This is the first episode where the inception effect felt the most, through the entire episode John felt paranoiac having a hard time to figure out whats real and whats not, him and Valence after cracking Ben safe box were together for life, both have unique skills and John was good at identifying different possibilities to the point that he would have a great guess at what others where thinking, its kinda what Dr Strange did at end game see the different outcomes but in John's case he was just guessing to identify probabilities, sometimes he fall into this mix of realities and even put words on others people mouth when they didn't but its all on his head, most of this thought process was based on experience and always be prepare for the worst outcome, he cant tell the future, but during this process sometimes he takes it to the extreme to the point he cant identify whats real and whats not that's when he starts falling into the Rabbit Hole and Valence was the one bringing him back to reality, in his absence Ben is the closest to Valence but John doesn't trust him at all. For me its still not clear what Hailey wants or where she is coming from and now seems that the old guy with silver hair and no name is not Crowley as I thought, this episode was great, not the best of the season but still close to the top.
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After they manage to pull the briefcase Senator Evers wanted the crew finds out its all numbers that could take them ages to figure out, they start arguing why did she wanted so bad the content of the briefcase, they thought there would be something more clear to the naked eye like a USB with a bunch of emails, photos or videos that incriminate her and this is when John starts to fall through the Rabbit Hole trying to figure out the reason why it was so important and what the numbers could mean but during this process same as when he was a kid starts to imagine people saying or thinking things they haven't so its like he repeat the same scene many times in his head like a time loop but with different outcomes and sometimes this lead him to the truth and other times he gets lost in this case without Valence to pull him out, this is when he told Ben he is the one who want the Data Act to pass, but Ben never said that and its Hailey who pull Weir from the Rabbit Hole.
Homm #edisnotdead stays at the safe house with Ben as John and Hailey have other plans, well at first it was just John going after the possibility that Valence could still be alive since he was still getting chats on this online game they use to play, John was not sure about it so decided to go out without telling the rest this is when Hailey thought it was a good idea to go after him, see this are the things that get me thinking she got good intentions with John but then she does other things like hiding the fact she stole crypto from her previous boss, the story she find out about John on a dating app I still don't buy it and on previous episode she was getting between Ben and John to the point telling John he doesn't have to listen to Ben, I get Ben sometimes is too hard with John but he still his father and a fkn spy, their job is to be hard on others and trust no body. John is not thinking clear and goes out in plain day light because he thinks his link at the safe house is compromise, but the guy who I thought is Crowley already had face recognition cameras after John the moment he goes public, his data collection company already has a lot of power over the city with cameras and all kind of monitoring services at his disposal.
John goes to this electronics store to enter a chat session on one of the computers for sale, some one might do that to connect from a outside internet source although its not the safe option for many reasons but I think at this point it doesnt really matter, all eyes are on John the minute he goes out, on this chat session he continues the conversation with a user who is suppose to be Valence and starts writing on encrypted code, alpha numeric where a combination of numbers would give him the real message, the person on the other side wants John to betray Ben pretending that Ben is with Crowley, then John is given a very long message that he didnt have time to decode while on site or at least he didnt show it on camera. John figure out a guy from the shop is about to rat him out and police will be there any minute so decided to walk away from the store and Hailey found him, she called John a record the call to figure out where he was, this was very clever from her, it here when John explains how his method of figuring out things work but sometimes its too dangerous putting him on a spot he cant come back and usually is Valence who help him out to stay focus.
John gets rid of Hailey with the old trick of getting together into a bus and then he goes out at the last second leaving her trap on the bus so she goes back to the safe house, where Homm has figure out everything, same as he did before the guy is a genius with numbers and finds out everything is connected, he did it in a very short time but there were a couple of USB with all the data, don't know how much data it could be but still he figure out that ll the numbers represent accounts that were connected receiving payments probably as bribes and who ever got this information would control everyone on the list, this was Crowley operation, Senator Evers wanted the information for herself not because she was been blackmail, Evers most likely work with Crowley but now she is dead so we will never knew what was her connection with the man.
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After everything Homm and Ben explain to Hailey she still took the stupid decision to take the data to agent Jo Madi, I really don't understand why she would do that if the real enemy or the ones shooting at John or trying to get him is not the Federals, they don't even have a clue where he is at, its Crowley that is after him and trying to kill them all, when Jo Madi show the files to his boss he intermediately bribe her because he knows the magnitude if this data goes out, probably he is with Crowley without even knowing it, Jo Madi either is naive or she is in it too, asks for her old job posision and be the head of the task force after John, either she is obsess with John or at some point will do the right thing and help him out, I still believe at the end she could work with him against Crowley.
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John picks up a package at his ex wife house that Valance schedule to send him before he died, it was this old stone he had at his office, at first John thought it was an encrypted message so he takes it his safe house but on the way the intern shows up again and takes him to "Crowley" or at least the old guy I thought it was Crowley, actually had a hinge he was but they never confirm his name, the guy is sitting in the middle of a plaza trying to brain wash John until he snaps and found a microphone on his ear, it was some one else watching them and telling this guy what to say. Obviously that brain wash session had some effect on John so when he gets back to the safe house with Valence package it takes it on Ben and had one of those paranoia episodes again thinking that Ben is with Crowley, John is not sure if to kill Ben but then Homm was playing around with the old stone inside the package and found a USB with Valence last message to John before he died.
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After Valence died things between Ben and John were very turbulent because none of them knew why Valence kill himself and John always blame Ben for Valence death, on this video that Valence took with his cell phone before he died, Valence clear things out of John, it was obvious that Crowley had something over him but all Valence said he infiltrate Arda and he was going to kill John and Valence, Valence decides to kill himself but why not tell John and run away with him? what difference does it make him jumping out of a balcony to put more heat over John, not only Crowley wants to kill him but now the police thinks John killed Valence, everything started with the case Homm was working on that Ben and Valence knew about that's why they kidnap Homm to safe him but still I'm not sure if Valence killing himself helps John at all, finally John makes peace with Ben for good and they plan to do what ever it takes to stop Crowley.
Hailey haven't told everyone she gave all this valuable data to Jo Madi I wonder what will be John and Ben answer to that, on this episode a lot of information is reveled, things that were a mystery like why Valence kill himself, he did it to safe John since he was too comprise by Crowley knowing everything about his plan and no matter where he goes he would find him, its like having an infected computer sometimes its just better to get a new one but since you cant get a new body and transfer your conscience yet, he decided to end it but I still think he could have run away with John and figure out how to get Crowley, with Valence video we also confirm that Ben is on John's side because there were a few moments that it wasn't clear enough with Ben hiding things from John, also its confirm that the old man with grew hair is not Crowley just another of his employee. Great episode, I got no complains and never felt things were rush or too easy, loving this tv series, would give this episode an 8 / 10, based on IMDB there are two more episodes to go.
