S02.E08: Abre Sus Ojos

[shapeshifter]

Abre Sus Ojos = Open Your Eyes 

Air date: August 13, 2018

QUOTE

Desperate to defuse a nuclear standoff, Liam gets help from an unlikely source; with Darius missing, Harris and Grace take matters into their own hands.

Edited August 14, 2018 by shapeshifter

[Rachel RSL]

So, Alycia and Darius were willing to risk nuclear destruction, rather than work with each other, over a computer program? And, after all that, Alycia just leaves? Alrighty then.

Really couldn’t care less about any of the romantic sub-plots, can we get back to the asteroid now?

[shapeshifter]

6 minutes ago, Rachel RSL said:

So, Alycia and Darius were willing to risk nuclear destruction

I don't think the hero (Darius) was ever consciously willing to risk nuclear destruction.

 

LOL moment:

Grace [to Darius after he kisses her]: I should slap you!
Darius: I agree.

[Free]

56 minutes ago, Rachel RSL said:

So, Alycia and Darius were willing to risk nuclear destruction, rather than work with each other, over a computer program? And, after all that, Alycia just leaves? Alrighty then.

Really couldn’t care less about any of the romantic sub-plots, can we get back to the asteroid now?

Pretty much, hence why they've both very stubborn, Alycia pretty much checked every supervillain cliché with her take over the world tropes.

[Souris]

54 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

LOL moment:

Grace [to Darius after he kisses her]: I should slap you!
Darius: I agree.

That was great!

Seriously, how much tonnage of makeup and prosthetics does it take to make Santiago Cabrera look like THAT? LOL. (And, of course, we could wonder how he did it himself, but we're not supposed to.)

That guru dude (who's probably Nero) is so creepy, he always makes me think he's sizing up Jillian to make a skin suit out of her.

[Free]

13 hours ago, Souris said:

That guru dude (who's probably Nero) is so creepy, he always makes me think he's sizing up Jillian to make a skin suit out of her.

Cult leaders are usually that creepy, especially coming into her personal life now.

13 hours ago, Souris said:

Seriously, how much tonnage of makeup and prosthetics does it take to make Santiago Cabrera look like THAT? LOL. (And, of course, we could wonder how he did it himself, but we're not supposed to.)

It does make it a lot more obvious though especially immediately recognizing him on the spot.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Free

[alvajon]

If I hadn’t read it here that Darius was *probably* Raul in disguise, I don’t think I would’ve recognized him right away.  But of course, like many others, I’m sure, having been “alerted” to the fact that it probably was Darius, I watched him like a hawk. Ha!

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, alvajon said:

If I hadn’t read it here that Darius was *probably* Raul in disguise, I don’t think I would’ve recognized him right away.  But of course, like many others, I’m sure, having been “alerted” to the fact that it probably was Darius, I watched him like a hawk. Ha!

I wish I hadn't already read that theory, just to know at what moment I would have realized that Darius was Raul. Would it have been before he dropped the Spanish accent with Liam? Probably—because they kept harping on Darius having likely snuck out rather than being kidnapped—but maybe not.
ETA: As it was, when he grabbed the automatic weapon and shot the fabric up to prove the healing properties was the moment I was sure.

 

Liam is so consistently uncoordinated and likely to switch sides and screw things up that it was kind of random that he actually caught the flash drive in mid air and inserted it before Alycia managed to stop him.

 

Is there any chance that Jillian will stab Guru to death?

Edited August 14, 2018 by shapeshifter

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, Free said:

Cult leaders are usually that creepy, especially coming into her home now.

Not her house, what is Grace going to say when she comes back to find the house wrecked after Jillian throws a house party.

 

1 hour ago, alvajon said:

If I hadn’t read it here that Darius was *probably* Raul in disguise, I don’t think I would’ve recognized him right away.

I read the theory and watched Raul Aguirre closely and still couldn't tell that was Darius or that it was a prosthetic. I wonder if it was a real person or just the best make-up job I have ever seen.

I cheered when the railgun hit the nuke.

I laughed when Raul Aguirre grabbed the gun and shot holes in the solar sail, thinking they would pan over behind the solar sail and show 7 scientists riddled with bullets lying on the floor. 

I laughed again when they showed the scientists covering up Malcolm Croft's body with a grey cloth and then thinking to myself that Liam turns around and shouts "The solar sail! It's ruined!".

Grace is jumping from man to man like a pinball.

I really enjoyed this episode. Grace electrocuting Fiona. Alycia running away the minute the nuke was destroyed. It might be my favorite episode.

[redpencil]

Quote

Liam is so consistently uncoordinated and likely to switch sides and screw things up that it was kind of random that he actually caught the flash drive in mid air and inserted it before Alycia managed to stop him.

I was getting serious whiplash with Liam this episode. I was all happy he seemed to be finally waking up about Resyst (though still about a million years too late), and then I thought he was legitimately turning over Darius to Resyst and was going to let them drop the nuke. And so I was totally done with him for about 10 minutes or however long it was. But then it was all part of his plan and he had actually followed through, finally. Sheesh, Liam, About time.

