S01.E09: A Kingdom Divided Against Itself

[formerlyfreedom]

As tensions reach a fever pitch inside the cordon, mobs of angry protestors take to the streets in an attempt to break free. Meanwhile, stuck in isolation and cut off from their chain of command, Lex and Dr. Lommers have no choice but to stand by helplessly as the cordon erupts into mass chaos. At the hospital, Jake attempts to lighten the mood by taking Katie on a date, but their happiness is short-lived after they discover that several of Katie’s students have gone missing. Meanwhile, with Lex nowhere to be found, Leo moves forward with their investigation, inching one step closer to uncovering the person responsible for the outbreak.

[ottoDbusdriver]

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Meanwhile, stuck in isolation and cut off from their chain of command, Lex and Dr. Lommers have no choice but to stand by helplessly as the cordon erupts into mass chaos.

I wonder if they stay 4 to 6 feet from each other for the entire 48 hours inside that container.  Who's kidding who, they probably bump uglies.
 

Quote

At the hospital, Jake attempts to lighten the mood by taking Katie on a date, but their happiness is short-lived after they discover that several of Katie’s students have gone missing.

Several of Katie's students have gone missing -- I'm shocked </sarcasm>.  How can they tell that they are even missing as Katie rarely spends any time actually watching the kids. She's too busy playing Nancy Drew or having shower curtain sex.

Edited June 20, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[ottoDbusdriver]

We left off on the morning of Day 13 with less than 12 hours to go before everything goes to shit.

And we're back to Bible Quotes -- I figured for sure they would be quoting "Twisted Sister" by now.  It's Mark 3:23-24, and for some reason the phrase "a kingdom is divided against itself" is highlighted in red.  For whatever reason.

Ooooh, we actually get a date/time stamp -- Day 13, 8:07am.  And the angry villagers are still pounding against the sides of the "secret backdoor" container housing Lex and Dr. Lommers.  But while Dr. Lommers explains her trust issues with Dr. Cannerts, all the members of the angry mob decide to leave and go someplace.  All together, as angry mobs do.

Meanwhile Katie continues to ignore the kids in her care and talks to Thomas -- with her mask on -- while assuring Thomas that he is still super special.  Thomas is very happy-go-lucky about the whole thing (I don't get sick) despite the fact he is a contagious carrier of one of the most deadliest viruses in human history -- he reminds me of the pre-teen version of the Willie "The Most optimistic man I know" character from SNL.  I wonder if Thomas has a dog named Lucius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LobdgeQ9rE

Katie goes a touch over the paranoid edge about leaving Thomas under Dr. Cannert's care -- where would she put him ?  He is very contagious.  Katie is an idiot.

And for some reason, Bertie the rat wrangler walks down the hospital hallway with a MRE box under his arm and bumps into Katie and Jake, and gives them a little pep talk.

Meanwhile, Team Jana is headed back to Bitscan -- and despite the fact that the meth-head tweakers broke down the glass wall followed by an immense explosion that killed all the tweakers -- where somehow the glass walls/doors are all intact and the vacuum seal still seems to be intact (you can hear the vacuum sounds as they traverse the fully intact airlock).  WTF ??  And somehow there are no dead tweakers anywhere -- did they take all the bodies with them ?

Xander and Pregnoteen finally reappear after up and disappearing for two episodes like a fart in the wind.  Where the hell have they been for two days ?  Walking laps inside the cordon wall ?  Why aren't they hunkered somewhere until the baby is born ?

Katie explains to the children in her care and the bus driver (where the hell has he been all this time ?) that Thomas is "perfectly fine" but needs to be in a "special room", and distracts them by deciding they need to create a game.  The fuck ??  Even these kids aren't that stupid.

And Jake decides this is the time to ask Katie about their date --- umm, he's already seen her naked and made out through a shower curtain, and now they are going to dial it back.  Are they going to the church social, and perhaps later to a cotillion ?  No, they decide to do lunch.

Rex the reporter leaves a voicemail for Lex indicating that he needs Patient Zero's phone records to tie him to Dr. Cannerts.

A soldier comes into the quarantine container to drop off a jug of water and a bucket full of food, and the bucket is be used as a latrine.  Surprisingly, no toilet paper seemed to be in the delivery.  And no modesty curtain so Dr. Lommers will get to take a dump in front of Lex.  Dr. Lommers is all concerned about the angry mob, a mob that continues to grow in size as they walk the streets inside the cordon.

Pregnoteen and Xander continue to walk the streets of the cordon and come across the angry mob/protesters -- and the first thing out of Xander's mouth is "those people are standing too close together".  Because that's what uncontrolled angry mobs are worried about -- what will happen if they break the 4 to 6 feet rule.  Man, the writers for this show are just terrible.  And why is that except for her belly Pregnoteen doesn't look pregnant at all ?  Her legs are ridiculously thin.

