The Rubicon WTF? Factor: Parsing the Headscratch-y Reality of AMC's Newest Series

· WTF?: The Putnam affair

Context: The night before he plans meet Will for breakfast to go over a few API-related oddities, David gifts Will a motorcycle bearing the note, "Drive away, don't look back, it's time." The next morning's scheduling conflicts notwithstanding, Will considers the offer. But no sooner has the sun risen than David gets on the train at Putnam Station and a genuinely shocking train crash occurs. That's the end of David. Later that night, after a visit to David's old colleague Ed (whom we'll get to in a minute), Will spies his father-in-law's car in the train station's parking stall #13 -- the one number of which the superstitious David was most traumatically afraid. That would never happen! And who's this big stranger watching him at the station, anyway?

Thinking it Over: By now the viewer knows a key point about the crosswords that Will doesn't: He's in danger, and David's attempt to protect him cost him his life. But that doesn't explain how a commuter train jumps the tracks on cue, or how David's car wound up in the 13th stall, or who Stalker Dude is. If no one at API knows Will has an idea about the crosswords, then maybe David hired someone to keep an eye on will if anything happened to him? Head, meet headache.

Degree of difficulty: 9. And this isn't even counting the matter of Ed Bancroft woven in here as well.

Plausibility: 5. Now we're getting into more convoluted TV-thriller territory that the first half-hour eschewed with grace and not just a little guts.

Execution: 10, for the train crash alone. Never mind the underwhelming VFX; the shock of it all more than compensates for it. It was as if Horwitch and Coulter said, "Well, Lost already did the plane crash, and we're on an AMC budget, so... green screen?" It was just about perfect.

Total WTF? Factor: 24

· WTF?: "From one pawn to another"

Context: The night of David's death, Will visits his home and spends some time in his dark study. A shadowy figure stirs down the hall. The phone startles Will out of his daze, as does the man's voice on the other end, imploring, "Knight to king's bishop 3." And then, "Where's David?" Click. A tour of the study reveals a chess board in David's floor globe, the edge of the board inscribed with the words, "From one pawn to another, E.B." Will splits -- and the shadowy figure eyeing him from the shadows? Just Gale Ingram, looking creepy and suspicious as always. Will then visits Ed Bancroft (Roger Robinson), an ex-API "genius at cracking codes until the codes cracked [him] -- like an egg." (Not to mention the chess board donor who called with the move.) After ingesting Will's haze of info, Ed asks him to leave.

Thinking it Over: Whew! Give Dale some credit for mostly pulling off the hard art of thinking for the camera, particularly in a setting where pretty much nothing makes coherent sense. It's not so hard to follow, but the actor successfully navigates the same cryptic streams as the viewer. And when he can no longer push through, like Rosie and Charlie in The African Queen, he knows to wait for the flood that'll get him moving again. That doesn't make Gale's presence or Ed's unease any more explainable, but hey. If advanced fellas like David and Ed were mere "pawns," one can only imagine -- and wants to imagine -- the appropriate metaphor for Will.

Degree of difficulty: 8. Easy to follow, impossible to parse.

Plausibility: 9. Honestly? This kind of crap probably happens every day in no fewer than a dozen government agencies and offices. The only troubling thing was whether or not Will knew the chess board was inside the globe. It sure looked like a convenient TV "Oh, hey, lookie here" discovery.

Execution: 8. This guy Gale Ingram could be one of the worst baddies in television history if this keeps up. And he didn't even have to say anything! If it weren't for the previews of upcoming Rubicon episodes featuring Ed Bancroft, I'd have worried Gale went ahead and killed him just because.

Total WTF? Factor: 25

· WTF?: Spengler and the power brokers

Context: Will decides at the last minute not to resign from API, instead taking Gale up on his offer to inherit David's position. Sent upstairs to meet Spengler, Will arrives in a long blue corridor in which the boss's bow-tied assistant upgrades his security clearance. He's told to meet Spengler back at API at 9 a.m. sharp; he has left for the day, alas. But Spengler has stuff to do out on Long Island -- like meeting a weird cabal of white dudes sipping brandy and lounging around in a library. (Coulter likes his extreme long shots!) Spengler wants to know for sure that Tom Rhumor is dead, and one man, played David Rasche, says he saw the body: "He blew his brains out." This is a big relief. Spengler closes the door and they get to work on... something.

Thinking it Over: OK, now we're getting someplace. While Spengler's corn flakes Twin Peaks-ian office setting hints at the perplexing characterization to come, a good-old fashioned oligarchical powwow ripping off the last shot of The Godfather is just what _Rubicon needed to ground it in a little real-world conspiracy intrigue. They mean business! That said, you're going to have to wait 'til August to find out who "they" are and what their "business" is.

Degree of difficulty: 6. More cliffhanger-y than outwardly challenging. Though what this means for Will -- who is taking over the role that literally killed his father-in-law (unless David was just unlucky, which is always a possibility considering where he may have accidentally parked his car) -- is more than a little perplexing.

Plausibility: 9. Rich, crazy white people with ambitions toward privatized world conquest? Get out!

Execution: 9. Excellent mood and exposition moving into the cliffhanger. See you in August!

Total WTF? Factor: 24

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