"Counterpart" is a sci-fi drama that officially premiered on January 21, 2018. Starz released the first episode (pilot episode) two days ago for everyone to try.
According to the introduction, this " espionage thriller with an abstract turning point " feels quite appropriate after watching the first episode. Compared with the "parallel world" played in the middle and later stages of "Edge of Crisis", "Relative Universe" obviously puts the The rise of the parallel world is the core setting, and based on this, an undercurrent spy war drama has been launched.
The play is starring J. K. Simmons as two characters (a common supporting role in Hollywood, the year before the "Boom Drummer" made him really famous), Harry Lloyd (the "second brother" Wei in "Game of Thrones") Seris), Olivia Williams (although she is almost 50 years old and still has a lot of charm), Nazanin Boniarty (the beautiful Farah in "Homeland") and others starring... familiar faces Not a lot.
The "unremarkable" story
The opening scene is a massacre hidden under a fireworks show. The killer "Baldwin" kills an entire room and disappears, leaving only the shivering prostitute locked in the bathroom as a survivor...
As it turns out, Baldwin, who was thought to be a man, was actually a woman, posing as a prostitute, Jin Chan, to get out of her shell and use a slower-than-bright blast to kill the last agent.
At this point, the world's drama has come to an end, and it is not difficult to see that the technological level of this world is slightly higher than that of today's society .
Then the story came to another world. The male protagonist Howard Silk was an honest office worker. His daily work was to pass through layers of security checks, enter a special room that was tightly sealed, and read with the staff from the other side. specific words.
Although the things brought out by the two sides are specious, it can be guessed that this is a fixed procedure that the two worlds have to carry out every day, mainly to exchange and test information, so as to identify and determine the similarities and differences in the development trajectories of the two sides.
From what Howard has seen and heard in the office area of "Director" Quill, the level of technology in this world is slightly lower than that of today's society.
In this sci-fi background, it is about a very ordinary middle-aged (old) crisis : Howard has been employed for 29 years, but he is still working in the Interface Department. He heard that there is a vacancy in the Strategy Department. He plucked up the courage to take the initiative to apply to his boss, Mr. Quill, but still got nailed.
The conscientiousness of the past 30 years was not taken seriously, and Howard had a small emotional outburst - not to mention that he was not valued, he didn't even understand what his job was doing.
By the way, the person who got the position in the strategy department was Marcel, a colleague who usually talked to Howard. He was younger and more "capable".
The career is stagnant, and life is also extremely miserable : his wife, Emily, was in a coma after a car accident six weeks ago, and Eric, the unpleasant brother-in-law, gave an ultimatum, saying that he would bring Emily back to her family in England. To go to the end, this is equivalent to taking away his last concern.
Howard was unwilling to agree, but also "dare not" to refuse, so he could only resort to procrastination...
The moment that changed his life came - the next day at work, Howard (1) was suddenly brought into the interrogation room, and then witnessed by Aldridge and his boss Quill, who was in charge of the house, from the other side of the world. Compared with the submissive self, the other Howard (2) has the unequivocal superiority temperament in his gestures.
There is a strict visa time limit across the world, this Howard B just hurriedly said a few words of "dangerous, to cooperate" and then left...
Faced with a puzzled Howard 1, Quill had to explain: Thirty years ago, during the Cold War, an experiment was done in this building, and something went wrong. Something happened to the scientists on the east side. They opened a passage directly below us. You go through this door, and you enter the other side...another world, exactly like us.
The same historical event, the same experience... but, after the door opened, the paths of the two worlds began to fork, and as time passed, the more and more the points became.
This building is equivalent to adding a cover to the door, and they exchange information with the people on the other side to collect intelligence.
The implication is that the unnamed institution Howard works is a management organization that maintains and monitors the balance and change between the two worlds - at least it seems to be.
After that, Howard 2, who crossed the border again, revealed more details: there was an infighting in the leadership on our side, there is a force that may want to take over the overall situation, I don't know who, but they are tough, determined, and don't care much about diplomacy... …Now, even those on your side are in danger.
Quill and Aldridge wanted to report to the "fourth floor", but in the mouth of Howard 2, the upper floors of World A were also infiltrated.
In order to prove his remarks, Howard 2 also revealed his true identity: ostensibly a person from the Department of Foreign Affairs (Diplomacy), but in fact he belongs to the Second Bureau (Section Two) - the department responsible for establishing a secret intelligence network on the other side .
If you really want to think about the overall situation, you people in World A should follow my plan obediently, and don't startle the snake.
Until then, Howard 2 came out to find Howard 1's purpose: just to borrow the identity of the other party, because the killer "Baldwin" from World 2 is likely to assassinate Emily from World 1. As for the reason, it is probably to give Howard 2 a little color lo and behold...
So Howard 2 went to the hospital to visit his wife instead of 1, waiting for an opportunity to kill Baldwin, but the plan fell short, and Baldwin was injured and fled, and everyone could only think about the long term.
This seemingly uncomplicated story is not that simple. Almost all clues are not explained, but all hidden under the calm water.
[The second paragraph is temporarily missing. 】
A zero-sum game like Go
"Relative World" highlights the element of "Go", which is very oriental philosophical . Whether it is the opening OP or the main drama, there are black and white games.
Howard A likes to play chess with a young man outside his work relationship. From his "chess skills", we can see what kind of person he is.
On the surface, Howard A's chess skills seem to be not good, and he always loses to the opponent, but he is not annoyed at all. Instead, he says "even if he loses, he can play good chess", which shows that he does not care about winning or losing.
The young man put forward Howard A's question in a straight-forward manner: You are too good, so the ending is always the same, and sometimes I think you are deliberately letting go.