The protesters are chanting "we want out" -- umm, a lot of them are already infected.  Are they just idiots ?

Katie braids her hair -- probably pining over her pending date with Jake -- and Quentin comes by to ask about his deck of cards.  Shockingly, Katie recognizes Quentin as her son, and they small talk about Jake as new daddy potential.

Lex calls out Dr. Lommers about her being WAY TOO PREPARED for the cordon, and she needs to tell him the truth.

Holy crap !!! Not only did Team Jana cleanup the Bitscan offices, but you can barely tell that an explosion had ever occurred there.  The place is basically spotless.

Rex the reporter orders a pizza and bribes the delivery guy to use his cell phone, as the angry mob grows in numbers and the meth-head tweaker on the motorcycle is back from the dead. And he firebombs a bus. Pregnoteen thinks she spots her mom in the protest and stars yelling at her, but Xander has the common sense to tell her to STFU.  Xander heads out to see if it really is Pregnoteen's mom as Pregnoteen stays put.

Katie visits the lounge and finds Jake playing a guitar.  So there is rioting in the streets, and a deadly virus running rampant, but we have time for Jake to serenade Katie.  It's official -- I'm a Katie-hater, a Kater.  And between dropping off Thomas at the crack of dawn and braiding her hair, Katie took the time to get changed for her "date" so now she has the skirt that she was wearing in the Day 13 preview.  After a quick review of the MRE specials,  now Katie is serenading Jake because she is a better guitar player.

Quentin comes rushing in to tell Jake and Katie that Ray the bus driver took Mary and Brittany, and that people are "breaking out".  That can't be good.

Rex the reporter reaches out to a friend of his who just so happens to work for the NSA, and explains this conspiracy theory and uses guilt over their common friends deaths to get her to break the law to look up the phone call from Patient Zero.

Xander rushes up to who he thinks is Pregnoteen's mom but it isn't her at all, and for his troubles he gets confronted and touched by an infected but is saved by an angry mobster.  Xander ditches his contaminated jacket and cheeses it.  We see Bertie the rat wrangler moving amongst the crowd with his used MRE box full of drugs.  Bertie gets assaulted and hurts his leg as his box is stolen.

Funny thing -- in the Day 13 preview from Episode 1, Bertie gets assaulted after the troops entered the cordon.  And so far there are no troops in the cordon.  In fact, Pregnoteen falls down and screams BEFORE Bertie gets assaulted.

Lex regales Dr. Lommers with the wonderful tales of Jana the Magnificent -- this is the same Jana who wore that clean room bunny suit everywhere outside the clean room.  A soldier shows up to drop off a walkie-talkie so Dr. Lommers can take to Capt. Scott.  The plan to quell the riot is to put food drops on the other side of all the sluices (plural), and Dr. Lommers wants snipers to quell the riot so the virus doesn't get out.  Capt. Scott says he won't use deadly force on "unarmed American" (so I guess unarmed immigrants and tourists from Europe are fair game).

Jana and the other dude look for Suzy who has been up on the roof checking out the protest, and Suzy goes off to join them.

Jake and Katie search the angry mob for Ray and the two missing children, but Jake determines that his police uniform is a magnet for trouble so he gets Katie to stay in a doorway while he goes to change.

Interesting sidenote -- no sign of Dr. Cannerts, or either of the lab techs that were exposed during the last episode.

Lex and Dr. Lommers reminisce about the good old days and are interrupted by Capt. Scott with an update that the mob is prying the doors off one of the sluices.  Dr. Lommers tells him to use tear gas and water cannons with sniper fire as a last resort but the cordon can't be breached.  But Capt. Scott says they have no tear gas (really ?) or water cannons and he will not use snipers.  Here's a question -- how come no one inside the cordon has a gun ?  Capt. Scott is sending in a squad to control the mob, but Lex and Dr. Lommers advise against that in fact Dr. Lommers forbids it but Capt. Scott has the governor's approval.  Which is good enough.

Dr. Lommers gives us the Mr. Science edition of what happens when a virus dies.  She waxes on upon the gloriousness of HEP and HIV, but she totally disses this virus.  And then Lex gives her a pep talk about how she will save the day.

Jake finishes undressing to what looks like civvies as he bumps into the police office that brought the satellite phone into the cordon, and is now running with the gang from Pregnoteen's mom's store.

Jana and Suzy have it out over her leaving, and it turns out Suzy was banging Dennis even though Dennis was married.  And Suzy thinks she's pregnant -- I guess she can go hang out with Pregnoteen.

