Travelers: 11:27
December 26, 2017 8:12 PM - Season 2, Episode 4 - Subscribe

Two team members assist an activist in preventing the release of an agricultural product, while the others help a traveler plan his own assassination.

*In an alley, Carly makes an exchange with a teenager (Helix), identifying herself as Sandstorm by showing him her phone with a series of their texts on it. On a bench in a skate park, Trevor makes an exchange with the actual Sandstorm, warning her that the package must be handled carefully.
*In his car, MacLaren is joined by Congressman Bishop (the traveler from the plane crash in season one), who tells him that his new mission is to arrange for his assassination.
*Philip goes to Jenny's house and asks for more eyedrops.
*In her apartment, Marcy calls David, but it goes straight to voicemail and she doesn't leave a message.
*MacLaren finds Kat rearranging furniture in the condo, as she is supposed to be redecorating the place during the owner's sabbatical, and tells her there's another unit for sale in the building and he's thinking he should put in an offer.
*Trevor sits in an internet cafe to 'accidentally' run into Sandstorm, as Philip and Marcy monitor from the van. Sandstorm tells Trevor her real name is Abby. When she notices he is reading articles about Galston Agriculture, she tells him about an experimental crop they've just developed, Seed C589, which extracts more nutrients from the soil in order to yield an increased harvest. Galston has a prototype strain ready to plant this week, and if Bill 939 is passed they can go forward without advance testing, and without knowing the long-term effects of the seed on the environment, which could Abby believes could be disastrous. Abby was an intern at Galston; she tried to work within the system for change, but now thinks only a radical solution will work, and wants to do something while she still has security access to the building. Trevor brings her to Ops and introduces her to Philip.

*MacLaren and Kat visit the ob/gyn, who says everything is going fine except for a dark spot on the latest scan -- could be nothing, but could be a blood clot and early sign of placental abruption. MacLaren goes to Marcy and tells her about his accidental violation of Protocol 4, and asks her to use her future-doctor skills to help avoid an abruption/miscarriage. She says she'll think about it.

*Bishop shows MacLaren and Carly where he's going to be making a speech against Bill 939 the next day, which is where he is to be assassinated, and Carly goes to scout out the best sniper position.

*At Ops, Philip tells Abby that he has learned that Seed C589 is descended from the kudzu; not only will it deplete the soil of nutrients, it will be invasive and choke out other crops, causing massive famine.

*Marcy goes on a dinner date with Dr. Barker, who is smitten with her. Later, they have sex, but Marcy looks unfulfilled afterwards.

*Outside Ops, Abby and Trevor talk and look at the constellations, while inside Philip finishes building a bomb.

*The next morning, Bishop arrives on the steps for his speech, with Carly in position on a rooftop with her sniper rifle, MacLaren on FBI security detail, and Marcy in position as a spectator in the crowd. Trevor and Philip drive Abby to Galston, and begin a countdown to 11:27 when the bomb will detonate. As she waits to go through the metal detector, she has a change of heart and runs back to the van, telling Trevor that meeting him and Philip has inspired her to want to do things differently. As the clock continues counting down, she gets turned Messenger, telling Trevor he must complete the mission, then dying. Philip tells Trevor there isn't enough time left for him to survive the mission, but Trevor takes the backpack bomb and goes in anyway.

*Trevor gets the bomb to the designated location before the countdown reaches zero, but the timer stops without a detonation. MacLaren considers letting Bishop die of the heart attack he appears to be having imminently, but ultimately tells Carly to go ahead and take the shot. Without the distraction of the explosion, Marcy's misdirect of claiming to have seen the shooter in a building to the other direction of Carly doesn't have much effect, but luckily for Carly, the police car she runs into after exiting the building is driven by Officer Boyd who drives getaway for her.
*Back at Ops, Philip tells the team he deactivated the bomb remotely, because he did not believe the mission was worth Trevor dying for, that there are other agricultural corporations with similar prototypes, and that if they really need to blow up Galston still they could come up with another plan that wouldn't get any of the team killed. MacLaren, Trevor, and Carly are angry at him for going off mission, but nobody has a good comeback when Philip points out that everyone on the team has gone off mission before too.
*Marcy asks MacLaren to get her one of Kat's folic acid pills, and she'll swap something into it to try to prevent a miscarriage.
*Alone at Ops, Trevor writes manifesto for Sandstorm, to post on the internet.
*Marcy and Carly go to a rooftop and talk. Marcy talks about her date with Dr. Barker. Carly talks about co-parenting with Jeffrey, and says he's stopped drinking. Suddenly there is an explosion in the distance, at Galston. They call for Trevor on coms but he's at home, someone else must have been tasked with completing their mission.
*Philip, who has been doing eyedrops and making out with Jenny, is startled by the appearance of Jenny's little sister Chloe entering the bedroom in Messenger mode, and telling him to "open memory chain 71985VX and store the following sequence" and rattling out a string of science jargon.
posted by oh yeah! (10 comments total)
 
