Motherlode - My Rant. Very Long. MAJOR SPOILERS
CJ
episode. Limbo got me really hopeful. But no. We're back to barely-seen
Taelons, formula action which doesn't make a whole lot of sense,
unbelievably big coincidences and really bad security. Pretty sad for
Augur's last episode. They coulda done a lot better by him. But, *sigh*
it all went boom real nice.
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The episode opens in Federal Sensory Deprivation Prison #3380, which is
an old federal penitentiary that has been taken over by a black ops
group. Two very buff prisoners, wearing the latest in strappy black
leather soft-porn gear (perhaps recycled from Pa'dar?) are led down a
long, echo-filled corridor by two well-armed guards. Both prisoners have
hoods over their heads, though it really makes no sense why the hoods
should be necessary (unless it was because they were just so embarrassed
to be seen in that get-up). Guess it was supposed to have added drama.
Oh.
The two prisoners are stopped in front of some tanks to stand before the
warden, who considerately informs them that by virtue of the Sino-Indio
War Powers Act, they have both had their civil rights suspended and that
some agency, operating with the blessing of the US government and some
organization called Quid Pro Quo has sentenced them to sensory
deprivation.
Prisoner #1's hood is removed but before they can place him into the
tank, he attempts escape. Prior to running down the corridor, he tells
Prisoner #2 that he'll be back for him. He is quickly shot in the back
while running, then bagged and removed. Apparently nobody bothered to
check for vitals, though. Very convenient, that.
Later that night in some hallway, the body bag containing Prisoner #1 is
opened from the inside. Out pops the prisoner, who promptly removes a
small rubber patch from his back (hmmm. And how did he know they'd shoot
him exactly there?) and peels away some sort of mask also, revealing
that he is actually somebody completely different than he appeared.
Naturally, he escapes.
After Prisoner #1's removal, a very stressed-out and hyper-ventilating
Prisoner #2's hood is removed, revealing that it's Augur. How the heck
did they ever catch the slippery, clever guy? Dunno, but here he is.
Augur, protesting his innocence, is submerged in the tank's liquid. This
liquid, the warden informs him, is some sort of oxygenated breathing goo
laced with a narcotic to help keep him docile. Augur attempts to fight,
but is forcibly held under the liquid until his struggles cease.
We cut to Renee and Liam slumming in yet another park waiting for good
old Hubble to show up and give them their orders (aye aye, sir!). Just
when they figure he's stood them up, a hologram of an embarrassingly
hokey kung-fu guy approaches them and they go through the same scrambler
activation act that they went through with that hologram of
Mary-Poppins-on-kryss (the nanny) from a couple of weeks ago. The
hologram tells them that Hubble wants them to investigate abuses of
power from within the American government, including cases of false
imprisonment. At least this time the use of the holograms is sort of
explained. But I kept expecting the hologram to end the discussion by
saying that it would explode in 30 seconds... Please, please, please
may this hologram thing not be a recurring scene throughout the season!
It's OLD. Been there, done that in lots of other shows. Looks cheesy.
Makes me cringe, not smile. It *isn't* working!
There has not been enough back-story to support why Renee and Liam are
so willing to jump when Hubble calls. Why are they so loyal to him, when
he tells them so little? They are *supposed* to be busy with their own
Resistance. If it's gone somewhere or been disbanded, I wish they'd let
us know that. Anyhow, I'm digressing. The hologram performs it's
intended purpose: it tells the dynamic duo, as well as the audience,
that there is a black ops group in existence, operating in the shadows
of the government, funded with huge amounts of untraceable tax money
(oh, outrage!). They are looking for amoralists; and more
to the point, they are looking for Augur.
Cut to Zo'or and Sandoval in a scene that does not play true for either
character. Zo'or has developed "gold fever" and is increasingly paranoid
that thieves are going to steal his pile of gold. This scene kind of
whapped you over the head. Nothing subtle here. No alien-ness from Zo'or
at all. Zo'or actually boasts to Sandy that he's picked up a fondness
for gold because it represents power in material form. Though it might
be true, why would he say that to Sandoval? That's not the sort of
information he'd tell Sandy. Sandoval was also rather condescending to
Zo'or and overly confident in telling Zo'or right to his face that he
was getting paranoid, and that the tasks he was getting Sandy to do were
pointless. IMO, this is not consistent with the relationship the two
have. Sandoval has always shown much more fearful respect towards Zo'or.
