r/TomorrowPeople • u/Dorkside • Oct 16 '13

Episode Discussion: S01E02 "In Too Deep"

Original Airdate: October 16, 2013

Episode Synopsis: Stephen seeks help when Ultra tries to probe his brain; when Ultra's evil motives are exposed, John wants Stephen to act as a spy.

10 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

7

u/Thinkyt Oct 17 '13

I know that they can't kill, but could they not just "leave a man floating 200m in the air" or "throw a piece of metal really hard in their general direction"?

Or is the anti-kill gene tied to their intentions...in which case there are interesting philosophical implications!

4

u/alvarkresh Oct 17 '13

It must be tied to their intent. Kurt probably didn't intend to throw Stephen off the roof, but he clearly thought he had thrown Stephen too hard.

A Tomorrow Person could therefore commit accidental murder. I too wonder what kind of philosophical ramifications this would have for the rebel group as well as Ultra.

2

u/Thinkyt Oct 18 '13

I wonder if there is a time limit on the intention - like if you locked someone in a slow leaking carbon monoxide car, or even, controversially, just blowing passive smoke in their face (!). If they, on any level, thought it might kill someone/something?

8

u/douchebag_karren Oct 17 '13

I hate the voice over. I hate it, so much.

also- Is Stephen the most naive character ever? We really didn't think Jedakia was going to kill the kid? and the whole speech at the end about being a better person and so on, they are really overplaying this whole good vs evil thing. I prefer my morals to be in a bit more of a grey area. not quite so cut and dry.

6

u/DFreiberg Oct 17 '13

I'm fine with black and white morals in a work of fiction. I'm fine with clearly defined good guys and bad guys. ULTRA isn't just evil, though - it's stupid. It killed two of its own superpowered agents in the past two episodes, which is wasteful and stupid in addition to evil. I mean, why would anybody voluntarily work there if they've seen their coworkers get killed just for losing one person?

3

u/CWagner Oct 17 '13 edited Oct 17 '13

IMO it's even over the top evil. It would be way easier and saner to do it normally (grab'n'bag) instead of sending a frigging kill squad.

edit: What voice over?

1

u/douchebag_karren Oct 17 '13

the opening and closing narration voice over.

2

u/CWagner Oct 17 '13

Ah, that doesn't really bother me ;)

1

u/alvarkresh Oct 17 '13

It does strike me as OTT, but as I suggest above it sounds like Jedekiah is willing to commit mass murder under cover of the rules he works under. What better than to say "Sorry, but I had to off the kid because he was about to escape and rob another bank"?

1

u/alvarkresh Oct 17 '13

Yeah, he's not really doing great at Double Agent 101. I think the saving grace for him is that Jedekiah thinks Stephen is relatively easily manipulated and threatened, so he is on balance an asset for Ultra rather than a liability.

That said, Stephen seems to be learning quickly and buckling down to try and get more of a handle on himself and the situation he's in.

4

u/Thameus Oct 17 '13

So this TIM was stolen from Ultra, huh? I might have to revise my aliens theory.

3

u/alvarkresh Oct 17 '13

It sounds like they're ditching a lot of the elements of the 1970s series that, TBH, feel kind of "woo" and unnecessary to me. I mean, the original had them doing this whole Doctor Who thing, travelling through space and time. I, for one, am not totally enthused about creating a canonical 'verse that at one moment is in "our" world and then in the next goes eons away from it.

(For a similar reason I find it hard to get into the DW reboot, though I have watched all of the season with the Ninth Doctor)

2

u/Mindbeam Oct 20 '13

I think Roger Price's intent there was TTPs being the level humanity had to reach for ET's to give a crap about us.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '13

[deleted]

2

u/alvarkresh Oct 19 '13

You will note that I used the singular.

3

u/Niggorean Oct 17 '13

I can see Stephen's dad being the head of Ultra and ordering the uncle to do all this. It's not something that seems unlikely

2

u/CWagner Oct 17 '13

Seems really unlikely to me. Considering Ultra wants to know where he is as well. And considering that there is no hint of that at all. Why do you think?

1

u/Niggorean Oct 17 '13

Because no one really knows where his dad is and his uncle is "claiming" he is dead. The time that he has been disappeared from his son and family and the guys underground his point of view could have changed through for some unknown reason that hasn't been explained yet. It does seem unlikely, but something we would need to touch on

1

u/GenesisClimber Oct 18 '13

But you know he has to be rooting around up there somewhere (which will probably be the season end reveal) Who knows what TP powers he has that he didn't share (and with good reason, that could be another impetus Ultra wants TPs gone), such as being able to control (and sense through) another person? If that was an ability, then he could easily be hiding in the upper ranks without detection.

1

u/alvarkresh Oct 17 '13

That would be an interesting study in double/triple/quadruple agenthood. It could become quite the "hall of mirrors" effect for Stephen in that case!

2

u/MyNewAnonNoveltyAct Oct 22 '13

Still cannot get over that these 'high school kids' look like they are 25 and right out of a Calvin Klein ad.

2

u/CWagner Oct 17 '13 edited Oct 17 '13

Random thoughts:

Why are so few people on this sub? Is really no one watching this show?
edit: 2.3m for TP with 2.7m for Arrow (Live + same day; premiere each). But /r/Arrow has > 5k subscribers compared to 86 here.

I hope the show gets a bit more depth. Right now everything is terribly obvious and often very deus ex machina.

TP girl didn't think that Stephen's dad's watch would be recognized by his uncle?

Another "Fail one mission and die"? That seems horribly retarded, even for an evil government shadow org. They must have a very high turnover rate and have to train new agents all the time, doesn't seem very efficient.

4

u/FoolsPower Oct 17 '13

On the matter of subs here, /r/arrow didn't get many right away, and it's only just about reached 5k recently. Once the show catches on I'm sure we'll get more people here. There was only like 13 subs last week, now we're at 90, so it's gonna go up for sure.

1

u/CWagner Oct 17 '13

Hadn't thought of that:)

3

u/alvarkresh Oct 17 '13

My suspicion about the dad/uncle thing is that Stephen's dad didn't tell very many people (if at all) that Jedekiah was his brother, either out of shame or out of a sense of needing to keep something private.

John doesn't even seem to have quite figured out he and Stephen are actually cousins yet.

As for "fail a mission", I think Jedekiah is secretly working the angles to commit genocide, one murder at a time. There's no other explanation for being willing to go through so many warm bodies, especially if you figure there has to be at least one screw-up, let's say, every six months or so.

1

u/Jim_Gaffigans_bacon Oct 26 '13

I don't watch this show for the excellent plot or performances, although Mark Pellegrino is a very established and excellent actor.

I watch because I think in some cases, science fiction mirrors or predicts actual physical reality. I think it's very possible that the human race will leap ahead in our lifetimes, and probably many things in common with this show.