Threshold: 1x12 review + picspam + quotes
Oh, God, this episode. The beginning of one of my two Threshold OTPs.
I really love this show for their characterization of Arthur. I feel like so often people who are little aren't presented as anything more than comic entertainment in media, and here we have Arthur, who not only has a host of talents and a host of issues, BUT he's also got a sex life and in this scene in particular, he's being presented as someone who is sexually desirable (as well as emotionally desirable, i.e. she likes his sense of humor), which I think is a really big deal. For me it's like the way media has often de-sexualized gay men -- i.e. Will and Grace -- and how it can be so refreshing to see that challenged and changed.
Ahahaha, Arthur, how often do you use that gynecologist cover? And, awww, Arthur doesn't want her to leave. I bet he's a cuddler.
Arthur: You know, it's probably one of Caffrey's goons. They must have followed me here.
Emily: Caffrey, who's that? Your wife?
Arthur: [laughs] She wishes.
Hmmm, though not too happy to see another dead dancer in media :( That's a trope I could do without.
Molly: Who was she?
Arthur: Candy Cane. I'm guessing that's not her real name.
Nigel: You think?
Arthur: She worked at a place called Beneath the Beltway. It's over on Wisconsin.
Molly: Nude dancing, no cover?
Arthur: What, you've been there?
Molly: Sure. On amateur nights, go pick up a little cash on the side.
Arthur: [hesitates] Really?
Molly: You know, for a genius, you're really not very smart. You said you left work early because you were sick.
Arthur: Yeah, you know what, sex has its curative effects, right, Fenway?
I like the way Arthur pronounces protocols "proto-cols."
Arthur: Anybody seen my pants?
I bet that's a phrase Arthur has said a lot in his life. *g*
Huh, Arthur takes his coffee with soymilk.
Rachel works at National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland -- Clinical Center, Building 10.
Flaxseed pancakes! Aww, I love Rachel.
JT: You think?
Arthur: It was dark in there.
JT: That and the booze.
Arthur: Make the ears rounder, more Prince Charles, you know, away from the head.
JT: Did he have any scars, distinguishing marks?
Arthur: Not that I can remember.
JT: Oh, come on, Ramsey, did you get a look at this guy or not?
Arthur: Make the chin a little wider. Give him, give him less eyebrows.
Lucas: Is anyone else bothered by what happened? You're one of a handful of people that even knows about the alien threat, an infectee breaks into your motel room and kills the stripper but not you.
Arthur: You'd rather I was dead?
JT: No comment.
Arthur: Listen, you know, do you care about anybody or anything? I mean, God, have you ever gotten laid?
[They both look at him.]
JT: What did you say?
Lucas: [turns to JT] Uh, Mr. Baylock, sir. Could you give us a few minutes? We might be able to make more progress, just the two of us.
JT: Give me a call when your masterpiece is finished. [leaves]
Lucas: You don't remember what this guy looked like, do you?
Arthur: I'm trying, dude, okay.
I love how both Lucas *and* JT see through Arthur pretending he can remember the guy, but of course the way the interactions play out are totally opposite.
Used some type of surgical blade to sever every nerve fiber between her brain stem and her cerebellum. Sloan is only partially bioformed -- only 60% of his DNA is showing triple helix mutation.
Molly's hair looks great in this scene.
FBI -- Director Stillwell.
Arthur: Whoa, whoa! I had sex with an alien?
AHAHAHA OH GOD ARTHUR, YOUR *LIFE*. And, yeah, the fact that she's an alien sort of detracts from my earlier point -- because if she was an alien she'd want to infect as many people as possible (sex being one of those methods) -- but I don't think it completely negates it.
Nigel: I trust you used protection.
Arthur: Take the damn blood, Fenway.
Arthur, Arthur. *shakes head*
Sloan murdered 4 people previously, within the last 5 days. FBI - J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Okay, I find it a little weird that Fenway's so gung-ho about this guy killing infectees after the whole Adams thing, which he even *mentions*. Is it just that he doesn't want to kill the infectees they have in custody?
Nigel: Dead man comin' through!
