The owner of an electronics store thanks his final customer for the evening; as soon as said customer is out of earshot, the owner calls the customer a "cheap bastard." Ah, I remember working retail. The owner starts to lock up the shop, but Spike Lite -- who needs D batteries -- interrupts him. Hey, did you know that Spike Lite is supposed to be British? I wasn't sure if you did. He's only wearing a Union Jack t-shirt, and he used the word "blooming" in a sentence. Plus, the accent, which frequently sounds more Australian than British. Spike Lite is accompanied by his friends, Gothy and Angry. There is a fourth steelhead with them, but it's not Lux. When the shopkeeper asserts that the store is closed, Gothy uses his newly acquired robotic arm to bust into the shop. The steelheads start trashing the place, smashing televisions and such. Gothy finds some batteries, and Spike Lite sneers at him, because everyone was supposed to know that the batteries were just a ruse to get into the store. Angry finds an Aibo-like dog; Gothy breaks it open and steals the computer chip inside. Spike Lite notices a surveillance camera in the corner, and calls it to the attention of the others. Gothy waves and smiles at the camera.
Cut to Max watching the surveillance footage on Logan's computer. So if Spike Lite noticed the camera and said, "I think we've got a little problem," why didn't they smash the camera and destroy the tape? Anyway, Max doesn't understand why Logan is making her watch the footage until the fourth assailant comes into view. It's Zack. He turns to face the camera, and reveals that one side of his face has been replaced with a metal plate, cyborg-style. Zack punches out the camera, but apparently they didn't think to destroy the tape. Nobody said the steelheads were criminal masterminds.
Max peers at a still frame of Zack looking into the camera. She can't believe he's alive. Max gives the back story for those who don't know it. Zack killed himself so that his heart could be given to Max. Manticore kept him alive artificially in order to harvest his other organs. Then, Zack was moved to another facility before Manticore HQ burned down. Logan points out that Manticore must have been experimenting with cybernetic implants, and it's possible that the steelheads bought him from "an enterprising lab tech." Max asks whether Logan knows where the steelheads are hanging out. Logan doesn't, but he wishes he did, since the steelheads are running a black market in organs for transplant. I thought Eyes Only was around to report on secret government dealings, like a pirate television station in a state-controlled media environment. So why is Logan involved in breaking up an organ-smuggling ring run by steelheads? Is he just an all-around bad-guy-fighting power, now? Anyway, Logan has put word out to his informants, and promises to tell Max any information he discovers.
OC makes excuses about Max's tardiness to Normal, who isn't buying what she's selling. OC claims that Max had a doctor's appointment, and that the doctor is a shrink. OC says that Max has been having violent work-related fantasies lately. Normal gets nervous. When Max finally shows up, Normal is completely deferential, because he's afraid of what Max will do. Max doesn't notice any difference, apparently. OC explains how close Max came to being fired. Max is distracted, but finally confesses to OC that Zack is alive. OC wonders why Max isn't happy about it. Max explains that she doesn't know Zack's status. OC hears the word "steelheads," calls Sketchy over, and orders him to tell Max about his run-in with the steelheads. Sketchy claims that the details are a little hazy, since Alec told him to keep it a secret. Max isn't having it, and threatens Sketchy to find out why he won't tell her.
Sketchy must have broken, because the scene features Max slamming Alec's hand in a locker, and telling him that they need to talk. Cut to Alec and Max arriving at the warehouse where the steelheads hang out. Alec says that he got out of selling steroids once he found out that taking them could make your heart explode, so it didn't make any business sense, "long-term." Max doesn't see any steelheads, so she wants Alec to get their attention by pretending to sell drugs. Alec doesn't think that's such a good idea. Max orders Alec to help find her brother, Zack, or she'll tell Normal that Alec used Jam Pony to sell drugs; then Alec will be fired, and his sector pass will be taken away. This would also cut in on Alec's side business as a cat burglar. Alec gets the point and begins loudly asking various people if they want to buy some drugs.
Back in the steelhead lair -- which features chandeliers despite the fact that I think it's located in a warehouse -- Gothy makes some adjustments to his robotic arm, and then challenges Zack to another arm-wrestling match. Zack wins easily, and Gothy complains that he should have just gotten an exo-harness like the one Zack sports on his arm. Spike Lite removes an IV needle from Zack's arm, and claims that Zack's blood is now "nice and clean." Gothy giggles, so obviously Spike Lite is lying about the procedure; it seems that it's something they do to Zack on a regular basis. Zack starts cleaning a gun. Spike Lite says things like "sodding" and "gob" in case you forgot that he was British since last he spoke. Angry enters and informs everyone about Alec selling drugs. Spike Lite orders Zack to move out. Zack cocks his pistol menacingly.
