Firefly: Black Cat Blues - 5.10 Brain Damage
This may be the shortest Firefly summary ever. It was a fun session as always, but there was a lot of talking and off-topic-ness that can't really translate well to a summary like this. Anyway, now it's done so I'm free to watch all the Doctor Who, record all the drums, make all the car repairs, and tour all the houses that I see fit. (Yeah, it's a busy weekend, how did you guess?)
Previous episode here.
Black Cat sets out for Paquin in the hopes of both making some money and picking up Dustin's trail so that their horrendous disease can be cured. It's a five and a half day trip, so the crew has plenty of time to consider their condition and discuss their next move among the usual basketball games, beer brewing, puzzle assembling, painting, and other shipboard pastimes. Of course, truly open discussion of what ails the crew is complicated somewhat by the continued presence of Mr. Anand Kumar, the ship's unexpected passenger. When Nicolas recovers from his sudden bout of illness he is surprised and a bit displeased to learn that a long-term passenger was taken on in his absence, but in the end he realizes that he has to trust Quinn's judgment - plus the ship really needs the money.
Luckily, Anand is not very high-maintenance as passengers go; he doesn't even try to hawk his cleaning supplies to the crew. However, he does display a lot of interest in learning about Black Cat's history and hearing some tales of their adventures, since from the little bit that the crew has mentioned in his presence he can already tell that they are much more interesting than other ships he has been aboard. The crew is perhaps justifiably leery at saying too much to Anand, since they've been involved in so many shady dealings and crazy events, but they whet his appetite for tales of derring-do by talking about a few of the more benign adventures, such as their two encounters with Beatrice. Despite his constant prodding for stories and interaction with the crew, Anand seems quite harmless and he is even beginning to grow on some members of the crew.
Alas, things can't be so easy as just entertaining a passenger on the way to Paquin. Only half a day into the voyage, both Luke and Nicolas become sick again, with the same symptoms that presented when Nagendra's engineered virus took effect. The only trouble is, they're sick two entire days before anyone was expecting they'd start showing symptoms again. Osiris isn't sure whether this is due to some insufficiency of Nagendra's treatment or to Luke and Nicolas already being immuno-compromised; he also can't rule out the possibility that this is a deliberate act on Nagendra's part, though he can't imagine how that would profit Nagendra. He tells Siqin that he thinks she should contact Nagendra and tell him what's going on; if he did this deliberately he knows about it already anyway, and if he didn't it would probably be a good idea for him to know that his blackmail may not soon work as well as he had hoped.
Siqin swallows her pride and contacts Nagendra at the number he gave her - and she is quite displeased to learn that Nagendra knows exactly what he is doing. He tells Siqin that he knows she held back information when she sent him the data on the Mendoza family, and as he puts it, "If you are only going to give me 90% of what I ask for, I feel quite justified in giving you only 90% of your treatment." Siqin is appropriately apologetic, at which point Nagendra tells her that if she sends him everything she knows about the Bernotte family, he will make sure that another two-week supply of treatment is waiting when Black Cat lands on Paquin. Siqin argues that because this time around Nagendra is assured that she will give him all of the information he seeks, he should give the crew a longer course of treatment as he had once suggested - specifically, she asks for a month. However, Nagendra is having none of it as he says that Siqin has not yet proven herself to be fully trustworthy. In the end, she can only get two weeks and three days out of him, and feels lucky to have gained that much.
Dejectedly, Siqin passes this information along to Nicolas. The twin revelations of Nagendra knowing about Siqin's tricks and wanting information about the Bernottes send a shock wave of fear through the crew. Osiris has already told the crew in no uncertain terms that Luke and Nicolas have experienced such a shock to their immune system that soon the treatment may not be enough to keep them alive, so the sense of urgency is very understandable. Nicolas and Siqin discuss the situation for a long time, but don't get very far in making a decision because they see things from very different angles. Nicolas thinks that the most important thing is getting some sort of handle on the Syndicate infighting and figuring out how to manipulate things to the crew's advantage so that Siqin can be removed from the equation in one piece, while Siqin doesn't even think such a thing is worth considering until a cure has been found for the engineered virus. Because they can't agree, they go around in circles for a long time over this.
