S02.E06: Let the Chips Fall

[shapeshifter]

Episode first aired July 30, 2018

Quote

Darius and Grace’s relationship is tested, and President Mackenzie attempts to bring the fractured country together while the hacktivist group ReSyst issues a deadly edict.

[Rachel RSL]

 Wow...Darius is the president. Who ever could have seen that coming? If only she'd been wearing a bulletproof shirt.   Wait...does this mean that Darius will be president and Harris will be his VP?  Maybe we're getting more buddy cop adventures after all!

[Free]

On ‎7‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 9:20 PM, Rachel RSL said:

 Wow...Darius is the president. Who ever could have seen that coming? If only she'd been wearing a bulletproof shirt.   Wait...does this mean that Darius will be president and Harris will be his VP?  Maybe we're getting more buddy cop adventures after all!

Agreed, the show has basically been hitting us over the head that it would happen and of course it's right when he's trying to resign when practically everything and everyone wants him to be no matter what.

Most likely Harris since he was the likely replacement anyways, maybe even Grace since there's not much of a choice in terms of named characters and given their current situation.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Free

[shapeshifter]

12 minutes ago, Free said:

12 minutes ago, Free said:

Wait...does this mean that Darius will be president and Harris will be his VP?

Most likely Harris since he was the likely replacement anyways.

I was folding laundry and didn't clearly see what Darius saw while he was rewatching the security videos of Bennett (Sasha Roiz) being interrogated by Harris, but I thought I then heard Darius accuse Harris of killing Bennett, based on what Darius saw on the footage--implying that Darius would not be recommending Harris for VP after all. No?

Anyway, if this show gets a third season, I expect Grace to morph into a Madame Airlock and become president of whatever's left.

[Free]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I was folding laundry and didn't clearly see what Darius saw while he was rewatching the security videos of Bennett (Sasha Roiz) being interrogated by Harris, but I thought I then heard Darius accuse Harris of killing Bennett, based on what Darius saw on the footage--implying that Darius would not be recommending Harris for VP after all. No?

Anyway, if this show gets a third season, I expect Grace to morph into a Madame Airlock and become president of whatever's left.

He was also upset with Grace given the Claire situation, so there's not much of a choice given what happened at this point.

[Latverian Diplomat]

2 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

 Wow...Darius is the president. Who ever could have seen that coming? 

It was indeed Chekhov's Vice Presidency...

Next up...surely the mysterious "J. D. Salinger of science" will make an appearance soon

$500,000.00 seems like a low price to pay for a presidential assassination.

I thought that Darius reviewing the footage would reveal something interesting like that Harris planted the "murder drone" on Bennett for later activation.  Turns out he just used a magic lie detector to move the lie/cover up/guilt/blah blah blah plot along.

I guess it never occurred to the Resyst goon squad that Liam doesn't need his kneecaps to save the world?

Liam chose a handle that a crank pseudoscientist would love...they all think they are Galileo...

[AnimeMania]

With the legitimate President and Vice-President both dead, Darius has no choice but to accept the position as President and continue running the country.

At least Clarie's brother seems to accept the fact that Claire was as crooked as they come.

I wonder if that missing materials engineer is that weirdo cult/motivational speaker guy. They will never be able to stop the asteroid unless they find him. Oh why aren't there any other materials engineers in the world.

[Free]

12 minutes ago, Latverian Diplomat said:

It was indeed Chekhov's Vice Presidency...

Probably one of the fastest rise to power, he was only made VP quickly just a few episodes ago.

[mertensia]

Why is Resyst so against the rail gun try? I mean, seriously, the collision is in 86 days. Why the hell not try it? What do they have to lose?

[justmehere]

They did agree. They just don't want to work with Darius and so threatened to blow up NYC if he didn't turn over control to them.

Do we know who Nero is? Is Harris' son still alive even though Harris thinks he's dead? I can't remember what we know about that.

Grace's father quietly giving himself up for Claire's murder... she won't have much choice but to let him do it, especially now that Darius is president and in on the coverup. And right after she said she couldn't take more loss.

This episode was better. Can't say I'm sorry to see Bennett gone, but obviously he wasn't the only one involved. Who's really pulling the strings?

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, justmehere said:

Do we know who Nero is? Is Harris' son still alive even though Harris thinks he's dead? I can't remember what we know about that.

