S01.E01: The Cicada Protocol

[ohjoy]

From the world of Jason Bourne, agents across the globe are "awakening" to resume deadly missions.

Originally aired: October 15, 2019

[AnimeMania]

I really liked this episode, the fight scenes are really good. It would have been great if they added a little comedy into the fight scenes, especially in the fight between the North Korean General and the housewife. I was anticipating that something funny would happen, but it never did.

And the most interesting scene goes to the cat sitting at the table drinking milk out of a glass. Aww, he thinks he's people!

Wait a minute! Was that guy on the Alaskan Oil Rig, the same guy that broke out of the Treadstone facility all those years ago? He hasn't aged a bit. 

[blackwing]

6 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Wait a minute! Was that guy on the Alaskan Oil Rig, the same guy that broke out of the Treadstone facility all those years ago? He hasn't aged a bit. 

No, two different actors.  I don't know who the first one is (1970s East Berlin) but the Alaskan oil rig guy is Brian J. Smith, who played the Chicago cop Will on "Sense8".  They do have a similar look.  I wouldn't be surprised if Alaska guy turns out to be the son of Berlin guy.

I enjoyed the premiere of this show a lot.  It did remind me a lot of "Sense8".  Partly because of Brian J. Smith but also because there was action happening in different places around the world simultaneously.  The presence of a Korean woman trained in martial arts reminded me a lot of Sun.

However, I was a little confused about the two timelines.  I thought the Underwear Guy in the beginning was just to introduce to the sleeper project, and that he was only going to be in that little intro segment and then we were going to follow three sleeper agents (Alaska guy, British woman taxi driver, Korean woman) and their adventures.  (I wish I knew these people's names!)  But then Underwear Guy surfaced again at the end so maybe he's a series regular?  So it seems like each episode is going to be split between the past and present day.

I am very much confused but looking forward to the next ep.  How many episodes is this supposed to be?  They billed it as a "event series" or something like that which makes it seem like it's not that many episodes?

[AnimeMania]

Just now, blackwing said:

But then Underwear Guy surfaced again at the end so maybe he's a series regular? 

What Underwear Guy surfaced again at the end? Who was he (description of scene). I did notice that Missing Finger Girl turned into the Old Cat Lady living on the farm.

[blackwing]

6 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

What Underwear Guy surfaced again at the end? Who was he (description of scene). I did notice that Missing Finger Girl turned into the Old Cat Lady living on the farm.

The guy I call Underwear Guy (for lack of knowing his name) is the guy from the opening scene.  He appears to be some kind of patient in a mental hospital or something, the doctors are doing tests on him.  Then Redhead Lady decides that he needs to be killed.  He escapes from the room and winds up in another room where he sees three underwear clad bodies on tables.  Offscreen, he dresses one of the bodies in his clothes and shoves it out the open window and takes the place of one of the bodies.  He and Redhead Lady fight, he escapes and flees.  And I thought that was the last we see of him.

But then he surfaced at the end of the episode when the caption and action went back to 1970s East Berlin.  Redhead Lady and her goons are still looking for him.  She says he's going to go to "their place".  Still in his underwear, he makes his way back to his apartment, where he uses some kind of radio hidden in the wall to make contact with someone.  Redhead Lady and her goons show up at his apartment.  While they are all upstairs, he steals one of their cars and drives away.  Episode ends.

[AnimeMania]

Sorry, I thought you meant Underwear Guy appeared in "present times" the same way missing finger Red Haired Girl showed up as the Old Cat Lady. I am sorry for making you type so much.

[Loandbehold]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I am very much confused but looking forward to the next ep.  How many episodes is this supposed to be?  They billed it as a "event series" or something like that which makes it seem like it's not that many episodes?

Me too. Imdb has it listed as having 10 episodes.

