Thanks for playing. It's always a pleasure.
Who's next? Anybody? Sketchy, what do ya say, buddy?
- No, man, I already owe you two paychecks. - I'll let you break.
- No. Nope. - I'll play left-handed. You can blindfold me.
- No man. - No? Okay.
- Nobody likes a showoff, Alec. - Max, come on. Fifty bucks...
and you get to humble your old buddy Alec. What do you say?
- Yeah, right. - Well, thanks anyway.
Anybody? You? You? You? Come on, it's not that di... Logan!
What do you say, pal? Wanna play me in a little game of pool?
- Oh. Uh... I break? - Yeah.
- Rack 'em. - Ha ha! It's all right.
Move over.
- Alec... - Yeah?
Could you stand back?
Well, well, well.
Not too shabby. Can I, uh,...
... get you another beer? - No.
You sure?
He's gonna run it now.
I just wanna play it. It's just like a guitar, you know? It's beautiful.
Corner pocket.
- You're sure you don't want to try a bank shot? - Oh, no. No, no. I'm sure.
Hmm. Maybe not that sure.
Tricky shot.
- Yeah, you can do it. - Sketchy, where's the love, huh?
- Guys... - Hmm?
Beat it.
You gotta admit, that was pretty cool.
Silly boys playing with their sticks and balls. I may vomit.
Hey, Logan - another fifty bucks says you miss this shot.
You're on.
- Nice game. - Thanks.
Dude, you rock!
- Go wash your hands. - What? I'm clean.
What's going on?
The whole love-bug dealio. After he beat your ass, Max handed him a beer
and they might have touched and dosed him with the virus.
And now would not be a good time for one of your smart-ass remarks.
Hey, I hate to lose, but I'm not wishing the guy dead.
- What did I just say? - I was being serious.
I'm okay.
I could have killed you over a stupid game of pool.
I thought it was a very satisfying game of pool, actually. Want to get a drink?
Better not risk it. Um... I'm gonna go home.
Good boy, Chopper. Way to stand guard.
Back in the day, they'd give you ten cent a can.
Ten cent! Nowadays, you'd be lucky if you get ten cent a pound.
I'm tellin' you, Chopper - it's gettin' harder and harder to make a livin' every day.
You hear that?
Stay. Stay, Chopper, stay.
They designed her to be the perfect soldier - a human weapon.
Then she escaped.
In a future not far from now,
in a broken world, she is haunted by her past.
She cannot run; she must fight
to discover her destiny.
f divided by xy... no, xz. It's gotta be right.
That Manticore creep coulda been onto something and didn't even know it.
Sorry for painting over your virus papers, Max.
It's okay. I can still make out most of it. It's just this function that's screwing me up.
f(x1) times delta x equals...
what is that?
It's a squiggle. Squiggle.
Could be an approximate sign.
f(x1) times delta x is approximate to delta q.
The messenger RNA would codify an interruption in the protein strand,
the DNA wouldn't be able to replicate, and the virus would hit a dead end.
No.
It's a squiggle.
See? - Yeah.
Still... it makes sense. - So the virus bitch is going down?
Could be.
You know, I never would've caught this if you hadn't painted over my papers.
Oh, you gotta blaze?
I'm gonna see if I'm on the right track. Thanks, big fella.
You're shaking your head. Why are you shaking your head? Are my calculations wrong?
Well, they're not so much wrong as not right.
Great.
You never told me where this virus, uh, came from. Do you mind my asking?
A secret government agency gave it to me,
hoping I'd give it to a friend of mine they were looking to kill.
Okay, fine. You don't want to tell me, don't tell me.
Whatever.
Serves me right for getting my hopes up. - Hey, you're not gonna start crying, are you?
Just gimme my papers.
Okay, hold on, hold on. Your numbers were off a little bit, but the theory behind them's viable.
Which part?
Well, the whole luring-the-virus-into-a- protein-dead-end part. It's pretty cool.
It has a kind of Pied-Piper-ness to it, you know, with a little Chuck Heston thrown in there.
"Take that, you damned dirty virus!"
So you're saying you can make it work?
Yeah. Yeah, all I need is a blood sample. And, um...
twenty thousand dollars.
You ask me, twenty large is still a small price to pay for you and Logan to get together.
