This week’s episode of BrainDead featured the best singing recap ever. Apart from the fact it was hysterically funny (that fast bit was brilliant) it featured the recap singing artist Jonathan Coulton holding a “name sign” and waving. How excellent is that? Apart from the recap hilarity, the episode also featured murder…twice.
In “Taking on Water: How Leaks in D.C. Are Discovered and Patched” Laurel and Gareth hit a very rocky patch. Red hires and then spectacularly fires a special investigator; Lawrence Boch. (Played by Blindspot actor Michael Gaston, who is apparently doomed to be shot in the head this year regardless of what show he is on.)
Triplett and Rochelle are absent from the proceedings this week. However Red is still on the warpath and his sexual partner, so to speak, from the previous episode sides with him briefly.
After Senator Wheatus lied about the CIA briefing, someone leaked to the press that the Syrian threat is not real but a fabrication. Kara Wright “broke the story” and Boch has her arrested for failing to name her source.
Red also instigates investigations into both Luke and Laurel’s personal lives. He hopes to find something that substantiates his claim that they leaked information to the press. It is this investigation, run by FIA (Freelance Investigation Analyst) Ashley Cook (Tracie Thoms) that causes the problems between Gareth and Laurel.
Cook comes up with a huge list of sexual liaisons that Laurel had in college and the affairs that her brother Luke takes part in. Gareth is privy to the files, at Red’s request, and he becomes disturbed at the information on Laurel.
They have their first big fight and Laurel kicks him out of her apartment, with a doggy bag. Later, Cook reveals that Laurel had sex with Michael Moore at a Sundance festival. When he, rather unwisely, asks her she admits to it. (Although later it turns out that Cook’s information was incorrect.)
This is the last straw for Gareth who cannot get images of Laurel in bed with Moore out of his head. (This was, except for the singing recap, the funniest bit of the episode. Michael Moore with a gloating grin on his face coming up from under the covers was hysterical.) It is also the last straw for Laurel who kicks Gareth out of her flat again.
Boch continues his investigation into both Luke and Laurel. Meanwhile she investigates the secret room in the basement; SRB-54. She reveals the room’s existence to Luke and tells him it is Red’s personal “war room.” He investigates and like Laurel has the door slammed in his face.
Gareth learns of the room from Laurel and he goes to the basement office demanding to be let in. He is refused entry, like Luke, and told to speak with Red. He does and learns nothing. Later, he tells the IT guy to shut down their WiFi.
This gets Gareth access and he finds plans to build interment camps. He also sees a wall timer that is counting down a 38 day window. Gareth takes pictures of the internment blueprints and send them to Laurel.
Luke then take the plans and shows them to Boch. The investigator decides to widen his investigation based on the blueprints. He then goes to see Red and tells the senator that he will be investigating him as well.
The conversation gets heated as Boch accuses Red of warmongering. “Why don’t you just get a gun and shoot me yourself,” Boch asks. The senator reaches in his desk drawer, pulls out a gun and does just that.
Red’s new intern rushes in after hearing the gunshot and is told to get a dolly and a drop cloth. The lad wants to call the police but Red tells him no. As the new intern gets the two items, Wheatus eats some of Boch’s brains. He then scrapes the rest off the wall and saves them in a storage container for later.
Wheatus marks the plastic box as his property before putting it in the fridge. The intern helps Red clean the mess. Later as the senator walks in front of the building a refuse truck grabs a dumpster and empties it.
Two drop cloth covered bodies tumble out of the dumpster and into the back of the truck. Red obviously murdered the new intern as well.
Gareth tries to apologize to Laurel about the Michael Moore sex allegation. She is having none of it and suggests they take a break. After killing Lawrence Boch Red pushes for a new investigative officer but is thwarted by Luke and the committee chair who puts it to a vote.
Kara Wright is released from jail without giving up her source and we learn that it was the committee chair who leaked the information.
This episode of BrainDead was equally funny and shocking. Red pulling that gun out and shooting Boch was completely unexpected. Then, however, when he murders his new intern we are not surprised. Senator Wheatus has become very murderous, his body count is now three. His first intern, Boch and now another intern.
Red had better slow down. This is twice now that something critical has happened to his new interns. At this rate he may never get another one.
It was disappointing to see Gareth and Laurel break up. Hopefully she will forgive him his idiocy about the whole Michael Moore thing.
Speaking of Gareth, it seems inevitable that he will be turned into a “bug person” by Red. While he is still on the Republican side of the story, he seems to be aware that Wheatus is not the full ticket here.
BrainDead airs Sundays on CBS. Do not miss this one. Funny, a tad scary and pretty topically relevant, BrainDead is a winner.
CAST:
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead – Laurel Healy
- Danny Pino – Luke Healy
- Tony Shalhoub – Red Wheatus
- Aaron Tveit – Gareth Ritter
- Johnny Ray Gill – Gustav Triplett
- Paige Patterson – Scarlett Pierce
- Nikki M. James – Rochelle Daudier
- Charlie Semine – Anthony Onofrio
- Zach Grenier – Dean Healey
Guest Starring Michael Gaston as Lawrence Boch and Linda Emond as Kara Wright
Special Guest Star – Michael Moore
You must be logged in to post a comment.