"Got a new mission. It's called getting a life."

Today's story opens on a random Electronics Emporium, which is just closing up for the night when the steelhead gang encountered by Alec in Two force their way inside and start smashing up the joint. All three of them are there: Eddie, Pinhead and One-Arm – who is no longer one armed but is now sporting that brand new cybernetic arm he was boasting about when last seen. They are every bit as annoying and stupid as they were when we last met them, and have been joined by a fourth man, who remains quiet, and who we only catch glimpses of as the random and meaningless violence plays out. At length, British Eddie spots the security camera recording their little bout of vandalism. One-Arm starts waving and pulling faces…

…and the camera pulls back to reveal that the camera footage is being watched on Logan's computer. Max begins to express her utter disinterest in this random crime – but they have just reached the portion of video that drew Logan's attention and for which he summoned her. The fourth man steps into view, his back to the camera, and Max gasps in recognition of the profile she sees.

Max: "Zack!"
Logan: "Your brother's alive, Max. You might want to brace yourself for what comes next."

On screen, Zack turns to face the camera, revealing that the whole left side of his face is covered by a metal graft, with blinking red robot eye. Max gasps in horror, as Zack punches out the camera.

Titles.



"I can't believe it – he's alive!" Max breathes, leaning forward to gaze at Zack's image on the screen once more. Logan gently questions her about what she saw of Zack back at Manticore, and she remembers – with the aid of flashbacks – that they had been harvesting his organs, and that she wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him. That part is very true, but the rest of Zack's story, right from the moment Max first saw him at Manticore at the start of the season, is the most appalling retcon, given the events at the end of last season. Logan gently prompts her to carry on, and she continues that Renfro had told her they had plans for Zack, and that he was to be moved to another facility.

Logan guesses that Manticore were experimenting with cybernetic implants and probably replaced his missing organs with artificial ones. I still fail to see how they could have set all that in place in the time available to them once Zack blew his brains out, but shall suspend my disbelief for the remainder of the episode.

Max wonders how Zack ended up with a bunch of steelheads, and Logan hypothesizes that once Manticore went down, some enterprising tech may have sold him on the black market. "A genetically engineered soldier with cutting edge cybernetics – steelheads would be all over it."

So would White, and a lot of other agencies with far more resources and brains than British Eddie and his crew, but I shall suspend my disbelief once again.

All Max knows is that she has to find Zack, and wonders if Logan has any idea where they hang. Of course, she doesn't know yet about Alec and Sketchy's recent run-in with the gang. Logan wishes he did know, since he's been looking to take them down for months, what with that body parts ring they are running, and all. But there are no solid leads as of yet, which leaves both of them precisely nowhere. Max frets.

Jam Pony. Surprise, surprise, Max is late for work yet again. Cindy is making up desperate excuses for her, but Normal's having none of it. "I don't pay you people enough to see a doctor," he grumps. Heh.

So Cindy digs deep, and comes up with her most ludicrous and yet plausible excuse yet, spinning a weird and wonderful tale about Max's terrible anger management issues and violent work related fantasies. "I hate to think what's going to happen when she finds out she's been fired…"

Normal, valuing his skin, is sold – and scared – and Max chooses this precise moment to drift in without so much as a word of apology for her lateness. Instead of firing her on the spot as threatened, Normal meekly tells her to take her time, while Cindy smugly beams behind his back. Best friend ever.

Left alone, Cindy mildly suggests that Max make more of an effort to get into work on time, since she can only cover for so long. Lost in a world of her own, Max is barely listening, and Cindy correctly realises that this is not the time for a discussion of punctuality issues and favours owed, and changes tack accordingly. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or do I have to smack it out of you?"

Max very concisely hits her with the shocking news of Zack's unexpectedly alive status, and Cindy takes a moment to be startled before puzzling over just why Max doesn't seem overly happy to know that he's okay. Max frets over not knowing whether or not Zack really is all right, how for some reason he is running with a bunch of steelheads, and that she doesn't know how to find him. Cindy comes up trumps yet again. She bellows over her shoulder for Sketchy, who promptly appears from another direction entirely. Heh.

Sketchy: "You bellowed, your Originalness?"
Cindy: "Tell Max what you told me about those guys that kicked your butt."
Sketchy: "It's been a pretty violent month for the Sketch-meister. Could you be a tad more specific?"
Cindy: "The guys with the shiny spikes coming out of their appendages?"
Sketchy: "Oh, those guys. Uh…I'm afraid the specifics of that particular butt-kicking are a little hazy."
Max: "Then un-haze, fast!"



Sketchy apologetically admits that he'd promised 'someone' not to talk about his run-in with the steelheads, especially Max, an admission tantamount to waving a red rag at a bull. Max slams him against the wall, and he evasively wonders if she's been lifting weights or something. And he's just prevaricating, but it's a comment worth noting for just how un-stealthy Max is being. She makes so little effort to conceal her X5 nature from her workmates; it's a miracle she hasn't already been exposed as transgenic a dozen times over!

Anyway, Sketchy's promise of silence is very quickly superseded by Max's promise to introduce his face to his colon, and in no time at all the beans have been spilt and Max has made her angry presence known to Alec by the simple expedient of jamming his hand in his locker to get his attention.

Marketplace. Alec and Max arrive, Alec noting just how specifically he remembers slamming one of the steelheads' heads into a particular post, and wanting to know if he can go now.

"No, this is your penance for scamming Sketch into selling steroids. You're lucky I don't turn you into the cops," Max briskly tells him.
"You know, I got out of the whole andy business because I heard it can make your heart explode," Alec remarks. "I mean, when your clientele starts dying off, who the hell are you going to sell it to? Didn't make any business sense, you know? Long term."

Such pragmatism, and totally not what Max wanted to hear. Not that she'd have believed him even if he did claim to have grown a conscience and given up the trade because it was the right thing to do. But it's still a sign of progress for Alec, if only that he is now thinking of his future in Seattle in the long-term, putting down roots – maybe even without even realising that he's doing it.

Max wonders where all the steelheads are, if this is their turf.

"How should I know? Probably holed up somewhere tweaking each other's circuits," Alec dismisses.
"Guess we're just going to have to get their attention, then," Max decides, all business. She knew and loved Zack, and therefore finding him is important to her on a highly personal level.
"Please tell me you're going to get naked," grins Alec, for whom this mission means little or nothing, since he never met Zack, and was brainwashed to hate all the '09 escapees anyway. He's here because Max hauled him along, not because he has any personal stake in the matter.

