Salerno’s Essential Insights - “Persons Unknown” – Episode 1.04 – Exit One- Recap

As episode four tees up there are some indications we are finally going to begin to get some answers. The show gets a whole lot more depth tonight as we find out at least one of their members are complicit in “the process”









• Persons Unknown
• Credit: NBC



What BEE happening?

The episode opens with Jan catching an Italian honey bee with her bare hands. Janet seems to know a good deal about the bee and that it should not be flying around town, but should be with its hive. Joe immediately kills it, indicating he is severely allergic to bees. It seems a little too obvious that Joe points out his severe allergy to this insect. However, as we later come to find out that Joe appears to know what’s going on, we have to question whether he indeed has any allergy or he is just playing his part. The bee incident appears to be another craftily engineered set-up for what will occur later. We are next shown Blackham throwing various items at the force field. Charlie walks up to see that Blackham has baited the area in a sadistic attempt to get a raccoon fried in the force field. Charlie is supposed to be the killer here, but Blackham appears to be the one with the more serious issues. One also has to wonder why these two seem to always be with each other given the events of the last couple weeks. I think the fact that Blackham is baiting the animal is foreshadowing that he will be baiting Charlie as well in this episode.

Moira and McNair (who contribute very little to this episode) are still hanging together, and for some unknown reason she is teaching him sign language. After the shot of Moira and McNair, we see Charlie heading back to the hotel, bickering with Blackham the whole way. Blackham is not all to subtlety letting Charlie’s know that he will spill his guts on his little secret. Blackham is beginning his process of baiting Charlie which will only get worse. As they are just about to fight, our good buddy the night manager starts rapidly ringing the bell. He announces to the group that a telegram was received indicating one of the guests will be shortly checking out.


Did somebody call a cab?

After the night manager’s announcement, the Hotelie’s gather in the lobby to debate the deeper meaning of “check out”. Blackham morbidly points out points out that the term “check out” in the mob is code for a hit. While there is little chance that Blackham was in the mob, he may be right about there being a hit on someone. Also, for the first time since this whole debacle began, Joe is actually reluctant to go on an adventure with Janet. It appears he is purposely trying to discourage her from trying to leave.

Back in the real world, Renbe is casing the park where Janet was abducted. He appears to possess some security photos of her just prior to the abduction. We are shown that the camera that took these images is now gone. Is it just me, or is it odd that the kids in this park always seem to have animal balloons in their hands? Also, there are suspicious guys in blue jumpsuits all around the place. Renbe then gets a phone call that from someone who tells him he is concerned about his safety and doesn’t want anything to happen to him. He tells him he needs to just forget about Janet and go back to his life.

Back in ghost town, everyone gets excited as a beat up taxi pulls up the street. It’s readily apparent that Blackham knows that he is not the one checking out as he is sporting nothing more than a goofy pair of boxers. The driver who pulls up speaks little English and appears to be of Middle Eastern origins. Where did this guy come from? Is he another victim of the watchers who has been promised freedom if he completes some sort of task? Of course, McaNair just so happens to have picked up enough Arabic while in Iraq to understand what this guy is saying. McNair relates to Janet that she can leave and choose anyone else to go with her. Almost expectedly, she chooses a reluctant Joe, who is warned by McNair not to do it. Trying to appear unwilling, Joe gets in the cab and they leave town. Brilliantly, Joe asks the cab driver (who does not know a lick of English) where he is taking them. Of course, he provides no answer


I want out!

Tori is extremely upset that she was not able to escape and we are shown a flashback where we learn that that the secret she has about her father is that he might have been responsible for killing her mother. Tori, believing that her father is the one responsible, pleads her case to the camera telling her father that she is sorry. Tori then hatches a diabolically brilliant and well thought out plan to escape. The plan, get all dolled up in a slinky red dress and see if she can seduce the night manager to get her out of there. After “innocently” getting him to fix her garter, she puts the moves on him trying to get him to succumb to her wiles. This guy is a stone and not only does he not fall for it, he tells her that he cannot give her any assistance. Clearly taken aback, she then asks that he at least deliver a message to her father which she quickly writes out. He weakly indicates he cannot do so, but takes the message anyways.

The scene shifts back to Renbe where he is still roaming in the park area while being harassed by a mime. He then gets another call, this time from Edick. Edick, who is also in the park, nabs back his stolen files and informs Renbe that Gonzalez knows all about him.

We next shift to the taxi cab taking Janet and Joe out of the town as it blows a tire. The cab driver get out and insidiously pulls out a machete from his trunk only to innocently cut up a couple of coconuts for Janet and Joe. As “Abdul” is fixing the tire, an unmarked black semi comes out of nowhere and barrels down at him. “Abdul” just manages to flip him the bird prior to meeting what appears to be a fiery death. So the question here is was the taxi cab driver a player in this game and is he the one who has been “checked out”? Was he supposed to leave both in the cab after the blowout for them to be killed? Was both Janet and Joe, or perhaps all three set for a “check out”?


Getting some Fresh Airrr

With their cab destroyed and no sign of “Abdul”, Joe and Janet begin to walk haphazardly to who knows where. We are next given truly a bizarre scene where Tori actually comes on to Blackham and offers a little fun if he goes up to the room. This is a strange turn of events for someone who has intimacy issues and put the beat-down on Blackham an episode ago. Tori also appears rather certain at this point she is going home. I wonder why? Perhaps she was told if she slept with Blakcham she could leave. Puzzlingly, Blackham actually withstands her advances and leaves her. .

We then see Janet having a probative conversation with Joe about his commitment to leave the town. Joe looks around nervously and gives a very unconvincing performance as to his willingness to get out of their predicament. It almost appears that Janet is testing Joe’s resolve.

Back in the hotel, were back to Blackham and his good buddy Charlie (Chuck by now) discussing Blackham’s ludicrous idea of a franchise of nationwide private parks called Fresh-Airrr. According to Blackham, (in proximity to a safe area for children) would be a special adult’s area with a mini Hooter’s. (In Blackham’s world this likely means that the waitresses are just a little less endowed than your average Hooters girl.) It goes without saying that this is stupidest idea Charlie has heard and he declines the opportunity to invest.

McNair (always seemingly in the right place at the right time) spends a little time then hanging out with Tori who reveals to him that her father basically prostituted her out for his business gains. McNair, always a good listener with lots of advice, still appears to be in on this. McNair convinces her that she can heal from this trauma and that she needs to stay alive to have another chance to be happy. Tori is next seen roaming the town alone crying out to her watchers that she just want to go home.

We find Blackham again bothering Charlie’s about his stupid new business. He also lets him know that he expects him to invest or he is going to blackmail him about murdering his wife. Charlie begins seething as he realizes Blackham is not going to stop with this.

Were back to Janet and Joe, who just happen to find a well furnished cabin in the middle of nowhere. Joe all too quickly suggests they go in and spend the night. They then have a very cozy discussion about their outside lives (or at least Janet does). Joe apparently is only concerned about the seeing Red Sox again and nothing else. Janet then tells Joe she would like him to visit her and San Francisco to meet her daughter. It looks like at this point that Joes efforts to earn Jane trusts (to whatever ends) have started to take hold.


The tests

In our first test, both Janet and Joe wake up the next morning to find that the cabin is filled with bees. This brings us right back to the foreshadowing with at the beginning with the first bee and Joe’s alleged allergy. Joe appears terrified, but also extremely calm for a guy with a severe bee allergy. Janet takes control of the situation and gets herself and Joe out safely. To me this was a carefully calculated set up to create more connections for Janet with Joe.

We next see Renbe in a brief visit with Gonzalez. Gonzalez lets him know that he has a still of him watching his wife the day she was kidnapped and that he knows he is her ex-husband. Later, Renbe returns to his office where he tells his boss girlfriend all about his wife and that he needs her help. She is definitely not pleased.

Back in the hotel, we get test number two as Blackham is again taunting Charlie, almost purposely with this foolhardy idea. Charlie looses it and begins to smother him just like he did with his wife. Before Blackham falls unconscious, Charlie pulls back showing he is not a cold blooded killer. Blackham is purposely baiting Charlie in order to get this reaction, just as he baited the toasted possum. However, it appears that Charlie stops short of giving Blackham what he wants.


Say it ain’t so Joe.

After walking for countless hours (just like with their escape attempt in the Van) Janet and Joe end up right back in the town. While Janet does not want to go back, Joe convinces her they have no alternative. He then promises he will get her out as he tries to convince her there will be another chance.

They walk right back into the Hotel with no one really appearing surprised that they are back. Janet is fully broken down at this point and also shows that she now completely trusts Joe as she asks him to stay with her in her room. Mission accomplished for Joe.

Another cab shows up in the town and Tori gets in, apparently making her exit from the ghost town. Is she truly free? Will she be killed (while trapped in the cab) by the mysterious roaming black Semi? Was her father the one really behind this?

In the final moments, Joe heads over to the Chinese restaurant for the big reveal. After specifically asking for the 47 Okra special, the Chinese worker escorts him to a secret back room. He is then chastised by him and told he has breached protocol. We finally now know for sure that Joe is definitely part of what is going on here. His compatriot wants to know what the heck is going on with him and if he is choosing to withdraw. When Joe indicates he is not withdrawing, the fellow watcher states that if he believes in the process he has to accept its results. The question now is has Janet really turned the table on Joe to where he is now doubting the process? Lets hope for her sake that she has.


Thoughts

I believe we can scratch off Aliens from the likely culprits, as we now know that Joe and some of the other “workers” are in on this. I believe that Joe is also not the only one of our seven to be in on it. I find it interesting that each Hotelie (other than Tori) seem to be paired up with someone:

Moira & McNair
Charlie & Blackham
Janet & Joe

I think that McNair, Blackham and Joe are all part of a group who partly know what is going on and their assignment is to either go through a process or bring these individuals (they are paired up) with through a process. However, while we may find out that they are behind what is going on, we may also find out that they were kidnapped in a prior group and graduated up one level. They are now in charge of taking the next group of newly kidnapped people through the process. While they may have gained some knowledge from their prior walkthrough, they really do not know more than the others and are doing what they need to in order to get out of this place. We may find that like peels on an onion there are others behind the curtain even beyond Joe and whoever else appears to be in on this.