Originally airing on 7 March 1988, "Computer Logic" is a two-part Pilot episode. The episode begins with Michelle Castle watching a training/recruitment video for Serendip in an otherwise empty movie theater. It's her first day on the job, and she wants to make a good impression. Waiting at her desk, one of the Directors of Serendip exits his office yelling about Austin's water bill. Turning on Michelle, he sends her to get Austin to pay the bill himself or she's fired.
Austin is mostly interested in why a stranger died nearly on his doorstep, but before the Police coroner is willing to give him any information, he has to help solve the mystery of how a woman died of exposure when her body temperature was lower than that of the environment.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bat Deduction: Austin deduces a number of things about Mickey that he fails to provide his reasoning behind, such as how he knows about her allergy to chocolate, or how he knew her mother had surgery recently. The most reasonable deduction he makes is that she's broke and needs a job.
- Dramatic Chase Opening: It's late at night and David Hofstadter is being chased by someone with control of electronic devices; neon lights flicker on and explode, power lines crackle with electricity, and traffic lights show green for all traffic.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Mickey tells Austin that the broken rose petal reminds her of a piece of glass, he finally makes the connection to what happened; this episode's death was caused by liquid nitrogen.
- Everything Is Online: Someone is able to turn televisions and radios on and off at will, Hack the Traffic Lights, and make neon lights explode. In the next half of the episode, it's revealed to be an Artificial Intelligence named Crossover, who has been given access to the power company and it is apparently able to control electronics by adjusting how much power is sent to them.
- Hack the Traffic Lights: An unknown force causes the traffic lights to malfunction, causing the death of David Hofstadter because the intersection showed green for all lanes and a truck hit him.
- iSophagus: Mickey tells Austin about being able to hear voices in her head as a child that nobody else could hear. His response is to shine a flashlight in her mouth to examine it. He concludes that she must've had braces at that age and asks if she lived near a radio tower (actually, it was a airport). Accourding to Austin, it's a well-known phenomenon for retainers to pick up radio waves.
- Last Request: During the Dramatic Chase Opening, David Hofstadter runs into the street in front of a truck. The driver quickly gets out to try helping David, but they're too late. David's last words are for help from Austin James.
- Limerick: In this episode, Austin's passcode for the warehouse he lives/works in is the final line of a limerick. The passcode is designed to be hard to guess (it doesn't even rhyme!) so that people can't get in to bother him.There once was a poet named Gunderson,
whose rhymes were exceedingly cumbersome.
With each botched refrain,
his complaint was the same,
How do I get into these situations? - Measuring the Marigolds: Mickey challenges Austin on his tendency to reduce everything he experiences to numbers, rather than caring about it. He responds by pointing out what he's done to help people and concludes that they have different definitions for "love" since they disagree on how it can be expressed.
- An Odd Place to Sleep: The first time Mickey meets Austin, he's waking up from inside a cupboard that he's turned into a sensory deprivation tank. He claims to need it in order to calm his brain enough to fall asleep.
- Only Smart People May Pass: When Mickey is trying to get into Austin's private workspace, the electronic lock issues a Limerick challenge that appears to be testing the visitor's intelligence but is actually designed to be impossible to solve. There's a response that will unlock the door, but its exact form can't be arrived at by logic or any other systematic process. Mickey gets through by sheer luck; confronted with a puzzle she barely understands and has no idea how to solve, she mutters a dejected remark—which happens to be the required pass phrase.Austin James (recording): There once was a poet named Gunderson, whose rhymes were exceedingly cumbersome. With each botched refrain, his complaint was the same, Blah, blah... blah, blah... blah, blah, blah! You have ten seconds to give me the last line to get in. Otherwise, go away.
Michelle Castle:...How do I get into these situations?
(door opens)
Austin James: How did you get in here?
Michelle Castle: Me? I... uh, I finished the Limerick at the door...
Austin James: That's impossible! Nobody can finish it. It's too idiosyncratic. It doesn't even rhyme! I made it to keep people out. - Pilot: Also used as the Premiere, this episode is a two-parter to show Michelle Castle's first day on the job, and the unusual situations that Austin James finds himself in.
- Shout-Out:
- Book of Genesis: While enraged over the water bill, Serendip's CEO speculates that Austin is trying to recreate the biblical flooding of the Earth.
- Batman: When the Serendip CEO sends Michelle to Austin's home, he calls it the Batcave, referencing the President's choice to hide himself away instead of running his own company.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Austin tells his Smart House to play Mozart's symphony #35, in D major while Michelle is introducing herself to him.
- Single Specimen Species: Steve is a species of spider that exists only because Austin decided to mutate his great-grandmother with gamma rays and released her to the basement to observe the effects.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: The Limerick password to Austin's warehouse doesn't rhyme at the end like limericks are supposed to. This is intentional, as he doesn't want people figuring it out, preferring to keep them away. The lack of a rhyme is foreshadowed within the poem itself, with "botched refrain".
- Teaser-Only Character: The man who was being chased in the first episode's teaser dies near Austin's warehouse.
- To Be Continued: The Premiere, being a Multi-Part Episode, ends the first episode with "to be continued". The original airing presented the two episodes back-to-back.
- The Unsolved Mystery: Austin is working on solving the murder of Donald Stonheim, a pilot who died while circumnavigating the Hudson Bay in 1921 and recently recovered. The police believe it to be an accident, but Austin noticed something in the left posterior fontanelle which indicates that Donald died before the crash. He plans to solve this mystery purely from the inside of his workshop, discovering motive, method, murder with the power of observation.
- Welcome Episode: Michelle Castle is newly hired for Serendip to be Austin James' secretary. Being sent to his warehouse/home/laboratory kicks off the two-character Ensemble series.