Max announces that Alec is going back into the steroid business. Taken aback, Alec points out that the steelheads made it pretty clear that they didn't want him around here. For someone looking to lay low and keep well below the radar, that would be another solid, practical reason for giving up the andy sales – that female steelhead Lux did manage to rattle him considerably more than British Eddie and his boys in Two. Max shrugs that since Eddie and his crew took such a dislike to Alec, seeing him back in business on their turf should be a sure-fire way to draw their attention. Alec is having none of it, suspecting that they will come packing this time. "No, I have zero interest in tangling with these psychos again. You're on your own."

Max grabs his arm. "I'm going to find my brother, and you're going to help me," she firmly tells him.
"Your brother?" Alec lifts a sceptical eyebrow. "That's cute, Max."
Max bristles. "He's the closest thing to family I have. I wouldn't expect you to understand that. What I do expect is your cooperation, or else."
"Or else what?" Alec wonders, unimpressed.
"Or else I'll tell Normal that you used Jam Pony to peddle steroids and he'll can your ass," Max threatens. "No more job means no more sector pass."

Getting well and truly fed up of this now, Alec snips that he needs his sector pass to get around, and he's finding it more of an effort now to maintain his happy-go-lucky demeanour in the face of this blackmail. Knowing that she's got him over a barrel, Max chirps that he'd find it hard to keep up a career as cat burglar without that pass, whereupon Alec gives in and starts up with an andy sales pitch designed to draw attention to himself rather than actually sell anything. I'm not sure it would even occur to Max to just ask nicely and say please, despite the fact that she might make a lot more headway and maintain a lot more good will if she did. With Alec she opts for belligerence and aggression every time, and wastes a lot of time so-doing.

It's all about barriers, and the fact that both of them need to be on their emotional guard around each other. Max has never had another X5 as such a permanent fixture in her life on the outside before, while Alec is still adjusting to freedom and what it means. They started off on a very bad foot, and still don't know one another on anything more than a superficial level. For Max to ask for Alec's help in this nicely would mean getting into deep and meaningful explanations as to just why it is so important to her, which she barely touched on here and met cynicism, and she still struggles with emotional vulnerability even around people like Logan and Cindy, who she knows well enough to trust with her heart. Alec wouldn't know what to do with a conversation like that; he's too unfamiliar with normal human interaction at the best of times, and is too used to having to be on his guard around Max. Even a semblance of genuine friendship is still a long, long way off; they are both far more comfortable at arm's length.

Steelhead HQ. One-Arm adjusts his cyber-arm, then pesters Zack into what is apparently just another in a long line of arm wrestling bouts, which One-Arm always loses. Zack is impassive, robotic, with not so much as a trace of his old personality – or any personality – in evidence. He shot himself in the head, and although Manticore's advanced technology has clearly saved his life, the cost appears immense. British Eddie sees the arm wrestling, lets out a long-suffering sigh, and grumbles that One-Arm has had the cyber arm less than a week and will break it if he isn't careful. Just can't trust the kids with any new toys, clearly.

Eddie unhooks Zack from what looks like a kind of dialysis machine, and chirps about how clean his blood is now, and what good care they are taking of him. Freed from the machine, Zack sets about a spot of weapons maintenance, still behaving more like an automaton than a person, while Eddie, One-Arm and Lux giggle and bicker among themselves. Pinhead breaks up the party by arriving with news of Alec's renewed andy sales out in the market. Annoyed, Eddie stands up and orders Zack to deploy.



Marketplace. Alec is struggling to keep up the patter, what with not actually having any andy to sell and all, maintains his game face in public, but is way past fed up now, protesting privately to Max that this is ridiculous. No sooner has he spoken than One-Arm pops up just ahead of them.

"Finally!" Alec grumbles. "You know how long I've been waiting for you?"
"Not nearly as long as I've been waiting for you," grins One-Arm as he pulls out a gun.

Max promptly dives into cover, leaving Alec, who was more exposed, to blur a zigzag approach, offer a wicked grin to the startled and bemused One-Arm, and disarm him with ease. Again, not so stealthy, but staying alive tends to be the priority over maintaining cover when at gunpoint and, if Lux is to be believed, the steelheads already knew what he was anyway. Thinking about it, if the steelheads were interested in revenge and had more than one brain cell to rub together, exposing both Alec and Max as transgenics could have been a really good way to go about it, later in the season. Fortunately, however, this episode is the last we ever see of them.

Max, meanwhile, takes the opportunity to rush for the door One-Arm came out of, only for Pinhead to engage her in a spot of hand-to-hand en route. While they tussle, Alec incapacitates One-Arm, and straightens…turning around to find himself face to face with Zack, whose cybernetic arm shoots out and grabs him by the throat.

Max finishes up her scuffle with Pinhead, and turns around to see Zack holding Alec a couple of feet off the ground by the throat. Entirely untroubled by the fact that Alec is choking, she has eyes only for the brother she had believed dead and calls to him. Zack promptly pulls a gun on her with his free hand. She is distressed that he doesn't seem to recognise her, and calls that it's her, Max, but Zack is unmoved, asking who she is.



Max keeps calling to him, gently repeating her name a few times, and succeeds in sparking flashbacks of their shared childhood at Manticore. "You're an X5," Zack observes, asking to see her barcode. Still choking, completely unable to break the iron grip Zack has on his throat, feet dangling off the ground, Alec gasps for her to show it to him already. Max turns and pulls her hair off her neck so that Zack can see the barcode, triggering still more flashbacks. He disarms, and drops Alec, who crumples to the ground gasping for breath.

"You're 452," Zack realises. "I know you. You're in my unit."
"That's right," Max gently agrees. "I'm Max."

Zack wonders about the steelheads, but Max simply points out that they are not in their unit, and Zack obediently allows her to herd him out of the marketplace. Behind them, as completely forgotten by both as if he wasn't even there, Alec regains his feet, still clutching at his abused throat and spluttering that he's fine. I'm sure it's a comfort to him to know that Max is so grateful for his assistance, and concerned for his well-being!

One thing this episode never plays on is the fact that Alec is the identical twin of Ben, who was in Max and Zack's unit and escaped with them, was one of the siblings Zack always tried so hard to keep careful watch over. It took the combination of face, barcode and name to trigger Zack's memory of Max, of course, and although Alec has Ben's face he also has the wrong barcode and name. But as more and more of Zack's memory returns, you'd expect him to be curious about Alec having Ben's face. Maybe that small fact is addressed off-screen. Maybe he never does recognise Alec as Ben. Mostly, though, the Alec-Ben issue is an entire storyline of its own that this episode doesn't have room for, and that neither Max nor Alec is ready to deal with.

Logan's Penthouse. Logan is on the phone to his friend, Doctor Sam Carr, thanking him for agreeing to help. Doctor Carr brushes it off, telling him to tell Eyes Only that he is glad to help. It tickles me that there are still all these trusted contacts that we meet time and again who continue to believe that Logan is just the go-between, who never, ever twig that he is Eyes Only. It's safer for both him and them that way, but it still tickles me. Logan warns Carr that Zack has undergone some pretty radical medical procedures. Carr assures him that he's seen it all…

…and that's the cue for Carr to be rendered speechless when he actually comes face to face with Zack. While Carr tries to smile through his shock and attempts to take a history from the all but unresponsive Zack, Logan arrives to lend a little support to Max.

"He didn't even recognise me at first," Max frets, as they wait outside the examination room. "It was like he'd never seen me before."
"He took a bullet point blank to the head," Logan grimly points out. "Stands to reason there'd be some cognitive damage."

Ya think? Personally, I think it stands to reason that even Manticore's best technology couldn't bring someone back from that, but I already decided to let that one go, and shouldn't keep harping on about it.

Max tremulously remembers that Zack was always the leader of their unit, that in every situation he always knew what to do. "And now look at him. So lost."

Once Zack has been whisked away by a nurse for more tests, Carr calls Logan and Max into the exam room for a consultation, and shows them the preliminary scans. It seems that most of Zack's major organs are biosynthetic, and appear to be more efficient and durable than the ones that were replaced. Maybe if Zack hadn't made his big sacrifice, Max would have been the one to end up stuffed full of artificial organs, but it seemed pretty clear in And Jesus Brought A Casserole that the doctors were giving up on her, rather than preparing her for experimental life saving surgery. This is where my scepticism about this entire storyline for Zack comes about, because it all would have to have happened so rapidly, and there was just no sign of it. No sign whatsoever of artificial organs and cybernetic implants lying around waiting for an opportunity to be transplanted in case of need. But then again, season two involves a lot of retcons of season one canon, and it doesn't pay to examine the plot too closely.

Anyway, Carr continues that it looks like there was some nerve damage to Zack's arm, so an exo-skeleton was grafted on to enhance motor function. Just when and how did he pick up this nerve damage? Again, there was no sign of that last time we saw Zack. Carr continues to enthuse that the exo-skeleton Zack has been given is way more advanced than the one Logan uses, and Logan manages not to look too bummed about that. "This place Manticore was doing some cutting edge stuff," Carr massively understates.

Doctor Carr is a great character – one of several recurring guest characters that add so much to the Dark Angel universe, for all that we never get to know them on anything more than a superficial level.

Max wonders why, if the Manticore techs were such miracle workers, they couldn't manage to fix Zack so that he can remember his own name. I think she's forgetting the bit where Manticore didn't want the transgenics to have names and individual identities – the way Zack is right now, more automaton than person, seems to me to be more or less exactly what Manticore wanted from their pet soldiers. Carr shrugs that memory is a tricky thing, and gives a long explanation of how different associations are stored in different parts of the brain, and it is the job of the temporal lobe to keep track of how they are all connected, and Zack's was damaged.

But, Carr continues, Zack's temporal lobe was replaced with a cybernetic implant. Of course! Of course Manticore would keep cybernetic temporal lobes in stock, just in case one of their many transgenics decided to blow his brains out one day, as well as an artificial heart with which to keep him alive after he then had his own heart transplanted into someone else! Evidently, this implant appears to be capable of rebuilding those lost connections in Zack's brain. Max warily seizes upon this as a possibility that his memory could come back, and Carr smiles that it's possible, pointing to Zack's eventual recognition of Max as a positive sign, the implant pulling together the disparate fragments of face, name and barcode to form the memory of who she is.

Max wonders if maybe taking Zack to places they've been together in the past might trigger more memories, and Carr agrees that it is possible, but warns that he could get confused at times and find it hard to distinguish between an event that actually happened and something he only dreamed about. Man, he's just summarised the whole of the rest of the plot of the episode! He adds that some memories will be lost for good because of the tissue damage, and I'm relieved that the consequences of being shot in the head point blank aren't being written off completely. But, having said that, Carr believes there is a chance he could recover almost everything. Ah, the miracles of Manticore technology.

Zack returns to the exam room at this point, wheeling himself along in a wheelchair, and sees Logan for the first time. "I've seen you before," he instantly recalls, and Max is highly encouraged by this recognition, offering Logan's name, while Logan sombrely tells Zack that it's good to see him. He really doesn't either look or sound all that glad, it has to be said, and hasn't from the start. He seems worried, more than anything else, about what Zack's return means and how much recovery is actually possible in spite of Carr's optimism. Of course, Zack's flat and emotionless attitude probably isn't all that reassuring, either.

Zack has a series of flashbacks involving Logan, and none of them are positive, which does not bode well. "I remember you," is all he says, however, neither face nor intonation giving anything away about what that memory involves. Doctor Carr believes this is a good sign, and Max risks a smile for the first time, allowing herself to begin to hope that Zack will eventually be himself again.

Steelhead HQ. British Eddie is not impressed to learn that One-Arm and Pinhead have managed to lose Zack. One-Arm offers excuses based on the fact of Alec having Max as back up, and both of them being well and truly revved up. Lux guesses that this means Max must be another of 'these Manticorians', and One-Arm explains that she took off with Zack. Eddie grumbles about how expensive Zack was, and insists that he wants him back. He recalls that Alec hangs out at Crash, which was where Lux encountered him, and orders his bungling underlings to stake the place out. "Next time he shows his face, nab him. We get him to tell us where the bird took GI Joe, and we get our boy back."

One-Arm and Pinhead agree that this sounds like a good plan, whereupon Eddie wonders what the hell they are still doing there, in that case. They hurriedly take off, as ordered.

Hey, if Plan A had gone ahead as laid out here, and Alec was the one who got snatched for information on Zack's whereabouts, this would have been a very different episode than what we get from here on in! Could have been interesting to see exactly what Alec would have done, in that case, how much information he'd have been prepared to give in exchange for his own safety, how much he'd have strung the steelheads along to buy himself time to effect an escape. He certainly wouldn't have expected his disappearance to be noticed, or anyone to come looking for him. However, in the interests of plotting simplicity, the story takes a very different route.

Max's squat. Max has brought Zack home with her, in hopes that he'll remember something, but he's coming up blank. She reminds him that he came here once looking for her, when he was hurt. Still nothing. Max is discouraged, but reminds them both that the doctor said it would take a while. "Have a seat," she offers, gesturing at the couch. Zack promptly sits down on the floor where he was standing, hugging his knees to his chest like a lost child. He glances up in bemusement when the lights flicker and they are plunged into darkness.

"Lights out? It's time to bunk down," he supposes, defaulting back to Manticore brainwashing in the absence of any further information regarding his situation.
"It's just a brown-out," Max assures him, lighting candles. "We're not at Manticore any more."
"Manticore?" More flashbacks hit Zack, harsh memories of a brutal childhood.

With Max prompting, Zack recalls that they spent the first ten years of their lives at Manticore, before running away.

"We abandoned our mission," is the almost horrified conclusion he draws.
"We got a new mission," Max tells him. "It's called getting a life. It was your idea. You looked out for us, made sure we were all okay."
Zack shakes his head, unconvinced. "The others. Where are they now?"
"All over the place," a subdued Max admits.
"Are they safe?" Zack wants to know, because even without a memory his protective instinct remains intact.

Cue flashbacks for Max of those of her siblings she encountered in season one – Syl, Krit, Tinga, Brin, Ben. Some of them are safe, or at least as safe as is possible for any transgenic these days, but others were less fortunate. Rather than admit that, she tells Zack not to worry about them, to concentrate on himself.

On being shown into Cindy's room, Zack protests that this isn't his bunk, but Max explains that her roommate is staying with some friends, so he can use her room. Good for Cindy, giving them some space. "Welcome home, Zack," Max softly whispers a she bids her 'brother' goodnight.

Left alone, Zack sleeps, but doesn't get much rest, as his sleep is punctuated by fragments of memory. Most of his memories revolve around Max – their shared childhood, going on missions together as free adults, being hugged by her for the first and possibly only time, stroking the hair off her face… Memories of being re-captured by Manticore, of his brutal psy-ops experience, of those fateful last missions, Tinga's capture. Max being shot, Zack's suicide…

Zack wakes with a gasp…sees his face in the mirror, and is horrified by his transformed appearance, remembering what he used to look like.

In her room, Max is reading by candlelight, because, of course, she doesn't sleep. She is startled when a tearful Zack appears in the doorway whispering that he's sorry. "I remember. Everything," he sobs, crumpling to his knees. "I failed you. I failed all of you." He's blaming himself for everything, from Brin's recapture to Tinga's death, and even Max's shooting, and Max is unable to reassure him otherwise. "Look at me," he brokenly murmurs. "What'd they do to me? What am I?"

I have to admit that I've never been all that fond of Zack, either the character or the actor, but even so, I can't help but be moved by his plight in this episode.



Max places his hand over her heart. "Feel that? That's you in there. You saved my life. That's who you are. You're someone who will sacrifice everything to protect the ones you love."
"I love you, Max," Zack cries. "I'll never let anything happen to you again." And all Max can do is hold him.

Morning. Max gingerly enters Cindy's room to find Zack curled up under the blankets, fast asleep. But when she wakes him up, she is startled to see that skin has reformed over the metal grafts on his face! There is still considerable scarring in evidence, and the eye still glows robotic red, but he looks far more like his old self now.

Hospital. "Unbelievable," is Doctor Carr's verdict. He explains that Zack has nanocytes circulating in his bloodstream, self-replicating, molecular bio-machines designed to repair tissue damage. He has only ever read theoretical papers about the technology, so is blown away to actually see it in action. Max wonders why the hell these nanocytes weren't doing their job yesterday, and Zack realises that it was the machine that Eddie and the others hooked him up to every day, that they'd told him it would filter his blood and keep it clean. The machine was actually filtering out the nanocytes, which would explain why there was no tissue repair going on.

"Eddie said I'd look cool with no skin," Zack murmurs.
"At least I can take you out in public now," Max happily tells him. "Just gotta hook you up with a pair of shades."

But Doctor Carr has an idea, shines his light into Zack's robotic eye to take a closer look, then tells him to close his eyes for a second and applies a little pressure to the eyelid to stimulate the ocular implant. Zack reopens his eye, which flickers electronically…and then resolves into a normal eye, identical to his remaining real eye. Max is delighted, and Doctor Carr pleased to be proved right as he explains that the implant is coated with a thin layer of liquid crystal, the same stuff used on high def TVs. Max guesses that Manticore wanted Zack to look normal so they could send him out on missions. Personally, I think that if they were so eager to retain Zack as a functional soldier, they shouldn't have sliced and diced him so much in the first place, but that's just me. Clearly Manticore liked to have their cake and eat it, too.

"Guess what," Zack happily reminds Max, regarding his restored appearance in the mirror. "Got a new mission. It's called getting a life."



Logan's Penthouse. "Can you believe it?" Max smiles.
"Actually, no," Logan admits, evidently still reluctant to believe that such a miracle can come without any drawbacks. His attitude toward Zack really is ambivalent throughout the episode, even before things start to go wrong.

Zack wanders over to join them, announcing his intention to hang on to the exoskeleton on his arm for a while, although the doctor told him that the nerve damage should heal before long. Max teases him to watch out that people don't think he's a steelhead, and Zack banters right back at her, more relaxed than I think we've ever seen him.

Speaking of the steelheads, Logan wonders if Zack could do him a favour, and Zack agrees readily enough. Logan explains that Eyes Only has been trying for months to track down the steelheads he was with, and wonders if Zack could tell him where Eddie and his crew were holed up. Zack providing an exact address would, of course, be the quickest way to pinpoint their location, but I'm pretty sure that Max and Alec between them already know enough to find their lair, having been right on its doorstep when they found Zack – Max looked like she was headed right for the door when Pinhead intercepted her. Zack's help would make it much quicker and easier, of course, and isn't so much to ask for.

But Zack stiffens on hearing the request, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. In flashback, his most recent spell at Manticore is recalled, strapped down in psy-ops with a laser pointed into his eye, an image of Eyes Only on the screen in front of him. "You," he realises, looking at Logan. "You're Eyes Only."

Logan is a little taken aback, since Zack already knew that, and Max reminds her 'brother' that Logan did that Eyes Only broadcast for them last season to warn their fellow escapees that they had been compromised. Zack nods, and remembers – accusingly – that Logan helped plan their assault on Manticore, that he and Lydecker ran the operation while the X5s went in. Logan leans back, not liking the direction this is going in, and mildly agrees that that's what happened.

"It's funny how that mission went sideways," snarls Zack, standing up to tower over Logan.
"What are you trying to say?" Logan wants to know, sitting in his wheelchair at a distinct disadvantage.
"I think I just said it, didn't I?" growls Zack. "I'm not telling you anything."



Zack stomps away, leaving Max and Logan shocked and wondering what the hell that was all about. All Max can do is apologise and hurry after Zack, leaving Logan frustrated and concerned. They are such a long way now from the romance they so nearly had, held together by shared interests and concerns more than anything else at this stage of the season, when the easiest thing for both would be to just walk away. And yet neither has managed to actually make that break, despite their best efforts. Maybe that's part of why Logan is so ambivalent toward Zack throughout the episode. For Max's sake he wants her brother to recover and be himself again, but his own relationship with Zack has always been on the thorny side. For Max to have Zack back in her life on a permanent basis could only complicate Logan's own relationship with her further, long term.

Outside. Max finds Zack prowling disconsolately at the water's edge. "Logan didn't deserve that. You were way out of line," she tells him.

Zack shrugs and admits it, says that he's sorry and offers as his excuse that he's having a hard time accepting what happened. "Looking for someone else to blame besides myself." It all sounds so plausible, probably even Zack himself believes that's all it is. He has no way of knowing that his reaction to Logan has been programmed into his subconscious.

Max folds her arms across her chest, hugging herself almost, her body language screaming her uncertainty and anxiety. She's been anxious, rather than relieved, ever since the moment she first saw Zack on Logan's computer monitor, too worried about his welfare and the meaning of his miraculous return to her life to be at ease in any way, with only the odd moment of delight at his recovery to lighten the load. She has grieved for him, and missed him so much, but actually having him back is causing her more worry and complication than anything else. Nothing in Max's life is ever simple. She reminds Zack that they already talked about what happened that night, and he repeats his apology.

"Remember the night that we decided it was time to stop running and take down Manticore?" Zack asks. "We were right here." Max does indeed remember. "It seems like just yesterday," Zack continues.
"A lot's changed since then," Max says, pouting unhappily, since so few of those changes can be classed as positive. "Manticore's gone."
Zack is startled. "What do you mean?"
"Burned to the ground," she tells him. "Don't worry. I got everybody out."
She's smiling for almost the first time in the episode, and Zack smiles back at her, delighted. "You finished the mission."
"Thanks to you," she insists.
"So," Zack realises. "There's a whole lot more of us out in the world. They're going to need looking out for."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Max chirps.
"So much for settling down into a nice normal life, huh," he jokes.
"What's normal, anyway?" Max philosophises.
"Yeah. Besides, we have each other," Zack sincerely tells her. "Like always."

Touched, Max gives him a hug, but this triggers more flashbacks for Zack, as he remembers stroking her hair back from her face, an isolated moment of tenderness, devoid of any context. Max tells him she needs to swing by work, and to come with her, but he stands and watches her walk away for a moment, remembering that previous hug they shared, and it is rapidly becoming clear that these fragmented memories are being pulled together by his implant to form a distinct impression of a relationship they never actually had. It's exactly what Sam Carr warned them of, that Zack could easily become confused, and that false memories could be formed as easily as genuine ones. Nothing good can come of this.

Jam Pony. Max tells Zack to wait by the door, then wanders over to find Normal poking at the door of her locker with a pencil, which snaps when he jumps in fright at her bellow of his name. Max wonders what he's doing in her locker; he stammers that he thought he saw a roach. Cindy's got him scared. Unlocking her padlock, Max blithely apologises for not being around so much the last couple of days, citing 'stuff' she had to deal with, such as doctors. It occurs to me that since Normal knows she had a heart transplant not so long ago, cardiologist appointments to follow up should be the most obvious excuse of all for her regular absences from work, but that one never seems to be pulled out of the bag. With Cindy having convinced him that Max is seeing a shrink because she is violently unstable, he timidly assures her that there's no problem. Max snarks that she wouldn't want him to think that she up and vanished on him again, but he declares that she can take all the time she needs, gushes over the quality of her work, and assures her that however tough he might be on her, it all comes from a place of love. Hee. Normal is always ace. Max, not knowing about the story Cindy has spun on her behalf, wonders what the hell he is talking about.

Max returns to the door to find Zack and Sketchy getting reacquainted. Sketchy is delighted to see Zack again, cheerfully informing all present that during Zack's short career at Jam Pony he was able to show Sketch a few shortcuts downtown that helped shave hours off his work day. And all I can say is 'huh?' The way I remember it, Zack took the job in order to get close to Max, the gang all resented him deeply because he'd replaced Herbal Thought, and he never even completed a single run, never mind a full day's work. He certainly wasn't there long enough to have shown Sketchy any shortcuts, even if he did know the city well enough to know any! I'm going to assume that Sketchy has mistaken Zack for someone else and that's why he's greeting him like a long lost buddy. But anyway, the upshot of this little scene is Sketch invites Zack to Crash that night, adding that the whole crew is going to be there.

"I always liked Sketchy," the bemused Zack recalls. "I think."

Crash. The Jam Pony crew have, indeed, taken over the back room: Zack is playing fooseball with Sketchy, while Alec hangs out at a table with the girls. Max and Cindy are both watching Zack closely, while Alec amuses himself. Must be a source of endless frustration for Max, that Alec has inserted himself so much into her life, become so much a part of her group of friends despite her antipathy to him. Cindy wonders if Zack will be rejoining them at Jam Pony now that he's got his 'total recall back on', and Alec snarks about living the dream, which amuses Cindy. Max admits that she hasn't thought that far ahead, she's just glad he's back. Cindy smiles that things are looking up now, and it's about time. Max will drink to that!

Zack and Sketchy wander over to join them, Zack having won the game comprehensively, Sketchy good naturedly grumbling about the cyber-hand giving Zack an unfair advantage. Just how the exoskeleton has been explained, we are never told. Also, there is never once any indication that Zack even remembers grabbing Alec by the throat in that alley, never mind that he knows Alec is another X5 Manticore escapee. Presumably the writers didn't want to complicate the story they were telling, which focuses almost exclusively on Max's relationship with Zack. But since watching out for all Manticore escapees was always Zack's number one concern, and since Max has already raised the issue with him and invited him to help share the load of responsibility now that there are so many more of them out there, it might have been nice if there had been room in the episode for Zack to interact a little with Alec and meet Joshua.

With Sketchy thirsty for another beer, Max decides that it's her turn to buy, grabs the pitcher, and heads for the bar. After eyeing both her and Zack shrewdly, Alec follows. "Let me ask you a question," he says as soon as they are alone. "You think there's something a little off about Brother Zack?" Max wonders what he means exactly.

"Well, for starters, he doesn't act like any brother I've ever seen," Alec begins.
"You've got something to say, Alec, spit it out," Max snaps, not liking the sound of this.
"Seems to me he's got the hots for you," summarises Alec, who is a lot more perceptive than he generally gets the credit for. "It's kind of kinky if you ask me."
"I didn't, and stay out of it," Max faux-sweetly bites out, annoyed by the mere suggestion that all might not be well with her 'brother'. She's got too much invested in the reunion to be willing to acknowledge any problems.
"I'm just saying," he defends, since he actually does have the best of intentions here, bringing a potential problem to her attention before it can become serious.
"Well don't, 'cause I don't want to know what goes on in that sick head of yours," she snorts.
"That hurts." He rolls his eyes, not the slightest bit surprised by her refusal to take his warning seriously. She can't say he hasn't warned her.
"Truth always does," Max smiles, and walks away.

The banter is fun, and these two can toss insults at one another all day long without ever taking actual offence. But for all Max's instant dismissal of his warning, Alec is absolutely serious about the concern he is raising here, and he also turns out to be absolutely right. Zack isn't on the same wavelength as Max regarding their relationship, and Alec is the first to have spotted it – or at least to have openly acknowledged it – but Max chooses to bury her head in the sand rather than heed the warning.

There's a 'them and us' thing going on here, but it has a number of sides. Alec has taken Max aside to privately express his doubt that Zack is seeing their relationship in the same way that she does, because he sees the two of them as forming a transgenic 'us' separate from Cindy and Sketchy's very human 'them', and which Zack is also not really a part of, because he is damaged and is currently the problem to be resolved. But Max, on the other hand, defensive about her 'siblings' and their shared past as she always is, and anxious as she is for the newly restored Zack to become and be seen as whole again, normal, is defining herself and Zack as a very definite 'us' that Alec is excluded from. Zack is perceived as family and Alec isn't. She doesn't want to hear what Alec is saying, because it casts doubt on Zack's recovery, and things are complicated enough already. All Max ever wants, really, is a simple and normal life, and a marked reluctance to acknowledge any obstacles to that simple normal life has always been a part of her characterisation. She lives in hope that if she denies a problem for long enough it will cease to exist, and frequently only takes action when denying the problem is no longer an option.

With Max refusing to listen to his concerns, Alec rolls his eyes, shrugs, and returns to the back room, no doubt feeling that he's done his part by giving her the heads up, and that if she chooses to ignore him then that's her problem, not his. Meanwhile, One-Arm sees Max approach the bar and ask for a refill. She is standing right next to Pinhead, but has only a split second to recognise him before she feels something sharp pricking her back. It was One-Arm, and he has drugged her.

In the back room, Cindy wonders why Max is taking so long getting the pitcher refilled. "Well, I'd give her a hand, but she'd just bite it off," Alec rather bitterly snarks. Without saying a word, Zack stands and goes looking for Max. "Well, there goes her knight in shining armour," Alec mocks. "God forbid our little Max have to lug a big heavy pitcher of beer with her delicate little hands, huh."

At the bar, the bartender is rather startled when Zack abruptly grabs his hand with that super-strong cybernetic arm of his and demands to know where Max is. The bartender gabbles that she had too much to drink and left with a couple of steelhead friends of hers. Zack processes this, releases the man, and marches away.

House of Steelheads. Pinhead and One-Arm babble like the idiots they are about whether or not Max might have nanocytes like Zack, while Eddie paces, thoughtfully regarding the sheet covering Max's body. His interest lies in finding Zack, first and foremost, and only after that does he want to investigate Mac further. If nothing else, he decides, she will provide them with a fresh supply of organs to be sold on overseas. Yuck. Also: idiot. He has to know, or at least suspect, that she's transgenic – surely he would also realise that she has far more value as a whole than chopped up into constituent parts?

The sheet is pulled away to reveal Max firmly strapped to a table. Eddie pulls the gag from her mouth to unkindly reassure her that she isn't dead, not yet anyway. Max wonders what they want from her. I'd have thought that was obvious, since she already knows that they paid good money for Zack, and were doing a nifty trade in his nanocytes. This is a good episode, on the surface, but it does have a lot of logical holes. Eddie expresses his desire to know where Zack is, and Max shrugs that he ran off on her. Eddie turns to One-Arm to ask if she was at the bar alone. One-Arm didn't notice, he admits, and neither did Pinhead. On questioning, they recall that she was buying a pitcher of beer when they snatched her, and Eddie groans at the incompetence of his team. Max brushes off the significance of this detail, claiming to be a big drinker, but Eddie simply tells her to shut up before rounding on his men.

"It could be that our boy was there too, and right under your noses," he snarls. "You check the back room?" They didn't know there was one. "You twits!" he disbelieves, smacking them both around the head.

Once Max is securely locked up, the team prepares to move out, Pinhead and One-arm promising to check everywhere this time. There is no sign of Lux – she is clearly on the fringes of the operation, rather than an integral part of the team. But before the steelheads can move out, the door bursts open and Zack stomps in. He casually flings Pinhead and One-Arm aside, before advancing on British Eddie, who looks nervous, and rightly so. In no time at all, the three steelheads have been secured inside a collection of coffins they just happened to have lying around the place – part of their organ harvesting scam, no doubt – and Zack finds Max handcuffed to a pipe in a storage closet.

"I don't know what I could have done if anything had happened to you," he breathes, moving in for a tender kiss. Max promptly jerks back, kicking him away when he persists, and Zack is confused and annoyed, protesting that he loves her.

"I just want things the way they used to be with us," he exclaims.
"Things were never like that with us," the equally confused and alarmed Max tells him.
Zack can't process this information. "But I remember," he weakly insists.

More flashbacks ensue, beginning with the same Max-related memories that have been confusing Zack throughout – brushing her hair back off her face, a hug – but this time leading into Max and Logan-related memories of tender moments that he witnessed between them last season.

"It's him, isn't it?" Zack realises. "How can you love him and not me? He betrayed us, Max!"

More flashbacks, this time of the catastrophic end to the raid on Manticore. Max is getting worried, doesn't know what he's talking about. Logan, Zack shouts, amid still more flashbacks of his re-indoctrination back at Manticore, this time revealing that while strapped into that chair in psy-ops, the laser drilling into his eye, the image of Eyes Only on the screen was interspersed with all kinds of negative messages – enemy, traitor, subversive, turncoat, betrayer, target.

So…Manticore brainwashed Zack to take out Eyes Only if he ever had the chance. I can buy that. They certainly wanted Eyes Only gone. But if they knew Zack had enough contact with Eyes Only to be able to get close to him, how come they didn't further extract Logan's identity from him? Zack knew who he was. Presumably the memory of Eyes Only's identity was lost, along with all his other memories, but the hope was that once the implant was fully functional he would regain the memory and be able to act on his re-programming, only for Manticore's downfall to prevent Operation Zack ever reaching fruition. The double- and triple-think is all kinds of twisty, though.

"He's been working against us the whole time, that's the reason the mission went wrong!" Zack yells, his brainwashing and confusion reaching a fever pitch. Max tries to reason with him, asking to be released from the handcuffs so they can talk, but Zack is way past listening to reason. "He's a traitor, why won't you believe me?"

"You've got it all wrong, they did something to you back at Manticore," Max attempts.
"I died for you!" Zack bellows in anguish. "He did this to me!"

He starts to rip the newly formed skin away from the cyber grafts on his face, and it is gross. Also remarkably bloodless. I thought they said the nanocytes fostered rapid tissue regeneration? Because surely that would mean it's his own tissue – i.e. skin – that's formed over the metallic grafts, in which case there should be blood when it is torn away.

More flashbacks of a cyber-enhanced Zack back at Manticore firing perfect kill shots into an Eyes Only target. They were definitely gearing him up as an assassin to use against Eyes Only, although whether this was the back up plan, or Max's escape and the virus was the back up remains unclear. They clearly wanted to keep their options open, though, with more than one anti-Eyes Only iron in the fire.

"Logan's gonna pay for what he did. To both of us," Zack breathes, that deadly programming taking over 100%. He hurries out, leaving Max beside herself with worry and still restrained.

Later. Max is using her transgenic super-strength and speed to frantically scrape her handcuffs against the pipe, and in no time at all she has succeeded in breaking free. Amazing what a little motivation can do, eh? The first thing she does is find a phone to warn Logan to get out of his apartment. Of course, Logan can't just take the warning and run, has to stop and question her for specifics. "It's Zack, he's coming after you. Get out of the apartment now!" Max repeats her warning, multi-tasking busily as she simultaneously unpicks the lock on her broken handcuffs to rid herself of the unwanted accessory.

Logan grabs his keys, and wheels himself over to the exoskeleton, since, understandably enough, he feels safer when he has the use of his legs. It's still eats up valuable time he could have used to escape, however.

Once the exoskeleton is on, Logan makes for the elevator. Just as the doors open, Zack comes crashing through the skylight. Not the stealthiest of entrances, there – way to warn the target that you are coming! The lift doors close a split second before Zack can bring his rifle to bear, and the hunt is on. Of course, Logan lives in the penthouse. It's a long way down. However, the lift seems to move remarkably fast, and reaches the parking lot, 30 floors dow,n in the time it takes Zack to prise the doors apart and grab the cable with his enhanced exoskeleton hand. The lift judders to a halt, and down Zack slides. As Zack punches a hole in the roof, Logan prises the doors open and squeezes out into the parking lot, runs for cover. Zack gives chase.

A random inhabitant of the building is washing his car nearby; when Zack opens fire, the man drops the bucket of soapy water all over the floor and flees, while Logan ducks behind the nearest car for cover. Take note: the spilled water will be important fairly soon.

Hee. I love that the parking lot is full of clean and shiny cars, but Logan still has his faithful old Bessie, who has been shot to bits more times than anyone can count, and yet still runs despite the truly awful condition she is in. Crouching behind a random other car, he uses his remote to unlock her, distracting Zack long enough to flee from one point of cover to another. Zack isn't distracted for long enough, however, and Logan isn't quick enough, for Zack swiftly turns the gun on his fleeing target, and Logan is hit in the exoskeleton, crumpling to the ground. With the exoskeleton shorted out, Logan is completely helpless – legs paralysed, and without even his wheelchair to drag himself into and away.

Zack bears down on Logan, preparing for the kill, but Max comes roaring up on her motorcycle just in the nick of time. So…she popped all the way home to get the motorcycle, instead of coming straight here to save Logan? I mean, she certainly didn't have it with her where she was, having been snatched from Crash like that. Okay. Whatever.

So anyway, Max zooms up and knocks Zack flying in one direction, while his gun crashes to the floor in another. Everyone regroups. Max engages Zack in hand-to-hand combat, begging him not to do this, but he is way past the point of reason, completely consumed with the hatred programmed into him by Manticore. We don't often get to see two X5s really going at it like this, no holds barred, so the fight is pretty impressive. Eventually, Zack manages to toss Max aside long enough to reclaim his gun and point it at Logan, but Max recovers fast, and thinks even faster. Zack is standing in the pool of soapy water left behind by the car-washer seen earlier. She pulls an electrical cable loose and dips the end of it into the water, and the water conducts just as well as you'd expect it to.