JT: Hey, got a minute?
Nigel: Did I do something wrong?
JT: Not that I'm aware of.
Nigel: Are you giving me a raise?
JT: [laughs]
Nigel: Then I'm busy.
JT tells Nigel to do a tox screen on Arthur's blood. Frankly, I'm surprised they don't have to do mandatory random drug tests all the time. I mean, that isn't too weird for a government job, is it?
Nigel: [to corpse] Can you feel the love?
And Arthur has finally reached the point where he'd rather be on this side of the alien fight rather than the other. Also, thank goodness he mentions the condom, because the way he responded to Nigel I thought maybe he hadn't at first (which would be ridiculous considering he's definitely the type of guy to always have a fresh condom in his wallet. Or five.).
Aww, sweet how Arthur does the work so Lucas can go home to Rachel. Though I still liked it better when Lucas was hardware and Arthur was software.
Post-mortem brain activity isn't unusual for people who've been exposed to the signal.
Rachel: Don't spoil your dinner.
Lucas: [to himself] It's a soda.
Hee, you two are so married. ♥
And helloooo Dr. Sloan, my favorite ambiguous morality character! I should find his character a lot creepier than I do, but honestly, I just kind of adore him, and then seeing this actor in Touching Evil and then Burn Notice gave me a big soft spot for him in general.
Ahahaha, man, that's so sad. Once again Lucas' and Rachel's plans are ruined.
KN112739. Ordered nine days ago by Dr. Julian Sloan, Director of Oncology at the National Institutes of Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), ID #875-00-1138.
So, this whole scene between Lucas and Rachel, I just feel like there are so many levels to it. That is:
+ A central conflict in his relationship with Rachel, i.e. lying to protect the confidentiality of the project and also to protect Rachel from things that he doesn't want her to know (like when he REALLY didn't want her to know he was sick). I think Lucas does this for a couple of reasons -- there's the whole fact that you can tell he sort of wishes he didn't know any of this, because he'd sure as hell sleep easier at night, and really, in Rachel's position there's nothing she can *do*. There's also the aspect of the husband as protector thing going on, which brings me to:
+ Lucas saying that everything he's doing he's doing to protect her. And I really believe that's a huge part of it, for him -- I think the scariest thing to Lucas is the idea of Rachel (or his family, which is slowly extending to include the Threshold members) being hurt, which we see in his nightmare while infected.
+ Um, "everything is going to be fine"? Oh, Lucas, honey, I know that's what you want to think and I know that's what you want Rachel to think, but, yeah.
+ Now, what I really find significant here in terms of characterization is I feel like this is the peak we see of Lucas' maturation arc. It progresses through the show -- Lucas finding a way to "neutralize" the guy who's holding him and Arthur hostage, despite his aversion to using handguns, his strange resigned relief when he finally does get infected because it's the worst thing he's been imagining and now that it's finally happening it's not nearly as large or scary as he thought it would be -- and I think it peaks, here, when he tells Rachel that this job is worth his life. Not necessarily because I think that Lucas using a weapon and/or being willing to sacrifice his life is him becoming more "masculine" and thus more adult, it's more that I think through these events we see Lucas coming head-on with his fear, and the very intense patterning he has around denial and fear of failure. It's entirely possible that six months ago, if Rachel had demanded he quit this job he would have done so, unable to handle the idea of displeasing her and/or "failing" her as a husband (because, let's face it, this job is rendering him a really not ideal husband). It's also entirely possible that if Lucas doesn't go through these events, if he made a mistake in the future he would collapse inwards on himself. I feel like his character arc is very much focused on him finding his internal source of strength that gives him the confidence to really step up and do his job.
+ God, I would not want to be in Rachel's shoes in this situation. Can you imagine how heartily it would suck? Having your new husband unable to go on a honeymoon, get mysteriously and life-threateningly ill and being unable to see him, watching him nearly get killed at YOUR job and then having him say that he's willing to die for a job that you don't even know the first thing about, except that it's completely wrung him out and is placing a huge strain on your relationship? Ugh.
Sloan lives in Annapolis, Maryland. Doctors Without Borders. Infected by gazpacho.
