We start with the water pouring into Alphaverse and a bit of a recap of last episode. Gemma shrugs Charlie off, says he’s just going make it worse. He drops a bombshell on Gemma (and me actually) saying he’s not working for another company, he’s working for Vex-Cor. Gemma thinks he means Galt, but he says he’s working for Chairperson Essa Rompkin. It’s covert, no one’s supposed to know, Essa doesn’t trust Galt. But since the link is down, he can’t communicate with her. Gemma describes moving water resources, Charlie tells her about 01 being able to move with water. They head back to Cape Town.

Right off I’m not completely certain Charlie is tellin Gemma the truth about being covert. I think he’s doing it to get into Vex-Cor. Their history coupled with a present day trust would get him what he wants.

Back in the car, Gemma asks him why he picked “Jade.” Charlie said it sounded cool and he likes the color. Gemma says “Gitano” means gypsy, a reference to the dancing lady from the holosphere. Galt and Porter discuss the missing employees and set up a meeting with Gitano. Charlie and Gitano share a soda on the beach and talk about their past and how Gemma’s life as a Vex-Cor engineer is all fake. Flashback to the two as kids where Gemma says she’s going to be a house cleaner and move up in the world. Charlie leaves.

In Alphaverse, Essa and Brion discuss his weakening and his molecular decay. Essa says they’ll get 01 to give him another transfusion. Meanwhile 01 is back at the Glass Door reverting to his Beta self.

Galt meets with Gemma, she tells him the reservoir is gone. They fight, Galt says he’s had enough of her and sends her to “Botswana to review engineering documents. Congratulations.” She lies about having seen Charlie. Brion is on the floor getting weaker and weaker. 01 is on the prowl, being too sexy for his car. He finds his girl from before he went to Gamma, she’s with Guy. He rolls up, throws his pimp hand down and beats the egg whites out of Guy finishing up with “That’s for Nathan.” Don’t know who Nathan is.

Back at the Glass door, the blonde lady (Princess) says the cops are after 01 because they think he killed Janette (the girl who the henchman capped two episodes ago.) 01 says he’ll take care of the cops and asks Princess to front the club while he remains invisible. They make whoopee on the bar.

Charlie is on the phone with Karl. Charlie says he had to lie to Gemma about being with Vex-Cor (I told you) but he had to say something. Gemma shows up at his new pad which still only has three pieces of furniture. Charlie perpetuates his covert ops lie by saying if Gemma has information about Galt not keeping Vex-Cor’s best interests in mind, he can take it to head office. But he needs access to what information Galt has on 01, access he can’t get on the outside.

Porter tells Galt that Gemma was right about the lake disappearing. He also says she’s gone missing. Porter tells him stories are going to start pointing to Vex-Cor and they agree all these problems started happening with Jade showed up. Galt still believes 01 is not the only one who can travel back and forth.

Charlie brings Gemma to Karl’s place. She sees her profile on Karl’s computer and gets skittish. Charlie calms her by saying he’s investigating all Beta Vex-Cor people. Gemma says info on 01 isn’t available unless you can get to Galt’s level, something called a Bita Network (no CC this time, no idea what they were saying.) Charlie says she may not exist, but others still might and we quickly see Porter telling someone their ID’s been burned. Charlie’s going in.

Brion tells Essa that anyone who has gone through the link has the molecules he needs. Essa talks to an accountant who’s been through 13 times. Essa will fast track his wife’s promotion and set his family’s status to C1, if he doesn’t agree his and his family’s life will be ruined. It’s a life insurance policy, basically they need to kill him to get what they need. Karl and Gemma discuss her involvement with Vex-Cor, Karl says she sounds brainwashed.

Charlie’s in, uses his hot ID stick to gain access. Walks right by Porter, ducks into a bathroom and sees Jasmine in a reflection, taking a shower. It looks like she can see him. In the reflection, a man walks into the shower and Charlie freaks out. Jasmine seems sad and distant. Charlie says it’s not real and pulls himself together. Hits the right level, uses Galt’s ID and searches for water and 01. Nothing. Searches for Elliot Krogg, finds a memo about his death. Then it all goes blanks and Porter and some men catch Charlie and tie him up.

Porter and his men beat up Charlie for a bit. Gemma calls Porter to make a trade. Charlie shouts about not needing help, she threatens him with blowing Vex-Cor wide open. Porter agrees. Gemma tells Karl that she knew Charlie was never part of Vex-Cor, could never be. Karl starts researching the memo Charlie found, it’s all about collapsing universes. Essa receives a vile of “stuff” while she sadly looks at a picture of the accountant and his family. A car speeds through a street and dumps Charlie out. Same car picks up Gemma. Karl says he knows why they killed Krogg, he’s shaken, Charlie’s shaken finding that Gemma traded herself for him.

Karl gets in Charlie’s face about The Link. If it’s made permanent, the universes collapse in on each other. Charlie starts to read it, then throws it in the air. It’s not as important as his childhood friend.

Better than last week. Threads are starting to tie together and I’m glad they didn’t introduce yet ANOTHER character. Gemma’s story is probably done. Porter will kill her or make her disappear. While I liked her better than Reena, I think Reena’s story still needs to be told. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and 01 had some connection outside of having lives in Gamma.

One thing I didn’t like was the fact that three episodes ago, Charlie said he’d have to disappear for a while. Karl wasn’t his enemy, but he’d be compromised. It only took one episode to get them back together and only one episode after that for Karl to forget what he’s done and think he can get up in Charlie’s grill about how nasty a place Alphaverse is. Right or not, I don’t think Karl’s got a lot of cohort capital to be throwing around. It left a bad taste in my mouth seeing that.

And something that still hasn’t been answered, and I feel we’re running out of time, is the question of why Alpha Vex-Cor needs these links in the first place? I asked this last time and I’m not sure if they need water or water is just the conduit. It’s this shows’ Final Cylon or What’s In The Hatch questions. They better get to it soon.

By the way, I kind of like Rough-Rider 01 Boxer better as a character. Michael Filipowich is really bringing and impressive performance, lately. Better than the rest of the cast. I’ll give this episode three shiny blue stones. I may have given it more had Karl not been a jerk at the end.