Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Hong Kong Phooey
By Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 10 | Aired on 12.03.2009
assified images, so "we've obscured anything that would indicate where they were taken." Simon shows everyone how smart he is with: "Somalia. The dipped slopes in the overlying limestone, the orientation of the flora, the shallow water holes --" "Just tell us what you see," Wedeck interrupts. Simon leans back in his chair and asks, "Are you taking the piss?" He asks Janis to zoom in and gets up to point at the mysterious tower with the four round sub-buildings flanking it. Simon says, "I designed that. That is a specialized pulsed laser for a plasma afterburner. It increases the rate of acceleration for traditional radio frequency machines. The concept should win me a Nobel in a couple of years. I must say, the modeling software you guys use is incredibly impressive. The structure almost looks real." Janis dryly points out that it is a real photograph of a real structure, leading to Simon's first genuine "Wha-huh?" moment ever. He recovers with "That's not possible. It doesn't exist yet. We're still running numerical simulations." Wedeck asks when Simon came up with the idea for the laser, and Simon says it was in 1992. Janis breaks the news that the satellite pictures are dated 1991. Simon turns around and has his second ever "Wha-huh?" moment. Wedeck asks who else could have come up with the idea. Simon says dazedly, "No-one." Wedeck leans in and snaps, "Your unparalleled genius act is wearing thin." I love it! He's like a Frank Pembleton for the Aughties. Simon says, "It's not that. Look, you ask any great scientific mind what they want to achieve, and the only honest answer is 'immortality.' You discover something that changes the world, you live forever." Janis demonstrates she's been paying attention: "So whoever designed this not only had to be brilliant, but didn't even care about being famous. Didn't want it." Simon looks at her all, That idea doesn't even make SENSE! So they're looking for a supergenius paranoid recluse. Wedeck flips open a folder and shows a composite sketch of D. Gibbons -- apparently all the genius in the world can't arrest the migration of one's hairline -- whom they believe to be awake during the blackout and in contact with someone else; we see a flashback to him monkeying around in the doll factory too. That D. Gibbons is a time-management genius for sure. Janis VO's, "He's highly proficient in advanced computing equipment and particle physics simulation. Apparently, he's been hacking into a number of high-tech facilities. He also seems to have a penchant for chess." Simon muses, "A techie, chess-playing, social misfit physicist. Well, that should narrow it down." Hee! Simon is growing on me. Simon says, "If [D. Gibbons] had anything to do with the blackout, I'll do everything I can to help you find him. At the very least, I'd like to give his testicles a squeeze for sharking my plasma afterburner design." Right on, Simon! Spite is an excellent motivator.Across town, Lloyd is pleading with some uptight hospital administrator type to help him find a place where Dylan can be safe. The administrator is so uncomfortable with the man cable news has dubbed "history's greatest mass murderer" that he can't even look him in the eye -- but his powers of bureaucratese and obstruction remain undiminished, and thus the middle manager visits his own Babbitt-y revenge upon the monster Lloyd. Or he would have, if that meddling Olivia hadn't taken pity on Dylan and Lloyd and arranged a transfer to the private hospital Travers. Lloyd thanks Olivia, tagging on a self-deprecating "I don't suppose anybody will be helping me much in the foreseeable future." Olivia smiles up at him, "You need help? I'll help." Lloyd is touched.
Demetri and Mark are about to get some dim sum and some quality time with Nhadra. She does not look terribly thrilled to see them when they stroll into the restaurant. As Demetri walks to her table, she tells him, "You shouldn't have come here." "You called me, remember?" Demetri says. Nhadra says, "That was a mistake, clearly. You being here now, you've set things in motion that will end very badly for you." Mark sits down with "Can we skip over all the histrionic action movie cliches? 'Cause I'm way too jet-lagged to deal with any of it right now." Demetri asks who Nhadra is and why she called him, and Nhadra says, "I was trying to warn you. Your death is the first in a long line of dominoes that I'd rather not see fall down." She also claims she can't stop this series of unfortunate events and "if I tell you more, the act of telling you may end up bringing about the unfortunate incident we are all trying to avoid." Demetri can't be having with dorm-room discussions of predetermination and predictive outcomes; he wants information and he wants it now. So Nhadra lays it down for him: Demetri will be shot three times, at close range, in the chest. The close range of the wounds implies that Demetri knows his killer -- and the fact that the bullets which will kill him come from Mark's FBI gun would seem to suggest that Mark is the one who does the deed. Demetri points out that initially, Nhadra had said she didn't who killed him; Nhadra shrugs that she lied. She figured that was one way to prevent the murder. I admit, her logic has lost me here. She then wigs out both men by reciting his gun's serial number (A561984): "Presumably, in the next few months, a reason [to kill Demetri] will present itself." She then tells them she's done talking, and her four well-armed bodyguards look like they're ready to crack some FBI skulls together in lieu of ringing the dismissal bell. Mark gets up, and Nhadra whispers, "Don't ..." but it's too late. Mark now has himself a hostage. Oh, Wedeck is going to have kittens over this. We're going to come back from the hiatus period and discover everyone in Los Angeles shoving adorable fuzzy baby cats off the desk from Wedeck's massive kitten-having reaction. (And Simon will learn the feline language and train them all to do his bidding as part of his massive "hunt down D. Gibbons" project.)
Demetri is like, "What are we doing, Mark?" and the answer is ... creating a no-win international incident, as they get to the street, tons of security has boxed them in, and there is no way out. Not without someone getting more perforated than a doily, anyway. Marshall Vogel rolls up all,