S02.E03: Empathy for the Devil

[HalcyonDays]

Episode synopsis: Molly finally learns the frightening truth about what happened to her son. Also, Julie’s decision to erase Ethan’s memory has disturbing consequences.

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Nearly two minutes of previouslies ... again.

 

So, 5 months ago (already the dates aren't adding up on this season), the Offspring didn't transfer his consciousness into little baby Justin.  He played dead for a while until he got to the morgue and then shed his skin to turn into Teenage Mutant Ninja Offspring.  Good thing they didn't start an autopsy on him before he moulted.

 

The Offspring puts the whammy on the morgue workers steals their clothes and wallets, and after spending the night on Skid Row, he uses that money to rent an apartment under the name of Mrs. Nelson.  Then he goes shopping and buys junk food and energy drinks.  Then he turns on the TV and 3 Radio Pods he purchased.  Why are the "Radio Pod"s so fricking large ?  It's the future, for crying out loud.

 

Fast forward 5 months and he is now fully matured, been banging hotties that he picked up in bars, and is meeting Molly in a bar.  I hope he doesn't bang his mom.  The Offspring now calls himself Aidu (spelling?).

 

And the drone is on its way -- 90 seconds out -- when the Offspring kills the camera in the club that military were tapping into.  Then they take a walk into the alley back of the club.  As Molly is about to kiss the Offspring, Richter steps in gun in hand and takes her away -- but it kind of looked like Molly knew something was henky when she almost kissed the Offspring.  The Offspring puts the whammy on Richter and intends for Richter to shoot himself in the head, but Molly pleads with the Offspring to stop it and he does.  Then they hear the incoming drone attack on the nightclub -- and the missile goes off about 100 feet away and destroys the club as the Offspring cheeses it out of the alley.

 

Seriously, the military doesn't have anything a little stronger in their drone missile arsenal.  They have drones firing Hellfire missiles today that were stronger than that.  And somehow the military shows up 30 seconds later but miss running into the Offspring on the way -- how exactly ?

 

Richter gets interrogated by Tobias' assistant -- and when she gets no where she sprays something from a black spray can that puts Richter to sleep.  Molly also gets interrogated, but for some reason she gets a bowl of fruit in her room -- and Molly isn't even chained to the table like Richter.

 

Charlie and Julie get to play show and tell with Anna Schaefer the HBIC, but not before Charlie chides Julie for erasing Molly from Ethan's memories so that he now calls Julie 'mom'.  

 

Tobias confronts Molly in the interrogation room, and Molly doesn't take it well but they work it out fiarly quickly. Tobias sets Molly up to be the Offspring assassin because she's his mommy and he won't hurt her, and she gets soem shooting lessons from Tobias' assistant.

 

Turns out there were 29 deaths in the Western US that all had accelerated pregnancies -- the Offspring has been busy.  And according to military projections, there will be thousands of deaths all over the world -- meaning there will soon be thousands of aliens.

 

Ethan questions Julie about Lucy becoming a soldier, and as Julie finishes reading him a story, Ethan gets all glitchy.  I think the memory erase of Molly in Ethan didn't fully take.  Later, Ethan has another flashback and collapses in the park and upon waking he asks Charlie about Molly.

 

Lucy starts to show some sociopathic tendencies and starts lying, and mildly rebelling against Julie.  This won't end well.

 

Molly goes home -- and Richter breaks into her apartment, specifically going against Tobias' recommendation for him to stay away.  Molly starts to sense the Offspring coming near and insists Richter leave at gunpoint.

 

Julie bangs Charlie because of all the nice things he said about her.  Awwwwwwww.  I think its more just to keep him in-line and not be so rebellious about Lucy's programming.

 

The Offspring causes a 20 block electrical blackout around Molly's apartment and stops by to visit mom.  Molly demands answers, and the Offspring shows her a projection of all of his offspring -- there are a lot.  Molly passes out from the shock of it all, and when she wakes up she shoots some guy that was entering her apartment.  And it appears that she shot Tobias -- one problem, the guy that entered her apartment appeared to be wearing a purple shirt and Tobias was wearing a blue suit.  So was it all in her head ?  And Molly has started scratching her arm again.

 

Richter goes home to find his daughter on his doorstep -- and she's pregnant.  Probably due to the Offspring.

[thuganomics85]

Man, did the CBS promo folks pretty much 

spoil that Tobias is still alive? I'm pretty sure I saw him in next week's previews. I was sure he would not be dead anyway, but still: way to make the last few seconds irrelevant, guys.

 

At this point, I think I would rather just watch a show where Lucy and Ethan team up and take down all the various annoying humans. They really are the only characters I somewhat give a shit about, which is kind of funny, since Lucy's only been in about two episodes.

 

Of course, the first on my wishlist is Julie.  I swear, I think this character is getting more and more obnoxious each episode.  She has deluded herself into hand-waving all her bad moves as well-meaning, plays the victim card, and then treats those who question her like shit, but then when they finally have enough, she suddenly gets all "hurt" about it.  Good grief.  And I totally think the only reason she hooked up with Charlie was because of her seeing Lucy holding his hand.  Yeah, Julie is totally jealous of the hot robot she created.

 

Meanwhile, Molly's Alien Baby is still running a muck and I'm guessing judging from that "vision", his plan is to just procreate as much as possible, bring forth more alien babies, with the added bonus of killing all of the human mothers.  Therefore, I guess try to kill off the human race.  He's telling Molly she had to pick a side now, but I would like to think that even Molly realizes that her son isn't worth the death of the human species.

 

JD is now no longer a cop and even got pushed away by Molly, but I'm guessing his daughter showing up and being pregnant, will keep him relevent.  I will not be surprised if his daughter is one of the Alien Baby's victims.

 

Was there anything on the news about the military blowing up the club?  Did anyone mention it at all? That should be a pretty big damn story, I would think.

 

Anna/Hilarie Burton is still pretty much an over-the-top villain, who will no doubt hopefully suffer a horrific ending.

[Free]

 

Man, did the CBS promo folks pretty much

 

Yes, it did felt random though.

 

 

I swear, I think this character is getting more and more obnoxious each episode.

 

Yep and way more annoying than last season.

[shapeshifter]

I laughed when JD's daughter said, "I'm pregnant." I've earned the right to laugh at that situation, so no judging.

However, I will now rush in where better angels would know better than to tread. I found the racial casting of all the African American characters to be evil space spawn to be offensive only when Molly said she chose the side that was with the powerful white dude. HB is bi-racial, and it just seemed like they were hoping we wouldn't notice the weird subtext of her choice. Or am I the only one who saw it that way?

Editing again to clarify:

Yes, "Molly was picking humans over aliens - not white people over black people," and yes, the aliens looked like her because they had her DNA, but the casting people chose to cast the humans as all white. They didn't have to.

Anyway, so now that she shot Toby, I'm guessing she's going to go hide out with JD until the heat dies down or the show is canceled.

Am I also the only one who, when Charlie told Julie he'd always loved her best, thought Julie's face was saying: "Oh crap. I didn't need to screw John or kill him. I could've lived happily ever after with Charlie"?

Editing out weird double post. Sorry it took me so long to notice.

Edited July 17, 2015 by shapeshifter

[Human]

I noticed the racial thing, shapeshifter, and it definitely made me feel uncomfortable.  

 

If JD's daughter is pregnant with the alien baby, that will be too much coincidence for me.  It's one thing if Aidu got into JD's mind and sought her out later, but JD's run-in with alien boy was just a day or so ago.  JD didn't even come into Molly's life until a few days ago, so even if Aidu was keeping tabs, it's just too soon for the daughter to know.  So, it really better not be alien baby.

 

Julie's jealousy is becoming comically bad.  She's jealous about every single thing.  Career recognition, men, co-workers, parenthood, who wears a white dress better.  The whole world will end up extinct because Julie couldn't control the green.  I wonder if she will end up being the one true monster at the end of it all.

[shapeshifter]

...If JD's daughter is pregnant with the alien baby, that will be too much coincidence for me.  It's one thing if Aidu got into JD's mind and sought her out later, but JD's run-in with alien boy was just a day or so ago.  JD didn't even come into Molly's life until a few days ago, so even if Aidu was keeping tabs, it's just too soon for the daughter to know.  So, it really better not be alien baby...

Actually, it could still be the alien baby since they included the line this week of Molly telling JD about how the fetus had accelerated development. So JD's daughter could be either pregnant with some other guy she slept with a few months ago, or she could be pregnant with and from the alien spawn and not realize it (because, like you said, it would seem too soon to be showing/knowing).

