Did I just click my heels three times?
It starts as a segue from the previous episode's clips and blends right into this week's episode, so it's not easy to tell where the previews end and the new episode begins. Aaron, dressed in fancy pajamas, is in a spotless, modern apartment with Priscilla, as if nothing happened. But something did happen- the news is reporting that the Mathesons' EMP device worked perfectly, disabling the terrorists as originally planned, with no effect on anyone else. Dr. Horn, he of the brain tumor and torture, stands in the background, and he is the first crack in the mirror- Aaron knows he's seen Dr. Horn before. Priscilla is mildly curious, but hey- look at the time! On his way to work, Aaron almost eats out of the garbage until a horrified Priscilla stops him.
Work turns out to be Aaron's very own Pittman Something, which he owns. Everyone there is an employee of his (maybe even Priscilla). Everyone likes him. It's safe. But Aaron is still confused. He has no idea how any of this could be, as he has no memories of making this company over the last 16 years. He has only disjointed pictures of something horrible in his head. Two of his programmers, working on something to be presented the next day, are stuck on a bit of code. Would Mr. Pittman please help? Aaron points out the problem, leaving it to his programmers to solve. Aaron sees a news report with Rachel explaining why EMPs are the best way to stop terrorists. She's calm, perfectly hair-dried, and wearing a power suit. He almost recognizes her.
You don't remind me of what I look like without a hair dryer, and I won't kill you over Belly Shirt Girl.
Aaron starts losing his grip on the reality of what he's seeing, so Priscilla is there to tell him his story of a world without power, and some girl wearing a really short shirt running around are delusional. Aaron ends the day watching a commercial featuring the most annoying insurance man ever, and turns to cold beer. He desperately wishes this is real.
Ugh
When he wakes up the next morning to the same alarm clock in the same apartment, he is overjoyed. What is interesting is how overjoyed the audience is. We want this to be real. A world without power is dirty, hungry, sick and frightening. Wouldn't it be awesome if it was all a dream Aaron had? Aaron blissfully kisses his wife, confirms he's on for the Timberwolves tonight with his staff, and gets called in again to fix some code for his programmers. At first, he's just annoyed they couldn't do it themselves. Was he arrogant before the power went out? Probably. He's just about to fix it when one of his flunkies gets an arrow in his forehead. Blood spurts onto Aaron's face as both his programmers fall down, shot in the head by...
Belly Shirt Girl! AKA Charlie. She is the only character who actually looks like her real self here. She yanks Aaron out of his office, and as they flee the building, Charlie explains that she's actually his own sub-conscious, there to remind Aaron that he is NOT to fix the code, that he has to let the nano die, and makes a Matrix reference, which is the last straw for Aaron- Charlie is too young to remember the Matrix. She must be a product of his mind here. As they crouch behind garbage containers, none other than Dr. Horn shows up with Patriot-looking soldiers, coming for him. They quickly kill Charlie, but not before she tells him to find her mother, Rachel. Aaron manages to run away (?), almost colliding with another skinny chick in a power suit, good ol' Nora, who tells him to watch where he's going. He gets into a cab and orders it to drive to Chicago. From Minneapolis. Hey, it's a dream.
Of course it's me! I'm the only character with her shit together!
In Chicago, we see power-suited Rachel walking to her car, while she advises Ben Matheson on the snacks Charlie will need to bring to ballet class tomorrow. Sidebar: I hate this trend. Pack your own kids' snacks every time. Don't do this stupid cycle of making some poor parent responsible for what everyone else's kids will get to eat that day. Especially if your kid is allergic to gluten. Those kids can just bring a fucking apple themselves to ballet. Sidebar ended.
Rachel's convo with Ben is cut short when Aaron tries to make contact. Didn't the nano know he was coming to Chicago? Why not use the 10-hour drive to stop him? Or kill the taxi driver? I don't know. What I do know, is that Rachel thinks she's being mugged and tasers Aaron. A gun suddenly appears in Aaron's hand, which he doesn't realize until Rachel surrenders and has to point out to Aaron that he's armed. So he directs Rachel to drive him to her brother-in-law, Miles. After claiming to know them, he reminds Rachel that she's having an affair with him, which freaks her out enough to do what he says. They leave just as Dr. Horn and his goons show up.
The only time Aaron will be scary
In the car, Aaron further proves he not only knows Rachel, but knows her completely by revealing her deepest secrets back to her. They show up at Miles' place, a dump off a commercial strip, and find Miles getting drunk and calling Tom Neville a dick again. Rachel walks in first, Miles gloats that she's crawling back to him, and tells Aaron to take a hike so he can fuck his brother's wife. Or yell at her. Whatever.
