The Invisible Man 2.7 - Insensate

Plot: Darien comes home at night to find a strange little man in his apartment. Thomas Walker claims to be largely insensate, save for a sense of touch, and a sensor array that allows for some rudimentary sense of sight and sound through electrodes that connect to his head. He's looking for Kevin Fawkes, who worked on the project that made Thomas this way, along with a man named Augustin Gaither. Thomas was hoping Kevin could undo what has been done to him, but on learning Kevin is dead, is somewhat despondent. Darien on the other hand, is intrigued by the possibility this Augustin may have worked with Kevin on the gland, and so maybe he could remove it. In the meantime, though, Kevin directs Darien to a building filled with other subjects of the experiments, ones with no senses at all.

But Darien's snooping did not go unnoticed, and the man in charge of that ward (a real Heston/Rutger Hauer looking old man badass) is so powerful, even the Official is cowed by him when he comes a calling. I mean really cowed, like Charlie can't make eye contact. The Official orders Hobbes to find Darien and find out what's going on, but this results in the two of them and Thomas being grabbed by a bunch of guys in SWAT gear and thrown in a room. Thomas tells them they're prisoners of the SWRB: Secret Weapons Research Branch, which Hobbes insists is a myth, but the rumors are it has no oversight, reports to no one, and the people who work there aren't nice people. Some of those not nice people barge in and grab Thomas, despite Darien and Bobby's attempts to protect him. Fortunately, the Fat Man shows up and bails them out, then orders them to forget everything. Which Darien ignores, and he and Hobbes go back, and Darien rescues Thomas, tossing him in the van with Hobbes, then going back by himself to capture Augustin.

But the evil Rutger Hauer guy isn't Augustin. Thomas Walker is Augustin. Tommy Walker was the name of the project, named after the character in Pinball Wizard. Darien is able to talk his way out of this problem by leveraging the importance of the gland, and by promising to hand Augustin/Thomas to the SWRB guys after he finds out what he knows about the gland. As soon as the uncuff him and put him in a nice Humvee, Darien bolts. But Nameless Scary Guy anticipated this double-cross and slipped a tracker on Darien's jacket. Darien reaches the safe house, where Hobbes has made calzone for Augustin, who of course, can't taste it. Darien accuses Augustin of hiding his identity, but the man seems completely bewildered by all this, and then the SWRB blows up the house with some tiny tinkertoy looking plasma cannon. But Darien got them all out safely. Back at the Agency, the Official isn't happy but has agreed to set up Augustin in a basement cell, contingent on them finding a psychologist that can draw those repressed memories out.

Quote of the Episode: Thomas Walker - 'You'd be surprised how much you can remember when you have no place to go but inside your head.'

The "oh crap" count: 3 (10 overall)

Who's getting quoted this week? Shakesspeare said the thief fears each bush is a cop, Hitchcock said the terror is in the anticipation, and some Russian author whose name I must have written down wrong because I can't find him online said something about it being best not to recollect at all.

Times Fawkes Goes Into Quicksilver Madness: 0 (2 overall). Surprising considering how much he snuck around this week.

Other: Second week of Fawkes trying for a way to get the gland out. They'd actually moved away from "Fawkes attempts to get gland out" story of the week for awhile, but it's come back a bit here. I also thought it was interesting that while Darien was horrified by Augustin's experiments (and was concerned Kevin had been a part of it), he never loses sight of that possibility Augustin is his way out. Sure, he wants to protect Thomas, but it's an open question whether he's more concerned with Thomas or himself. I mentioned last week that I'd be curious to see fallout from Kevin's decision to not get the gland out, and I wonder if this is the start of that.

I do find it interesting Darien keeps interacting with these evil overlord types, and keeps making agreements with them, only for Darien to immediately double-cross them. Stark a few weeks back, this nameless guy this week. These are the bad guys, but the hero is the one breaking his word. Sure, Nameless Guy was almost certainly going to kill Fawkes, Hobbes, and Augustin even if Darien played it straight with him, so I guess credit to Darien for striking first. Still, little odd for the good guy to not wait to be betrayed, then find a way to work around it. But it suits Darien being a thief, not entirely an honorable profession. He'd have learned to be ready for the double-cross from working with other thieves.

I don't have much else to say about this episode. I feel Nameless Guy would have worked better as an antagonist if there hadn't been all the hoodwinkery about him being Augustin. Like, what's his deal? How did he get in that position? How does he know the Official, and what's their backstory? It's hard to figure out his character, because the episode was so deliberately trying to obfuscate who he was.