Also, Alycia is kind of crazy. As if that wasn't already in question. Just confirmed moreso when she lost it over Tess and didn't care about actual people dying. And I'm sorry Alycia, but you do have a choice. Resyst is not a hapless, unwitting pawn in Darius's quest to destroy the world, or whatever. Nobody is forcing you to hold actual nukes (that you have no problem actually using) over the world's heads. You're the ones with your fingers on the trigger. So glad that threat is over.

I also really enjoyed this episode. I don't think I would have caught on that Aguirre was Darius at first if I hadn't read the theories here. Even having read them, I wavered slightly a couple times. That makeup was unreal. I also LOL'd at Darius's whole attitude when he got back. He was like a little kid pleased as punch with himself.

ETA: I forgot to mention how amused I was by Harris's sideways glance at Darius's hand on his arm at the end (when he was telling them how they should take the victory). It was such a "Are you kidding me with this guy" look. Hahaha.

Edited August 14, 2018 by redpencil

[Dowel Jones]

Somewhere along the episode a newscast made mention that New Yorkers were fleeing the city in droves.  Why, exactly, was anyone still there? Were the Yankees playing a home game?

I wonder how ReSyst was able to pick up some rent-a-goons to keep all those scientists in the room.  Paying them?  The world economic system would be in tatters now.  Simple loyalty?  Why?  What's in it for them?  As is stands, they may have ruined a chance to save the world.  Now they're just on a road trip with Alycia.

Congratulations, Darius.  You may have saved the world, but you just created the Terminator's self-sealing system.

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I cheered when the railgun hit the nuke.

Complete with spectacular fireball.  In the vacuum of space.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, Dowel Jones said:

I wonder how ReSyst was able to pick up some rent-a-goons to keep all those scientists in the room.

Well Darius does have that wonderful bunker that might actually survive the asteroid. Room for one more?

[Llywela]

3 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I read the theory and watched Raul Aguirre closely and still couldn't tell that was Darius or that it was a prosthetic. I wonder if it was a real person or just the best make-up job I have ever seen.

There's a video of the makeup team performing the transformation: 

[Halting Hex]

Wow, this shit is so cancelled, isn't it?  That was one of the more grotesque efforts at "Happy Ending Syndrome" that I've ever seen.

Liam unveils Darius, but it's all a ploy!  Except that he already had access to TESS, and could have easily stuck the TESS-killing drive in there, without all the drama.  (Did he even confess about the TESS-killer to Alycia or Croft when he had it before? Or do they not even know the drive can sabotage TESS and Liam could have been "just uploading some data, nothing to see here", without all the bullets flying?)  And hey, if we want to be really cynical, TESS was going to live longer than Croft and was probably smarter, too; so who's to say that Alycia's priorities were out of whack, after all?

But no, Croft "dies a hero" (boo! I'd miss Dennis B, if the show weren't over fairly soon), but it somehow takes long enough for Liam to release Darius and Alycia to "pack her bags and flee" before somebody bothers to cover his corpse with a sheet.

And Darius gets to just walk off, even though the armed guards that gunned down Croft are presumably still there and Darius might make a useful hostage, being the President of the United States and all.

Speaker Barnes (nice of the show to realize that there's this thing called "Congress", at last) doesn't demand to know where the President is until The Very Moment when Darius can come rushing in, triumphant.  (Because, you know, the Secret Service wouldn't bother to call ahead and announce that the President is on his way, or anything like that.)  Gotta have drama!  Never mind how hilarious it would have been if Liam had dropped the TESS-killer drive when Croft threw it (or if Croft had sucky aim) or if the damn rail-gun had missed the nukes, after all that.

Also, I'm not exactly sure why the Q-17 goons would bring Fiona's "corpse" to their secret HQ instead of say, a deserted warehouse that's NOT linked to their central computers.  Or just leave her to rot, for that matter.  If you need the chip out that badly, just hack her open. Fiona won't feel anything, she's "dead", after all.

I don't know how quickly I would have spotted "Raul" as Darius, either, if the more eagle-eyed among us hadn't guessed it last week.  But the body language was a dead giveaway.  And I find it hard to believe that Liam and Alycia (both of whom know Darius very intimately [I still think that he and Alycia were lovers]) couldn't spot it, on their own. 

By the way, I don't know where the railgun is, but that sure isn't Manassas.  Bull Run is a creek, after all.

Maybe that was the Potomac River, but Manassas is at least 17 miles from the Potomac.

And, finally, Darius shoos Harris out of the Oval Office so he can mack on (and presumably boink) Grace.  Which would be lovely if she hadn't been ready to spread for Alonzo just last episode.  I mean, that certainly went to hell quickly, what with his firing bullets all over the kitchen (I wonder if the Cult members noticed the shattered glass and asked what was going on), but still…we're a little way from Grace and Darius just happily-ever-aftering that easily, I'd argue.  Why not show Liam and Jillian skipping hand-in-hand through a field of daisies, if you're that determined to force happy endings to your romantic subplots, ffs?  Weak, weak, and weak, IMO.

I guess I just preferred the more balanced storytelling of other episodes to The Amazing Adventures of Darius Tanz, Super-Hero Genius and Sex God.  This one annoyed me, greatly.  Go mend yourself, show.  Blech.

