No/One #3: As someone who's read each issue at least twice and listened to the first podcast, even I'm pretty confused about the plot at this stage. It feels like Higgins & Buccellato are throwing way too many characters and mysteries at us. I'm going to group this recap into sub-plots since I think it's an easier way to discuss the story, but I'm still grasping at straws at trying to make sense of it all.
- Kenny Chobsky:
- The issue focuses mostly on a guy named Kenny Chobsky who killed a guy named Chris O'Neil. The incident occurred after Chobsky stalked O'Neil due to "online threats" O'Neil made against Chobsky. As far as I can tell, we never learn why O'Neil was threatening Chobsky; we just learn that O'Neil threatened to SWAT Chobsky's house. We get this information through some talking heads on a Fox News program that Teddy is watching in his office when Julia enters. Of note, the show's host is Julia's mother.
- Later, Chobsky calls Juila (interrupting her call with Alejandro, see below), and he's totally unhinged. Julia discourages him from using her private number in the future, but he's obsessed with getting on her show so that he can defend himself from the "bad shit" people are saying about him. Julia ends the call.
- After Singh leaves the bar where he meets Julia (see below), Kenny arrives and berates her, telling her that he's a "goddman warrior for our constitutional rights." Julia tells him that she isn't interested, and he threatens her violently, forcing the bouncer to eject him. Julia refuses the manager's repeated offers to walk her to her car, which winds up being a bad call when Kenny meets her at her car with a gun and demands they conduct an interview. No/One arrives and saves Julia, firing the gun next to Kenny's ear and knocking him unconscious. No/One then tells Julia that he helped her to "account for what I've opened up in Pittsburgh."
- No/One and the Copycats:
- While Teddy and Julia were talking in his office, J.R. (the podcast's producer) enters and pushes them to do an episode on No/One's identity, noting the PPD has a theory that No/One is the Copycat #3. He also wants the podcast to cover the Chobsky case, though, again, no one (heh) actually says why they're linked, other than they both involve doxxing.
- At this point, I'll note that it's really hard to keep the Copycats straight, since we haven't ever met two of them. It's only through reading the "Knowpedia" article at the end of the issue that I realized Copycat #1 is someone named Oliver Simpson who killed Superintendent Taylor Crushing and Copycat #2 is someone named Luke Cavanaugh who murdered venture capitalist Stewart Duane.
- It's Copycat #3 who killed Louis Capel, shot Ben Kern, and murdered Michael Kern. I'm assuming Copycat #3 also killed Coach Cade. Notably, he claims that he (and not Aaron) is Richard Roe. If true, it means he also killed Julian Colon and shot Senator Kemp.
- Meanwhile, Singh is frustrated about the attention on No/One, since it's Copycat #3 who killed three people whereas No/One just induced one cop into tasering another one. Singh later meets with Julia (at the aforementioned bar) and says that he doesn't believe that No/One and Copycat #3 are the same person, despite what J.R. said. Singh says Lt. McGarrity of Major Crimes might be the only one to believe that; in fact, Singh claims McGarrity has an obsession with connecting No/One with Copycat #3.
- No/One has access to cameras in PPD HQ as he watches McGarrity speak with Chief Nixon.
- Michael Kern:
- Meanwhile, McGarrity is focused on Michael's murder, because he doesn't understand why Copycat #3 targeted him. McGarrity seems to think Aaron and Michael were working together, but he doesn't have any evidence of it. In fact, the issue begins with Sgt. Aaron Harmon conducting an exit interview with Ben and McGarrity interrupting it to demand more information from Ben. Harmon - who "everyone trusts" - convinces McGarrity to give Michael's file to Ben to see if he can find something that they can't see.
- Chuck Tate:
- Julia calls a (smoking hot and shirtless) Alejandro about Tate. Alejandro tells Julia that Tate went dark once Copycat #3 killed Coach Cade. Julia asks Alejandro to put her in touch with Tate, hoping to learn who would want Cade dead and about the "clarity" note in exchange for putting Alejandro on the podcast. Alejandro notes that Tate is obsessed with his past, still hanging around college bars.
- The issue ends with Tate walking into one of those bars, with Ben sitting in the corner and holding the folder McGarrity gave him at the issue's start.
- The Podcast:
- I listened to the second podcast. Rachel Leigh Cook's inflection drives me crazy, but the podcast is pretty essential listening if you're following the series closely. Just like the last installment, this one doesn't so much reveal new information as it makes some new connections between information we already know.
