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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

'Almost Human' GifTweetCap: Robo-non-junk and a Spotlight on Maldonado

"Blood Brothers" may be the best episode of "Almost Human" so far, despite one aspect of the episode that may be the worst part of the show. Thankfully, the annoying parts are few and far between, and the rest of the episode more than makes up for them. 
Ironically the episode starts with Kennex in a state of annoyance over Dorian's tardiness. Usually, it's the other way around.
Kennex makes his way down to the most disturbing men's locker room ever imagined. Kennex is incredibly disturbed by the sight.

 It turns out that Dorian was late because he needs a new chest plate. Chest wires are just hangin' out of the poor guy! He needs his pecs back!
Kennex can't get the image of the "Ken doll" MX anatomy out of his head, but the only person more disturbed by the sight is Dorian. Dorian's got the real deal "down there," and decides that whipping it out will be a good way to alleviate Kennex's curiosity. Instead, the ginormous size of it creates yet another image that Kennex will never be able to erase from his mind, as Kennex wonders whether it's "all for one person."
At least it's just for show. Dorian isn't a sex bot, after all. But he does poke fun at Kennex for not getting any action with his own junk. He just doesn't know how to talk to Stahl, on whom he has a major crush. Dorian even imitates her voice to rub in his inadequacy. ---Now that I've spent half the post talking about the first three (and best) minutes of the show, there's much more to come.
Later, Maldonado is in court, trying to put away Ethan Avery, an incredibly creepy villain. She does a great job, but the most important person to sit on the stand is Haley Myers, a witness to Avery's crime of murder. Haley actually appears as a hologram from a safe house that turns out to not be very safe at all. She is shot and killed as the people sitting in the courtroom look on.
Maya, a second witness to the crime, hears it all go down from the bathroom and escapes through the window. A nearly invisible tracking device had been placed on someone from the protection detail! Dorian and some MX androids search for Maya, but Dorian gets the prize.
Here's another interesting tidbit about this episode: Maya is a psychic because she had a special procedure that would make her use more of her brain.
She had the procedure so she could talk to her parents, who both died in a car accident. Unfortunately, their house burned down while she was still grieving, and there was nothing left of theirs to touch, so she couldn't make a connection with them. So now she simply uses her ability to speak with deceased loved ones of other people, including Haley.
Maya connects with Haley's spirit, and decides to take off from the precinct, even though Det. Paul is supposed to be keeping an eye on her.
Dorian and Kennex pick her up, but it's not long before some bad guys stop them and shoot Maya just as she's telling our guys about their intense red and calm auras, respectively. Kennex shoots one of them, and it's another Avery! They also learn that the other Avery is a clone, and that the man who shot Haley was an Avery clone as well.

Kennex tries to figure out how the bad guys found Maya again, and finally gets an inkling to call Rudy about the MX guard that got its face blown off while protecting Maya and Haley. Rudy takes a look, and it turns out that they took the MX's ear, allowing them to listen in on all police chatter!
Kennex starts switching everyone to a secure line (why aren't they always on a secure line?), but Det. Stahl misses the memo. She had gone to the house of a fertility scientist who Avery had murdered in order to speak with his wife. Her MX is quickly taken out, and she becomes the damsel in distress. She calls on Kennex to save her.
This is the lame part of the episode, since Kennex has just about zero chemistry with Stahl, and Stahl is way too gorgeous and weak to be a cop. Her natural looks are not the problem so much, but the fact that she would have time to worry about hair and makeup definitely requires suspension of belief.
There's one amusing moment where Kennex fumbles over his words trying to make some sort of connection with Stahl as she tries to get game updates from her MX, but that's the only endearing moment they have, and it's really Kennex's alone.
Anyway, Avery turns out to have lots of clones out there, and they all want the original Avery back so they can be a big happy family. Avery two and three, and so on, make a deal to release Stahl in return for Avery-one's release. Now for an interesting tidbit of info: one thing I noticed from many tweets is that some people seemed to think that the clones were androids of some sort. The creation of the clones involved a fertility specialist, so they are most likely regular people, created using technology similar to what is already being worked on. In addition, using current technology, clones are actually a bit more different from each other than twins, because the womb of the mother can incorporate differences in the fetus. They are not exactly the same person.
Maldonado comes up with the brilliant idea of walking Avery down a hallway of hologram cameras, making him think he is being released. To the other Averys, she appears to be walking him toward a middle point where they can make the exchange. She begins running out of hallway, but that doesn't matter because a couple of birds fly through the hologram and disrupt it anyway.
Stahl takes the cue and escapes (the hologram was a cool effect, but why did they even need to use it?), but sniper Averys hold off the cops until the others can escape in their van. Dorian will have none of that, and runs after it. In the second most brilliant moment of the episode, Dorian flips the van.
The third awesome thing about this episode is that it is somewhat Maldonado-centric, and we learn a bit about her personality via Avery. Avery-one tries to get inside her head, basically calling her a lonely old hag who will never be noticed by a man.
Once Avery is taken down, with help from Maya's testimony, Maldonado shoves all those statements right back in his face: he'll be recognized for being an egomaniac who thought the world needed more of him... until his name fades away and he's forgotten. Moments later, an attorney stops her to say, with his most high-school-crush-boyish charm, that she looks nice today! Yeah! Take that Aver-douche!
Later, Dorian has an arson investigation box from Maya's childhood home released, and gives it to her in hopes that she'll be able to connect with something inside. She does, and is finally able to communicate with her parents!
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3 comments:

  1. Rob-bearDecember 12, 2013 at 12:03 PM

    Somehow, I seem to have missed the significance of this. Have we been hurtled back to 1984? Are we caught in a tale told by a fool, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?

    Allow me to just trundle on out the way I came in. Best thing for a Bear to do. If there is an "out."

    Blessings and Bear hugs, nonetheless!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 18, 2013 at 12:03 PM

    Very cool!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ThePoliteOneDecember 20, 2013 at 12:36 PM

    Interesting show! Great recap!

    ReplyDelete

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