Oh, wow, subtle Sean moment there. That's his brother he's looking at in the photo, right?
Inherited genetic disorder: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Eeee, Molly sits barefoot and cross-legged in her chair. ♥
Sean: So this is what the Fortress of Solitude looks like.
Molly: That's right, Lois.
AHAHAHAHA HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THIS EXCHANGE, SO VERY MUCH.
"Prodigy." Interned at St. Luke's at the age of 23. He was the youngest Director in the history of NIH, married once, his wife died of ovarian cancer four years ago. He still writes to her every day. Feels guilty he couldn't save her.
Aww, the "Forgive me?" at the end of his e-mail.
High alcohol blood levels and more than a trace of cocaine. Implied that Arthur has been kicked out of/fired from many places, but there was always another thinktank or university willing to look the other way. JT's son had a high IQ, went to a "great school." He hasn't seen him in eight years. He thinks he's living in the streets somewhere.
These whole interactions between Arthur and JT, just -- yeah. I mean, I can't help thinking that they were going to have JT be the person who helps Arthur pull out of it when he went off into the deep end. Because JT so clearly has a need to be there for someone, to be someone's rock -- the way he couldn't for his son -- and Arthur so clearly needs someone to be that *for* him, for someone to see him at his worst and not flinch away and stay strong and see him through it. Plus, do we ever find out if Arthur has a father figure present? I seem to remember him mentioning his mom, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had an absent father figure like Molly, a role which JT fills.
OH, LUCAS, OF COURSE YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF HINGES THEY USE ON GALVANIZED STEEL DOORS.
Hahaha, what's with the picture of the watermelon on Arthur's desktop?
OH MY GOOOOD, LUCAS' FACE WHILE ARTHUR IS TALKING. As much as I hate the whole "huh huh huh let's talk about sexxxxx" conversations shtick sometimes, I CANNOT get over the recurrent awe and glee on Lucas' face as Arthur is talking, especially his whole "I don't know if I can go back to Earth girls" thing. And then Lucas' "just, go away from me," AHAHAHA PERRRRRRFECT.
So, when he says "all clear," what he means is "but we let that sexy Doctor with the leather trench coat go lurk in the bathroom waiting for you with his sharp knife," right?
I can't even comment on the whole bathroom scene, because all I can think is how WRONG it is that I desperately love this pairing in all its WRONGNESS.
No work in the breakroom. *g* I bet Molly really did send a memo.
Aww, that was Hayes he was looking at. Hayes got that scar crashing his bike when he was 15.
Sean: Yeah. He used to be.
Oi. Sean. You really, really need a hug. And weird how he assumes JT is doubting his ability to shoot his brother when the time comes instead of more rationally assuming JT is worried he won't make the best command decisions in a situation where his brother's a hostage, especially because generally they try to capture when they can. Pretty revealing of how petrified Sean is of coming face to face with the reality that he might have to kill what's left of his brother, even if he truly believes there's nothing of his brother left in there (which I find just a little doubtful).
Yes, I'm fangirling the jacket.
The Smoothie Shack. Alarm set for 5:30. Got to work every day at 8:00 sharp. Leaves an extra hour in the morning, he was a jogger. Compressed midsoles, erosion in the lateral heel.
Heee, nice random factoid Sean! And I love Lucas' "hey, I guess this guy is good for more than just blowing things up" face.
It's in the water, dun dun dun.
I like how it makes no sense for Molly to be present at this water factory raid except for the express purpose of encountering Sloan. Which I am not opposed to. Because I continue to enjoy my pairing of wrongness. Sloan thinks Threshold is the right idea but that they're going about it the wrong way, that they should kill infectees.
Sean: What about Sloan?
Molly: Didn't see him.
The water was infected with alginate, tasteless seaweed extract, infected with the same enzyme as the food.
Molly bigfooting Sean = ftw.
*sighs* Arthur is so obviously lying, and it's sad that JT really seemed to believe him :(
Ugh, it's so creepy that Sloan came in while Molly was in the shower to give her that coffee, WHY DO I LOVE THEM SO?