The fact that the Bernotte family appears to be next on Nagendra's hit list is also cause for concern to the crew. No one really wants to deal with the Bernottes again, but they don't feel right about letting Nagendra have his way with them either. Although Siqin is quite fatalistic about the blackmail situation and thinks it's too dangerous to risk crossing Nagendra again, she recalls that Angelo was very traditional in his approach to Syndicate family management and would probably oppose Nagendra's grab for power. She also observes that of all the Syndicate families who put out a bounty on her, the Bernottes have some of the least information; their bounty lacks even a picture or the name of Black Cat associated with Siqin. Because it's obvious that Angelo would know this and could share this information if he wanted to, Siqin concludes that the Bernotte family is likely to help her if she plays her cards right. The real question is how to seek their help without tipping off Nagendra to the fact that the crew is trying to harm him. Nicolas also favors shaking things up somehow, but in a more dramatic way; he proposes warning the Bernottes that Nagendra is after them and then adding that information to the database before delivery. Another possibility is to add information to the database files on the Bernottes suggesting that the Syndicate has turned against Nagendra or something similar, with the reasoning that this would be harder for Nagendra to catch than data that had been taken away. Ultimately, though, the decision falls to Siqin, and she seems like she's a long way from making up her mind about things just yet.
While Siqin is racking her brain about how to respond to Nagendra, Osiris is focusing on the bizarre and totally unremembered brain surgery that the crew seems to have undergone. He takes it upon himself to check every crew member for scars, and discovers that they are present on everyone's skull; the only two crew members he hasn't been able to check are Daisy and Jaya, for obvious reasons. Birgitta takes particular interest in what Osiris is doing, and the two of them spend long hours trying to figure out what to do.[1] Finally, wanting to know for certain what has been done to her (and, as she puts it, "I'd rather have my head cut open than spend any of my own money"), Birgitta volunteers to have exploratory brain surgery performed upon her in Black Cat's infirmary, hoping that Osiris will be able to get a better handle on what has been done to the crew by "popping the hood" as Archer says.
Birgitta's head is shaved (meaning that almost everyone on the crew is now devoid of hair) and Osiris, with Archer's help, preps her for surgery. Although Osiris is not an experienced surgeon, he's good enough to avoid causing any untoward damage to Birgitta as he carefully cuts open the top of her skull and exposes her brain for a closer look. Inside Birgitta's head, Osiris is shocked to see a fine network of scars criss-crossing her brain tissue, focused on the portions of the brain that store memories. The work was clearly done with lasers or extremely fine scalpels, much better than anything Osiris could hope to have access to. It's clear that pieces of her brain tissue have been carefully and systematically removed, as if somebody was removing memories from her brain.
While he stares, Osiris staggers as he experiences something he hasn't felt for a long time - a flashback. Only instead of recalling horrible war stories, Osiris recalls memories he has never dwelt on before. He remembers being underwater, floating in a sort of tank, with wires and tubes coming out of his entire body. He feels the same strong sense of fear and betrayal that he recalls from his dream as he looks around and sees the rest of Black Cat's crew lying on stretchers in a cavernous space, with doctors bending over them and some sort of procedure being performed. As he looks around, taking everything in, he sees something that truly horrifies him - an Alliance symbol stenciled on a nearby wall. Osiris snaps out of it long enough to close Birgitta up and ensure that her recovery will go as smoothly as possible, but he's clearly shaken by these buried memories.
The next day, Birgitta comes through with horrible pain in her head but all of her mental faculties intact. Right away she tells Archer and Osiris that she had a dream while under the anesthesia...a dream so vivid she knows it can only be a memory. In addition to the portions of the so-called "dream" that she already recalls, Birgitta remembers looking out the front window of Black Cat and seeing an Alliance cruiser draw closer and closer to the ship, and a distorted and unidentifiable voice saying, "I want them alive." When she learns about Osiris's memories (which she does not seem to share), she concludes that this means the Alliance was behind the apparent memory modification experienced by the crew. What this means, or what memories have been lost, remains unclear, but Birgitta and Osiris are definitely frightened to learn that there is more to their troubles than meets the eye.
