Rm9sbG93ZXJz
VGhlIFRydXRoIGlzIE91dCBUaGVyZQ== Translation
Written by Shannon Hamblin & Kristen Cloke
Directed by Glen Morgan
Directed by Glen Morgan
"They're tracking us, our phones. They know everything. Where could we go?"
— Dana Scully
In a time where Artificial Intelligence is designed to help humans, Mulder and Scully learn what happens if you piss one off.
VHJvcGVznote :
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Somehow, the AI for a Japanese sushi restaurant has dozens of drones and the ability to hack other devices at its disposal to harass diners who don't tip. Ultimately, though, the Aesop of the episode is that AI is not a crapshoot; whatever they know, they must necessarily learn from us, so it's our responsibility to teach them well.
- Batter Up!: Mulder uses a baseball bat to get rid off a drone harassing him. More show up later.
- Book Ends: The first and last scenes of Mulder and Scully are of them eating a restaurant. For the former, it's a Japanese sushi restaurant that is lit by blue lights, has Artificial Intelligence robots running the place, and has no other customers. The latter, however is the exact opposite; being an American diner with yellow lighting, human workers and plenty of customers.
- Brick Joke: In its campaign of harrassment against Scully, the AI discovers her vibrator. To her embarrassment, she pockets it. Later, when Mulder instructs her to ditch anything the AI could track them with, the vibrator is one of the things she throws in the bin, and it promptly switches itself on. Later still, Mulder mentions that they got back all their devices, but she says not quite all.
- Broken Aesop: The moral of this story is that AI learns from humans, thus we must be careful in what we teach them. Which would be a great message if the crisis weren't resolved by Mulder giving in to the AI's intimidation tactics and rewarding it despite poor service - essentially teaching the AI that harassing people was the correct method to solicit tips.
- Call-Back:
- Scully's password to her security system is "Queequeg," a reference to her dog (and, further back than that, to her childhood nickname, "Starbuck."
- Mulder attempts to listen to Prince in his car, whom we already know Mulder likes.
- The moment Mulder grabs the metal bat to take down the drone, you know it will work due to his past experience with baseball on Scully's 35th birthday.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mulder thinks tipping robots is absurd (Especially after they serve him a blobfish for dinner) and so he doesn't tip them. Like some human waiters, they don't take too kindly to this.
- Genius Bonus: Two phrases can be translated using Base64 string.
- The title translates to "Followers".
- For the opening credits tagline, it reads "The Truth is Out There".
- Minimalism: The entire episode takes place in a handful of sets (one pre-existing), two (physical) actors for a majority of the episode, minimal dialogue and action (until the end). Props represent the villain, the Forowa AI (a Roomba, drones on wheels, and flying drones).
- Minimalist Cast: A majority of the episode only features Mulder, Scully, and a couple of voice actors as the artificial intelligence. Wendy the Waitress and some human extras appear in the final scene.
- Monster of the Week: The Forowa Japanese Restaurant A.I.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Some of the Forowa robots and drones have menacing red lights attached to them.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The entire intro is a synthesised voice recapping what happened when Microsoft introduced an artificial intelligence to Twitter
. - Shout-Out: The AI in Scully's house remind her that it's Skinner's birthday soon, so she should buy him cake. Cake is also a recurring image in another famous story of an AI gone mad, Portal.
- Silence Is Golden: Most of the episode, especially the first act, is without dialogue.
"We have to be better teachers."
