Review: The Names #5-8
Previously in The Names 1-4
The Names #5: The Surgeon’s Cut - Part 2
Detective Guzman reluctantly agrees to help Stoker catch The Surgeon. There’s some kind of personal relationship here that influences her decision to help, though she isn’t comfortable with all the murder and mutilation. Her first stop is to visit The Surgeon’s cover family - a wife and child who are Stepford-like in their weirdness.
The Dark Loops are still infecting several world markets, causing crashes and riots. This makes Stoker even more desperate to get his hands on Philip.
Once Katya is able to get Philip to focus on the task at hand - and not talking about her naked body, which he has memorized in the few moments he got to see it - they are able to watch snippets of the video Kevin left for them. Unfortunately, just as he’s about to tell them what he discovered that got him killed, two of Stoker’s men rush in and shoot the laptop. After Katya does what she does best - kicks ass - one guy is down and Philip shoots the other in the head. With blood and brains and all over her, Katya mourns the loss of the information on the laptop.
They escape, and later fight over what Kevin did: Katya still loves him and wants to avenge him, and Philip is butthurt that he lied to them all those years. Katya is checking into a motel when Philip runs off, looking to get laid since seeing her naked left him… riled up. He finds a prostitute who lures him to an apartment where he sees… his mother.
Number of Times Katya Had to Jump Up Someone’s Ass: 3 (“If you’re so smart, fix the fucking computer!”)
The Names #6: The Surgeon’s Cut - Part 3
A secret meeting between financial geniuses becomes a massacre when The Dark Loops attack and infect them all, causing them to kill each other. Some were members of The Names. Again, the pressure increases for Stoker to find Philip. He gets a call that Flaherty has been communicating with doctors via eye contractions (I have no idea how that works). His message: She’s one of his.
Philip’s reunion with his mother (assumed dead all these years) isn’t going well. She’s in The Names and she wants to know where Katya is. She shoots him and ties him to a bed before placing a call to The Surgeon. Luckily for Philip, it’s going to take him two hours to get there.
Meanwhile, Katya has a run-in with the pimp of some hookers who saw Philip earlier. As most run-ins with Katya go, there’s lots of blood and pain. She’s arrested, but as soon as her interrogation gets started, one of the detectives receives a call. The person on the other end threatens to take away her home if she doesn’t let Katya go. Katya is released.
Stoker calls Katya and tells her where she can find Philip, but he warns The Surgeon is also on his way. Katya arrives just as Phliip’s mother, Tara, is beating the shit out of him. Katya is able to get the best of Tara when Philip distracts his mother by yelling he figured out what The Dark Loops want. Katya breaks Tara’s neck, but The Surgeon shows up moments after (of course!).
He’s in the middle of delivering an evil monologue when his head is blown off. Stoker to the rescue!
I’m loving how many strong - even if they’re evil - women this series has. Kevin’s secret training has really paid off because Katya is a machine. Did NOT see The Surgeon dying so soon - or at all, really - and the way it was done was fantastic. Reminds me of how a certain anti-hero in The Wire dies.
Number of Times Katya Had to Jump Up Someone’s Ass: 4
The Names #7: The Dark Loops - Part 1
Stoker finally explains to Katya that they’re not sure who - within The Names - sent The Surgeon after her husband, but he knows Kevin’s programming was used to make him commit suicide. They realize Flaherty’s “she’s one of his” message must have been talking about Tara. Speaking of Tara, she’s not dead! She’s run off - with a broken neck! - and kills a woman and her son to steal their car. She makes a frantic phone call to alert “them” thatThe Surgeon is dead.
Katya and Philip allow Stoker to take them home so they can get cleaned up before going to The Names’ facility. Philip is still unforgiving of his father and doesn’t understand how Katya can still care about how he died. She explains how her father his family with nothing. Kevin was there for her when no one else was, and even though he lied and died for it, he made sure they were both provided for in the process. This is great insight into who Katya is and what’s important to her. She really did love Kevin.
We learn a bit more about Stoker’s relationship with Guzman: they’re sleeping together. He asks her to tell The Surgeon’s family that he’s dead to see if maybe she can learn something - anything - about who he was aligned with.
Once Philip is allowed to study The Names’ system, he’s able to read their language, but they’re not able to get into his mind like they did with all the others. Katya wants to pull the plug on this whole operation, but Philip is convinced that figuring out the key to The Dark Loops will help them find who ordered Kevin’s murder. Katya then follows her own lead: Kevin must have been killed because he realized Tara wasn’t dead. Maybe Katya can get The Facilitator - who they learn faked Tara’s death - to tell who ordered it. Their encounter is violent, of course, but he eventually tells her it was Flaherty who ordered him to fake Tara’s death.
While Guzman is delivering to bad news to The Surgeon’s wife, his son attacks her from behind. When she wakes up, Tara is standing over her. Tara calls Stoker and demands Katya or she’ll kill Guzman. Stoker immediately agrees to give Katya up. Damn.
Number of Times Katya Had to Jump Up Someone’s Ass: 3
The Names #8: The Dark Loops - Part 2
Katya tries to talk Stoker out of turning her over to Tara. She calls Philip, thinking he’ll refuse to continue work on The Dark Loops if any harm comes to her. He has to think about it way too long and Katya is taken to make the swap: her for Guzman.
But Philip calls his mother as the exchange is being made and recites an equation which causes her to have some kind of seizure. She eventually gets away in a hail of bullets. Seems this was Philip’s solution to their problem and it worked.
Speaking of Philip, he has quickly - too damn quickly - become involved with a girl at The Names’ facility. Cass is a high-functioning Aspie and wants to make out with him. Someone needs to tell this kid what it means when something is too good to be true.
Tara’s people target Sydney (Katya’s friend/personal trainer) and his murder is Guzman’s next investigation. She delivers the news to Katya and then makes a case for them working together. Katya smartly agrees.
Of course, Cass turns out to be not just with The Dark Loops, but she reports in to someone and it looks like she IS a Dark Loop.
Number of Times Katya Had to Jump Up Someone’s Ass: 2