That actually makes sense (Harris's son being the tsar of ReSyst rather than being dead—especially since he was name dropped in this episode, rather than forgotten like Grace's daughter).

Meanwhile, I'd like to know why the ReSyst avatar is a woman in her 60s-70s. If it's an homage to a beloved grandma, maybe Grace can shame Harris's son or whoever is running ReSyst into thinking about how disappointed Grandma would be in him for blowing up NYC and polluting the earth with radioactivity. 

Or maybe it's Alycia?

I'm assuming the henchman from this episode (credited as White Hair) is nothing more than that.

 

I guess Grace's dad is in part falling on his sword because he feels responsible for allowing a traitor to the cause to infiltrate his body dump op. But heck, he's so noble (also doing it to protect Grace and the World) that they ought to make him POTUS.

[Brooks]

Grace is so wracked with guilt over killing Claire that I don't think she' let her dad quietly take credit for it.  I predict Grace will also confess, making dad's confession meaningless, or maybe worse if further chaos results.

So few people to choose among for the new VP.  If Harris, what happens to Secretary of Defense?  And does Grace get a promotion too?

Still 86 days left, which feels like a third season in the making.  But isn't there a point at which the asteroid can't be sufficiently driven off course that would be much sooner than 86 days?

[bara007]

Great episode :)

Looking forward to more Darius/Liam and Croft co-operatin next week. I am hoping that that gets back on track!

She should have been wearing the bullet proof vest, ooh :(

Liam was quite courageous at the end. Like he didn't have anything to loose...

But I am worried even though Resyst won't have the scientist anymore, it still can go after the rail gun. What good idea Liam gave them!

For one, I wasn't expecting that the events will take this turn - I though he will leaving for sure...

Edited July 31, 2018 by bara007

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Brooks said:

predict Grace will also confess, making dad's confession meaningless, or maybe worse if further chaos results

When I considered this (Grace confessing to save Dad), my mind instantly went to what I learned at L&O U (or was it The Closer or Matlock?): If two people both claim to have fired the gun that killed the victim, each creates reasonable doubt for the other, so neither can be convicted.

Of course, even confessing to murder—even to save someone's life—should be political suicide—but not necessarily.

[Latverian Diplomat]

2 hours ago, Brooks said:

 

Still 86 days left, which feels like a third season in the making.  But isn't there a point at which the asteroid can't be sufficiently driven off course that would be much sooner than 86 days?

Yes. But that's a little fuzzy and doesn't make for a good dramatic deadline/countdown.

Technically I guess you can divert it at any point if you can push it hard enough. But there are practical limits to how much force can be applied of course. And most asteroids are not as solid and metallic as Samson and would just break apart if too much force was applied. So, an early, long, light touch is a better general strategy.

[AAEBoiler]

Can that asteroid please hurry up? These people are insufferable.

Damn, that weird motivational speaking dude really looked familiar. Turns out it was Luke Arnold, who played John Silver in Black Sails.

Edited July 31, 2018 by AAEBoiler

[Rachel RSL]

I knew he looked familiar! I was just thinking about that show yesterday too and I still didn't recognize him. Duh.

[Driad]

10 hours ago, Latverian Diplomat said:

Liam chose a handle that a crank pseudoscientist would love...they all think they are Galileo...

He did put a 1 in the middle, but I was surprised that all possible spellings were not already taken.

[Latverian Diplomat]

1 hour ago, Driad said:

He did put a 1 in the middle, but I was surprised that all possible spellings were not already taken.

I think he subbed in a 0 for the the O also. Leetspeak! 'Cause Liam is hip with the what the kids are doing today 20 years ago.

[AnimeMania]

With the legitimate President and Vice-President both dead, Darius has no choice but to accept the position as President and continue running the country.

At least Clarie's brother seems to accept the fact that Claire was as crooked as they come.

I wonder if that missing materials engineer is that weirdo cult/motivational speaker.

Darius still has a fully functional space ark that he can load up with priceless artifacts (to give it extra weight) and launch it at the asteroid. They can add the solar thingy as a cape for the space ark to make it look extra cool.

 

Sorry about the double post, it popped back up when I was trying to post something new, so I thought I forgot to post it the first time. Too lazy to check. My bad.