1 - Osiris: I don't remember getting brain surgery.
Birgitta: Neither do I.
Osiris: It explains some things.
Previous episode here.
Black Cat sets out for Paquin in the hopes of both making some money and picking up Dustin's trail so that their horrendous disease can be cured. It's a five and a half day trip, so the crew has plenty of time to consider their condition and discuss their next move among the usual basketball games, beer brewing, puzzle assembling, painting, and other shipboard pastimes. Of course, truly open discussion of what ails the crew is complicated somewhat by the continued presence of Mr. Anand Kumar, the ship's unexpected passenger. When Nicolas recovers from his sudden bout of illness he is surprised and a bit displeased to learn that a long-term passenger was taken on in his absence, but in the end he realizes that he has to trust Quinn's judgment - plus the ship really needs the money.
Luckily, Anand is not very high-maintenance as passengers go; he doesn't even try to hawk his cleaning supplies to the crew. However, he does display a lot of interest in learning about Black Cat's history and hearing some tales of their adventures, since from the little bit that the crew has mentioned in his presence he can already tell that they are much more interesting than other ships he has been aboard. The crew is perhaps justifiably leery at saying too much to Anand, since they've been involved in so many shady dealings and crazy events, but they whet his appetite for tales of derring-do by talking about a few of the more benign adventures, such as their two encounters with Beatrice. Despite his constant prodding for stories and interaction with the crew, Anand seems quite harmless and he is even beginning to grow on some members of the crew.
Alas, things can't be so easy as just entertaining a passenger on the way to Paquin. Only half a day into the voyage, both Luke and Nicolas become sick again, with the same symptoms that presented when Nagendra's engineered virus took effect. The only trouble is, they're sick two entire days before anyone was expecting they'd start showing symptoms again. Osiris isn't sure whether this is due to some insufficiency of Nagendra's treatment or to Luke and Nicolas already being immuno-compromised; he also can't rule out the possibility that this is a deliberate act on Nagendra's part, though he can't imagine how that would profit Nagendra. He tells Siqin that he thinks she should contact Nagendra and tell him what's going on; if he did this deliberately he knows about it already anyway, and if he didn't it would probably be a good idea for him to know that his blackmail may not soon work as well as he had hoped.
Siqin swallows her pride and contacts Nagendra at the number he gave her - and she is quite displeased to learn that Nagendra knows exactly what he is doing. He tells Siqin that he knows she held back information when she sent him the data on the Mendoza family, and as he puts it, "If you are only going to give me 90% of what I ask for, I feel quite justified in giving you only 90% of your treatment." Siqin is appropriately apologetic, at which point Nagendra tells her that if she sends him everything she knows about the Bernotte family, he will make sure that another two-week supply of treatment is waiting when Black Cat lands on Paquin. Siqin argues that because this time around Nagendra is assured that she will give him all of the information he seeks, he should give the crew a longer course of treatment as he had once suggested - specifically, she asks for a month. However, Nagendra is having none of it as he says that Siqin has not yet proven herself to be fully trustworthy. In the end, she can only get two weeks and three days out of him, and feels lucky to have gained that much.
Dejectedly, Siqin passes this information along to Nicolas. The twin revelations of Nagendra knowing about Siqin's tricks and wanting information about the Bernottes send a shock wave of fear through the crew. Osiris has already told the crew in no uncertain terms that Luke and Nicolas have experienced such a shock to their immune system that soon the treatment may not be enough to keep them alive, so the sense of urgency is very understandable. Nicolas and Siqin discuss the situation for a long time, but don't get very far in making a decision because they see things from very different angles. Nicolas thinks that the most important thing is getting some sort of handle on the Syndicate infighting and figuring out how to manipulate things to the crew's advantage so that Siqin can be removed from the equation in one piece, while Siqin doesn't even think such a thing is worth considering until a cure has been found for the engineered virus. Because they can't agree, they go around in circles for a long time over this.