[Actionmage]

or she could be pregnant with and from the alien spawn and not realize it

 

Yeah; I think the show likes the accelerated pregnancy thing because the actresses and writers don't have to really do a realistic pregnancy. One or two days with a belly pad, scream some on another shooting day,  then you're a "grandma" after six months! You don't even have to gain weight or "lose" your figure at all. *g*

 

I did like JD after Molly leveled  with him,  then didn't understand that she may have been mentally controlled by her half-alien son! *G*  'Why the twitchiness and the hostility, Crazy Acres? I just said I believed you!'

The whole world will end up extinct because Julie

 

 

Yeah, the reaction shot of Julie seeing Lucy hold Charlie's hand? The one she crushed? I was worried for Charlie, but of course Julie is all 'Not my not-even-sloppy-seconds!'   I hope Charlie is disillusioned enough to roll with a bit of nookie but not feel romantic towards Julie again. I was thinking, " Remember Odin, Charlie? " Remember what happened to him after The Sex with Julie? He died, Charlie!!

 

But  the bigger sins of Julie are the mindwipe of Ethan and thinking a human-appearing, amoral weapon is something that can be "fixed" "later". No, Julie; that is exactly what these Congressmen ( I see you, Future Patriarchy!) and Generals ordered. Like Hillarie  Burton's character said!  Change anything now and the money folks will know and you will go the way of "John Woods" potentially.

 

I missed the first half of the episode due to getting caught up in a Tattletales rerun on Buzzr ( old game show) and partly forgetting this was on tonight.  Other than the resolution of the drone drama, did I really miss anything important? I felt relatively up-to-date after switching over  and paying attention for a few minutes. 

 

Question: Is Molly a natural sharpshooter or has her proficiency with firearms been shown before? I don't remember her dealing with guns much in S1.  Potential take away: going to Crazy Acres ( tm JD Richter) will give you the ability to be an unerring firearms master.

 

I will stick around for Ethan and Charlie. I yelled at the TV for Charlie to runaway with Ethan after Ethan "glitched" at his memory of Molly.

 

PS: Thanks for the recaps, otto! Please keep them up.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Actionmage

[Andromeda]

Am I supposed to feel bad that Ethan's memory got wiped so Julie could pretend to be his mother? Because not so much. It's a robot -- at least that's one benefit to having a robot boy instead of a real one (of which there are plenty who need homes). But we're supposed to be all sadz about it, I guess. I just never warmed to Ethan. 

And Julie of course is yucky, so there's that.

[molshoop]

What is the point of going after Molly's AB, even to the point of using a drone strike?  There are already 29 more just like him out there, and about half would be male.  And since they develop so quickly, they will be impregnating more females in no time.

Unless they can track them all down and kill them ( good luck with that ), isn't the battle already lost ?

I liked this show last year, partly because I'm a big fan of Goran Visnjic, but I'm giving up on it now.

[shrewd.buddha]

Extant , season 2 -- or "How Molly got her groove back" .... uummm.. by hitting on her alien hybrid son in a bar .. 
(Those 'getting your groove back' hook-ups never seem to work out well, do they? ) 

 

And I'm starting to like Julie more -- but only if she continues to ramp up to a totally evil, mustache-twirling, cartoon villain. With the robotic tech at her disposal, she could totally create her own army of two-foot-tall child minions. Now that would be a show worth watching.. 

Edited July 16, 2015 by shrewd.buddha

[Free]

 

Julie's jealousy is becoming comically bad.  She's jealous about every single thing.  Career recognition, men, co-workers, parenthood, who wears a white dress better.  The whole world will end up extinct because Julie couldn't control the green.  I wonder if she will end up being the one true monster at the end of it all.

 

She already is because of her own stupidity.

[Driad]

 

After seeing her alien grandchildren, Molly yelled something like "I'm with them!"  Maybe I was too tired, but I wasn't sure which "them" she was with, the aliens or the humans.  Was this clearer to others?

[Neurochick]

I noticed the racial thing, shapeshifter, and it definitely made me feel uncomfortable.

 

 

I'm confused as to what was racial about it, one of those children looked a bit like HB's real life daughter, the one with the long, curly blonde hair.  What I noticed is how Julie seems to be jealous of every black woman she sees, first Molly now Lucy.  WTF Julie?