Edited August 1, 2018 by AnimeMania
Apologize

[Souris]

I'm more interested in the "world vs. asteroid" aspect than the "presidential hot potato" aspect, so I'm sorry to see Darius stuck with being POTUS rather than being all science-y trying to stop the asteroid.

And that was some piss-poor protection of the president -- a bulletproof screen that was the size of a card-table science-project backdrop and that didn't even come up to the top of Darius's head, plus how would they NOT have armed government snipers on every vantage point surrounding the area? Not to mention walking the president past a bunch of randoms in the kitchen. Terrible.

Ah, Grace's dad. I'm irrationally attached to him, so I'm sorry he's going to be locked up.

I'm annoyed by the COPE guru plot, but it's actually realistic there would be gurus like that at such a time, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. Of course I'm suspicious of him -- maybe he's Nero. 

I think it would be a hoot if Mr. Missing Scientist suddenly showed up with THE foolproof way to stop the asteroid and just saved the world himself while Darius and ReSyst were sniping at each other. That would be hilarious. Or maybe HE's Nero.

I want to get a dog just so I can name it Barkus Aurelius. (My cats say no, however.) It sure is lucky they guessed right since it could've been BarkusAurelius, barkusaurelius, Barkus_Aurelius, etc., etc.

[JasmineFlower]

I'm at the point in watching this show where I'm fast forwarding through a good deal. Just interested in what eventually happens since I watched this far. So, maybe I missed a great explanation for the constant wrong reaction to Claire's death. Are Grace and Harris telling the story poorly? I feel like they must be. Claire was moments away from shooting/assassinating Harris. Grace acted in defense of Harris' life. I am forever confused about why Grace is constantly acting like she shot Claire mid convo while she was trying to determine if she was guilty of anything shady and Darius would react in a similar manner. Since almost the second of Claire's death, this show has acted as if she was some less than guilty character who was not stopped in the middle of committing murder.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, JasmineFlower said:

So, maybe I missed a great explanation for the constant wrong reaction to Claire's death.

It is probably because Grace has never killed anybody before. Us straight up killers wouldn't think twice about bustin a cap in Claire's ass, but Grace had to lie about under oath and to Claire's brother who is such a nice guy and saved her life on numerous occasions. Don't worry Grace, killing gets easier the 2nd and 3rd time that you do it.

[Dowel Jones]

1 hour ago, Souris said:

It sure is lucky they guessed right since it could've been BarkusAurelius, barkusaurelius, Barkus_Aurelius, etc., etc.

When they disclosed the memory trick of Don't Tread on Me, I thought that would be the password itself (no spaces, include the apostrophe = 14 characters).  I was also thinking, why do you need a memory trick for Barkus Aurelius? You can't remember that?  They should have copied that file once they got it opened.  I can just see the whole thing imploding on them as they watched it.

The whole idea of the paid assassinations seems rather ludicrous.  With three months left on planet Earth,  wouldn't all forms of money and the stock market essentially lose value?  Sure, pay someone a half a million dollars.  Where do you spend it?  The show could have a huge subplot about the gradual, or maybe rapid, decline of the economic system, but no, they're more concerned with the battle between groups of petulant scientists. It also puzzles me where they got the goons to watch over the scientists.  It's not like you can motivate a bunch of out of work mercs to stand guard over scientists who are trying to save your lives.  Again, are they paid?  Are they part of ReSyst?

It's really going to suck if Bennett actually had a workable plan to stop the asteroid. 

[Brooks]

6 minutes ago, mertensia said:

why doesn't Resyst want to work with Darius?

The bad blood between Darius and Alycia will be answered eventually.  They're making such a big deal about it I hope they have something really awesome worked out.

[Rachel RSL]

Yeah, and by this point, they've made it out to be such a huge deal, Alycia would rather nuke American cities than work with him, so it better be something massive and not just some "we once slept together" bullshit.

[JasmineFlower]

11 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

Yeah, and by this point, they've made it out to be such a huge deal, Alycia would rather nuke American cities than work with him, so it better be something massive and not just some "we once slept together" bullshit.

Oh, you know that's likely what it's going to be. I mean, I think it'll be more of "I loved you" or "we were engaged/married" or "you were in love with another woman enough to name your program after her and didn't tell me" BS, but same difference. Prepare yourself now and just be pleasantly surprised if they come up with something way less predictable than that. I've been waiting for any of the writers to remember Season 1 storylines of real Tess and his Uncle, so maybe one of the writers finally recalled at least one of the two.

