When Brian calls in sick for a day off from the FBI, the CIA abducts him from home to borrow his NZT-enhanced capabilities for a black ops mission. As the operation becomes increasingly dangerous, Brian finds himself without FBI support in a situation that's spiraling out of control.
The most admirable thing about Limitless so far has been its willingness to experiment with the episodic structure of a network procedural. It's fun, amusing and unpredictable. It gives the show value even if the storytelling isn't completely great yet. The plot of "Brian Finch's Black Op" is a huge experiment on the show's part. It attempts to match the darkness of the hunt for a Czechian war criminal with the lightness of being a Ferris Bueller's Day Off parody. It never really works at all. It's silly to the point where it's difficult to take anything seriously and understand what all of it means for the regular characters. And yet, it's still very admirable that this is something that the show is capable and willing to do.Brian wants to fool the FBI into thinking he's sick just so he can have a wild day off adventure using one of the secret NZT pills he got from Eddie Moura last week. He's done plenty of work for both the FBI and Moura. He figures now is a good enough time for him to just enjoy his life again and do something fun for a change. He's excited about the prospect that this day can bring. Mike and Ike are easily fooled by his act. He's delighted at how much he doesn't have to realistically act in order to trick them. Brian actually breaks the fourth wall in order to tell the audience his excitement for what this day can bring. It's a direct homage to the movie. It's perhaps a tad too direct and on-the-nose without adding a whole lot of the show's own sensibility to it.
But Brian isn't able to enjoy this day for very long. In fact, he doesn't even make it out of his apartment before his plans are ruined. It's easy to understand why more people in the government would want to exploit Brian's talents. He's a resource that could prove invaluable in so many different ways. That could be beneficial to so many operations outside of the work that he's doing with Rebecca and the FBI team. These other agencies don't care that it's still just the early days of the program. Brian is still just being studied by the bureau. All of that is put in jeopardy because some smug people from the CIA want to use him for a very secretive black op mission they are running on United States soil.
The actual story of this episode is very dark. It's a situation that Brian can't escape as easily as he usually does. He has to embrace the darkness and trauma of this environment in order to survive. He copes by leaning heavily on the idea that this was suppose to be his day off from work. And yet, he's still being called upon to be the smartest person in the room and figure out things that no one else is smart enough to see. He agrees because it's the only way he can get out of this mess. But the more time he spends with this team, the more he learns about what they truly have planned for the man they've just captured. That provides the show with its darkest material yet. Something that it's not really able to handle properly at the moment.
The Czechian target isn't a terrorist. He simply provided information to the CIA. And then, due to a coincidence of events, a major target visited his hometown and the agency decided to bomb the village. The man was labeled a traitor and a bounty was placed on his head. This unit may have been loyal to the CIA at one point. But right now, they are working for their own personal agendas and Brian is caught up in the middle of this death and destruction. The members of this team pick each other off one by one in order to claim a bigger part of the grand prize for this man's capture. Brian is working against the clock to find a way out of this mess while he is still on NZT. He has to turn these people against each other while still being wary of the man with the target on his head. It does turn out to be a very bloody day out in the woods. Two members of the team are shot point blank while the third has his throat slit. That's horrifying stuff that Brian sees out there. He has to cling to life as the Czechian trades Brian's life for the poisoned NZT pill. It's a weird moment but it's enough of an explanation for how Brian could emerge from all of this virtually unharmed. He just has to wait for Rebecca and the team to find him.
However, Brian is only able to cope with the events of this episode by relying on the tropes and themes of the Ferris Bueller movie to explain his world at the moment. It provides the show with plenty amusing stylistic details. It also keeps the episode from being as intense as its main story would have been without it. The pairing of the two different styles in this hour is very deliberate. But it's not exactly meaningful. Brian has to find his inner strength in order to convince other people to kill just for him to survive. That's a nasty and dark thought that isn't adequately explored because Brian spends too much time complaining about how this day was suppose to be his day off. It seems to faze Rebecca much more so in the end than it does Brian. This was a traumatic experience. He should have some reaction to what has just happened to him. He almost died out there in the woods. But that's not important. The humor and the parody are. So that largely gets in the way of this hour being anything that can be taken remotely seriously.
Some more thoughts:
- "Brian Finch's Black Op" was written by Taylor Elmore and directed by Aaron Lipstadt.
- A new mystery is introduced regarding who authorized Brian being taken out into this mission. Naz vows to get to the bottom of it even though Brian and Rebecca are initially skeptical about her motives. Hopefully this won't be something the show just drags out endlessly. It's just not sustainable like that.
- Should anything be read into Brian seeing Rebecca as the Sloane to his Ferris? Does that offer a hint at him seeing her in a romantic way? Or is she simply the most important female figure in his life right now?
- Brian got very lucky that Rebecca demanded to speak to him while out in the field. That's the only reason why he is rescued in the end. If the CIA wasn't cooperative, Brian could have been out in the woods for a lot longer.
- There was a lot of fun on display here with the depiction of Brian's subconscious. Brian not only talked to one version of himself, he talked to two at the same time. And then later, he created his own version of Rebecca in order to assess the situation he found himself in.
- I guess it's a good thing that the FBI was able to figure out exactly what was happening with Brian. They are smart and capable even though they aren't on NZT.
- Most of the time, the show just went through the actions of its Ferris Bueller parody. It copied scenes but didn't bring a whole lot of value to the actual story being told here. That was especially true in the end with the Czechian boarding the school bus and Brian telling the audience that the episode is over.
