Counterpart Recap: Twin Cities

Season: 2 / Episode: 6 (16), “Twin Cities” / Starz

***Spoilers be bringing your daughter’s pop albums and fucking up the timeline. Previous recaps are here.***

Maaaaaan, listen. You know how Counterpart does when it hits us with the flashback. Need I remind y’all of Snake Ass Clare Zero Year?!?! Well, we all the way back in East Berlin, 1987 and your boy Yanek bout to do some deep cover spy shit.

Your boy Yanek got a whole ass family, yo. And apparently, he’s trying to do some shit to get his family out of Berlin, which includes a camera with all the film. And also, Yanek seems to be in charge at work cuz your boy walked in and started barking orders.

Everybody goes to lunch, and he left alone to get his spycraft on. They got all kinds of electronics and shit behind lock and key, but while your boy taking pictures, it seems like some shit is looping. Aka not doing what the fuck it’s supposed to be doing. I don’t know what Light Source Syncotron means, but when it looks like computers start bleeding and you getting earthquakes, that shit can’t be great.

Your boy Yanek goes back into the room and this shit look like Godzilla about to emerge from underground or some shit. And…welcome to the crossing. Cuz whatever the hell they were doing done created a hallway and Yanek meets…himself. Yep, here we are yo. The origin story of all origin stories.

Zero Year+30 Something

Mira, in the present brings Yanek to the not so safe house. Yanek remembers that shit cuz he used to bring Mira here as a child. Well, sorta. Like the other him and the other Mira I guess. Mira got all kinds of feelings about her not-pops, including unearthing some journals dude wrote that elude to him using Mira to experiment?! I mean, I dunno what they talkin’ bout yet, but that shit can’t be good. Apparently, Yanek is part of Mira’s endgame somehow, so this shit bout to get deeper.

Back to Zero Year and we getting some Yanek on Yanek action. After they decided to put their respective flashlights and fireman axes down, they talk it out and realize what the fuck is going on. They are identical, which means they each have a world identical to each other. And because this is greatest scientific discovery since the fucking wheel, Yanek is like, nah, I can’t flee East Berlin now, cuz I got some Walter White shit to do. Of course, his handler is pissed off, cuz Yanek is tossing away this extraction, even with his son doing treasonous ass shit. He got 72 hours.

So the Yaneks are sciencing the shit out of this with everyone away. Comparing molars, quirks, same annoying radio hosts. All that shit. The Problem, quote-end fucking quote, was that their worlds were identical. Which was a problem cuz there wasn’t anything to experiment on. So, they decided to use Mira as the case study. One Yanek gives Mira a cassette of one of her favorite bands that night while the other Yanek gives her jack shit. And just like, that, some probably shitty ass European band in the 1980s started all this chaos. Like, I hope they had good careers at least for the price we all paying now.

Yanek wakes up in the present with Mira just staring at him. She done put together a plan that involves all of Management being in the same place at the same time. Ruh-roh. which they don’t do anymore because of something Yanek did. RUH-ROH. Back in Zero Year, shit getting tense cuz Yanek’s wife wants to get their family out, and Yanek literally does not care about anything but this experiment now. Even though all signs point to his family not really surviving more prolonged East Berlin exposure.

Well, the basement is open for business again, and the Yaneks each bring a team down there to…meet each other. I mean, I know you can’t broadcast this shit beforehand, but you gotta at least give folks a heads up that they gonna see some weird shit man. How you go into that cold and see your echo from another world like that shit is normal?

But they warm up pretty ok, cuz these dudes taking yearbook photos and shit. And for a time…that shit looked good. But you know…the fall always coming.

Man, them comrades finally come for the son who been talkin’ that hot shit around town. Yanek pissed off and threatening to talk to the manager and shit, while these goons done put his son in the floor / knee vice. And because Mira is boppin her ass off to that new tape dad got her with the headphones on, she don’t hear shit that’s going on until way too late. The son is epileptic and starts foaming at the mouth and…you know how this shit ends. But of course, when they meet up the other Yanek is pissed they came to his house too. He’s like, it’s cool, we gonna get him out of jail ASAP. Tragic Yanek is like, Jail? Muthafucka, did you say jail? My son is dead yo. Listening to some Beatles knock off, Mira was the only one that noticed but way too late.

