The Human Division #12: The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads, John Scalzi

Woo, more plot! How exciting!

Okay, okay, I’ll stop being a facetious jerk. For at least a little while.

This is a B plot episode…or is it?

Danielle Lowen, who you may or may not remember from episode 9, “The Observers”, is the main character in this, the next the last episode of The Human Division: “The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads”.

Lowen has been sent by the Secretary of State, who just happens to be her father, to the Brazilian consulate in New York where they have been told that the Brazilian government will provide them with all the information they have on Luisa Carvalho, last seen messily exiting an airlock sans space suit (will not travel). She’s given the runaround by a minor diplomatic functionary and he pisses her off to the point where she basically tells him that if he doesn’t get her what his government promised her that she’ll cause a diplomatic incident. She gives him half an hour to comply, heads to a nearby shop for a snack, and the Brazilian consulate explodes.

PLOT. YAY. (Sorry.)

Since Lowen’s been trained as a doctor, she helps the injured and becomes a bit of a minor celebrity in the way that the US media likes to make people celebrities. After the initial furor dies down, she heads back to her home in the DC suburbs and goes out to get a drink at what we like to call yupsteraunts in my household. While there, she orders a drink as big as her head and as she’s preparing to drown her woes (and possibly herself) in it, she’s approached by a man who claims to be a pharmaceutical salesman. As they talk, she mentions her little problem with how a person as boring as Luisa Carvalho becomes a killer and he just happens to suggest something that would work–and then drops a few hints at her and disappears.

So maybe we might actually see some resolution in the next episode but unless it’s an extra long episode I’m having a hard time seeing how all the loose ends are going to be wrapped up. I guess we’ll see.

And I’ve been waiting WEEKS to post this when we came to the next to last episode of the serial (because I am nothing if not utter predictable)–

The ball is in your court, Mr. Scalzi.