[Llywela]

Finally got to see this last night. Okay, so I've gotta say, I'm impressed by the utter unflappability of those secret service goons at the end there - I mean, the president gets shot dead right in front of them (bang up protection job, boys) and Darius is completely, utterly shellshocked by it, but those unflappable goons don't so much as blink, don't take even a second to process, they just roll with the changes, like, "the president is dead, long live the president!"

Darius's reaction in the face of violent death has been very consistent through the show. He kind of freezes up, all shocked and horrified, every time.

On 7/31/2018 at 4:10 AM, shapeshifter said:

I was folding laundry and didn't clearly see what Darius saw while he was rewatching the security videos of Bennett (Sasha Roiz) being interrogated by Harris, but I thought I then heard Darius accuse Harris of killing Bennett, based on what Darius saw on the footage--implying that Darius would not be recommending Harris for VP after all. No?

He was using super technology to detect deception - but instead of pinging Bennett, it pinged Harris lying about Claire's death. So Darius accused Harris of killing Claire, whereupon Grace then confessed. But yeah, he then rescinded the offer of VP for Harris - in a blink and you'll miss it exchange right before McKenzie got shot. But now McKenzie is dead, I guess everything will shuffle around all over again.

On 7/31/2018 at 6:09 AM, AnimeMania said:

With the legitimate President and Vice-President both dead, Darius has no choice but to accept the position as President and continue running the country.

Yeah, and I'm wondering what the point of killing McKenzie was, at this stage - it was Bennett & co's original plan, but that was when Bennett was in position to take over. It seemed to be done by the same people, since they also killed Bennett to prevent him talking, but what would the motive be at this point? Could it be designed to keep Darius occupied and unable to focus on the world-saving-science? But why?

I mean, Darius already hated being VP - can you imagine his reaction now? "But I can't be president, I have work to do!!!" So maybe that's the point, to prevent him doing that other work?

On 7/31/2018 at 8:23 AM, justmehere said:

They did agree. They just don't want to work with Darius and so threatened to blow up NYC if he didn't turn over control to them.

Do we know who Nero is? Is Harris' son still alive even though Harris thinks he's dead? I can't remember what we know about that.

No, we don't know who Nero is. I want to point the finger at Alycia, since she's the one with the planet-sized grudge against Darius, and it seems a coincidence for there to be someone else with an even bigger grudge against him out there. I can't quite figure out where the show is going with this. I mean, last year they had Croft casing shade at Darius to try to undermine him in Liam's eyes, but then Croft was revealed to be a traitor while the show has since invested a lot of time and effort into building Darius up as the hero, suggesting that Croft was lying. But now they seem to be both positioning Darius as hero while also trying to present Alycia as at least partly sympathetic, she does come across as quite genuine in her hatred of him, so are we supposed to believe she has a genuine case or what? And if Nero also has a grudge against Darius, and a lot of what Resyst does seems quite personally aimed at Darius, what are we supposed to believe?

Heck, maybe Nero is Darius's uncle!

Oh, and Carnaham got name-checked in this episode, the White House tech who got murdered way back when - wasn't he a founding member of Resyst, or something? Will Resyst and Bennett's people turn out to be one and the same? Or is there yet another faction to be revealed with only half a season to go?

On 7/31/2018 at 10:31 AM, Brooks said:

Still 86 days left, which feels like a third season in the making.  But isn't there a point at which the asteroid can't be sufficiently driven off course that would be much sooner than 86 days?

You would think there would come a point where the asteroid is visible to the naked eye and beginning to have an effect on tides and whatnot, but with this show, who can predict?

This season seems to be rattling through the days pretty quickly now. We've gone from 126 days to 86 days in just six episodes - that's as much time as the whole of season one covered, if I recall correctly. So if they carry on at this pace, there won't be enough pre-asteroid days left for season three - maybe if the show is renewed, the third season will be about the aftermath!

On 8/1/2018 at 12:59 AM, AnimeMania said:

It is probably because Grace has never killed anybody before. Us straight up killers wouldn't think twice about bustin a cap in Claire's ass, but Grace had to lie about under oath and to Claire's brother who is such a nice guy and saved her life on numerous occasions. Don't worry Grace, killing gets easier the 2nd and 3rd time that you do it.

Grace has killed before, though - she killed that assassin who attacked her in her house last season. That one was pure self-defence, though, whereas Claire was a deliberate decision to shoot, albeit to save Harris's life. She's beginning to rack up quite the body count, for a press secretary!

17 hours ago, Brooks said:

The bad blood between Darius and Alycia will be answered eventually.  They're making such a big deal about it I hope they have something really awesome worked out.

Oh, I really hope so. And I really hope it doesn't boil down to having been involved at some point - I've enjoyed about the show so far that all the relationships have been age-appropriate, and revealing a fling between Darius and Alycia would undermine that, she's a lot younger and was his employee. It would be awfully sleazy, and Darius hasn't been shown to be sleazy in that way - the opposite, in fact, he seems to actively avoid romantic entanglements of every kind since splitting from Tess. He's very much a married to his work type, so much so that he named his supercomputer over his teen sweetheart because there had never been anyone else, so an affair with Alycia seems unlikely.

Mind, Alycia seems unlikely all round - she's awfully young to have the expertise and experience she claims.

Also, whatever happened to Shady Bar Lady? She still has to link in to everything somehow, no?

Edited August 2, 2018 by Llywela

[Brooks]

Um, why isn't Bennett president after MacKenzie's assassination?  What made him an un-VP and Darius legally VP instead?

[Llywela]

16 minutes ago, Brooks said:

Um, why isn't Bennett president after MacKenzie's assassination?  What made him an un-VP and Darius legally VP instead?

Bennett is already dead, so he can't be president, plus he was arrested for high treason after carrying out a coup against the sitting president, so he would not be eligible even if he was alive - he was well and truly out of office and out of the running, even before he was assassinated (presumably by his own people to stop him talking). Darius was sworn in legally and officially (albeit in haste), so the rules of succession place him in the hot seat automatically now.

It is also why McKenzie insisted Darius be taken to the bunker for safety during the attack on the White House last week - because he was now her legal successor and one of them had to be safe to ensure a smooth transition if something happened to her. So Darius is trapped now - he can't resign without creating more chaos at a time when stability is desperately needed, and yet he can't focus on the rail gun project if he is also running the country. Which is what makes me suspect that was the whole point of the assassination - but why would anyone want to derail the plan to save the world? Maybe because they want to take over that plan and claim all the credit for themselves?

For all that Resyst go on about not wanting to work with Darius because historical grudges and tyrants and blah blah blah, I suspect what they really want is to not have to share any credit for saving the world - if they can keep the world at heel and take control of all planet-saving plans, then what happens after the world is saved? Will they back down and return to normal? No, of course not, they will have positioned themselves for global domination, which was probably the whole point all along. Which I hope is what Liam has now realised.

Who do you trust? The man who chooses to resign from a position of power in order to focus on saving the world, or the terrorist organisation who hold the world hostage with nuclear weapons and refuse to cooperate with anyone, on the flimsiest of excuses? I know who I'd pick! I'm hoping that Resyst's desire to take the railgun for themselves rather than cooperate for the greater good has well and truly opened Liam's eyes to what they truly are, underneath all their claims of noble intentions and all the rest. Alycia talks a good talk, but I don't trust a word she says, however sympathetic she sounds.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Llywela

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, Llywela said:

Quote

I was folding laundry and didn't clearly see what Darius saw while he was rewatching the security videos of Bennett (Sasha Roiz) being interrogated by Harris, but I thought I then heard Darius accuse Harris of killing Bennett, based on what Darius saw on the footage--implying that Darius would not be recommending Harris for VP after all. No?

He was using super technology to detect deception - but instead of pinging Bennett, it pinged Harris lying about Claire's death. So Darius accused Harris of killing Claire, whereupon Grace then confessed. But yeah, he then rescinded the offer of VP for Harris - in a blink and you'll miss it exchange right before McKenzie got shot. But now McKenzie is dead, I guess everything will shuffle around all over again.

Ah! Thank you! Usually these summer scifi shows don't require such close attention. 

 

3 hours ago, Llywela said:

 I want to point the finger at Alycia, since she's the one with the planet-sized grudge against Darius. . . 

. . . Heck, maybe Nero is Darius's uncle

That makes sense (Darius's Uncle is the big bad), now that you mention it, but am I the only one who forgot John Noble was on this show? Flash backs needed, stat!

