A program that lets you become an instant professional driver is no substitute for an old-school driver's license. It always helps, though.
David is confronted by Maine and his gang, which confirms that his mother actually dealt in black market cybernetics among possible other crimes. Unfortunately, she had sold the Sandevistan to Maine before David installed it. Sympathetic to David's plight, Maine backs off of killing him and harvesting the cybernetic implant upon discovering the former's relationship to Gloria. Desperate for a job, David demonstrates his faculty with the Sandevistan and is accepted as a probationary member.Maine introduces David to the other members: Kiwi, Dorio, and Pilar. David then participates in a heist to steal navigation data from Maxim, a driver for Arasaka. The plan goes awry due to unexpected complications and David and Lucy are forced to steal Maxim's limo to gain the navigation data instead. This leads to a wild car chase on the freeway that ends up totalling the limousine and two members of the Tyger Claw gang being killed.
Maine officially inducts David into the gang, having been impressed by his performance on the job. David also meets Maine's fixer, Faraday, who brought them the job to steal Maxim's navigation data in order to obtain information on Tanaka's movements. Unfortunately, Faraday is furious that they stole the limousine in such an overt fashion and chews out Maine for his action as the higher level security resulting from it renders the stolen information useless. David receives a message from the Academy offering to let him return, but he is not interested.
Tropes in this episode:
- An Arm and a Leg: A Tyger Claw loses an arm, but he has a Mantis Blade installed on his other hand.
- Arm Cannon: Maine uses a Projectile Launch System at point-blank range to reduce a Tyger Claw to greasy stains.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just when David is about to get killed by the Tyger Claw's Mantis Blades, he gets saved by Maine, who arrived in the nick of time.Maine: Sorry for the wait.
- Both Sides Have a Point: When the data heist falls through, Faraday is not happy that the Edgerunners lack the discretion needed to do it right. While Faraday prefers to keep risk as low as possible, however, Maine rightfully complains how being kept on a need-to-know basis doesn't make the gang's job any easier.
- Chase Scene: David is pursued by two motorcycle-riding Tyger Claws down the streets of Night City. Only his use of the Sandevistan and willingness to total the car keep him alive.
- Does Not Like Spam: Apparently, David dislikes carbonated drinks.
- Drives Like Crazy: David displays absolutely no skill at driving the limousine and barely survives the resulting car chase due to his use of the Sandevistan. This is due to not knowing how to drive.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Maxim goes to drink at Jacked and Coke after he lost his bet at a boxing match.
- Easily Forgiven:
- Lucy brought Maine and his gang over to her apartment to retrieve the Sandevistan, which could have easily (and almost did) result in David's horrific death. He is fine working with her (and maintains his crush) despite this. To be fair to her, she spoke very clearly against outright killing David on her watch.
- Arasaka Academy seems to be suspiciously this, offering David a scholarship and only asking for an apology for using military cybernetics to beat up another student. Unfortunately, for them, David has no desire to return to school.
- Exact Words: Faraday's orders are to steal the navigation data from an Arasaka bodyguard. The company will take notice if they attempt to take the car itself. After the Edgerunners are forced to hijack the car anyway, Faraday chews them out because, in the end, the company does take notice and the man Faraday traced has all but disappeared for the time being, rendering the data useless.
- First Day from Hell: Edgerunning is a violent criminal enterprise, as David ends up stealing a limousine, almost gets killed, and witnesses a couple of murders. This does nothing to dissuade him from the lifestyle.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Acquiring the information at all costs ignores that the information on a travel route is useless if the driver is given reason to change their routine like, say, having their car stolen by an armed gang of professional criminals.
- Pet the Dog: Despite being hard on David initially, Lucy and Maine offer condolences to David after hearing about Gloria's death.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Maine turns out to be one of these as he's not unwilling to give David a chance both out of difference to the latter's late mother as well as the young man's skill with the Sandevistan.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Faraday gives Maine one of these for botching the job in such an overt and messy fashion.
- A Simple Plan: Maine wants to pocket some driving data from the limousine but it ends with stealing the limousine, a car chase, and two dead gang members.
- Spanner in the Works: Ironically, Tanaka Sr. himself ends up being the spanner, as he calls up Maxim to come and get him despite it being Maxim's day off and before Dorio can finish copying the nav data off his chip. This forces the crew to improvise by trying to take the data from the limo itself.
- Street Samurai: David correctly identifies the heavily modified cyborgs in Lucy's apartment to be cyberpunks AKA Edgerunners. They are mercenaries that do high tech criminal activities for Fixers in exchange for fat paychecks.
- Titled After the Song: The episode is named after the Michael Jackson song of the same name.
- Watch the Paint Job: Maxim is distraught when he sees David crashing his limo into lampposts, to Maine's amusement.Maine: Hahahaha! Sure glad them ain't my wheels.
- Work Off the Debt: David offers to pay Maine the amount of eddies for the Sandevistan cyberware that he installed on the condition that he gets to keep the Sandy, but Maine refuses. As Maine points out, that particular Sandevistan is military-grade cyberware and not something he can just buy off the shelf elsewhere. Instead, David needs to prove he can actually use the Sandy and become a proper member of the crew.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Even though David is in his late teens, the Tyger Claws have no qualms in attempting to kill him due to Maxim putting out a bounty on him.
- Maine and his crew also have no compunctions with zeroing David to retake the Sandevistan, thinking he's just some punk thief, and it is only because David is the son of Maine's supplier and proves his ability with it that he is spared.