Edited July 16, 2015 by Neurochick

[Human]

I'm confused as to what was racial about it, one of those children looked a bit like HB's real life daughter, the one with the long, curly blonde hair.  What I noticed is how Julie seems to be jealous of every black woman she sees, first Molly now Lucy.  WTF Julie?

To quote shapeshifter: "I found the racial casting of all the African American characters to be evil space spawn to be offensive only when Molly said she chose the side that was with the powerful white dude. HB is bi-racial, and it just seemed like they were hoping we wouldn't notice the weird subtext of her choice."

 

I find it really uncomfortable. Your point about how Julie has issues with black women might also be examples of the shows issues with race.  I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but I don't really think this show is intelligent enough or has the gravitas to really explore race in any meaningful way.  

[Neurochick]

I kind of get that, but if they cast white actors to play the space spawn, then to me that would be silly.  What I noticed is that the kids kind of look like HB's real life children.  

[Human]

I kind of get that, but if they cast white actors to play the space spawn, then to me that would be silly.  What I noticed is that the kids kind of look like HB's real life children.  

No one is saying the aliens should have been white.  It's how the story played out in this episode with Molly choosing big powerful white dude.  For one, she's been all about her kid since we met her so it's weird that she would shoot him (even if it's just a hallucination).  For another, shooting her own kid doesn't do anything to stop the other 29 alien spawn running around.  It's a story element that didn't add up based on what we know and thus, made it very uncomfortable because it's impossible not to notice that we have a black woman choosing big powerful white man.  

[shapeshifter]

... I was thinking, " Remember Odin, Charlie? " Remember what happened to him after The Sex with Julie? He died, Charlie!!

LOL! So true.

 

I kind of get that, but if they cast white actors to play the space spawn, then to me that would be silly.  What I noticed is that the kids kind of look like HB's real life children.  

--which is probably all that they were naively going for. But when Molly then decided to choose the "other side" (right while we're seeing all her offspring with evil glowing eyes), and the other side consisted of no other African Americans (maybe one Middle-Eastern POC, but she's been written as evil-ish too), I just thought the casting folks must've slept through Diversity 101 for Casting.  Anyway, I knew I opened a Pandora's box by mentioning it, but I was glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought it was insensitive (Human did too), so at least I'm not any crazier than usual. Does that make sense?

[slothgirl]

we have a black woman choosing big powerful white man.  

I don't get this attitude that she chose a big powerful white man. She chose humans over aliens from I saw. I don't have a problem with her shooting her AB after her attitude last season. For one thing, they've totally re-written the show. FOr another, last season, AB seemed in her mind to be a victim being taken from her by others and he was a child. Now she sees him as an adult and has seen the destruction caused to the MOTHERS of the new aliens. She probably couldn't relate to AB's victims last season, and figured it was all "self-defense". But now the aliens are killing the women who were pregnant with them, which measn that could have been HER.

 

Isn't HB one of the producers? It's hard to believe that she would inject racist undertones or allow them. I didn't know she was bi-racial, but I would have never thought of the show mirroring some real life conumdrum that she has. I would imagine she's made her peace with her race at this point in her life, and it's other people who seem to emphasize it.

 

It's not like we have LOTS of regular characters. I guess they could have made Lucy white, but they could hardly make Alian baby white. Her bf from last season was black.

 

If you want to find some deeper racial meaning in her choosing "caucasian", she DID turn around and kill a powerful white man. What does that mean?

Edited July 16, 2015 by slothgirl

[slothgirl]

Am I supposed to feel bad that Ethan's memory got wiped so Julie could pretend to be his mother? Because not so much. It's a robot -- at least that's one benefit to having a robot boy instead of a real one (of which there are plenty who need homes). But we're supposed to be all sadz about it, I guess. I just never warmed to Ethan. 

And Julie of course is yucky, so there's that.

I don't really care that she wiped his memory either. He was miserable and I don't care that much for Molly anyway. Maybe if she'd spent a little less time all "My Baby!" about her parasitic "alien" organism using her as a host to destroy upon birth, I might have considered her Ethan's mother. But the whole "He's our son!" thing about a robot, combined with her obsession with protecting AB as though it actually was her child, just made me think she's got more than a few screws loose. It's not like Julie got Molly committed, nor like Julie had any expectation that she would be released any time soon.

