Polite Dissent

A clever initial premise spoiled by Dunham’s botching of the investigation. The medicine/science was hit or miss.

The Story: Mark Young has just finished delivering a successful presentation at Massive Dynamic and is relaxing in the conference room. He sees a butterfly, but when he tries to get a closer look, it cuts him with its razor-sharp wings. He smashes it, but another appears, and another, and then an entire swarm, all slicing his skin with their wings. Trying to escape from the swarm, Young runs wildly and breaks through the window of the conference room, plunging to his death on the street far below.

Agent Dunham and her team are called in to exam the body. Dr. Bishop notes compound fractures and internal bleeding – consistent with the fall — but also many deep cuts, with many of them under Young’s clothes, so broken glass couldn’t have caused them. Bishop has Young’s body shipped back to his lab for an autopsy, and that’s when he notices that the cuts all seemed to be made from the inside out.

Agent Dunham receives a mysterious e-mail from the late Agent Scott, her former partner and lover. It directs her to a basement room in an abandoned building filled with boxes of toads. Bishop recognizes the toads Bufo alvarius, which are known for secreting a hallucinogen. He identifies a concentrated form of this toxin in Young’s body and deduces that he essentially died of fright (well, that and a thirty-story fall) and the cuts were all psychophysiological (i.e. psychosomatic — caused by his own mind).

Dunham decides she needs to access Agent Scott’s memories since he seems to have had a connection to Young. She goes back into the sensory deprivation tank from the first episode and discovers a memory of Scott meeting with Young and two other people. It seems that Young was selling secrets from Massive Dynamic. Young goes off with one man while Scott stabs the other. Agent Dunham is now determined to track down this remaining fourth man. Using some not-so-subtle clues from Young’s date book, she discovers he is George Morales, an infamous smuggler. The team goes on one of their SWAT-lite raids and successfully apprehends Morales. He offers tell Dunham everything he knows in return for protection from Massive Dynamic. He claims that they are behind “The Pattern” and are using it as a cover for their illegal activities. Dunham goes to confront Nina at Massive Dynamic, but while she is there, Morales dies mysteriously, his throat cutting itself open — apparently he was given the same drug as Young and imagined Agent Scott cutting his throat.

1. Psychosomaticism
Assuming that I accepted a psychosomatic cause for Young’s cuts (and I don’t — there’s simply no process by which it could work), why would the cuts be from the inside out? It makes no sense. If he were mentally replicating the wounds he was imagining, they would be external, not the other way around.

2. Toad Lickers
The toad Bufo alvarius is found in the southwestern United States. It secretes two hallucinogenic drugs, bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT, that are effective if inhaled, injected, or ingested. Bufotenin is the more potent of the two. Reports from users indicate it is not a particularly pleasant drug. In terms of fear, high doses have been known to cause extreme anxiety and a sense of impending death. Of course, the higher doses also tend to turn the face of the user a dusky purple color from vascular congestion.

3. Why?
Unrelated, except that the ad was shown during the show. Why in the world are they remaking The Day the Earth Stood Still, one of the true classics of science fiction cinema — and with Keanu Reeves, no less?

4. Micromanaging
All the strange equipment and requisitions for Bishop’s lab, and the only thing her supervisors ever questions is an aquarium and food for toads? What about the cow? The grand piano?

5. Can’t Find Her Way Out of a Paper Bag
I’m losing more respect for Dunham’s supposed keen investigative skills every episode. The clues and answers are all spoon-fed to her. And then, when she finally is on the verge of learning something truly important, she abandons her source and runs over and accuses Massive Dynamic before actually getting the evidence. So not only is the source killed before actually divulging the important information, but she telegraphed everything to Massive Dynamic. Great job, Olivia.