Series 1 of Bugs comes to its dramatic conclusion with some really strong nostalgia about how computers used to be… and also how they didn’t used to be.  Simon and Eugene discuss Pulse.

Episode Synopsis

The folks from Bugs are on the case, although, it’s unclear who their client is.  Some French people have been buying up little loser companies, and, in some cases, the original owners have gone missing.

They create a profile of the type companies that might be targeted and Ed recognizes one of them, Weapon Works, which is owned by someone he knows, Claire.  He goes to see her.

She’s not interested in Ed’s help, but she’s hiding something.  She also has a daughter named Katie who is a lot better at computer games than Ed.  We see that she has a meeting with Marcel and that she initially refuses to accept his offer.

Beckett is talking with the owner of a different target company.  He’s a stubborn Scotsman and he’s not about to sell out to the Frenchies.  He walks away from Beckett and into his office, and a bomb kills him.  Team Bugs take over the company to see what happens next.

Soon, Marcel has visited Beckett and made him an offer he cannot refuse… so he takes it.  His job, build a doohickey. Just exactly the type of doohickey this company makes.  What’s got everyone shocked is how well informed Marcel is about everyone’s business.

They realize that Marcel has access to the companies’ data backups, and indeed, he is the owner of Computer Recall, The premiere offsite data repository for European businesses.

Because of the nature of the business, the building is shielded from electromagnetic signals, making surveillance almost impossible.

Using a two-pronged attack, Ed delivers a “backup” for data storage that its actually a video transmitter, while Ros tours the facility pretending to be a potential client.  While there, she plants a transmitting relay.

The video device is soon discovered, but not before they figure out that the chauffeur is actually Patrick Marcel’s smarter and more ruthless brother, Jean-Daniel Marcel, the actual mastermind, with Patrick as his front man and also that Claire’s daughter, Katie is being held prisoner in the facility.

Claire is still uncooperative with the Bugs so they surveil her and confirm that Katie is being held hostage to ensure compliance.  Claire is supplying a specialized EMP missile for Marcel.  They realize the doohickey their company was charged to make was a missile launcher.  The pieces begin to fall into place.

Meanwhile Jean-Daniel, having detected the bug, easily tracks it back to our heroes lair and delivers two bombshells.  The first, metaphorical, in the form of the revelation that this heretofore nameless business which we have been calling “Bugs” is actually called “Gizmos,” and second, literal, in the form of an actual explosive delivered via his overly-complicated bazooka. This renders Beckett injured and a prisoner of the Marcels.

Ros chases Patrick and the missiles.  Ed discovers that Beckett is a prisoner and hatches a plan involving a hatch to gain access to Computer Recall’s facility.

The Marcel brothers’ plan is this:  They’ve been using the data backups to spy on companies, finding small, vulnerable business to buy a controlling interest in.  They’ve also used this information to find companies that can help them build the missile weapons system.  They will use an EMP burst over London and Geneva to destroy the computers of the major corporations that exist there.  Their building, shielded from electromagnetic radiation, will endure, and then, in a massive conflict of interest and breach of contract, they will NOT supply the backups to their competitors, only to the companies they’ve bought up – thus destroying their competitors, and causing a massive increase in value to the companies they’re bought into.

Ros has been trying to disarm the missiles, but she’s caught by Patrick, the stupid one, but not for long, as Patrick is killed by standing in the backwash of the missile launch.  The good news, Ros is free and one baddie is dead.  The bad news, the missiles are on their way to reek havoc.

Jean-Daniel has programmed the missile destinations and goes to deal with Ed.  Beckett escapes and, in a nod to Jurassic Park, Katie is the one who reprograms the missiles destinations to be “harmless.”  They attempt to escape, taking the missile programming systems trackball ball with them because, that’s a thing you can do.

After a tense chase, Jean-Daniel catches them, but Beckett poses him a question:  Where do you think I redirected the London-bound missile?

Just then the missile hits the building, disabling all the electronic devices including Jean-Daniel’s overly-complicated bazooka.

Not so with Ed’s super-soaker glue gun though, which he uses to incapacitate Jean-Daniel.

In a tag scene, in the upstairs/downstairs headquarters of Gizmoids, Katie is holding Beckett hostage until he agrees to marry her mom, Claire.