Alec explains to a potential customer that he doesn't actually have any drugs. I'm pleased to note that Alec is wearing a turtleneck and his collar is up, so his bar code is hidden this time. Gothy yells to get Alec's and Max's attention, and then pulls out a gun. Alec super-speeds over and disarms Gothy. Max does the same thing to Angry, who was standing nearby. Zack walks out and grabs Alec by the throat, lifting him into the air. Max calls Zack's name, and Zack holds the gun on her. Max says, "Zack! It's me. It's Max." Zack just stares at her and says, "Who are you?" One of Zack's eyes is an LCD display, like the thing at the airport that lists your flight status. I keep expecting it to start scrolling a message that features those little hearts or something. At least that would hold my interest.
When we return from the commercial break, Max is still telling Zack her name, and Zack still has Alec up in the air. Zack has a flash of memories, and realizes that Max is an X5. He orders her to show her barcode. Max does; Zack scans it, and then says that Max is 452, and that he knows her, because she was in his unit. Max sadly repeats her name, and then urges Zack to leave with her. Zack asks about the steelheads, and Max says that the steelheads aren't in their unit. Zack drops Alec and leaves with Max. Alec chokes and coughs, and then says that he's fine.
On the phone, Logan thanks some doctor for agreeing to see Zack, and recommends that the doctor meet them at the door in order not to raise questions from the other hospital employees. In his office, the doctor starts taking Zack's patient history. Logan knocks on the door, and Max walks out to talk to him while the doctor continues the exam. Outside, Max is sad that Zack didn't recognize her. Logan points out that he "took a bullet point-blank to the head," which does generally cause memory problems. Max says that Zack was the leader and always knew how to handle any situation. Except, apparently, taking a bullet point-blank to the head. Zack leaves the exam room, and the doctor motions Max and Logan inside.
The doctor shows Max and Logan some chest x-rays of Zack. Most of Zack's organs are "biosynthetic," and more efficient and durable than what they replaced. The arm had some nerve damage, so an exoskeleton was grafted on. That exoskeleton is "way more advanced" than the one Logan has for his legs. Max wonders why Manticore couldn't do anything about Zack's memory. The doctor explains that all of the associations with memory are stored in different parts of the brain, and then the temporal lobe keeps track of how all those associations are connected. Zack's temporal lobe was damaged, and then replaced with a cybernetic implant. Thus, there is a chance that Zack's memory will return. The doctor points out that hearing Max's name wasn't enough to trigger Zack's memory, but seeing her bar code did it. Max says that taking Zack to places he's been before might help, too. The doctor warns her that Zack may get confused between actual memories and dreams he's had. But, Zack could recover "almost everything." Max sadly asks when they'll know, and the doctor says that it could take time. Okay, wouldn't Max be at least a little bit happy? This is good news, right? She's not happy. Zack enters the room and realizes that he's seen Logan before. Max reintroduces them. Zack watches Logan and then remembers telling Logan that he was the biggest threat to Max's safety.
Gothy and Angry fill in Spike Lite and Lux on what happened with Max, Alec, and Zack. They've figured out that Max is from Manticore. Spike Lite says "bird" and "bloke." Spike Lite wants Zack back; he orders Gothy and Angry to stake out Crash, and get Alec to tell them where Zack is hiding out. Gothy and Angry take off to do just that. Lux kind of looks like Mandy from Temptation Island.
Max brings Zack to her apartment, but he doesn't remember it. Max is disappointed. The lights go out, and Zack thinks it's bedtime, but Max explains that it's "just a brownout." Max says that they're not in Manticore anymore, and Zack has a flashback and remembers that they ran away from Manticore and abandoned their mission. Max says that they have a new mission: "It's called getting a life. It was your idea." Zack asks where their fellow escapees are, and whether they're safe. Max thinks about all her friends who died, and tells Zack not to worry about it right now. Max tells Zack to go to sleep, and sadly welcomes him home. I still think she'd be happier to see him, and to find out that he might get better. She's just depressing.
That night, in bed, Zack dreams about Max, including a romantic scene by a fireplace. He dreams that he yelled at Logan, and that he killed himself in order to save Max. Zack wakes up with a gasp and looks in the mirror. He walks to Max's room and apologizes, and then starts crying because he "failed all of [them]." Max says that it wasn't his fault. Zack wonders what they did to him, pointing to his face, and then wonders what he is. Max has him feel her heart beating, and reminds Zack that he is "someone who will sacrifice everything to protect the ones [he loves]." Zack hugs Max and says that he loves her, and that he won't let anything happen to her. Max says that she knows. Still not happy, even though he just remembered pretty much everything.