And Zo'or wouldn't put up with that attitude from Sandy. Well, this week
he did....Anyway, the point of this scene was to make clear that there
are humans who Zo'or ruined when he stole the gold in the first place,
who are looking to regain the gold.
From the batcave, the dynamic duo pull up information on a bunch of
amoralists. Obviously these amoralists are not doing their jobs well if
it is that easy to compile their identities...Sadly, it is implied that
Max Pratt is dead. Pity. The guy was a captivating actor. We find out
that Max conveniently had a younger, hunkier protégé named Declan
Conners. Liam has magically evolved into quite the computer genius
himself. He seems to be filling in for Augur quite well - why did they
need Street again? First he pilots shuttles, now he does computers.
Okaaaay. He's noticed that there is a hacker breaking into Augur's
computer system, deleting files. He feels that the hacker is Augur
himself, but he decides to put up a firewall anyway to keep the hacker
out (why, if it's Augur? And cyber-genius Augur wouldn't have the mother
of all firewalls already installed on his system???). Someone has run a
blind trace on Augur. Obviously it wasn't that blind, though, because
Liam is able to tell that the trace came from a black ops
anti-amoralist squad. Not only that, he's able to pull up photos of the
members. Great security there. Liam magically focuses on a woman named
Heather North, was involved in his prosecution 5 years ago, gave him a
new identity and has since retired and dropped off the political map.
Renee dons a really bad black Evira-like wig, and walks into the office
where Heather used to work and tries to find out where Heather is now.
She comes up with nothing. Liam, on the other hand, tries to sneak into
the building and gets trapped in a "perceptual vortex" and is captured
by Heather and a lot of guys with really big guns. Heather runs a trace
on Liam and comes up with a confirmed DNA identity that is accompanied
by "unrecognizable data", which leaves her uncertain as to whether Liam
really is who he claims to be. Liam attempts to bluff her by dropping a
reference to 3380, a number which he found in Augur's files. Heather
becomes very concerned about that reference and throws Liam into a cold
concrete cell. Liam richously spouts that she can't do this to him, he
has his rights etc., etc. Da'an will be looking for him! But apparently
she can do it to him. And does.
Renee meets with Hubble and asks him for his help in finding Liam.
Hubble tells her that he can't help. Renee accuses him of being afraid
of "them". Hubble agrees that he feels he is unequal to them because
they are so big, powerful, well-funded and answerable to no one. Now
there's a loyal "friend". Can't even blame this one on the Taelons. It's
humans doing to humans this time...
Meanwhile, Liam shivers away in the cold concrete cell and falls asleep.
Suddenly, in a drug-induced blur, he is visited by hazy images of
Heather and, surprisingly, Sandoval. Also...apparently by the Psychic
Friends Network, as he sees and hears Augur calling to him for help from
the tank...Liam wakes up in a heap on the street.
Sandoval, it turns out, is Heather's boss. He ordered Liam sprung, as he
was concerned that Da'an would begin looking for him and he didn't want
the Taelons looking into this operation. They have determined that the
amoralists are going after Zo'or's gold, but Heather is not sure how
they are going to do it. That is why she had Augur captured. She wants
to break him by using the sensory deprivation as a torture device so
that he will help her to discover what the amoralist scheme is. Problem
is that the prisoners in those tanks looked so darn peaceful! If this
was supposed to be an inhumane torture technique, the horror was not at
all conveyed.
Liam, having returned to the batcave, is eating take-out chicken soup to
warm himself back up after his incarceration. Or maybe he just had the
munchies ;-) . Renee, in the meantime, is trying to figure out the
significance of "3380". Liam tells Renee that he is convinced that
Sandoval was there and involved with the black ops operation. Renee asks
why he doesn't just ask Sandoval about it and Liam reveals that Augur
had found out the source code for Sandoval's files, and was saving it
for a rainy day, because for some reason it could only be used once.
Very, very convenient, don't you think? So Liam hacks into Ronnie's
files and magically, all the bad details about 3380 are revealed. Um,
sure.
So here we have this extremely secret black ops detainee center. You
think they would have security there that would make your head spin.
