Incorporated Season 1 Episode 4 Cost Containment Review

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel again this week, and today we will be covering Incorporated season 1 episode 4, Cost Containment. So as we open up this week, we kind of leave off with a scene from last week's episode, and that's when the recruiter from the Spiga Corporation is making Elena an offer. And basically what she's discussing is that someone beat her out for the scholarship, and she's telling her— basically it's more in-depth about what the conversation was about. The offer she made to Elena, all the background information she had on Elena, and she's still trying to convince her that this may be the only option she has to become an escort for the higher-level executives beyond the 40th floor. So Um, again, in this scene you're pretty much getting a recap of, uh, what happened last week. Um, and, um, her father comes out. Ben comes in to try to, uh, stop the, uh, incident from escalating because, uh, her father has pulled out a gun. He's, uh, telling them to exit his establishment, that his daughter will not be an escort, and Ben is trying to calm the situation down. So we kind of move on to the next scene, and basically the young kid, um, in the front running away is Theo. It's a young version of Theo, and You know, we recall Theo is the brother of Elena, and what, what was going on, uh, how we got to this scene is, um, Elena's father won't be able to come up with the necessary funds to keep the restaurant open, to keep his, uh, business open, and so Ben figures out a way, uh, for them to, uh, get the necessary funds. And Ben is basically using his tech skills to manipulate what appears to be a currency market, and they exchange money. It's kind of like how you play the, the stock market or the commodities market. And they take advantage of price manipulations amongst currencies from, you know, one currency to another. And Ben is able to use his computer hacking skills to basically hack into the system right at a certain time Theo was exchanging money so the value of it would go up. The problem is Theo was actually caught, but Ben makes everyone's currency go up, so everyone floods the market to collect their money, and they're able to escape as they've been pretty much discovered, you know, what's going on, that they're trying to, you know, basically hack the system and run a scam. So whilst all the confusion is happening, Ben and the younger version there, Theo, are able to escape with the, uh, the money. And basically it's $20,000. It's enough money to cover Elena's father, uh, problems with his business. So this is a scene where Ben is actually bringing Elena, uh, the funds in order for her to be able to pay her father's, um, uh, pay, uh, uh, financial difficulties. And what happens during the scene, uh, you know, what we get from it is, uh, Elena actually has good news, um, and her good news is that the runner-up for the scholarship that she was beat out for, she's found out to be cheating, or this person's— they find out this person's cheating. So that, uh, makes her eligible now to receive the scholarship. But when Ben is handing her this money, he basically wants them to take that money, buy some land in, um, areas, uh, in the United States that are hard to farm, hard to make a living at, but it's possible. And they want to take this money and, um, create a better life for themselves. And Ben wants Elena and her family to come along, and they all go together and do this. But after Elena has now become eligible for the scholarship and she can have a nice place to live in the Green Zone once she finishes school. Um, she no longer has to go, but she sees that Ben wants her to come. She doesn't want to leave Ben in the Red Zone, so she says she'll stay. But Ben, of course, won't let her stay with such a tremendous opportunity. He wants her to go on to the Green Zone so she can create a better life for her and her family. So unfortunately, um, and the show hasn't revealed who's responsible for this. We don't know if this is a, uh, situation with the Spiga Corporation where, uh, after she refused to be an escort, they've now, uh, kind of retaliated back in some form. By burning her father's business down. Not sure if it's them or not sure if it's Tino, who is the, I guess, the organized crime boss now that Ben works for in the Red Zone. And we don't get a whole lot of backstory about Tino, but we can understand he's quite dangerous because Ben's able to hold off the Spiga representatives by letting them know that, hey, if you fire on Elena's father, you won't make it to the border to get out of the red zone because I work for a powerful crime lord named Tino. And basically they'll be able to stop them. And so basically what happens, the restaurant's firebombed and the, uh, Ben, the, the $20,000 that Ben had put out for Elena to have a better life, that $20,000 is actually burned down. So, uh, it's burned up in the, in the flame, so they, they're, they're unable to recover the money needed to keep her father's business afloat and going. So in this next scene, um, we got Ben Larson and we got Laura, and they're, um, in talks with a doctor because what's going on is, um, they are, they are still making plans to have this baby, but Ben doesn't really want to have this baby, and what I'm getting from the show is the reason that Ben doesn't want to have this child with, uh, Laura is because he's still in love with Elena, and he knows that bringing a child into the world when he loves somebody else will not be a good idea. So Ben has concocted a plan where he'll take birth control where he can't have a baby. But to make it work, in this meeting, he's convincing Laura to have a natural childbirth, which in this future time, natural childbirths are very dangerous. Uh, nobody really has, um, natural childbirths anymore. They use gestators where, um, and, um, and so, you know, they don't take those, uh, um, you know, those, uh, they don't, uh, you know, put themselves in, in, in the situation that could be harmful in any way to themselves or the baby. And so, um, Ben, he, he has already put this plan into motion, and he's, uh, he's hoping that she'll agree to the natural childbirth so he can take the birth control pill so that the baby won't actually be born. So, um, this is a meeting between, uh, him and, um, and I'm still having trouble with, with this person's name. Every time I remember it, I seem to forget it. Um, But this, of course, is the gentleman that he met in the Red Zone, and they were able to basically infiltrate the Green Zone together. And this is who Ben goes to in order to secure the birth control pills so that he's able to not have a baby. And of course, this gentleman here— and his name will come to me in a second, I'm sure— Um, his name is mentioned, you know, not very much in the show, uh, but, um, basically he's letting Ben know, hey, we got somebody snooping around on you. It's actually Roger Kaplan from last week's episode who stole Ben's keyhole, and he's letting Ben know that, uh, he knows about Elena. Uh, he's after, um, you know, that if the information in order that he can use against him. And, um, you know, that he actually came down to Ben's ally here, or the person he works with, his, uh, his, uh, department, and he requested, you know, all these classified files in which he was able to stall him, but Roger's getting very close. And so Ben is basically, uh, you know, letting, uh, his friend here know that go ahead, give him the files. Uh, what I'm going to do is I'm going to hack them, I'm going to delete them, and I'm going to actually put a tracker on them so I can know what exactly he's up to. And at the same time, um, um Ben's friend here is, you know, basically still trying to convince him, hey, you know, you're taking a lot of risk here. Um, you know, you're, uh, you know, he basically still wants him to go have the baby with Laura and not do this, but Ben just can't do it because he just can't let Elena go. So here's Roger. And Roger is still trying to gain access to Ben's files on Elena because he really wants to find out what's going on with this, get to the true story so he can use it at the right time in order to secure his promotion over Ben. And, uh, he's actually already, uh, spoken with his father, uh, because he wants to go there himself and speak with Elena to see if he can get information directly from her. Uh, but he doesn't have access. He's not, uh, upper-level management. He's not an executive high enough to get access to those floors. However, his father has those type of connections because his father's company is a direct supplier for the Spiegel Corporation. And we also find out that Roger is, uh, basically kind of, uh, trying to work his way up through the Spiegel Corporation, and he's telling his father he's doing that in order so that he'll be able to help advance him even further through his business endeavors. So this was the plan that Ben had put into motion, where he would make it appear to Roger like he has the files and access to them, but instead he hit a tracker and, um, in the file that Roger was accessing. So now Ben's able to track everywhere Roger goes so he can, uh, you know, figure out what he's up to, get an idea of what he's doing, where he's going. And, uh, he puts that in motion and he's able to now see every move Roger makes. So this is a meeting with Roger and his father, and this is basically, uh, kind of a, uh, some business negotiations going on amongst themselves where each one wants something out of the deal. And basically what Roger's father is telling him is he can arrange the meeting with Elena that he can't get him up into the executive levels, but he can have her brought down for a certain amount of time in order for Roger to have this meeting with her. And but that his— Roger's father's letting him know, but it's going to cost him a lot. And, uh, what he wants from Roger is he wants Roger to speak with his brother because his brother is— I guess Roger has an open channel still to his brother, and his brother is living, uh, in his father's house still. And his father wants him out because his father has went on and remarried another woman, and she doesn't want his son in the house because what's happened to him is he was genetically modified to be very intelligent, to be almost perfect. And the upgrade, it went horribly— something went horribly wrong with the upgrade, and it actually ended up damaging Roger's brother, who I believe his name is Mitchum. Mitchell or Mitchum, and it's basically made him almost like he's autistic to a degree. He's, uh, very, um, uh, withdrawn now, and he, uh, very intelligent, but he, um, um, an area of his brain has been damaged to where he has no emotions, so he's basically like a computer. Or something to that degree. Uh, and, uh, so Roger's father wants him to, um, basically convince him to go to a treatment center that can help him get the, uh, you know, get better and get the help he needs. But he refused to leave the home, so Roger's father wants him to basically convince him to leave. And that's, uh, part of, you know, of, you know, on his end of the bargain. That's what he has to deliver for his father securing this meeting between him and Atlanta. So this is Mitchum or Mitchell, and you can see he's, uh, you know, basically very withdrawn. Uh, he never leaves this room, he never, uh, talks hardly, and, um, you know, he's basically, uh, very hard to reach. And so, uh, you can see how he's just making these repetitive, uh, uh, doing these repetitive, uh, you know, his paper folding. And, um, it's called papier-mâché or something like that, I'm not sure, I forgot, it escapes me. But, um, Roger's trying to convince him to, uh, you know, leave and How the direction Roger's taking is Roger is basically saying, well, listen, um, I don't like father either. And this reaches Mitchum because he doesn't know that Roger doesn't like his father just like he doesn't like his father. So Roger is basically, um, basically kind of Uh, he's not— he's basically— the bargain he struck with his father and now this bargain that he's striking with, uh, his brother here, they're two different bargains. And so he's kind of like playing, uh, double agent, I guess, because he's telling his father that he's gonna rise up through the Spigot ranks so he can help his father advance, but he's actually telling his brother that he hates his father and he's going to rise up to the ranks to actually destroy his father. So his brother is all for this plan, and because of it, his brother does agree to go to this wellness center or this treatment center just long enough for Roger to execute the plan, in which Roger will give him the home, which is this large luxurious mansion. He will give him the house, you know, for himself. And so they're in agreement to run this plan against their father. So, um, this is a very interesting, uh, scene. You get Elizabeth and she's, uh, visiting, uh, the woman who defected from the, uh, Inazagi Corporation and She looks totally different, of course, because the facial transplants, uh, you know, have been finished. So she's looking like a totally different person. Um, and so now Elizabeth is visiting her because she wants her to deliver on her part of the bargain. And so what happens in this scene is that The defector finally begins to let her know what valuable information she had, uh, to give them during the defect. And it's basically a, um, I believe it's a, uh, there is a young gentleman who makes this extraordinary breakthrough, and I forget where he comes from, but They mention it, and basically what's happening in this future, in this time, is that they have problems growing crops. You know, they can't grow real food. They grow this— they make this like synthetic food. And part of the reason is they can't get fresh sources of water. You know, believe it or not, they just can't. Uh, you know, they're with the global warming, uh, idea that is um, part of this show, um, you know, we enter into the ideas of where freshwater supplies will run out and we'd just be stuck with a bunch of just saltwater that can't be used because crops can't handle the salinity or the salt in the saltwater. So, uh, they're having trouble with fresh supplies of water to water the crops so they can grow food. The valuable information the defector has is that there's a young man who's found a way for the crops to accept the salt. And so what they can do now is they can take these oceans of water that exist, take them throughout places in the United States where a lot of the, um, the, uh, um, uh, I guess maybe Midwestern areas of the United States is actually owned by Inazagi. But these places are basically, they're like dust bowls. Like you hear stories about the early 20th century dust bowls in Canada where it would destroy the crops. These big dust bowls would blanket the sky and smother the crops. And so that's how many states within the Midwest of the United States have become. And many of these areas are owned by the Inazagi Corporation, where she comes from. So she's explaining to Elizabeth that, hey, he's made the breakthrough where he can get the saltwater to take to these crops, and we can basically make this, you know, have this, uh, these, this land where it could feed, uh, millions of people, where they would basically rise to power and be the most powerful entity in the world with this breakthrough. And so this is the information Elizabeth gets, and now she needs to get to this, to this young man. All right, she needs to get to him in order to bring him over or stop him. Either way, they're trying to make plans now to locate him. But another very interesting thing happens in this scene as Elizabeth is leaving, and that is Elizabeth wants to know how the defector was even able to get that information, where— or to get the code to let her know that I want to defect, from the Robert Frost poem that we covered in the last, you know, episode, um, you know, which was about, uh, miles to go before I sleep, uh, and that's— it was— it's encoded to me now that I want to defect. So she explains— the defector explains to Elizabeth that the way she was able to come across that information is because she had an affair with Elizabeth's husband. And, um, you know, she says it's just business, but you can tell it's quite shocking to Elizabeth to know that her father had an affair with this woman. But there's also something a little bit more sinister, uh, in the conversation, or Elizabeth's reaction. And she lets off something to the effect of, uh, you know, take care of yourself, anything can happen, uh, and I forget her exact words, but it's almost like a, like a threat, right? You know, and, uh, you know, um, I don't know if they're going to show the scene coming up, but basically this woman's baby that she defected to save dies, um, and, uh, you know, it's just a little bit too, uh, you know, you know, beyond— it was almost like it was just too much beyond it not being, or Elizabeth not being some way connected to this woman's— this woman losing her child after the information that she gave Elizabeth and how Elizabeth reacted. And this is the scene where I guess you could say Elizabeth gives this concerning, uh, comment, uh, you know. And again, I can't remember exactly what she said, but it was just very, uh, disturbing because you knew that it was some type of reaction, uh, or, um, uh, and, uh a way to get this woman back for her having this affair with her husband. So now we jump to Theo in the Red Zone, and we know from last week that Terrence, you know, the, uh, the crime lord here in the Red Zone, that he actually murdered his main professional fighter after Theo was able to defeat him in the ring, you know, by, uh, you know, using, uh, his brain and cleverly being able to, uh, conceal the steak bone. And, um, so Terrence— or I'm sorry, Theo— is there to pick up his, his purse, you know, his purse. And it looks to be a pretty nice sizable purse for winning the fight. Unfortunately, Terrence isn't, uh, you know, in, uh, he doesn't have a very easy contract that he set up for Theo. So he's gonna give Theo the money, but he needs Theo to do something for him. And that's, he needs Theo to break a kid's leg, a basketball star who actually gets a scholarship, and he can now get out of the Red Zone, take his family over to the Green Zone. I guess it's pretty much like what we have today when you may have inner city children who, um, you know, are good at sports and they, uh, win a scholarship and now they're able to leave their, uh, the inner cities, leave poverty, and put the, uh, take their families and put themselves in a better situation. Well, that's the type of, uh, situation this kid's in, but unfortunately he beats a kid out for the scholarship that the crime boss wanted to have the scholarship. So now the crime boss's plan is to break the legs of the kid who won the scholarship so that the person he wants to receive the scholarship can receive it, because obviously the kid who he wants to gain the scholarship, some type of way he's indebted to the to either their family, some kind of way as he explains it. But, uh, that's part of how he wants things to go down. And he wants Theo to not only be his prize fighter now, but to be the shakeup guy, to be the enforcer. Uh, and so he's putting Theo in a very bad situation. So this is Theo's first meeting with the kid who's, uh, won the scholarship. And, uh, at first Theo was just going to do the job, get it over with, because, uh, basically, as I didn't explain what Theo's reaction to all this was, it, it was more or less like this is a non-negotiable type situation Theo's in as well. You know, he pretty much has to do this, uh, he has to do it to get his money, but he also, uh, has to do it because Terrence is a crime boss. And basically, he's, he's basically like a slave to Terrence now after the, uh, you know, the first episode, what went down with him, um, you know, uh basically being in competition with Terrence, or how that's how Terrence saw it. So he's now, um, uh, basically enslaved to Terrence. Theo is. And so Theo has to break this kid's leg. So Theo, um, has a blunt object, seems to be a pipe or some metal, and he's actually trying to hide himself and sneak up on the kid, but the kid catches him and recognizes that Theo is one of his role models, that Theo is someone he looks up to. And the reason that this kid looks up to Theo and he recognizes him is because he actually snuck into one of Theo's cage matches and he was able to see how good Theo was in the cage matches. And they— he's also describing and explaining to Theo how much alike they are, that they, uh, you know, are basically, uh, the same, you know, same situation, found themselves the same type opportunity in sports or fighting and, um, trying to, trying to make it out. So, uh, in that last scene, Theo just can't do it for a number of reasons. One being the kids recognized him, so if he tried to break his legs, Theo would, uh— I'm sorry, they would know it was Theo. So Theo tried— he concocts another plan where he gets the kid to