photo: fox
Minority Report
The American Dream
Original Air Date: Nov 16, 2015
Vincent Chia – Sr. Reviewer
vincent@thetwocentscorp.com
This week, we seem to get back to a “crime of the week” type episode, though arguably, it is also an episode the fleshes out a little bit of character background. So as a quick list, we’ve had episodes that revolve around Dash (ep4), Vega (ep5), Agatha (ep6), and Arthur (ep7). This week (ep8) revolved a bit around Lt. Blake and his background.
We start with a flashback to two years into pre-crime. The pre-cogs see a murder about to happen. Somewhere in DC, a drunk husband is about to get violent. Pre-crime police officers come crashing into the house and the husband is arrested for the “future murder” of his wife. We suspect that the son is possibly a young Lieutenant Blake.
Dash’s newest vision includes the torch of the Statue of Liberty and an octopus logo. Vega points out that the torch is a symbol for “Amnesty Day” which is tomorrow. It was a day when illegal aliens were given amnesty to stay in the country. The octopus logo is from a cafe that Hawkeye previously flagged as a potential crime location.
As Vega and Dash prepare to head out to investigate, Blake tags along to watch the dynamic duo in action and maybe get a few pointers for the other detectives in his squad.
At the cafe, Blake and Vega arrest a delivery boy named Felix. Felix is a “14” which is slang for an illegal immigrant who was granted amnesty but not citizenship. The 14th Amendment giving birthright citizenship to all persons born on U.S. soil was repealed in exchange for the amnesty grant. The show didn’t go too deep into the politics, but I presume the system changed to one that is similar to Europe, where a baby is only granted citizenship for a specific country if his or her parents are legal citizens or legal residents of the country.
As Felix is interrogated, he says he never looks inside the bags and doesn’t know anything about them. Vega confronts Felix with the octopus sketch Dash drew and demands a name. Vega saw a man with the octopus tattoo on his arm while they were at the cafe. Felix says he doesn’t know. Although Vega wants to push further, Blake calls an end to the interrogation and tells Felix he is free to go. Blake confronts Vega about the sketch, wondering if she got it from her secret informant. Blake then lets Vega go investigate.
Blake then attends a meeting where the DIA deputy director briefs a conference room full of police officials that they suspect a terrorist plot but have no further info. The group is named “Memento Mori” and it appears that several scientists have been kidnapped and remain missing.
Vega and Dash go to Arthur for help. I feel like they lean on Arthur too frequently. Doesn’t he have things to do? Like run a criminal enterprise? Quite frankly, Arthur’s abilities seem even more important than Dash’s. Anyway, Arthur gives them a name, and Akeela runs the name through the eye-dent system which places the suspect at the very cafe our heroes visited earlier. As Vega and Dash leave, Blake (who seemingly tailed Vega) confronts Arthur and asks “Who the hell are you?”
Blake thinks that Arthur is Vega’s mysterious informant. Arthur later appears to tell his associate to possibly kill Blake. “Look into that. All options are on the table.” So ominous sounding.
Blake follows Vega and Dash to the restaurant. Dash’s pre-cog powers tells him that the restaurant is being robbed. The three of them interrupt the robbery. However, when Dash pulls Blake out of the line of fire, Blake realizes that Dash is a pre-cog, since he foresaw that there were three robbers and that one was armed.
Blake has Dash detained. He tells Vega that he must report Dash to his superiors. Pre-crime was declared illegal and is also unethical. Vega tries to convince him that turning Dash in will ruin his career.
Akeela overrides the security systems and tells Dash to run. She is returning the favor since he saved so many people’s lives. Someone should save him.
Blake decides that he will try to get DIA deputy director Blomfeld to help. When Blake goes to Dash’s cell, we expect Dash to be long gone, but alas, Dash stayed! He wants to help prevent the murders from his vision.
Blake knows where Tendo (the octopus tattooed gangster) will be. The tattoo creates a “7” and “9” with its tentacles indicating the intersection between 7th Street and 9th Avenue. Blake is also familiar with the area because he grew up nearby. Felix is there and Vega suspects Felix wants to kill Tendo. Blake tells Felix of the story when he was a young teenager. Blake was also a “14” when he was young but got citizenship when his mother married his stepfather. He almost killed his stepfather in an argument but was stopped when the pre-crime officers arrested his stepfather instead. Blake asks Felix not to do something he’ll regret.
Just then, a group of gangsters surround the police. Our heroes are taken inside a building and Tendo confronts them. Soon, a wild gunfight ensues and many gangsters are killed (didn’t Dash see any of these future killings? At least a handful of the gangsters died, I think). Police backup soon arrives. Blake decides to give credit to the Hawkeye system, thus keeping Dash’s secret. Blake is now part of the “snowglobe,” as Vega terms it.
Dash tells Arthur that Blake knows they are both pre-cogs. Predictably, Arthur is furious and punches Dash in the face (so symmetrical to how Vega punched Arthur in the face last episode). Will Arthur have Blake killed?
Last scene: one of the stolen properties that the gang had stolen was a first edition novel. Probably a collector’s item or antique. The book happens to be titled “Memento Mori” (shouldn’t Blake have been notified about the book??). The owner goes to the police station to claim the book. Inside one of the pages is a secret code that translates into a strand of DNA. It is a biological weapons blueprint.
So it seems like this bio-terrorism arc will go for the next two episodes and we end the season (and possibly the series?). My theory: the bio-terrorism plot was really just a ruse in order to draw out the pre-cogs and finally capture them! Wild theory, I know. We’ll see what happens next week!