Sense8 - S1E11 - Just Turn the Wheel and the Future Changes
Previously on Sense8, ‘What is Human’
You know how a lot of video games ultimately boil down to using a bunch of abilities against a final boss? Like the bulk of the game is spent gaining those new abilities and mastering them before moving on to gain even more, and when the final fight happens you have to use all of them in order to win? The end of this episode left me feeling a lot like that. The Sensates have had quite a lot of time to get to know each other’s abilities, and now it’s time to use them all against the Big Bad Boss… in this case, Whispers.
But before they do, there is still a few loose ends to clear up. I’ll have lots more to say about the series as a whole next week, but for now, let’s set the stage for the final encounter…
After collapsing at her father’s concert, Riley is now unconscious in a hospital bed and mentally reliving the accident that caused the death of her newborn child. Riley’s father is there next to her, gently playing songs to her, while an unseen Will and Nomi keep her company.
Nomi, of course, is in San Francisco. She and Amanita are trying to plan their next move when Bug decides to show up. Bug—the guy who gave them the hacking equipment a few episodes back—regularly monitors police reports, and saw that they confiscated everything he had given them, and since he owes his life to Mike—err, he means Nomi—he wants to help them reload. It’s good to have friends.
In Seoul, Sun is woken up in the middle of the night because she has a visitor… her brother, Joong-Ki, who tells Sun that their father has killed himself. Sun sees right through him, though, and knows that Joong-Ki has killed their father because he did not want him to tell the truth. Sun beats the snot out of her brother, and as the guards pull her away, she vows that she will make him pay.
A world away, Rajan asks Kala point blank whether or not she still wants to marry him, while Capheus is taking Silas’ daughter, Amondi, to his partner Jela to watch after her. He’s got some shit to do, and is visibly nervous about it. But when Amondi asks if he’s coming back, Capheus confidently says that Van Damme always comes back.
Capheus drives the Van Damn bus to the headquarters of the rival gang, who, a few episodes back, implied that they wanted Capheus to bring them Silas’ daughter because Silas had The Boss’ sister killed. The gang runs toward the bus excitedly, but the bus is empty. Capheus says he wants to settle their debts like men, who have no need to involve a child. The Boss is not pleased, and swings a machete in Capheus’ face, laughing when he flinches.
The Boss has a surprise for Capheus, and motions for one of his minions to bring out a bound Silas Kabaka; they were going to make him watch as they tortured and killed Amondi. But since Capheus has failed to deliver, they’re going to force him to use the machete to hack off Silas’ head. Silas sobs, and pleads with Capheus to make it quick. With shaky hands (and a gun to the temple), Capheus takes the machete and the gang begins to taunt him and call him a bitch.
Suddenly we’re with Sun—the skinny bitch—and she’s furious. She’s taking out her frustration on the wall of her cell. “Call me a bitch one more time,” she says…
“…and I will kill you.” She’s taken Capheus’ place, and easily hacks up the gang members. With most of them either dead or incapacitated, Capheus takes Silas onto the Van Damn and drives off. But The Boss wakes up and orders the survivors to chase him.
In Berlin, Wolfgang is also driving a van. He pulls up to the hospital’s parking lot and beats in a guy’s face so that he can sneak up to Felix’s room. Wheeling him out and into the van, he has decided to take him off the radar and pays a doctor at another institution to watch over his friend. The friend’s name? Conan.
He drives to his Uncle’s house, but before pulling into the drive Kala appears and pleads with him not to do whatever he is about to do. But Wolfgang grabs the gun and says there are things she won’t understand about his world, just as there are things he doesn’t don’t understand about hers. Kala says that she does know, that’s the whole point, but as long as Wolfgang’s Uncle is alive nobody he cares about—like Kala (d’aww)—will ever be safe. They kiss, and Wolfgang tucks the gun in his jacket and pulls the car forward.
Kala, meanwhile, has returned to the site of Papa-Ji’s incident. There are people there who welcome her and thank her for bringing “The Defiler” to the location so they could “touch him.” Anger overtakes her, and suddenly Will takes her place and pushes the men back. “If I ever see any of you here again,” Will/Kala says, “I will show you what violence looks like.”
They run away, and Kala thanks Will. It occurs to me that this might be the first time Kala and Will have visited each other. Rightfully so, Kala asks Will where he is, and he tells her that he’s in Chicago, but his thoughts are somewhere else. Then they both visit Riley in Iceland, where Will tells Kala he is afraid that they’ll soon figure out what Riley actually is.
Indeed, the nurses and doctors are going over her brain scans and saying they’ve never seen anything like it. Meanwhile, Riley is still mentally reliving her accident and is thrashing about despite her sedation. Will looks on, completely helpless, but Nomi appears and tells him that hacking is what she does; she can help.
In San Francisco, Will visits Nomi and learns that she has created a decoy for herself in Australia to throw off the authorities. As they begin to come up with a plan for Riley, Jonas appears and tells them they are out of time, because Whispers knows about Riley… because Riley knows Will, who knows Jonas, who knows Whispers.
Well, crap.
Back in Nairobi, Silas tells Capheus how grateful he is. Van Damme seems to be doing pretty good for himself, but they run into a traffic jam. Worse, the gang is catching up to them. Silas asks if Capheus keeps any weapons, but Capheus says no… except Will, who quickly takes his place. When the gang approaches, Capheus/Will leans out of the window and steals one of the gang member’s guns, buying them time to turn the bus around and head back the other way into oncoming traffic (bringing to mind that awesome scene where Trinity does the same in The Matrix Reloaded).
Capheus tries to lose The Boss, who has given chase on his motorcycle, but the Van Damn is just too clunky. A shoot out ensues, and for a moment it looks like Capheus might have gotten away, but then The Boss appears a ways in front of him—he wants to play chicken. Capheus says, “let’s settle this,” and puts the Van Damn into gear. Screaming toward each other, Capheus swerves at the last minute, letting the painting of the real Van Damme deliver a final poetic blow to The Boss.
Safe once more, Capheus brings Silas back to his daughter, where the two have an emotional reunion. I was worried about Amondi when she was first introduced, but unless everything goes down the tubes in the final episode, it looks like she is going to be okay.
Kala, shaken up by her encounter with Papa-Ji’s attackers and by the knowledge of what Wolfgang is up to, sits at work crying. Sun appears, and tells her that crying won’t help. When Kala asks Sun what she would do, Sun says that she would take everything she is feeling and push it into her fists… then fight for it.
And with that, the episode ends and we’re ready for the final chapter of season one.