Brian Finch = Ferris Bueller in a surprise mission with the CIA.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
After a decidedly serious episode last week, Limitless steered back into more comedic territory with a full-on Ferris Bueller homage, complete with character references, fourth-wall breaking monologues and music from the 1986 film. “Brian Finch’s Black Op” was probably the series’ most farcical episode to date, but given Brian’s track record as a goofball and his unique perspective on things, it really played well — especially considering his “day off” was actually a secret mission for the CIA.
Of course, one of the great things about Brian’s character is how he’s able to turn lemons into lemonade — evidenced here by him making his mission Ferris Bueller-themed. Let’s face it, the Pennsylvania wilderness is about as far from urban Chicago as you can get, and yet Brian persisted by nicknaming his teammates “Rooney,” “Cameron” and “Abe Froman,” while also creating a new version of himself, “Sloane Rebecca,” who wore Mia Sara’s white fringe cowboy jacket.
Speaking of which, this episode also brought back Badass Brian as a new imaginary alter ego, to compete with Brian’s NZT conscience. Seeing as how we only got a glimpse of Badass Brian a couple weeks back, I was glad to see him return here in a pseudo-shoulder angel/devil role. I wonder if this means we’ll be getting even more versions of Brian down the line, or if these two (and possibly a third, including the Rebecca version) will be mainstays in Brian’s mind. Either way, they definitely helped spice up Brian’s usual talk-it-out scenes with himself.
We want to hear it.
The mission itself was also pretty fun, even if Cameron being a traitor was obvious from the get-go. This was a very uncommon mission for Brian, and it proved there’s still plenty for him to do outside of just helping the FBI with cases every week. And while the main storyline was procedural in nature, the added CIA twist and the Ferris Bueller references made it feel different from previous episodes.
But as delightfully silly as this episode was — the school bus riff with Basayev, for instance, was one of my favorites — it was also one of the darkest episodes for Brian, who bore witness to not one, but three gruesome murders in the span of about 48 hours. But contrary to Rebecca’s concern, Brian seemed to be fine with everything that went down in the woods — although I suspect the aftermath of that and other things will start to compound and weigh on Brian as the show goes on (à la Brian and Rebecca’s “beer o’clock” chats).
Meanwhile, Rebecca, Naz and Boyle’s investigation offered some insight into what was going on with the CIA mission, but it wasn’t quite as exciting as Brian’s woodland adventure. Actually, it was mostly generic crime fodder: following leads, intimidating perps and giving file rundowns on all the operatives. Still, it was cool to see Rebecca play hardball with Boyle’s CIA contact, and Naz seemingly wanting to help Rebecca, despite their clash in last week’s episode. And I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before we get the real skinny on Naz.
This week’s Limitless delivered another fun-filled storyline for Brian, this time dealing with the CIA. While adding another government agency to the equation was inevitable, the execution here felt surprisingly fresh — even, and especially, as it was riffing on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. While the subplot with Rebecca, Naz and Boyle was a little more by-the-numbers, it did explore the dynamic between Rebecca and Naz a little more, while also highlighting Rebecca’s determination and loyalty for Brian.
