Television: Almost Human, "Disrupt"

Rudy is up to something fishy in Dorian's head while Dorian is in stasis. Hmm. Meanwhile, a man named Michael and his wife Linda are receiving death threats on the one-year anniversary of the death of a boy named Aaron who was killed when he trespassed on their property and the house security system killed him. The house is run by a holographic projection named Sam. He malfunctions—or is hacked—and drowns Linda by sealing her under the swimming pool's protective cover. Michael tries to save her but is shot by the security system.

So this episode is all about betrayals of trust of one kind or another.

Sam tells Dorian that he was aware of being remotely programmed the night before, being switched from auto to manual. He doesn't know who did it and security footage has been erased. And there are all those death threats to consider.

While Minka Kelly Valerie talks to Aaron's mom and confirms her alibi (she was at a church vigil held in Aaron's memory), the woman who runs the security company tells Kennex and Dorian that a group called Disrupt was the one that made the most threats.

Dorian begins having childhood memories—these are the "files" that Rudy had been accessing while Dorian was unconscious. Of course the question is: How can an android have childhood memories?

A hacker named Crispin X takes responsibility for the hack that killed Michael and Linda. Kennex and Valerie get Rudy to get invited to a big post-hack party so they can go in using Rudy's handle ("Aphid" . . . and nice to hear Karl Urban use a more natural accent). They manage to arrest Crispin (real name Nico) with little trouble. But Crispin insists Disrupt only hired him to take the grid offline in Aaron's memory, and that Disrupt is not a murderous organization.

Turns out Dorian and Rudy used to have fun conversations together back when Dorian was decommissioned. That seems like a pointless bit of trivia but I'm sure it's meant to add depth.

A lawyer for the security company is found dead. Kennex figures out (from a photograph) the murders are being done by someone who knew Aaron personally. They ask Crispin for help and figure out a girl named Emily is the likely culprit.

Why not just ask Rudy to check Aaron's iPad thingy? Instead of offering Crispin immunity for his help? And how do they know Crispin isn't just planting all this info?

Anyway, they figure Emily's next target is the woman who runs the security company. And that Emily is tapped into the main server, meaning she must be on site at the company's building. So this becomes Crispin versus Emily in a hack fight while Kennex and Dorian head down to find and grab Emily.

People hide under desks a lot in this show. Just sayin'.

And now the fire suppression system has been activated, meaning the oxygen will be sucked out of the building in five minutes. (Doesn't this mean Emily would die too if she's in the building?)

I think the oxygen countdown thing was supposed to be tense, but were we ever really worried? Um, no.

Emily tells Dorian the reason Aaron was in Michael's and Linda's yard the night the house killed him was because he was cutting through to go see her. Aaron didn't have many friends in life, but he had a ton of online friends, people he helped.

Rudy figures out that someone implanted those memories into Dorian. He cleanses Dorian of the files and closes the "access point" so whoever planted the memories won't be able to get in that way again. But the lingering question is: Why would anyone do such a thing? And though Kennex wants to tell Dorian, Rudy advises against it, saying people will think Dorian is malfunctioning, that the DRN is going crazy. Is this a valid concern? Or is Rudy hiding something?

An overall okay episode that is attempting to insert more conspiracy story arc . . . And again, I find it decidedly uninteresting. Someone gave Dorian memories? Uh . . . okay. Whatever. Hardly compelling stuff. If they don't step this up a bit, and quickly . . . But then again, it seems ever more unlikely Almost Human is going to see a second season anyway. So I hope they at least find a way to wrap all this up satisfactorily, just in case.