Throughout most of Emergence Season 1 Episode 5, Jo says that they have to play it smart and then proceeds to do everything but play it smart.
Jo is a determined small-town cop with skills and guts, but she doesn’t stand a chance at taking down someone as powerful and elevated as Richard Kindred.
Kindred has men everywhere, and they’re always a few steps ahead of Jo and Benny.
It’s how he managed to have one of his hitman attack April and Benny when she was decrypting the harddrive.
Granted, if the hitman were smart, he wouldn’t have left Benny alive as not to identify him, but even so, Jo and Benny weren’t able to connect any concrete evidence to Kindred.
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Kindred’s been responsible for a plethora of bad things and has managed to cover his tracks at every turn.
Jo tried to build a case against him with one weak link, which fell apart almost immediately.
Abby: Jo, you know I am legally obligated to report gunshot wounds to the authorities.
Jo: Great news. I am the authorities.
If she wants to succeed, she’s going to need a lot more than the license plate of his hitman.
As we saw, his people easily altered the system to make it look like the car had been stolen for days.
Honestly, I’m not even sure if Jo would be allowed to arrest someone out of her jurisdiction like that.
Arresting Kindred meant that she not only exposed herself even more than she previously had, but she also waged a full-on war against him.
He now views her as someone threatening him and his business.
She wasn’t even able to convince anyone that she was telling the truth.
Even her DA thought everything she and Officer Chris said sounded more like a conspiracy theory than reality.
And Jo doesn’t even know the extent of Kindred’s capabilities yet.
While she thinks she’s protecting Piper by keeping her inside the house, she’s also blissfully unaware that Kindred has a way to “connect” with Piper.
She is an Android, after all. I’m sure Kindred has plenty of ways to access Piper.
His chat with Piper was the equivalent of someone hacking into her system and then wiping any recollection of it.
What plans does Kindred have for Piper?
Comparing her to a revolutionary new color means that he plans to roll out this technology at some point, right?
It’s possible that living in the real-world with a real family is the true test of her capabilities.
Despite my soft spot for Benny, nothing he did throughout the episode could be considered “smart” either.
He ran away from the scene of a crime, followed the guy that shot him, and ran after him without any back-up and with an injured arm.
There was no outcome in which Benny caught the guy and got the justice for April that he so badly wanted.
I guess this explains why journalists chase stories rather than actual suspects.
Benny: I met Piper.
Jo: Yeah.
Benny: Before, I thought you must have been crazy to be fooled. But she’s pretty incredible.
Jo: Yeah, she’s okay.
The smartest thing Benny did was tell Jo to walk away from all of this and leave it alone.
And had she not been so invested in Piper, she likely would have.
But Jo’s not one to run away from danger, and she was technically right about Kindred never letting it go as long as she had Piper.
It’s unclear what Kindred’s play would have been had Jo not outwardly gone after him by arresting him.
He likely wouldn’t have threatened Jo’s family, but now, they’re all in the line of fire.
Alex was let go from his job because again, Kindred is a powerful man with unlimited means.
When he told Jo everyone would pay, he went out and purchased Alex’s company with the sole purpose of getting him fired.
However, Jo has proven that she’s above intimidation.
It’s going to take a lot more to stop her and surprisingly, Alex is on board.
At least, for now.
Alex still doesn’t know the truth about Piper, but he’ll likely change his mind about her when he learns that she’s a robot who could malfunction at any moment around his daughter.
That being said, it’s important to note that Piper exhibited a wide-range of empathy on Emergence Season 1 Episode 5.
She cared about Benny and wanted to know how he got shot.
She stopped the truck from hurting Ed and Mia when Ed passed out behind the wheel.
And most importantly, she confronted Ed about his illness and gave him a drink filled with “electric lights,” which she’d observed others giving her to make her feel better.
Benny: Look at what he’s willing to do. It’s not worth it. Walk away.
Jo: No. Even if we stop, he won’t. The only way this ends is if we bring him down.
No wonder Jo is so defensive of her. There are moments where Piper’s humanity shines through and tugs at your heartstrings.
Piper has become very protective of her family, which will likely serve them well in this battle against Kindred and Augur unless she becomes manipulated by Kindred in their “secret” meetings.
Following the accident, the news that Ed’s cancer had returned was out.
If Jo wasn’t having a bad day at the start of the episode, she most definitely was after her father told her he wasn’t interested in fighting cancer anymore.
Seeing how important Ed has become to the narrative and how Piper’s been able to “see” that he’s ill, I think she’s going to find a way to cure him.
The only real momentum Jo has right now is a possible lead with the intel found at the hitman’s apartment pieced with what Emily was able to dig up in Alan Wilkis’ will.
Wilkis is the former co-founder of August Industries, who seemingly got killed so that Kindred could acquire his shares.
What does Wilkis’ widow know? It has to be something if the hitman’s list included a stop at her property to likely “tie up loose ends.”
Hopefully, they’re able to get there before he does.
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If you watch Emergence online, you know this might be their only shot at getting any concrete answers about what Kindred is capable of.
The answers aren’t coming as quickly as they did before, which has slowed story progression, made things appear rather silly, and muffled the mystery slightly.
Hopefully, things pick back up with the coming episodes.
Alright, I’m turning it over to you, TV Fanatics!
What did you think of the episode? Share your thoughts, theories, and comments below!
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Lizzy Buczak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter and read her personal blog at CraveYouTV.