Well, I believe the number one spot on my personal list of episodes has been re-assigned. This episode was a departure from murder mysteries the show has stuck to since it began, and the departure was fun. Where I found a few of the characters clunky and over the top in last week’s episode, this week everyone felt settled and natural.
This week’s episode started with an attempt to surprise Kirsten for her birthday. Cameron staged an emergency in the Stitch Lab, then ran her into the conference room for the surprise. (I found myself a little bummed that all of the people running around pretending to be dealing with the emergency didn’t make it to the conference room in time to yell surprise.) Needless to say, it didn’t work. But the brains on the cake did make an impression. I really wish we’d seen those get cut. I was trying to figure out if they were cake or candy. I’m guessing the bakery assumed the cake was for someone into zombie movies.
Unfortunately, before they can cut the cake, they are summoned to deal with a Stitch. Not quite sure why an alarm is needed to let them know they have a new case, but Les is allowed to manage his people any way he sees fit.
The Stitch this week is a doctor of Epidemiology at the World Wide Health Alliance, who committed suicide the previous night. There is no doubt about the suicide, but they need to find out why she killed herself. Her suicide note is basically instructions to cremate her body immediately and send her ashes to India. Camille is the harbinger of, well, of the plot of the episode. “We’re bringing someone who worked with deadly viruses and died under mysterious circumstances into the lab. What could possibly go wrong?” Maggie assures everyone that they have tested and re-tested every possible sample that could be taken before bringing her to the lab.
Dr. Barmal never wrote down notes because she had a photographic memory. It is soon revealed that a photographic memory does NOT mean you’re a genius. This doctor, for some reason we never get into, ignores all protocols and common sense and injects herself with a mutated strain of the Spanish Flu so that she can test a cure on herself. Having heard this, Maggie clears out non-essential personnel, just in case. Kirsten is concerned as well, but, because the lab’s environment is tested every 12 seconds, she’s good to continue…until the body goes symptomatic and alarms start blaring.
This led to two small touches that I loved. One was hiring a left handed actor to play the doctor. (Or, at least, taking advantage of the fact that the actor happened to be left handed.) This meant that she would naturally stand off to the side of the board so that Kirsten and the audience could see what was written there without having to do something awkward to achieve that result. The other touch that caught my eye was the way that Kirsten redrew the cure. She drew it in a visual fashion (lines and angles) rather than copying the way that Dr. Barmal drew it in the Stitch (by symbol).
Unfortunately, having this information is of little use if their only doctor can’t get into the lab to verify that what Kirsten found is what is in Dr. Barmal’s blood. The lab was locked down and the override disabled because of the biohazard lock down. Camille volunteers to crawl through the ducting and open the door.
The formula is fed into the Quantum computer, and there’s nothing for us to do but wait. The computer indicates that the formula Dr. Barmal created should have worked. She missed something and if they don’t figure out what it was they will all die. It’s time to say good-bye to loved ones.
Last week Liam proposed to Kirsten. Cameron is hurt that she talked to Camille about the proposal but not him. Kirsten doesn’t understand why he’s annoyed, she hasn’t given an answer yet so there’s nothing to tell. Part of me, if I’m being honest, is thinking ‘don’t be such a baby’. The other part is reminding me that Kirsten is supposed to be learning about interpersonal relationships so I can understand Cameron taking the time to explain what friends do.
This leads me to one of the elements of the show that I would like to see tightened up: Kirsten’s voice. The writing for Kirsten seems to change each episode. Last week Kirsten was so unaware of the emotional queues of the couple Maggie was interviewing that she alienated them. In this episode she’s laughing and joking with everyone. At this point I am unable to determine if she is picking up traits from a Stitch, or if this is her norm. I wish the show runner were taking more care to make sure that the writers were being more specific when writing her dialog. If she’s detached Kirsten before going into a Stitch and in love when she comes out (as she was in the honeymoon episode), I want to be able to clearly tell the difference between when she goes into the tank and when she comes out.
Linus calls his parents. They’re awesome. His mother knows immediately there is something wrong with her baby boy. His father is worried that Linus has been fired. Linus tells them and that he couldn’t have gotten where he is today without their love and support. The more he says the more concerned they get. But he does manage to redirect their concern by mentioning his girlfriend. Works perfectly. They get excited and start working on the plan to meet her.
Cameron calls his mother. I was a little worried that they would give him a mother that would be too busy to take his call. But she’s not. She doesn’t understand his choices and it’s clear that they’ve argued about this before. Ultimately concerned that he’s happy, she asks him If giving up MIT was worth it. With a glance at Kirsten, he tells her yes, it was.
Camille has no family, so she takes care of Linus. It is actually really sweet and, for the first time, I can see them as a couple.
Maggie leaves a message for, what sounds like, her husband. He’s deployed over seas and owed an apology...which Maggie leaves on his voicemail. The other thing she wants to take care of is telling Kirsten the truth she’s been begging for since the beginning of the series. Maggie gives Kirsten the other half of the torn photograph showing that she was standing with Ed and Kirsten’s mother. She also outs Kirsten’s father as a fraud. Kirsten’s mother was one of the original designers of the Stitchers program not her father.
Kirsten decides not to waste her energy calling Liam. There’s no need because she doesn’t intend to die. She focuses on solving that problem. She and Cameron go over and over everything that happened just before the doctor’s body was delivered to the lab. Cameron continues to try to get Kirsten to talk to Liam. She more interested in saving their lives. He thinks she needs to deal with the emotional stuff. He explains the scar on his chest. He had risky heart surgery when he was ten. It’s a sweet moment but it doesn’t encourage Kirsten to call Liam. She realizes the importance of temperature in dealing with the virus. In order to save their lives, they need to turn on the heater and get the cure from Dr. Barmal’s apartment.
The curly-haired featured extra from Cameron and Linus’ boys night gets a name! It’s Tim.
This is my new number one episode. The stakes were high for the characters, and we got a little more insight into who these people are. I thought the quiet scenes with the characters saying “a veiled good bye” to their loved ones were some of the best work the writers on this series have done. There was a subtlety to the writing and the performances that made the characters feel like real people. Did you guys enjoy the episode as much as I did?