*
So, something I find sort of interesting about this episode is how it culminates this hero/anti-hero theme the show's been doing. I feel like we first touch on that with Tate, the guy who killed his family, and how he's very much a one-person parallel of the Threshold project -- just like Tate, most of the world will never know about Molly's work, or what she's sacrificed to save them.
Julian, on the other hand, is presented as this Vigilante, and between Arthur and Nigel and the dialogue discussion Julian's methods, it seems like the biggest condemnation of his methods is that he's accidentally killing innocent humans, NOT that he's eliminating aliens.
Despite the fact that Adams is yet another tragic heroic figure, like Tate -- he symbolically sacrifices his humanity to give Nigel insight into the bioforming process -- and we are presented with Adams' suicide request as something morally controversial, because what if later on there is a cure?
On the other hand, for people like Tate and Julian, they do not HAVE the resources that Threshold does. They can't detain aliens in secure underground facilities. They don't have teams of data miners gathering information for them. They responded to the threat with the means available at hand, and Julian, although presented as morally controversial in the same way Adams' suicide was, is definitely being portrayed as someone sympathetic and trustworthy (that is, we see his compassion for people through his association with Doctors Without Borders and his sympathetic side in his guilt over his wife, and we are shown he is "trustworthy" when he doesn't kill Molly and when we don't hear anything more about him accidentally targeting elevated-theta-wave-humans).
And then there's Threshold itself, which is basically a government conspiracy which we are drawn into, and for as often as we see the questionable things -- hacking people's credit card accounts, city-wide phone tapping -- the way the organization and Molly are being presented is intended to get across the trusthworthiness (ie, they're only using the power "responsibly" and "for our own good" kind of thing) of the enterprise. Nigel and Lucas are the two biggest voices against this, Lucas advocating moderation and Nigel entirely against secrecy in the first place.
Which brings me back to something I find weird because if Nigel is going to condemn assisting Adams' suicide why is he condoning Julian? Hmmm.
Aaaand I'm not totally sure what the point of that rambling was, because I sort of lost track of my point. In conclusion: Threshold, it brings up questions of morality and heroism.
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I really love this show for their characterization of Arthur. I feel like so often people who are little aren't presented as anything more than comic entertainment in media, and here we have Arthur, who not only has a host of talents and a host of issues, BUT he's also got a sex life and in this scene in particular, he's being presented as someone who is sexually desirable (as well as emotionally desirable, i.e. she likes his sense of humor), which I think is a really big deal. For me it's like the way media has often de-sexualized gay men -- i.e. Will and Grace -- and how it can be so refreshing to see that challenged and changed.
Ahahaha, Arthur, how often do you use that gynecologist cover? And, awww, Arthur doesn't want her to leave. I bet he's a cuddler.
Arthur: You know, it's probably one of Caffrey's goons. They must have followed me here.
Emily: Caffrey, who's that? Your wife?
Arthur: [laughs] She wishes.
Hmmm, though not too happy to see another dead dancer in media :( That's a trope I could do without.
Molly: Who was she?
Arthur: Candy Cane. I'm guessing that's not her real name.
Nigel: You think?
Arthur: She worked at a place called Beneath the Beltway. It's over on Wisconsin.
Molly: Nude dancing, no cover?
Arthur: What, you've been there?
Molly: Sure. On amateur nights, go pick up a little cash on the side.
Arthur: [hesitates] Really?
Molly: You know, for a genius, you're really not very smart. You said you left work early because you were sick.
Arthur: Yeah, you know what, sex has its curative effects, right, Fenway?
I like the way Arthur pronounces protocols "proto-cols."
Arthur: Anybody seen my pants?
I bet that's a phrase Arthur has said a lot in his life. *g*
Huh, Arthur takes his coffee with soymilk.
Rachel works at National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland -- Clinical Center, Building 10.
Flaxseed pancakes! Aww, I love Rachel.
JT: You think?
Arthur: It was dark in there.
JT: That and the booze.
Arthur: Make the ears rounder, more Prince Charles, you know, away from the head.
JT: Did he have any scars, distinguishing marks?