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

No, two different actors.  I don't know who the first one is (1970s East Berlin) but the Alaskan oil rig guy is Brian J. Smith, who played the Chicago cop Will on "Sense8".  They do have a similar look.  I wouldn't be surprised if Alaska guy turns out to be the son of Berlin guy.

I enjoyed the premiere of this show a lot.  It did remind me a lot of "Sense8".  Partly because of Brian J. Smith but also because there was action happening in different places around the world simultaneously.  The presence of a Korean woman trained in martial arts reminded me a lot of Sun.

I had the same reaction w/ both Brian J. Smith and Korean martial arts woman = Sun.

Welcome back to my TV Michelle Forbes! One of my favorite actors. Hope we get to see a lot more of you.

[OoogleEyes]

I don't know what the hell is going on, but I love it so far.  I'm going along for the ride wherever it takes us!

[mxc90]

I hope I'm not required to have seen all of the Jason Bourne movies. I have seen the first and that's it.

One time, I would like to see someone leap to another building and get injured (like Tom Cruise).

I'm curious how they were so confident the son would give the game toy to the mother, know she was going to turn it on, get in a trance, find the needle, the note, and didn't ruin dinner.

I would love to have seen how she got back to the other building ( the cord was very high up), did she retrieve the needle and did she get rope/cord burn.

For a journalist turned cab driver, Tara Coleman didn't seem nervous being given a dangerous mission.

Let me guess Brian J. Smith's character doesn't have a wife and the woman handler (pretending  to be the wife) told the other worker to make sure he is taking his pills.

The young woman playing the redhead must be saying "Damn! This is what the people in charge think I will look like when I get older. F*ck!".

Edited October 17, 2019 by mxc90

[Rickster]

I liked it, but as I mentioned in the other thread, I found it more than a bit ludicrous that the old Russian guy could live on that farm for years, and not know there was a nuclear missile silo in the back yard.

[theschnauzers]

1 hour ago, Rickster said:

I liked it, but as I mentioned in the other thread, I found it more than a bit ludicrous that the old Russian guy could live on that farm for years, and not know there was a nuclear missile silo in the back yard.

I’ve been thinking about that bit ever since the episode was aired as a preview 10 days before. The present day is more or less 45 years after redhead lost her little finger in the fight with John in 1973. Presumably, Siletto Six was once of the first soviet ICBMs that were taken out of service under treaty and the powers at the time built the farm over it, and let redhead have it to live on after her disability. Given that many soviet warheads were not accounted for after the end of the USSR, the scenario is entirely plausible.

[Rickster]

4 hours ago, theschnauzers said:

I’ve been thinking about that bit ever since the episode was aired as a preview 10 days before. The present day is more or less 45 years after redhead lost her little finger in the fight with John in 1973. Presumably, Siletto Six was once of the first soviet ICBMs that were taken out of service under treaty and the powers at the time built the farm over it, and let redhead have it to live on after her disability. Given that many soviet warheads were not accounted for after the end of the USSR, the scenario is entirely plausible.

I'm not surprised that the nuke was on a farm, I'm surprised the old guy never ran across the hatch entrance buried under 2 inches of straw and dirt in the barn.

[Netfoot]

4 hours ago, Rickster said:

I'm surprised the old guy never ran across the hatch entrance buried under 2 inches of straw and dirt in the barn.

And that they would consider it well hidden, when it makes a noise the old guy could hear from across the farmyard, once he got his hearing-aid.  Has he been hard of hearing for the entire 45 years? Has nobody else set foot in the farmyard in all that time?

And is a flashing light always required on hidden technology?  Like when someone bugs a house or secretly attaches a tracker to a car. Pay no attention to the flashing red LEDs and the beep-beep-beep!

[theschnauzers]

To add to my previous post. It wasn’t the hatch on the barn floor per se that caused the old man’s suspicion, it was the electronic ping going off steadily, which led him to that hatch. I doubt redhead could have lived there all this time without going mad. And she did shut off the source of the sound as soon as she got down the silo and killed the old man.

