Love and Death

"Love and Death" is the fourth episode of VR.5 that aired on March 24, 1995. This episode guide is from the VR.5 FAQ and was originally written by the authors of the FAQ.

Synopsis
Sydney's next assignment is to subconsciously prod Jackson Boothe, a troubled Committee employee, into returning to work. She succeeds, but discovers that he is an assassin, and that the Committee may not be as benevolent as she had first thought. The assassin kills Frank Morgan, Sydney's Committee contact, and a file Dr. Morgan had sent to her slips through Sydney's fingers.

Main Cast

 * Lori Singer (Sydney Bloom)
 * Michael Easton (Duncan)
 * Will Patton (Dr. Frank Morgan)

Guest Stars

 * Louise Fletcher (Nora Bloom)
 * David McCallum (Dr. Joseph Bloom)
 * Kimberly Cullum (Young Samantha Bloom)
 * George DelHoyo (Jackson Boothe)
 * Carl Strano (Mr. Spire)
 * Louis Turenne (Larry Oldman)
 * Jessica Hendra (Megan Fellows)
 * Peter Spellos (Albert Fellows, Jr)
 * Shane Sweet (Albert Fellows, Sr)
 * Bethany Clifton (Unknown)
 * Wendi Westbrook (Unknown)
 * Sandra Robinson (Monique Fellows)

Crew
Written by: Thania St. John

Directed by: Rob Bowman

VR.5 was created by: Adam Cherry, Geoffrey Hemwall, Michael Katleman, Jeannine Renshaw, and Thania St. John

Executive Producer: John Sacret Young

Co-executive Producer: Thania St. John

Co-executive Producer: Eric Blakeney (2,3,5,6,8)

Supervising Producer: Michael Katleman

Producer: Naomi Janzen (2-10)

Producer: Jack Clements (2-10)

Producer: Mel Efros (1)

Co-producer: Geoffrey Hemwall

Observations

 * Dr. Morgan published his Ph.D. ("Human Brain Reaction to 3-Dimensional Stimulus") in 1979, making him an academic contemporary of Joseph Bloom.
 * Duncan knows a lot about secret societies.
 * Sydney seems to be unique in her ability to survive "high-end" VR, let alone in getting it to work.
 * Joseph Bloom was apparently part of a team that broke through on VR.3 (Flight Simulation?)--he was important in early VR research, and wrote a paper called "Cyberhelix Recombination".
 * The Committee can make bodies "disappear" and does hire assassins (I guess this ain't the "Knight Foundation for Law & Government"!).

Spoilers

 * Boothe mentions two Committee names: Peters and Hayes.
 * The Other's subconscious can "remember" VR.5 events from one contact to the next.
 * Six or seven people (in Dr. Morgan's experience) have died in VR.
 * Nora Bloom seems to have tried to commit suicide by taking pills--Sydney may have been the one to discover her.
 * The Committee may have kept the fact that Sydney survived the crash from Nora, allowing her to attempt suicide.

Questions/Answers/Speculation
The following contains SPOILERS.


 * 1) How does Sydney program VR.5 locations she hasn't seen (i.e., "Boothe's Room")?
 * 2) * (Speculation by Lisa Cunningham): Sydney can defer to the subconscious of the Other (i.e. the person who is brought into VR).
 * 3) * (Speculation by William A. Wood): Presumably in the expectation that the Other will automatically fill in the details of a supplied title.
 * 4) Why is the car in the crash flashbacks different in this episode (sedan) from the one in the pilot (station wagon)?
 * 5) * (Speculation by Lisa Cunningham): The scene was reshot when the pilot was picked up by the network.
 * 6) Where did Sydney grow up?
 * 7) * (Speculation by Lisa Cunningham): With Duncan's family?
 * 8) * (Speculation by William A. Wood): We have no evidence that Duncan even has a family--after all, he lives on a roof!
 * 9) What do Dr.Morgan's last words--"It's not what you think"--mean?
 * 10) * SPOILER: (Speculation by William A. Wood): They seem to be a reference to the file he had downloaded to her computer, and which was subsequently erased; perhaps Morgan was more sympathetic to the pain Sydney would feel upon learning that her father was a member of The Committee than Oliver turned out to be.
 * 11) Did Boothe kill Samantha and Joseph?
 * 12) * No
 * 13) * (Speculation by Lisa Cunningham): Sydney may have projected her subconscious fear that Boothe killed them upon learning that he was an assassin.
 * 14) * SPOILER: (Speculation by William A. Wood): But he may have thought he did--he may have been the assassin in the German train station that killed the fake Joseph Bloom in The Many Faces of Alex (TMFOA).
 * 15) Why was Nora wearing gloves and sunglasses to commit suicide?
 * 16) * SPOILER: These were subconscious clues that Nora had actually been using VR when she went into her coma--i.e., wearing the VR visor and gloves.