Oftentimes in war, a side makes a choice to ally itself with those whose methods they may find distasteful in order to gain an advantage over its enemy. But once you decide to team up with your enemy, don’t be surprised when he turns the gun you give him back onto you.

Without warning, Julian gains access into ULTRA without raising alarms (we’ll ignore the impossibility of this) and begins laying waste to the command center. He finally gets tazed out and is strapped up as Jedikiah is ready to inject him with the power-removing serum when Julian offers up a golden carrot; give him the tools and he’ll bring in Cara, Jedikiah’s “white whale” and pesky new leader of the tomorrow people. Jed mulls it over and decides he has nothing to lose but he’s not going to let the super-powered psychopath free reign without some sort of assurances. He has a nice little time bomb injected into Julian’s nasal cavity; one that will make his head go boom if Jed doesn’t deactivate it within 18 hours. Think of it as quite the motivational tool.

Cara’s not looking too good after her one-on-one with Julian

At casa del Jameson, John’s cooking breakfast and gets a bit of ribbing from Stephen before the latter offers his friend some advice: quit being so stubborn and accept the fact that he belongs with Cara and the tomorrow people. John knows he has some things to really think about and when Charlotte dials in a telepathic line to him, he begins to realize the bond is still there. It’s the same way for Cara who, in less than subtle fashion, asks about John’s well-being via Charlotte. The pre-teen asks why Cara hasn’t brought John back yet and she responds that “you can’t bring someone in unless they’re ready.”

3 years ago…Cara using her powers to steal cell phones on the train; she meets John for the first time when he pulls his watch out of her pocket. He knows what she is and offers her a place to be safe and with her own people but, fresh off her experiences with Julian, she’s not going to trust a complete stranger, despite sharing the same powers.

In the present, Stephen goes to check on Astrid who’s very standoff-ish to her best friend, dismissing him rather quickly. Not long afterwards, she hits him up on Skype only to get a shirtless John. The two have some good back and forth banter with Astrid finally admitting she’s afraid to get out of the house. John brings the party to her, teleporting into her living room. It doesn’t take long for Astrid to open up. She’s afraid to be around Stephen after everything that’s happened and, unlike him and John, she “can’t run away from the bad things out there.” John takes it upon himself to help her out and “take a leap of faith.”

3 years ago…Things don’t work out too well for John when the distrusting Cara head butts him and jump out…oh, and she took his watch back.

Use the Force, Julian…

Stephen returns to ULTRA to find Julian gone onto his mission to capture Cara, who’s taking her people on a field trip for provisions. But Julian’s taught her everything and is there waiting for her. The ULTRA agents take down Russell and the others while Cara and Julian go one-on-one, a matchup that doesn’t go so well for Cara. After giving her a serious beat down, he puts her in a Darth Vader force choke and only Stephen’s interference allows her to break free. Knowing Stephen’s gotten her other people out, Cara teleports away while Stephen ‘just so happens’ to offer his help to Julian. They walk deeper into the store to load the prisoners—prisoners that are no longer there.

John and Astrid are riding on the subway and he reminds her that “Fear doesn’t have to own you.” The leap of faith is a literal one, with him coaxing her to jump off the back of the moving rail car. She puts her trust into him and he acknowledges what he’s asking her to do. “I know you’re scared, I’m scared too,” he admits. “But I’m right here.” They jump together and he teleports them at the last second and back into her living room. She hugs him tightly, offering her thanks for his help but suggests he follow his own advice.

Cara and Russell are back at the Lair and find out that Charlotte’s gone looking for John. In the ULTRA van, Julian and Stephen catch a powers blip in Stephen’s neighborhood but after what happened in the grocery store, Julian doesn’t trust Stephen and kicks him out of the van, hitting him with a tranq on the side of the road. Stephen’s able to warn John about Julian before he passes out but Charlotte’s no so lucky as she gets d-cuffed and hauled off by the mad tomorrow person. After making sure Stephen’s safe, John returns to the Lair to prepare his raid into ULTRA for Charlotte while Stephen makes his way to the site. He’s shocked that Jed would allow the sadistic Julian to terrorize the already scarred girl and Jed reminds Stephen why he wasn’t chosen for the mission; he fell in love with the wrong girl (Cara).

About the time Stephen is confronting Jedikiah, John’s back at the Lair. Cara can’t believe he would throw himself into such a hopeless situation but he tells her “I have to do this.”

3 years ago…After teleporting away from John, Cara’s ambushed by ULTRA only for John to save her hide. “I told you, we take care of each other,” he tells her.

For all his harshness, Jedikiah has a hard time watching Julian torture Charlotte but by the time he breaks it up, Julian’s got the info he needs. No more games, Julian wants a kill squad to take out Cara and Jedikiah obliges. Stephen’s able to get a warning to Cara who catches John before he leaves. Believing he can assist his people, Stephen volunteers to accompany Julian but the latter isn’t quite as daft as one would think. He d-cuffs Stephen and lets Jed know that if the bomb goes off, his nephew will be around to share the same fate.

Julian is in the Lair, ready to take down Cara and her crew

Using Stephen’s warning, Cara’s able to evacuate everyone to the safe house and requests that John go now but he’s not budging. She tries strong arming him with the ‘I order you’ line but he digs in further. “Can’t you see, this is where I belong; by your side, no matter what happens to us.” His admission drives Cara into his arms and she kisses him for the first time since their estrangement. Julian’s close and though John is strapping up, she tells him to put the guns away; she has a plan. With a de-powered Stephen at his side, Julian and the kill squad enter the Lair, believing Cara’s alone. But she’s not. Her, Russell, and John do some teleportation games that distracts and disorients the hit crew until they lead the ULTRA killers into a D-chip lined/bullet proof room. Julian and his team can only wait for the inevitable. He pleads with his former targets to let him go but they ignore his pleas and walk away before the big bang wipes Julian off the face of the earth.

When Stephen returns to ULTRA, Jed’s visibly relieved to see his nephew’s in one piece. There is an exhaustion to Jed and he laments on how much he wants this war to be over. When he tells Stephen they are sending Charlotte back to the Citadel, Stephen voices his disappointment. “You don’t know the first thing about being human,” he says before storming off. But Charlotte’s rescued from the horrible fate by Russell taking over the van assigned to transport her.

As things wind down, Astrid’s ready to take on the world again, John and Cara are going to rebuild what’s been broken—together, and Stephen finds remnants of his father’s experiments react to his presence.

Tomorrow’s News

  • The ULTRA/Julian team-up was a dysfunctional match from the beginning. Though Jed wanted Cara there was no way he’d allow Julian to walk away from it all with his powers intact, hence Julian using Stephen as leverage. In war, sometimes you have to do things you normally wouldn’t but a guy like Julian is too unpredictable even for a vicious commander like Jedikiah.
  • Well, it looks like the Cara/Stephen/John triangle has been resolved. Though there was some good drama going with it for a few episodes, it’s high time for them to move on to the bigger picture.
  • And then there are the electronic doodads that react to Stephen’s presence. Something tells me they are integral in either Stephen reaching his father in limbo, Jedikiah finding what he needs for the transfer of powers, or both. Of course, they could signify something much greater, something we have yet to entertain. Only time will tell…