[OoogleEyes]

29 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Not a good idea to piss off old cat lady.  Man did she age a ton, from the earlier timeline to the current one.  Yeah, it is a long time, but man she really didn't at all look like her younger self 

She also grew a killer set of cheekbones 

[theschnauzers]

Amazon Prime has all the Bourne films, including the last one, Jason Bourne (just checked) and a lot about project Threadstone can be gleaned through all of the five films. The creators of the series, are taking their clues from the novels Lundrum wrote back in the 1960s, which spawned an earlier film in the early 1970s, and the Lundrum didn’t care for, hence his involvement until his death in the Matt Damon version.

[Netfoot]

Ludlum.  Just saying...

[LennieBriscoe]

I'm hooked!

Same vibe as the Bourne Trilogy, with  brilliantly choreographed fight scenes; almost-dizzying camera work; triggered memories and skills; "Big Brother (or Sister) Is Watching You" cameras everywhere; and of course a Top-Secret government program.

"Frere Jacques,..."

[Tyro49]

So, are the cicadas our agents or their agents? (And who or what is triggering them?)

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, Tyro49 said:

So, are the cicadas our agents or their agents?

Cicadas are bugs that spend the majority of their life cycle underground. After what can be many years, they surface, moult, produce wings and then fly off and do buggy things.  (While making a huge racket, BTW.)

So, I'd imagine the cicadas in this show are any one who were "Treadestoned" and later activated, apparently without them even knowing they were sleeper/dormant.  Regardless of whose side they are on?

[LennieBriscoe]

The "What" that is triggering them is the song "Frere Jacques."

The "Who" is perhaps a rogue group of "Good Guys" who stand against the "1984" omni-CCTV government.

[Mondrianyone]

I just watched the first half of episode 1 (will watch rest later--interrupted by dinner).  Are we supposed to assume that the agents who were in suspended animation, if that's what it was, won't have aged when they're reactivated?  I'm dubious, since actual suspended animation would probably mean more than just lying on a steel table.  If that's how to stay ageless, I'm going to sleep on my kitchen prep table from now on. 

So far I'm liking this a lot.

[blackwing]

9 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

I just watched the first half of episode 1 (will watch rest later--interrupted by dinner).  Are we supposed to assume that the agents who were in suspended animation, if that's what it was, won't have aged when they're reactivated?  I'm dubious, since actual suspended animation would probably mean more than just lying on a steel table.  If that's how to stay ageless, I'm going to sleep on my kitchen prep table from now on. 

So far I'm liking this a lot.

I don’t think so.  If that was the case, the show could have just had Underwear Guy and Alaskan Guy be played by the same actor, and they are not.  I still think that Alaskan Guy somehow is the son of Underwear Guy.  
 

I’m thinking the three people on the slabs were in the process of getting Treadstoned, and not necessarily in suspended animation.  But I could be wrong. 

[rainsmom]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I’m thinking the three people on the slabs were in the process of getting Treadstoned, and not necessarily in suspended animation.  But I could be wrong. 

Oh. I thought they were the three people Underwear Guy had just shot.

[Mondrianyone]

5 hours ago, blackwing said:

I don’t think so.  If that was the case, the show could have just had Underwear Guy and Alaskan Guy be played by the same actor, and they are not.

Couldn't they just be two unrelated operatives?  They were both white men with some facial hair, but that seemed to be the extent of the resemblance.  I don't know any of these actors (except for Michelle Forbes!), so I don't know which are the stars and which are the lesser-knowns.  If the very good-looking guy from the first scenes comes back, I'd assume it would be in his youthful form, or else what a waste.  So then they're two different guys (although still possibly father and son, with father reanimated as a young guy).

I'm obviously just talking out of my butt.  I guess everything will become clearer in the fullness of time.

[Mondrianyone]

9 hours ago, rainsmom said:

Oh. I thought they were the three people Underwear Guy had just shot.