So then we might say Alycia has an asteroid-sized grudge against Darius, whilst his uncle's grudge is 'planet-sized', heh.

Or perhaps the grudge sizes are reversed?

Alycia keeps harping on how she created Tess. Maybe Uncle John Noble's character sowed some seeds of deception somehow. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Llywela said:

21 hours ago, Brooks said:

The bad blood between Darius and Alycia will be answered eventually.  They're making such a big deal about it I hope they have something really awesome worked out.

Oh, I really hope so. And I really hope it doesn't boil down to having been involved at some point - I've enjoyed about the show so far that all the relationships have been age-appropriate, and revealing a fling between Darius and Alycia would undermine that, she's a lot younger and was his employee. It would be awfully sleazy, and Darius hasn't been shown to be sleazy in that way - the opposite, in fact, he seems to actively avoid romantic entanglements of every kind since splitting from Tess. He's very much a married to his work type, so much so that he named his supercomputer over his teen sweetheart because there had never been anyone else, so an affair with Alycia seems unlikely.

Mind, Alycia seems unlikely all round - she's awfully young to have the expertise and experience she claims.

I didn't think Alycia was supposed to be that young. I thought she was quite a bit older than Liam—perhaps because I think she manipulates him.

 

 

17 minutes ago, Brooks said:

Um, why isn't Bennett president after MacKenzie's assassination?  What made him an un-VP and Darius legally VP instead?

Well, for one thing, wasn't he was under arrest after they had evidence that he tried to assassinate the prez? And, anyway, he's dead now, so…

—which Llywela has now answered as well.

Edited August 2, 2018 by shapeshifter

[Llywela]

19 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I didn't think Alycia was supposed to be that young. I thought she was quite a bit older than Liam—perhaps because I think she manipulates him.

I looked her up and the actress is only 27 - of course, she could be playing older, but if the character is about the same age as the actress playing her, or even if she is playing a couple of years older, she's still on the young-side for her history. And would still be a fair bit younger than Darius (Cabrera turned 40 while shooting this season) plus was his employee.

I'm wondering now exactly when all this character history is supposed to have happened - how old is TESS the supercomputer? It didn't seem all that new in season one, came across as a well established system used within the company.

I dunno. I daresay we'll find out the backstory eventually!

Oh, and Chekov's virus chip is still in play, isn't it? Alycia had it last we saw, but maybe Liam will save the day by getting hold of that and using it to take down Resyst, in the end?

[shapeshifter]

12 minutes ago, Llywela said:

Oh, and Chekov's virus chip is still in play, isn't it? Alycia had it last we saw, but maybe Liam will save the day by getting hold of that and using it to take down Resyst, in the end?

Oh, right! The virus Darius created to take down TESS to somehow stop the nukes. Too much to keep track of.

[AngelKitty]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I thought she was quite a bit older than Liam—perhaps because I think she manipulates him.

Plus Liam is about 12, so yeah she's a bit older. ??

[JasmineFlower]

7 hours ago, Llywela said:

Heck, maybe Nero is Darius's uncle!

I know you're saying this more off the cuff, but it's been my theory for a while that Darius's uncle (Nicholas Tanz aka John Noble) is behind Resyst. I've said for some time now that Resyst does not make any sense from a funding standpoint in particular. Harris' son did not and seemingly could not have amassed the fortune that funds Resyst. It seems to have the resources that rival a nation or a company like a Google that can surpass many countries' GDP. Nicholas makes some piece of sense on that end where he could fund the operation to a somewhat reasonable sense. Nicholas, like Tess as I mentioned before, seem to be forgotten Season 1 plot points. Maybe they will remain forgotten, but as I try to make some sense out of where this is going, I've been thinking back to when this show wasn't all over the place. I think it made more sense last season when it was far more focused than it is now and I'd hope they had a decent amount of this Resyst storyline mapped out from the start. Drawing from Season 1 makes the most sense on that front, and Nicholas' hate for Darius seems to be on par with Alycia, so I don't think the guess it that out there.

[Dowel Jones]

2 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

Plus Liam is about 12, so yeah she's a bit older.