Apparently not. Liam somehow manages to find himself a uniform and gets
a job as a guard at the facility. Sorry, how long did this take,
exactly? So naturally the warden doesn't question his sudden
appearance...Anyhow, while Liam tries to break Augur out, Declan Conners
beams in through yet another one of those handy-dandy portable ID
portals (weren't they supposed to be rare or something? Now we get at
least one an episode). Declan gets to Augur first and removes him from
the tank. Liam chases after them. Alarms are triggered. The warden
realizes that Liam has a gun, but since he was not yet issued one, he
deduces that Liam must be with the escapees, so he chases Liam also.
Liam barely escapes through a portal Renee thought to conveniently set
up.
Declan, it turns out wants Augur's help to steal Zo'or's gold. He needs
Augur's knowledge and (surprise) hacking abilities. Augur refuses to
help, but this does not deter Declan. He fits Augur with a bracelet that
contains an autosyringe filled with amputoxin. If Declan presses a
button, or if his heart stops beating, Augur will be injected with the
toxin and will be killed in 60 seconds. In this way, he forces Augur to
be his partner and ensures his cooperation. Remember Max Pratt's ability
to have interesting dialogs in Thicker Than Blood? Well that was
something he apparently did not pass on to his protégé. Nothing
remotely deep here - just a regular everyday robbery, and just another
dull robber.
Augur hacks into the computers at the batcave, and somehow manages to
project an image of himself and Conners at the same time. He displays
his plans of the mothership. Renee and Liam magically figure out that
this means that Augur is being forced to do Declan's bidding and that
Declann is after Zo'or's gold. That was kind of a lot to get out of that
image, I thought. But whatever. The dynamic duo now had a working copy
of the bad guy's plans.
Back on the mothership, Zo'or is checking in on his gold. What are they
doing to this poor Taelon's character? He was positively twitchy and
delusional! I hope there's a point to this approach they're taking with
the character... At first Zo'or looks into the room and sees it empty
and moans "noooo"; then the gold appears to him. He walks over to it and
hugs it. Then he glances suspiciously about the room. Blech. 'Nuff said.
Liam finds Heather's home address conveniently in Augur's dossier (my
God, he writes a lot of vital info down...) and leaves his ID on her
kitchen table, presumably along with a note to meet him in a bar (the
Kobe Club?) She meets him and he proposes a deal. Liam tells her that he
knows why Declan needs Augur and will tell her, so she can make the
arrest of her career in exchange for Augur's freedom, shut down her task
force and... oh yeah, give him the classified ID coordinates for Fort
Knox. (!) Oh well naturally it's so they can return the gold to the
countries from which it was stolen....And a guarantee that she'll keep
Sandoval out of it. Um so, how's she going to shut the task force down
if Sandy's in charge....? Just wondering. Glad Liam feels he can trust
her so totally. She agrees to his terms.
Declan and Augur portal onto the mothership, right into Sandoval's
waiting arms. Well at least Sandoval has some effective security
operational! Sandoval informs them that he has a mental intervention
team waiting for them, and asks Declan why he did something so obvious.
In order to get onto the ship, Declan replies. Declan suddenly shoots an
armed volunteer with an implanted stun gun and reflects Sandoval's
skrill blast back to him using an implanted virtual glass shield. OK,
cool effect, I gotta admit. Declan and Augur proceed to the deck where
the gold is housed.
Liam and Renee magically manage to track Declan and Augur on the
mothership by their DNA. So how come the Taelons can't do that? And what
is Renee's excuse for being on the mothership anyway?
Declan and Augur, masquerading as Zo'or and Da'an, enter the room where
the gold is. Declan, as Zo'or, orders the volunteers out of the room.
Just then, the real Zo'or, who does seem to be doing pretty well in the
energy department these days, passes by for another hugging session, I
guess, and spots Declan. "Imposter!" Zo'or exclaims. Liam and Renee
enter. Declan tries to convince Liam that he is the real Zo'or, but
Augur, dressed as Da'an tells Liam that it is him (weird hearing
Augur's voice coming from Leni...but I thought Leni did a good job - her
movements were very much like Augur's) and Liam is able to tell which
was the real Zo'or (the one Augur wasn't with). Declan blasts Zo'or with
his stun gun and when Liam shoots, the shot is reflected back and takes
out a volunteer. Declan then reveals his plans to everybody
conveniently, specifically, how he planned to transport the gold.
Sandoval rushes in and Declan shoots him again with the stun gun. An
indignant Zo'or rips Declan's mask off and Declan shoots him.
