TV Review: Almost Human Season One Episode Eleven "Disrupt"

Disrupt finally did something that I've been hoping they'd explore - Dorian malfunctioning. The potential reasons for it surprised me as well, which was good. But first let's discuss the case.

It was a rather simple setup.

A seemingly normal couple with a sophisticated home security system was having trouble with their hologram bot that comes with it.

After closing the top on the pool and drowning the wife, the security system shot the husband trying to save her.

After the team investigates, John and Dorian figure out the same high tech security system killed an innocent boy a year ago, and when the husband and wife as well as the security company got off, people were mad.

Dorian determines that the system had been changed to manual, footage had been erased, and the family had been getting death threats.

John and Dorian later visit the firm, where they meet the woman CEO. I learned a valuable lesson in writing drama from a Law and Order producer/director who taught me the Dick Wolf school of drama - every character thinks they're right. In order to pull this off, you have to give each character a point of view that is strong and hard to argue. John argues with the CEO that a security system that shoots an unarmed innocent boy isn't a system that should be available to the public. The woman CEO says she feels obligated to make it available to the public after her assault she endured years ago.

Now, it's hard to argue with John or the woman's logic. You could say that the assault was an isolated incident and cannot be extrapolated to the bigger picture.

However you could also argue that the assault is just one example why people have a right to defend themselves on their own property.

It's really the gun laws and gun ownership battle on a larger more technological scale. After insisting the firm uses the same encryption as the pentagon, they offer no assistance as to who hacked their security system.

Naturally the first suspect is the the mother of the small child who died a year ago from the same system. After Valerie interrogates her and quickly realizes she isn't a hacker, the team is back to square one.

Luckily for them, they witness a hacker group who causes a blackout. Through Rudy, they identify the lead mysterious hacker and John and Valerie go undercover and arrest him.

Quick side note - the discussion I had last review about science fiction being the hardest and easiest thing to write came into play this episode.

There was a lot of suspect hacking jargon, but with this heightened reality it's hard to roll my eyes as hard as I normally would. Anyways, moving on...

The hacker identifies the other hacker as Emily Wilson, the person the boy who died was going to see. She was hacking the security system of the family responsible, and now the CEO of the company.

The team races to the CEO building where the hacker was. After fighting off security bots and a timer that was sucking the oxygen out of the room, they finally got her.

And now onto the more interesting story - Dorian malfunctioning.

The episode opened with Rudy doing what he called "routine maintenance" on Dorian while he charged, making Dorian feel violated.

Dorian then was experiencing flashbacks to a kid playing with a toy train, but as his own personal memory like Dorian was the kid, which obviously made no sense.

After Rudy revealed he used to wake up Dorian when he was decommissioned to have some company (the saddest thing ever), he said that he thinks Dorian's neuro-net was picking up on these images and memories and rewriting them as his own, and he's not sure why that happens.

However, he explains to John that they were actually shadow files planted in Dorian by someone, which caused organic human memories.

He closed the insertion point so they cannot be reactivated.

The cliffhanger comes when Rudy tells John he cannot tell Dorian until Rudy finds out who did this and why, because if it seems like Dorian is malfunctioning he could get decommissioned again.

Now the cliffhanger that Dorian might get decommissioned isn't the good part - because that will never happen. The mystery of who planted the shadow files is what is keeping at least me thoroughly interested.

Between this mystery, John's ex (and maybe traitor), and who bugged John's bedroom, Almost Human has a lot of spinning plates at the moment. I'm excited for when we get some answers to all these loose ends.

Photo Credit: Comicbook.com