Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 4 of Almost Human, titled The Bends, where a friend of John’s is implicated as a dirty cop in relation to a dangerous drug called The Bends. As John tries to clear his friend’s name, he gets help from an unlikely source. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on The Bends.
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Almost Human, Season 1 Episode 4: The Bends Recap Overview
Need a quick Almost Human episode recap of Season 1 Episode 4, titled The Bends? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed Almost Human episode recap for The Bends if you need more information!
- A man brings his drug cook to meet with the Bishop, a major distributor of the drug called the Bends. The man is exposed as a cop, and both he and his cook are shot dead. It turns out Kennex knew the cop, whose name was Cooper. Kennex insists he was a good cop, despite evidence to the contrary.
- Cooper‘s police captain, Alexio Barros, talks to Maldonado, who says she has to pursue the case. Cooper’s wife, Kelly, says that Cooper had been up at their cabin the night of his murder. John and Dorian check out the cabin, and find the recorder Cooper‘s wire had been transmitting to.
- John and Dorian convince Rudy to pose as a cook. While Stahl and Richard work with Rudy on his alter ego, John and Dorian apprehend a low level drug dealer named Tony Hand to broker a meeting between the Bishop and the new cook.
- They get the meeting with the Bishop, and send Rudy in, after he drinks a substance turning his body into a GPS locator. Rudy cooks 95% pure Bends, and the Bishop comes in and has him drink a substance counteracting the GPS locator. Stahl identifies the Bishop as Gavin Maxwell. The team moves in, but Rudy is gone.
- It turns out Maxwell isn’t the Bishop, Barros is. Maldonado calls Barros and they are able to locate him. Barros realizes something is wrong, and Rudy runs away, but gets shot in the arm.
- Rudy hides, while John and Dorian come in shooting. Barros escapes into the tunnel as the android blocks their shots. Dorian then fights and kills the android, while John fights and kills Barros. Rudy is applauded by the precinct, and goes with John and Dorian to celebrate at a cop bar.
Almost Human Episode Recap: The Bends, the Details
The Bends Deal Gone Bad
Season 1 Episode 4 of Almost Human, titled The Bends, begins with Rudy in a lab, looking nervous. He opens a pipe, and steam rushes out, allowing him cover to run away from some guys who chase him, and shoot him in the arm.
Flashback to 24 hours earlier. Kennex and Dorian are at a Japanese restaurant. Dorian wants to leave, but Kennex says in Japan it’s rude to leave without finishing a meal, and insists on eating every bite. In Japanese, Dorian orders a live slug for Kennex, and he is obligated to eat it, to Dorian’s amusement.
Elsewhere, a man calls his wife, and her image appears on his hand. He tells her he’s grocery shopping, but when he hangs up, he meets a guy in a dark alley. An android scans him for weapons, and says he’s clean. The man then introduces his “cook.” The man with the android calls his boss to alert him of the man’s arrival with the cook. The boss, apparently named the Bishop, comes in. The cook tosses a sample to the android, who drinks it, and says that it’s 84% pure. The Bishop says he’s going to have to see him cook first. Then the Bishop seems to get a call in his earpiece, and suddenly shoots the cook dead. The Bishop uses a scanner on the man and then stabs something into his stomach, pulling out a subcutaneous wire. It turns out the man was a cop. The Bishop shoots him dead.
The next day, Kennex and Dorian arrive at the scene of the double homicide. Richard shows them that they found drugs, referred to as “The Bends,” in the dead cop’s trunk. Kennex knows the dead cop, whose name is Cooper. Kennex says he was a good cop, and there’s no way he was dirty. However, Dorian points out that Cooper wasn’t registered on any undercover operation. But then they discover he had been wearing a subcutaneous wire.
Cabin in the Woods
Back at the precinct, Alexio Barros, the police captain of Cooper’s division, has arrived to speak with Maldonado. Richard suggests to Kennex that Cooper was trying to boost his own profits of the Bends. Cooper’s wife, Kelly, comes by to talk to John and Dorian. Cooper never told her anything about the case he was working on, but she insists Cooper is innocent. When they ask about any changes in routine, she informs them that the night Cooper died, he had been coming back from a cabin his father owned, as he had been fixing up the fireplace.
Meanwhile, Barros tells Maldonado that Cooper hadn’t been actively undercover for months. Barros believes that Cooper was conducting a rogue investigation without the department’s permission, and someone was trying to make him look dirty. However, Maldonado informs Barros that they found an account under the name of Cooper’s dead father with large deposits and withdrawals. Maldonado tells Barros she has to pursue the case. He asks her to let him know of any developments.
