Limitless has a weird schedule. It came back, then it went on hiatus, but then a couple of episodes aired, and then it went on mini-hiatus again.
I think it’s definitely back this time. Maybe.
Right from the get-go, we’re shaking things up. Mike & Ike are interviewing a third “-ike” to join them in protecting Brian’s life and keeping him medicated. Spike, as he’s known, immediately endears himself to Brian by being both a heavy-metal fan and a shameless lapdog.
This week’s case sees Brian return to CRAFT, the futuristic tech company that had a slight hiccup concerning sentient robot prosthetic arms. A researcher named Eloise Carlisle has been strangled. Eloise was working to hasten the Singularity, a theoretical event in which man and machine become one entity. Her job was to interview geniuses, then create so-called “mind files” that could be uploaded into robots. The software to catalogue minds is pretty good. The software to process those files into a realistic facsimile of humanity? Eh … not so much.
In the meantime, Brian also meets with Sands following last episode’s jacket switcheroo. If the clerk who was on duty when Brian switched the coats blabs, then Brian, Sands, and Senator Morra are all in deep doo-doo. Sands assures Brian that it’s been handled.
They learn that Eloise was also working on a space-missile defense system, so Brian does a bit of hacking — set to a boring montage made lively with dog Vines — and tracks the hacker down. In the course of doing so, he also discovers that Eloise was selling mind files on a Dark Web black market.
“Most people are terrified of having their email hacked, but could you imagine having your whole brain hacked?” Brian asks. I cannot.
The mind files were sold on the super-spooky Dark Web by a guy named TheScrubJay. He uses the website BusinessStank, which is a great name for an illegal cybermarket. BusinessStank. Great.
Brian lures ScrubJay to meet up by trying to fence a nude portrait of Spike — seriously, this is what he does — but ScrubJay is poisoned to death before he can provide any answers. They eventually track the mind files to a powerful think-tank known as GERD.
Meanwhile, Mike & Ike are on the rocks after Mike reveals that Spike is supposed to be his replacement. They both eventually agree that Spike sucks and are perturbed by his overwhelming ability to suck up. After some snooping, they realize that Spike has been spying on Brian. But for whom?
Back to the mystery of the missing computer brains, which has, by my count, already been deus ex machina–ed a dozen times. GERD admits to buying the mind files to prevent their knowledge from falling into the hands of enemy states. They’ve even got the Uncanny Valley robots to prove it.
Turns out Eloise was murdered by a jilted co-worker who framed her to cover it up. He even keeps a robot of her in the basement like a psychopath. I would have loved to know way more about the guy dating a robot in his basement. Next episode should be about that guy.
The episode wraps up with two close calls. Mike & Ike figure out that Spike is working for ADIC Johnson, the FBI head honcho from a few episodes back. I completely forgot about him. But now that Spike’s gone, the duo gets to stay together. Woo!
More important, Rebecca heads to see the coat clerk, and Brian thinks that he’s toast. As is less-than-unexpected, though, the clerk is dead. He was killed by a freak allergic reaction to peanuts.
Hmmm … suspicious. Hmmmmmm. (Sands did it.)
Understandably, Brian feels responsible for the clerk’s death. Because it’s his fault.
