Minority Report - S1E9 - Memento Mori

Previously on Minority Report, ‘American Dream’

There are a lot of dark moments in this episode since a bunch of the events they’ve been hinting at start to come to fruition, but I just want to say that if you don’t watch this show for anything else, please watch for Stark Sands singing Sexual Healing. The one moment of true levity and kinship this week was Vega, Dash, Akeela and Wil(mer) drinking beers and singing karaoke, and I nearly shed a tear at how far my babies have come in nine episodes.

“I don’t approve of what they do”

We all knew Minority Report was moving in this direction, but Vega and Dash finally have to confront the truth: the government wants the precogs back. The cold open is Agent Blomfeld (Reed Diamond) showing his superiors everything he has done to find Memento Mori … which is exactly nothing except build a new milkbath tank to hold the precogs. Since Memento Mori doesn’t leave any online traces, Agent Blomfeld thinks the precogs are the only way to stop this group. Apparently good old-fashioned detective work is outdated if you can’t use tech to track criminals. Essentially Blomfeld just admitted he’s bad at his job. Luckily Arthur is on to the government’s plans.

Unfortunately, Arthur is hampered by Dash’s insistence on continuing to use his visions no matter what. This time the intended victim is a senator who is working on genetic improvements for people in utero. Obviously, the senator has enemies because some people think the program is creating GMO humans. But this case puts Dash and Vega directly in the DIA’s crosshairs because the threat is actually coming from the Memento Mori operative, Dr. Gray, who we saw steal the book from evidence last week.

Arthur wants Wil(mer) to blackmail a senator into stopping Blomfeld from resurrecting the pre-crime program. But Blomfeld has other parties willing to kidnap the precogs either way. When Vega realizes how close Blomfeld is to tracking them down, she asks Dash to stop. It’s a beautiful scene where Vega admits that she’s still a cop and needs to be able to do her job without the visions. She also admits that she used Dash and now she knows it was wrong. It shows great character development and even having these scenes with everyone in one room illustrates how far these characters have come.

“You’ve done enough”

Of course Dash doesn’t listen to what anyone is telling him and goes to Wally’s to look at his vision again. The DIA shows up at Wally’s house to find out if he knows where the precogs are and that sends Dash back to Vega even more determined to help. I think Dash has a hero complex. This puts more pressure on Vega. Wil(mer) wants her to dump him and Vega’s seriously considering it, if only for Dash’s protection.

The attack on the senator is carried out and they manage to catch Dr. Gray, who is rather willing to talk. He tells them that Memento Mori is a group of scientists and academics whose goal is to stop governments from playing with human life by showing them how the same science can be abused. Humans are supposed to die and be vulnerable, and we can’t keep using science to stop that. Earlier Dash even said average life expectancy is 104 years old.

“Put them in”

The episode ends with the senator dying and the threat that if the senator’s proposal goes through, more attacks will follow. Also Agatha shows up at Arthur’s after fleeing from the DIA. The milkbath is imminent.

Mentionable Mentionables

• Again, the karaoke scene. It was wonderful. I watched it 5 times.
• I feel for Wil(mer), but I don’t. He was determined to find out Vega’s secret because she was outshining him and now he’s ended up in this precog conspiracy. I believe there’s a saying about curiosity and a cat …
• Memento Mori is using the same science that the senator is championing for terror attacks to prove a point. It’s typical villain logic, but like most good villains there is a nugget of truth to what they’re saying.
• Vega’s interrogaion of the MM operative was skillful. You can definitely see how she was a rising star at the police department before she started working with Dash.
• I wonder if they’ll continue to talk about the way the police and DIA are relying on pre-crime and Hawkeye. Obviously you want to prevent attacks, but it seems like these departments are inept at their jobs without tech and these predictive systems.

Future Tech

• Vega and Dash visit a meat processing plant. Suffice to say that in the future the cows are safe but at a cost to us.