(I wonder how many people died in the panicky "evacuation" of New York?  I'm betting Darius has a lot more blood on his hands over that than Alycia does for the goons killing Croft.  But JMO.)

Edited August 14, 2018 by Halting Hex

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Grace is jumping from man to man like a pinball.

Did the director purposely block the Darius-Grace-beginning-to-hookup this week the same as the Alonzo-Grace-beginning-to-hookup last week? Or is that the director's only move IRL? I once overhead an ex-lover using the same lines on his latest conquest. Maybe the editors figured if there was no Alonzo this episode we'd forget him?

[Halting Hex]

4 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I read the theory and watched Raul Aguirre closely and still couldn't tell that was Darius or that it was a prosthetic. I wonder if it was a real person or just the best make-up job I have ever seen.

Great makeup, but it was cool that "Pedro Cervantes" got guest credit.  And presumably the credits were applied more than just last week, so it's not a case of a last-minute revision, the way that "Pedro" 's IMDb biography may have been.

4 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I laughed when Raul Aguirre grabbed the gun and shot holes in the solar sail, thinking they would pan over behind the solar sail and show 7 scientists riddled with bullets lying on the floor. 

LMAO!  Don't worry, Darius has X-Ray vision, so he never had to worry about this!  (Hey, it makes as much sense as anything else…)

11 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Did the director purposely block the Darius-Grace-beginning-to-hookup this week the same as the Alonzo-Grace-beginning-to-hookup last week?

Different directors (Nick Gomez last week, Tessa Blake this time around) so perhaps Jennifer Finnigan just wants to be sure they get her "good" side?  Or it could just be a coincidence…there's a reason why we have a word for them, after all.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Halting Hex

[Brooks]

The only thing that really would have annoyed me this episode would have been if the rail gun/orbiting nuke had not been resolved by credits time.

No one has slept for at least 48 hours, right?  So of course the first thing Darius wants to do when he gets back to the White House is to bonk someone.

Harris is out a girlfriend now.  At some point Grace will have to pick up with him again.

[Dowel Jones]

The first thing I thought of when Darius and Grace went into the clinch was Omarosa's comment that "everyone in the West Wing was banging."  Stop it, real life.  You're ruining my show.

[Halting Hex]

3 hours ago, Brooks said:

Harris is out a girlfriend now.  At some point Grace will have to pick up with him again.

Harris totally thought torturing his hookup together meant that he and Grace were gonna be an item again.  Little did he know that "is that a rail-gun in your pocket or are you just really happy to see me?" totally trumps "I would take a metaphorical bullet for you about your firing actual bullets for me" in the Great Grace Sweepstakes.

A pity.  I'm Team Barris.  Just because I'm irrational that way.

[Free]

11 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

what is Grace going to say when she comes back to find the house wrecked after Jillian throws a house party.

Probably too much on her plate at the moment.

7 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Wow, this shit is so cancelled, isn't it?  That was one of the more grotesque efforts at "Happy Ending Syndrome" that I've ever seen.

Maybe, it did close out several plot lines.

[tessathereaper]

13 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I wish I hadn't already read that theory, just to know at what moment I would have realized that Darius was Raul. Would it have been before he dropped the Spanish accent with Liam? Probably—because they kept harping on Darius having likely snuck out rather than being kidnapped—but maybe not.
ETA: As it was, when he grabbed the automatic weapon and shot the fabric up to prove the healing properties was the moment I was sure.

 

Liam is so consistently uncoordinated and likely to switch sides and screw things up that it was kind of random that he actually caught the flash drive in mid air and inserted it before Alycia managed to stop him.

 

Is there any chance that Jillian will stab Guru to death?

It would be nice for Jillian to show some spirity, cause Guru is the sort of guy who needs to be stabbed. LOL  (Nothing against Luke he was very good in Black Sails but Long John Siliver was a liar too :))

Yeah I know I guessed right away about Darius but actually when I saw the whole costume in motion, I was really impressed.  If I didn't already know I think I might have been fooled.

[Rachel RSL]

14 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I wish I hadn't already read that theory, just to know at what moment I would have realized that Darius was Raul.

Same! Even though I'd been tipped off, I was still looking really closely.  I knew it was Darius as soon as he spoke though. Different accent but same voice.  What was the point of Darius making Raul seem so odd with all the weird drinks?

[tessathereaper]

8 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Wow, this shit is so cancelled, isn't it?  That was one of the more grotesque efforts at "Happy Ending Syndrome" that I've ever seen.

Liam unveils Darius, but it's all a ploy!  Except that he already had access to TESS, and could have easily stuck the TESS-killing drive in there, without all the drama.  (Did he even confess about the TESS-killer to Alycia or Croft when he had it before? Or do they not even know the drive can sabotage TESS and Liam could have been "just uploading some data, nothing to see here", without all the bullets flying?)  And hey, if we want to be really cynical, TESS was going to live longer than Croft and was probably smarter, too; so who's to say that Alycia's priorities were out of whack, after all?

But no, Croft "dies a hero" (boo! I'd miss Dennis B, if the show weren't over fairly soon), but it somehow takes long enough for Liam to release Darius and Alycia to "pack her bags and flee" before somebody bothers to cover his corpse with a sheet.

