Synopsis of 1×05: The conflict between Roger and Ben comes to a violent head, while Laura deals with trauma from her past.
Flashing slightly forward, Ben stands outside of Elena’s family’s restaurant as it burns, with no option but to watch the destruction as her father blames everything on him. In the present, it is clear that the sight of Elena (Denyse Tontz) has reverted Ben somewhat. He loses his composure briefly as he looks on at his first love, in anguish at the life she must live.
Using the technological abilities he has, Ben stops the violent interrogation of Roger Caplan (Douglas Nyback). As Elena is quickly escorted out, Ben furiously returns to his car, only to be called in to work for a presentation on a program he is creating which will allow the company to read the thoughts of employees.
In a storyline that is still not clearly tied into the overall arc, Laura (Allison Miller) participates in therapy in order to cope with some violent incident in her past. She meets with Julian (Denis Haysbert) to discuss it, alluding to whatever she endured outside the wall. Through this interaction we also must assume that Julian (much as was suspected when he informed a family of the death of their child) that he is in fact more complex than a mere torturer.
Roger continues in his quest to discover who Elena might be in order to uncover the truth about Ben. He does so by returning to her school in order to find her family. By bribing various individuals, he finds her father and claims that Elena was killed.
Following this, there is a flashback to Elena and her father showing that she took the escort position in order to free her father from prison, learning later that it was the recruiter who set the fire in the first place. Regardless of the truth, her father blames Ben, leading him to divulge the truth of who Ben is to Roger.
Returning to Ben, having been tracking Roger, he discovers that the other knows his true name, Aaron. He tries to strike a deal, offering the promotion in exchange for Elena, but unfortunately for Roger, who was recording the conversation, Ben is not above violence. In the ensuing fight, Ben kills Roger.
The following sequence flashes between Ben of today as he cleans up from the killing of Roger with the help of Theo (Eddie Ramos), and Aaron’s transformation from Aaron to Ben with the help of Hendrick.
“You’ll think this is who you’ve always been.”
As interesting as Ben’s storyline has been, I’m definitely more curious about Laura’s backstory. What trauma did such a high-ranking individual endure that would lead to continual PTSD. And what exactly is her family’s relationship with Julian? Does it have to do with how her father died? Presumably this will all eventually tie together for either the survival of these characters or their social destruction.
English