As Dorian (Michael Ealy) goes through performance assessment involving a panel conducting interviews with the android and his co-workers, he and Kennex (Karl Urban) investigate a copycat killer recreating the serial killings of the “Straw Man” (William “Big Sleeps” Stewart) known for stuffing the bodies of his 21 victims with straw before he was eventually caught and imprisoned by Kennex’s father (John Diehl). After talking to the still imprisoned paranoid schizophrenic, Kennex learns of his own father’s doubts as to the man’s guilt which may have led to the cop’s suspicious death two-weeks following the biggest bust of his career. Which means Kennex and Dorian aren’t searching for a copycat but the original Straw Man (Shaun Smyth) who has returned.
Filling in a bit about Chromes (genetically-enhanced humans which played a role in last week’s episode), “Beholder” features a killer (Michael Eklund) targeting the select group who died under apparently natural circumstances, including the murder of a Chrome which Detective Stahl (Minka Kelly) brings to Kennex (Karl Urban) and Dorian‘s (Michael Ealy) attention. Stealing a bit of each victim’s DNA using experimental nanobots (which were outlawed for killing donors during medical trials), their killer is slowly building a map of a new perfect face piece by stolen piece.
When the security system of computer-controlled smart home malfunctions killing a high ranking executive of the security company and his wife, Kennex (Karl Urban) and Dorian (Michael Ealy) are called in to investigate and discover whether or not the malfunction was caused in retaliation to a similar accident involving the death of a teenager exactly one year ago. Over the course of the case Kennex continues to find amusement in a running gag of spreading various vicious rumors about the reasons for Detective Paul‘s (Michael Irby) temporary leave.
While self-medicating to jog his memory resulting in increasingly vivid flashbacks of Anna (Mekia Cox), Kennex (Karl Urban) works with Dorian (Michael Ealy) to investigate the apparent unrelated deaths of two genetically-enhanced teens. As Dorian connects the two deaths to a third victim who drowned 7 months before with similar drug traces in her blood (and whose records linking her to the other victims have mysteriously disappeared), Captain Maldonado (Lili Taylor) asks Detective Stahl (Minka Kelly) to use her own personal experience as a “Chrome” to help with the case.
After someone goes to a lot of trouble to get an apparently nonfunctional android into the police evidence locker, the Trojan Horse steals the head of a XRN (the protoype of an advanced military-level android whose entire run was decommissioned and existence was scrubbed after a 36-hour bloodbath that left more than two dozen police officers dead). After swapping the damaged cheap body for a shiny new one the XRN (Gina Carano) makes a visit back to its creator (John Larroquette) who also was the creator of Dorian (Michael Ealy) and designer of synthetic souls, before stealing enough advanced computer processors to restart her doomed race.
A murder of a game designer (Nick Hunnings) by a self-correcting smart bullet (originally created three decades ago by Dr. Charles Luther) brings out Kennex‘s (Karl Urban) unresolved anger issues which his recent mandated anger management group therapy sessions haven’t exactly resolved. After destroying an annoying MX at the crime scene, Kennex and Dorian (Michael Ealy) talk with the victim’s girlfriend (Annie Monroe), who is the next intended target, and discover the dead man was likely the designer of the tracking system inside the magic bullet which a group of arms dealers used to kill him and now plan to sell to the highest bidder.
With Dorian (Michael Ealy) fighting anger-control issues and mood swings caused by temporary departmental issues allowing none of the androids to be charged to full power, Kennex (Karl Urban) and his robo-pal search for a killer (David Dastmalchian) who gets his kicks by attaching explosive collars on victims (Alessandro Juliani, Crystal Lowe) who he believes have wronged him in the past, forcing them to commit crimes, and broadcasting the entire event live on the Internet.
After a gunman with a stolen mechanical heart dies of a cardiac arrest that he correctly predicted down to the exact minute, Kennex (Karl Urban) and Dorian (Michael Ealy) investigate the world of black market refurbished organs. Their investigation isn’t helped by Dorian deciding to save another DRN android whose unpredictability creates unforeseen circumstances when Dorian insists he be allowed to tag along.
After the first of two eye-witnesses (Annie Monroe) able to put smug murderer Ethan Avery (Alex Miller) behind bars is killed Captain Maldonado (Lili Taylor) assigns Kennex (Karl Urban) and Dorian (Michael Ealy) to solve the case and protect the remaining witness, a self-professed psychic (Megan Ferguson) who believes the defendant (who was in court at the time of the crime) was responsible for the murder. Even though the psychic’s theory (which she got from the disembodied spirit of the dead witness) is impossible, it is later corroborated by Rudy (Mackenzie Crook) who matches the voice of the killer in the safe house to that of the murder suspect inside the courtroom.
Like several other pretenders in recent years Almost Human steals various ideas from sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov and his mix of mystery, cop story, robots, and futuristic setting with mixed results. It’s certainly nowhere near as well-thought-out or engaging as Asimov’s work, but the new FOX series involving a hard-boiled detective forced to work with a robot partner against his will (who he starts to take a shine to – sound familiar?) makes good use of its stars (even if the psuedo-futuristic episodic storylines haven’t been all that interesting so far).
