Wednesday, December 18, 2013

'Almost Human' GifTweetCap: Double the Fun and Mayhem with #Doubledor

"Arrhythmia" may be the best Almost Human episode thus far, with double the Kennex-Dorian banter, some serious questions about the morality of future technology, and the perfect balance of humor, solemnity, and ideas that further the discussion of the show once it's over.
The episode begins with a grim look at future health care. Obviously, Obamacare has either failed or been repealed, because some folks are still devoid of health insurance. Another problem is the number of broken hologram doctors, making health care both impersonal and extremely frustrating.
A desperate man who looks as if something truly tragic is about to happen to him begins threatening to shoot live doctors with a gun if they don't help save his life. Not very logical, but he's in a panic to be saved before his death, which he knows will be coming at exactly 9:18. Unfortunately, he's a little too late, since the doctors begin making out what he's saying at about the same time he croaks. With his final breath, he says, "they killed me." Poor guy.
Meanwhile, Dorian and Kennex have some fan-favorite banter in the car, involving Kennex banging on his non-functioning radio like a "caveman," as Dorian puts it. Kennex is undeterred, proud of his brute-force tactics.
Our duo takes the call about the dead guy at the hospital. Upon entering, they notice a second DRN who looks exactly like Dorian. Dorian seems upset that the DRN, who was designed to be a cop, is a mere maintenance tech.
After taking down some mental notes on their new case, Dorian decides to bring DRN-494 (I'll use the lame moniker Dosian from here on out -- short for Dorian 2 in Spanish) for an all-day ride-along. Kennex is fake-worried that Dosian will be missed at work, wanting him out if the car. Dosian says he's off duty, but one gets the sense that he's lying so he can shirk his responsibilities to hang out with Dorian. Kennex refuses to budge the car until Dosian gets out, but Dorian decides to infuriate Kennex into giving in by hijacking the car's controls from his bot-brain.
Double the Dorian is double the fun, just not for Kennex. Both bots begin their mouthy-pops and humorous insults of Kennex.
The double-Dors aggravate Kennex to the blood-vessel-popping point, causing an exasperated Kennex to pull over and demand that Dosian get out. The request backfires when Dosian does exactly that, running straight up to some guy on the street and tackling him. Hilarity ensues when a series of chain reactions lead to an utterly destroyed MX.
Maldonado is furious, ripping poor Kennex a new one for the destruction of the exceedingly expensive piece of hardware. Dorian was the culprit, however, having returned Dosian's case files without an update. The guy Dosian had tackled and believed to be a fugitive had already served his time. Dorian's response? "My bad."
"Jorian" share a special moment when Dorian explains that he wants to "wake" Dosian the way Kennex woke him. Dorian had hoped to be wakened, because he just wanted to exist. He wants to do the same for Dosian.
The guys head over to where the dead man got his heart transplant, but the synthetic heart belongs to someone else who died. While there, Dorian pushes Kennex to donate to kids who need medical technology (such as John's synthetic leg). Kennex agrees in order to make Dorian shutup about it, but Dorian is very nosy, obviously wanting to ensure Kennex shares a percentage of his income that Dorian finds acceptable.
The heart was supposed to have been destroyed at a crematorium, but the tech who works there has been selling off the organs to a man named Oscar for reuse on the black market, and that's not the first time he has done that. Cremation of the future is pretty awesome, by the way. 
Rudy finds that the heart was modified to run for only 30 days before requiring payment to reset the timer. The price doubles then triples until the new owners can no longer afford to pay, and they simply die when the heart shuts off.
The next heart is set up with a tracker for the next resell. Double-Dor have a discussion about why the DRNs were decommissioned during the stakeout. It turns out that they were given a "Luger Test" to determine which ones were faulty, but eventually they were all decommissioned rather than having to be fixed. During the discussion, Dorian shows Dosian all the benefits of his new eyeball, but Dosian accidentally drops it in John's coffee as he's handing it back. Hey, Dorian can warm the coffee AND keep an eye on it... er, in it.
Creepy-looking Oscar takes the heart to a new transplant "victim," then asks to watch while they "cut her." Eww.
The cops stop the transplant procedure, seriously pissing off the woman who was about to receive the heart. Moral questions about the price of a life abound.
It turns out that Oscar is only a courier, and one of the assistants at the clinic that performs the transplants is the boss of the black market heart organization. The organization was cremating the bodies that had the used hearts before reusing the hearts again, but now that the cops know about everything, the boss wants to drop it all. The cremator is in charge of resetting the hearts, but is told not to reset them. As the victims begin dropping off, Dorian and Kennex head back to the crematorium. Dorian stops the douchebag cremator by pulling him through the wall.
In the interest of happy endings, the company with the evil black-market-heart-selling assistant agrees to give each screwed-over person a free heart. Awww.

Earlier, Dorian had tried to convince Dosian to help out with a gun, but he was too terrified to budge. He then relates a story about how he had once broken protocol before being decommissioned. He had killed a man who was about to kill a little boy. The boy, named Philip, thanked him with a big hug. It was Dosian's proudest moment as a cop, and his most human connection.
When it comes time to return Dosian to his job as a custodian, Dorian uses his disco finger to remove all of Dosian's memories, with the exception of his memory of Phillip.
In order to help him feel better after the downer of leaving Dosian back in his janitorial position, Dorian suggests that Kennex allow him to drive the car. Kennex puts on a nice show of being amenable to the idea before slapping it down.
Photo permitted for commercial use from Flickr user Neon Tommy

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3 comments:

  1. Mary KirklandDecember 19, 2013 at 2:27 PM

    Another great post. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this show but I do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miss Boxy FrownDecember 19, 2013 at 6:50 PM

    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rob-bearDecember 23, 2013 at 8:33 AM

    Um, apologies for asking, but Bear isn't entirely up on things — What is Almost Human? A couple of Bears who, like me, are part Human, and trying to become even more human?

    Christmas blessings and Bear hugs!

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