Morality or good health? The choice is yours…
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
While Limitless has been embracing its lighter side for the last several episodes, this week’s “Side Effects May Include…” proved that the show is still capable of revving up the tension when it needs to. At the same time, this episode still showed plenty of levity, while also fleshing out the universe of Limitless even more. It also helped that it featured the return of Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra, whose one scene here made quite the impact, not just on Brian but the series dynamic as a whole.
One great thing about “Side Effects May Include…” was that it didn’t even need a side case to keep the momentum going. For a minute I was worried when Boyle approached Brian about giving him some extra work, but I’m glad that didn’t take precedent — at least onscreen. Instead, the focus here was on Brian and his secret NZT investigation, after his decision to show Rebecca the file on her dad — which actually went a lot smoother than I expected.
Luckily, Brian had earned enough of Rebecca’s trust to continue looking into the NZT mystery. This is where the aforementioned levity came into play, as Brian checked into a hoity-toity rehab clinic under the name “Mike Ikerson,” and used a scream video to get dirt on Eddie. Granted, these shenanigans were similar to Brian’s usual snooping tactics, but they were nevertheless entertaining — especially for the early parts of the episode.
Hood up: the universal sign for “I’m fine but not really.”
I also thought it was smart how this episode addressed some of the common-sense logic that fans have already put forward, re: Brian outsmarting Eddie. Things like why Brian can’t reverse-engineer his own immunity shot, find someone else who has the shot or simply walk away from Eddie. It did however throw Brian a lifeline in the form of Andrew Epperly, who not only knew about NZT but also Rebecca’s father. And while Epperly’s demise came all too soon at the hands of Sands, Rebecca picked up a few key clues about the origins of NZT, which will likely come into play in future episodes.
Speaking of which, I also thought Brian’s rapid sickness played really well this week, especially as it conflicted with his latest assignment from Sands, taking Rebecca out of the equation. Of course, we all knew Brian wasn’t going to sell out his closest friend and confidant, but how it all went down with Eddie was suitably tense and actually rather surprising.
Up until this point, we’d seen Eddie as sort of the ominous bad guy of the show, pressuring Brian into doing things he didn’t want to do — just one phone call away from ending Brian’s life. So it was intriguing to learn that Eddie was simply testing Brian’s limits (ha!) to see how far he could push him. I also thought it was notable how Eddie specifically compared Brian to “somebody who takes orders like Sands” or “somebody who has character.” Which says to me that maybe Sands was once in Brian’s position, being groomed as a potential partner, before Eddie realized he was too malleable for the job.
We want to hear it.
That said, I still think Eddie is very much the “big bad” of Limitless (which Cooper and McDorman would likely attest to), but it was cool to see Eddie sort of courting Brian here, even giving him five spare NZT pills to use as he wishes. Hmm…
Meanwhile, Rebecca’s B story with Naz was enjoyable too, as Rebecca cooked up a cyber threat so fierce that even the FBI director didn’t want to get on her bad side. It was also rather telling of Naz in that she was allegedly planning to share Conrad’s file with Rebecca at some point. But as Rebecca pointed out, that was easy enough to say once Naz got caught withholding information. And as this series continues, it’s looking more and more like it’s going to come down to Brian and Rebecca against everybody else when it comes to solving this NZT mystery.
This week’s Limitless erred more on the side of drama, but in the context of Brian’s rapidly decaying mental state, it worked. In addition to infusing more serious elements into the show, this episode featured a solid return for Eddie Morra, who gave Brian his most difficult assignment yet, as part of a larger test. Overall, “Side Effects May Include…” was one of the strongest episodes yet, thanks to enlightening developments on the NZT front and the lack of a typical procedural case.
