'Emergence': 'Killshot Pt. 1' confirms that whatever is about to unfold is much bigger than Piper's story
This article contains spoilers for 'Emergence' Episode 12: 'Killshot Pt. 1'
'Emergence' is hurtling towards an exciting finish and has managed to take the suspense quotient a few notches higher while at it. If anything, the sci-fi series has been unpredictable.
It took the series 12 episodes to establish that the AIs were created for a specific purpose — data gathering. This firmly cements the fact that all this is more than Piper, who we all thought was that piece of a rather intriguing puzzle. It is perhaps easier to draw a parallel to James Cameron's '91 blockbuster, 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' that speaks about Skynet. In both cases, AI evolves causing massive and catastrophic changes.
While 'Emergence' may not delve that heavily into post-apocalypse, what it does is establish a sense of realism to this whole business. It is a possibility and the scary thought is, these aren't light years away.
Coming back to 'Killshot Pt.1', Benny Gallagher (Owain Yeoman) spills the beans to Jo Evans (Allison Tolman) and agent Ryan Brooks (Enver Gjokaj) about Helen's (Rowena King) plans and reveals that all the AIs are data gatherers created to absorb and gather information, something that should be revealed in the finale.
In another bizarre scenario, Helen's lookalike, Loretta (played by King again) shows up and is caught shadowing Brooks. She reveals she was Helen's creator and a government employee. Our guess is she works for a funded research think-tank. It is also a bit puzzling when Loretta reveals she knows all about Piper. Now this leaves a few questions unanswered which we do hope the finale might address. Is Helen more prominent than Piper here according to Loretta? And if she is, why does getting Piper's abilities mean so much to Helen?
To top it all, what was the China or Russia reference that was made when Loretta spoke about the transmission they received that gave them instructions to create the AI. For now, it does seem like there is a lot that 'Killshot Pt. 2' has to explain. Until then, we just got to swallow the grim thought that these incidents are a possibility.
What are your thoughts on AI evolution and the penultimate episode?
'Emergence' airs on Tuesdays at 10 pm ET on ABC.