Jake finds Ray and Brittany, but Mary is missing since they abandoned her when she became sick from the virus.  I suspect that Brittany's hay fever will never make a reappearance during the riot.

Katie spots Mary who proceeds to climb into a van for no apparent reason as a speeding pickup truck heads towards the intersection but not before meth-head tweaker on the motorcycle lobs a molotov cocktail in front of the pickup truck which swerves out of control and slams into the van containing Mary.  FFS !  This couldn't be more convoluted if they tried.

Katie rushes and retrieves the bloody unconscious body of Mary from the van.  As she stands up inside the van to carry the body, she bangs her head on the door jamb of the van (which explains how she cut her head in the Day 13 flashforward).  The mob gets even further out of control as the soldiers wait inside the sluice counting down to 5pm.

Xander and Jake respectively search for Pregnoteen and Katie -- another funny thing, Xander and Jake were no where to be found in the Day 13 flashforward.

The soldiers finally rush in and Pregnoteen gets knocked to the ground.  As everyone rushes around stealing food and confronting the soldiers Xander finally finds Pregnoteen on the ground, but he won't touch her because he might be infected.  Meanwhile, the infected guy gets shot in the head for no apparent reason other than walking slowly towards a child that was over 20 feet away.  Finally the soldiers start firing rounds into the air to disperse the crowd as they all clamor back inside the sluice.  Hope they all get along because they will be in there for 48 hours together.

So long story short, the Day 13 preview from episode was mostly bullshit.  Well done writers, well done.  A finely crafted load of crap to tease in the audience and then retconning a really shitty story to pathetically try to adhere to the preview.

Dr. Lommers tells Lex of her fun times in Ghana, telling a morality tale that basically says that compassion with get you killed in an outbreak.

Jake finds Katie holding the dead body of poor injured and infected Mary.  Well done Katie, you probably got yourself infected -- but on the upside shower curtain sex is still an option.

Katie dashes back to the hospital to take a shower .... so why didn't she carry Mary to the hospital in order to try and save her ?  Katie continues to be an idiot.  And much like Lady MacBeth the blood just won't come off.  And Jake has the sads because his twu wuv is probably goind to die a horrible death.

Meanwhile, Team Jana discuss Suzy's possible pregnancy.  And how Dennis bolted from the church because she told him about the pregnancy.

As cops patrol the top of the wall (where were these guys during the riot) and a helicopter patrols overhead, we see the aftermath of the riot.  Yet another funny thing -- during the riot we did not see a woman screaming near a burning body, nor did we see the CDC workers calmly putting a body on a pallet nearby said burning body.  But we do one of the CDC workers afterwards calmly sitting in the entrance of a bus.

The soldiers who entered the cordon get stripped, sprayed down and issued new clothing and isolated inside a tent OUTSIDE the cordon. A tent ? Like that is going to work.

Rex the reporter gets the records dump from Patient Zero's phone and he didn't call Dr. Cannerts but someone much more important in the government (but no idea who).

Jana decides to go for a walk -- in the stupid bunny suit -- and runs into Xander and Pregnoteen to take back to Bitscan.  But there's an issue -- since Xander might be infected.

The penultimate episode ends with Katie in quarantine after her Silkwood-level shower.  With Ray gone, who's watching the remaining kids ?  As Katie watches Jake walk away she loses her shit and lets out scream.  Seriously, Katie can't die fast enough.

[NorthstarATL]

"There once was a beachhouse in Nantucket..." Yup, the virus is going to part of a limerick ending in "it". I call it each week, but I am even more convinced with Katie now locked away after exposure to Typhoid Mary, that something to do with Katie's condition or the pills she takes is making her immune, and SHE, not Thomas, is the key to the cure!

  I actually didn't hate the Claudia Black/Lex internment, as they had an okay dynamic, and I didn't get any "shippy" feel from it, as would have been expected on any other show where adversarial opposite gender characters were locked away together. Come to think of it, she even started stripping pretty much right away, so the lack of sexual chemistry must be coming from him.

 Suzy continues to irritate me. You do NOT let your friend risk her life to get you a pregnancy test the result of which will make no difference under the circumstances! It's not as if they just found a stash of booze and were contemplating getting drunk (also a bad idea), and there's no immediate pre-natal care. It was, of course, a plot device to get the pregnant couple back into the fold, but didn't he think he was possibly exposed?

   The riot. I loved how Jake removed his uniform and any protective gear (sans gloves) to go find the lost children. Fortunately for him, he is immune as well from the virus, though I think that it is plot that protects him.

[xaxat]

Some of the "tools" rioters brought to the sluice,

a broom

traffic cones

a weed wacker

a fishing net

a hand saw 

Not exactly the brightest bunch.

