Echelons
Breathe people. Now that was a humdinger of an episode. Whoever was worried that Alphas by the Bay would be forever stuck indoors staring at test harnesses and bug reports must be elated to be out of the hellscape that is open office planning. We’ll get to newly minted Secret Agent Carlo and the Case of the Abandoned Elevator in a moment but let’s get through some workaday plotting first.
Jenya and Pascal get interviewed by an area industry glossy about the meagre successes of the Sherwood initiative to date. While Bay Bytes magazine reporter (Nate Petro from season 2 of Chrysalis) tries to deliver a puff piece with softball questions about white hat hacker lifestyle and blue-sky visions, Jenya repeatedly tries to bring the conversation into the nitty gritty of security protocols and the core objectives of the platform. With the faceless Robo-Barrista pouring out a line of steaming espressos behind them, Bay Bytes guy tries to soften the value prop into “providing a niche good Samaritan service for our connected age”. Jenya counters:
“Sherwood offers a hands-on way for the disenfranchised to correct problems inherited from a broken system. Victimization is over. The solution is action.”
She then proudly reads him a list of Green Balls that her users have addressed since the launch of her service, including helping indigent patients illegally denied health care coverage, partnering with OSHA to bring charges against managers that exposed employees to hazardous materials at various job sites, and uncovering fraud in a low-income housing lottery.
Hmm. Alphas by the Bay is a curious watch. Jenya and her product are definitely the protagonists we’re supposed to root for but the whole premise seems a bit naïve. Should we have faith in its promise or spot the glaring holes? Does anyone think that random people tapping on their phones for some vague causes will turn out okay without blood in the streets?
But maybe that’s the point. Maybe some unbridled optimism and bleeding edge ideation are what’s required to address the thorny social and economic issues of our age. Alphas serves as both a satire of the Valley mythmaking machine while at the same time believing in the panacea of tech innovation to design a better world. If this is all part of a kooky meta-investment scheme, I’ll gladly trade my Litecoins for some e-shares. (With my luck it’s just an MLM ploy and I’ll be knocking on your door trying to unload a suitcase of herbal energy drinks before they’re banned by the FDA.)
Now it’s time to discuss The Count of MonteCarlo. We finally see what our favorite DBA was prepping for last week in his superhero training scenes: going undercover (yes, really!) in an upscale hotel that’s been thwarting organizing efforts of its workers and violating terms of their employment if they step out of line. Clad in a porter uniform and utility belt, Carlo mixes with the staff and pumps them for information about the hotel consortium. He breaks off to find evidence of coordinated managerial malfeasance and evidence of employee abuse. Even though the scene in the garage with valets Hector and Eddie was largely expository, I still liked the duo’s kinetic energy and humor. (The hand checking rules in the NBA are bullshit.)
After a close call pausing to help an out of town couple with restaurant recommendations, Carlo moves his way through the premises just out of reach of security. Checking detailed maps of the hotel along with data sheets containing several passcodes of the Green Ball case file on THE SHERWOOD APP, he manages to obtain access to both a desktop computer and a physical filing cabinet. With his USB and backpack loaded up with the purloined info, he scrambles outside on a perilous, heel to toe walk along a razor thin ledge while a real rain starts to fall in the dark sky. He shimmies down a drainpipe to the alley beneath. He gets into a brief scrap with a guard but manages to break free into the night.
When Jenya was extolling the wins of Sherwood with the reporter, I thought it too convenient that the audience hasn’t seen any real evidence of its successes. As ridiculous as Carlo’s heist scene was, at least the show provided a taste of true risk and results. The cases can’t all be solved through legal documents and counseling sessions. The people need ACTION!
Speaking of action, the office is buzzing the next day with a team-building event. Mathilde teaches the squad how to make macaroons in the well-appointed office kitchen. The results aren’t too shabby and everyone’s established personalities are on display. Duc is overly cautious with the sugar, Amrita has her own spin mismatching the colors and expected flavoring. Pascal over-delivers, cranking out a huge tray, while Jenya makes only a half-dozen perfect cookies that have “Fix It” written delicately in script on their surface. Carlo looks a little worse for wear with a few facial abrasions but muscles through thanks to another shot of GigaBurst Energy drink and the help of mentor Mathilde. I got the sense he was open to the additional tutoring.
Just as the gang is having a blast with Rafaella Cara’s greatest hits echoing through the warehouse, Cabot pops in for an emergency meeting. He’s pushing for more features to tout in his upcoming address at an investor symposium. He wants growth for growth’s sake to show that the initiative “is trending in a positive direction.” What else has the team got? Jenya tries to mollify him with all the good casework being done and points to the big board with active Green Balls but he’s not interested. “If patches aren’t being pushed, work is not getting done. I thought Sherwood was all about action?”
Mathilde pipes up with her idea of bringing back the executive dashboard so the Sherwood team can add cases for users to work on, which will drive adoption and guarantee worthy work to pending partnerships. For once, Jenya and Pascal are on the same side and vociferously disagree. The whole point of Sherwood is that it’s decentralized and the wisdom of the crowd picks their battles. Sherwood must maintain neutrality. Cabot is incensed and believes firmly in top down control of the case load. It’s the only way to make sure users don’t go rogue and are working “for the good.” The meeting ends with a stalemate and no one is happy.
Jenya drags Cabot aside and they get into it. She upbraids him for coming into her office unannounced and upending an already established business plan. Cabot cautions her that he “gave her this chance” even after how badly things were fouled up last time. Jenya reminds him that it was her security algorithm and patents that made him his millions, and not his “stolen concept for a real-time bid consumer recycling service”. Cabot warns her that she works for him, just like always and that one way or another, “he wants what he wants.” Deuce.
Auxiliary Annotations
Eat that dogfood! Hearty applause for Alphas giving us a programmer turned super hero utilizing the very codebase he wrote to bring <justice> to the community. I’m sure everything is gonna be all right…
Carlo sans his omnipresent headphones for the first time. This guy is game ready, no more distractions. Did you see him portentously sweep those hard copies of The Society of the Spectacle and The Lyotard Reader into the wastebasket? Take that Post-Structuralism!
Interesting note during the Bay Bytes interview that Jenya and Pascal refused to have their picture taken for the article.
High marks for the Synthwave soundtrack that propelled this week’s action. The message boards assure me that all songs are off Dryptopya by P-REX. I’d grab a copy but the chill vibes mixed with pulsing drum loops make me feel like I swallowed a fistful of Rotterdam club pills in 1985.
Episode director Jan Develski with several nods to Benoît Jacquot’s 1995 A Single Girl in the hotel caper scene. Alphas directors seem to be engaging in an ongoing competition with who can deliver the most absurd tracking shot cinematic reference. If someone tries to pull off the ballroom scene from Russian Ark in an upcoming episode, this show will definitely deserve to get picked up for a second season.
On the big case display board in the office, we get to see Packworth Hotel Group is a Green Ball with lots of activity by the Merries. It’s climbing up the charts and MonteCarlo lit the fuse!