Sleepy Hollow: "Thank You for Calling NorthStar"

Almost Human: You ARE Here (review).

 

    To begin – I think it is important to understand Almost Human has been aired out of order. We have seen the produced eps through episode 10, with 4 and 9 yet to be aired. Now, You Are Here, which was actually #2 on the production order. It hasn’t made a whole lot of difference before and everything seemed to flow fine – until tonight. I enjoyed You Are Here quite a bit, but there were a couple of plot points that were meant to flow into it right from the pilot. And a couple of production glitches as well which is inherent in the birthing of a new show. Just something to keep in mind as we walk through the episode.
     The open has a man being chased by an invisible foe. He is frantic and it appears he has no where he feels safe. It becomes apparent why, as although he is surrounded by police he is shot through the chest.

  So we now know “why” he was running but not “why” or “how” he was killed as it seemed the trajectory of the bullet was all over the place – popping holes in stuff left and right. Thus the misdirection in this episode begins.

    Kennex is in an anger management class with a Mark Pellegrino clone and is at his smarmy, repressive self. Yes it’s potty humor, but I still belched out a laugh when he referred to Anil as “Anal”. Ass joke #1. You won’t have to wait long for #2. Kennex and Dorian arrive at the scene. Our friendly MX believes that it was statistically possible if not probable the bullet simply clanked off 5 different things and buried it’s self in our victim’s chest.

  How often have we wanted to do this?

    Dorian has a simpler answer. Somehow, the bullet was akin to a guided missile. It was steered into the poor dude’s chest. The MX is having none of that. The word “inferior” is thrown around, resulting in this perfectly logical solution:

    Keeping in mind this was intended as episode 2, Kennex will have killed 2 MXs in 2 episodes. MXs must cost, like, $5.75 at Costco.

    Back at the Police secret headquarters (the one with the HUGE hologram out front). Richard proves why his name should be shortened to Dick. Aaaand ass joke #2 – as John wonders aloud what Dick wants to do to his ass. I might want to edit that.

    Another clue it is episode 2 is by the lack of friendly car-banter between Dorian and John and the reinforcement of something we already know from the last 6 weeks – these guys have each other’s backs.

    We arrive at the victim (Anton’s) place of business; we meet Anton’s co-worker and girlfriend Kira. Dorian wanders off to experience a nice bit of Minority Report style individualized advertising, as its clear corporations do not discriminate against the spending power of androids. Anton’s software allowed real-time tracking of individuals to best suit advertisers. The police believe Anton was selling his software turned guidance system to arms dealers and they are relying on Kira to provide some useful info. She bails completely on knowing anything – but we now know the “why” and “how” of Anton’s death.

     Back at the lair, Dick is being a “jerk “and Stahl gets a nice short joke in, but we get some info obviously meant for us to have earlier. Valarie is genetically enhanced.

  I totally buy that!!

     Cut to Maldonado and a shakedown of the Insyndicate member captured in the pilot, Reinhardt. We know Insyndicate wants something in evidence and the Capt wants to know what. Reinhardt wants a deal she is not willing to give but before she shuts him down, he gets a few jabs in to Kennex over the betrayal of his girlfriend that cost him his unit and his leg. You know – I remembered the massacre but I had completely forgotten that John’s gal was the reason for it all. No wonder he has anger and trust issues. Again, you can see how out of place this scene was unless you remember it in context of following the pilot. It would have been much more organic. MORE INSYNDICATE STUFF PLEASE! But one question. Segways are still around in 35 years?

     So our buddy cops go to visit Kira to let her know how much danger she is in because of the real-time tracking the bullets use… while standing out in an open courtyard!

  Yikes, cops! Dorian does the bullet catcher thing – but it comes with a price. He now only speaks Korean. All of this does convince Kira to let them move her to a safe house…I read this in another review but I was certainly thinking it: CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR on the titanium truck! So off Kira goes as our heroes go to fetch her daughter and bring her to the safe house as well. Once there, she comes clean about Anton’s secretive and suspicious ways of late and how heartbreaking it was because she loved him and he loved her daughter like it was his very own.

    We are now introduced to some more pretty cool tech, as Kira believes “Scrubbing” her mind of all memories of Anton will convince the bad guys to leave her alone. Cause bad guys are cool like that, right? RIGHT!?!?! But Kennex doesn’t believe in it. With what he has been through, you would think he would be all for it – but we get some Kennex insight here in that he believes in carrying his burdens. And also…um, bad guys won’t care if she says she is scrubbed.

    We arrive at Rudy’s lab so Dorian could get back to speakin ‘Merikin. All he did for me was creep me out a bit.

    The big reveal of the night was a video out of Anton’s safe deposit box. He was being extorted to comply with the threat of harm to Kira and her daughter. So he was selling nothing – he was simply trying to save those he loved. At the same time, the police intercept a “sales pitch” video that displays the efficiency of the weapon by showing video of Anton’s assassination. Our arms dealers are Chechens and they are quite serious about scoring a big sale.

    Since we have 20 minutes left in the episode, Kira decides to do the single dumbest thing someone can do and she leaves the protected facility to get her noggin scrubbed despite the warnings from Kennex. So now the Chechens can track her and since the scrubbing is done is a greasy, Blade Runner-ish underground lab (under a club, natch), they have to go get her.

    Our boys arrive first, but only a moment before the e-vil folks. Fire fight ensues:

                                                                        One down.

   Who’s your daddy?

 
    The bad guys are easily dispatched with the assist of Dorian’s bullet catching abilities and all is well.

   So as we close, Kira is expressing her thanks to Kennex about not letting her erase the memories of Anton, as she now knows what he did to protect her and her daughter. Anton was a bit old fashioned, and he happened to use an actual ‘ink pen’ to write his number down for her when they met. Long story short, Kira gives Kennex the pen as a thank you for saving her AND her memories.

    And the big wrap up. Earlier in the ep, Stahl said she “had something” for Kennex and John misunderstood it to be a gift. It was just info for the case. Well, our sweet, genetically superior Valarie corrects that misunderstanding…

…with an “energy chew”

    In return, Kennex turns to write something down with his new gift, the ink pen. We imagine it is his porn site phone number.

    A very sweet, flirty moment and I am all in for Jalarie. Stahnnex? Whu-air. I’m in.

    Final shot, Maldonado thanks Kennex for not “killing” any MXs that day and John retorts with: “the night is young”. This elicits this look from the nearest MX ;

  Oh. Boy. I think he heard you, John. See y’all after the next new ep in 3 weeks.

PEACE!