Finally, Augur shoots Declan, which activates the auto syringe in his
wristband, injecting him with the amputoxin. Luckily those were a
lonnnnng 60 seconds and Augur is saved by the medics. Conveniently (I've
used that word a lot, haven't I?), everyone clears out of the room
housing the gold. No security left behind or anything. Renee is then
able to portal the gold to the pre-arranged destination in Fort Knox and
the world has been made safe once again.
Back at the batcave, Augur, now a free man, has a cappuccino with Liam
and Renee and discusses his future plans. As he is no longer on the run,
he has decided to live life to the fullest - but in a dry climate.
Apparently the wetness of the tank left him with some scars, but *shrug*
we never really got to see why or how it was traumatic.
That's it. All action, no depth.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
himiko
CJ <watc...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> Awwwww...I was really hoping that Motherlode would be another good
> episode. Limbo got me really hopeful. But no. We're back to
barely-seen
> Taelons, formula action which doesn't make a whole lot of sense,
> unbelievably big coincidences and really bad security. Pretty sad for
> Augur's last episode. They coulda done a lot better by him. But,
*sigh*
> it all went boom real nice.
Motherlode really, really, really sucked! The only good thing I can say
about it is that it was obviously an MI clone which is a formula that I
understand they dropped after only a few episodes: ethnic joke hologram
sets the mission after which Liam and Renee dash about posing in black
leather until it's resolved. Sins of the Father was one. Motherlode
was another. First Breath was too with Hubble replacing the hologram.
I suspect the next episode, Take no Prisoners, is a fourth. Let's hope
that's all there is.
As for what they did to Augur. No wonder Chevelleau said he'd prefer it
if they killed the character. The real Augur would never have run off
in the middle of a battle like this. What they did to Augur was almost
worse than turning Lili into a "havin' his baby" airhead.
CJ
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> In article <8u4e66$nc5$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
> himiko <ay...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>
> Motherlode really, really, really sucked! The only good thing I can
> say about it is that it was obviously an MI clone which is a formula
> that I understand they dropped after only a few episodes: ethnic joke
> hologram sets the mission after which Liam and Renee dash about posing
> in black leather until it's resolved. Sins of the Father was one.
> Motherlode was another. First Breath was too with Hubble replacing
> the hologram. I suspect the next episode, Take no Prisoners, is a
> fourth. Let's hope that's all there is.
Oh yikes, you mean there's another such episode? Yeah, judging from the
episode description I think you may be right. At least we finally get to
meet this Justin Kalen ANA guy. But geez, if it is a story format they
subsequently decided to drop, why did they then choose to run these
episodes through sweeps? I don't get the logic.
But I so hope you're right and the whole MI thing blissfully goes
away...
Second Wave, the week after, looks interesting and like it might be the
winner of the sweeps episodes, though.
> As for what they did to Augur. No wonder Chevelleau said he'd prefer
> it if they killed the character. The real Augur would never have run
> off in the middle of a battle like this. What they did to Augur was
> almost worse than turning Lili into a "havin' his baby" airhead.
This was the man's last episode. They could have written the episode so
it was much more about his character, perhaps telling the story from his
point of view. That would have been so much more effective! There would
have been a real journey there that viewers could have connected to. It
would have made the issues they brought up, and really the whole
episode, come alive. Also would have made Augur's decision to leave DC
at the end ring a little less false, because we could have experienced,
and therefore understood, a little of what he went through. Could have
told the rest of the events from somebody else's POV, (yeah, Liam's).
Heck, telling the story this way could have made Liam's incarceration
scenes more effective also. (Enjoy those, BTW? ;-) )
Instead of playing up and working with the Augur's quirky and
unusual personality (the things that made him unique) they made him into
what was basically an interchangeable wooden game piece. The role he
played in this episode could have been played by pretty much anybody
with relatively few modifications.
And that was both a pity and a waste.
Terrafamilia
CJ wrote:
> S
> P
> O
> I
> L
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> R
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> S
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> C
> E
> Cut to Zo'or and Sandoval in a scene that does not play true for either
> character. Zo'or has developed "gold fever" and is increasingly paranoid
> that thieves are going to steal his pile of gold. This scene kind of
> whapped you over the head. Nothing subtle here. No alien-ness from Zo'or
> at all. Zo'or actually boasts to Sandy that he's picked up a fondness
> for gold because it represents power in material form. Though it might
> be true, why would he say that to Sandoval? That's not the sort of
> information he'd tell Sandy. Sandoval was also rather condescending to
> Zo'or and overly confident in telling Zo'or right to his face that he
> was getting paranoid, and that the tasks he was getting Sandy to do were
> pointless. IMO, this is not consistent with the relationship the two
> have. Sandoval has always shown much more fearful respect towards Zo'or.
