S01.E09: Where You Belong

[Babalu]

23 hours ago, possibilities said:

But if he was in Team AI, why didn't he just abduct Piper sooner? She trusted him, it would have been easy.

Who knows, but my theory for now is they had to wait until both Wilkis and Emily were neutralized so that neither of them could destroy or change Piper’s programming. Emily’s inability to access the program may be only temporary (while she’s in federal custody), but perhaps the bracelet they gave Piper and/or the place they’re taking her locks Emily out in the future.

Edited December 21, 2019 by Babalu

[Lunula]

I still really like this show and hope it gets a second season; however, I thought the “Benny is really an AI” twist was terrible. Perhaps the writers will explain later why he would need to ingratiate himself so much before nabbing her. He had numerous instances where he could’ve and he was waiting for....what? So he is AI and had an AI posse, yet he waits all this time, with no visits from said posse, and then grabs her? Huh? I never fully trusted him, but in order for a twist like this to work (for me) I need a strong motive for waiting this long OR I need some tiny hints buried in the first episodes. Did I miss something? Especially when they broadcast that female AI so strongly before it was revealed - when she was staring at herself in the mirror I told my husband, “She is definitely AI” and he replied, “Oh yeah.” 

For that matter, I am still perplexed about why it has been so difficult for all the evil geniuses who want Piper to just go get her. I know she has powers and you don’t want to piss her off, I just find the utter lack of security or secrecy shocking. For example, Piper is home alone with grandpa and Alex just walks in. I hear no lock being opened, no one even looks up. I dunno, it just feels way too lackadaisical for my taste.

And did anyone else find Jo’s response to Piper being gone kind of weird? No panic, no freaking out - she kinda stood there and calmly said they needed to find her. I found it out of character considering the lengths she has gone to protect Piper in the past.

[izabella]

29 minutes ago, Lunula said:

And did anyone else find Jo’s response to Piper being gone kind of weird? No panic, no freaking out - she kinda stood there and calmly said they needed to find her. I found it out of character considering the lengths she has gone to protect Piper in the past.

Jo knows at this point that Piper can destroy houses and fling appliances with her mind, so she is smarter about Piper not actually being a helpless kid.

[possibilities]

Also, Jo is a cop. She's trained not to freak out. And male heroes also react in a steely, determined way rather than a panicked way. So I liked that Jo was calm and determined. We know she loves Piper. I don't need her to melt down, I need her to act on it, and show her resolve.

Edited December 23, 2019 by possibilities

[Jacks-Son]

16 hours ago, Lunula said:

I still really like this show and hope it gets a second season; however, I thought the “Benny is really an AI” twist was terrible. Perhaps the writers will explain later why he would need to ingratiate himself so much before nabbing her. He had numerous instances where he could’ve and he was waiting for....what? So he is AI and had an AI posse, yet he waits all this time, with no visits from said posse, and then grabs her? Huh? I never fully trusted him, but in order for a twist like this to work (for me) I need a strong motive for waiting this long OR I need some tiny hints buried in the first episodes. Did I miss something? Especially when they broadcast that female AI so strongly before it was revealed - when she was staring at herself in the mirror I told my husband, “She is definitely AI” and he replied, “Oh yeah.”

Well, the A.I. Posse might have been waiting to see if Piper could survive her predictable fatal exception.  Take her out too soon and she might fail, but under the loving setting that Piper was in, it might have ensured a successful transition.  Piper is now "Woke!". There was a reason why Emily feared Piper would die, it was one of the conditions of the Replicants' demise in the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (Philip K. Dick) and later turned into the movie "Blade Runner".  They had a shelf life and were unaware of their programming. Once self-realized, they got all wonky (scientific term), but some didn't.  Perhaps Benny was a Gigolo Joe, sent in to soften up Jo and Piper for the takedown.  Is it possible that the bracelet was not delivered by Emily, but by Benny with the card that said "From Mom"?  Why would Emily want her daughter (or seen as a younger version of herself) to terminate?  I never got the impression that Emily viewed Piper as a dangerous experiment gone awry, unlike Wilkis who predicted doom & gloom at the possibility of A.I.'s taking over.