Arthur: Not that I can remember.
JT: Oh, come on, Ramsey, did you get a look at this guy or not?
Arthur: Make the chin a little wider. Give him, give him less eyebrows.
Lucas: Is anyone else bothered by what happened? You're one of a handful of people that even knows about the alien threat, an infectee breaks into your motel room and kills the stripper but not you.
Arthur: You'd rather I was dead?
JT: No comment.
Arthur: Listen, you know, do you care about anybody or anything? I mean, God, have you ever gotten laid?
[They both look at him.]
JT: What did you say?
Lucas: [turns to JT] Uh, Mr. Baylock, sir. Could you give us a few minutes? We might be able to make more progress, just the two of us.
JT: Give me a call when your masterpiece is finished. [leaves]
Lucas: You don't remember what this guy looked like, do you?
Arthur: I'm trying, dude, okay.
I love how both Lucas *and* JT see through Arthur pretending he can remember the guy, but of course the way the interactions play out are totally opposite.
Used some type of surgical blade to sever every nerve fiber between her brain stem and her cerebellum. Sloan is only partially bioformed -- only 60% of his DNA is showing triple helix mutation.
Molly's hair looks great in this scene.
FBI -- Director Stillwell.
Arthur: Whoa, whoa! I had sex with an alien?
AHAHAHA OH GOD ARTHUR, YOUR *LIFE*. And, yeah, the fact that she's an alien sort of detracts from my earlier point -- because if she was an alien she'd want to infect as many people as possible (sex being one of those methods) -- but I don't think it completely negates it.
Nigel: I trust you used protection.
Arthur: Take the damn blood, Fenway.
Arthur, Arthur. *shakes head*
Sloan murdered 4 people previously, within the last 5 days. FBI - J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Okay, I find it a little weird that Fenway's so gung-ho about this guy killing infectees after the whole Adams thing, which he even *mentions*. Is it just that he doesn't want to kill the infectees they have in custody?
Nigel: Dead man comin' through!
JT: Hey, got a minute?
Nigel: Did I do something wrong?
JT: Not that I'm aware of.
Nigel: Are you giving me a raise?
JT: [laughs]
Nigel: Then I'm busy.
JT tells Nigel to do a tox screen on Arthur's blood. Frankly, I'm surprised they don't have to do mandatory random drug tests all the time. I mean, that isn't too weird for a government job, is it?
Nigel: [to corpse] Can you feel the love?
And Arthur has finally reached the point where he'd rather be on this side of the alien fight rather than the other. Also, thank goodness he mentions the condom, because the way he responded to Nigel I thought maybe he hadn't at first (which would be ridiculous considering he's definitely the type of guy to always have a fresh condom in his wallet. Or five.).
Aww, sweet how Arthur does the work so Lucas can go home to Rachel. Though I still liked it better when Lucas was hardware and Arthur was software.
Post-mortem brain activity isn't unusual for people who've been exposed to the signal.
Rachel: Don't spoil your dinner.
Lucas: [to himself] It's a soda.
Hee, you two are so married. ♥
And helloooo Dr. Sloan, my favorite ambiguous morality character! I should find his character a lot creepier than I do, but honestly, I just kind of adore him, and then seeing this actor in Touching Evil and then Burn Notice gave me a big soft spot for him in general.
Ahahaha, man, that's so sad. Once again Lucas' and Rachel's plans are ruined.
KN112739. Ordered nine days ago by Dr. Julian Sloan, Director of Oncology at the National Institutes of Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), ID #875-00-1138.
So, this whole scene between Lucas and Rachel, I just feel like there are so many levels to it. That is:
+ A central conflict in his relationship with Rachel, i.e. lying to protect the confidentiality of the project and also to protect Rachel from things that he doesn't want her to know (like when he REALLY didn't want her to know he was sick). I think Lucas does this for a couple of reasons -- there's the whole fact that you can tell he sort of wishes he didn't know any of this, because he'd sure as hell sleep easier at night, and really, in Rachel's position there's nothing she can *do*. There's also the aspect of the husband as protector thing going on, which brings me to:
+ Lucas saying that everything he's doing he's doing to protect her. And I really believe that's a huge part of it, for him -- I think the scariest thing to Lucas is the idea of Rachel (or his family, which is slowly extending to include the Threshold members) being hurt, which we see in his nightmare while infected.
+ Um, "everything is going to be fine"? Oh, Lucas, honey, I know that's what you want to think and I know that's what you want Rachel to think, but, yeah.
+ Now, what I really find significant here in terms of characterization is I feel like this is the peak we see of Lucas' maturation arc. It progresses through the show -- Lucas finding a way to "neutralize" the guy who's holding him and Arthur hostage, despite his aversion to using handguns, his strange resigned relief when he finally does get infected because it's the worst thing he's been imagining and now that it's finally happening it's not nearly as large or scary as he thought it would be -- and I think it peaks, here, when he tells Rachel that this job is worth his life. Not necessarily because I think that Lucas using a weapon and/or being willing to sacrifice his life is him becoming more "masculine" and thus more adult, it's more that I think through these events we see Lucas coming head-on with his fear, and the very intense patterning he has around denial and fear of failure. It's entirely possible that six months ago, if Rachel had demanded he quit this job he would have done so, unable to handle the idea of displeasing her and/or "failing" her as a husband (because, let's face it, this job is rendering him a really not ideal husband). It's also entirely possible that if Lucas doesn't go through these events, if he made a mistake in the future he would collapse inwards on himself. I feel like his character arc is very much focused on him finding his internal source of strength that gives him the confidence to really step up and do his job.
+ God, I would not want to be in Rachel's shoes in this situation. Can you imagine how heartily it would suck? Having your new husband unable to go on a honeymoon, get mysteriously and life-threateningly ill and being unable to see him, watching him nearly get killed at YOUR job and then having him say that he's willing to die for a job that you don't even know the first thing about, except that it's completely wrung him out and is placing a huge strain on your relationship? Ugh.
Sloan lives in Annapolis, Maryland. Doctors Without Borders. Infected by gazpacho.
Oh, wow, subtle Sean moment there. That's his brother he's looking at in the photo, right?
Inherited genetic disorder: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Eeee, Molly sits barefoot and cross-legged in her chair. ♥
Sean: So this is what the Fortress of Solitude looks like.
Molly: That's right, Lois.
AHAHAHAHA HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THIS EXCHANGE, SO VERY MUCH.
"Prodigy." Interned at St. Luke's at the age of 23. He was the youngest Director in the history of NIH, married once, his wife died of ovarian cancer four years ago. He still writes to her every day. Feels guilty he couldn't save her.
Aww, the "Forgive me?" at the end of his e-mail.
High alcohol blood levels and more than a trace of cocaine. Implied that Arthur has been kicked out of/fired from many places, but there was always another thinktank or university willing to look the other way. JT's son had a high IQ, went to a "great school." He hasn't seen him in eight years. He thinks he's living in the streets somewhere.
These whole interactions between Arthur and JT, just -- yeah. I mean, I can't help thinking that they were going to have JT be the person who helps Arthur pull out of it when he went off into the deep end. Because JT so clearly has a need to be there for someone, to be someone's rock -- the way he couldn't for his son -- and Arthur so clearly needs someone to be that *for* him, for someone to see him at his worst and not flinch away and stay strong and see him through it. Plus, do we ever find out if Arthur has a father figure present? I seem to remember him mentioning his mom, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had an absent father figure like Molly, a role which JT fills.
OH, LUCAS, OF COURSE YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF HINGES THEY USE ON GALVANIZED STEEL DOORS.
Hahaha, what's with the picture of the watermelon on Arthur's desktop?
OH MY GOOOOD, LUCAS' FACE WHILE ARTHUR IS TALKING. As much as I hate the whole "huh huh huh let's talk about sexxxxx" conversations shtick sometimes, I CANNOT get over the recurrent awe and glee on Lucas' face as Arthur is talking, especially his whole "I don't know if I can go back to Earth girls" thing. And then Lucas' "just, go away from me," AHAHAHA PERRRRRRFECT.