I just want to know I'm not gonna kill the guy if, say, I... touch his hand by accident.
Or if, say, you spend a long weekend making hot monkey love to the man... by accident.
Does he know about the man with the cure?
I'm gonna try to get my hands on the cash first.
I don't want to have to owe him again if this guy falls through.
Where you gonna get the money?
- I'm gonna sell my soul. - There's the devil.
- What are you doing tonight? - And why do you ask?
Got word from this fence I know.
There's a collector willing to pay top dollar for "Star Wars: Episode VII".
After the Pulse, they shut down production. Apparently this is the only footage that exists.
- Is that the one where Captain Kirk dies? - I guess.
Anyway, the reel's locked up in a vault at the Fox Building in Belltown.
Max, are you asking me to steal something with you?
It's a two-man job.
I'm shocked.
I don't do that kind of stuff anymore, Max. I mean, you yourself showed me the error of my ways.
- Did I mention your take is twenty grand? - What time do I pick you up?
Do you have to do that in the kitchen?
- My gums are killing me. - Yeah, well, rinse out the sink when you're done.
- Mom, I'm a vegetarian. - And I want pizza.
You both are going to eat this meatloaf and that is final. Irving, would you tell them?
Somebody kill me.
There's security stationed here, here, and here.
They do rounds and rotations. We'll have a thirty-second gap
when the entrance guard relieves the lobby guard.
Once you're past that point, smooth sailing. In and out in five minutes.
Does this qualify as stealing from a bad guy,
or do you have a new handy excuse for swiping something that doesn't belong to you?
Hey, people have the right to see this stuff. It shouldn't be locked up in a vault.
Oh, of course, yeah. That Murdoch's one evil fiend.
Just stick to the plan. Trust me - it'll be the easiest money you've ever made.
"Trust me", she says. "We'll be in and out in five minutes" she says. We've been in here an hour!
Shut up!
Check and see if the guards are still there.
- Still there. - How many?
- Two. - Two? Max, I think we can take 'em.
Not before they trip the alarm. Better wait for the next shift change.
Hey, wanna know what I'm doing with my share of the money?
No.
Fine. Rude, but fine. What are you gonna do with yours?
- Donate it to charity. - Yeah, right.
I'm thinking, what? New motorcycle?
New apartment? New boyfriend?
New DNA markers for current boyfriend.
He's not my boyfriend.
I can't believe this. I've been stuck in this closet for over an hour to facilitate you having sex!
That's what I've been reduced to. I'm a pimp. - It's not even like that.
Yeah, yeah. Tell me - tell me that he's worth all this trouble, Max. I mean, tell me how he...
how he rocks your world. Something.
Maxie. Hey. You and Logan have done it, right?
I mean, before the whole virus thing, you knew each other for like, what, a year?
Max?
Oh, could you two be more lame?
Not that this is any of your business, but...
with me and Logan, it was just never the right time.
Oh yeah, yeah, sure.
I can see how the right time might elude you... for a year.
Guards are gone. Let's get the film and get the hell out of here.
Great idea.
...ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, twenty thousand. Okay, so let's do this.
Roll up your sleeve.
The immunoglobulin's going to take a quick lap through your system.
It's going to neutralize any virulent cells in your bloodstream. There you go.
How do I know it worked?
You see those little green circles?
Those are antibodies, completely encasing the virus nuclei and protein coating.
So it's working?
Yeah. Yeah, this thing's completely dead in its tracks.
I'm cured. I can't believe it.
Yeah, this thing couldn't hurt a flea now. I mean, it's totally....
Uh-oh. - Uh-oh? What do you mean, uh-oh?
- Uhhhh... this virus, uh, is mutating. - Mutating how?
Well, the little buggers are eating through the protein coating.
I mean, once they do that, the virus is back in business.
You're, uh, you're not gonna cry, are you? - How long until the coating is history?
Well, at the rate they're going, thirteen, maybe fourteen hours.
I wouldn't put it past twelve, though, just to be on the safe side.
I mean, I can say with complete confidence you'll be virus-free for twelve hours.
- Got a minute? - What did you want to talk about?
Let me ask you a... hypothetical question.
- Those are my favorite kind. - Supposing... just supposing...
I found a temporary cure for the virus. - Is there such a thing?
That's where the supposing part comes in.
