Check out Last Week’s Episode Review.
I don’t think it is possible to capture, contain, or force the will of a human mind to become a machine.
Sure, when he was sick David Kim did sign up and allow Logorhythms to experiment with his mind, but David always had a backup plan.
How Did David Kim Get His Mind Back?
During the beginning of this episode, we saw a flashback of a home movie Ellen took of her husband and daughter playing their favorite video game ‘Reign of Winter’ together.
Instead of dying in the game, David created a cheat that allowed him to spawn back into the game. In real life, David’s mind was uploaded into the cloud system to continue working on algorithms for Logorhythms, but then his ‘productivity’ dropped.
I’d like to wager that this was David’s fail-safe ‘cheat code’ all along.
In order to increase productivity, Pete continually added more and more of David’s personality back into his code – which in turn allowed David to ‘recapture’ his memories, employ his cheat code, and ‘come back to life’ after death as a proper ‘ghost’ in the machine.
The last sequence we see in the episode is David uploading himself back into the game he previously died in, employing his cheat code to ‘live forever’.
After all, didn’t David say ‘why die if it isn’t really necessary’?
Is Caspian Logorhythms Visionary Stephen Holstrom’s Secret Son?
While Ellen and Maddie visit Logorhythms HQ to retrieve the raw data of David’s mind, a picture is shown in tribute to Stephen Holstrom in the company’s lobby. Always hailed as a visionary, when Maddie comments on this her mother says “David always said believe the hype” surrounding that man.
Wouldn’t it be odd that Logorhythms would go through the trouble of scanning (stealing) the brilliant minds of David Kim and Laurie Lowell, but not Stephen Holstrom’s mind?
Come to think of it, Maddie was a literal baby when her parents got wrapped up in the Uploaded Intelligence debate – and Maddie is in the same grade as Caspian. Who is to say that Caspian is actually Stephen Holstrom’s secret son – taken from his birth mother and saddled with fake parents who work for Logorhythms?
The only thing I can think of is that the fake parents were assigned this role in order to ‘guide’ Caspian naturally into the role his visionary father once held in the company.
This does not explain though why Laurie Lowell would be in contact with a mere high school boy, but it would make sense if through data she learned about his real parentage. It would also make sense why not just Laurie, but Caspian are both being monitored by dedicated employees of the Logorhythms firm.
Who Helped Maddie Kim Takedown Logorhythms?
Maddie meets Laurie Lowell’s husband Cody at the mall, who fills her in on what Logorhythms has done to Laurie’s mind. Laurie then frees David Kim’s mind by creating an isolated algorithm to convert the raw data into a personality that exists amongst the digital space.
As I type this I think of Black Mirror’s “USS Callister” episode from Season 4, where digital copies of living breathing human beings were ‘scanned’ into a video game using a 3D printer – their uploaded consciousness trapped forever within a digital space against their own will.
Kinda similar to how Laurie used a 3D printed bracelet triggered by Maddie to access Logorhythms internal servers, huh?
Anywho, it seems Maddie has freed her father from his digital prison. The only problem is, Julius Pope has already sent a backup of his mind data to the mega-servers stationed in Norway.
I wonder if this would create two copies of David Kim’s mind, or maybe the subsets of his mind will eventually ‘link’ – causing a rebellion from within the data servers from all of those imprisoned on false pretense.
Either way, I think I’ll leave this episode here. But, tell me your thoughts.
Do you think Chanda will eventually realize he’s in a simulation?
How do you think Ellen feels about a fragment of her husband’s mind still being alive?
And…
Given how episode one began with the mythology of children slaying their evil fathers, do you think Maddie will eventually have to ‘pull the plug’ on her father?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, we’d love to hear from you! Also be sure to follow us for more AMC Pantheon Episode Reviews and Discussions!
Next Episode Review: Chanda Breaks the Simulation
We are also creating Anime and Japanese fashion-inspired merchandise for fellow fans, Visit our Redbubble store if you have a chance – you get cool gear, and it helps support the blog!
☆ In Asian Spaces
Twitter Patreon Pinterest BlogLovin
In Asian Spaces 