John and Dorian go up to Cooper’s cabin. When they get inside, the place looks ransacked. John searches the fireplace and finds the recorder that Cooper’s wire was transmitting to. They bring the recorder back to the precinct and listen to it with Maldonado, Stahl, and Richard. They are pleasantly surprised that Cooper got a meeting with the Bishop, though Richard thinks it was only because Cooper was working with him.
Rudy Steps In
Later, Maldonado informs Kennex that there have been 25 cases of Bends overdoses, with 5 dead already. Kennex suggests that they finish what Cooper started to catch the Bishop, and that he’ll pose as a cook. Maldonado doesn’t go for it. However, he has someone in mind with chemistry background: Rudy. Kennex and Dorian tell Rudy their idea, and tell him he’ll be under full surveillance the whole time. He agrees to do it, and already has some ideas about what disguise he wants to wear.
John and Dorian visit a bar in search of Tony Hand, a low level dealer for the Bishop. John tells Dorian to wait outside, because they don’t like androids. However, John promptly gets thrown out the window. John goes back in and asks Dorian to come in this time.
At Rudy’s lab, Stahl works up a fake criminal background profile for Rudy, who will be known as Callum Waites. Rudy comes out wearing a suit, fedora, and round glasses. Although Stahl says she likes it, Richard immediately says, “No” about the hat. They get back to work quizzing Rudy about his alter ego.
Back at the bar, they throw Tony out the window, and find the Bends in his possession. John asks him to broker a meeting between the Bishop and the new cook. In exchange, Tony asks John’s help in dismissing charges against a friend of his. He has Dorian immediately do so.
Richard roughs Rudy up a bit to simulate a real life situation, but Rudy pulls through in correctly answering questions posed to him about his alter ego. Richard tells Rudy to keep his lies as close to the truth as possible. Rudy then tries his hand at cooking the Bends. However, he forgets to add an ingredient, and a piece of equipment flies off and takes out the eye of a nearby android.
Rudy Disappears
Back at the precinct, Tony informs John that he has set up a meeting with the Bishop. As the team gets Rudy ready to go in, John reminds Rudy that he has to get the Bishop to say that he distributes narcotics. Rudy tries to put on his fedora and glasses, but John says no. Rudy then swallows a liquid that will make his body into a GPS locator. Then they send him in.
As he walks down the alley, he puts the fedora on his head. Richard is dressed as a homeless guy in the alley, and releases two cockroaches that follow Rudy, which are actually cameras. Inside, the android we saw at the beginning scans Rudy, and only finds a flashlight. The bearded man with the android introduces himself as Cruz, and Rudy introduces himself as Rudy, which makes Cruz suspicious. Then Rudy recovers, and says that his name is Callum Randolph Waites, Rudy for short. John decides to go in to help save the mission, but Dorian volunteers to go, and will shut down all his com relays.
Dorian knocks on the door to bring Rudy his glasses. The android opens the door and seizes him, recognizing him as a DRN police bot. But Rudy says they were decommissioned and he got this one off the black market. Cruz allows Dorian to stay. They have Rudy cook the Bends, and when Cruz’s android tests it, it’s 95% pure. The Bishop walks in and applauds him. Stahl uses facial recognition software to identify the Bishop as Gavin Maxwell. Gavin leads Rudy into another room, and has him drink a white substance. It turns off his GPS tracking. The team moves in, but Rudy is gone.
The Bishop’s Identity is Revealed
Maxwell brings Rudy to the real lab. Meanwhile, John and Dorian punch and question Cruz, who has been shot, and ask where Rudy is. Cruz says he doesn’t know, but he tells them that Maxwell isn’t the Bishop, and that no one meets the Bishop. Stahl tells the others that the police department only developed the solvent that provides GPS tracking and that which counteracts it weeks ago — which means they must have someone on the inside. They bring up Maxwell’s criminal profile and discover that Maxwell’s case was thrown out by Barros. Barros is the Bishop.
Just then, Barros comes into the lab and meets with Rudy. Maldonado calls Barros to update him that they searched Cooper’s cabin but didn’t find anything. From the phone call, they’re able to track his location. After Rudy tells Barros about his passion for cooking the Bends, Barros decides to hire him. He has his guys call the guys at the other site, but no one answers, because they’ve been shot and killed. They try again, but still no answer. They know something must be wrong. We are then caught up to the scene at the beginning of the episode, with Rudy running away, but getting shot in the arm.
The Bishop Gets What’s Coming to Him
Maxwell and another guy try to follow Rudy’s blood trail, but Rudy is hiding. John and Dorian go inside the building, and start shooting. However, the android is blocking Barros, and Barros is able to escape into the underground tunnel. Dorian tries to help Rudy down from his hiding place, but the android grabs Dorian, and they begin to fight. It seems that the other android has bested Dorian, when Dorian is able to use a piece of machinery to dig a hook into the back of the android’s neck, and pull his head and spinal cord off his body. Meanwhile, John goes down into the tunnel, finds Barros, and attacks him. As Barros is about to hit John with a metal rod, John shoots him in the legs. Barros starts spouting off stuff about him being a stupid cop, and burying John like he did with Cooper. But John shoots him dead.
