A creepy, bandaged home invader has been killing folks…but nobody puts the fact that they have a serial killer on their hands until he kills a “chrome,” one of the Almost Human world’s genetically perfect citizens. “Chromes” don’t die of natural causes (this guy’s weapon of choice is designed to make it look like they died of natural causes), and suddenly, the case is linked to the mysterious and sudden deaths of seven other citizens. The only apparent connection? They’re all attractive. Perhaps you can see where this is going. In fact, what “Beholder” does dangle the tantalizing hint of, is just how much of a class divide there is on Almost Human. There are absolutely genetic haves and have-nots, and the “haves” are going to be considerably more successful, thereby perpetuating even greater material divides. You think there’s a 1% and lack of class mobility now? Imagine when the wealthiest can make absolutely certain that their children are genetically superior, and their success becomes practically predetermined. Hell, Almost Human could probably build an entire season around this premise were they so inclined. In fact, that sounds like a much more interesting pitch for a show: a broken down cop with a cybernetic leg and an outdated android partner protect and serve a genetic elite that distrusts and looks down on them. This isn’t the kind of thing you introduce and dismiss in a single episode. The central tech of the episode, a plastic surgery program gone horribly wrong that actually performs these surgeries from the inside via nanobots, may not be the deepest well, but it gets the job done. The villain, obsessed with his idea of perfection, is continually recreating his face for…his own purposes (who is this guy, Michael Jackson?). His unwilling accomplice is a doctor he has blackmailed. Even the necessary prep for each surgery (a shot of synthetic adrenaline) comes in handy in the expected fashion. Sometimes these simple tropes work, and they do here…until they go and ruin it. What’s worse…what happened to the mysterious implanted memories in Dorian that seemed so ominous last week? What about Rudy and Dorian’s friendship from his deactivated days? What about John Larroquette’s character who went over “the wall” (which got its first mention since that episode)? If this is indeed the episode that was intended to be watched right after “Disrupt” it sure does everything in its power to ignore it. That had better be one hell of a finale, next week.