Okay. Uh, hypothetically, how long would this temporary cure last?
Ten hours and fifty minutes.
You're serious.
So we can touch... and nothing will happen?
I don't know about nothing, but you won't die.
Oh, my...
...Max...
We have to think about this. Because when it's over, it's over. No repeats.
- We'd be back where we started. - Exactly.
Ten hours seems like a long time, but it isn't. Not really.
- It'll have to be long enough. - I was hoping you'd say that.
We've got ten hours. - Evidently.
We've been waiting for the right time.
Here it is.
I don't...
I can't believe I'm gonna go girly on you, but...
I don't want to blow this on a quickie. It should be perfect.
Perfect. How about a perfect quickie?
Open this.
Barkeep! Another scotch.
And a, uh, tequila shot for the pretty blonde.
- That's all right. I was just leaving. - Come on.
All right, but once you hear the good news about Max and Logan, you might be wanting that drink.
What news?
Why don't you fortify yourself?
Bottoms up.
So how long were you and Alec stuck in the closet?
About an hour. He was yapping the entire time.
He's a yapper.
Yeah, stuck in the closet with Alec - you're pretty much describing my worst nightmare.
It was worth it, though. It got me here.
It feels like old times.
Better.
- Logan and Max. - Max and Logan.
- Every happiness. - Ha!
Wonder what they're doing right now.
You know what I mean.
Logan's so romantic - I bet he made her dinner.
Wine... candles... I bet it's perfect.
Yeah, that sounds like them.
I mean, why consummate two years of unbridled passion when we can have pasta?
You're a pig. You don't know anything about love.
Well, I know more than you think. Besides, you're a liar.
How so?
Because you don't wish them all the happiness in the world; you want Logan for yourself.
I mean, come on. You had it all dialed in when Max was back at Manticore, presumed dead.
You and Logan, doing your hero thing, spending hours together in his fancy little apartment,
all tuned up about the ways of the world. It was a good time for you, right?
Yeah, he was thinking about Max every second of every day.
He never believed she was dead.
And when she came back, he was the happiest I'd ever seen him.
Yeah, until the virus thing.
Even with the virus, they never gave up on each other.
And no matter how I feel about it, I have to respect that.
Because that, my friend, is true love.
Yeah, right. Have they ever even once said "I love you"?
No. No. Max... Max would choke on the words. Logan... eh, he'd say it, in an email.
"He's not my boyfriend. We were never even like that. It was never the right time."
No, Logan is a repressed WASP and Max is a... a broken toy.
The two of them will never work out together. - And you are cynical.
No. I'm someone who believes in going after what he wants, and damn the consequences.
When you've been dead a hundred years, little girl, you have only just begun to be dead.
We're living on borrowed time.
And if you don't put your heart out there on the line, then you're never really living at all.
If I loved someone, I'd tell 'em.
And if I wanted someone, then I would let her know, straight up.
Asha, I want you.
Come home with me.
"Warning: Use only in well-ventilated areas... headaches... dizziness..."
"Could cause harmful health risk..."
Gossamer.
Gossamer. Smell Gossamer.
All right, man, who are you and why are you... Oh, my God...
Oh, my God!
No! No, don't! No!
Pretty wack.
Max...
there's something I've been wanting to tell you...
for a long time.
Yeah... me, too.
You first. - Max, I...
- Stop getting busy, please! - Joshua, what are you doing here?!
- Gossamer. - What?
On the loose. He's hurting people.
Gossamer. Okay. What is that, some kind of Manticore thing?
Max and Joshua have to stop him. That's the plan. So come.
No! Joshua, not now! Can't this wait...
... nine hours and twenty minutes?
- No. Now. Now. - Joshua, you don't understand...
Hey!
Look. If this thing is hurting people, then...
Can my life suck any harder?
Here we are.
Well, make yourself at home. I'll, uh, get us a drink.
Thanks. My feet are killing me.
I got this bad boy from an old guy down on the waterfront who, uh,...
specializes in pre-Pulse small batch, of all things. Turn on some music if you want.
I got that tricked-out stereo out of a dumpster, if you can believe it.
Asha? Asha?
- You're sure he's dangerous? - Max, he's hurting people.
- Then we have to stop him. - Well, first we gotta find him.
- He's in the sewers by my house. - That makes sense.