(Yes, I rewound. No, I'm not proud of that fact.)

At least we got the prelude out of the way. I guess that's progress.

Edited June 22, 2016 by xaxat

[Texasmom1970]

Was I the only one wishing the careening van would run over Katie and put me out of my misery?! Damn I thought the shower curtain groping scene was bad what the hell was up with the picnic open mike crap, uggh!

[Adira]

If Dr. Cannerts could test Thomas' blood and see that he had virus markers (or something), then why can't he test Katie's blood to see if she's infected or not?

[laserlady]

Because it can't be said often enough, once again: This is what happens when you take away people's Netflix, internet browsing, and phones!  Bored, angry, isolated people are a lot more likely to riot and cause other problems than people who are entertained and able to keep in contact with their loved ones.

 

10 hours ago, Adira said:

If Dr. Cannerts could test Thomas' blood and see that he had virus markers (or something), then why can't he test Katie's blood to see if she's infected or not?

He's in self-imposed quarantine for the next 48 hours, due to his exposure to Thomas, so he can't readily test anything until his time is up.  Also, his tests were clearly faulty, since he thought Thomas's immune system had eradicated the virus from his bloodstream up until the time that the guy bitten by the rat that was injected with Thomas's blood turned out to be infected.

[Adira]

9 hours ago, laserlady said:

He's in self-imposed quarantine for the next 48 hours, due to his exposure to Thomas, so he can't readily test anything until his time is up.  Also, his tests were clearly faulty, since he thought Thomas's immune system had eradicated the virus from his bloodstream up until the time that the guy bitten by the rat that was injected with Thomas's blood turned out to be infected.

Okay, he's in quarantine and can't test someone else's blood - but couldn't he test his own?  And although his tests were faulty, they DID show the virus in Thomas's blood, so couldn't he test for it in his own blood?

[thuganomics85]

That riot was the most hilarious shit ever.  I honestly wonder if there was any actual directing going on, or if they just tossed the extras a bunch of different tools and objects, and just said "Have at it!", and then pointed the camera.  It just felt so amateurish and there was no suspense.

That lunch date/picnic scene was too stupid for words.  Jake's actually become one of the more tolerable characters on this show, but anytime he's around Katie, he just becomes the world's lamest wannabe boyfriend.

I don't care if it was "harsh" or "cold": I loved Lommers just being all "Call their family and let your men seem them one last time.  Because they are probably dead.  Thanks to you, you big dumbass!" to the National Guard guy.  Of course, it is sounding more and more like she is involved in this.  Also, while I'm sure Nantucket is a lovely place, they have to know by now what probably automatically goes into people's heads, whenever they heard that name.

Poor Xander.  He might have just got infected thanks to Teresa freaking over someone who turns out not to be her mother (duh!) 

I guess I'm suppose to care about Suzy being pregnant with Dennis' baby?

Also, I guess I need to care about Katie being infected.  But I was too busy wondering why after that entire stupid shower  scene with her and Jake last week, she only stripped down to her outer clothes for this one.  I would think trying to get potentially infected blood off of you would at least warrant a gratuitous underwear scene!

[Jordan27]

Oh the dumbness continues...

Where are the rioters going if they escape?  Safehouse?  Friends?  And how they supposed to get by armed military?

And what about if they are infected?  Why would they leave to possibly infect others?

And why are they all running around like wild Indians hurting others?  It seemed so choreographed and not at all how normal people would act.

The cheesy date scene was stomach churning.  Katie is cute, but all their scenes belong in another show.

And pregnant teen and boyfriend trying to navigate riot.  Great idea.

And Jake still remains an impotent cop.  Always excuses why he can't shoot anyone.  Is he shooting blanks?

And why is Katie picking up bloody kid?  She forgot the six foot rule. 

And why is she taking a shower with all her clothes on?  How is that going to get all the blood off of her?

Dumbess show since Under The Dome, but great to snark on. 

Come on, you can't take this seriously.

[AudienceofOne]

On 6/21/2016 at 11:55 PM, NorthstarATL said:

 Suzy continues to irritate me. You do NOT let your friend risk her life to get you a pregnancy test the result of which will make no difference under the circumstances!

 

She says she think she's pregnant but she's not sure and that she's considering abortion but that "if we're in here long enough, it won't matter." I don't know what the limit is for optional abortions in the US but I'm pretty sure it's more than one month. Since she didn't know she was pregnant, it had to have happened just before the cordon and they've been in there, what, one week? And what are they going to do if the test comes back positive? Go and hunt down a DIY abortion kit?

Whenever I watch these shows, it's always about episode 8 or 9 where you realise the plot is used up and the writers are just treading water till the season finale. No wonder people stop watching.