ALMOST HUMAN Wants You to Just Say No
Episode 104 “The Bends”
Let me state this upfront: If it wasn’t for the shiny tech, the actors and the sci fi elements, I would swear to you that what I just watched was an episode of Hawaii 5-0 or some other procedural that’s on TV at the moment.
We open with Kennex and Dorian eating breakfast (or John eating and Dorian sitting next to him). What follows is quite disgusting as Dorian tricks John into eating a live snail. And yes, that 5-second scene is important enough to appear in the recap because OH MY GOD I will never, ever have any snacks when watching Almost Human. Yuck. (though admittedly, incredibly funny).
The show transitions to a drug deal gone wrong. After a charming holographic phone call to his wife, a soon-to-be murder victim is joined by a partner and they disappear in a dark alley to meet with a drug lord. Things quickly go south and the soon-to-be murder victim is discovered to be wearing a futuristic wire (implanted in his abdomen, and quickly ripped out by the bad guys). Apparently he’s an undercover cop and his soon-to-be murder victim status is quickly changed to actual murder victim.
Once the dark alley transforms into a nicely lit crime scene, we learn that the cop’s name was Cooper and Kennex knew him way back when. That’s actually a good thing (though a terribly overplayed trope, so no brownie points for the writers), because otherwise there wouldn’t be anyone invested enough to fight the allegations that Cooper was a corrupt cop.
John’s conviction that Cooper was framed leads our intrepid heroes to search Cooper’s cabin in the woods and find the receiving device that recorded the entire exchange between Cooper and bad guys. When the team is listening to Cooper’s last moments on earth, we get an exposition about the episode’s big bad (The Bishop – because no self respecting drug lord goes to work without a ridiculous nickname) and how evil is the neon-green drug The Bishop is trying to distribute.
One thing leads to another and suddenly Rudy is going undercover as a cook (Kennex can’t go because he can’t cook ramen, let alone highly sophisticated drugs). Paul, due to his years in Vice, trains Rudy how to go undercover, with Stahl as an amused audience. They run through rules of undercover and how to lie and Rudy demonstrates how to cook drugs (and things, unsurprisingly, explode).
Rudy’s undercover operation goes well (with several hiccups to keep the tension) and he manages to meet the Bishop. Bishop, who turns out to be Cooper’s captain (GASP)! After that reveal things go from worrisome to really bad and suddenly everybody’s shooting and Rudy is forced to run for his life. Fortunately the cavalry (not the capital letter S.H.I.E.L.D. kind, but close) arrives to arrest bad guys and save our resident geek.
Additional notes:
– I cannot get over how awesome the police yellow tape is on this show. Since nothing blew my mind this week tech-wise I am happy to award the Shiny Award for the shiniest tech to this awesome police tape. So much love.
– I’m starting to think that Detective Paul (Michael Irby) isn’t only an android hater, but he just doesn’t like others (an equal opportunity hater?). Maybe he just needs a hug.
– Nobody let’s Rudy wear a fedora. They clearly don’t know that indulging Rudy’s inner James Bond would be the easiest way to get his confidence up.
– Captain Maldonado got to play with several plot points, including an important phone call that helped the team find Rudy. Unfortunately Detective Stahl’s only accomplishment in the episode was looking pretty. The Exposition Angels are still in need of some major character development.
– I am curious as to how this episode’s drug was discovered. Apparently it’s made from some algae or whatnot that needs to be processed (and there’s iodine involved in the process somewhere). I just can’t get over how somebody, somewhere threw some things together, added some sea thingy and decided “Hey, I’m going to drink this and see what happens”.
What do you think? Did the Bishop reveal take you by surprise? Are you frustrated with the female characters on the show? Are you enjoying the partner banter between John and Dorian? What are you looking forward to in the upcoming episodes?
Leave the comment below and/or join the conversation on Twitter.
_______________
[Official Show Site at Fox] [Almost Human 1×03 recap]
