John wakes up on another day, getting up, taking his leg
off charge and putting it on – and realising it squeaks. He takes Dorian’s
advice and applies olive oil to the knee joint – and it quietens it. Hey it
works! Personally, I’d be a little concerned that the outer layer of the
artificial leg is permeable to olive oil and who knows what’ll happen if you
get it wet, but that’s just me.
On to an office building, the Sanderson Corporation and
James a receptionist/security guard and happy friendly flirting with Ms. Jenna Miller….
Awww. One of these is so going to die, it’ll be extra tragic. Ominous looking
men come in the front door and shoot James after asking his name. Ok, my
predictions normally need a little longer before they happen to look
impressive, but I’ll take it.
Ominous guys make their way to the server room (shooting
someone on the way, but this guy doesn’t have a sweet awkward flirtation with a
co-worker so we totally don’t care about him) where they plant a future techy
thing.
To our intrepid heroes – with lots of snark between them
(they do deliver some quality snark) about John’s coffee and John being late
(also they still work in Fahrenheit? Isn’t everyone switching to Celsius now?).
It’s very good snark.
They’re called into the crime scene and it cuts short the
excellent snark. Damn bodies getting in the way of the snark! Dorian salvages
the damaged, grainy CCTV. They see them go up – but the lifts have been shut
down and the attackers are still in the building- John orders the building
evacuated.
Up on the 25th floor, all of the civilians are
rounded up, including Jenna, and the men know the police have arrived – and
activate their device. It explodes blocking some of the exits
John and Dorian continue the evacuation using the fire
service to get people from higher floors but when John contacts his boss,
Sandra tells him not to go up the stairs – to wait and see what’s happening. Of
course, big damn hero John refuses to listen and when Sandra tries to insist he
pretends he has a bad signal on his phone (or future communicator that looks
like a phone and can, apparently, still get shoddy cell signal). Sandra pretty
much has to follow what John suggested now since he’s going ahead with his plan
no matter what and she jams all communication.
Side effect of all the calls being jammed means all the emergency call bounces to Dorian instead who answers them in case they can get information – and he tailors his voice to each caller (also taking the chance to tease John some more, of course). Paige calls them from the 25th floor in a closet. She watches as they shoot one of the hostages and then throw him out of the window from the 25th floor where he lands in front of the police on the ground (seems rather a waste of a bullet). On the body is a sign saying “no cops stay out.”
They send in a hostage negotiation drone, apparently
standard procedure (it flies and has a phone). Big bad man issues his demands –
starting with removing the police presence, which Sandra does. He wants some
helicopters on the roof, a clear run to the border and a fission igniter –
which is very very scary military tech (a biiig bomb). Sandra has no authority
to release that but it doesn’t change his demands. What Sandra does have is her
computers identifying the big bad (yay I don’t have to call him big bad
anymore!) he’s Lucas Vincent of the Holy Reclamation Army. And Lucas gives them
a deadline of 43 minutes which is… oddly specific.
Randy offers to build a fake fission igniter which may
delay them and Valerie passes on info on the Holy Reclaimation army –
anti-western terrorists basically who have a past record of kidnapping who are
happy to kill or die.
Back in the building John keeps getting info from Paige
but she’s obviously terrified so John calms her with a ridiculously long winded
anecdote. Dorian snarks this (of course) but one of the terrorist guards
interrupts his quality snark (rude interruptions all the time!). Firefight
through the room (with bullets. I want lasers. What kind of super future show
doesn’t have lasers?) and John uses his
phone to distract the gun man so he can kill him.
John hears more gunfire and hurries over to Dorian – who has damage on his forehead. Identifying the man he shot, Dorian also passes on that they’re up against the Holy Reclamation Army – and find a little button with the word “start” written on it. The damage on his head, though he dismisses it as a ricochet, seems to be causing his systems to have problems. But Dorian double checks, opens the man’s vest inside is a device that when he touches it, changes the face of the dead man completely (from a young, clean shaven Black man to an older, bearded White man). A “face maker”. This man is really Gregor Stone – and he’s a criminal with no known affiliations. And Dorian’s damage is sufficient that he won’t be able to walk soon.
