Kat with a K

Rubicon 1.6: "Look to the Ant"

It looks like TWoP has stopped covering Rubicon, so apparently I think this means I should write even more ridiculously long recaps. Does anyone want to read that? Probably not. But I find it comforting to know I have sent them out into the ether. Continue after the jump . . .

The Previouslies guy sounds sooo smug. Anyway. Are we convinced that David's dead? I wonder that each time they show the train crash but not his face.

We start with . . . someone breaking in somewhere! I think it's Will's apartment. Ah, it's Kale. He takes off his evil black trenchcoat, so apparently he's planning to stay a while. And that was the shortest opener ever. Credits! I haven't mentioned the opening credit sequence, but i really like it. It's very puzzly. Which makes sense, of course. Hey, this episode was written by Zack Whedon, brother of Joss!

In the API offices, we're following Maggie down the hallway, and - you know what this is like? This is like all those long tracking shots Tommy Schlamme is so famous for, but in slow motion. That might be a decent metaphor for the show, actually. Okay, Maggie is bringing a piece of paper to an office and then is NOT SNEAKY AT ALL as she starts snooping around. You work with SPIES, Maggie. They would be on to you, if they weren't the slowest spies ever. Have we discussed how Maggie looks like Maggie Gyllenhaal? She really does. Will catches her, believes her "just straightening up" lie, and then they have their mandatory awkward flirting moment. Her actual news for him: Kale is summoning him to dinner at his apartment.

Will just sits there looking confused for a while - literally - and we jump to Team Meeting! Grant wants deference because of his seniority. Tanya is unimpressed. Miles looks at pictures of Beck's house. Will comes in, gives them info about the surveillance of the Beck wedding, and leaves the moment Miles offers to stay and deal with it. You're really not a very good boss, Will. After they leave Miles alone, he hears something that sounds like a gunshot, or maybe just a door slamming, and looks up. Was that supposed to be . . . something? I don't even know.

Katherine shows up at the home of someone named Alice Bradley, looking to talk to her about her late husband Gerald. Oh, he's the guy from that newspaper clipping from last episode. Alice has never heard of Tom Rhumor and seems bemused. And that's all that happens.

Maggie is sending Sophie off for a weekend with her dad! But not before threatening him with calling the cops if Sophie's late to school or if Maggie can't get in touch with him.

Will shows up at Kale's and is met by a young guy named Walter. Apparently Kale is in the shower. Is this his boyfriend? Hm. There's music playing and the apartment is huge and gorgeous. Please tell me they invited Will over for a threesome. Walter thinks he doesn't get to meet Kale's coworkers because Kale's ashamed of him, and Will is actually charming for a moment as he assures Walter that it's the API folks Kale is ashamed of. Probably true! Kale very seriously says he wants to ask Will something, and my dirty mind is back to the threesome thing, but it's actually whether Will has ever had white bean salad. Will and I are both confused.

At the table, Will is going on about . . . slime mold? Pleasant dinner conversation! Walter runs off as quickly as he can, and I don't blame him. Will then starts to actually make sense about how our enemies are no longer hierarchical and are now more like a web, or slime mold, and Kale responds with a hearty "God, I miss the Cold War." So say we all, Kale, so say we all. Then Kale tells Will that Bloom and Edward Roy were in a car accident last night, and that Roy is the person of interest for Will. Who is he working for? (I just looked it up - Edward Roy is NOT the Ed who has been a main character so far. I think he's the laundromat guy. Really, show? Two characters with the same name? The two African-American characters? REALLY?)

Then we have this brilliant bit of dialogue: "You're not saying anything, Will." "I don't know what to say. What are YOU saying?" Man, I love these wacky non-spies. Kale is saying that he wants to help Will. He knows all about what Will's up to, and points out that Will is not being stealthy at ALL. "Are you saying my home is bugged?" Yes, yes he is. I bet API bugs everyone's homes, anyway. "How I know is inconsequential. That I know is significant." How does Kale know his home is not also bugged? "Oh, I sweep this place twice a week. Sometimes more, if I'm bored." I'm starting to love Kale. He's too high-profile to participate directly, but he'll help where he can, so stop asking dumb questions about his change of heart, Will! Will looks unconvinced. "Thank you for dinner." He leaves, to some rather fetching music.