Because tv tech whiz people are never, ever older than 25.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Dowel Jones

[Llywela]

1 hour ago, JasmineFlower said:

I know you're saying this more off the cuff, but it's been my theory for a while that Darius's uncle (Nicholas Tanz aka John Noble) is behind Resyst. I've said for some time now that Resyst does not make any sense from a funding standpoint in particular. Harris' son did not and seemingly could not have amassed the fortune that funds Resyst. It seems to have the resources that rival a nation or a company like a Google that can surpass many countries' GDP. Nicholas makes some piece of sense on that end where he could fund the operation to a somewhat reasonable sense. Nicholas, like Tess as I mentioned before, seem to be forgotten Season 1 plot points. Maybe they will remain forgotten, but as I try to make some sense out of where this is going, I've been thinking back to when this show wasn't all over the place. I think it made more sense last season when it was far more focused than it is now and I'd hope they had a decent amount of this Resyst storyline mapped out from the start. Drawing from Season 1 makes the most sense on that front, and Nicholas' hate for Darius seems to be on par with Alycia, so I don't think the guess it that out there.

Nicholas being the mastermind behind Resyst also supports the show's general image of Darius as the selfless (although flawed) hero, because Nick's hatred of his nephew is not founded on anything Darius has done, but is based purely on the sheer fact of his existence in the first place - Nick hates Darius because he wanted his mother for himself and was jealous that she chose his brother instead, meaning Darius did not bring it on himself but rather gets to be the injured victim, trying valiantly to save the world in the face of unfair opposition. Thus, y'know, the good guy, the hero. Which by and large does seem to be the presentation of the character the show is going for, in spite of Alycia's claims about him.

I mean, Darius is high-handed, temperamental, argumentative, unpredictable, secretive, etc, but he is also the man who continued to cooperate with Harris et al for the greater good even after being illegally and unjustly tortured, accepted a job he didn't want for the greater good after having his life's work confiscated and handed over to terrorists, put his personal life on the back burner for the greater good despite having fallen in love for the first time in many years (and according to Jillian, that's a true sacrifice that marks a real hero), and so on. So all of that says to me that we are intended to read Darius as the hero of the story, in spite of attempts by shady characters to blacken his name.

But maybe there is room in there for some shades of grey? Alycia does seem to truly believe in her grievance, so clearly something happened to make her and Darius hate one another so intensely. A third party such as Nicholas stirring up that trouble, deliberately, to get Alycia on side? I could see the show going down that road, especially since it potentially allows a redemption story for Alycia, with the third party taking the fall as the ultimate bad guy.

Yes, Nicholas definitely makes sense as Nero, for a variety of reasons, as you say. I guess we will find out eventually!

Edited August 2, 2018 by Llywela

[AnimeMania]

10 hours ago, Llywela said:

On 7/31/2018 at 7:59 PM, AnimeMania said:

It is probably because Grace has never killed anybody before. Us straight up killers wouldn't think twice about bustin a cap in Claire's ass, but Grace had to lie about under oath and to Claire's brother who is such a nice guy and saved her life on numerous occasions. Don't worry Grace, killing gets easier the 2nd and 3rd time that you do it.

Grace has killed before, though - she killed that assassin who attacked her in her house last season. That one was pure self-defence, though, whereas Claire was a deliberate decision to shoot, albeit to save Harris's life. She's beginning to rack up quite the body count, for a press secretary!

Whoops, meant to say that Grace is a straight-up killer like us. Damn Auto-correct! J.K.

What about the guy that sabotaged the bunker, did we figure out what his end game is yet or at least who he is working for?

[Llywela]

4 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

What about the guy that sabotaged the bunker, did we figure out what his end game is yet or at least who he is working for?

Nope, but we have established that he is linked somehow to Claire and Bennett and whoever was pulling their strings, so I daresay there will be more revelations along that sub-plot sooner or later. I still think Shady Bar Lady also links in with that plot strand, somehow - we haven't seen her for a couple of episodes, right? She's sure to pop up again soon.

[AnimeMania]

55 minutes ago, Llywela said:

I still think Shady Bar Lady also links in with that plot strand, somehow - we haven't seen her for a couple of episodes, right? She's sure to pop up again soon.

Didn't she get a job "working on the railgun, all the live long day". It's as good as blown up.

[bara007]

I think that the thing between Darius and Alycia is done already - she worked for in on Tess, and then when the job was finished she tried to steal it from him, albeit make it available to the whole public (maybe for money, who knows...). But that didn't happen, and Tess is the property of Tanz.