So, when he says "all clear," what he means is "but we let that sexy Doctor with the leather trench coat go lurk in the bathroom waiting for you with his sharp knife," right?
I can't even comment on the whole bathroom scene, because all I can think is how WRONG it is that I desperately love this pairing in all its WRONGNESS.
No work in the breakroom. *g* I bet Molly really did send a memo.
Aww, that was Hayes he was looking at. Hayes got that scar crashing his bike when he was 15.
Sean: Yeah. He used to be.
Oi. Sean. You really, really need a hug. And weird how he assumes JT is doubting his ability to shoot his brother when the time comes instead of more rationally assuming JT is worried he won't make the best command decisions in a situation where his brother's a hostage, especially because generally they try to capture when they can. Pretty revealing of how petrified Sean is of coming face to face with the reality that he might have to kill what's left of his brother, even if he truly believes there's nothing of his brother left in there (which I find just a little doubtful).
Yes, I'm fangirling the jacket.
The Smoothie Shack. Alarm set for 5:30. Got to work every day at 8:00 sharp. Leaves an extra hour in the morning, he was a jogger. Compressed midsoles, erosion in the lateral heel.
Heee, nice random factoid Sean! And I love Lucas' "hey, I guess this guy is good for more than just blowing things up" face.
It's in the water, dun dun dun.
I like how it makes no sense for Molly to be present at this water factory raid except for the express purpose of encountering Sloan. Which I am not opposed to. Because I continue to enjoy my pairing of wrongness. Sloan thinks Threshold is the right idea but that they're going about it the wrong way, that they should kill infectees.
Sean: What about Sloan?
Molly: Didn't see him.
The water was infected with alginate, tasteless seaweed extract, infected with the same enzyme as the food.
Molly bigfooting Sean = ftw.
*sighs* Arthur is so obviously lying, and it's sad that JT really seemed to believe him :(
Ugh, it's so creepy that Sloan came in while Molly was in the shower to give her that coffee, WHY DO I LOVE THEM SO?
*
So, something I find sort of interesting about this episode is how it culminates this hero/anti-hero theme the show's been doing. I feel like we first touch on that with Tate, the guy who killed his family, and how he's very much a one-person parallel of the Threshold project -- just like Tate, most of the world will never know about Molly's work, or what she's sacrificed to save them.
Julian, on the other hand, is presented as this Vigilante, and between Arthur and Nigel and the dialogue discussion Julian's methods, it seems like the biggest condemnation of his methods is that he's accidentally killing innocent humans, NOT that he's eliminating aliens.
Despite the fact that Adams is yet another tragic heroic figure, like Tate -- he symbolically sacrifices his humanity to give Nigel insight into the bioforming process -- and we are presented with Adams' suicide request as something morally controversial, because what if later on there is a cure?
On the other hand, for people like Tate and Julian, they do not HAVE the resources that Threshold does. They can't detain aliens in secure underground facilities. They don't have teams of data miners gathering information for them. They responded to the threat with the means available at hand, and Julian, although presented as morally controversial in the same way Adams' suicide was, is definitely being portrayed as someone sympathetic and trustworthy (that is, we see his compassion for people through his association with Doctors Without Borders and his sympathetic side in his guilt over his wife, and we are shown he is "trustworthy" when he doesn't kill Molly and when we don't hear anything more about him accidentally targeting elevated-theta-wave-humans).
And then there's Threshold itself, which is basically a government conspiracy which we are drawn into, and for as often as we see the questionable things -- hacking people's credit card accounts, city-wide phone tapping -- the way the organization and Molly are being presented is intended to get across the trusthworthiness (ie, they're only using the power "responsibly" and "for our own good" kind of thing) of the enterprise. Nigel and Lucas are the two biggest voices against this, Lucas advocating moderation and Nigel entirely against secrecy in the first place.
Which brings me back to something I find weird because if Nigel is going to condemn assisting Adams' suicide why is he condoning Julian? Hmmm.
Aaaand I'm not totally sure what the point of that rambling was, because I sort of lost track of my point. In conclusion: Threshold, it brings up questions of morality and heroism.
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