Spoiler Warning: Do not read this post unless you have seen the episode or don’t mind Spoilers

One Sentence Review

An exciting dramatic episode with significant plot development on several fronts

Episode Synopsis

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Thoughts and Analysis

After having to put up with a clone of a bad episode of House last week, this episode was of a much higher standard which provided some truth’s but left me with several questions about Stanford Wedeck’s past and what it means for the future.

This episode was very Wedeck centered and we learn that he was close to the President of the USA, was involved in some sort of cover up involving a woman that could have cost the President the election and is not above blackmail to get his way. I have to confess to being genuinely surprised at the President reveal and thought it was well handled and I am curious as to what Wedecks involvement with him was.

I am uncertain whether the woman Clemente mentioned and Renee (Presidents apparent affair) are one and the same, though I am inclined to think they are. My impression is that Clemente had word about the President (or Wedeck) having a potential affair with Renee and found out that she disappeared shortly after Wedeck met with her. Clemente then assumes that Wedeck had her killed and there was enough circumstantial evidence or suspicion around Wedeck for him to be “put out to pasture”. This would explain her contempt for Wedeck and comments about how could he sleep at night and how Wedeck was able to keep his calm so well. It is of course possible that Renee and the “woman” are different people however.

After Clemente’s overly zealous tearing apart of Wedeck and Mark in the seante hearings and the likelyhood of funding being pulled Wedeck then uses his knowledge to blackmail the President. This gets him his funding but also put Clemente into the vacant Vice Presidential post. It also looks likely that the President arranged a hit on Wedeck to silence him BUT this could be misdirection and it could just be him arranging for Renee to leave the country as if Wedeck can find Renee so can his political enemies.

Moving onto the hit, the question has to be raised who arranged it? The number one suspect has to be the President given the timing but I think it may be a little too obvious. The second suspect group has to be the terrorist group Mark and Demetri were investigating, given that by this point they would know that the FBI were onto them they may have wanted to try to take down the investigation team. The third and final group has to be the “Suspect Zero” faction as they may have become worried about the Mosaic Project and want to shut it down.

We were also introduced to Senator Joyce Clemente and at the moment I am not sure what to make of her. She is apparently a failed Presidential candidate or nominee to run for President and has history with Wedeck and the current President. This has caused her to have a vendetta against Wedeck which carries over into the hearings. This means we see her in the worst possible light in this episode, especially as we are not sure what she thinks Wedeck has done if she thinks he is responsible for a womans death then her actions become understandable.

There is also the question of is she telling the truth about her flash forward which I am inclined to believe she is, especially with her becoming Vice President at the episode ends. As to the linked question of how can this come about, it may tie in with this episode if the President is linked with the attack on Wedeck forcing him to stand down to stop it from becoming public, or if the news of Renee (and his child?) gets out or threatens to get out. It could also be a completely unrelated event that causes the President to step down. It should be noted that former Presidents are still formally addressed as Mr President so his flash forward does not contradict hers. Depending on how she becomes President, she may yet become “allies” with Wedeck in the future.

We also had an amusing scene in the senate where various groups put forward their theories on the black outs cause. This turned ominous towards the end when the CIA put forward China as the cause and a fairly convincing argument towards them as well. This scenes also helps put a lower boundary on the death toll for the black out when China is referenced to having fatalities of less than half a percent the lowest in the world.  This brings up the prospect of a possible conflict or increased tension with China in future episodes.

One useful tidbit of information was the 0.5% figure as it help us put a lower limit on the death toll in other countries as they have to be higher than this. If we use 0.5% as a baseline then the US would have had at least 1.5 million deaths caused by the blackout. Bringing me back to my point about how the aftermath of the blackout is being underemphasized as a plot point in the series so far.

In terms of other developments we get some progression on the Somalia front, with Al obtaining (presumably from the hacker) satellite footage of the area of interest. This then turns up not a single tower but 5 towers which appear to be arranged in a star formation surrounding the town in which the “Proto black out” occurred.

While we do not have much to go on at the present time regarding the significance of the Towers given their arrangement which seemed designed to enclose the village. I suspect that it will be revealed that there a network of satellites surrounding the Earth which helped to cause the Black Out.

For the short term however the question is, will Mark (or a team on his behalf) actually go to Somalia in the near future to investigate or will the latest attack mean they have to focus on who wants them dead for a few episodes rather than the black out.

There is also the question of will Janis survive or not, I am going to say yes, and this event is what makes her want to have a child, though it is always possible that the producers will surprise us and kill her off, though I still think the way the show is going it is too early for confirmation that the future can be changed.

The final plot development was that Olivia finally discovers that Mark was drinking in his Flash Forward. The mystery now is who told her? While Aaron has to be a suspect I cant see him having the resources to arrange for a blocked anonymous cell phone message. Given that Wedeck found out he has to be a suspect as well as he would have the resources, but given that he has put his career on the line for Mark doing this would seem counterproductive.

This leads me to believe that it was someone else who called her especially as Mark blurted out he was loaded during his black out in a bar where it is possible someone could overhear, especially if following Mark or Wedeck for some reason.

Overall then Gimme Some Truth was a top notch episode which has renewed my faith in the series after last weeks awful filler. Given the multiple notable events in this episode it is clear that the repurcussions of them will be felt for some time to come.

Episode Rating

8/10