And Darius gets to just walk off, even though the armed guards that gunned down Croft are presumably still there and Darius might make a useful hostage, being the President of the United States and all.

Speaker Barnes (nice of the show to realize that there's this thing called "Congress", at last) doesn't demand to know where the President is until The Very Moment when Darius can come rushing in, triumphant.  (Because, you know, the Secret Service wouldn't bother to call ahead and announce that the President is on his way, or anything like that.)  Gotta have drama!  Never mind how hilarious it would have been if Liam had dropped the TESS-killer drive when Croft threw it (or if Croft had sucky aim) or if the damn rail-gun had missed the nukes, after all that.

Also, I'm not exactly sure why the Q-17 goons would bring Fiona's "corpse" to their secret HQ instead of say, a deserted warehouse that's NOT linked to their central computers.  Or just leave her to rot, for that matter.  If you need the chip out that badly, just hack her open. Fiona won't feel anything, she's "dead", after all.

I don't know how quickly I would have spotted "Raul" as Darius, either, if the more eagle-eyed among us hadn't guessed it last week.  But the body language was a dead giveaway.  And I find it hard to believe that Liam and Alycia (both of whom know Darius very intimately [I still think that he and Alycia were lovers]) couldn't spot it, on their own. 

By the way, I don't know where the railgun is, but that sure isn't Manassas.  Bull Run is a creek, after all.

Maybe that was the Potomac River, but Manassas is at least 17 miles from the Potomac.

And, finally, Darius shoos Harris out of the Oval Office so he can mack on (and presumably boink) Grace.  Which would be lovely if she hadn't been ready to spread for Alonzo just last episode.  I mean, that certainly went to hell quickly, what with his firing bullets all over the kitchen (I wonder if the Cult members noticed the shattered glass and asked what was going on), but still…we're a little way from Grace and Darius just happily-ever-aftering that easily, I'd argue.  Why not show Liam and Jillian skipping hand-in-hand through a field of daisies, if you're that determined to force happy endings to your romantic subplots, ffs?  Weak, weak, and weak, IMO.

I guess I just preferred the more balanced storytelling of other episodes to The Amazing Adventures of Darius Tanz, Super-Hero Genius and Sex God.  This one annoyed me, greatly.  Go mend yourself, show.  Blech.

(I wonder how many people died in the panicky "evacuation" of New York?  I'm betting Darius has a lot more blood on his hands over that than Alycia does for the goons killing Croft.  But JMO.)

 

That blood is still on Alycia's hands.  ReSyst was the one holding a nuclear weapon to the world's collective head in this case specifically NY.  Darius not caving in to their ridiculous outrageous demands which even if he had, they clearly had no intention of removing the Nukes.  Maybe they'd take them off NY today but tomorrow they'd just be pointing them somewhere else and it would continue, threatening to destroy a city full of millions of people.  Alycia's words and actions to Liam showed that, she admitted that.  They had no intention of ever getting rid of the nuke, no matter whether they got they wanted or not.  Because they were just going to keep using it as a threat to keep getting more and more, basically "we want to take over the world...muwahahahaha!!"

The only people whose fault it is people were fleeing NYC, and thus possibly injured, is ReSyst's.  Not anyone else's.

I would assume the armed guards left with Alycia, she was still their "boss" being ReSyst's man on the spot so to speak.

I'm also not sure how Grace and Darius having a "good moment" is "happily ever after".  How is that forced?  

Edited August 14, 2018 by tessathereaper

[tessathereaper]

12 minutes ago, Rachel RSL said:

Same! Even though I'd been tipped off, I was still looking really closely.  I knew it was Darius as soon as he spoke though. Different accent but same voice.  What was the point of Darius making Raul seem so odd with all the weird drinks?

Distraction.  Weirdness makes people uncomfortable and they'd focus more on the oddity than anything else.  It's like in a magic trick, you get everyone looking at one hand while you do the trick with the other and so they don't notice how you make the coin disappear or whatever.  

[Halting Hex]

10 minutes ago, tessathereaper said:

The only people whose fault it is people were fleeing NYC, and thus possibly injured, is ReSyst's.

Well, ReSyst isn't Alycia, per se, which is the specific comparison being made.  And even if the evacuation was eventually necessary, the (likely) frenetic pace is because Darius was so completely unwilling to engage.  Had he even gone through the motions of trying to accommodate them, the stress on the tri-state area would have been less.

I grant you the entire process was off-screen, but it still worried me.  I mean, there was one show in years past that posited the complete evacuation of a town of 38,500 and I didn't even believe that; multiply it by about x200 for the greater NYC area and I can only imagine the likely casualties, nukes or not.

[Brooks]

Darius created his alter ego to be rather eccentric, so it would have been expected.  Plus a distraction.  Croft wasn't thinking who is this guy really, he was thinking why would anyone listen to him.

[tessathereaper]

23 minutes ago, Halting Hex said:

Well, ReSyst isn't Alycia, per se, which is the specific comparison being made.  And even if the evacuation was eventually necessary, the (likely) frenetic pace is because Darius was so completely unwilling to engage.  Had he even gone through the motions of trying to accommodate them, the stress on the tri-state area would have been less.