I see the hatred more from Darius's side, which makes sense - from her side, I see she thinks.... he is just stupid.

She was his protege, and it did not end well. In the end she was not loyal to him. And he hates her for that, that she betrayed him. 

If I was to create some missing parts of the story - I would say Darius has not taken a younger "protege" since then. Until now. So when Liam came in, and started talking about "Alycia" quite excitedly, Darius had taken it the wrong way suddenly- understood that he means to betray him as well, that history is repeating itself, and that again he cannot trust. I think Darius has been very hurt by this. And in that one moment it seems he turned all that hatred towards Liam as well, and now he just wants to be rid of him... 

Yet I believe of course that his feeling of distrust towards Liam are misplaced - his behaviour until now seems just the opposite.

And yet Liam from his side has no idea what the heck is going on ....!:)

But I hope Liam and Darius will work it all out somehow, soon... but that would call for one personal conversation between them, so will see if we will be getting that !!

Edited August 5, 2018 by bara007

[Brooks]

bara007, great analysis.  Makes perfect sense but seems more sophisticated than these writers have been aiming towards.  So there may be no further revelations regarding Darius v. Alycia, and if there are they may be disappointingly unexciting.

[bara007]

Thanks, you may be right, but I definitely see it in the great acting !

[nx74defiant]

I like the fact that the factory was empty. Hey, it the world was coming to an end would you go to work?

Actually it annoys me that things are working so well, no outages in power, tv etc. because of missing workers.

The white house has a full crew of workers to do the repairs.

[Halting Hex]

On 8/2/2018 at 2:23 AM, Brooks said:

Um, why isn't Bennett president after MacKenzie's assassination?  What made him an un-VP and Darius legally VP instead?

Good question.  I haven't seen Season 1 (I've been able to pull all the episodes off of streaming sites except the pilot, which I had to resort to torrenting…and naturally, it's frozen at 86.8% complete! Gah!), but AFAIK Bennett never resigned the Vice-Presidency, he simply refused to recognize that McKenzie had been reinstated as President.  Had Chang's decision been allowed to go into effect, Bennett should have been VP once again.  Darius's installation as VP was always illegal, as far as I can tell.

Of course, being a traitor, Bennett should then have been impeached by the House and tried by the Senate and removed as VP, but that didn't happen, either.  So with McKenzie as President and Bennett dead and no legal VP, the successor should be the Speaker of the House.  (Have we met him/her yet?)

And Darius isn't the Vice-President, either, even if you claim he was at the start of the episode. I'm fairly certain that you're out of office once your superior accepts your resignation, as McKenzie did to Darius here.  The fact that she hadn't as yet publicized it doesn't make him VP any more than it makes Jillian the Veep.  Again, I think the Speaker has to be the new President.  Not that they will do it that way, I'm betting.

BTW, I'm loving the insanity of all of this.  Can't wait to see S1.  Finish up, pilot torrent!  86.8%, grr!

[Brooks]

Exactly!  This bothers me far more than the argument whether Bennett was legally sworn in as the new president.

[Llywela]

Fair enough, both, I will bow to your greater understanding of how these things work, then - as an overseas viewer, I can only take the show at face value and accept what it tells me! The show clearly wants us to believe that McKenzie & co did everything legally and by the book, albeit on the fly. A fair bit of time has passed this season, so maybe we are supposed to assume that all the legal stuff (impeachment of Bennett etc) took place off-screen?

And I'm just going to assume that the writers don't believe Darius's resignation had taken effect yet at the time of McKenzie's murder, whether or not that would be the case in real life, since I can't imagine them introducing a Speaker of the House complication at this stage - that final scene definitely implied a transition of power.

Eh, TV law!

[Driad]

4 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

I haven't seen Season 1

My public library (in the US) has season 1 on DVD.

[Halting Hex]

Thanks, but I'm just going to start from Episode 1.02, for now.  I'll go watch the pilot when it (eventually) finishes downloading.

(While I was asleep, it went from 86.8% to 87.7%…then stopped again.  So, not exactly as inexorable as an onrushing asteroid, but any progress is still progress.   The journey of a thousand miles begins with .9% of a single step, or whatever Lao Tzu wrote.)