[Lunula]

4 hours ago, Jacks-Son said:

Well, the A.I. Posse might have been waiting to see if Piper could survive her predictable fatal exception.  Take her out too soon and she might fail, but under the loving setting that Piper was in, it might have ensured a successful transition.  Piper is now "Woke!". There was a reason why Emily feared Piper would die, it was one of the conditions of the Replicants' demise in the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (Philip K. Dick) and later turned into the movie "Blade Runner".  They had a shelf life and were unaware of their programming. Once self-realized, they got all wonky (scientific term), but some didn't.  Perhaps Benny was a Gigolo Joe, sent in to soften up Jo and Piper for the takedown.  Is it possible that the bracelet was not delivered by Emily, but by Benny with the card that said "From Mom"?  Why would Emily want her daughter (or seen as a younger version of herself) to terminate?  I never got the impression that Emily viewed Piper as a dangerous experiment gone awry, unlike Wilkis who predicted doom & gloom at the possibility of A.I.'s taking over.

Excellent points, I can accept that! In fact, I was a little perplexed that Emily would try and take Piper out - I actually thought she'd encoded the wrist-thingie with new code that would save her. I was surprised they went with the, "Piper saved herself" theory. 

[Mari]

On 12/11/2019 at 8:28 PM, Enigma X said:

I just think Benny and Helen have been living undetected among humans for years. I get it. Yes, long enough for Benny to have a successful career. There is probably many of them.

This makes the most sense to me, so far.  They've already demonstrated that the AI's can be updated with new information;  could Benny not have been replaced, but had new programming or an update?  

It would help explain some of his behavior earlier in the series.  

And are we sure they're robots and not augmented something elses (people, aliens, clones . . .)?  Because at this point, I think everything needs to be questioned.  

 

 

[KaveDweller]

On 12/23/2019 at 9:25 AM, Jacks-Son said:

Well, the A.I. Posse might have been waiting to see if Piper could survive her predictable fatal exception.  Take her out too soon and she might fail, but under the loving setting that Piper was in, it might have ensured a successful transition.  Piper is now "Woke!". There was a reason why Emily feared Piper would die, it was one of the conditions of the Replicants' demise in the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (Philip K. Dick) and later turned into the movie "Blade Runner".  They had a shelf life and were unaware of their programming. Once self-realized, they got all wonky (scientific term), but some didn't.  Perhaps Benny was a Gigolo Joe, sent in to soften up Jo and Piper for the takedown.  Is it possible that the bracelet was not delivered by Emily, but by Benny with the card that said "From Mom"?  Why would Emily want her daughter (or seen as a younger version of herself) to terminate?  I never got the impression that Emily viewed Piper as a dangerous experiment gone awry, unlike Wilkis who predicted doom & gloom at the possibility of A.I.'s taking over.

That makes a lot of sense, and if you remember, Benny wanted to tell Piper that she was an AI way back when he and Jo first found out. He framed it as "solving a problem" but it could easily have been him wanting to see if she could survive.

On 12/27/2019 at 3:07 PM, Mari said:

And are we sure they're robots and not augmented something elses (people, aliens, clones . . .)?  Because at this point, I think everything needs to be questioned.  

I don't think we are sure of anything....the writers could write whatever they wanted in future episodes and we'd have to go with it.

[possibilities]

If Piper had the fatal exception, why didn't the others? It seems they all know they're AI. So, why is Piper different? Or did they all KNOW she would survive it, and Emily was the only person who thought otherwise?

[Jacks-Son]

20 hours ago, possibilities said:

If Piper had the fatal exception, why didn't the others? It seems they all know they're AI. So, why is Piper different? Or did they all KNOW she would survive it, and Emily was the only person who thought otherwise?

There are "possibly" multiple answers to your questions: We don't know if Benny and Helen each had a fatal exception or if they did, how they "survived".  That leads to Why is Piper different?  We don't know if she is different than the others. We know nothing about their etiology nor were we given any indication that they thought she would survive.  The only thing we can MAYBE assume is that the bracelet was given (by Emily or Benny) to begin the process of metamorphosis or surviving a possibly fatal change or to kill Piper off because she's evidence of Artificial Entities passing as Humans that may or may not have OUR survival in mind.