 

And I think HB's acting in this show is atrocious, so I never warmed up to the character at all. I find Julie a far more interesting character.

[Neurochick]

No one is saying the aliens should have been white.  It's how the story played out in this episode with Molly choosing big powerful white dude.  For one, she's been all about her kid since we met her so it's weird that she would shoot him (even if it's just a hallucination).  For another, shooting her own kid doesn't do anything to stop the other 29 alien spawn running around.  It's a story element that didn't add up based on what we know and thus, made it very uncomfortable because it's impossible not to notice that we have a black woman choosing big powerful white man.  

 

Yes, but now her alien son is killing the women whom he impregnates.  Molly's seen the stats as to what could happen.  I didn't see her choosing a white man as much as her choosing humans.  When she was carrying on about her baby, her son WAS a baby, but now he's a grown man and very dangerous.  He was going to make the cop kill himself right in front of her.  

 

And Julie can just go away now.  She seems to be jealous of every WOC that comes her way, first Molly, now Lucy.  

[ottoDbusdriver]

Yes, but now her alien son is killing the women whom he impregnates.

 

Do they not have condoms in the future -- or does the Offspring have super-alien sperm that breaks through the condoms ?  Or is it the spores like how they originally impregnated Molly in the space station so he doesn't need to have sex with them, just kind of stand nearby ?

[Rhetorica]

I haven't had a chance to see it yet. Did the play the Stones song in the background?

[slothgirl]

Do they not have condoms in the future -- or does the Offspring have super-alien sperm that breaks through the condoms ?  Or is it the spores like how they originally impregnated Molly in the space station so he doesn't need to have sex with them, just kind of stand nearby ?

If the alien can mindf$%^ someone into killing their fellow soldiers or even themself, I don't think getting women to forego a condom is much of a challenge.

[LydiaMoon1]

I found the racial casting of all the African American characters to be evil space spawn to be offensive only when Molly said she chose the side that was with the powerful white dude. HB is bi-racial, and it just seemed like they were hoping we wouldn't notice the weird subtext of her choice. Or am I the only one who saw it that way?

My reaction was the complete opposite.  I laughed and laughed at the "terrifying" prospect of a colorful alien future, as opposed to the typical predominately white future usually presented in movies and tv. I thought this gave that notion a good poke in the eye.

 

And I also thought Molly chose humans over aliens, esp. after the Offspring showed how callous he is regarding human life.

Edited July 16, 2015 by LydiaMoon1

[wayne67]

Yes, but now her alien son is killing the women whom he impregnates.  Molly's seen the stats as to what could happen.  I didn't see her choosing a white man as much as her choosing humans.  When she was carrying on about her baby, her son WAS a baby, but now he's a grown man and very dangerous.  He was going to make the cop kill himself right in front of her.  

 

And Julie can just go away now.  She seems to be jealous of every WOC that comes her way, first Molly, now Lucy.  

 

I honestly didn't see the race problem but then again I live in Australia and we have other issues atm mostly about illegal immigrants/ boat people.

 

My biggest problem with this whole story line is how stupid it is. For starters killing Molly's alien baby doesn't actually help anything if anything killing him could actually make the situation way worse as his children would presumably scatter without a strong leader/father figure making them much harder to find. As for Aidu? or however he wants to spell his name of course he's indifferent to human life, 95% of the human race seems to be trying to kidnap him or shoot him in the head since conception. That's bound to screw him up with the whole empathy angle.

 

As far as I can tell the military's plan seems to be kill the oldest alien baby (Molly's child) then use the Humanic super soldiers to kill off his children or Molly's grandchildren before they reach maturation.

 

I just find it sad that NOONE thinks of telling Aidu that he could still repopulate his species without killing the surrogates by simply using the tech they used on Molly in the first place. His children would be c sectioned out a few days? weeks into pregnancy, installed in vitro chambers until they're self sufficient and in sufficient numbers they can breed with each other. That way there would be no human deaths. Hell they could just set up the alien hybrids on another planet since they have the space ships.

 

Unfortunately the Military in this show seems locked into this whole aliens are evil and must all be destroyed which narrows the options done to humans winning or aliens winning or the robots killing the aliens then the humans who try and control them. Julie is a terrible mother to her robot children, wiping Ethan's memories so he's less able to process grief and effectively slut shaming her robo daughter.