As the electrical current fries him, Zack has time to turn a look of deep betrayal on Max, who is distraught. Zack collapses to the ground alongside Logan, and the red light goes out in his cyber eye. It seems that Max has once again been forced to kill one of her beloved siblings.



But no – 'twas merely a mislead. X5s are not actually that easy to kill, Zack especially, it seems. For the next we see, Zack is intubated in hospital, with Doctor Carr dancing attendance on him, while Max and Logan anxiously wait outside. It's a nice continuity touch that Logan is in his wheelchair, demonstrating how soon after the fight this is, for there hasn't been time to get the exoskeleton fixed yet.

Doctor Carr comes out to tell Max and Logan that Zack is going to be okay, physically, at least. However, the shock overloaded the circuitry of his cranial implant. Although it is still working, it has effectively been wiped clean, meaning that he won't remember anything that's happened to him since it was first switched on. So he wouldn't recognise Max, at least not until name, face and barcode were linked, and so on, just like the first time. And then the whole loop would simply play out again – the trigger that Manticore planted in his head to make him go after Logan is still there, and sooner or later the switch would be tripped. Logan asks for a minute, and the doctor sympathetically leaves them alone.

Doctor Carr doesn't know that Logan is Eyes Only. As far as we know he is another of the many close contacts that never learns the truth. But seriously – if Original Cindy could put it together based on the enormous effort Manticore went to in order to try and take Logan out, surely the doctor would, too. The evidence is lying right there in the form of Zack! Maybe Carr is just being polite by pretending not to have figured it out. Or maybe he's remarkably dense.

"It doesn't have to play out the same way," Logan gently suggests. "Maybe this time we can make him understand that I'm not a threat."
"I need him, Logan," Max almost sobs. "Now more than ever, I don't want to lose him. But I can't risk losing you. I have to let him go."
"I could use my contact," Logan offers. "Give him a new identity. He could make a fresh start somewhere else."
"A chance at a normal life," Max sighs, resigned to the idea of losing her brother again. "It's what he always wanted."

Is it? I mean, I get that it was Zack's idea to break out of Manticore in the first place, his drive and determination that made the escape happen, I just don't see that wanting a normal life is what it was ever about. Back then, none of them even knew what a normal life was. What Zack wanted for his siblings and himself was freedom, not normality. And once on the outside, I don't see that he ever strove to be normal in any way. Having split up from the others, he had the opportunity right there, could have disappeared into the world like the rest of them. Instead he chose to remain a soldier, treating his life on the outside as an ongoing deep cover mission, drifting from place to place, keeping watch over the other escapees. And yes, a large part of that was self-sacrifice, because he wanted to ensure their safety. But I still don't see a normal life as something he's ever especially craved. He's always seemed pretty comfortable with who and what he is. Max is the one who craves normality, and now, in her extremis, she wants it for Zack as the best and only gift she has to offer him.

Hospital. Some unspecified time later. A completely normal-looking Zack sleeps peacefully in his hospital bed, all his implants covered by regenerated tissue, right arm strapped up where the exoskeleton has been removed, all traces of his troubled past removed, barcode aside. He awakes to find a placid middle-aged farmer sitting at his bedside, smiling happily to see him awake at last.

Zack is confused, wondering who this is, and the man comfortingly smiles that it's him, Buddy. "You don't remember me? Well, Doctor Carr said this might happen. The doctor treated you after the accident, said you might have some memory loss. Your name is Adam. Adam Thompson. You've been working on my ranch for going on three years. You were driving one of our trucks into Seattle when a tyre blew, sent you right off the road. Any of this ring a bell?"

It doesn't, of course, but this is the backstory that has been invented in order to give Zack that normal life Max wants for him, to ensure that he never remembers who and what he really is. He's a complete blank slate and, with no reminders to draw memory fragments together, the chances are that he will remain so, knowing only of his past whatever stories are made up for him. His entire life, his entire self – it has all been stripped away from him, the necessary and perhaps inevitable result of everything Manticore did to him.

You've got to wonder, though, just where Logan found this Buddy, how well he knows him, and what he's told him, if the man is to take Zack under his wing as a permanent part of his life and family, to the extent of the fabrication we've just heard.

Feigning disappointment that Zack remembers nothing, Buddy notes that the doctor had said it might take a while. "What say we hit the road? Get home in time, Mary'll cook you up anything you want for dinner. Sound good?"

Confused, and completely lacking in any memory of who he is and where he comes from, with only this friendly-looking face with his friendly-sounding voice and suggestions to guide him, Zack can only nod and agree that yes, actually that does sound good. As Buddy wheels him down the corridor, he rifles through the wallet he has been provided with, presumably stuffed full of fake ID and other keepsakes of the past that has been created for him. And this is meant to be a happy ending for Zack, with a whole new life unfolding before him, but it strikes me as incredibly sad. Everything this character ever was has been taken from him, and if he ever learns the truth about himself, only bad can come of it. And surely he is going to be in as much danger out there as any other transgenic – the barcode cannot be permanently removed, and even on an isolated farmstead there is always the chance of someone noticing it and putting two and two together, and he won't even know to defend himself. I just hope the family he has been placed with deserves the trust Logan is placing in them.

As Buddy wheels Zack – or Adam, as he should now be called – down the hallway, they pass Max, faux-casually reading a magazine, carefully positioned so that she can catch one last glimpse of her 'brother'. As they pass, the new Adam calls for Buddy to stop, and turns to her, curious.

"Do I know you?" Adam wonders. The face alone might be vaguely familiar, but isn't enough for memory to be re-formed.
Max is all but frozen to the spot, wanting his recognition but dreading it at the same time. "No," she tells him. "I don't think so."

And with those words of denial preventing the same loop from playing out a second time, Max watches her brother as he is wheeled away to depart her life forever.



Space Needle. Night. A gloomy Max sits and looks out over the city, as is her wont. "I think about Zack every day," she voiceovers. "I just hope that he's safe and happy, living the normal life he always wanted, the life he deserves to have. Letting him go was the hardest thing I've ever done, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to protect the ones you love. I learned that from my brother."


Recapped January 2008

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