Miles is bored and punchy while on Beck wedding duty, and he starts taking wheeled desk chair rides around the office and I think he's going to bang into something and make all the expensive equipment fall down, but no, that would be too much action for this show. Then there's something about guests entering the facility and Miles starts yelling "No" and running around looking for someone. Everyone else has gone home. "Urdu, seriously, Urdu?" Finally he finds someone named Julia, and she speaks Urdu, of course, so he drags her off to translate as she points out how dumb it was for him to expect the wedding guests to be speaking German. She doesn't want to help because their teams are segregated for a reason. Hmmm. But it looks like Miles convinces her.

Will goes home to his apartment full of index cards, and starts looking for bugs. He finds one in the thermostat and stares at it for a really long time, although I really don't know why he's at all surprised at this point.

Maggie, lonely without Sophie, is watching an old horror movie. That'll make you feel better! She turns it off and listens to the various sounds of her neighbors. She chews her thumbnail. Seriously, that's all that happens in this scene.

And we're back to Will, still searching for - and finding - bugs in various places in his apartment. And his cell phone! He sighs a lot, and then the phone rings and he jumps and I laugh uncharitably. It's Maggie! He assumes it's an emergency, but she was just calling. "About what?" Oh, Will, you're really bad at this. She asks him out and I'm not sure he even realizes because he's so freaked out about all the bugs. Oh, poor Maggie. Will sits in a corner of his apartment, looking defeated and paranoid. Then he sees people! Through the window! In other buildings! He panics and slams the blinds shut, Then he takes a piece of paper out of his bag, considers calling a number on it, crumples it, uncrumples it, etc. The music is very intense. Finally he stuffs all his notes in his messenger bag and is about to run out the door, but goes back at the last moment for David's gun. THEN he leaves adn we finally get a commercial.

Will gets out of a taxi on a busy street and wanders to . . . an Internet cafe? REALLY? (Someone is following him, of course. Badly. Of course.) I'm not sure this is what Kale meant by "under the radar." He . . . searches for Edward Roy? SERIOUSLY? And of course he's convinced that the various people in the place are looking at him. Are they? I don't know.

Back to Miles and Julia watching the Beck hijinks! Miles lectures her and then is all "They have so much money blah" and she's all "you're jealous blah" and I'm not even going to bother. Then the phone rings and it's his mom! Really?

Cut to Maggie in her apartment wearing a bra and pants. There's a knock at the door and she yells "Coming!" as she hurries to put on a shirt. Do people really wander around without their shirts like that? I don't get it. She checks the mirror, opens the door, and it's . . . some guy with a vague maybe-British accent. Irish? He brought Scrabble! He missed her in class on Tuesday! She claims that Sophie is at a friend's, and that she works for Unicef. Apparently she is taking classes to become a translator. She gets munchies and wine and looks at him expectantly. And . . . he has no accent. Never mind. He starts telling her about widows in India being burned at their husbands' funerals and then realizes that that's not very sexy. "Should I open the wine?" "Sure!"

Back to Will. He gets up to print something and the guy behind him reaches for his bag - it looks like to take it, but maybe just to pick it up off the floor. Will freaks out and leaves. Someone is, of course, unsubtly following him. He goes to the subway, I think.

Julia is back to criticizing Miles for not knowing Urdu, and refusing to tell him what the people are saying. He insists. "The bride looks beautiful. They grow up so fast." Heh. Of course, then something interesting happens. They're being cryptic! Talking about "The Foundation!"

Maggie and her boy are practicing languages. He's cute. She's worried about Sophie but trying to relax, and drinking lots of wine. I don't entirely trust this boy, and I'm also expecting Will to show up all crazy-like just when Maggie starts to hook up with the guy. Oh, and as I typed that, they started making out. Hurry up before Will gets there!