You're right.  I'm an idiot (and I don't know why I'm so fixated on this).  Just watched the beginning again, and that's apparently who they were.  At first I thought one of the bodies was a woman, so I figured they had to be different people.  I'll shut up about this now.

[blackwing]

16 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

You're right.  I'm an idiot (and I don't know why I'm so fixated on this).  Just watched the beginning again, and that's apparently who they were.  At first I thought one of the bodies was a woman, so I figured they had to be different people.  I'll shut up about this now.

Hah, I just went and rewatched again and yes, of course, it makes sense now.  The three bodies are the three people he shot when he was FrereJacqued, the one on the end that he took the place of even had a bullet hole in his forehead.  Not sure why I didn't catch that before.

But I too, thought the one in the middle was a woman.  Wearing a shirt, looks to have breasts, clean shaven legs and in panties instead of boxers.  But I guess it could have been a guy with super pecs and manties.  Or maybe one of the people he shot was indeed a woman.

[PentaHookUp]

On 10/17/2019 at 10:31 AM, Netfoot said:

And that they would consider it well hidden, when it makes a noise the old guy could hear from across the farmyard, once he got his hearing-aid.  Has he been hard of hearing for the entire 45 years? Has nobody else set foot in the farmyard in all that time?

And is a flashing light always required on hidden technology?  Like when someone bugs a house or secretly attaches a tracker to a car. Pay no attention to the flashing red LEDs and the beep-beep-beep!

Probably more to do with frequency it was broadcasting on.  Think what was picked up by the hearing aid was the pulse; not the sound. You know, like how other equipment can pick up a "silent alarm".  (I probably got the usage of "frequency" and "pulse" out of whack; but maybe someone will get the idea and come aboard and explain.)

Edited October 22, 2019 by PentaHookUp

[PentaHookUp]

On 10/16/2019 at 10:27 AM, blackwing said:

"The guy I call Underwear Guy (for lack of knowing his name) is the guy from the opening scene." 

When he escaped and got to that house he made a call--(phone in the wall/door jam?).  I think the voice on the other end called him "John".

Edited October 22, 2019 by PentaHookUp
Quote

[PentaHookUp]

On 10/16/2019 at 10:14 AM, AnimeMania said:

What Underwear Guy surfaced again at the end? Who was he (description of scene). I did notice that Missing Finger Girl turned into the Old Cat Lady living on the farm.

Didn't catch the "Old Cat Lady" as the "Missing Finger Girl.

Thanks.

[PentaHookUp]

On 10/16/2019 at 7:30 PM, OoogleEyes said:

I don't know what the hell is going on, but I love it so far.  I'm going along for the ride wherever it takes us!

Same here. 

First watch the entire episode--then went back and rewatched the first half.

[Tachi Rocinante]

In the books, "Treadstone 71" was a shadow organization/black operations type thing.

I think this show is attempting to expand on it.

Good so far.

[nuraman00]

On 10/16/2019 at 4:51 PM, mxc90 said:

I hope I'm not required to have seen all of the Jason Bourne movies. I have seen the first and that's it.

One time, I would like to see someone leap to another building and get injured (like Tom Cruise).

I'm curious how they were so confident the son would give the game toy to the mother, know she was going to turn it on, get in a trance, find the needle, the note, and didn't ruin dinner.

I would love to have seen how she got back to the other building ( the cord was very high up), did she retrieve the needle and did she get rope/cord burn.

For a journalist turned cab driver, Tara Coleman didn't seem nervous being given a dangerous mission.

Let me guess Brian J. Smith's character doesn't have a wife and the woman handler (pretending  to be the wife) told the other worker to make sure he is taking his pills.

The young woman playing the redhead must be saying "Damn! This is what the people in charge think I will look like when I get older. F*ck!".

The cord looked way to high to be able to jump down from.

Also, how did SoYun know which apartment to fall down to?

