Simon and Eugene discuss how far futuristic shows should project from the present, and coincidentally where electric bolt guns fit with extrapolating the progression of genetic engineering.  We discuss baddies in Bugs and which we would and wouldn’t like to come back and somehow we end up exploring British and American naming conventions.

Episode Synopsis

At an agricultural experimental station, a covert team strike the facility, causing a viroid to be sprayed directly on the experimental wheat crop.  The wheat die.

Team Bugs (because I refuse to call them Gizmos) are called in and Beckett shows a surprising amount of knowledge about viroids and horticulture for a spy dude.  The wheat was supposed to be a completely pest-resistant variety, but who would do that?

A nasty pesticide company, that’s who, and there are apparently none nastier than Pesticorp, run by Dr. Croll.  Beckett goes undercover as a pesticide buyer to infiltrate.

Meanwhile, Ros has used magic to create extra pixels from the research station’s CCTV footage of the raid.  She identifies a junior meteorologist as one of the infiltrators.  She and Ed go to a weather place to investigate.

Beckett intentionally tips his hand to Dr. Croll by showing him a photo of the viroid, which strikes a nerve.  He gives Croll a stylish wheat pin that goes with any ensemble, but it’s not just haute couture, it’s also a video camera gizmo, and Beckett gets enough info before the obvious design flaw destroys the camera, revealing the ruse.

He only just escapes the facility when he tricks a guard into firing an electrical bolt into a mirror, reflecting it back into the water.  Don’t ask.

At the weather place, Ed spies on the subject while Ros walks into their computer room and begins downloading data.  The suspect is getting a payoff from the head meteorologist, Pym.  The payoff doesn’t go well and Pym murders him with a genetically-engineered wasp with a lethal sting.

Ed, too, is nearly killed, and then suffers further when he falls into a room filled with bugs.  Fearless Ed is terrified of bugs and his escape from the bug room releases all the bugs, inadvertently dealing a setback to the baddies plans.

One bug hitches a ride on Ed and a study of it reveals that it’s exactly the right type of bug to infect with a viroid and spread that viroid to European wheat crops.  Bugs must be used because it is impossible to directly infect wheat with the viroid.  Further study reveals that this is a genetically-engineered bug created by Insect-Tech.  Ros goes to Insect-Tech, while Ed and Beckett attempt a break-in at Pesticorp to obtain the viroid.

It is a trap.  Beckett escapes the building, but while Ed also avoids capture, he remains trapped inside the building.

Ros learns from Insect-Tech that Pesticorp are taking delivery this very moment of a large quantity of the very bugs in question.  She goes to investigate.

Pym, the meteorologist, knows Ros is there and he tampers with her car, installing a speed-controlled, bee-delivery system,  hooked into her air conditioning.  A cool, overly-complicated, hi-tech killing device that he apparently brought for just this occasion.

Ros gives chase and the trap is sprung, and it would have been lethal if Ros hadn’t removed the top of her convertible.

The villain’s dastardly plot becomes apparent.  Croll and Pym are going to infect bugs with the viroid, then, when the weather is just right (hence the need for Pym) they’ll release the bugs via time-delayed release on weather balloons, wiping out the European wheat crop.  Then, they shall make a fortune selling the pesticide designed to kill the viroid.

Ed manages to destroy most of the viroid in the lab, and is trapped behind a deadly UV lamp.  Croll manages to get enough of it for the plan to proceed.  Beckett tries to stop the time-released bugs capsules, but (for reasons) can only set the timer to 5 minutes, hoping to release the bugs before they are infected.

Meanwhile, Ros tries to secure the antidote, but it is destroyed, along with Pym, by an over-zealous security guard. 

Ed, now on the roof, must battle Croll, sending him to his death, but a balloon is launched with seconds to go before the infected bugs are released.  Ros shoots the balloon, but Ed must overcome his phobia and hold the bugs in with his hand.

In prison, Marcel has made a fortune for the warden (and the prison) by investing in wheat futures.