The fact that the Bernotte family appears to be next on Nagendra's hit list is also cause for concern to the crew. No one really wants to deal with the Bernottes again, but they don't feel right about letting Nagendra have his way with them either. Although Siqin is quite fatalistic about the blackmail situation and thinks it's too dangerous to risk crossing Nagendra again, she recalls that Angelo was very traditional in his approach to Syndicate family management and would probably oppose Nagendra's grab for power. She also observes that of all the Syndicate families who put out a bounty on her, the Bernottes have some of the least information; their bounty lacks even a picture or the name of Black Cat associated with Siqin. Because it's obvious that Angelo would know this and could share this information if he wanted to, Siqin concludes that the Bernotte family is likely to help her if she plays her cards right. The real question is how to seek their help without tipping off Nagendra to the fact that the crew is trying to harm him. Nicolas also favors shaking things up somehow, but in a more dramatic way; he proposes warning the Bernottes that Nagendra is after them and then adding that information to the database before delivery. Another possibility is to add information to the database files on the Bernottes suggesting that the Syndicate has turned against Nagendra or something similar, with the reasoning that this would be harder for Nagendra to catch than data that had been taken away. Ultimately, though, the decision falls to Siqin, and she seems like she's a long way from making up her mind about things just yet.
While Siqin is racking her brain about how to respond to Nagendra, Osiris is focusing on the bizarre and totally unremembered brain surgery that the crew seems to have undergone. He takes it upon himself to check every crew member for scars, and discovers that they are present on everyone's skull; the only two crew members he hasn't been able to check are Daisy and Jaya, for obvious reasons. Birgitta takes particular interest in what Osiris is doing, and the two of them spend long hours trying to figure out what to do.[1] Finally, wanting to know for certain what has been done to her (and, as she puts it, "I'd rather have my head cut open than spend any of my own money"), Birgitta volunteers to have exploratory brain surgery performed upon her in Black Cat's infirmary, hoping that Osiris will be able to get a better handle on what has been done to the crew by "popping the hood" as Archer says.
Birgitta's head is shaved (meaning that almost everyone on the crew is now devoid of hair) and Osiris, with Archer's help, preps her for surgery. Although Osiris is not an experienced surgeon, he's good enough to avoid causing any untoward damage to Birgitta as he carefully cuts open the top of her skull and exposes her brain for a closer look. Inside Birgitta's head, Osiris is shocked to see a fine network of scars criss-crossing her brain tissue, focused on the portions of the brain that store memories. The work was clearly done with lasers or extremely fine scalpels, much better than anything Osiris could hope to have access to. It's clear that pieces of her brain tissue have been carefully and systematically removed, as if somebody was removing memories from her brain.
While he stares, Osiris staggers as he experiences something he hasn't felt for a long time - a flashback. Only instead of recalling horrible war stories, Osiris recalls memories he has never dwelt on before. He remembers being underwater, floating in a sort of tank, with wires and tubes coming out of his entire body. He feels the same strong sense of fear and betrayal that he recalls from his dream as he looks around and sees the rest of Black Cat's crew lying on stretchers in a cavernous space, with doctors bending over them and some sort of procedure being performed. As he looks around, taking everything in, he sees something that truly horrifies him - an Alliance symbol stenciled on a nearby wall. Osiris snaps out of it long enough to close Birgitta up and ensure that her recovery will go as smoothly as possible, but he's clearly shaken by these buried memories.
The next day, Birgitta comes through with horrible pain in her head but all of her mental faculties intact. Right away she tells Archer and Osiris that she had a dream while under the anesthesia...a dream so vivid she knows it can only be a memory. In addition to the portions of the so-called "dream" that she already recalls, Birgitta remembers looking out the front window of Black Cat and seeing an Alliance cruiser draw closer and closer to the ship, and a distorted and unidentifiable voice saying, "I want them alive." When she learns about Osiris's memories (which she does not seem to share), she concludes that this means the Alliance was behind the apparent memory modification experienced by the crew. What this means, or what memories have been lost, remains unclear, but Birgitta and Osiris are definitely frightened to learn that there is more to their troubles than meets the eye.
1 - Osiris: I don't remember getting brain surgery.
Birgitta: Neither do I.
Osiris: It explains some things.