Stitchers – Two Deaths of Jamie B.

By starrymag | April 15, 2016

By: Lyndsey Nadeau

 

How do you solve a mystery when the person seems to have died twice? This is the challenge the Stitchers team has to solve in this week’s episode, “Two Deaths of Jamie B.”

 

The episode begins with Kirsten (Emma Ishta) receiving the ashes from her deceased father figure, Ed Clark (Hugo Armstrong). She is determined to find her “son-of-a-bitch” father and bring him to justice. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have much extra time on her hands to dedicate to this task when a new sample arrives at the Stitchers lab. Meanwhile, Cameron (Kyle Harris) and Kristin are trying to navigate the awkwardness of their feelings for one another, while Linus (Ritesh Rajan) is dealing with the fact his apartment has been robbed of everything.

 

How Does a Person Die Twice?

 

The sample is a man who has received repeated blunt force trauma to his body. The team must rely on the stitch in order to find evidence leading to the identity of the body since he does not have any fingerprints. For now, he is John Doe.

 

As soon as Kirsten stitches into the man’s memories, she realizes that the man could not have been a criminal. He works as a bag boy at a supermarket called the Green Basket, which Camille (Allison Scagliotti) informs the team is an independent family-owned market. John Doe’s real name is Jamie B. He is a happy and friendly man and appears to have an intellectual disability. Walking throughout the store, Kirsten spots a boy with a red hat—the same boy she spotted when stitching into Mulaney’s memory in the prior episode.

 

In a heartbreaking scene, Jamie is blindfolded and tied down while being brutally beaten. The killers want something from him, but he is confused and doesn’t understand. He is beaten to death before Kirsten enters another death memory, thoroughly confusing the rest of the team. It’s a much earlier memory and he seems to be drowning. This is impossible.

 

Cameron and Kirsten head to the Green Basket to visit the store owner. Fisher (Damon Dayoub) informs them that Jamie B. wandered into the store one day repeating his name. He didn’t know anything. The store owner gave him a job and a place to stay. They find out that he disappeared two days ago and he had nothing, but a notebook where he repeatedly wrote “Jamie B.” Kirsten comforts the man and tells him that he was there for Jamie when no one else was.

 

Still not understanding what happened to Jamie B., the team stitches back into his memory. They discover Jamie was a scientist and is talking about hydrocarbons. He worked at MeriCorp Energy, an oil company with a research facility. In another memory, something goes wrong at the lab and Jamie tries to keep it secure by creating a complicated code. Kirsten enters the drowning memory again, but this time she sees Jamie being pushed into the ocean. He survives, but suffers brain damage.

 

Camille, who seems to become more badass every episode, says she used to date an oil rig worker who knew about hydrocarbon-eating nanobots that cleared oil spills. She suggests that Jamie was developing a technology for MeriCorp Energy and accidentally programmed the nanobots to eat carbon, which is contained in all living things. If those nanobots were released, they would essentially turn the whole world into grey goo. Oops!

 

Hoping to find out more, Kirsten asks to see someone named Jamie B. at MeriCorp Energy. Unexpectedly, a woman overhears and says she goes by the name Jamie B., but her real name is Dr. Jamison Barrett (Christine Garver). She and Kirsten enter her office and she explains she is a lead bio engineer on the hydrocarbon team, but doesn’t have a lot of involvement on the nanobot team. Kirsten notices a photo in her office that includes the victim. The real Jamie says his name is Steven Benning and he worked there until he disappeared over a year ago. Kirsten realizes that Steven took Jamie’s name because, although he forgot everything else, he could never forget her.

 

While they’re talking, a woman barges into the office. The woman, Dr. Naomi Burke, wants to know why they’re talking to Dr. Barrett. Recognizing Naomi from the stitch, Kirsten says she will make a deal with her and give her the encryption code. Naomi feigns confusion and Kirsten hands her her phone number before leaving.

 

After looking through the surveillance footage, Linus is unable to find the little boy with the red hat. This detail proves to be unhelpful, unless this little boy is significant to another story. Perhaps he is involved in the mystery of Kirsten’s father.

 

Thankfully, Naomi changes her mind and wants to make a deal. Maggie (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) says the woman is not going to hand over money without proof the code works. The problem? They need to figure out a 2,048-character code. Was there anything else in the stitch that could help them determine the code that Steven programmed? Kirsten remembers that Steven was listening to music. The music ends up being a 2,048-note song called “Kiss Me Now,” and they’re able to figure out the encryption key. Kirsten proposes, “If Dr. Benning reprogrammed his nanobots, why can’t we reprogram ours?”

 

Kirsten meets with Naomi, who leads her back to her lab where Jamie is waiting. She wants to make sure the encryption code works before she finishes the deal. The device works. Unfortunately, Naomi and her partner want to kill Kirsten and Jamie so there aren’t any “complications” when they sell the technology as a weapon. While Kirsten explains the situation to Jamie, Naomi and her partner fall to the ground in pain. Kirsten infected the drive with her team’s nanobots, which made their brains short circuit. They will be fine, but they won’t be doing anything for a few hours—more than enough time for them to be arrested for Steven’s death.

 

In a sweet moment, Kirsten and Cameron tell Jamie that Steven forgot everything except her name and a song. Jamie explains that “Kiss Me Now” was the song that was playing the first time that they kissed.

 

Best-Friendzoned

 

The awkwardness between Kirsten and Cameron is at its all-time high, especially when they’re trying to focus on their work. They talk about the case over pizza and wine and seem to be sitting a little too close for being “just friends.” Cameron asks Kirsten why she hugged the store owner who looked after Steven and she says that the man was a father to Steven, like Ed was to her. They share a look after she admits she regretted never telling Ed how she felt. Is she really talking about Ed or Cameron? They’re about to kiss when Linus interrupts them.

 

Later, Kirsten and Cameron finally talk about their relationship. She doesn’t want to be in a relationship right now, but she also doesn’t want anything to be awkward between them. “I’m your friend?” Cameron asks. “No, you’re my best friend,” Kirsten replies. With this half rejection, Cameron decides to go out with a woman named Nina who he connected with at the comic book store.

 

More Than the Tablet-Holding Girl

 

Camille is extra defensive when she finds out that her jerk-of-a-brother, Theo, stole all of Linus’s belongings from his place, including his expensive smart appliances. Camille insists that she can cover the costs, but Linus won’t accept it.

 

At work, Camille is getting agitated in her role as the girl who stands there and holds a tablet. It’s obvious that she is competent enough to be promoted. Maggie assures Camille that she is strong, smart and a natural for “this type of work,” but she wants to be absolutely sure she’s ready for it. Camille proves she is capable when she confronts her brother and demands that he return Linus’s belongings. When he refuses, Camille shows her new and improved self-defense skills by successfully kicking his ass.

 

Camille tells Linus that she convinced Theo to return all of his belongings, which results in a steamy hook-up. At least one couple is happy—at the moment.

 

A Few Steps Closer

 

In order to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance, Kirsten gets the idea to search through her garage. She used to think all of the boxes belonged to Ed, when in reality, many of them belonged to her parents. Fisher volunteers to help her through this search. In the midst of giving relationship advice, he finds a suit jacket that is too small to have belonged to Ed. They find a tag that says it was tailored by Nardini’s in Beverly Hills.

 

Kirsten tries to contact the tailor, only to discover that he’s deceased. In the final moments of the episode, she thinks the jacket is a dead end clue until she finds a napkin from his wedding in the pocket. Printed on the napkin is the name Elizabeth Stinger.

 

This wouldn’t be weird—if her mother’s name weren’t Jacqueline.