1x04 Change of Heart

[7.1/10] The first time Zeta risked his safety to save someone despite the fact that it would expose him to his pursuers, it was a cool moment. The second time it happened, it made sense as a way to show why a fearful scientist would change his mind. But this is the third time in a row that The Zeta Project goes to that well, and it all but loses its impact.

It doesn’t help that it seems pretty contrived that the little girl Zee and Ro met on the “tour of the human body” exhibit ends up in a fusion reactor anyway. (Man, the future apparently has pretty lax OSHA standards!) So Zeta exposing himself to the NSA in order to rescue her is kind of a yawn, even if it convinces a security guard at the museum to fake throwing Zee and Ro to the wolves, only to turn around and help them.

(Side note: I realized that they refer to the redheaded NSA operative as “Agent West”, and he’s voiced by Michael Rosenbaum. What are the chances he’s Wally West’s grandson or nephew or something? Crazy fan theory!)

That said, there’s a few nice setups and payoffs here. The electromagnet gets mentioned and seen before its deployed in earnest. (I feel bad for people carrying keys or watches or whatnot -- again, this is not the best-designed museum!) The fusion reactor gets mentioned before it’s at issue. And the tour through the history of robotics proves vital to Zeta evading his would-be captors at the end. There’s some solid screenwriting there, which I appreciate.

There’s also the briefest and most glancing exploration for what it would mean for Zeta to meet his “father” and him not really understanding human parental relationships. That’s clumsily dramatized with “Cora-K” and her mom talking about the girl’s deceased dad, but I actually liked it much better when dramatized through Ro. She speaks with a knowing causticness about how meeting your long lost father can be disappointing, and I hope the show explores that in earnest down the line.

Overall though, the conflict here mainly feels like a rehash of what we’ve seen through the prior two episodes, without enough of a twist or new scenario to keep it fresh.