Two weeks. Ten cases. No problem.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
This week’s Limitless was easily the most ambitious episode to date, as Brian went after not one, not three, but ten criminals — the FBI’s ten most wanted criminals, in fact. Suffice to say, this was a huge undertaking, not just for Brian but for the series too. As a result, the Eddie/Sands stuff was significantly cut back this week, but honestly “Headquarters!” didn’t need it. If anything, this storyline proved how strong the procedural elements can be on their own, with little NZT interference.
Of course, Brian tackling ten cases on his own wouldn’t be that interesting by itself. (After all, this storyline was really just a roundabout way of Brian getting his own headquarters — “with an exclamation point!”) So having Brian parse out cases to other members of the team was a fun way to break the cases up. I mean, the “Bruntouchables” stuff would never, ever happen in real life — including how it took DC almost a full two weeks to put the kibosh on the CDC’s unauthorized task force — but the additional mini-assignments were still entertaining.
For instance, I got a kick out of how Brian split up Mike and Ike, with the former going to the tropical Costa while the latter was stuck freezing his butt off in the Arctic Circle. I was also intrigued by Casey’s conversation with Boyle and his suspicion of Brian’s NZT use. (Could this be planting the seeds for friction between Brian and Casey in the future?) Even James’s subplot to infiltrate a cult turned out to be surprisingly funny, as Brian casually referenced the poor guy’s deprogramming process.
“Am I pink? I’m not pink, am I?”
Meanwhile, Brian and Rebecca’s investigation yielded some great material. I was happy to see Brian’s clay effigies make a comeback this week, as well as his general “arts-and-craftiness.” (“You want some clay? You are absolutely in the right place if you want some clay.”) I also thought it was clever how Brian got the most popular Twitter accounts to tweet out the ten most wanted criminals for leads. Brian tapping into synesthesia to literally sniff out Lawrence Drake brought about some good moments too.
But I think the thing that really made this episode stand out — more so than previous ones — was how one of the Big 10 was actually innocent, which spun things off in a great direction. That along with Brian’s family getting involved — particularly Brian’s sister, who was unwittingly an accessory to a crime (and not just smoking pot) — made Brian’s subplot even more dynamic. Especially now that Brian’s dad knows the truth about him and NZT, I’ll be curious to see if and how Brian explains that to the FBI — or Eddie, for that matter.
Even without Eddie and Sands in the mix, this week’s Limitless was jam-packed with character subplots, as well as a hefty case — or rather, cases. And yet, Brian and his “Bruntouchables” pulled it off. At this point, I don’t think there’s anything this show can’t do in terms of balancing multiple cases at once. In addition to shining the spotlight on team members like Boyle, Casey, Mike and Ike, this episode made time for the likes of Brian’s family, suspect Lawrence Drake and Naz too. (I particularly enjoyed the latter’s montage of “No’s” with “Nobody But Me” playing in the background.) Again, there were a lot of spinning plates in “Headquarters!”, but as filler episodes go, this one was one of the strongest we’ve seen.
