Oh Blues, how we missed you.

With all the universe hopping we’ve been doing lately, we’ve forgotten that Charlie was a private investigator.  The story got so big so fast that we took for granted that he was first a street urchin, then company special ops security, then into business for himself finding missing persons.  That’s what “Bedtime Story” reminds us.  It uses a dream sequence where Charlie talks to Blues Paddock about a case he worked a long time ago.  The details of the case aren’t as important as the discussion he and Blues have while he tells her the story.

The quick and dirty of it is a typical film noir detective story.  A well dressed and well to-do woman with a cigarette and a bit of hip swishing comes in to solicit the services of one Mr. Jade to find her missing brilliant scientist husband.  It’s a classic set up, almost a parody.  The truth comes out that Charlie is being set up so the woman can cover her stealing her husband’s invention and then killing him for it.  But as Charlie tells Blues, this is just one of dozens of stories he could have told.  They’re all the same.

We do unearth some imporant points such as the fact that Charlie lives by a generator that blocks out the Ectoskin.  The Ectoskin is what keeps a constant tab on all of Alpha’s inhabitance.  We also get to see the first time Charlie and Sew Sew meet.  (At least I think it’s the first time, they didn’t refer to each other by name nor exchange pleasantries.)  But the rest of the dream recap was a tool to show us that Charlie is a different man now, that Beta has changed him.  Before he wouldn’t have cared so much about murders and mysteries – he was a man who lived by how much he could get paid and how soon.  Now he questions, he worries, he has compasion.

Blues is also just a vehicle in “Bedtime Story.”  It’s not really her, it’s Charlie’s dream of her.  Yet she comes up with lines and reaches conclusions before he does.  I’ve never had drams like this, I wish I did.  At times they’re both narrating the past events and it was slightly annoying because I wasn’t sure if they were talking about something current or something he was recaping.  And technically this wasn’t a recap episode, but it wasn’t backstory either.  If Charlie Jade could have a “monster of the week” episode, this would be it.  Given that Charlie’s past is one of solving mysteries, if the show was still in production it’s a tack they could have run:  Each week Charlie searches for a missing person, each missing person builds a bigger picture as to the mechanations of Vex-Cor.

What we know is Charlie is worried about Blues and about the other universes.  He doesn’t know what to do and it’s keeping him up at night.  It’s obvious he can’t just sit there and do nothing but what is it he has to do; what is it he can do?

We also touch breifly on the life of 01 Boxer.  We also learn his name means “switch, on or off.”  As a suit in a limo told him, “Your the next switch in the line.”  I’m not sure what we were shown with 01 this time out.  It picked up with him hovering like a sated vulture over his father’s dead body.  He has a vision of his father rising from the dead saying, “You’re ready.”  The last thing we see from 01 is him looking unhappy as a giant LCD sign is helicoptered around saying “Vexlink to Gamma ready in 55 hours.”  I can understand he’s upset about the link destorying Gamma along with the other Verses, but with Brion out I felt he was now in control of Vex-Cor or at least in enough control to fight Essa.  His lack of power now that Brion is dead is an unneriving unknown.

With two episodes left it’s still building to a head but slowly.  Another episode without Galt or the killer or now Karl.  Will Charlie go back and see his friend one last time even though he could be killed?  Will he go back for Blues?  Will 01 make a move and blow up the link like he’s done before?

Will the Verses survive?

Well done this time.  I liked the classic story type but I’m a little upset about the continued lack of movement this close to the end.

Three and a half shiny blue stones.