“Mile Marker 14” – aired on November 5, 2019
Written by: Nick Parker
Directed by: Sydney Freeland
Grade: 4,5 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
Readers familiar with my reviews probably know by now that I am not a fan of eleventh-hour twists, a method excessively used in today’s landscape of TV dramas in my opinion, and too often for the simple purpose of jarring emotions. Maybe I am in the minority in thinking this way, but I believe that a show consisting of well-written episodes does not need to resort to closing each hour’s curtains with the so-called ‘big shocker’ in order to get viewers to tune in week after week. Much to my relief, Emergence has so far stayed away from this trend, using this method only when it serves a purpose much larger than the temporary whaaat effect and challenges the viewer to reconsider what has previously transpired while adding depth to a character or two.
“Mile Marker 14” is one such episode.
Consider Emily for instance. I have openly criticized the way her character was written in a couple of my reviews – for ex: “No Outlet” – and even began wondering when she would be written off because it seemed as if the writing room did not really know what to do with the character. Is she there for comedic purposes? Is she a convenient tech-whiz, only there to assist with the storyline dealing with catching Kindred? Is she a possible romance interest for Chris in the future? The ending of “Mile Marker 14” does not bring a definitive answer to any and every question, nor does it necessarily justify her goofy disposition from earlier outings. It does, however, put an end to her oddly peripheral presence in the show and establish her prominence in the overall arc.
The stunning final few seconds of “Mile Marker 14” do more than just help Emily’s character gain a new perspective. A few quotes from earlier dialogues that seemed peculiar at the time make more sense on the second viewing (more on that below). The twist also links together the episode’s two main storylines (the family crisis and the search for Alan Wilkis) that seemed completely unrelated prior to the ending. Either could be labeled the A story. You could assign it to the one that carries the most far-reaching consequences or to the one that occupies more screen time than the other. In my opinion, and you may disagree, “Mile Marker 14” is an episode focusing first and foremost on family matters (or crisis, depending on your approach).
Ed informed Jo in last week’s “RDZ9021” that his cancer was back and that he did not intend to fight it this time. He is simply not interested in damaging his body and mind any further with chemotherapy and having others take care of him in the long term. He would rather go out on his own terms. As expected, Jo explores all avenues to make him change his mind and that includes enlisting Alex’s help. Unfortunately for Alex, it completely blows up in his face when Ed essentially tells him to mind his own business because that is what he had to do when Alex and Jo got divorced without much concern for Mia’s well-being although, he emphatically reminds Alex, “Mia did get hurt.”
Speaking of Mia, she is now Piper’s unofficial coach and makes her practice her superpowers. During one of their sessions at the neighborhood park that she is recording on her phone, Piper manages to make objects float in the air, but accidentally (I presume) sets one flying in Mia’s direction, striking her hand. They stop by Abby’s house to have her check the injury but Abby can immediately tell that the girls are hiding something. Mia’s story of falling to the ground and hitting a rock sounds like a giant fable and her not being in school does not make sense. Mia and Piper know they are busted when Abby tells them to stay until Alex arrives to pick them up.
Alex is not happy to say the least, especially considering that Mia missed school claiming to be sick, only to later go out with Piper to the park without telling anyone. He grounds them and confiscates Mia’s phone on which he discovers the clip of the earlier incident, setting off a major family crisis that leaves their unity severely harmed by the end of the hour.
It begins with Alex anxiously showing the clip to Ed and Jo, affirming that Piper must have superpowers, and adding that it must be why the bad guys are after her. Jo grabs the phone and deletes the clip. It dawns on Ed and Alex at that moment that Jo had known about Piper’s superpowers and not informed them. Things turn sour rather quickly from that point forward. A barrage of questions flow her way and her answers are anything but satisfactory. She can neither tell them much nor guarantee Mia’s – or anyone else’s – safety around Piper. To make matters worse, she asks them to “trust” her. Oh dear! I love you Jo, but “trust me” is literally the last thing to say to loved ones who just discovered that you have been lying to them and I cannot begin to tell you how ironic that sounds when you say it after getting caught betraying them.
Jo soon finds herself in the doghouse with everyone. Alex is deservedly angry and taking Mia back to his house. Consequently, Mia is angry for being separated from Piper who, for her part, is upstairs crying in her bed. Ed is upset at her because her action caused the family to split. Director Sydney Freeland’s closing shot of Jo is terrific here as we see her for the last time in the hour standing by the door after Alex and Mia left, as the camera zooms out and foregrounds her isolation.
The other major storyline centers on the chase for Alan Wilkis (Seth Barrish), the co-founder of Augur Industries, who was introduced by name only in the last episode.
The always-useful Chris has gotten hold of the report detailing the sailing-boat accident that left Wilkis dead years ago, except that his body was never found. Jo orders Chris to canvass the marina while she goes to meet the widow Maria Wilkis, played by Tamara Tunie – a familiar name if you are a fan of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Maria tells Jo that Kindred is a “fraud,” a “con man,” because “he doesn’t know the first thing about technology.” This seemingly contradicts Kindred’s image as the giant tech entrepreneur. It is the first of several hints that the episode drops to prepare the groundwork for the final revelation – Another one occurs, for example, when Piper says to Kindred that she likes Jo a lot because being with her feels like “home,” to which he replies, “maybe one day you will the same way about me.” The quote has a deeper meaning once we realize that Emily, not Kindred, was actually the one saying it.