It is basically certain that Howard A's chess skills are very high, and he can completely win against young people, but he thinks "lose defeat" is more interesting and educational.
After learning about the existence of Howard B, Howard A told the young man something new.
Apart from playing chess, the two didn't have more interactions. Because of this, Howard A felt at ease and regarded each other as the object of his heart.
Is life a collection of choices?
Just like in Go, you make a move, I respond with a move, and the more I move, the more the reaction changes... We change all the time, and those choices define us.
Young denies Howard A's idea.
"It doesn't matter who we are or how we choose, you are you, I am me, and this game of chess will only have one result ."
Go itself is a zero-sum game. One side wins and the other loses. Young people, based on their own understanding, naturally rejected Howard's ambiguous idea. If someone loses, someone wins. This is the truth.
Howard A can only sigh lightly and say "too young".
In his opinion, if the direction of the chess game is controllable, there will be at least two different endings, and if conditions permit, he wants to go to the third outcome of "win-win".
Tigers don't show their power, you treat me as a sick cat
The most controversial part of this episode is the reason for the failure of the ambush mission. Baldwin became suspicious because Howard A did not reveal the details of the flower to the nurse to Howard B. Combining the details of the front and rear clues, it can be determined that this is Howard A's intention.
As early as when Howard B introduced Baldwin's situation, Howard A had written down the most crucial point: the killer gave up when he saw something different.
When Howard A told the other party about his words and deeds about visiting the hospital, he started with the trivial and irrelevant "reading", and the most obvious "buying flowers" habit was not mentioned at all.
It was not until the way to the hospital that Howard A "suddenly remembered" and got out of the car to buy a bunch of flowers to make up for his habit.
These words and deeds seem to imply that buying flowers is just a trivial matter.
When Howard B got off the car and was about to walk into the hospital, Howard A temporarily told the other side the name of the nurse on duty - since he was able to mention the nurse carefully, he could not forget the details of inserting a flower.
Regardless of whether Howard B greets the nurse after going upstairs, as long as there is no flower arrangement, the strangeness will actually appear, and the effect will be slightly different.
Sure enough, Howard, who was "kind-hearted" in the eyes of the nurse, suddenly became another person with "cold eyes".
Howard A made it clear that he wanted to make a difference, but he couldn't make his intention too obvious... So he was able to achieve such a "paradoxical" degree, and he had already controlled the situation to the slightest.
Because of this, Baldwin did not step into Howard B's trap.
As for why Howard A did this, there are too many reasons - first, this operation used his wife as bait, he was unwilling to take this risk in his heart, and it would be best to let the killer retreat without knowing it. , Second, Baldwin has killed Marcel, and her actions are not all detrimental to him, which leads to the most important third point, if Baldwin is killed by Howard B, then he will not use it when he goes back value, you need the failure of the other party to continue your special value.
So after Howard A went back, he immediately asked Quill for a promotion, and also proposed to have a full right to know and understand the details of the real action.
Don't talk about "rules" with me, now I'm not the little clerk who came and went after calling me, but a special person you need.
To be clear, the two Howards are theoretically the same person. Howard A has become the current "good guy" because of some choices made back then. This does not mean that he cannot do the things that Howard B can do. He has this ability, He just didn't take the chance... Now, his chance has come.
full of lies
Under the surface of the seemingly straightforward story of "Relative Universe", there is actually a turbulent undercurrent, which is full of all kinds of lies, and no one is honest.
On the surface, Marcel advised Howard A not to waste time and worry about his position in the Strategy Department. In fact, he was worried that the truth that he had obtained the position would be exposed too early , and the atmosphere would be stiff.
After Howard B came to World A, he found that Quill and others wanted to report the situation to the fourth floor. He immediately threw out the news that "your fourth floor may have been infiltrated", but never mentioned his identity in the second game or any infiltration related It's one thing to keep the information, but I don't believe that what he said before and after is the truth .
The people in world B don't trust the authorities in world A, they really are each other , because Quill and Aldridge also don't trust each other, they have always been obedient to Howard B, except for the title on the visa, mainly because of what the other party has revealed so far. There is nothing wrong with things. As a passive party, they can only watch the changes and get more information... Once there is an uncontrollable situation, they are happy to kill people.
And in the face of another self, Howard B also lied a lot.
He said that he usually doesn't listen to music - but when "The Dark End Of The Street" played together in Howard's house A and the bar in World B, he was immersed in the singing and silently hummed "You and me" The best proof.
Not only do they share the same musical tastes, but their wife, Emily, is still alive - this is obviously another lie told by Howard B.
From some clues, Emily is likely to be a colleague with Howard, and the one in the B world may be in the same high position as her husband... Therefore, Howard B's sentence "Assassinate Emily is to show himself a little color. "Obviously there's a lot of water in it too.
The most powerful is Howard A. This honest man who seems harmless to humans and animals did not lie before the ambush. He just kept some facts and changed the order of telling the truth, which also achieved the effect of lying...
And Quill is still explaining that "usually there will be a foreknowledge of the contact between the two parties", and when he is worried that Howard A has some psychological barriers, he is already thinking about how to use this opportunity to get the best benefits for himself.
The relationship between the two parallel worlds is closer than expected. Although different space universes have been formed, changes on one side will obviously affect the other side... The two Howards have more in common than imagined , although the two seem to be on opposite sides from the beginning, it cannot be completely ruled out that they have the possibility of joining forces...
What the truth is, we still need to decipher it next time.
The beauty of the first episode of "Relative Universe" is that the essence is buried in the dark. If the following stories can maintain this level, I believe that next year's must-see drama list will definitely have its place.
[Depressed, the full text has not been published, and I have not told where the content is prohibited. 】
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