At the precinct, everyone applauds the great job Rudy did. Rudy seems ready for his next assignment already. Cooper’s wife, Kelly, stops by and thanks John for not giving up on her husband.
In the final scene, Rudy hops in the backseat of John’s car, because Dorian promised Rudy they would take him out to celebrate. John reluctantly agrees to take them to McQuaid’s, a cop bar, but not without giving them a few ground rules first, such as not embarrassing him. Rudy hopefully asks if there’s any chance they can get into a bar fight, but John and Dorian emphatically say “No!” in unison.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 4 of Almost Human: The Bends
Honestly, I was a little bored and disappointed with this episode up until about halfway through, because the show is seeming like just another procedural cop show, which I’ve never been much of a fan of. But then, something happened that saved this episode for me, and that something was Rudy. I found his antics and awkwardness, as well as the other characters’ response to such, to be humorous and entertaining. He also proved that he is able to work well under pressure, and could be a valuable asset for the precinct in the future, even though they didn’t seem too eager to give him another assignment. I wasn’t sure how big of a role Rudy would continue to have in this show, but after this character building episode for him, it looks like he’ll be a fairly major player, even if he will only remain their science tech reference guy from here on out.
Other than that, I was a little offended that this episode looked like it was trying to ride the coattails of the success of Breaking Bad. There were so many similarities between this episode and Breaking Bad that were too obvious to have merely been a coincidence. Not only did the episode bring up more than once a cook, and the ability to make the drug more pure, percentage-wise, but the cook wore a hat that looked somewhat similar to the one worn by Heisenberg/Walter White, and also wore glasses. There was also a subpar lab at first, and then a much nicer, state of the art lab was provided later. It would be one thing if someone on the show made a comment referencing Breaking Bad, but to do it this way just made it seem like a rip off. Between the second episode, Skin, which looked like it was trying to cheaply gain viewers by using scantily clad woman, last episode, Are You Receiving?, which apparently ripped off Die Hard, and this episode, it makes me question the show a little.
Further, I was again disappointed by the fact there still has been no more mention of Syndicate or John’s former girlfriend. Is it ever going to come up again? Or do we have to wait through a whole season of one-off episodes before it’s brought up in the season finale? I hope it’s brought up again soon, because I’m feeling the need to have something tie these episode together, rather than each episode be stand alone episodes unrelated to every other.
Josh’s Thoughts: Almost Human , Season 1 Episode 4: The Bends
I thought this episode of Almost Human was pretty good, although a bit too predictable. As soon as the police captain Barros was introduced. But still, the ride was pretty fun. There were some comical moments, as Rudy tries to provide some “flavor” to his cover story that seems to be a resounding “no” from anyone hearing about it–especially his insistence on a fedora. The show also seemed to be trying to coast on Breaking Bad‘s success, with bringing up an “expert cook”, and discussing the purity of the drug. That part seemed a little forced in my opinion, but didn’t bother me too much.
It was kind of nice seeing things not go quite as planned, although I was a little confused–when Kennex had to take down some of the Bishop’s men, it didn’t really seem like they were concerned that Rudy’s cover would be blown as soon as anyone tried contacting these compromised men. I guess there wasn’t much that anyone could do though, considering they weren’t sure exactly where Rudy was taken at that point.
The end scene was pretty cool, although a bit cheesy when it came down to a robot versus robot fight and the two cops are forced to face off. Also, I am curious about the investigation into Barros’ death. We do not know the exact laws of this futuristic society, but Kennex did shoot a surrendering suspect. That seems like it would be a punishable offense, and with the technology that the cops have in their time, I would think it would be fairly easy to prove that this shot was not in self defense. I am curious to see if this is addressed or not.
I am curious when Kennex’s girlfriend will pop back up, as we were given this seed in the pilot, but so far it hasn’t flourished. I guess maybe the show is trying to establish its footing. All in all, I am excited to see where the show goes, and am hoping that we get some connecting stories soon. I guess what I would really like is to somehow link all of the cases we have gone through as part of the “Syndicate” that Kennex seems to bent on finding (although, lately he hasn’t even made mention of them it feels like).
Scenes from Almost Human, Season 1 Episode 5: Blood Brothers
Here are scenes from the next Almost Human episode, titled Blood Brothers:
What did you think of Season 1 Episode 4 of Almost Human, titled The Bends? Let us know in the comments below!
All these unrelated episodes are fine by me. I’ve liked all the ones I’ve seen so far. I hear that there might be a second season after all, so I’m sure they could develop his old girlfriend and the syndicate then.