Don’t Get Fooled Again
Alphas by the Bay has concluded its initial run with a blistering final act. Whether it gets a second season (and most indicators point to yes) largely depends on how well the LostFoundry platform weathers the current business climate. While the upstart service has had successes with some of their lifestyle content, including the breakout hits Farm to Fable and GROWERS, they’ve had some highly publicized misses that have hurt the brand and slowed development deals. (The cast of Spectorellas needs a Shot in the Arm.) Rumors of an upcoming restructuring are rampant and seem to mirror the internal strife at the fictional Sherwood offices. Which brings us to the finale.
Intrigue! Grand Mal seizures! Detailed explanations of peer-to-peer network authentication! This episode had it all.
Jenya, Pascal and Cabot are summoned to City Hall for an interview with a few of the Mayor’s staff and representatives from the police department. Cabot and Pascal fret in the lavish archway while Jenya arrives uncharacteristically late. (She got caught up in some research.) They hustle into a beautifully marbled and gilt meeting room for an “off the record discussion.” Gulp. The Sherwood app is making some nervous in the City Legislature who warn of the dangers citizens could face if they go after the wrong bad guys.
The Mayor has to take a stance on any company that puts constituents at risk, regardless of the nobility of the undertaking. Jenya is asked what measures can Sherwood take to protect its users. She thinks anonymity and encryption are enough while a board supervisor interrogates her about the types of offline activities Sherwood is encouraging. This is where the danger is from their perspective. Well, that and the general public poking into “situations that are more complicated than they first appear.” Uh huh.
Jenya explains the Sherwood system is decentralized and utilizes blockchain technology. Once a case is active in the community, it is distributed throughout the network and doesn’t live on a central server that the company can control. It’s up to the users to determine when a Green Ball case is closed. This brings more consternation from almost everyone.
Officer Lonnie Powell speaks up on Sherwood’s behalf, arguing that it was his networking with private citizens on the app that led to a break in his case. He sees nothing but upside for routine police work. Cabot assures the room that they are all working for the good of the city and are continuing to tighten corporate controls to that end. After the meeting, Edmund, a Special Assistant to the Mayor, pulls the three of them aside in the hallway and gives them the skinny:
“Both the Mayor and the Police Chief support Sherwood. They are for anything that gives them good publicity on city leadership partnering with private capital to clean up crime. But any failures, real or perceived, will be pinned on you.”
Ditching Pascal and Jenya with an excuse about zoning permits, Cabot stops in on Brooke Elliott from the Board of Supervisors. She’s meeting with one of the retired judges from his charity we saw earlier in the season. It seems Cabot’s got some political aspirations himself, though it’s not clear whether he wishes to serve or merely engineer the campaign. Flint Harrison plays this scene to perfection and uses Cabot’s folksy, let’s all pitch in farm boy attitude to just barely restrain his naked ambition for power.
At an office overlooking the Ferry Building, Duc interviews at another firm (Lock|Bocks Solutions) and gets an offer to be the lead architect on a new mobile payment security product. He meets up with his wife for a quick lunch at the food truck alley in the Financial District. Nancy was the one who set up the interview with her friend but Duc doesn’t want the job. The money is good but he trusts Cabot’s word that the increased equity stake in Sherwood will come through. She begs him to reconsider. Great scene with Akiko Boskello’s Nancy imploring her husband not to over-complicate things. Why can’t Sherwood just hire her to be awesome?
Back at the office, everyone participates in an ideation session for enhancements on the app. Everyone except Jenya, who claims she has an important family emergency to attend to around Grandma Z’s retirement home search. She closes her office door and pretends to be on the phone while she scans hard copies of legal documents, patent filings and other detailed financial statements. Hmm.
Cabot is back and makes another gambit for control. He pulls Pascal into the conference room and makes him an offer he can refuse. He wants Pascal to take the reins on Sherwood because he’s losing confidence that Jenya can keep her emotions out of her decision making. She’s a great architect but doesn’t know diddly about the product business, to hear Cabot tell it. Pascal thanks him for the opportunity and declines. He believes in Jenya and that Sherwood will succeed as currently constructed. Good looks, Pascal!
Just outside, Carlo is looking a bit peaked and Amrita urges him to go home and rest. Just after he says he’s a-ok, his eyes roll back in his head and he goes limp. No one knows what to do until Cabot rushes in to help. He’s a trained first responder and eases Carlo to the floor onto his side and tends to him. He checks his vital signs and his pupils with a small flashlight pulled from his keychain. Everyone is frozen while Cabot dials 911. Eventually, the EMTs arrive and Carlo is sitting upright and talking again. He’s going to make it but they take him in for further observation.
Mathilde breaks the tension. She just received some good news that the Sherwood app has been unofficially endorsed by both the Policeman’s Benevolent Association as well as a citizen’s advocacy group that wants to reform the department. With this anticipated increase in userbase, she’ll be able to bring on board some additional partners keeping them just under plan for the year. It’s a good start.
After celebratory cans of Rosé the Riveter over ping pong and the appropriate concern for Carlo, Cabot and Jenya have it out. While the office speakers pump out bootlegs from the Check Your Head tour, their second set is a doozy. Veering into the personal, Cabot expresses disappointment in Jenya. She has two options: do what he asks and let him set the agenda of the Green Ball cases to protect his interests in the city, or he’ll buy her out. Jenya reminds him that it’s her company, he’s just the angel investor (with a seat on the board.)
He reminds her that she and everyone at Sherwood is replaceable. If she doesn’t do what he wants, he will simply have a new team recreate the service, making sure to stay one step ahead of any pending patents. He has the blueprint now and the possibility of harnessing civilians to work for free on projects of his choosing will be very much appreciated by his “friends in high places.” When Jenya counters that people know the different between “right and shady” he reminds her how much grey there is in the world and how plastic meaning can be. Every message can be tweaked until people agree and Cabot has “that knack”. Duc is in his pocket, Amrita can be brought on board, and even her buddy Pascal will join his new team if he dissolves Sherwood.
And just when it looks like Jenya will be run off Centre Court, the big board on the office wall announces the subject of the latest Green Ball case: Cabot Barley. There is a flurry of activity as it climbs to the top of the board. Advantage Zhao.
You think that you can front when revelation comes?
Straggling Remarks
Kudos to Joseph Cicchetti delivering a show where personal and professional tensions drive the story without (yet) resorting to romance to keep things interesting.
That said, Pascal has simply settled for Kasia, right? He’d follow Jenya to the ends of the earth. I’m sure this will be explored in Season 2.
Cabot is quite canny in this episode. At the beginning of the season he treated the app simply as an investor looking for a good return. Now he realizes he can utilize it to curry favor with the powerful and is willing to pay out Jenya to recreate it in his image.
I hope Carlo is back on his feet soon and leaping across buildings, infiltrating street gangs and freeing hostages. Who wants to reinstall libraries and futz with config files when you can fight for what’s right?!
Amrita is really living that Food Truck life. A half-lobster on a buttered roll three times a week? I guess you can take the girl outta Portland, ME…
Powerful pastiche of Kobayshi’s Hara-Kiri in Cabot’s reaction shot. He’s completely floored by the Green Ball reveal while Jenya’s eyes blaze with Come at me, bro intensity.
Melanie Safka’s What Have They Have Done to My Song Ma is the perfect choice for the final credits of this rollercoaster of a season. Here’s hoping Squad JZ codes a Brand New Key in season 2.