This’ll work! Trust me! 

— Obviously, things are bad when a comrade dies. Max wants to resign, Kirill blames himself for Yuri’s death, and nobody’s happy in general. Hell, the team might even disband. After all, Esperanza is practically dead, but not only that, some people think Seven-O might have been responsible for Bamboo Man’s massacre.

— Good ol’ Deana tries to cheer Max up in her own special way.

— I’m always amused when something amazingly lo-tech randomly shows up in this universe.

— Anyways, Milla or Valery — Deana keeps switching it up for no good reason — shows up to tell everyone that Kirill has disappeared. He’s decided to join the military, because he actually believes that Brian Cooper is an upstanding man.

— So we cut to Kirill hanging out with Cooper at the military base, and what we get is a huge plot dump to rival last week’s plot dump. Look, I’m not saying that that a longer series would’ve cured all of the show’s problems. Time isn’t a panacea to all of life’s problems. But would it have improved the pacing of the show? Probably. Would it have allowed the storytellers to rely less on plot dumps in the 11th hour? Probably. All I’m asking for is an improvement. I’m not saying that giving Double Decker twice as many episodes would magically elevate it to must-watch status, but it’s just become too cool nowadays for naysayers to automatically poo-poo everything.

— Anyways, there were humans before humans, and they left a wasted Earth and brilliantly decided to colonize a star. Yes, I realize that they’re not literally living on a star, but the idea that a colony would even be that close to a star is inconceivable to me. But whatever.

— Brian Cooper is also from this colony. More specifically, he is a genetically modified soldier. Despite leaving a wasted Earth for greener pastures, I guess the Nikai know nothing but war and conflict. So super soldiers are desperately needed, but they’re as super expensive as they are super strong. Aaaaand that’s how Anthem came about. Anthem is a quick way to induce evolution. A really, really quick way. Too bad the drug also causes people to go out of control. As a result, Nikai turned to the humans stuck back on the planet as their guinea pigs. That ranting lunatic was right all along!

— So what makes Kirill so special? He carries antibodies that can completely neutralize Anthem in his blood, so he’s an invaluable research specimen. But you know how it is. Parents are so protective of their babies, so they sent Kirill and his brother away to keep them safe.

— You gotta think also that Kirill is a threat to Brian Cooper, a.k.a. Bamboo Man. If his blood can completely neutralize Anthem, then his blood can also make the bad guy all too human.

— So Doug goes and calls a meeting, because he has discovered Brian Cooper’s secret. It’s all thanks to Apple’s creepy voyeuristic tendencies. Not only that, Zabel is still alive. Don’t ask me how.

— They’re not going to sit idly by and lose another one. Apple then reveals that he has found Yuri’s core, but it’s too damaged for him to fix. If I’m a betting man, however, I’d still bet on her returning in some fashion before the show ends. Just a hunch.

— Nevertheless, Yuri’s damaged core is important for the team’s motivations. Look, they’ve already lost one member. Seven-O’s not going to sit idly by and just let another member bite the dust. As a result, this might very well be Seven-O’s last operation. They’re going to rescue Kirill and hopefully take Brian Cooper slash Bamboo Man down in the process.

— Time to gear up for the raid boss.

— Travis is nowhere to be found, but he’s even helping team out in his own way. As a boss, I imagine he would have administrative nonsense to take care of so that his team can do what they do without consequences.

— I like Deana in general, but I hate her penchant for licking her lips whenever she gets excited. It just looks so trashy. I guess she’s sort of trashy.

— Hell, even Kirill’s landlord is getting in on the action. Don’t even try to logic it out. Just accept it. I half-expected her crazy cat to somehow be part of the rescue mission.

— Last but not least, the team ropes Derick into using his bar, i.e. the bus, to stage an attack on the military base. Basically, they’re going to pretend that surviving members of Esperanza are here for revenge, and in the meantime, Doug will try and slip away with Kirill. Poor Derick, though. He’s supposed to be retired.

— Unfortunately for our heroes, it doesn’t take long before Brian Cooper realizes what’s going on. Also, we’ve already seen how his alter ego Bamboo Man is practically superhuman, so there’s no running away from this guy. But Doug knew that, so he has a plan. A reckless plan. The good guys somehow fashioned a drug from Kirill’s antibodies (using his urine, actually). I’m amazed that they were able to do so in such a short amount of time. Again, more time would’ve helped this show’s pacing.

— Here’s the important part, though: Doug’s going to use Anthem on himself. ‘Cause look, even if you’ve got a special bullet to defeat Brian Cooper, you still need a way to stick the bullet in the guy. So what can you do but fight fire with fire? If the other guy is superhuman, then you gotta go superhuman too. Ever since this series started, I think we always wondered if the good guys would eventually resort to using Anthem to get the job done.

— Like I said, Deana’s kinda trashy. I still like her overall, though.

— Unfortunately, every good plan falls apart, especially when it’s not the last episode. Despite having no training or combat abilities whatsoever, Valery still insisted on following the good guys. I’m not exactly sure what he thought he could do to help, so of course, he simply got himself caught. What an idiot. Or more importantly, what lazy writing. Gee, how are we going to throw a wrench in Doug’s plan? I know, let’s just have Valery get captured somehow!

— Anyways, both Doug and Kirill are forced to throw down their weapons. But as soon as they do so, Doug takes a bullet to the chest. Brian Cooper proceeds to stomp on the special drug, so there goes that. All is lost, right? Well…

— I bet someone’s still going to use Anthem on themselves. Hell, it might still be Doug. The drug might be the only way to keep him alive.

— Just one more episode. I like this show. I’m gonna miss watching it every weekend. It’s just too bad it didn’t get more love, and as a result, the characters are not as well-developed as they could’ve been. And of course, the story has been a huge mess in the past two weeks. Just one crazy plot dump after another.