I grant you the entire process was off-screen, but it still worried me.  I mean, there was one show in years past that posited the complete evacuation of a town of 38,500 and I didn't even believe that; multiply it by about x200 for the greater NYC area and I can only imagine the likely casualties, nukes or not.

Well I think that's just one of those suspension of disbelief things with regards to fleeing NYC and the amount of time it would take.  :)

And no I don't think anything Darius would have done would have changed that regarding the nukes.  Alycia is ReSyst's actual person of contact, thus she is as responsible for everything as they are, in fact in some situations she made it far worse.  

There was literally no point in going through the motions because that isn't why they were pointing the Nukes.  Darius did show a willingness, even if it was reluctant, to combine the solar sail and the railgun, they were the one who decided to point the nukes at NYC and say "the United States has to give up the railgun(because it isn't Darius's personal railgun, it's the United States' railgun) to us or we blow up NY".  All they ever did was steal - they "stole" the scientists(by forcing them into a hostage like situation), they stole the nukes, they stole Tanz Industries headquarters.   

Sorry but it's on ReSyst - they keep giving in to ReSyst and Resyst keeps threatening more and asking for more.  ReSyst are terrorists, and if anything they were just getting worse, in terms of using the Nukes as a threat for any little thing, not better.   

Edited August 14, 2018 by tessathereaper

[Brooks]

Here’s my technical problem with this episode.  Depending on what nuclear material was on board the satellite, releasing it all into the atmosphere could have been catastrophic.  We had this real life situation in 1999 when NASA wanted to whip its Cassini space probe past earth to pick up momentum on its way to Saturn.  There were a mere 70 pounds of plutonium on board, to power the mission but enough for mass destruction if something went wrong during an earth flyby.  It took a major outcry to convince NASA to change its plans.  So blowing up the nuke satellite may have spared NYC but targeted a much more disbursed population.   

[Latverian Diplomat]

From the Salvation deleted scenes collection:

Raul/Darius: So, I just apply this spray and it will repair what is torn.

Malcolm: You are laying it on a bit thick there, aren't you?

Raul/Darius: Trust me, I know my audience, I can't overdo this if I want to, ahem, repair what is torn.

Liam: I don't get it.

[Torn sail fabric repairs itself]

Alycia: That's amazing. Is it some sort of nanotech breakthrough?

Raul/Darius: You could look at it that way, or look at it as a metaphor in a bottle. Just the sort of thing you need to repair...what...is...torn!

Liam: Wait I think I get it...are you saying it's time to buy new underwear?

Alycia: Sure, when your sexy terrorist hacker girlfriend with nuclear weapons says it, you don't pay attention, but an eccentric scientist drops an obscure hint and you're off to the menswear aisle at Target.

Raul/Darius: Liam, let's go have a drink, I could really, really use one right now, that's not just a delightful character detail for my alter ego.

Malcolm: Before you go, does that stuff work on aortas? I can feel a fatal gunshot wound coming on, and bouncing back from those is kind of my thing...

Edited August 14, 2018 by Latverian Diplomat
Fix typo

[Halting Hex]

LMAO!  And bonus points for the image of "Raul" creating the nanotech just so Liam's undies won't be so damn grubby.  Learn to dress yourself already, college boy.  (Does he wear socks, now?  I haven't checked since the "pedaling barefoot" sequence in the pilot.)

[Latverian Diplomat]

22 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

 

Liam is so consistently uncoordinated and likely to switch sides and screw things up that it was kind of random that he actually caught the flash drive in mid air and inserted it before Alycia managed to stop him.

 

I guess that flash drive was USB-C (the reversible one) or Liam would have spent 20 minutes trying to insert it upside down. "Liam, the one time you didn't switch sides was trying a USB-A connector the other way?" -- Darius

On a different note, was there no way to cut the power to the rail gun at the mains or something? That usually trumps a software lockout.

[shapeshifter]

41 minutes ago, Latverian Diplomat said:

On a different note, was there no way to cut the power to the rail gun at the mains or something? That usually trumps a software lockout

Oops. Heh, I guess with Darius off doing cosplay, there would be no one else smart enough to figure this out.

[tessathereaper]

1 hour ago, Latverian Diplomat said:

I guess that flash drive was USB-C (the reversible one) or Liam would have spent 20 minutes trying to insert it upside down. "Liam, the one time you didn't switch sides was trying a USB-A connector the other way?" -- Darius

On a different note, was there no way to cut the power to the rail gun at the mains or something? That usually trumps a software lockout.

Probably not as such short notice, they were moments from launch, on a system like that it's unlikely there would be a simple plug they could pull out of the wall. ;) or a few simple switches.  I doubt there was a simple analog way to cut the power.   It probably would have taken longer than they had to cut the power, esp given a lot of their power cut options were likely controlled by...software, which they were locked out of.  Because they also couldn't risk destroying the railgun, it still would need to get used to take out the Asteroid.  So basically there options for cutting the power without risking serious damage to the railgun were probably almost nil.

Edited August 15, 2018 by tessathereaper

[Llywela]

Having seen this episode now...

