Emergence Review: Killshot Pt. 1 (Season 1 Episode 12)
Emergence Season 1 Episode 12, “Killshot Pt. 1,” sets up the end of the season with its penultimate episode.
It’s awkward to talk about what “Killshot Pt. 1” does because the previous episode, “Applied Sciences,” did a lot of the same things. The way both episodes go about telling their individual stories is different, but both have an overall sense that they’re building up to something.
These two episodes are trying very fervently to get us to whatever place we really need to be for the finale and that’s not necessarily the show’s fault. You need to arrange the dominos so that you can knock them down. That’s not the problem.
ALLISON TOLMAN
The issue is that it feels like the show has been setting things up for a while now. The sameness of these episodes is allowing them to blend together a bit too much. That doesn’t do the series any favors. In fact, this episode still runs into the same problems as the last in that there isn’t a lot of time to really deal with anything.
“Killshot Pt. 1” brings a lot of the mythology into the forefront — which is understandable since it is a substantial part of the show — but it’s doing that at the expense of its characters. The episode hardly has the room to reckon with ideas like what Jo had to do to get Piper when this is exactly the episode to do that.
Since this is operating as the first of a two-part episode, this is the section where, yes, you set up the second half but you also let characters take a breather and have a little time to sit with some of the things that came previously. After that, you dive into the more explosive second part that will close everything out.
ALEXA SWINTON
Neglecting to follow that tried and true template for this kind of episode is a big part of why it doesn’t work as well as we’d want it to.
That being said, what we do get in terms of world-building is actually really interesting while still being vague enough for the show to potentially retcon itself if it needs to in the future. It helps to explain how A.I.s like Helen and Benny came about but still leaves it ambiguous to how that truly connects to Piper’s creation and the utter similarity in their designs.
This is the kind of thing where the show is relying on our well-earned trust that it will someday fill in the blanks on developments like Russian or Chinese spies having the designs for A.I.s. This lack of specificity doesn’t always work but it does in this particular case where we don’t necessarily need to know about the exact origins of this technology.
ROBERT BAILEY JR.
That’s something that the show can get to a later point when it becomes more relevant to the story but can be left as it is for now, which shows the writers’ patience.
Ultimately, it’s hard to say how good or bad this episode is because a lot will be colored by how well the second part is executed, regardless, this is a fine enough outing for what it is.
What did you think of this episode of Emergence? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Emergence airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.