Winning
So Aaron uses the money card to stay for 10 minutes. We skip to Miles' reaction to Aaron's story, which is is typical sarcasm. Aaron has come to Miles for protection - "Do your sword thing", he tells Miles. Miles, who doesn't actually start sword fighting until the power goes out, is just amused. And that's before Monroe walks in with a pizza and tells Rachel that she's really crappy at ending affairs. He is amused by Aaron too. When Aaron tells Monroe that he's also a great warrior and knocks his Civil War Uniform fetish, Monroe is a little insulted. But shit's about to get real. Rachel is horrified and Miles is completely blase as Dr. Horn again shows up after Aaron is, again, already at his destination, and soldiers start dragging Aaron away. Miles only watches, not wanting to get involved.
Still self-centered and hates everyone
The point, I guess, is that even in a dream, the characters all retain their essential personalities. Charlie kills first and fills in the details later. Rachel is clever, but ultimately useless without Miles; Miles drowns his sorrow in booze, annoyed that the world is full of people who want to kill him, and refusing to get involved until someone he's supposed to care about is about to get killed. Monroe loves Civil War uniforms and enabling Miles' bad attitudes. Just as a screaming, pathetic Aaron is dragged to the door, Miles looks down at his hands and sees a sword. Monroe does the same and sees a very jagged machete. They quickly mow down the bad guys, marveling that Aaron was actually right.
It's Rachel who figures it out. She reminds Aaron that it's his dream, and he can control it if he focuses on what he wants to happen or appear. So the four of them get in car and drive, uninterrupted...
Why do our road trips always suck?
back to Minneapolis. On the way, Miles and Aaron figure out that if he can make himself fall, that will wake him up. So, at the top of his office building, Aaron is about to tip over when his audience of post-blackout buddies becomes..
Priscilla. Who is desperate. Aaron now recognizes her as the voice of the nano. And like the Matrix, she offers him a wonderful, safe, powered life in his dreamworld. He'll even get his beautiful dream wife forever. All he has to do is fix the code. He rejects it. It's not real. As wonderful as the fantasy of his life as it should have been is, it's not real. His real life will get better when the nano is gone. He tips over and...
Finds himself back in Dr. Horn's torture chamber. Terrified and panicking, Aaron's attention is directed to a chalkboard containing the bad nano code that needs fixing, and Dr. Horn is willing to induce maximum pain to get it fixed. Since he rejected the fantasy life he resented losing, the nano is now tapping into his fears. Which, as always, lead Aaron to panic. Until, he realizes, he's still in control of his dreams. His hand restraints disappear, and Aaron reaches up to grab Dr. Horn's throat, insult him, and refuse to fix the code.
Throughout these dream sequences, Priscilla has been representing the cushy, happy life he lost, which he knows he can't get back. Dr. Horn has represented his fears of dying in a world where he's a nobody. These characters have always represented these things, which is why Aaron deserted the wife who reminded him of all he lost, and desperately feared the man who could kill him. Aaron, after turning down Priscilla's fantasy world and standing up to Dr. Horn's violence....
Wakes up back in Lubbock. Yay.
Priscilla and Peter are both waking up as well, so Aaron grabs the knife laying on the floor, and stirs Priscilla. For the first time, he threatens to get violent to stop Peter from keeping him there. He and Priscilla leave. As they pass the town's highway sign, they see the nano tech starting to die everywhere. Lightbulbs are flickering on (they shouldn't, streetlamps are connected to the grid which requires a functioning power station). Aaron wants to go home. Which now is no longer Minneapolis, but...
Willoughby. Stopped by Rachel and Miles, he is happy to see all. Miles and Rachel take him back to town, where people are responding to the flickering of lights and screens as time to horde electronics. Which it is. As they puzzle over whether to do anything, lightning storms flash all over, and Aaron realizes the nano won't go out quietly. The lighting completely obliterates the looters. As they proceed to the safety of the half-looted electronics store, Rachel is struck by this lighting, barely surviving. Miles is desperate to save her, but has no idea what to do. So, Aaron comes up with the idea of using a now-on computer to fix the code. If it will take the world out when it goes, better to save it. So, with Priscilla now screaming at Aaron to NOT fix the code, Aaron types in the proper code, fixed so the nano will survive.
His friends disappear. We see Dr. Horn behind Aaron now. And Aaron realizes that he's been had. Within the dream, Aaron could face his bitterness and fear. But, convinced that there would be real-life consequences if the nano died, he folded. Dr. Horn is a bad loser, throwing Aaron's insults back in his face and hinting that the nano now has plans, he tells Aaron they are square and graciously allows him to go freely. Aaron wakes up with Peter and Priscilla, back in Lubbock. Peter is ecstatic that his miracle power is alive and well, and also allows Aaron to leave. Aaron and Priscilla leave Lubbock, Aaron taking it well that he only narrowly missed killed the nano as he sees the same light bulb from before totally dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment