fireplace grate, is the holosphere. Charlie knows it’s a message, but he can’t tell if it’s saying come find me, or stay away. He does know she knows he’s in Cape Town. And he does know she’s kept it all these years. So that’s something.

Water, Water, Everywhere

At the link site, Julius is dismissive of Gemma’s concerns. She’s just a hydrologist and should focus on her own job, not speculation about dark matter and the fragility of the universes. The universes are 15 billion years old; they aren’t fragile. If no one listened to Krogg, who was head of the project, it’s no wonder no one will listen to a lowly hydrologist.

Karl finds a credit card hit for a dessert shop near the Vexcor site and sends Charlie there. Charlie knows Gemma’s got a sweet tooth, so this is the place to go. He parks his car and watches Gemma through binoculars while she collects soil samples from the lake bottom. She’s waded out into waist-high water, and as Charlie watches the wind kicks up and the lake begins to disappear! Gemma’s being pulled in the undertow and Charlie rushes down to help her.

By the time he gets there, the lake is empty, but the two old friends have a heartfelt reunion.

In Alphaverse, a dry lake suddenly fills.

One final, out of the blue scene: Ren catches up to Reena, in her job as messenger, and hands her an envelope. He doesn’t recognize “the new face of terror,” and she promises to get the envelope to the right place. She mutters to herself, “you can trust me” as she walks away. That girl is going to bring down this whole company.

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.

Crack wise all you want about my Eisenhower jacket Dubby. But I wear it because it’s named after a man who led soldiers through harsh times against the darkest of evils. This jacket says something about…about me. The man I choose to be.

Middleman 2008 is all about honor and duty and pride and sacrifice. He watches westerns and believes in true love. He drinks milk and eschews obscenities. He’s a throwback to a simpler time. But that’s not the job, that’s the man. So when Middleman 1969 – a suave and slimy Kevin Sorbo – is thawed out to face off against his arch-nemesis, there’s more than a little tension the Middleranks.

Breakfast for Dinner

Wendy Watson meets Tyler for dinner at The Batter of the Bulge Pancake House. Known for their luftwaffles and panzer cakes, she’s a little surprised that on a third date Tyler would choose to shoot so low. But little does she know that…I mean…Gut Wrencher 1, banned in 17 countries and denounced by both Tipper Gore AND the Dalai Lama! The goriest, bloodiest, most hellacious arcade game ever.

After a scant $18, Tyler and Wendy finish the game, killing the 86th Level Blood Lust Catamite with a SCUD missile. Out of breath, glowing with post-coinop sweat, they kiss passionately. Not long after, they retire to the illegal sublet Wendy shares with another young, photogenic artist. She removes her Middlewatch and…Ida gets a show.

Ten hours later, after oh so much spending of the night together, Wendy shares her fears with Lacey. Specifically, she tells Lacey that her mutant power is seeing how every relationship she has will end. But she can’t see the end of this one. Noser, ever rational, thinks this is a coping mechanism.

Like Butter

At Middleman HQ, Middleman is a bit awkward and uncomfortable. He mentions her watch, and its recording capabilities. Wendy…gets it. She’s flustered. Middleman points out that there is a way to turn it off, with Code 86. Wendy’s uncomfortable. Middleman’s uncomfortable. They really wish there were some crime to investigate. Ida obliges, telling them someone melted a jewelry store.

At Klebb’s Fine Jewels, Middleman and Wendy discover that someone looking like Andy Warhol melted a wall and stole $1M worth of jewels. The M.O. looks familiar to Middleman, which calls for quick and decisive action! To the Middleman HQ Archive!

Dubby thinks the research is a bit less than exciting.

MM: In the immortal words of Bertolt Brecht, ‘Hungry man reach for the book it is a weapon.’”
WW: Brecht was a communist.

Slowly thumbing through the Middlelore, Dubby and Middleman take note of some of the great villains of the past:

• The Domino, a Lithuanian who tried to knock down all the buildings in the city.
• The Fabulous Face, who replaced everyone in the White House with an evil double. He succeeded, but no one noticed.
• Dr. Solaris, who tried to poison the water supply with a boredom toxin.
• The Candle. Prof. Lloyd Kramden, PhD, whose family died in an ice rink meltdown and decided everyone else should suffer the same fate.

Ida, Ho

Alright. She’s not a ho. But her heart belonged to another before it belonged to the Middleman. When she hears that The Candle is back to his evil ways, she initiates the Middlecryogenic chamber and unfreezes Middleman 1969.

If The Candle can get his hands on Balthorium G, he’ll be able to power his melting rays, so 69 plants an ad in The Thrifty Nickel, offering to sell some. Middleman gets antsy, but the phone surely rings for Harry Lime. The Middletrio head out for a stakeout.

As 69 tells Wendy that love is not for those who wear the uniform of the Middleman, the current model gets in a fight with a melting ray-wielding maniac who looks like Andy Warhol behind the car. You see, 69′s first, third, and fourth wives were all killed by supervillains. His second wife left him for a supervillain. Love’s not in the cards for the Middles.

Having subdued The Candle – who after all was just a kid – he’s interrogated back at Middleman HQ. Turns out that The Candle found Jesus and stopped being a villain. He gave the kid a letter telling him to give the melting ray to science, but the kid thought – hey, melting ray! Lemme steal something!

Not buying the kid’s story, 69′s about to start beating him when Middleman stops him cold. Then Ida comes and breaks it all up. This leads to a retirement ceremony for 69, and Middleman forces him to give his civilian name. “Guy Goddard. Choke on it.”

Old Middlemen Never Die…

At the illegal sublet Wendy shares with Lacey, Guy shows up. He starts hitting on Lacey and she…well she clearly has a thing for Middlemen. But Guy’s really there to get Wendy to help him out with his plans. He knows The Candle’s still alive and plotting. 4000 angstroms of Balthorium G. are in the basement vault at Lord Jeremiah Purcell’s house. One angstrom is enough to melt a city. 4000 is “the perfect gimlet of meltageddon.”

The plan is to get invited to a game of Shaboomey (see, How I Met Your Mother, episode “Atlantic City” or Friends, episode “The One with the Baby Shower” for similar games) so Guy can sneak about the house. But it’s a very complicated game. One for which the penalty of making a mistake, or not knowing a rule, is beheading. But Dubby’s fine. She played Gut Wrencher 1.

For those of use who’ve waited patiently…Natalie Morales in the catsuit. Thank you, Javier Grillo-Marxauch!

Each player at Lord Jeremiah Purcell’s nefarious mansion brought a rare and priceless artifact. Guy brought the missing 18 and a half minutes (he spent five days in the ’70s back in ’66.) The rules of the game are byzantine and labyrinthine and…and any other words you can come up with for complex and confusing. But when Guy heads out to snoop, Dubby holds her own. Including bunnies.

When things do head south – Anatol Gogol cheated building a house of cards by using a glue stick – and Dubby has to pull her gun, Middleman comes sailing through the window and gives her a helping grenade. He had her back the whole time. They head down to the basement, but Guy’s hand has been melted! He says The Candle is alive and absconded with the Balthorium before he could plant the tracer.

…They Just Fade Away

Ida gives Guy a hook and plans are made. The Candle’s island fortress is on Snake Island, but Dubby’s suggestion of strafing it with the Middlejet is laughed at by Middlemen of two generations. Supervillains outfit their island fortresses with landmines and missile defense systems and androids and a lot of Scandinavian furniture. Then Wendy asks how they’ll get to the island and Guy says “maybe Scottie can beam us down. It’s…an obscure reference to a canceled television show. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it.”

No, they’ll need the Model 4600 Middlesub with the protective layer of asbestos.

Arriving at Snake Island near Dead Man’s Bluff Just Below the Devil’s Throat, Middleman and Guy are in wetsuits. Wendy is in a bikini (thanks, Javier!) Honey Ryder‘s bikini. Even with the big old knife on the waist. Nice touch.

They hear the melting ray kick on – the ray that’s going to melt the moon – and the Middletrio split up. Guy and Wendy end up coming right back to where they started, but Middleman is trapped in a room with a giant melting ray. It doesn’t look good for him. But when Wendy wants to go back to save him, Guy pulls his gun.

Of course. Lure them to the island to kill the Middleman and retake the helm. The “plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity,” Wendy says. Because yeah, the bad guys still say that. She takes his gun, but it’s not necessary at that point. Just telling him he was acting like a bad guy was enough to shake him free from his momentary flirtation with evil. He’s a Middleman, damn it! He destroys the melting ray, killing himself in the process.

Wendy and Tyler, Sittin’ in a Tree

After the heat of the arcade-fueled evening, things cooled off a little bit between the young lovers. Mostly, that’s because Wendy was self-sabotaging, but once she finally got over her fears and let go…well, Ida has multiple surveillance cameras in place.

Shout-outs

Almost all of these refer to fictional spies. All but Nolan Bushnell. For that one, you should check your geek cred.

“sweet mother of Nolan Bushnell”
Code 86
Rosa Klebb
Dr. Alexander Scott and Kelly Robinson
Lloyd Kramden
Balthorium
Harry Lime
Harry Rule and Contessa Caroine di Contini
Anatol Gogol
Count Manzeppi
The Scot (really…just look…it’s a SEAN CONNERY lookalike)

Final Thoughts

I thought the Star Trek joke was funny on two levels. At first it just looks like a silly, throwaway line. But Kevin Sorbo spent a good long time flying around in his space pajamas aboard the Andromeda. He knows from silly sci-fi for the kids.

Beyond that, there were a few really touching moments between Wendy and Middleman. Her hug when he was still alive, him telling her that true love is as much an option for Middlemen as everyone else, and his very heartfelt explanation of the Eisenhower jacket. There were a few things that felt a bit off for me tonight, but I thought they nailed the emotions, both of two people whose friendship is deepening as they fight evil, and of two people just falling in love.

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.