go out for drinks with him. He tries to get the kid drunk. But, um, it, you know, it basically doesn't work out. Theo wants it to work, so Theo comes up with another plan. Well, hey, I got this money from, you know, winning my, my fight and this and that, and I want you to take this money and run because if you don't do it I'm going to have to, you know, we're going to have to break your legs or even worse. And so the kid understands what Theo was saying to him, but he explains to Theo, hey, look, where would I go? There's nowhere to go. This isn't enough money. Even if I were to go, this is not enough money you've given me to be able to survive. I would not be able to see my family again. They're all I have. I have nothing else. It's better that you break my legs and let me stay here with my family. And so he gives this very— basically, he's letting Theo know that he's a coward. And that he doesn't look up to him anymore. And, um, you know, this really bothers Theo, and it really makes it easier for Theo to go ahead and break his legs. And, uh, you know, it's just a very, uh, tough position they're both in. It's a situation where there is no way out, um, from Theo's perspective. Anyway, but I, I imagine from this kid's perspective that Theo could stand up, he could be courageous, he could try to fight, but Theo just doesn't believe that's possible. So of course, this is the very disturbing scene where Theo breaks the kid's legs. And finally, we get the meeting between Elena and Roger. But— or I'm sorry, she arrives at Roger's location, but Ben is there. Because the reason Ben is there is because he's, uh, uh, been tracking Roger. And so he tracks Roger there, but he doesn't know that Roger is going there to meet Elena. So when he sees Elena come out or come into the building and go into the elevator, he's just in such shock to see her because he's not expecting her to be on that level because she's not supposed to be there. So at this point, Ben really doesn't know what's going on. And although he's trying to make eye contact with Elena, I don't think she recognizes him. Or maybe she does, but she has to, uh, act as if she didn't see him. So my thoughts on this week's episode, well, there, there are a few things. First, with Elena entering, uh, the building, I'm wondering if Ben's going to be able to get a chance to have some interaction or contact with her, uh, and I'm just wondering, is he going to be able to put in motion a plan where he'll be able to, uh, have some communication with her, or maybe listen in on Roger's conversation with her. Um, and so really don't know, really don't know if they're, they're going to be able to have that time. The way it looks, that would be very difficult, and, uh, I don't know how he'd be able to do that. So I don't know, it may just be one of those situations or one of those scenes where you're just so close but yet so far. I also want to, you know, speak on the situation with Ben and Laura and the, uh, the very, uh, bad situation Ben's in with Laura. And, you know, you know, as I said on my, my first episode review, I was always wondering, was this going to be a love triangle? Because It would seem that with Ben, he really loves his wife from the Green Zone, Laura, but then he evidently still loves Elena. So we don't know if he's going to try to just grab Elena and run and leave her in the Green Zone. I just have no idea what's going to happen with that. Um, but it's also that Ben is playing Laura like a fiddle. I mean, he's really playing her. So, you know, again, as I had, uh, mentioned about this show, that this is a show where we have complex characters. We don't have good or bad characters. And the way that Ben's playing Laura, it just shows the complexity of his character. And this is part of what I like about the show. I do like the complexity of the of the characters. And, you know, just that Ben, it seems to be almost no limit to what Ben, you know, Ben's willing to go to, to rescue Elena, to, you know, to get, uh, well, I don't know again if the plan is to stay in the Green Zone and leave the Red Zone or some kind of way topple the entire system. But very good episode this week. Uh, they just get better and better. And, um, you know, um, it's just been an incline with the show, and that's why I still want to cover the show because, uh, I am really starting to enjoy it. Uh, last week I thought was good, this week was better. The week before last I thought was good, the week after that was better. So this show is really coming around, it's, it's really finding its own. And, um, if you, if you haven't started watching Incorporated yet, I I can give it a wholehearted thumbs up that you should watch it now. Before, I was kind of skeptical going, it's one of these sci-fi mediocre shows that they just throw on the screen and you have a different one every year or so. But, uh, this is, this is really making an impact and this is, it's really, uh, you know, gonna— I, I think if it keeps up at this level, it can be one of the best science fiction shows on TV. I mean, I think it's pulling in that in that area now. And so, gonna keep watching. Stay tuned for next week. We'll cover next week's review. And if something happens, you can't watch next week's review, maybe you're in jail, then break out!