Episode Report Card Erin: C+ | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Welcome to the Apple Store. Would you like a gun with your iPod?
By Erin | Season 4 | Episode 1 | Aired on 01.04.2005
Elsewhere on the continent, Sydney's walking through a subway station. Originally, I thought she was in D.C., but considering stuff that happens later in the episode, I've changed that opinion and now believe she's in Hell-Lay. Not that you care. Also? The second I saw her walking through the station, I totally knew she was going off to some secret organization à la Oops Center. I just knew. Because I'm psychic. And your boyfriend's sleeping with your next-door neighbor. Trust me. So, we're walking, we're walking, we're walking. Then we're riding, we're riding, we're riding. Syd pulls a pass card out of a red envelope and exits the train as the Mysterious Strings of Secret Passageways trill across the soundtrack. Syd looks around and saunters down to a staircase at the end of a platform. She pulls out the pass card, walks up to a door, slides the card through, opens the door, and walks through. The door shuts and we get a shot of the "WARNING: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" sign of the door. Hence the title of this episode. And so much more.
Once inside, Syd has to go through some elaborate series of lever pulls and button pushes in order to open the inner door to a hallway. At the end of a curved tunnel is what looks like the entrance to the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue. In fact, when Syd walks through and looks around, we see that, aside from a bunch of people dressed in suits, it actually IS the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue! But anyway, Syd's standing at the entrance to the Apple Store and Angela Bassett walks up. See? I told you that whole "you're a loose cannon" scene was a fraud. Why don't you ever listen to me?
Angie says she's glad Syd found the place, and then congratulates her on an excellent performance in front of the committee. Syd returns the congratulations, saying that she actually felt like she was in trouble. Angie moves to show Syd around the office. Syd asks about Doof as they move through the Apple Store, and Angie just quips that Doof thinks he's a hero; he has no idea that Shanghai was a charade. See? Again. I told you that recapping that entire scene wasn't necessary! You really should listen to me. I'm always right.
Angie exposits something about how the Apple Store was used for Pacific Rim operations until 1998, but it was dark until Langley approved this division two months ago. Okay, now…have two months passed since the end of the last season? Or has more time passed? Or should I care? Or should I just remember that last season, the whole timeline thing fucked us because if Syd had really been gone two years, then it was actually 2006 instead of 2004 but since all the calendars and everything on the show said 2004, she couldn't have been gone for two years unless when she erased the two years from her memory, she actually erased two years from the rest of the world? Ow. I think I sprained something. IN MY BRAIN.