The team goes to Mars for their case in this episode of Stitchers — or at least a Mars simulation chamber. Was it his job or his time spent in abandoned warehouses playing video games that got the victim killed?
Elsewhere in “The Gremlin and the Fixer,” Kirsten, Cameron, Camille and Linus try to fix their relationships, to varying degrees of success. But just because a relationship seems to be back on track doesn’t mean that everyone’s being completely honest.
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Gaming Gets Violent
Their victim, an engineer at Aero Velocity Research (AVR), was found shot in the Mars simulation chamber. AVR has high-level military contracts, and there’s some concern that Jake’s murder was an attempt to get classified information.
Upon stitching in, Kirsten sees that Jake was having problems with two people: one after he deliberately messed up something the other person was working on, and a girl named Zelda in the middle of a gaming event in a warehouse. He was shot while leaving work and wrote something in the sand of the simulation chamber before dying.
At AVR, Mark informs Kirsten and Fisher that Jake took Mars’ communication satellite offline, and if they can’t get it back online and regain control of it, it will collide with space junk and crash to Earth. The government wants them to trigger its self-destruct before that happens in 48 hours.
Jake was hired as AVR’s “gremlin” to creatively and deliberately screw with the simulator so the rest of the team could know how to deal with the unexpected. Kenny, the “fixer,” was the one Jake was arguing with in the stitch, and they had quite a rivalry. But Kenny would rather focus on what Jake did to the satellite than answer their questions.
While Linus and Camille join Kenny at AVR to try to help him, Kirsten and Cameron check out their other lead: competitive video gaming. While Cameron watches the gaming, Kirsten checks out the warehouse’s back room and copies files off a computer. Jake was winning most of the matches against Zelda, and these events generate a lot of money. There’s no Internet access, so the entire gaming system is off the grid.
Cameron finds out from Zelda that the game they play isn’t available to the public and no one knows who created it. (It’s pretty obvious that Jake did, right?) She volunteers Cameron to play, and when he wins against a top player, D.K., he’s accused of cheating and a fight breaks out. As Cameron’s icing his face, Rick invites him to come back and then, once Cameron leaves, tells Zelda to find out what she can about him the next time he’s there.
The next time Kirsten stitches, she sees Zelda accusing Jake of cheating and Jake beating the game at AVR (all but confirming him as its creator since it’s not public?), being awkward about taking money from Rick and putting a satellite on a roof somewhere. She also learns that Kenny and Jake were in a relationship but hiding it due to AVR’s strict dating policy.
Camille brings Amanda in to uncover the message Jake left in the sand (before it was covered in his blood), and the ME does just that digitally: a pattern of some kind, not the name of his killer, as they’d hoped. Camille tries to use the opportunity to talk to her, but while she’s happy to help with work, Amanda feels that they’re on “different planets” and leaves.
After Kenny shows them Jake’s other work station at AVR, Kirsten uses the password she saw in a stitch to log in to the computer, and Camille finds 41 iterations of the game on it. There’s proof that Jake created it. Linus then finds that Jake made an addition to the end of the final level, but it’s encrypted.
The computers at the warehouse aren’t connected to the Internet, so how did Jake alter it from AVR? Linus figures out that the satellite isn’t offline; Jake pointed it at the warehouse and put a satellite on the roof next door. They have to re-aim that satellite before the 48-hour window is up, but why would he point it at the warehouse?
Cameron returns to the warehouse, and Zelda finds his badge in his jacket. After she shows it to Rick, the promoter has her return it before getting a gun. Zelda warns Cameron that Rick knows he’s NSA, but he’s not going anywhere.
Cameron has to win his match against Zelda to access the message Jake hid at the end before they have to reposition the satellite. After he informs Zelda, she tells him that the game is designed so that one player can’t let another win. If she takes it easy on him, the computer will take over her game play. But together, they beat the computer.
Using the pattern Jake left in the sand, Cameron accesses a video he left. Jake revealed that he created the game and Rick took advantage of his secret and threatened everything he cared about before turning him into a cash machine. Rick pulls out his gun, but D.K. knocks him down and Fisher arrests him.
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Some Things Can’t Be Easily Fixed
It just takes a couple of apologies to fix things between Kirsten and Camille after their fight about trusting Ivy, but the same isn’t true for Kirsten and Cameron. He betrayed her and violated her trust, and all Linus can suggest he do is be “nice.” (That doesn’t work.)
And as for the location of Kirsten’s mother, Maggie just tells her that the less she knows, the better. Their mission stays the same: keep stitching and keep mapping the brain until they have what they need. “I get to decide how my story ends, no one else,” Kirsten insists. But Maggie will never knowingly put any of them in danger, she later tells Cameron.
Still, Kirsten can’t stay mad at Cameron forever, right? She admits that while she doesn’t like being mad at him, she doesn’t know how to stop yet. She knows he didn’t mean to betray her trust, but they don’t know how to fix it.
Turning a Possible Problem into an Opportunity
Ivy finally reaches out to Linus. Amidst his rambling of possible reasons for why she was flaky, she says she did plan to tell him that they couldn’t happen, but she can’t now that she’s with him. As he’s wondering how he can trust her, she kisses him, and that’s a good enough start for him. But she looks worried as they hug.
Can Ivy be trusted? Maggie has had a PI (off the books) following her and has photos of Stinger at her house. But is that a problem or an opportunity? Fisher brings Ivy in (just as she’s leaving to bring Linus dinner), and though she tries to deny seeing her father, Maggie shows her the photos they have.
He came to her, Ivy eventually reveals (after finding out that, no, she won’t be getting a lawyer). He wanted her to help him, but she said no. Maggie’s not sure she buys the story, and what happens to Ivy next will depend on her. (They’re going to use her, aren’t they?)
Can Cameron and Kirsten get past his betrayal? Do you think Maggie will be able to successfully use Ivy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Stitchers season 3 airs Mondays at 9/8c on Freeform. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of Freeform)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
