This episode was a great return for Limitless after those brutal two weeks of hiatus. This episode took all of the best traits about this show and amped them up to 11. It was a great time and I cannot wait to talk about everything that happened with all of you!
Previously on Limitless...Rebecca continued to look into Senator Morra's shooting and she pieced together that the buttons on the jackets didn't match. Brian tried to reassure Sands that he swapped out the jackets and no one would suspect a thing. Much to Brian's dismay, Rebecca is determined, and won't stop until she gets to the bottom of this. This episode, however, had a bit more to tell us about than just the Morra side plot. For reasons that are still unknown, the CJC was looking for a third bodyguard to help out Mike and Ike with Brian. Mike and Ike conducted the interviews, and then the candidates would meet with Brian to see if they would be a good fit. This allowed for some really funny scenes. They finally landed on a Spike that sure, seemed overeager, but he knew Brian's favourite music and movies, so Brian was satisfied. He did need to work on his big entrance after delivering his NZT. Mike and Ike had a delivery too; Naz wanted Brian to absorb and analyze a ton of files. Boring! Brian played basketball with these files and was trying to get Rebecca's attention. She's still looking into the Morra evidence. Brian gets visited by another clone to remind him what trouble he's in. Naz shows up too to tell him that Quentin, from the Arm-ageddon episode, needs his help. I might as well get it out of the way now - Brian and Quentin are adorable, and the fact that they still keep in touch and work on nerdy stuff together warms my heart.
Quentin let Brian and Rebecca know about Eloise, a woman who was murdered. This was not just any woman though. She worked with Quentin, and she had a mind file - basically a robotic version of her brain that could live on and communicate despite the real Eloise having passed. As much as I was distracted by this Spike debacle, this whole ordeal with virtual consciousness was nothing short of fascinating! Thank goodness it was time for the theme song, so much has already happened! The scene of Brian and Rebecca trying to interrogate ELO was so cool. Sure, she was a bit flawed, but like Quentin said, they're close to having this be a seamless design. Brian and Rebecca then go with Quentin to find out more about Eloise's work. She was working on space DEFENCE missiles, but Brian just loved saying "space missiles". Brian theorizes that someone didn't like what she was doing, and used some sort of super-spyware to hack her. In a turn of events, the NZT ran out of Brian's system, and he had to wait until the next dose to data-mine (hack) again. Meanwhile, Sands wants to know if the Morra evidence was taken care of, and Brian tells him it was. Sands is also there to give Brian another booster short; thank heavens for that. Elsewhere, Brian gets another dose of NZT; Spike prepares fancy shots for him to down it with. Mike and Ike do not look impressed, in fact they could not look more disgusted and jealous. The nice scene was amazing - more boring hacking stuff took place, but we got to watch Vines of the dog Mishka saying "I love you". That was so cute!
And then Brian had another dream sequence about Rebecca and Boyle cutting a wire and making confetti appear. Brian seems to be really peeved that their jobs are more fun in his head than they are in real life. This would be a good time to mention the awesome new headquarters! Brian got. This place is so cool; I totally wanna work there! Brian meets up with Quentin again, only to find that Eloise was selling mind-files, one of which was Quentin's. Ouch! Here comes Spike again and Ike is jealous as heck! Haha. Brian found the six people who could be targets in an interesting scene with Spike and excellent animations. All this lead to a sweet scene with James Tech, who is secretly the MVP of the CJC. James is pining for Brian's affections, and to be honest this is probably the most underrated, one-sided ship of the show. James helps out by giving Brian the identity of TheScrubJay. Before meeting this ScrubJay, Brian needs Spike to go run some errands for him. More awesome annotations, and he's back. Brian has to make something ScrubJay would want to take notice of. A painting, of course. But everything Brian painted lacked a muse, lacked a soul.
Spike, nonchalantly offers to be that muse for him. With almost no warning at all he takes his pants off and lets Brian paint him. Mike walks in a that perfect time, and three seconds don't even go by before Mike declares to Ike that he wants Spike gone. He also revealed that Naz has a position at the CJC open for him, much to Ike's dismay. This show gives off conflicting tones sometimes - either Ike is happy, ready to do whatever it takes for Brian and the job and he never wants to leave, or he can't wait another minute to leave. Make up your mind, writers. Rebecca comes in and notices the paintings. Spike is such a narcissist, but more on that later. Rebecca is still looking into the lock-up guy. Brian has the worst poker face known to man, but more on that later too. Brian finally meets this ScrubJay, and I kid you not, the very first thing he says to Brian is, "So, I hear you like the naked pale man." AM I SECRETLY WRITING THIS SHOW? Who knows. But it becomes evident that he was poisoned. Damn it, another death staring Brian in the face to take away his innocence. That leads Brian and Rebecca to GERD, the Global Enterprise for Research and Development. Looks like a fancy place to work, but does it have a headquarters! like Brian's? Probably not. Anyway, we find the real guilty guy, John (actually Gerard, the name given to Brian by ELO), and Brian gets to show off his impressive lip-reading talents again.
Mike and Ike also figure out Spike is actually a mole for ADIC Johnson. Remember that guy? And they found this out by Ike's jealousy. I'm not kidding, he was so jealous he put two hidden cameras to spy on Spike. Brian is clearly rubbing off of them because they used art and puppetry to try and win Naz over. Ike's actually a talented artist; this does not go unnoticed by Mike. "That's beautiful!" "Oh, thanks man!" was perhaps my favourite exchange of the episode. Thanks to Naz, Spike got fired. BYE, FELICIA! Mike decides
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I have to mention the impeccable wardrobe choices for Brian. I only hope that the costume designer continues to dress Brian in beanies and flannel shirts. They seem to compliment his personality quite well. Another thing that I fail to praise enough are the people who work on the VFX for this show. The special effects have always been great, but in this episode in particular, they were spectacular! Overall, this episode was excellent, and I was giddy the entire time I was watching it, even long after it ended. That's what I like to see.
What did YOU think of Fundamentals of Naked Portraiture? Did you enjoy the many twists and turns it provided you with? Are you going to miss Spike at all, or are you happy to see him go? Whatever you thought, please be sure to leave a comment down below!
