Simon and Eugene discuss how Ros has added biochemistry to her incredible and expanding skillset, the way that a show that is all about technology seems to portray innovation as having so little value beyond brute force criminal schemes, and TV music and how we used to tape theme music back in the days of cassette tapes.

Episode Synopsis

A new employee, Ms. Pyke, at the East European Monetary Commission (EEMC) is actually a saboteur and inserts a gaseous substance into a suspiciously convenient access door in the ventilation system seemingly designed for introducing strange gaseous substances into the air system.  Perhaps it’s for sending a lavender scent thoughout the building to improve employee morale.

One employee’s moral is at a all time low, as Pyke murders him on her way out.

The computers start going kablooey. Time to call in Team Bugs who have to get past the impenetrable, state-of-art, top-of-the-line security system (AKA, Just Another Saturday Night for Team Bugs) and then rescue the computer system from what they think is a computer virus but soon discover is a biological one.  That, too, is really just another Saturday Night for Team Bugs.

Plan thwarted and Marcel is making a killing from prison on the monetary exchange markets.

Back at Team Bugs headquarters, Ros and Beckett are studying the virus dispenser device, rather than the circuitry of the affected computers, and an accidental contact with Ros’ gold ring reveal two horrifying truths:

 1 – That Ros doesn’t implement biohazard protocols at their headquarters when bringing contaminated equipment suspected of being a dangerous biological agent

2 – Said biological agent eats gold, a key component of computer circuit boards.

Had this attack succeeded, the East European currencies would have been ruined – all save for the Baltic Mark, which is the only non-member of the EEMC.  A little online research shows that Maximilian Christo has been investing heavily in Baltic Marks and owns a bioengineering firm called Bio Gro, just exactly the kind of place that might engineer a gold-eating virus.

Ed, as the unqualified scientific member of the team, goes undercover to Bio Gro as a safety inspector.  He is met by Ms. Pyke, who runs the place. 

He’s soon spotted as a fraud, but not before he identifies a conveniently labeled vat of Thiobacillus Auric Oxidans, named in honor of Auric Goldfinger, perhaps.

Ed is captured and taken to be killed, but not before, again perhaps in honor of Auric Goldfinger, Pyke and Christo tell him their plan:  They’re going to make a second attempt and this time, they’re going to use the virus to destroy the gold reserves located in the EEMC vault.  

Ros and Beckett to the rescue, but it’s hardly necessary as Ed manages to escape almost single-handedly.

Convinced that the baddies have already somehow infiltrated the vault, Beckett and Ed are taken to inspect the vault security.  Once inside it, Pyke and Christo detonate a device containing the virus hidden on Ed’s person.  Release of a heretofore unknown pathogen somehow triggers the vault security, sealing it.  Beckett and Ms. Vanguard, the EEMC boss, escape in the nick of time.  Ed does not and is sealed in.

Ros and her microscope back at Team Bugs HQ works on developing an antidote to the gold virus – if only she had an actual sample of it!  She breaks into Bio Gro and, cheekily, proceeds to use their facilities to synthesize the antigen.

Meanwhile, the gold in the vault is beginning to react to the virus.  When it reaches 120º (Fahrenheit, presumably) the process will be irreversible.  Also, a laser comes down from the vault ceiling to menace Ed.

The manual controls for opening the vault are sealed behind another state-of-the-art security system – a lock with a physical key, apparently – so this is not just Another Saturday Night for Team Bugs.  Beckett has to climb through the toxic vent system, which opens onto the manual control computer room, to save Ed.

Ros gets caught, but not before she’s put her formidable bioengineering skills to good use.  She’s created the antigen.  She manages to escape, killing Pyke in the process.  

She makes it to the EEMC with plenty of time to spare, but she cannot release the antigen into the vault as long as Ed is there.  Her formula is not so much an anti-gold-virus, but instead a virus that destroys all life.

Beckett has an obstacle – the vents, which have been conveniently man-sized so far, narrow down to man-without-air-supply size.  Leaving his air tanks behind, Beckett speed crawls through the vents and into the control room.

Ed has been playing hide-and seek with the laser, or should I say “lasers,” because each time he outsmarts one, another deploys from the ceiling.

Security arrives with the physical key, which is stored offsite, for safety, but it’s not really security, it’s actually Christo, who has somehow taken the time to identify, intercept and substitute himself for the EEMC’s security company, and still managed to arrive just moments after Ros.

He takes Ros and Vanguard prisoner as the virus temperature, while still cooler than Ed on the thermal imager, is apparently moments from hitting 120º (Fahrenheit, presumably.)

Beckett activates manual control, and gets the vault open to rescue Ed, while Ros uses the distraction to overpower and kill Christo.

Ros’ death virus kills the gold virus and we all live happily ever after knowing that Ros has created a substance than destroy all life on Earth.

Oh, and it’s revealed that the prison warden is actually aware that Marcel is actually somehow keeping tabs on Team Bugs, but he is unaware that when the comedy telethon thermometer on Marcel’s computer hits the top, the shit will hit the fan.

Despite Marcel, quite literally, telling him that it’s coming.