Written by Scott Clifford
I don’t mean to sound clichéd but we’re coming to the final countdown for Almost Human. “Disrupt” is the first of the final three episodes of the season and everyone who is watching the show has to be wondering if it’s going to be renewed for a second season. Unfortunately, the odds aren’t looking good as websites such as zap2it.com are predicting the demise of this sci-fi procedural. It’s a shame because episodes “Disrupt” is a great episode that is leading us to what will possibly be an amazing season finale. This is going to be another heartbreaking Firefly moment if FOX decides to kill this show and keep Seth McFarlane’s terrible live action comedy Dads.
Seeing Rudy start off an episode is a pleasant surprise as we see him run diagnostics on Dorian’s “brain” without the advanced android’s consent. Things get more awkward as John explains that Detective Paul is undergoing surgery for an infection in the genital area. Cut to a man named Michael Bennett entering his automated security house as his wife has trouble coping with the anniversary of a boy’s death named Aaron who was killed at their house a year ago. The wife goes to take a swim when their automated security home (with a holographic android) gets hacked, drowns the wife in the pool, and eviscerates Bennett with a machine gun. Later on, Kennex and Dorian enter the house to investigate and find that the holographic android was hacked and doesn’t remember anything that occurred during the murder. Captain Maldonado figures that maybe it was the woman of the boy who died a year ago since he was killed the same way as Michael so they bring her in.
The mother denies all involvement with the new murder while the company that designs the automated security, named Synturion, insists that they want to get to the bottom of the murders as soon as possible in order to avoid delaying the release of their new android security bot. Buildings light up with the message “Justice for Aaron” soon after Dorian freezes due to feeling the memory of a boy playing with a train. Rudy needs to stop messing things up. Seriously.
Kennex and Stahl trace the message to a hacker named Crispin by dressing up as undercover cyperpunk hackers in a scene that is pretty amazing. Crispin admits to causing the blackout as a way to honor Aaron but insists that he’s a protestor, not a murderer. Dorian learns that the head lawyer of Synturion has been murdered while Crispin sits in custody so his story turns out to be true. John and Dorian investigate the new crime scene. Dorian theorizes that someone hacked the fire alarm system to suck out all of the oxygen in the house in order to suppress a non-existent fire while the occupant was inside. This would cause the victim to choke to death without anyone having to get his or her hands dirty. Speaking of dirty, John’s lies about Detective Paul’s personal day of get more elaborate as he now claims that Paul got an infection from a sex bot. I guess that’s one way to try and get information on someone.
Crispin is able to convincingly explain techno babble while helping the gang as they realize that another Synturion employee is being targeted. John and Dorian drive to Synturion HQ as Crispin is able to confirm that the hacker is a girl named Elizabeth. Elizabeth was romantically involved with Aaron and it seems that she is lashing out at Synturion in order to get her revenge. Unfortunatley for John and Dorian, Elizabeth has successfully hacked all of Synturion HQ’s androids so she can use them as her personal Terminators. At first, Crispin disables the androids but it’s a small victory since Emily quickly gets them back online. That’s when Crispin decides to help John by using Synturion’s holographic systems against itself. Crispin clones John five times as a way to prevent him from getting shot in a really cool action sequence. Meanwhile, Dorian finds Emily hiding in Synturion’s server room before getting into an intense robot fight with one of Synturion’s androids. To make things worse, Emily has started a countdown sequence that will shut of the building’s oxygen supply. This is cool stuff.
Eventually the dust settles and Emily monologues about missing Aaron more than anything. It’s an unfortunate trope that keeps being used in Almost Human but I’ll go with it. Detective Stahl also tells Aaron’s mother who Emily is in order to finally answer her questions about her son’s murder. Interestingly enough, Rudy and John agree to keep Dorian from knowing about these organic memories that an unknown third party is planting in the robot’s head. I never thought that I would see those two agree on anything. I can’t wait for the next episode.
As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed “Disrupt”. Rudy is put in a position where has to lie which is new for his character. We learn more about Dorian’s past, and the world of Almost Human is expanded upon in an organic way. Even John’s juvenile attempts to find out Paul’s true reason for his absence are funny. I really don’t want this show to die. It has a lot of potential and I don’t want to deal with another Firefly incident.
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