If I were Jillian, I would be furious with Nate for overruling my very clearly stated wish to be alone and instead siccing a whole group of people onto me, but she didn't seem to mind very much. Yet just moments later, Cult Leader Guy was telling her how 'special' she is, which is another big red flag, not to mention that the whole thing was clearly an intervention aimed at making her stay in her job, having threatened to quit - that guy totally sent Nate to make contact with her in the first place specifically because she is in a position of trust within government, as Darius's assistant, so of course they don't want her to pack it in, having groomed her thus far.

Darius's Raul disguise was excellent, well done, make-up team - very weird to hear his regular voice coming from the wrong face, though!

On 8/14/2018 at 2:58 AM, Rachel RSL said:

So, Alycia and Darius were willing to risk nuclear destruction, rather than work with each other, over a computer program? And, after all that, Alycia just leaves? Alrighty then.

No, the threat of nuclear destruction was all on Resyst, not Darius. In a hostage situation, the person to blame is the hostage taker, not the person trying to stop them. Resyst deliberately manipulated two superpowers into a nuclear standoff specifically so that they could take control of one of those nukes and then claim credit for stopping the others. They then used the nuke they had control of to hold the whole world to ransom. They refused to cooperate with Darius when he was willing, because they wanted sole credit for saving the world - and Alycia stated very clearly to Liam in this episode that they had no intention of ever giving up their leverage, that once they destroyed the asteroid (and their plan was to take control of the rail gun Darius created, remember, so they could claim credit for that as well) they then intended to rule the world as so-called 'benevolent dictators'. Don't fall for the spin they were selling Liam, casting the blame for their own actions onto others to make themselves look better. The only people to blame for the threat of nuclear destruction were Resyst.

On 8/14/2018 at 6:50 AM, redpencil said:

Also, Alycia is kind of crazy. As if that wasn't already in question. Just confirmed moreso when she lost it over Tess and didn't care about actual people dying. And I'm sorry Alycia, but you do have a choice. Resyst is not a hapless, unwitting pawn in Darius's quest to destroy the world, or whatever. Nobody is forcing you to hold actual nukes (that you have no problem actually using) over the world's heads. You're the ones with your fingers on the trigger. So glad that threat is over.

This, exactly. Alycia needed to believe herself the victim, and she desperately wanted Liam to agree that she was the victim, but she never was. For all her repeated claims that she never stole anything, which is another thing she clearly needed to believe for her own self-image, everything she and Resyst had was stolen - including the nukes and all those scientists. She also wanted to steal the rail gun. Bottom line: she lost her job after attempting to steal intellectual property belonging to her employer and because of that she went running off to join a terrorist organisation bent on taking over the world and re-shaping it in their own image - an organisation that has been actively sabotaging other peoples' attempts to save the world because they want sole credit for themselves. Darius is not the bad guy in this. He was right about Alycia from the start - as Liam eventually realised. Doesn't matter how much she tries to claim that Resyst's ultimate intention was to make life better for people - if you are doing it at the point of a gun, you are just another tyrant. Alycia and Resyst are hypocrites, hiding behind a supposedly liberal manifesto to conceal their true megalomania.

22 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I wonder how ReSyst was able to pick up some rent-a-goons to keep all those scientists in the room.  Paying them?  The world economic system would be in tatters now.  Simple loyalty?  Why?  What's in it for them?  As is stands, they may have ruined a chance to save the world.  Now they're just on a road trip with Alycia.

It is a weird law of TV that no matter what happens, the bad guys always have a steady supply of armed goons ready and willing to do their bidding!

20 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Wow, this shit is so cancelled, isn't it?  That was one of the more grotesque efforts at "Happy Ending Syndrome" that I've ever seen.

 

Happy ending? This is only episode eight out of 13, in a show that throws out constant twists and turns - Darius and Grace having a happy ending in one episode, after a much-needed victory, does not imply Happy Ever After. There is a long way to go yet! Plenty of time for more things to go wrong again...

11 hours ago, Brooks said:

Here’s my technical problem with this episode.  Depending on what nuclear material was on board the satellite, releasing it all into the atmosphere could have been catastrophic.  We had this real life situation in 1999 when NASA wanted to whip its Cassini space probe past earth to pick up momentum on its way to Saturn.  There were a mere 70 pounds of plutonium on board, to power the mission but enough for mass destruction if something went wrong during an earth flyby.  It took a major outcry to convince NASA to change its plans.  So blowing up the nuke satellite may have spared NYC but targeted a much more disbursed population.   

Shhhh. You aren't supposed to remember things like that! TV science! Like the fireball in space - TV science!

16 hours ago, Brooks said:

The only thing that really would have annoyed me this episode would have been if the rail gun/orbiting nuke had not been resolved by credits time.

No one has slept for at least 48 hours, right?  So of course the first thing Darius wants to do when he gets back to the White House is to bonk someone.

At the start of the season, Darius told Grace he couldn't think about a personal relationship now that he was vice-president, there was just too much on his plate. I guess he's had time now to adjust to his new role, plus can see light at the end of the tunnel at last with seemingly no obstacles now standing in the way of anti-asteroid efforts, and then the lack-of-sleep and the sheer adrenaline rush of pulling off his crazy scheme simply got the better of him!

And hey, at least Darius has now proved once and for all that Croft was wrong to call him 'a celebrity, not a scientist'!

Edited August 15, 2018 by Llywela

[Halting Hex]

3 hours ago, Llywela said:

Darius and Grace having a happy ending in one episode, after a much-needed victory, does not imply Happy Ever After.

Well, there was a lot more happy ending than just the nukes going boom and the smooch.  ReSyst, which has become the main protagonist, is effectively crippled.  All the scientists are free.  Darius and Liam's torn relationship is mended like a solar sail.  (And both of the technical problems to stop the asteroid [will the rail-gun work? what do we do if we don't have enough solar sail material?]  have been apparently solved.) Nobody will question if Darius is mentally capable to be an unelected President.  Alonzo wasn't in the episode and apparently has given up his vengeance quest.

All that seems to remain is mostly housekeeping:  does Darius get Tanz back?  Yes, probably.  Can Grace get Hugh out of Jail?  Yes, probably some sort of deal can be worked out.  (She is fucking the President of the USA, after all.  Time for a pardon, Sir?)  Will Liam be able to get Jillian away from the cult?  Well, there's less general stress pushing her towards Bash (I don't know how I called him "David" that one time) and Liam is broken up from Sexy Terrorist Hacker Chick, now, so everything's fine, right?  

So all that seems to be remaining as conflicts are tracking down who hired the Q-17 goons (but the FBI has their computer systems and it's hard to care about antagonists that have been completely invisible, IMO) and actually destroying the asteroid (but they have the means and the method both tested at this point).  It just feels as though most of the drama has been taken off the table by this point.  But JMO.

[Llywela]

See, I think this was merely a closing down of one long-running sub-plot, which had been dragged out long enough already, and the seeding of new stories to take its place. I have very little doubt that new twists and complications will arise next week to throw spanners in the works, and that this temporary victory will soon be over-shadowed by new problems - a bit like how they had a similar victory last year when the EM drive was finally launched into space, only to realise the following week that their problems weren't solved after all, and it has been a steady downward spiral ever since. I am expecting something similar to happen again now. Resyst have suffered a defeat, but they are still out there with all the same hacker technology they used to manipulate nuclear conflict in the first place, even if they don't have TESS anymore. We still don't know who Nero is or what they are likely to do next in retaliation for this defeat (no way will they just roll over and take it). Jillian's cult storyline has barely begun and will probably start to ramp up now, she has definitely been singled out due to her privileged access to the White House. The Q-17 cabal has only just been introduced, which means this is only the beginning of that storyline, which is sure to have all kinds of twists and turns along the way (just because they've been invisible so far doesn't mean they will remain that way).  I don't believe for a moment that Alonzo has given up his vengeance quest, it simply didn't play a part in this episode (not all sub-plots need to be touched on in every episode, they should weave in and out). And just because Darius and Grace have finally hooked up, doesn't mean they get to live happily ever after - bringing them together simply moves their relationship from one stage into another, which then comes complete with all kinds of new storyline possibilities.

So I see this victory as merely one battle in a much longer and larger war, rather than as the beginning of the end of the entire story. After so many defeats, the good guys needed a win, narratively speaking, but that peace won't last. There is too much of the season still to run, if nothing else, and I know they are hoping for renewal, whether that is likely or not, so are likely to start laying foundations now for a possible season 3.

Edited August 15, 2018 by Llywela

[tessathereaper]

4 hours ago, Llywela said:

See, I think this was merely a closing down of one long-running sub-plot, which had been dragged out long enough already, and the seeding of new stories to take its place. I have very little doubt that new twists and complications will arise next week to throw spanners in the works, and that this temporary victory will soon be over-shadowed by new problems - a bit like how they had a similar victory last year when the EM drive was finally launched into space, only to realise the following week that their problems weren't solved after all, and it has been a steady downward spiral ever since. I am expecting something similar to happen again now. Resyst have suffered a defeat, but they are still out there with all the same hacker technology they used to manipulate nuclear conflict in the first place, even if they don't have TESS anymore. We still don't know who Nero is or what they are likely to do next in retaliation for this defeat (no way will they just roll over and take it). Jillian's cult storyline has barely begun and will probably start to ramp up now, she has definitely been singled out due to her privileged access to the White House. The Q-17 cabal has only just been introduced, which means this is only the beginning of that storyline, which is sure to have all kinds of twists and turns along the way (just because they've been invisible so far doesn't mean they will remain that way).  I don't believe for a moment that Alonzo has given up his vengeance quest, it simply didn't play a part in this episode (not all sub-plots need to be touched on in every episode, they should weave in and out). And just because Darius and Grace have finally hooked up, doesn't mean they get to live happily ever after - bringing them together simply moves their relationship from one stage into another, which then comes complete with all kinds of new storyline possibilities.

So I see this victory as merely one battle in a much longer and larger war, rather than as the beginning of the end of the entire story. After so many defeats, the good guys needed a win, narratively speaking, but that peace won't last. There is too much of the season still to run, if nothing else, and I know they are hoping for renewal, whether that is likely or not, so are likely to start laying foundations now for a possible season 3.

