Benny! No!
But also, yes! My emotions are all over the place after that midseason finale.
Wow, Emergence Season 1 Episode 9 pulled off one of the most incredible twists.
It’s a twist that is going to change the structure of the series moving forward.
The series had plenty of red herrings throughout the first half of the season ranging from Richard Kindred to Emily to the very recent addition of Agent Brooks.
We even suspected Benny in the beginning because of how eager he was about buddying up to Jo and getting involved in the case, but his efforts and his vast knowledge of Augur Industries became useful, and we let it go.
Benny: Just from personal experience, you can’t ghost the FBI.
Jo: Yeah, I know that. But I don’t have to make it easy for them either.
As Jo began to trust him, so did we, despite knowing we never should have.
But he was the only ally outside of Jo’s family. At times, he even knew more than they did.
There was no reason to suspect him of having malicious intentions.
But that’s exactly what Benny wanted. He had Jo right where he needed her this whole time, and she was unknowingly leading him to Piper.
The signs were there the whole time: he wrote about Augur Industries and Richard Kindred, he wanted to expose them, and he had pieces of a puzzle that Jo didn’t.
And it explains how those coming after Piper always managed to stay one step ahead.
There were even more subtle signs like Benny not suffering any damages after getting knocked out by Wilkins.
Though, I can’t explain why he was hurt after getting shot. Someone needs to do a better job of explaining how both Piper and Benny were treated by doctors and raised no red flags.
Benny remained close and made Jo trust him because everything she learned about Piper was useful to him and his cyber-terrorist group, Splinter.
He was simply waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
I felt just as hurt and betrayed by Benny as both Jo and Piper did.
Even when we saw him drive up to the abandoned gas station to meet “Jo,” I held out hope that maybe Helen somehow hacked his phone and led him astray making him believe that he was going to meet Jo.
You’ve grown fond of her. She is remarkable. A perfect construction in an imperfect world. Her design was stolen from us.
Helen
I was even ready to accept that he was being forced to do it or that he was doing it because he thought Piper was a danger to the world.
All of those hopes were crushed when Benny slapped the bracelet on Piper’s wrist, which dulled her powers, as it was revealed this was always his intention.
But the biggest betrayal of all — and a focal point of the episode that was driven through Piper’s observations of her “robot” self — was that there is absolutely no way to tell if someone is AI.
There was nothing distinguishing Benny from a robot; he passed off as a human in a house full of humans and a robot.
Piper may be advanced, but she’s not advanced enough to tell when she’s in the presence of other AI beings.
The reveal that Benny and Helen are just like Piper pulls the story in a new and unexpected direction.
Piper isn’t the only AI anymore; there are others like her.
How can we argue that she belongs with Jo and her family when she now has the chance to be amongst her own kind and advance in ways that Jo doesn’t understand?
Maybe Alan Wilkins’ warning about robots becoming too smart also subtly foreshadowed the future of this show: a battle between androids and humans with Piper stuck in the middle.
I don’t want to say that the show can’t sustain itself on the premise that Jo will continuously fight the people coming after Piper to protect her because Emergence has proven all the haters and doubters wrong many times.
But realistically, there’s no good reason for her to keep doing that.
What’s her argument now?
She cannot say Piper was becoming more human by spending time with them because Benny proved to be just as advanced by being aligned with Splinter.
Benny’s new agenda gives us the opportunity to find out more about the world he comes from and his background.
Was he created just like Piper? What’s his relationship with Helen? How many more of them are there?
When did Augur steal Piper from Splinter?
And what’s their ultimate goal? World domination? Do they want to live cohesively amongst the humans?
Unless Helen was lying to Ed, Splinter seems to be very advanced even yielding the cure for cancer.
She doesn’t belong to you. Shen never will.
Helen
It makes me wonder what else are they capable of.
As taken aback as I was by the Benny twist, I don’t think he’s evil.
Both him and Helens seemed genuinely concerned about Piper and voiced concerns about her harming herself or others.
Maybe they do have her best intentions in mind?
The episode was a rollercoaster of emotions as it directly put Alex in the line of danger.
I liked it better when he was sidelined.
Alex can take care of himself, he’s proven that much, but it was still terrifying to send him in against this hitman-like woman when they had no idea what she was capable of.
He also jumped into action very quickly after finding out the truth about Piper.
The episode kept being purposefully deceitful, which I didn’t appreciate because it made me question Alex’s loyalty.
I thought he was going to surrender Piper to save Ed, which I’m glad never happened.
Also, if you ever doubted how much this family loves Piper, Ed just made it very clear — he rejected the cure for cancer because he refused to sacrifice the girl.
For now, the circle needs to remain small. No one outside of Jo’s family can be trusted, especially not Agent Brooks.
After being clued into everything that happened, he seemingly aligned his efforts with Jo and helped her out, but seeing what Benny just pulled, we have to remain cautious.
When the series first premiered, it promised to give answers at a rapid pace and had a long way to go to prove itself, but this finale did the trick.
It did not disappoint.
The story progression has been swift — sometimes even too swift like with Kindred’s premature death and Emily’s demise — but they’ve never wasted a moment on scenes that didn’t serve the greater purpose.
The mystery has remained intact while the characters have developed and forged relationships and experiences that benefit it.
Emergence proved that there’s still room on network TV for a heavily serialized supernatural drama if it doesn’t leave audiences confused for episodes on end.
The series resumes on Tuesday, January 7 on ABC, so be sure to watch Emergence online and catch up on all episodes before then.
And now would be the time to suggest the top-notch mystery to friends so they can binge during the holidays!
I’m turning it over to you, TV Fanatics.
What did you think of the fall finale?
Did you expect the Benny twist? Did you consider that maybe he was a traitor?
Do you think they have ill intentions for Piper? Or will she be better off as promised?
Lizzy Buczak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter and read her personal blog at CraveYouTV.