Gotdaaaaaaaamn. In the words of Diddy, what we supposed to do now huh? It’s all fucked up now.

Tragic Yanek is living in the worst timeline. His son dead. His whole family blames him. Meanwhile, Linear Yanek is like…damn…that must be…tough? Like, congrats on your experiment Yaneks!

Linear Yanek is like…we could share, and Tragic Yanek is like, if you don’t get up out my face with that bullshit.

Fast forward to 1989 and after the wall fell, the team’s now looking at expanding the real estate. And…welcome to the fourth floor. But Tragic Yanek ain’t there cuz your dude is still finishing some work. Nah, he plotting. He takes Linear Yanek’s jacket and crosses over to see his not-family. Yeah, this is all kinds of fucked. Also, we learn that the Yanek we have in the present is Tragic Yanek, cuz the treason done got good to him, seeing his son alive again and all that.

The Nineties, Am I Right?

And, hello! “The Office” these cats done staffed both buildings except for the fourth floor where the real shit gets down. And Tragic Yanek done crossed over again, wanting that family he’s lost from his world. I mean…Linear Yanek said they could share their SON, but B you still got a wife, not Linear’s fault you can’t repair that shit. So, your dude is constantly crossing over to bang his echo’s wife, but then he learned Linear Yanek was crossing over into his world too. Like…these cats couldn’t have worked out a research schedule or some shit? Yikes Yaneks. Yikes.

(Also, gotta love the metaphor of how the rats echos were just exploring each other’s territory, but now they eating each other alive.)

Tragic Yanek seen that shit and was like, yeah, so this shit going to go downhill real fucking quick. We need a weapon, just in case. For peace. I mean, let’s call that the grief talking cuz dude really just initiated a war cuz the government that doesn’t really exist anymore killed his son and made his family estranged from him.

The Real Split

Fed up with each other’s shit, Tragic Yanek follows Linear Yanek home so they can discuss some shit. And um, that shit don’t go well. LY is like, fam, I’m trying to help you. You abandoning your family. And also, you know I know you been in my crib. And our wife, yes our wife…you know that was my offering to you. Cuz you grieving, you done forgot we are men of science. Get your shit together. But TY is operating on pure animal tendency now. Dude ain’t trying to hear no rationalization and is just straight up jealous and vengeful towards LY. So…you know some fighting was gonna happen. And Tragic Yanek beats Linear Yanek to death. With a phone. Dear Echo God, please don’t let my epilogue come at the business end of a red rotary phone.

Aaaaaaaaand, unsullied Mira comes in to see her dad murder her dad. THINGS ARE AS BAD AS…hold that thought.

Tragic Yanek is trying to justify his actions and his coworkers are like, sure sure, we got a plan…
…that plan was to surrender Tragic Yanek over to prime’s world as tribune to keep the peace. I say gotdamn, yo. They for real said, yeah, we gotta put you up in vacants cuz you messin’ the money up Yanek. So now we know how Tragic Yanek became our one and only Yanek on Prime. But that Mira reveal. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

It Could Have All Been So Simple

So, Mira ain’t this damaged cuz her dad just up and disappeared one day (like they tell Tragic Yanek’s family). Mira went off the deep end cuz she witnessed her dad murder her dad, run past her with blood on his hands and nobody believed her. Jeeeeeeesus. What are we even doing?!?! (I.e. why is this show so fucking good).

So now we know why management is the way it is, cuz these dudes don’t trust each other. And YEP, they made that damn dirty bomb yo. They trying to say, the other side is having the same conversation as a precaution, but nah, they ain’t. Cuz Linear Yanek wasn’t fucking bottoming out and wanting to eliminate the other side; therefore, he never had the conversation with people. Man, this is so much (I still have five minutes of the episode left, pray for me).

BUT WE STILL AIN’T FOUND OUT HOW THE VIRUS GOT RELEASED. Sigh.

And that’s when Management was like, yeah, forget this, we can’t be in the same room anymore. Or know where any of others are at.

And, let’s be clear, Yanek in the present still believes that primal instincts would take everyone to eventual cannibalism and…I’m not so sure fam. But anyways. Mira puts her plan in motion. She calls for a meeting of all of management, so she can surrender herself and her not dad. Yeah…I’m sure it’s gonna be that easy.

NOW, things are as bad as they’ve ever been.

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