“Applied Sciences” aired on January 14, 2020
Written by: Jerome Schwartz & Nick Parker
Directed by: J. Miller Tobin
Grade: 4 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
Restrained, a bit subdued, but well-constructed, “Applied Sciences” is a definite improvement from last week’s mediocre “15 Years,” largely because of the return of Piper, Benny, and Helen to the forefront of the narrative. The opening scene alone shows, for example, what a great addition Rowena King is to the recurring cast as she plays the progressively ruthless Helen with chilling authenticity.
Helen visits an AI in the suburbs to execute him because, it appears, he fulfilled his purpose in their overall mission. I am simply going to assume that she got rid of the body and did not leave it laying in the front yard of the family house in your typical Jones’s suburban neighborhood.
Following that somewhat petrifying sequence, the episode moves on to a series of scenes containing a number of jocular dialogues worth your time. It begins with Jo and Brooks bringing Charlie’s corpse to Abby for examination.
The doctor’s reaction is priceless:
“So, what the hell do you want me to do? Resurrect him? No way, get the jumper cables.”
A bit later:
Abby: “You want me to do an AI autopsy?”
Jo: “Yeah, that.”
Zabryna Guevara is absolutely delightful to watch here as she delivers one sarcastic observation after another – also check out her replies to Brooks and Jo as they attempt to convince her that Charlie is “not actually a guy.” I chuckled even more the second time I watched the scene. More humor ensues in subsequent scenes – Alex’s cute attempt to get Jo’s permission to continue playing the deputy, Abby’s snark when she sees Emily, etc.
Next morning at the house, Jo relays Piper’s message to Mia about not being afraid, making Mia and Ed’s eyes light up, because that is confirmation that Piper received their ham-radio message. It also means that the binary-code message Mia recorded on her phone was indeed Piper’s reply back to them. Jo knows who to contact to break the code, the unstable genius Emily who is easily seduced into collaborating with them when she hears that Charlie’s chip is from at least 15 years ago, before her time.
Abby’s autopsy yields no results. Charlie’s body is identical to a human’s, except that it is not, as Emily affirms. She wants it hooked up to the computer to solve the binary code. There are some light-weight explanations by Emily as to how any of the sci-fi things that she does is really possible throughout the morgue sequence. You would do yourself a favor by not taking the nit-picky rout and just rolling with it. Just trust the episode’s title, “Applied Sciences.”
Alex brings a buddy of his, Francis Baker (Gabriel Sloyer), to the Police Department to help Chris in solving what they saw on the boat in the last episode. He was Alex’s roommate and lab partner back in graduate school and now works at a firm that handles government contracts on “cutting-edge stuff,” whatever that means. The fidgety Chris (Robert Bailey Jr. is once again terrific here) is reluctant to disobey his boss who apparently gave him firm directives to no longer involve Alex with any type of investigation. An enthusiastic Alex overpowers him nonetheless, along with his nerdy friend Francis. They produce some technobabble verbiage (I told you to trust the episode title) to basically indicate that the crate was taken somewhere with a large power draw.
Back at the morgue, Emily cracks the code. It is an invitation from Piper for Jo to join her through the virtual backdoor gate, similar to the one that we saw back in “Fatal Exception” containing the library with blue and red books. This time, Jo needs to find a gold one in which Emily put Piper’s memories since the time of her kidnapping a month earlier, and destroy it. Have I missed something here? How did Emily have access to Piper since she has been with Benny and Helen? My best guess is that she created the gold book when she kidnapped Piper herself in “Fatal Exception,” prior to the time of Helen and Benny. In any case, a reluctant Jo must destroy the gold book to revert Piper back to that moment and cancel the changes made to her system by Benny and Helen.
Except that Piper has not changed! When they meet, she tells Jo that she is faking it with Helen and Benny and that her actual objective is to fix Benny and the rest of the AIs. Jo is not on board with her staying with them, “I don’t care about Benny, I care about you,” and she throws the gold book in the fireplace. Piper is having none of that. She uses her superpowers (that seem to have no limit now) to extinguish the fire and expresses her disappointment to Jo before closing the backdoor connection. Jo committed the typical adult error, not giving enough credit to a child’s mind, forgetting that Piper is not your typical child.
Emily has one last card to deal. Since Jo was in Charlie’s head to connect to Piper, she can use Charlie’s brain to trace Piper’s location, “at least somewhere close.” As I said, trust the title.
In the meantime, Piper has been working on Benny. She knows he feels guilty about betraying Jo and she is trying to get through to him to change his mind. She better hurry because Helen has noticed the incision behind her ear and suspects (correctly) that Piper no longer has the chip. They take her to a facility where the guard at the door joins them as they walk inside to a room full of shelves and metal boxes.
After the guard brings a crate that Helen needed, she executes him in front of Piper and takes a menacing tone with her. She lets her know that she is aware of her devious plans to change Benny and the rest. Piper can either share her gift with Helen, or Helen can take it by force. Piper, frightened, does what she usually does when she is frightened, making objects fly around to defend herself. In a visually captivating and well-directed scene, she traps Helen to the wall with metal crates and shelves before running away, not forgetting to set the alarm on her way out, with a wiggle of her hand from a distance, mind you? She lies to Benny, claiming that Helen told her to leave her behind and drive away.
Once at a safe distance, she confesses to trapping Helen at the facility and tries to convince Benny that she can help him. He must just look for the “real” Benny inside his head. Oh Piper, you sweet AI girl! Benny slaps on her the wristband that takes away her powers and puts her in the trunk. Next, Piper hears a vehicle approaching and Jo opens the trunk a few seconds later. Chris and Jo had tracked Piper’s location to Monmouth County where they found them, conveniently, on some random street where Benny and Piper were chatting!
As Jo frees Piper, Benny appears from behind and points the gun at Jo. She and Piper use psycho-babble-emotional-manipulation to stop him from shooting, and naturally, they succeed as Benny lowers his gun. Piper cheers him on, saying that “it worked,” that he did it! Jo is not as jubilant, she nails Benny across the face with a crowbar.
We witness a happy reunion back at the house when Jo brings Piper home. Later that evening, Alex informs Jo that he got a job offer from Francis. Earlier in the episode, the two friends met at a bar and Francis advised Alex to move on, like everyone else around him has. He would like Alex to be the head of the new branch he is planning to open in D.C. The offer is lucrative, Alex is definitely interested. Jo is happy to hear about it until the moment she learns that it involves him moving to D.C. This is when Alex admits to Jo that he needs to move on and that he cannot “keep doing this” to himself. I felt as if Alex hoped for a reaction, some type of response, from Jo. Alas… Jo remains quiet!
You knew the episode would not end it on that subdued but emotionally charged dialogue, right? It had to end on a cliffhanger so we catch up with Brooks driving Emily back. Out of nowhere, the engine shuts down. It’s the AIs. Brooks tells Emily to run as he points his loaded shotgun at the approaching vehicle. Next, shown from Emily’s point of view, we see Brooks getting shot and Helen is standing right behind Emily as the curtains close on the episode.
Couple of last-minute thoughts:
– Why is Jo apologizing to Alex for sleeping in bed? Relax Jo, it’s really not that weird to fall asleep with your clothes on next to a good friend who happens to be your ex-husband, also with his clothes on. I cheered Alex’s reaction, consisting of a shoulder shrug followed by stating the obvious, “it’s your bed.”
– Two episodes left in the season, which are essentially parts 1 and 2 of the season finale.
Until the next episode…
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