The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum - Recap

Inspired by her new temp job, Wendy works on new paintings while Lacey looks on. Lacey finally tells her roommate that Ben put the video of his breakup with Wendy up on the Internet. The two girls take a look at it and Lacey notes that thanks to Ben's bulk e-mailing, it's already had thousands of hits. A depressed Wendy goes to bed but is awakened the next morning when the Middleman calls with a priority assignment, and tells her to meet him at the rendezvous point. He signs off without providing more information. Wendy uses her computer to try and determine where the rendezvous point is, while Lacey watches TV psychiatrist Dr. Gil. Wendy seems fine with the breakup video, which worries Lacey since the last time Wendy went through a breakup, she stayed in bed a lot and watched Italian zombie movies. Wendy dismisses her concerns and is about to give up when Lacey notes there's a Rendezvous Point Diner in the city. Wendy goes there to find the Middleman waiting for her. He tells her that he tested her deductive skills, and will be putting her through a series of pop quizzes and testing her on her teamwork abilities.



Isabel Schon, a rich woman with what seems to be extensive plastic surgery, is shopping for jewelry when a beam of light shoots out of the sky and teleports her out to the desert. Someone points a gun at her and she recognizes him just before the figure kills her.

Wendy is at Middleman HQ talking to her mother, who hasn't seen the breakup video yet. The Middleman interrupts to take her on a tour of the facility, noting that she was recruited on short notice and doesn't know everything she needs to know. He shows her the various Middleman facilities and admits he doesn't know who pays for it all. They then go the Middleman Interrogation Room where he has Wendy try to obtain of a hidden bomb from an Interrodroid 3000. He goes to the main chamber to watch her and Ida reports they have a report on Isabel's disappearance. Ida doesn't believe that Wendy will work out as a sidekick, much less a Middleman, but the Middleman disagrees. Wendy gets through with the interrodroid by beating the information out of it, venting some pent-up hostility and making the Middleman worry about her stability.



The duo goes to the site of the disappearance and detects hypervelocity particles. A teleport beam appears and returns Isabel's corpse, missing its head. Ida identifies the corpse and they talk to Dean and Doris, Isabel's brother and sister. They both have the same extensive plastic surgery and both seem upset. However, Doris lets slip that there have been other attacks. Dean quickly hushes her up and gets her inside.



Returning to Middleman HQ, the duo learns from Ida that there have been similar disappearances and decapitated corpses in the last six months. The victims all have one common factor; they were patients of plastic surgeon Dr. Rollin Newleaf. Wendy figures Newleaf is the killer but the Middleman warns her against jumping to hasty conclusions. They're interrupted when Lacey and Noser show up with flowers and Ben's PS to destroy, and Wendy tries to get them to leave. When she refuses to show them her cubicle, Lacey gets skeptical but the Middleman intervenes and assures them Wendy has to leave right away on a case. He gets a rare gem from a safe and takes it with them.

At Newleaf's office, the Middleman gives Wendy a Fish & Wildlife ID and tells her to improvise using it. They talk to Newleaf, who is apparently his own best patient, and the Middleman shows the doctor the gem. Newleaf compulsively takes it and… eats it. Realizing it's a set-up, Newleaf calls in his security guards and talks to them in an alien language, telling them to capture the duo. Wendy draws her gun but the Middleman has taken the precaution of turning it off. He then assures Newleaf that they're only there to talk. Newleaf takes offense at Wendy's actions and the Middleman tells her to step outside. He explains that Newleaf and the others are Manicoids. The supposed plastic surgery is their natural appearance, and they come to Earth to blend in with rich people with plastic surgery and sate their appetite for expensive gemstones.



Wendy leaves while the Middleman talks with Newleaf. She talks to Lace by cell phone and discovers that Ben is getting a million-dollar contract for a movie based on his video. Meanwhile, Newleaf refuses the Middleman's protection but accepts a watch with a tracking device. The duo head back to HQ and Wendy is furious that the Middleman doesn't trust her. He has a psych profile on her, going back to at least when she was 8, and warns that it says that she'll snap if she doesn't express her feelings. He encourages her to do so but she tosses the pysch profile out the car window. She heads back home and stomps past Lacey to be alone in her bedroom.

That night, Dr. Newleaf is heading home when he's teleported away. The Middleman can track Newleaf by the watch, but Wendy realizes that he gave Newleaf her watch. She think she doesn't trust her but he assures her that the watch is there so that he can always find her and provide backup when she needs it. They follow the signal to a broadcast studio with the equipment necessary to direct a teleport beam anywhere on earth. They find a secret room containing hunting trophies of animals… and Manicoids. Dr. Gil comes in, dressed and armed as a big-game hunter, and explains that he teleports his victims to a private hunting ground and then kills them. He hates Manicoids because when one of their flying saucers came to Earth, his father shot one down but was killed in the subsequent crash. Gil salvaged a teleportation device from the spaceship and finances it through his career as a TV psychologist. He opens fire on them and jumps into the teleporter, but Wendy goes in after him as a stray shot destroys the controls.



Dr. Gil goes after Wendy, who seeks cover and finds Newleaf. Finally having enough, Wendy draws her gun and goes after Gil, only to realize it's still shut down. Gil prepares to kill her but Wendy complains about the lousy week she's had and Gil insists on providing her with counseling before she dies. She talks about her abandonment issues with her father and her boyfriends, and he assures her he'll be there for her… right before he's disintegrated by a Manicoid flying saucer. The Middleman and Newleaf's security guards arrive, having followed the tracking signal in the watch. Wendy finally admits that the Middleman was right, and she knew she could count on him to find her.



Having achieved her emotional release, Wendy goes back to the sublet and apologizes to Tracey, and the two settle in for an Italian zombie movie marathon. Meanwhile, Gil's death is blamed on a herd of rampaging rhinos. Afterward, Wendy starts painting again.

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