The morning, Max wakes Zack up. When Zack sits up, Max sees that the side of his face, where there used to be a metal plate, is now covered with skin, faintly scarred. At the doctor's office, the doctor explains that Zack has "nanocytes" in his bloodstream, which are "self-replicating molecular-scaled biomachines designed to repair tissue damage." Max wonders why they just started working. Zack explains that the steelheads used to hook him up to a machine. Max realizes that they were filtering out the nanocytes. I'm not even going to get into the science of this, because I don't know. But it all sounds fishy to me. Max is finally kind of happy, like I guess the thing that upset her most was that she couldn't take Zack out in public. Zack still has the LCD eye; the doctor presses on it gently, and it slowly changes to a regular eye. Apparently, all it took was some pressure to "stimulate the ocular implant." Max says that Manticore must have wanted Zack to look normal so that they could send him out on missions. Zack checks himself out in the mirror and echoes Max's earlier line, to the effect that he has a new mission called "getting a life."
Max tells Logan about what happened. Zack thinks he'll hang onto the exoskeleton on his arm for a while. Logan wants Zack to spill the details on where the steelheads are holed up, since Eyes Only has been tracking them. Zack flashes back to a Clockwork Orange scenario where his eyes were forced open and he was brainwashed into thinking that Eyes Only was evil. But if he remembers that he was forcibly brainwashed, wouldn't he realize that his memories were false? Anyway, Zack says that Logan is Eyes Only, and Logan says that Zack knew that. Max reminds Zack that Logan helped them with the assault on Manticore. Zack thinks it's funny that the assault didn't work out as planned, and refuses to tell Logan anything. Zack stomps out. Logan wonders what that was about; Max says she doesn't know, and apologizes, before taking off after Zack.
Max finds Zack on the shore. She tells him that Logan didn't deserve that, and that Zack was "way out of line." Zack says that he knows, and that he's looking for anyone to blame but himself for the way things turned out. Zack apologizes. Zack reminds Max about the night they decided to "take down Manticore," which happened in the very spot where they are currently standing. Max says that Manticore is gone now, and explains that it burned to the ground, but that she got everyone out first. Zack realizes that she finished the mission, and that there are "a whole lot more of [them] out in the world who will need looking out for." I can't even begin to describe what's wrong with that sentence, but I guess the temporal lobe also controls speaking patterns and grammar. Max was hoping Zack would feel that way, and Zack says that he guesses he won't get that "nice, normal life" after all. Zack says that they have each other. Zack and Max hug. Zack remembers the romantic fireside moment with Max. Max walks away, telling Zack to follow. Zack remembers hugging Max another time, and then follows.
Zack and Max enter Jam Pony HQ. Max finds Normal trying to pry open her locker, or poke it with a pencil, or something. Anyway, it's a rehash of the earlier scene, where Normal acts all deferential, and Max doesn't really notice the difference until the end. I get all distracted by this Jam Pony messenger in the background who has a giant red Afro. Sketchy is excited to see Zack, since they were apparently friends when Zack worked for Jam Pony. Sketchy invites Max and Zack to Crash. Zack says that he thinks he always liked Sketchy.
At Crash, Zack and Sketchy play foosball, while Alec, Max, and OC drink beer and watch. OC wonders what Zack is going to do now, and Max says that she hasn't really thought about it, but that she's glad that he's back. Sketchy hints that he needs another beer, and Max grabs the pitcher and says that it's her turn to buy. Alec notices Zack watching Max, and follows Max over to the bar. Alec points out to Max that Zack has the hots for Max; she denies it.
Gothy does a shot, and then a needle extends from his robotic arm. Max walks up to the bar and asks for a refill. Gothy walks up behind her and pokes her with the needle. Back at their table, OC wonders what's taking Max so long. Zack hurries off to see where Max is. Alec makes some snarky remarks about Zack being a "knight in shining armor." Over by the bar, Zack threatens the bartender in order to find out where Max went. The bartender says that Max had too much to drink, and left with a couple of steelheads.
In the steelhead lair, Gothy and Angry wonder whether Max also has nanocytes in her blood. Spike Lite says that first they need to find out where Zack is, and then they'll harvest Max's organs. They remove the sheet covering Max, and ask where Zack is. Max claims that she doesn't know. Spike Lite asks Gothy and Angry whether Max was at the bar alone, but they say they didn't check. They did notice that Max was buying a pitcher of beer. Spike Lite uses this as proof that Max was there with friends. Spike Lite pulls Gothy and Angry aside and asks whether they checked the back room; they say they didn't know that there was one. Spike Lite hits them both, and then the three of them head back to Crash.