- The most significant connection is that Aaron confessed to the Richard Roe murders (at one point quipping to the cops, "Think I'm killing people for fun?") though Copycat #3 claims that *he's* the original Richard Roe. Julia and Teddy review the three dominant theories behind this discrepancy: 1) Copycat #3 *is* the real Richard Roe and is furious at Aaron for taking the credit (which may explain why he went after Ben and Michael); 2) Copycat #3 is working on Aaron's orders, so Aaron's confession is accurate, in a way; or 3) someone is using the discrepancy to obfuscate something for unclear reasons.
- The podcast also reminds us that the PPD wasn't just hiding Aaron's identity when it booked him as Richard Roe: he was originally booked under that name when a cop arrested him for a misdemeanor possession charge when he was 16 years old. When he was booked this time, the fingerprints brought up that name. Knowing what we do about Aaron, I'm surprised he was into drugs, which makes me wonder if he wasn't covering for Michael somehow.
- On Michael, we get a location name that could be significant, as we learn that his troubles really got going when a cop found him drunk on a park bench in the Enrich Parklet in East Liberty. Continuing on names that feel like Chekhov's Gun, Naomi Kern worked for Kieling Williams and Mandelbaum (sp?) and died of a "lupus-like disease" that the doctors could never identify. If Richard Roe kills a pharmaceutical executive or medical researcher I wouldn't be surprised.
My only guess at No/One's identity at this point is that he's Sgt. Harmon, given McGarrity's comment that "everyone trusts" him. But the problem remains that we have way too many subplots that aren't even remotely connected. We have no clear link between Chobsky and No/One or Copycat #3 and No/One. Clearly we're getting there, but it's already difficult enough trying to keep the Copycats straight, particularly when you add the confusing overlaps between their actions and Aaron's, No/One's, and Richard Roe's. In other words, we could be dealing with six separate people or one person, it seems.
Red Zone #3: Man, I love this series, and I'm bummed it's ending next issue.
I feel like the central question here is whether Randall knows why he's under attack. He ostensibly thinks that he was in Russia to extricate Nika and her mother but unexpectedly found himself the subject of a bounty that brought out his old enemies (and, in one case, the sons of his old enemies). But Deidre discovers that someone is trying to classify Randall's file so even she can't see it, which implies that someone within the U.S. government (or whomever her employer is) might have set up Randall.
Meanwhile, the issue revolves around Randall and Nika escaping the legions of people coming after them. It also brings Nika more into focus, as she begins asking Randall why exactly so many people are willing to kill him, seeming to believe (like me) that it can't just be all about the past. We end the issue at the dacha of Novel Abramov, who Randall describes as the most dangerous person he's ever met. That'll go well.
I'd like to flag here how perfect Deodata is for this series. Honestly, I could read 100 issues of this series and still want more.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #34: I can't say I've been particularly interested in Vukorah's story, given that her characters seem to change to fit the arc, but I love her tricking IG-88 into killing the men attempting a coup d'état against her so she can get a fresh start. From all we've seen, Vukorah deserves that.
Conversely, Valance's story just gets more heartbreaking. We start the issue with a flashback to his childhood on Chorin, with his mother fixing his toy spaceship and telling him not to forget her when he's a famous pilot. In the present, Iden Versio and her men make their way on board the Edgehawk. Versio neutralizes Bossk and informs Valance that Lieutenant Haydenn sent them to wipe his memory. A defeated Valance agrees.
Versio and her team depart the Edgehawk and inform Haydenn that they've done the job, leaving Haydenn in tears. (Of note, Haydenn informs Versio that she and her men weren't allowed to kill anyone on T'onga's crew.) Meanwhile, T'onga arrives on board the Edgehawk to find Valance as the memory of his mother that started the issue fades. Apparently, all his memories will disappear in two days.
As T'onga informs the crew that they're heading to a fixer who can help Valance, Tasu announces that he's leaving to be among his people. Losha is outraged, but T'onga gasses Losha and asks Tasu to take her to Syphacc's palace, where she'll be safe. With that, she gives him her blessing to leave.
Before I go, I will say that I continue to enjoy Villanelli's portrayal of Valance not as a freak but as a force. Sure, he looks like he could do cyborg porn on the side, which I don't mind, but he also looks like the commanding figure that he was before he became a cyborg, which helps underscore how far he's fallen.
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