This week’s episode of Touch is brought you by the number 5991.
So, if you remember last week’s episode of Touch, you know that this is going to be one wild ride. Unfortunately, none of the questions we want answered will actually get answered, and we are left with even more, but whatever. There’s always next episode!
But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Let’s start with Lucy waking Martin up in the middle of the night to show him her internet research that she taped on a wall… because… I guessed she learned from TV that’s what you don’t when you can’t solve a problem. She starts piecing together that Guillermo Ortiz, the mysterious man in her photo of Amelia’s birthday party, is after a certain type of person, and wonders, despite Claudia Corliss’ death at his hands, that maybe he was the one that saved Amelia from Aster Corps three weeks ago. Naturally, Martin disagrees, says so, and then takes Jake to school.
While the story splits into the usual three stories, Jake narrates about how some storms build over days and weeks, which is a very telling sign of what is to come in this episode. It also my favorite thing about every episode, hence why I mention it.
When Martin drops Jake off at school before he goes to meet Calvin Norburg, Jake gives him a piece of paper reading 5991, and then Jake’s phone begins to ring, which Martin confusedly answers. On the other line is Avram! Did you forget Avram? Finally, after four episodes, he’s back, and he has jokes to tell Jake. Martin hands over the phone to Jake, and Jake laughs. Understandably, Martin thinks this is a breakthrough, just like when Jake held his hand.
So Jake leaves Martin, carrying an red umbrella which is really only mildly important later on (it rains), but a good reminder of the Jake’s narration of storms.
Unfortunately, Guillermo Ortiz is in New York and overhears Avram’s half of the conservation with Jake, and he knows that Avram knows where the Bohms are.
The A Story (How Martin’s Pants are Constantly on Fire and No One Seems to Notice)
Martin has Malory Cane’s red passcard from the last episode, and he goes to infiltrate Aster Corps and download all of Calvin Norburg’s files, which Calvin is positive that Martin won’t be able to access. Armed with a map and explicit instruction to avoid Tony Rigby’s office (because his best friend is still understandably angry with Calvin’s actions in season premiere), Martin finally gets into Aster Corps.
Naturally, when Martin finds that the servers aren’t where he needs them to be, he does a beeline for Tony Rigby’s office because for some reason that makes sense to him. Unwittingly he exposes himself and probably his son, as well as Calvin by doing this, though its obvious at this point that he doesn’t care for Calvin Norburg whatsoever. He tells Tony that he told Calvin that he was writing a story about Aster Corps committing crimes, like kidnapping and attempted murder, but he’ll change that to a story about Calvin becoming delusional for a price and access to Norburg’s files. Tony agrees, and Martin congratulates himself on being so gosh darn clever, though I think it’s safe to say this will bite him in the butt later on.
By the way, the secret password to get into Norburg’s hella encrypted files? 5991. Thanks Jake. Martin finds information and proof that Norburg was the one that stole Amelia away from Aster Corps, and informs Lucy of this fact via phone while he confirms the birth date of Adeliene Danvers and Amelia are one in the same.
During this time, unbeknownst to Martin, Norburg figures out that Martin isn’t Martin Bishop, but Martin Bohm, Jake’s father. The two meet each other at the gun range, and discuss with one another what the other knows. It ends with Norburg telling Martin that if anything happens to him or Amelia, Jake will be taken out as well. We won’t know what Martin is going to do with this information until the next episode.
The B Story (How Christians and Jews Still Can’t Agree on Doctrine)
So, as mentioned in the introduction, Avram is being followed by Guillermo, who was peeved to find Martin and Jake Bohm gone from New York. He’s even more peeved that showing the doorman that he carries a photo of an eleven year old boy doesn’t get him the information he needs, which is a forwarding address. But really though, even if he had that information, he’s still probably going to not tell you and then report you to the police.
Anyway, Guillermo sneaks into Avram’s apartment in order to try and find information, and Avram comes in and doesn’t seem to notice that his might-be murderer is there as well. He puts away orange soda (which seriously makes me wonder if he isn’t apart of the 36 somehow, and he’s the only one who knows it) and then walks out of the apartment seemingly unaware that Guillermo was there at all.
Guillermo later confronts Avram for information concerning the Bohms, which Avram refuses. Later, in a fit of what I consider to be a strong case of the I-want-to-be-Keifer-Sutherlands, Avram breaks into Guillermo’s room at the Middleton Hotel (room 5991) and discovers that Guillermo’s true purpose, which is that he murders the 36. Guillermo comes in, finds Avram in the room, and pretty much tells him so.
To Guillermo, who just professed to being a Jesuit, the 36 are obstructions to God’s true pattern, and to Avram, the 36 are proof that God exists. Annoyed that Avram won’t give him the information he needs, Guillermo throws him against the wall, but is unable to kill him. Avram assumes this is because if he kills someone other than the 36, it means he is a murderer. Guillermo leaves without the information he wants, and Avram lives another day to stiltedly deliver information in that Avram-ish way of his.
The Multitude of Auxiliary Stories (How Everyone is a Little Storm Just Building Up to Make One Really Big One):
The auxillary stories start with the nameless man who has been watching Amelia over the last few episodes looking for a pinball/pachinko machine, and bemoaning the fact that no in LA seems to be any good at being on time, or understanding basic things like “no electricity”. We find out that he wants this pinball machine so is completely random, and there are is nothing Amelia could sense that would suggest to her the outcome of certain balls. It is also suggested that she can control electrical impulses, but that is not really expounded upon.
Later, he and Frances hook up Amelia to a machine and map her brain while she predicts where the balls are going to go, which she gets 91% right. This part of the story ends with an ominous fact that Amelia is teaching the super computer to be smarter, and we get a closer hint as to why Amelia stays with Calvin Norburg when she probably can escape, and just what he’s using her for. They also note that if they had Jake, their project would be finished in half the amount of time. What project though? Personally, it sounds like they are trying to make Skynet, though based on Calvin Norburg’s last statements about ending world hunger, that’s probably along the lines of where he is actually headed.
During this, we find out that Frances is Norburg’s mom, which makes me happy if only because I’m desperate to understand Frances’ part in all of this.
The second story revolves around Jake getting a girlfriend (the talkative Soleil), finding a lost bunny rabbit, and accepting being touched by other students. Lots of other students, in fact. It seems that Jake is progressing, and that promise of him speaking at the season premiere is likely fast approaching.
The last story is Lucy, of course, who goes to Breakwire in order to find out more information about Guillermo Ortiz. Martin tells her about Norburg having Amelia, and takes the information that Martin gives her and takes it to the police, who quite understandably don’t believe her. When Martin comes home that night, she lies and said she never went to the police, while he lies about ever meeting Calvin Norburg that day.
All of this ends with Jake’s narration about storms. He states that when a perfect storm hits, all one can do is “acknowledge its awesome power, and hold tight.”
So hold tight, folks. It looks like next week’s episode is going to be on hell of a ride.