I had so much inspiration from this episode. There were some lovely moments which I wanted to expand on. This is the first of a few pieces I think.


"You can't keep pushing everyone and everything to the limit."

"Hey, I don't push anyone harder than they need to be pushed."

"Max is just a machine. Brains is constantly breaking him apart and rebuilding him stronger. You don't know what you're capable of unless you keep pushing."

"But we're not machines!"


He always thought dad could recognise the borders.

It was the world they lived in. Technology, machines, everything non-human, everything seemingly never ending.

He always thought Jeff Tracy knew the line between human and machine.

It was obvious to him now that Scott Tracy didn't.

Humans tired, humans got bored, humans lagged at times, they were foolish and wise and capable of using their initiative. So they didn't always have control, so they weren't always flawless or fall proof, but at least they were human.

Machines were the opposite. Machines could have the brightest and biggest brain in the world, but what did they really have in comparison to that of a human?

They had no emotion, no sense, no thoughts or feelings beyond numeric code and programed instructions.

They had near to nothing in comparison.

The one thing they had to hold over them: no limits.

Scott no longer seemed capable of recognising his. Virgil wanted to make him though he knew you could not make a human do something against their will, not like a machine. Maybe he had to intervene and alter course, maybe he needed to figure things out – slow as it may have to be without a gigawatt processor for a brain. But maybe he had to allow him to run his course to the end: to the point of exhaustion and no return and simply be there to catch him.

Be there like machines could not.

He had to remember that he was human, he had to remember so he could revive Scott.

That was something humans could truly do. They could bring each other back.

They had limits.

But they were limitless within them.

They were human and that was better.