 

Same.  They put some story lines on the back burner this episode in order to wrap up the current larger storyline and to open up the door for a couple new storylines going forward.  I no way would I think this is a "happy ending" just a happy moment in what has been a very stressful few months.  And I mean everyone else has been able to have time for sex(or at least making out), asteroid or not, why can't Darius for once? And at least it's with the same woman he's been interested in, not with the first passing hot lady he has a conversation with(I'm looking at you Liam and Harris;)) . 

Yes Q17 has been invisible until now but there was an episode where we first learned about ReSyst too, all storylines have to start somewhere, this is the start of the Q17 storyline - besides it's just the first we hearing the name, we've already seen their workings - with Fiona, with Bennet, we just didn't have a name for the ones behind it.  Now we do.

And with regards to the nukes, I agree.  I just don't blame Darius for this situation.  Hell in this particular situation if any of the "good guys" have blood on their hands, it's Liam - he is the one who told ReSyst the railgun test was a likely cover for destroying the nuke.  ReSyst is the one pointing the gun, ReSyst is the one responsible for anything that happens related to the gun being pointed.   They have never once negotiated in good faith.

Edited August 15, 2018 by tessathereaper

[sjohnson]

Wasn't following here, but recognized Santiago Cabrera and instantly realized Liam was engaged in a ploy. The episode's excitement relied on this, so it was kind of flat. 

The phrase "Q-17" may be new but these are just the replacements for Monroe Bennett and his moll. These were the guys who want to use the asteroid to wipe out all potential enemies. For my part, although I'm quite sure the producers are right-wing enough to think a rebel group is the vilest thing on Earth, just as they think Elon Musk really is a hero for the ages. Despite this, the plot is that Darius Tanz has taken out the only force willing to trash enough real estate values to make the "dark money" pause. At this point, it would make just as much sense for Darius to be the dark money. But maybe John Noble will return?

[Rachel RSL]

13 hours ago, Llywela said:

No, the threat of nuclear destruction was all on Resyst, not Darius.

This is my bad because clearly I didn't express my point the way I meant to. Apologies. A couple episodes ago I posted that they've made this whole Darius/Alycia feud such a big deal, they weren't even willing to work together to try to save the world, and I said I hoped this whole hyped up argument wasn't over something stupid.  So my point wasn't the nuclear destruction thing or who was to blame, it was that, sure enough, the whole feud was over something as stupid as a computer program. I don't care who stole what from whom, that's not a big enough reason (in my opinion) to refuse to work with someone when the fate of the world is at stake.

Edited August 15, 2018 by Rachel RSL

[Dowel Jones]

Don't forget that ReSyst actually did detonate a nuclear weapon in the US.  It happened somewhere in Nebraska, I think, and was handwaved off as being in an unpopulated area so there weren't any casualties.  I don't think so.  What about the land, water, and air contamination?  And what if the winds carried radioactive materials into the populated areas?  And how many decades will this last?  They got some splainin' to do.

[Llywela]

1 hour ago, Rachel RSL said:

This is my bad because clearly I didn't express my point the way I meant to. Apologies. A couple episodes ago I posted that they've made this whole Darius/Alycia feud such a big deal, they weren't even willing to work together to try to save the world, and I said I hoped this whole hyped up argument wasn't over something stupid.  So my point wasn't the nuclear destruction thing or who was to blame, it was that, sure enough, the whole feud was over something as stupid as a computer program. I don't care who stole what from whom, that's not a big enough reason (in my opinion) to refuse to work with someone when the fate of the world is at stake.

Fair enough, that makes more sense, but imo the responsibility still lies with Alycia rather than Darius, and was never really about the computer programme (well, for him at least, it was for her). It was about trust. It is pretty clear now that the reason Darius was so reluctant to work with Alycia was because he knew damn well that she would take any cooperation offered and use it to effect a double-cross. And he was proved right in that belief. He offered to work with Alycia to combine the rail gun and solar sail and instead she demanded that the rail gun be handed over to Resyst. He agreed to release Liam in exchange for disarming the nukes and Alycia promptly reneged on that agreement as soon as she got what she wanted. Cooperation was not possible because Alycia and Resyst could not be trusted, and actively sabotaged every attempt at forging a peaceful resolution to the crisis they'd engineered to begin with. They didn't want peace. They wanted to be in control at all costs. Cooperation is only possible if both sides agree.

[AnimeMania]

Hey! It's flashback Friday! Can somebody walk me through if there was any importance to that meteor that crashed that had a Tanz circuit board attached  to it. Did they think someone was guiding that meteor, do they think someone is guiding this asteroid?

[Llywela]

7 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Hey! It's flashback Friday! Can somebody walk me through if there was any importance to that meteor that crashed that had a Tanz circuit board attached  to it. Did they think someone was guiding that meteor, do they think someone is guiding this asteroid?

Yes, someone was guiding that earlier meteor - I think the US government eventually coughed up responsibility. It was the reason the Russians were so hostile throughout season one, they suspected that this new asteroid crisis was similarly engineered. Someone else might recall more detail?