Though he can’t walk, he can identify 7 face-makers and
it begs the question why they need to imitate someone else rather than just
hide who they are with a simple mask? And Dorian tries to talk John into fixing
him (cut the magenta wire – not the lavender one. Yes, it’s all purple. Also
he’s using a filthy cotton bud but assuring him it’s clean. Well I suppose he
can’t get infections). Lots more snark and John cuts a wire – and Dorian is
deactivated.
John keeps poking around while Paige warns him that the
bad guys are doing things and her sister (Jenna, who only came to visit her) is
crying. They talk middle names to distract her and John manages to get Dorian
activated again – just as Paige reports that one of the gunmen arrives, injured
– reporting Dorian and John. She passes on the warning to John
At the precinct, Rudy keeps making his fake fission
igniter and he’s heckled by a very unhelpful android. And Sandra gets a call
from fake!Lucas claiming to have killed the 2 men she had in the building.
Sandra claims ignorance and plays for more time.
Paige can’t take being separate from her sister any
longer, especially with the guards threatening her, and leaves the cupboard
despite John’s objection. She leaves her phone on though – but goes to join her
sister. But she notices a pile of phones in the main room and, under the excuse
of going to the bathroom, puts her activated phone among them.
They deliver the fake fission igniter. Fake!Lucas tells
his minion to contact the other crew and hands him something. Listening in,
Dorian and John are confused – what other crew? And the jammer is still working
preventing all communication outside the building except the hostage phone.
They look again at the little red disk with “start” written on it – and realise
that by shining a light through it you can project the word – to someone within
eye contact of the window. Paige also told them that fake!Lucas kept going to
the window.
To add more confusion, when asked if there’s a tracking
device in the fission igniter, fake!Lucas says it doesn’t matter because
they’re not taking it. John wonders if it’s a distraction – the whole area has
been evacuated after all. Examining the nearby buildings, Dorian recognises
one, a business that trades in precious metals, including palladium. All this
is a distraction while they steal the metal from the nearby building
One of the men send a message of “10 mins” to the next
building where the gang starts wrapping things up, the security already dead.
Among the hostages, the men activate a light bomb – they take three hostages with them for insurance and they intend to kill the rest. They have to get up to the 25th floor – or Dorian insists he goes. He refuses to let John, it’s too risky and they’ve set guards – but this is what Dorian was designed for. He enters the lift shaft and uses super-android strength to pull himself up the cables to the air ducts.
He pulls himself above the hostages and drops down as fake!Lucas tries to take Jenna. His nifty pistol has a full auto mode (still isn’t a laser) and he takes down several of the guards before he’s shot multiple times. Fake!Lucas is just about to finish him off when John shows up – wearing Gregor’s face changer. Of course he dramatically removes it before gunning several of the guards down (their gun jams and he has to use his own).
Everyone dead or not fighting back, John calls Sandra to
tell her what’s really happening – and to turn off the jammer, since that is
why the nearby building’s alarms aren’t working.
The thieves in the next building are surprised by all the
alarms activating – and the security system tripping, securing them in the
vault. Dorian deactivates the light bomb, saving the hostages.
In the aftermath, Paige finds John and hugs him while
Dorian gets patched up. They return to the police precinct to a round of
applause. Sandra briefly mentions him ignoring her direct order while he
insists all he heard was static. And John takes Dorian for noodles rather than
diagnostics which an irritated Rudy insist on (definitely treating him like a
person, though Dorian doesn’t eat).
In the car, Dorian thanks John for saving his life and
they have an “awww” moment over John’s boring ice fishing story. He talks about
not wanting to die, even if it’s not the same for him and John says “dead is
dead.” More snark follows.
I really liked this plot line – it was twisty and
completely unexpected. It’s nice to see something original like this
And I like the snark. And the continuing humanisation of Dorian in John’s eyes and their developing relationship. And the world setting really works (though I almost thought the phones were product placement.
But I do so hate the “cop ignores all the rules and all
the orders – because he’s just that damn good!” trope. Rules for law
enforcement are good things – can we have shows that show that? The maverick
playing by his own rules usually hurts people