On 10/17/2019 at 2:40 AM, Rickster said:

I'm not surprised that the nuke was on a farm, I'm surprised the old guy never ran across the hatch entrance buried under 2 inches of straw and dirt in the barn.

Agree.

[nuraman00]

On 10/21/2019 at 7:18 AM, blackwing said:

Hah, I just went and rewatched again and yes, of course, it makes sense now.  The three bodies are the three people he shot when he was FrereJacqued, the one on the end that he took the place of even had a bullet hole in his forehead.  Not sure why I didn't catch that before.

But I too, thought the one in the middle was a woman.  Wearing a shirt, looks to have breasts, clean shaven legs and in panties instead of boxers.  But I guess it could have been a guy with super pecs and manties.  Or maybe one of the people he shot was indeed a woman.

I thought the one on the left was a woman.

Maybe it's supposed to be ambiguous.

I had to re-watch most of the action scenes, so I could figure out why and how the characters reacted the way they did, at each step, during the battles.

[nuraman00]

On 10/16/2019 at 4:51 PM, mxc90 said:

I hope I'm not required to have seen all of the Jason Bourne movies. I have seen the first and that's it.

One time, I would like to see someone leap to another building and get injured (like Tom Cruise).

I agree there were too many building jumps.

[ohcomeon]

I've only watched the first episode so far. At first it was difficult to keep track of who was in what decade. I think I'll enjoy the series but there were a few things that annoyed me. I wish Underwear guy in the 70's didn't look as similar a the actor playing current day Alaskan guy. Also, there is no way the farmer would have never come across that hatch in his own barn. They should have put the hatch in some place that a farmer wouldn't be mucking out or moving things around so frequently. And I want to know what time of day or year that you can just walk up to the Palace of Versailles without there being massively long lines. And having the Hall of Mirrors practically empty? Never.  And the Palace is over 700,000 square feet and sites on 2000 acres. Yeah, your going to just be able to walk up and find someone. Why couldn't they pick a more reasonable landmark for her to go hunting for the daughter?

[John Potts]

I do like a series where people aren't artificially stupid but expect the audience to just keep up. People who have history with the intelligence community (eg British-Cabbie-Ex-Journalist) are entirely unsurprised when a random passenger turns out to be CIA and when Michelle Forbes is told Treadstone was shut down she asks "Really?" It bugs me when Producers feel they need to have the characters ask dumb questions ("You mean the CIA isn't entirely open and above board!?") purely for the audience's benefit.

How much of this series is going to be set in the past? Because I thought I recognised the red haired 9 fingered woman (though looking her – Emilia Schule - up on IMDB, I was wrong, I was possibly mistaking her for Gemma Arterton) and we got to see her in the future, so she must survive

I’m wondering if Treadstone is going to go entirely rogue (or if that was the plan, given the series has been cancelled) and our operatives are going to bring the organisation down. That would fit with most of the Bourne movies.

On 10/16/2019 at 3:27 PM, blackwing said:

Then Redhead Lady decides that he needs to be killed.  He escapes from the room and winds up in another room where he sees three underwear clad bodies on tables.  Offscreen, he dresses one of the bodies in his clothes and shoves it out the open window and takes the place of one of the bodies.

She only decided he needed to be killed because he killed his Doctor/Controller, and he was dressed (or rather undressed!) like them already. In fact, I’m not sure she even wanted him dead (though she would probably accept that in preference to him escaping - which he obviously did).

On 10/17/2019 at 12:51 AM, mxc90 said:

Let me guess Brian J. Smith's character doesn't have a wife and the woman handler (pretending  to be the wife) told the other worker to make sure he is taking his pills.

That would be my guess. Interestingly, the drugs seem to be designed to suppress his special abilities (the fight in the bar happens immediately after we see him pointedly not take his pills but gets drunk instead) – presumably to avoid blowing his cover as a super secret agent/assassin.