If it can't move in plain sight, it'd have to use the sewer system to move around.
- Doesn't exactly narrow things down. - Where'd you catch up with it?
- Little - Little Debbies. - Bakery. Sector five.
Well, our best bet's probably to start there and backtrack towards Joshua's place.
- That's a lot of ground to cover. - Max and Joshua can cover ground.
- No. - Oh, yeah.
- No. - Yeah!
No! I can't chase this thing down and worry about you, too!
You know it's not safe for you out there.
Should I ask for Alec's help?
That's an idea. I'll talk to Matt Sung, see if there's any other reports about this thing.
Maybe I can figure out its M.O.
We've only got eight hours and fifty-three minutes.
- Why do I feel like I'm kissing you goodbye? - Go.
Alec? Alec?
Hey, wake up.
- Oh, hey, Max. - Asha?
- What? - I need your help. Can you get dressed?
Okay.
Please hurry.
So one of the gossamers is loose in the big city, huh?
- You're saying there's more than one? - Oh, yeah, there's a bunch of 'em.
Manticore used 'em to track down targets on scent. You know, X4 gone rogue?
Give Gossamer one of those T-shirts, let him smell it - wouldn't stop 'til the kid was found.
What'd he do to the target once he found him?
Oh, it all depends. You know, some were bred for retrieval,
so they'd disable the subject and wait for the handlers to come pick him up.
Others were bred for elimination. Now those were some pretty bad guys, let me tell you.
I hope we're not dealing with one of those.
Well, either way, they all have this goo that shoots out of their mouth. Stuns the victims.
Goo? That's terrific.
Should be fun. So where do you want to start looking?
- The sewers. - The sewers.
I mean, I haven't got to crawl around in a stinkin' tunnel with you for about two weeks!
It's not like I had anything better to do tonight. - Sorry this interrupts your evening.
Yeah, it was the funniest thing. I mean, here I am, hanging out at Crash bar with Asha,
who I hardly know, and it just seemed to be the right time. How 'bout you?
Oh, come on. I mean, now that the virus is out of the way, right?
Just get in the sewers.
You guys crack me up.
Hello?
Logan, hey, we were just talking about you.
Hey, you called me, pal.
Yeah, she's right here.
Hey.
Eight hours and ten minutes. Tell me you got something.
Talked to Sung. There was another attack earlier tonight, about four miles west of Joshua's place.
Irving Green. - Any connections between the two victims?
Kind of. Uh, I talked to Irving's wife and she mentioned that he'd had a cavity filled yesterday.
Uh, the guy that, uh, Joshua saw grabbed, Hal Johnson, had also just been to the dentist.
- Same dentist? - Dr. Carlos Rabell.
- Alec says Gossamer's trying to sniff for stuff. - Well, maybe whatever Manticore trained him to find is,...
at the dentist's. - All right.
I'm going underground; leave a message in case I don't have a signal.
- Okay. - Gossamer going down?
Yeah. Uh,... I'm gonna check out a lead.
- Um... remember what Max said? - Stay put, it's not safe, blah blah blah.
That's right. So...
you lay low, and don't touch anything,
and there's some food in the fridge.
Eight hours to be with the girl of my dreams, and I'm at the dentist's office.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Got an appointment or something? You keep checking the time.
Don't worry about it. So are you and blondie an item,...
or is she just another one in Alec's long line of conquests?
Asha's a good kid. For the record, nothing happened.
Why? Did you want to double-date? - Oh, yeah, sounds like fun.
Hey, this is Alec's cell phone. Leave me a message and I'll call you back.
It's me. Listen, I think I know what Gossamer's after.
I know it doesn't get us any closer to his location, but...
This has been a fun night, Max. I want to thank you, really.
First I get to spend an hour and a half with you in a dark closet.
Now my evening's gonna end in this disgusting sewer.
Shut up.
Boy, two years of waiting's really made you tense.
Oh, look. It's here.
- Check this place out. - We should split up.
Be careful.
Gossamer! Here, boy!
Uh-oh.
Come on, Logan, pick up.
Logan?
Logan. Logan, wake up.
Logan?
- Are we there yet?
Alec? Can you get out?
Yeah, I just thought I'd hang around. You know, 'cause it's so comfy.
- You can't move either? - Where are we?
