Persons Unknown - Episode 1.05 - Incoming - Recap

In last week's episode, "Exit One," we saw our first hostage escape from town, and Joe was revealed to be a mole. It was clear that things were changing, and as Tori left town in the taxi we had hopes that she could get back to her normal life and the rest of our hostages might make it out at some point as well. Oh, how quickly things can change, as those hopes were immediately dashed with this week's episode, "Incoming."




The hostages wake up and realize that Tori is missing. When they leave the hotel, they notice a body that looks like Tori laying by the edge of town, but when they get to her they see that it is a woman they do not recognize. The woman has “Erika” tattooed on her arm, Graham believes that her tattoos may have been received in prison, and Moira suggests she was in a hospital due to the needle marks on her arm.

In Rome, a maintenance man cleaning the Caligari fountain finds the body of a dead woman – Tori. Her father is brought in to identify her body, and later receives a phone call from the Irish man that has been threatening Mark in San Francisco. The Irish man thanks Tori’s father for his cooperation, but Ambassador Fairchild says he won’t be helping him any longer. The Irish man threatens Tori’s father, saying that if he doesn’t continue to cooperate more harm will be done to him.

Kat brings Mark into her office and tells him that he is fired because the detective contacted their publisher and they didn’t want a suspected felon working for the paper. Mark heads to a bar, where he sees a news story about Tori’s death and seemingly recognizes her. He returns home to look at the surveillance footage of Janet’s kidnapping, which also has footage of Tori being kidnapped. Later, we see him looking through a computer for missing persons in the United States, when Kat enters the apartment and is shocked to see him. Mark tells her that he still has a key to her place, and only used it because he couldn’t access the database himself. He explains that he’s searching for information because whatever has happened is bigger than Janet’s disappearance, saying that it might be linked somehow to Tori’s death. Although she seems to not believe him, she later brings him a list of missing persons, which shows that Tori (as well as Bill and Moira, who Mark does not know of yet) was reported missing at the same time as Janet.

Janet and Joe look after Erika in the hotel, when she suddenly gains consciousness and freaks out. She attacks Janet and Joe, and jumps out the window and begins running away. She unsuccessfully tries to leave town (courtesy of the invisible barrier), but is only slightly fazed and continues her rampage through town, attacking both Bill and Moira. She is chased into the bank by Janet and Joe, and Janet follows her into a vault. Tom, who is watching the entire scene unfold on surveillance cameras, closes the vault door and locks Erika and Janet inside.



Joe goes to find Tom to get him to let the women out, but he tells Joe that it is a slight modification and they will stay inside until they get a “result” or all the oxygen is removed from the room (which will happen in 20 minutes). Joe runs out, grabs a pick ax and tries to break into the vault with some help from Graham. While Graham and Joe try to get into the vault, Janet and Erika get to know one another (after a brief encounter with a knife). Erika tells Janet that she has an 11 year old son living in foster care. She also admits to being in jail, and tells Janet that the needle marks on her arm are from when she was given a lethal injection.

After a while, Joe gets fed up and tells Graham he’s going to get some help. He heads back to the hotel and gets into the elevator. With Moira watching, he presses a sequence of the buttons and the door shuts, but the light above the elevator remains on the lobby. When the elevator stops, Joe gets out and goes into the surveillance room to try to unlock the door, but Tom finds him and puts a gun to his head. Joe attacks Tom, knocks the gun out of his hand, and after gaining the upper hand get him to open the vault door. Graham helps the women out, but when Joe returns Graham is suspicious of him.

Back in San Francisco, Mark is sitting on a park bench as his daughter rides a bicycle near by. As she gets close to him he begins to talk to her, but she says she isn’t supposed to talk to strangers. Janet’s mother sees Mark talking to Megan and recognizes him as the reporter from The Register. He tells her that his name is actually Mark Cooper, and asks to talk to Megan, telling her that he is going to find her mother. In the hotel, Graham goes to Moira’s room and apologizes for letting her get hurt by Erika. He tells her that he believes this is all some kind of military training camp that is testing them. Before he can leave, Moira says she needs to tell him something about Joe. At the same time, Joe and Tom meet in the back room of the Shanghai Palace, and Tom says that what happened wasn’t about Janet; instead, they were the ones being tested. Tom tells Joe that he needs to control the way he feels about Janet, as what he did has put them both in danger.

"Incoming" kept up the pace that Persons Unknown gained in "Exit One." Tori is the first hostage to be killed, and I'm sure she won't be the last. The characters also brought up a few options as to the bigger picture of things. Erika tells Janet that she already died, and that she thinks they're in Heaven or Hell. While Janet tells her that this is very real, it's still possible that this is some form of Purgatory where they are being tested to determine if they are fit for Heaven. I don't believe this is the case, but it is a possibility. Graham, on the other hand, believes that it is a military training camp that is testing them. If this were the case, I'm not entirely sure why Tori would have been taken away and killed, but again it is still a possibility. We do hear a lot of terms associated with testing, such as "results" and "procedures," so whatever is happening I think it is some form of test, not only for the hostages, but for people like Joe and Tom as well. I think the most likely explanation is that it is a psychological test. We already know that Moira was in a mental institution, and Tori began to show signs of being unstable and having issues about her father. Charlie suffocated his wife, which could have been because he was crazy, or it could have been the event that caused him to go crazy. "Incoming" showed Graham thinking about his days in the war, which could have had a great emotional impact on him. We also saw signs that Erika may be crazy, as she said she hasn't seen her son in a long time, she was in jail, and believes she was given a lethal injection. While there is not much proof of Janet or Bill being crazy (although he can be annoying), there may be more to their story. This is the theory I will stick with until more proof is available, but what does everyone else think?

Mike