This week’s episode of Intelligence, “Size Matters,” was written by Shintaro Shimosawa and directed by Alrick Riley. The plot itself was pretty obvious – I knew who the bad guy really was almost immediately. The big tip off is when Shenendoah (John Billingsley) defers to Bryce’s (Tommy Dewey) expertise in nanotech. However, the episode features some excellent performances – John Billingsley I’m looking at you! – and the episode also explores some interesting philosophical questions.
Once again, a lot of the enjoyment of the show is watching the team work together to determine what the threat is and how to neutralize it. A great example of this is Gabriel (Josh Holloway) running the tire track to determine the vehicle, but it’s Riley (Meghan Ory) who realizes it’s a Ford because her brother is a ‘gear-head.’ This week the team member under threat is Shenendoah (Billingsley) as top scientists in artificial intelligence are targeted. Unlike last week, which I commented felt out of order, Lillian (Marg Helgengerger) calls him Shen – not Cassidy – indicating their close relationship.
The Cyber-threat is nanotech – tiny artificial intelligence that kills. Gabriel (Josh Holloway) immediately identifies with it - “If the chip fits.” Riley (Meghan Ory) is immediately concerned that Gabriel is identifying with it, and Ory is terrific as we see her clearly assessing Gabriel’s remarks. I also loved the looks she throws Gabriel and Nelson (PJ Byrne) to cover for Gabriel’s using the chip in front of Bryce.
I will never grow tired of watching Riley protect Gabriel. Last week he remarked that her tackling him was emasculating. This week we see her forcing him to wear gloves again – though a hasmat suit would have been more appropriate. Riley drives and it’s Riley who grabs Gabriel around the shoulders and drags him to the ground when Greyson (David Marciano) shoots at them. In point of fact, none of this makes Riley less “feminine” or Gabriel less “masculine” which is one of my other favorite things about this show.
I really like the slang they’ve developed for using Gabriel’s chip. It’s now a question of whether Gabriel can “chip it” if there is technology involved. Holloway deserves a lot of credit for his credible delivery of reading and assessing all the information passing through his chip. We only get one cyber-render in this episode – of the nanotech – and it is excellent. Also a shout out to the VFX team for the incredibly gross nanotech effects of people gushing blood – yuck!
At the heart of the episode is the debate over artificial intelligence. Shenendoah remarks that what has held them back in artificial intelligence is that computers can’t program themselves – and that would make humans expendable. Bryce says it’s call trans-humanism and is a biological synthesis between man and machine and is the future. Greyson wants to know how you reason with a technology that is thinking in ways that the inventor never even anticipated – how do you control it. We already know that Gabriel’s cyber-rendering is one way that they never anticipated the chip would work, and we’ve seen Weatherly (Tomas Arana) express concern again and again that Lillian doesn’t have control of Gabriel. When Greyson brings up Frankenstein’s monster, Gabriel is clearly troubled and Riley is troubled by his reaction – great work by both Holloway and Ory in this scene.
Riley protects Gabriel both physically and emotionally. She tells him she doesn’t like it when he calls himself a freak. Gabriel brushes it off, saying “the youngest one is always a freak.” She is also the one to point out to him that he is completely different than the nanotech. I loved the scene when they are interrogating Bryce and he says that he and Gabriel aren’t even the same species and Riley growls, “No you aren’t. Gabriel is warm-blooded.” I liked that Riley drew on Lillian’s words to her in the “Pilot” – we’re defined by the decision we make. Riley points out the difference between people who make decisions and robots who execute code. She tells him that he makes decisions and decision she respects.
Billingsley is listed as a regular, but I was really worried they were actually going to kill him off. I really liked that they found a problem/threat that Gabriel was really helpless to fix and it took the team to do it. His ‘deathbed’ scene is a terrific performance by both him and Byrne as he tells Nelson how proud he is and demonstrates that he actually does know his son as he tries to lighten the mood with Nelson’s usual humor. I will quibble with the fact that no one attempted to do CPR on Shenendoah – which is the way you actually restart someone’s heart.
Overall, even with the predictable plot, this was a very enjoyable episode. The chemistry between Billingsley and Nelson, Ory and Holloway, and the entire team is the core of this show. I do hope they don’t push Riley and Gabriel into a relationship but that does seem to be the direction they are going. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