I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop when it comes to Jeffrey - he was such an unrepentant abuser in S1, how long can he possibly keep up the good father act? Or are we meant to believe that his drinking was to blame for the worst of it, if Carly's "zero tolerance" policy is for real, and the post-custody celebratory bottle was just a blip?
posted by oh yeah! at 7:01 AM on December 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


Seed C589 is descended from the kudzu; not only will it deplete the soil of nutrients, it will be invasive and choke out other crops

This doesn't make any sense under capitalism because once you bought the original seeds, you'd never have to buy it again.

*Marcy asks MacLaren to get her one of Kat's folic acid pills, and she'll swap something into it to try to prevent a miscarriage.

I thought she was trying to cause a miscarriage, so they don't violate Protocol 4 by reproducing. Or doesn't anyone care all of a sudden? Philip cares when he uses a condom with Jenny.
posted by AFABulous at 7:12 AM on December 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


This doesn't make any sense under capitalism because once you bought the original seeds, you'd never have to buy it again.

Huh? Under capitalism the seeds are patented and Monsanto makes farmers return and re-buy any seeds that sprout, and sue the bejeezus out of anyone who tries to keep their seed, even farms where the seed just gets blown into their field from neighboring farms. It wouldn't make sense for an agricultural mega-corp to develop something invasive and self-propagating like a Seed C589 since they wouldn't be able to maintain control of the patent, but I guess I can accept the hand-wave tv logic of them rushing for short-term profit in not studying the long-term effects of the plant, considering how real-world pesticides keep turning out to have unintended consequences like killing off the bees.

I thought she was trying to cause a miscarriage, so they don't violate Protocol 4 by reproducing. Or doesn't anyone care all of a sudden? Philip cares when he uses a condom with Jenny.

No, Marcy first says she can give him something that would abort the fetus, assuming that was what he was asking, but then he tells her that's not what he wants, that even though it's a violation of Protocol 4, Kat doesn't deserve to suffer for his mistake. That's why Marcy says she needs to think it over first. Whether she will really help him or just pretend to and actually follow the rules remains to be seen. But, Philip is right that they've all broken protocol in various ways throughout their time in the 21st, so, I think it could go either way.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:29 AM on December 27, 2017


man, every new character dies in this show. I rather liked Abby.
posted by numaner at 12:33 PM on December 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


Also, Dr. Baker is Silas from Dirk Gently! Ahh it's so hard to see him try and be straight now.
posted by numaner at 7:29 PM on December 27, 2017


One thing I am surprised by is how simple it was for Kat to take Mac back, but it's not implausible.
posted by numaner at 11:26 AM on December 28, 2017


because once you bought the original seeds, you'd never have to buy it again.

Good point! Monsanto has at least one "terminator" gene; seeds from those plants are not fertile and will not germinate. So, practically/effectively, its impossible to replant one's harvest.

So boo lazy writers. But... a charitable reading is that there is potential for C589 to go rogue, maybe revert to kudzu's vegetative reproduction through stolons (runners).

Or there are draconian wording in the license where for every season that C589 is growing, the licensee owes the corp a fixed price/hectare/season. "Sorry if your crop is no longer profitable, but you still owe us money. Oh, you can't pay? Well, we'll just take your farm."

Also a little bit lazy/ignorant writing; modern industrial agriculture is so highly dependent on chemical fertilizers already - most industrial farmland is already pretty shitty now. The worry might be loss of micronutrients, but you identify those and supplement.

GMO is neither inherently good/bad, it's how its used and how its executed.

re: Jeffry - yeah, people don't really change unless they're forced to.
posted by porpoise at 4:57 PM on December 31, 2017


That Ob/Gyn has a pretty thick Canadian accent.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:10 AM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I can't see Jeffrey without thinking of how he KILLED Original Carly. Heebie jeebies.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:26 PM on January 24, 2018 [2 favorites]


I am 1000% not down with The Redemption Of Abuser Jeffrey.
posted by corb at 5:56 AM on March 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


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