Almost Human - Recap: Your Fake Leg Is Really Sexy
Tonight’s Almost Human had you wonder just how far you’d go to save yourself. Well, at least, how far would you go to save a handful of your cells that have been grown into full-on human clones?
Most androids are like living Ken dolls when they’re nude, if you were wondering. Dorian, on the other hand, has been gifted beyond comparison, even frightening his partner Kennex with a flash of his robo-junk. While the two conversed regarding their mutual lack of a sex life, Maldonado did her best to keep her composure on the witness stand as the trial carried onward. The smug defendant, Ethan Avery, sat by grinning as the captain was forced to admit that she had no true evidence connecting him to the murder of a Dr. Fuller, a well-known fertility specialist. From the safety of a guarded room, the only two witnesses prepped themselves to take the stand via hologram. Maya, the aforementioned psychic, gave Haley, a plain Jane like the rest of us, a pep talk before she took the stand. Oddly enough, the safe house was compromised before she could point out Ethan as the killer she’d caught a glimpse of that night in the garage, and Haley was shot dead for the entire courtroom to witness via satellite. Poor Haley was forever doomed to suffer an afterlife with a nagging grandma. Maya, on the other hand, flew the coop before she too could be snuffed out.
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Dorian was able to quickly locate Maya hiding out in the nearby woods using heat-scanning technology. Unfortunately, though, a psychic witness within police protection did little to set John’s mind at ease. Maya had undergone a special brain procedure that was deemed controversial in its purpose. As a participant with positive results, Maya gained access to more of her brain. Thus, she became a psychic and a medium. From beyond the grave, Haley made sure to inform Maya of the fact that it was none other than Ethan who’d shot her dead from within the safe house. Ethan, however, had been in court. Maldonado, in the meantime, met with Ethan in prison. There, he laid into the captain with a truly scathing critique of her life as a lonely single woman struggling to stay afloat in the police force. At this moment in Episode 5, we knew there was no way she wasn’t going to nail him by the close of the show. That should clue you in to the magnitude of Ethan’s awfulness.
Back at headquarters, the crew brainstormed regarding the possibility of Ethan having clones. Cloning had been outlawed previously, so this certainly linked him to the controversial fertility specialist, Dr. Fuller. Prior, they’d had no motive to peg on the man. More importantly, while the team was drumming up ideas, Maya decided to take a stroll with the ghost of Haley in order give the deceased girl’s parents some peace of mind. She wouldn’t make it there, unfortunately (fortunately?), as Dorian and Kennex managed to pick her up off the street in the nick of time. Maya has a target smack in the middle of her forehead and risking her life for sheer kindness was not up for discussion. In truth, Kennex might have been cold, but just moments later the car was assaulted by a team of Ethan’s men. In the shootout, a bullet wound to the shoulder landed Maya in critical condition. John, on the other hand, managed to pick off one of their assailants, driving the others to flee. Oddly enough, the fallen shooter was most definitely a clone of Ethan, but he looked to be about ten years younger.
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Mostly, Maya’s injury served to fill us in on a little bit more of her back-story. From within her hospital room, she shared a moment with Dorian in which she revealed that her parents had been killed in a tragic car accident. Thus, we became privy as to why she’d undergone the procedure to begin with. In a sad turn of events, her family’s home burned to the ground in an unsolved case while she recovered, leaving her without any mementos with which to channel their spirits. She’s surrounded by ghosts at all times, but she can’t connect to the ones she needs to see. I want to point out that I think it’s interesting to tackle the supernatural using science. Props to Almost Human for going there.
After a brief meeting with dead Dr. Fuller’s old colleague, Valerie made her way to his mother’s home out in the woods. Alone, save for her android partner, Valerie tiptoed her way through the empty house in search of some sort of evidence to further incriminate Ethan. On a computer in the den, Valerie managed to reveal that Ethan had, indeed, worked with the doctor on some sort of a project in which he had several clones of himself made. This partnership, needless to say, went sour. Unaware that Kennex had mere minutes earlier managed to deduce that Ethan’s clones had been pinpointing their locations using a hack on their own police communications technology, Valerie unknowingly tipped off the enemy to her whereabouts. In no time, a mini army of Ethans were surrounding Stahl and apprehending her as their hostage. What they wanted, of course, was the return of their “family,” the original egomaniac, Ethan Avery.
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Earlier in Episode 5, Kennex and Stahl shared a nice moment where their chemistry was displayed in full. Valerie is a sports fan, it seems, but that was just icing on the cake for John, who’s obviously been smitten by Valerie since the premiere. Dorian, needless to say, won’t let that energy go unnoticed without a substantial bit of pestering. Now that Valerie was being held hostage by a group of cloned lunatics, Kennex would stop at nothing to see her sent to safety, even if protocol didn’t necessarily favor rescuing an officer over keeping a criminal in captivity. This team has heart in general, though, and everyone inevitably hopped on board to help John in his quest to free his potential future lover. The plan was simple enough. The group was set to meet at specific coordinates sent by the team of Ethans. There, a tradeoff was to take place. We’d previously been let in on the power of holograms through the courtroom scene that took place towards the beginning of Episode 5. Maldonado used the same sort of technology to create a mock tradeoff, taking the actual Ethan down a hallway to his “freedom” while the image of the pair slowly walking was transmitted through the prison’s security cameras, thanks to a little help from tech wiz Rudy (Mackenzie Crook).
Of course, nothing can go perfectly according to plan, and a glitch in the transmitted hologram led to a skirmish that included a stellar beat-down by Valerie followed by an awesome flip-and-burn of a getaway van by Dorian. With the newly acquired evidence Valerie had picked up while scouring the site, the actual Ethan Avery was looking at a lifetime behind bars, and his twisted clones went down in flames.
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The subsequent court session saw Maya finally taking the stand and pinpointing Avery as the man who’d killed Dr. Fuller. The verdict was clear before the judge could even come to a ruling, but during a recess, Captain Maldonado made sure to twist the knife. Avery would go from being the narcissistic fool who’d cloned himself to gift the world of more of his lame self to being absolutely nothing at all in no time. As the decades pass by, his memory will fade away forever. Also, adding just a little more salt to the wound, Maldonado got quite a nice compliment on her looks from the lawyer responsible for sealing Avery’s fate.
Outside, Dorian bid Maya farewell with a box of intact evidence scooped up from the ashes of her family home. In a fantastic moment of closure, Maya teared up as she reconnected with her parents for the first time.
To close the recap, my favorite scene during Episode 5 was the final scene between Kennex and Valerie, both of whom stayed late at work to tie up some loose ends. Maya had seen nothing but red surrounding Kennex. That is, nothing but red, and running, and bourbon. Valerie, exhausted from her day as a hostage held on the brink of death, whipped out the whiskey and the two settled down to watch a soccer match. Maya was right. The Universe is certainly turning the tides in John’s favor.
What did you think of Almost Human Season 1 Episode 5, “Blood Brothers”? Do you like the chemistry between Valerie and Kennex? Were you happy to learn more about Captain Maldonado? Wasn’t that scene where Dorian destroyed the getaway van beyond awesome?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Almost Human Season 1 Episode 5, “Blood Brothers”!