Before Spike Lite and his sidekicks can leave, Zack busts in. He quickly dispatches Gothy and Angry. Cut to Zack locking all of the steelheads into conveniently placed coffins. Zack finds Max handcuffed to a pipe, just like in Titanic. Zack tries to kiss Max, but she rebuffs him. He tries again, and is denied. Zack says that he loves her, and he wants things to be the way they used to be. Max says that things were never like that with them. Zack says that he remembers, and flashes back on his love scenes, but this time he adds some memories of Max and Logan kissing. Zack yells at Max that Logan betrayed them, and that's why the mission went wrong. Max asks Zack to help her escape, and she'll explain everything, but Zack flips out, all, "I'd die for you!" and "He did this to me!" Zack uses his exoskeleton -- which suddenly features claws -- to rip his new skin off his face and reveal the old metal plate underneath. And for some reason, his eye reverts to the LCD screen as well, but I'm not sure how that happened. Zack remembers shooting at a picture of Eyes Only at a shooting range. Zack proclaims, "Now he's going to pay for what he did...to both of us." Zack takes off, and Max yells after him, to no avail. Because she's still cuffed to the pipe.
Suddenly, Max is able to break her handcuffs and escape, and I don't know why she couldn't just do that before. I guess she's like the Incredible Hulk, and when she's angry, her powers increase. Max calls Logan and warns him that Zack is coming, and that Logan needs to get out. Logan straps on his exoskeleton and heads for the elevator. Just as the elevator arrives, Zack crashes through the skylight. Zack spots Logan just as the elevator doors close. Logan hits the button for the parking garage level. Zack forces the doors open and steps into the elevator shaft, and then uses his exoskeleton to stop the elevator and shimmy down the cable. Logan pries the doors open and hops out onto the parking level. Zack follows, shooting at Logan.
Logan goes down another level, where a guy is washing his car. This is important in a minute. Zack enters the parking garage and starts shooting at Logan, which causes the car-washing guy to drop his bucket of soapy water on the ground, and then slip and fall. At first, I thought it was just a bit of slapstick, which would have been a lot funnier than how it actually played out. Logan sneaks behind some cars and uses his remote to set or unset the alarm on his car, which causes Zack to shoot the car up. Let's hope it kills that car. It's a mercy killing. Zack somehow senses that Logan is behind him. Zack fires; Logan slips and falls in the soapy water, and his exoskeleton shorts out. Just then, Max roars in on her motorcycle and knocks the gun out of Zack's hand. The gun falls near Logan, who starts crawling over to it. Max and Zack fight. You'd think Logan would have developed some upper-body strength from his time in the wheelchair, but he's still having a lot of trouble dragging himself around. Zack tosses Max aside and picks up his gun, aiming it at Logan. Max reaches up, grabs an electrical cable on the wall, and touches it to the puddle on the floor. Luckily, Zack is in the water, but Logan isn't, and Zack fries. His little LCD eye blinks out.
At the doctor's office, Zack is on a respirator. The doctor comes out and tells Max and Logan that Zack will be okay physically, but that the shock wiped his cranial implant clean. Zack won't remember anything since the implant was turned on. The doctor claims that whatever Manticore did to brainwash Zack against Logan is still in his memory, so eventually, he would make the connection again. But how could it be? Didn't they do the brainwashing after the implant was turned on? So if the implant were wiped clean, wouldn't that also remove the brainwashing? This is why I wasn't a Psychology major. Well, one of many reasons. Anyway, Logan asks for a minute, and the doctor leaves.
Logan says that they might be able to make Zack understand that Logan's not a threat. Max says that she needs Zack, but that she can't risk losing Logan. Logan just nods with no emotion on his face, like, is he a robot? Max tearfully says that she has to let Zack go. Logan says that he'll use his contacts to get Zack a new identity and give him a fresh start somewhere else. Max says that Zack always wanted "a chance at a normal life."
Zack wakes up in a hospital bed, where a guy named Buddy claims that Zack was in a truck accident. Zack's new name is Adam Thompson, and he works on a ranch. Buddy offers to take Zack home for dinner. Zack thinks that sounds good. Buddy wheels Zack out, down the hall. Max is sitting there reading a magazine. I thought he couldn't see her or it would start the whole cycle all over again? Zack stops and asks whether he knows Max, but she says she doesn't think so. Zack smiles and Buddy wheels him out. Max looks sad.
Up on the Space Needle, Max remembers the good times, and says that it was hard to let Zack go. Any bets on whether Zack will be back?