[HalcyonDays]

I'm so sad, as my PVR decided to malfunction last night and I lost the episode (along with tons of other stuff I was keeping, dammit). *cries*

 

I'm living through your eyes, people.

[ribboninthesky1]

My reaction was the complete opposite.  I laughed and laughed at the "terrifying" prospect of a colorful alien future, as opposed to the typical predominately white future usually presented in movies and tv. I thought this gave that notion a good poke in the eye.

 

And I also thought Molly chose humans over aliens, esp. after the Offspring showed how callous he is regarding human life.

 

Right, finally we get a sci-fi future beyond more white people.  It's weird, but quite practical in the context of the show.  Molly said "I choose them" after waking up disoriented after being mindfucked by her alien son and surrounded by creepy alien children, and then having someone just walk into her home unannounced. She clearly thought it was her son, who HAS been inadvertently killing women while being a rolling stone, and she shot him. It's dumb, but I get it. 

 

I'm usually sensitive to racial subtext, especially as it pertains to black(ish) people, but I wasn't bothered. Creeped out by the glowy-eyed mixed kids, yes. 

 

I'm not sure why Toby went to her place alone anyway.  What exactly did he plan to do if the son was there? Still, didn't expect to see David Morrissey perish so soon.  

 

If I can't have Molly going after Julie with a shovel, then I'll be satisfied if Lucy dispatches her.  It'll be a two-fer - take out Hilarie Burton as well. Now where I DO sense some racial subtext is where I suspect the show is going with Lucy - having her go Darth Vader while Ethan remains the "good" robot.  I hope to be wrong, though. The two actors have a nice sibling chemistry.  

 

Charlie referring to Julie as "kind" made me giggle.  I've seen no evidence of that, but okay, show. Julie could be an interesting character, but the actress rubs me the wrong way.  To give her some credit, I don't think Julie has a problem with black women per se - just Molly and anyone in her likeness, who seem to drive the men in her life to distraction without much effort, heh.   

 

All in all, I'm still enjoying the show so far, change in tone and all.  This is a show that really benefits from fewer episodes - I doubt I'd hang in there for 22-24 episodes per season.  Not sure why, but I find it entertaining, and interested to see where they go with it.  Watching the show online and not seeing the previews helps.  

Edited July 18, 2015 by ribboninthesky1

[Black Knight]

Yes, Molly was picking humans over aliens - not white people over black people. She basically loathes Toby now, so it sure wasn't about that.

 

With Lucy we do have a reason for why she looks the way she does: John purposely modeled her after his wife. So while she is juxtaposed with and may turn out to contrast with Ethan (although frankly I will never consider being an annoyance to Julie to be anything but a good thing), she's also juxtaposed with Molly. Molly, who is the show's heroine. Since Molly's storyline hasn't yet intersected with the lab's storyline, that's not really been played yet, but once the storylines do intersect, it's probably going to come across like good "original recipe" Molly vs. bad "copy" Molly. We already had some of that in this episode: Original recipe Molly was not down with the drone strike that killed a bunch of innocents, while copy Molly approved a hypothetical situation that was similar.

[Human]

I would just like to point out that no one said she was picking whites over blacks.  I specifically was discussing how the appearance of things made me feel uncomfortable.  THe subtext, if you will.  My comments have been very twisted.  

[Neurochick]

Human, I kind of get what you're saying, but if I'd just been mind fucked by my alien son and then shown a bunch of his creepy alien children, who technically are my grandchildren, I'd choose humanity too.  I see how you took it, but I think the deal with HB, since she's a producer is that she probably didn't want the children to look white, as that would make no sense really.

 

Charlie referring to Julie as "kind" made me giggle.  I've seen no evidence of that, but okay, show. Julie could be an interesting character, but the actress rubs me the wrong way.  To give her some credit, I don't think Julie has a problem with black women per se - just Molly and anyone in her likeness, who seemed to drive the men in her life to distraction without much effort, heh.

 

 

I think you have a point there.  Julie isn't kind at all, to me, but I do know some women like her who don't get why SHE, a smart woman has issues with men while women who aren't that smart don't have to lift a finger, and the men will come running, it's not about being jealous, it's more frustration.  

[wayne67]

I think you have a point there.  Julie isn't kind at all, to me, but I do know some women like her who don't get why SHE, a smart woman has issues with men while women who aren't that smart don't have to lift a finger, and the men will come running, it's not about being jealous, it's more frustration.  

 

Well during the last 2 seasons she's hooked up with 3 hot guys (opinions may vary on the hotness) while Molly has done so with 2 hot guys and 1 mediocre white guy (opinions may vary on their hotness) so I'm not seeing the problem. Of course Julie's guys haven't been the best choices one guy was married and her boss, one guy was some random she left to babysit a child/one of a kind robot prototype and the other is a nerdy cute underling. Maybe she's one of those people who think that all her problems are about one thing robo legs, being too smart and ignore the other issues with her actual personality like being wildly insecure, needy, workaholic and morally bankrupt.

[BetyBee]

If Molly went to the bar because she wanted to run into her alien son, that might make sense.  (What a crazy sentence!)  But she specifically seemed to be telling Toby that wasn't the case and surely that's true, since she nearly made out with her alien son.  So I would like to know why, in the midst of all that is going on in her life, would she go to a singles bar to pick up a stranger?  Makes no sense!

[ribboninthesky1]

I thought she was lured there by him, but the entire scene was strange and disturbingly incestuous.  

[SlackerInc]

It's a great question, why she was actually there.  Hmmm...I hadn't thought of that and I don't have an answer.

 

It was foolish for "The General" to take away the cop's license as I assume he would have been more likely to leave the whole thing alone if he could just move on to another case. In fact, they should have given him some money to compensate him, like at least the amount he'd have gotten from a conviction.

 

Speaking of The General, why doesn't he wear a military uniform at work?  Even if he is working partly with civilians, wouldn't he still wear a uniform, or am I off base?

 

Why are the "Radio Pod"s so fricking large ?  It's the future, for crying out loud.

[snip]

Seriously, the military doesn't have anything a little stronger in their drone missile arsenal.  They have drones firing Hellfire missiles today that were stronger than that.  

 

I thought the same on both counts!  With the drone missile, I can handwave it away as being about their trying to minimize civilian casualties on U.S. soil.  The "Radio Pods", though, are a total fail.  Strange, too, as their phones are very plausible and compact.

 

Editing again to clarify:
Yes, "Molly was picking humans over aliens - not white people over black people," and yes, the aliens looked like her because they had her DNA, but the casting people chose to cast the humans as all white. They didn't have to.

 

It would have been perfectly fine to cast some more minorities, but OTOH African Americans are only 12% of the U.S. population, and aren't really growing their slice of the pie.  What a show set circa 2050 should really have is a lot more Latinos.

 

But  the bigger sins of Julie are the mindwipe of Ethan and thinking a human-appearing, amoral weapon is something that can be "fixed" "later". No, Julie; that is exactly what these Congressmen ( I see you, Future Patriarchy!) and Generals ordered. Like Hillarie  Burton's character said!  Change anything now and the money folks will know and you will go the way of "John Woods" potentially.

 

To play devil's advocate, although the Hilarie Burton character came in initially like a comically over-the-top stock gummint villain character, the more I think about it the more I think the situation they are facing is so grave that nothing she says is really wrong.  They don't have time to settle in with proper ethical safeguards, as within the show's universe the human race is on the tipping point of extinction.  In fact, a good argument should be made that they should be going a lot more all-out than they are (starting with closing down all the singles bars, how about?).

 

What is the point of going after Molly's AB, even to the point of using a drone strike?  There are already 29 more just like him out there, and about half would be male.  And since they develop so quickly, they will be impregnating more females in no time.

Unless they can track them all down and kill them ( good luck with that ), isn't the battle already lost ?

 

I was thinking this too.  Unless these aliens have that common vulnerability of TV/movie aliens: that they all go down if the leader is taken out.

[jhlipton]

Just caught up.

 

One thing that was pointed out is that all of AB's baby-mamas that we've seen have been white.  How about a little diversity there, folks?

 

===========================================

 

"Sir, the cameras are out -- we have no idea if the Offspring is still in the bar."
"Heck, I paid for this drone -- Imma gonna use it!  Fire anyway!"

 

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ETA: I love that guns haven't changed at all, but targets actually provide less information (such as the location of hits) than they do now!

Edited August 4, 2015 by jhlipton