Back at the precinct, Emily informs everyone that Wilkis dedicated his life to designing Piper’s AI but that “he despised it” by the end. He eventually eliminated the source code so that it could never be replicated. This is when the always-useful Chris enters the scene with a bombshell: Wilkis is alive! Chris followed the boat’s trail to North Carolina where it was spotted two weeks ago. Emily suggests using a clip of Piper dancing as a bait to draw Wilkis out. This whole exchange is well-written, with great attention to detail, and even more interesting to watch knowing that Emily had an agenda throughout each one of these conversations at the precinct.
Upon Emily’s somewhat crass prompt, Jo asks Chris to leave the room during that dialogue. This bothers him enough to confront Jo later and ask her if he had done anything wrong to make her question her trust in him. You cannot help but cheer for the guy, and Robert Bailey Jr.’s layered performance as Chris the mensch truly shines in these types of scenes.
Jo agrees and decides to let him in on the secret, which brings us to the most hilarious exchange of the hour. She gently informs him that Piper is an AI. At first, Chris’s eyes wander around the room for two seconds. He contemplates for another second. He glances at the ceiling one last time, and he replies, in a rather flat tone, “Ok. I got it.” The way he delivers that reply, Jo’s ensuing expression of confusion to his off-the-wall response, followed by Chris’s parting shot, “Probably later, I’ll freak out and question the universe and my place in it,” could easily be placed in my personal list of Emergence‘s top-3 funniest scenes so far.
In the meantime, the clip of Piper dancing must have piqued Wilkis’s curiosity because a package arrives to the precinct containing instructions on how to contact him. He essentially sends Benny and Jo on a scavenger hunt (an entertaining one, I might add) during which they have to leave their phones and guns behind. After being rendered unconscious along the way, they wake up in the living room of Wilkis’s “very lovely bat cave,” Benny’s quote.
Wilkis seems puzzled because he cannot figure out who could have designed the disk that Jo brought along. He knows that it could not have been Kindred because he lacks the knowledge and skills to create artificial intelligence, only confirming what Emily and Maria already said. I confess to being as perplexed as Wilkis at that moment, having no clue about Emily. Wilkis advises Jo to destroy the disk because nothing could be more dangerous than a neural network allowing the AI to learn, evolve, and change her own programming at will. Jo rejects the idea, of course, not wishing to destroy Piper.
Meanwhile, Wilkis is willing to help Jo put Kindred away. He gives her a USB key that contains information on a test that he and Kindred conducted in 2011 on human subjects in Malawi, involving gene therapy and nanotechnology. They paid the participants but secretly knew that it would/could (not clear which) lead to their death, which is exactly what happened to 14 of them. Their families were paid to remain quiet and the government burnt the bodies.
Kindred’s men arrive and following a run-of-the-mill action scene, Wilkis escapes into the night in his SUV after destroying his computers as Jo and Benny are saved by the arriving police cars, thanks to the always-useful Chris the mensch who had asked Emily to locate Jo’s fitness tracker and alerted the local police accordingly.
Back within the safe confines of the precinct, Jo and Benny watch Kindred getting arrested on TV. Case closed, Emily says goodbye to everyone and leaves, as I naively think see ya, won’t be missing ya’. With both storylines coming to some sort of conclusion – Jo alienated from everyone in the family and Kindred apprehended –, it’s time to tackle the ending twist.
While Piper is crying in bed after Alex and Mia leave, she gets pulled once again into virtual space to meet with Kindred. This time, Piper tells him that she knows he is not who he claims to be. My question is, how does she know? And why this time? What makes it that she can tell Kindred is someone else disguised as Kindred this time and could not do so in their previous meetings in the same space? The episode ignores the question.
Piper is onto something though, because Kindred suddenly transforms into Emily as the eerie score temporarily intensifies and the point-of-view camera angle passes from behind Piper, enhancing the surprise effect. Emily is now wearing a striking red dress and looking confident, almost in opposition to the image of the zany Emily that we have come to know so far. She smiles at Piper saying that now it’s their time “to have fun.” Piper smiling back at Emily as if to say “Yay, finally!” as the screen goes dark, reinforces yet again the possibility of a sinister side to her nature, in much the same way as the closing shots of “Pilot” and “2 MG CU BID” did.
Last-minute thoughts:
– Kindred is arrested on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Jo is unsatisfied with the charges but Benny quickly points out that Kindred faces 20 years, essentially the rest of his life.
– If it were not for that moment of seeing Kindred getting arrested on TV, one may almost forget that other law-enforcement agencies or media exist in the universe of Emergence. In the case of Kindred, and later Wilkis, should there not have already been all kinds of bureaus, not to mention the NYPD and the national media, investigating them and Augur Industries, snooping around Southold, with numerous individuals wanting to officially or unofficially interview Jo, Benny, the neighbors, townspeople, and others? Instead, we have so far had Jo and her small circle of acquaintances taking on Kindred and Augur Industries, with no distraction from law-enforcement agents or media members.
– I shamefully admit that “Action Jeeves” references completely passed over my head during the dialogue between Emily and Chris in front of the computer.
– The episode’s title refers to the marker indicated on the map left by Wilkis for Jo and Benny in the glove compartment of the car during their so-called scavenger hunt.
– Ultra-brief but riotous exchange as Benny and Jo walk in the woods:
Benny: “So, why’d you and Alex split up?”
Jo: “Nope.”
Benny: “Very good.”
Until the next episode…
PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook