Almost Human - 1.06 "Arrhythmia" - Review & Looking Back At All Six Episodes

Because we have a 3 week break (and because I have been SO busy do to preparing for the Holidays this week) I'm just going to write a little about the episode instead of a fully recaping and write a little about my opinion on the 6 episodes we have seen as a whole.

Again this episode was a procedural episode with no direct tie backs to things presented in "The Pilot".

It's not say that I didn't enjoy the episode, it has a lot of things going for it, but IMO this many procedurals is holding it back from being a great show.

Now some of this may have to do with FOX. As mentioned a few reviews ago, FOX changed the original episode order and it seems to have left us with non mythos episodes and only a couple of those felt character building. My hope is that perhaps FOX did this to snag a larger audience, the ones that are itching for sci-fi futuristic version of Hawaii Five-0, but then also similar to Person of Interest's first season, will become increasing more character driven, serialized, and mythos orientated. Although this seems like a bad plan, especially because all of the episodes so far don't resemble any continuity all, let alone there is a lack of growth or real exploration in our main male leads, as especially John Kennex should be struggling more and/or more concerned with Insyndicate, it could work out ok, if they slowly start connecting back to those things starting with the next couple of episodes. Truth be told it's hard to say this with any real certainty, as I have no idea if those upcoming episodes will or won't begin to tread back to "The Pilot", but a spoiler related article from TVLINE had stated that we would get back to 'the woman/android head in the evidence room' eventually, but that it wouldn't be any time soon.

DRN meet DRN 494

Although I was expecting completely different results, I was glad to get an episode about DRN reflecting on DRN. Michael Ealy did a great job at subtly playing a doppelganger counterpart, as model 494 has been refurbished to a mechanic-janitor-like role and seems to use a lot more slang, but DRN modeling himself after John's example, speaks volumes about how impressionable DRNs really are. 494 was also able to show emotional variation, as he was too scared to participate when DRN asked him too prior to the Henry Mills raid scene.

Life, Death, and A Soul
I know I have been a little critical about the lack of direct tie backs/serialization, and perhaps I'm just impatient (knowing this is only episode 6), but I can say that Almost Human has been fantastic about indirect tie backs, subtext, and/or themes. In most of the episodes we really have been dancing around death, the after life, and being in life or death situations. In our last episode we got some pretty strong confirmation that life in some way lives on after corporeal death, as clairvoyant Maya Vaughn could speak and hear the voices of various spirits. It brings up questions about Androids and Clones in which do or can they have a soul and will any of them have a spirit when they die? I would think in terms of the DRNs that will be true, especially because we see our DRN try SO hard to help others with their problems. But this episode also gave us something confrontational on the playing God front, as DRN went through the effort to give the 494 model an opportunity to be a cop again (something DRN believes that all DRNs are/were meant to do, which in extreme could become a major pitfall), give him back his memories from his last case, only to take them away after realizing how much pain those memories cause for 494, but curiously 494 could still remember the name of the most important thing about that case, the little boy Philip, whom 494 commented on, is the person he made the "most human connection" with!! It shows us again DRNs capacity to truly be imprinted upon by emotional experiences.

Additionally the theme was also alluded to by using literal advanced biometric hearts with timers in them, as a metaphor for 'having a heart', saving life, and realization of how precious life and time can be.

Note: One could argue that DRN is progressing more or faster than John is and that this is an intentional contrast and not necessarily part of the procedural aspect.

Other things about Arrhythmia

Another interesting thing about the episode was Captain Maldonado's reactions to things. In previous episodes it felt very much like she played big understanding sister to John Kennex and her department as a whole, but in this episode she comes off very short fused and not as emotionally connected. I can't say with any certainly this is due to these episodes being out of order, and/or if Bad Robot has had to re-edit these at all, but it does seem like a great contrast or contradiction. On one hand it was strange that we got wind from Rudy Lom in "The Bends" that DRN was bought of the black market and refurbished due to over emotional problems leading to the eventually complete DRN line to be [unjustly] decommissioned and here we have one back on the Police Force, let alone another one appearing in this episode...I would think that even Maldonado's choice to pair John with a DRN would be on the down low and seen by others as an unethical decision, which could explain her reaction when she sees the two of them in her precinct. It could also be a clue that this other DRN is not what he appears? Either that, perhaps Maldondo is going through something more personal. Something we might have understood if these episodes were in order or something that maybe we will get into in the next episodes?? At any rate it just feels like something's missing.

I also think that the episode title is thematic. I believe it stated in the "Pilot" that Maldonado and John Kennex were a little baffled by how Insyndicate knew where and when they were, which was also a point of interest in last week's episode, "Blood Brothers", which finding out where John, DRN, and Maya were was done through an MX's communication devise. The idea of being able to set timers on devices on which can be monitored seems to go hand in hand with those other ideas of either being in or our of "sync" pointing out the "timing" factor.

Ultimately I still find Almost Human enjoyable due to it's playful banter, creative technology, good cast, interesting crime stories, and it's atmospheric resemblance to a much missed Fringe. I'm not planning on abandoning ship any time soon or start calling it "ride-along-hell" just yet, but I do hope the show adapts and starts to reach it's full potential sooner rather than later.






Bad Robot Factor:
Each week after my review I will bring this section relating to many things Bad Robot in relationship to the episode, as I feel certain Bad Robot often makes a point to reference themselves with similar characters, subject matter, riffs, easter eggs, aesthetics, contrasting situations, & occasionally shared pop cultural references. So this section is to explore the possibility of those things, which may provide some and insight speculation and at the very least food for thought and/or trivia. I also think it's just fun to be able to reminisce!


Hearts of Glass

Fringe fans might have been reminded of special Film Noir spoof episode "Brown Betty", as characters hide and need advanced glass mechanical hearts to survive. Interestingly it had a kind of part man-part 'android/robot aspect as a metaphor to Walter's destruction and redemption, but also alludes to Peter and The Machine. However Fringe's episode may owe credit to Felicity's special Twilight Zone spoof episode, "Help For The Lovelorn", which featured characters getting their hearts removed and replaced with glass hearts also being a metaphor for love can be painful, but necessary to be human.





Life's The Same, Except For My Shoes

The band The Cars has become a reoccurring band on Bad Robot works. This episode of Almost Human featured the song "Moving In Stereo", which is also the song featured when Sydney Bristow gets out of a pool in the episode, "Double Agent". Super 8 features their song, "Bye Bye Love". The Alias reference may suggest that there will still be a double agent on Almost Human. Whether it be Richard Paul, Valerie Stahl, [a] DRN, or If John Kennex, like Trevor Cooper looking for "The Bishop", has taken matters into his own hands in finding The Insyndicate, we may find someone playing both sides.

Note: Episode "Double Agent" is when Project Helix (cloning technology) is introduced into the series.

Once Upon A Time

Taking a side step here, LOST and Felicity writers Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis shows Once Upon A Time and Once Upon A Time in Wonderland feature many Bad Robot Alumni and reference LOST and Fringe a great deal. One of their important characters is named Henry Mills, a boy that often serves as great plot device to many of the older characters and has been highlighted this past season.

Note: Henry is also the name of Walter Bishop's Uncle and Red Peter's and Red Olivia's son, who allegedly was not meant to be, as Peter, using the machine, either destroyed the previous time line(s)/universe(s), altered it, or he simply left it behind for a new one that was also created as a result.

A Short Story About Disintegration
Henry Mills' advanced cremating incinerator reminded me of a couple things from Fringe, one being episode that feature people being turned to ash ("Earthing")  and the other the machine in "A Short Story About Love".

Philip is also the first name of Fringe character Philip Broyles.



This week's Person of Interest episode, "Lethe" may have introduced fans to an all too human Artificial Intelligence machine/program called "The Samaritan". Perhaps we will see the pitfalls with this new machine in the future of the series and it may make some parallels to some of our android friends on Almost Human?!. "Lethe" also played with memory loss and the re-gaining of it.


Are you still enjoying Almost Human? Do want it to be more serialized or mythos related? What did you think of DRN removing 494's memories? Let us know in the comments below!!

About the Author - Darthlocke4

Laura Becker (Darthlocke 4) is a long time commentator, TV addict, and aspiring writer participating with other fans on SpoilerTV. She writes reviews and analytic type articles. Some of her other interests include philosophy, cultural anthropology, reading, drawing, and working with animals, as she grew up and continues to work on her family's horse farm.