> And Zo'or wouldn't put up with that attitude from Sandy. Well, this week
> he did....Anyway, the point of this scene was to make clear that there
> are humans who Zo'or ruined when he stole the gold in the first place,
> who are looking to regain the gold.
This is the crux of the problem with this episode. The whole thing seemed
cobbled together at the last minute. Very, very sloppy.
> He's noticed that there is a hacker breaking into Augur's
> computer system, deleting files. He feels that the hacker is Augur
> himself, but he decides to put up a firewall anyway to keep the hacker
> out (why, if it's Augur? And cyber-genius Augur wouldn't have the mother
> of all firewalls already installed on his system???). Someone has run a
> blind trace on Augur. Obviously it wasn't that blind, though, because
> Liam is able to tell that the trace came from a black ops
> anti-amoralist squad. Not only that, he's able to pull up photos of the
> members. Great security there.
> ... Renee asks
> why he doesn't just ask Sandoval about it and Liam reveals that Augur
> had found out the source code for Sandoval's files, and was saving it
> for a rainy day, because for some reason it could only be used once.
> Very, very convenient, don't you think? So Liam hacks into Ronnie's
> files and magically, all the bad details about 3380 are revealed. Um,
> sure.
> ...Augur hacks into the computers at the batcave, and somehow manages to
> project an image of himself and Conners at the same time. He displays
> his plans of the mothership. Renee and Liam magically figure out that
> this means that Augur is being forced to do Declan's bidding and that
> Declann is after Zo'or's gold. That was kind of a lot to get out of that
> image, I thought. But whatever. The dynamic duo now had a working copy
> of the bad guy's plans.
> ...Liam and Renee magically manage to track Declan and Augur on the
> mothership by their DNA. So how come the Taelons can't do that? And what
> is Renee's excuse for being on the mothership anyway?
Regarding the use of technology on this show - they are putting Voyager to
shame when it comes to pulling technobabble rabbits out of the hat.
<Snip>oh yeah, give him the classified ID coordinates for Fort
Knox. (!) Oh well naturally it's so they can return the gold to the
countries from which it was stolen.<End Snip>
I got the impression that the gold wasn't going back to those from whom
Zo'or snatched it. I thought it was going to be used to fund the new
multinational Alliance.
Also, they're back to using poor Sandy as a punching bag. :-(
The guy gets knocked around like a piñata. When was the last time Sandy was
given the chance to whack a bad guy who wasn't working for him?
Ciao,
Terrafamilia
-------------------------------
"An election is a battle and the thing that determines the outcome of that
battle is the weapon each and every one of you holds. It's about time you
all recognized things for what they are. An election is not a battle among
candidates, it's your battle and your weapon is your vote. Never forget.
It's your weapon that will make this country live or die. Fail to use it,
abandon the battle, and you won't get anywhere. Don't let your weapon rust
away. You, your children, and the future of this country...IT'S ALL YOUR
BATTLE!"
- Chiaki Asami in _Sanctuary_ by Sho Fumimura
-------------------------------
CJ
terr...@fgi.net wrote:
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> > E
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> > S
> > P
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> > C
> > E
> I got the impression that the gold wasn't going back to those from
> whom Zo'or snatched it. I thought it was going to be used to fund the
> new multinational Alliance.
Yeah, you bring up an excellent point. Seems history has been rewritten.
Again.
This is an exerpt from the efc.com episode summary for Apparition, which
is when Zo'or first acquired the gold:
"...Later, Sandoval tells Zo'or about the bank's insolvency and Fisk's
death. In Augur's lair, Renee and Liam talk about the laundered money of
the Taelon co-ventures. Just as Augur is about to e-mail financial
statements to the news agencies, the accounts begin to disappear. In a
secret room, Zo'or stands alone, surrounded by gold."
Seems like the gold was purchased using money raised from Taelon
co-ventures, not money stolen from various small countries in the
Alliance.
What gives the ANA any more right to this gold than the Taelons?