- Some junkyard. Gossamer musta brought you here. - Hey! Is somebody there?
- What was that? - Hey, get us out of here.
- Who's "us"? - I'm Hal. That's Irving. Then there's Gordie.
- I own the place. - Get us out of here.
Before that thing comes back and eats us all!
Actually, Gossamer's herbivore. He only kills for sport.
That's good to know. We're gonna get everybody out. Just hang tight.
Do you have any idea what Gossamer wants?
It turns out the dentist was using Keveral to fill cavities.
What's Keveral?
It's a material used in weapon casings and body-armor plating.
My guess is Manticore trained this thing to track down enemy soldiers by targeting the stuff.
Great. I'm gonna die with armor plating in my teeth.
- I don't want to die! - No one's gonna die.
... I hope. This quack didn't fill your cavities.
Why'd it go after you? - I was holding the Keveral when it slimed me.
Please. Can we just concentrate on getting out of here before this goo monster comes back?
Joshua. He'll get us out.
Joshua... who we told not to leave my apartment.
Max? Logan?
- I can't believe how screwed up all this is. - I know.
And to think I thought my night was gonna end up in a sewer. I wish.
For the last time, shut up.
You know, it's your fault that I am sitting here in this monster saliva to begin with!
- That's not her fault. - Yeah, right. It's not my fault. It's just my life.
Even if we get out of this, what happens tomorrow, Logan?
We still have the nomlies, and Manticore, and all fates against us.
I shoulda known that one night was just too damn much to ask.
- How much time do we have left? - Not enough.
Oh, Max...
it wouldn't have been enough anyway. We knew that.
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, call me slow on the uptake, but am I getting the distinct impression
that this virus thing is still hanging around?
Shut up.
Logan? Logan?
Logan... Gossamer...
... Max and Alec.
- I'm so sorry. - I know.
- Max? Logan? - Joshua! Joshua, in here! Joshua!
- Hey, buddy! - Joshua! Get us out of here!
- I didn't stay put. - That's okay.
- Come on. Come on, hurry up! - Get us out of here! Hurry!
- Come on! - You okay?
- Yeah. - Hey, buddy. Back here. Back here. Come on!
- Keveral! Where's the Keveral? - By the phone. By the phone. By the phone.
Oh! Gossamer!
Want some of this? Come on! You're going to get it!
Come on. Come on. That's right. That's right.
Come on. This way.
Nasty-ass mutant son of a...
That oughta hold him for a while.
- What was that thing? - Not to worry. Not to worry.
There is a logical explanation for everything that happened here tonight, all right?
Just give me a minute.
Hang tight.
Come on, everybody. Let's clear out of here, huh? Let's give these two some breathing room.
You all right?
- Come on. Here it is. Come on. Here ya go. - Whoa, whoa, whoa. Watch out there, pal.
He's okay. He's just lookin' for somethin' to keep him busy. Here you go, boy.
That's why he came here, I guess - you know, all the Keveral in all these old car parts.
It's mostly just the junkers that have any in them.
So - so what is he, anyway?
Uh, well, like I already explained to the other fellas, he's, um...
a Tasmanian ant-eating aardvark...
an "antvark," as we in the trade like to call him.
- Trade? - Uh, zoo trade.
I'm with the Tasmanian Zoology Foundation. He escaped from one of our facilities.
Now, wait a minute. Finders keepers.
You want to keep this thing? Like as a pet?
Why not? His spit's gotta come in handy.
Smells like silicone - worth at least a buck a pound.
What do you say, Chopper? You want a little brother?
What? Chopper says yes.
Good boy.
Well, good. Looks like everything's sane and right in your world.
Just, uh, keep him locked up at night, okay? - No problem. No problem.
How much time?
Two minutes.
I keep thinking about the night we took down Manticore...
when I thought I'd lost you.
I came home and sat on my sofa and I didn't get up again for days.
The sun came up... the sun went down...
I just sat there.
It was like I couldn't move.
It hurt too much to move. That's how I feel right now.
I knew this would happen. We shouldn't have taken the chance.
We had to.
You know we did.
We can't keep going through this, though.
I know.
That year we wasted,...
dancing around each other,...
afraid of actually admitting how we felt...
If I had that time back,...
I would do things so differently.
Well, I guess that's it.
I love you, Max.
I love you, too.