Will walks along a deserted street. Someone follows him. Do I even need to bother to say this? Will gets behind the guy and pulls his gun. "Who do you work for?" "They don't want to tell me. And I don't want to know." Well, that's rather incurious of him. Will then brags about how he has access to all information ever, which doesn't really seem like the safest thing to do. But then he takes the guy's picture, which is clever. and he runs off. Shockingly, the guy doesn't shot him as soon as he turns his back.

Katherine is home watching infomercials, because the people on this show can't even watch anything interesting on TV. She looks at that newspaper clipping again and then starts wandering around, as is her wont. She grabs a small clock from a bookcase and stares at it. Commercial!

Maggie and the guy are in bed. Maggie, I really think if you're going to sleep with him, you should at least tell us his name. He says "That was nice." Uh, high praise? "I didn't even realize you were interested in me. You're quiet. I like that." I still say he's creepy. He's all snuggly and she looks sort of uncomfortable. And then - knock on the door! She looks more terrified than you'd expect, really. She throws on a robe, and - it's Will! I told you this would happen! He's clearly in distress and asks if he woke Sophie, which proves that he DIDN'T really hear anything Maggie said on the phone earlier. He asks to come in and she hedges. He says "This isn't anything" and asks if he can crash on her couch. He just doesn't want to be by himself right now. Finally, the guy says "Is everything all right?" and Will realizes what's going on, apologizes, and leaves. And . . . Maggie immediately throws the guy out! Because seeing Will made her realize that's who she really liked? Just because she's freaked out? Hmm.

Miles recognizes an Iranian intelligence guy on the feeds and Julia can't hear what they're saying. He finally thanks her for totally interrupting her night to help, and she says she's enjoying the distraction from some sewage-related research she was doing just for fun. Okay! They both get a little teary as she translates an emotional speech about love. There are Significant Looks and I assume Miles has a new crush. Julia asks if Miles is married and he hesitates before saying he is. And then asks about her Zelda tattoo. Hee. Suddenly it's time to leave, although I don't know why they've decided nothing else interesting will happen.

The next morning, Will and Maggie look at each other awkwardly through a weird open window thing in the office. He keeps apologizing. She keeps insisting it's fine. He goes to see Ingram and she looks after him and sighs. I am suddenly seeing shades of Josh and Donna.

Will starts to tell Kale that he looked into Edward Roy, but Kale pantomimes something that I assume is about the office being bugged. Get with the picture, Will! Kale takes him onto the roof, which actually looks a lot like the roof on Gossip Girl, plus or minus some barbed wire. Edward Roy is ex-CIA, retired ten years ago, started a security firm that was bought by Atlas MacDowell. And Atlas MacDowell, friends, is a company on whose board sat Gerald Bradley, the CCNY prof whose suicide was the subject of the clipping Katherine found in Tom's locked files. But of course, Will doesn't know any of this, because when he met Katherine all they talked about was vodka. "So what do you imagine Atlas is up to?" "I don't know." "Well, perhaps you'd best find out." Yes, Will, perhaps you'd best.

As Kale walks away, Will asks AGAIN why Kale's helping him, and Kale says "I support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." This is part of the oath taken by new senators, new citizens, and new military officers, so take your pick. Also new CIA agents? Perhaps. As he leaves, Kale says that it's not just Will's home - he's being monitored at the office too. Had Will not guessed this? Sigh.

Katherine is back at Alice Bradley's house, asking about Atlas MacDowell! Go Katherine! Ooh. After Gerald died, Tom took his place on the board. Alice immediately picks up on the fact that it's weird that both men committed suicide. Katherine asks if Alice knew anything about the company, but Alice starts talking about how it's impossible to figure out why their husbands killed themselves except for the simple, sad fact that "You gave him years, and he walked away." She has a box of stuff that she thought might have "meant something" after Gerald's death. Katherine immediately finds a four-leaf clover that Alice found on Gerald's desk and preserved in a frame. Katherine is visibly shaken but won't tell Alice why. She rushes out. Then Alice takes a photograph out of the box, and it's that same one of boys on a beach!

Will enters what I think is Kale's office, looks around, and very slowly sits down at the desk chair. He stares at an owl figurine in apparent horror. The end!