Rabbit Hole is a thrilling show that has captured the attention of many viewers with its unique blend of suspense, drama, and mystery. Episode 3 “The Algorithms Of Control” of the show has taken things to another level, with its intense storyline and the introduction of new characters.
The episode opens with Dr. Ben Wilson (Charles Dance), John Weir’s (Kiefer Sutherland) father, giving a speech about how dangerous the game he is about to play is. He emphasizes that it requires absolute commitment, trust in one another, him, and the plan while doubting everyone else. If they cannot do that, they should not go any further. The camera then reveals John Weir is agreeing. Then it pans out, and we see Valence (Jason Butler) behind him, also agreeing.
In flashbacks, we discover that John and Valence once owned a company together that pitted rich people or companies against each other. After a job that consists of sabotaging a new brand of cheese puffs, Valence wants to go bigger and better. How? By taking user data from social media sites, which is 150% more accurate than wives knowing their own husband’s behaviors.
Valence wants to process the data to sell it to businesses, agencies, governments, departments, and foreign countries. This is just like their own business, but larger and more profitable. John agrees to go all in with Valence.
When John goes home for the night, his apartment door is wide open. When he enters, his father is there, except John doesn’t recognize him. Ben reveals that it is indeed his father. John is understandably shocked and traumatized. Ben tells him he has nowhere else to go and needs his help. When he goes to Valence’s home to tell him what happened, he reveals what Ben told him.
There is a man named Crowley (Mark Winnick) planning on creating a new world order to hijack governments. To accomplish this, Valence and John pretend to break up their company and go their separate ways.
John and Valence meet at school and find Ben’s manifesto, “The Algorithms of Control,” in the safe. John’s mother couldn’t handle him anymore, so she sent him to boarding school. There, he met Valence, who is an expert in mathematics. John, as a child, is trying to decipher a message he felt his father left him by circling numbers and letters in papers and magazines. Valence cracked the cipher and opened the safe.
In the present day, John hacks into Valence’s company database. Xander has IT specialists seeing that John is trying to hack into Valence’s data. They are confident he can’t break in because, after five attempts, they lock him out for good, and Xander is tracing him to find his location.
Valence left him a cipher to find in some notes, and the password is “safety.” With the authenticator key, he can download all the data he needs. In a flashback, we see, as children, Valence and John break into their father’s safe using the world’s oldest and basic cipher, numerology. Valence figured it out because Ben used his son’s name to set the cipher in the first place, proving to John his father loved him.
Miles purposefully took on the hardest role, shielding John and Ben from Crowley, and he’s paid with his life. That worked as a catapult to get John back to the front lines. He’s going to great lengths to find out how Crowley is accomplishing his macabre agenda.
What kind of manipulation can drive a man like Miles to calmly walk to the edge of a highrise to take his own life? If they can reach Miles, then they can reach anyone.
Now the race is on to find Crowley before John and Ben succumb to the same fate. Ben’s got the benefit of a death certificate to hide him from view, but John’s far more vulnerable. He’s also at a technical disadvantage as he must remain untraceable but needs the tools the internet can provide too.
As John races against time to uncover the conspiracy and clear his name, the episode flashes back to his past and sheds light on his relationship with Valence, his former business partner, and his father, Dr. Ben Wilson.
The flashback reveals that John and Valence once owned a company together that pits rich people or companies against each other. After a job that consists of sabotaging a new brand of cheese puffs, Valence wants to go bigger and better by taking user data from social media sites. He wants to process the data to sell to businesses, agencies, governments, departments, and foreign countries, just like their own business, but large and more profitable. John agrees to go all in with Valence.
Meanwhile, Ben Wilson reveals himself to his son, John, after he goes home for the night, and his apartment door is wide open. When he enters, his father is there, except John doesn’t recognize him. Ben reveals that it is indeed his father and tells him that he has nowhere else to go and needs his help. When he goes to Valence’s home to tell him what happened, he reveals what Ben told him: there is a man named Crowley planning on creating a new world order to hijack governments.
To accomplish this, Valence and John pretend to break up their company and go their separate ways. Later on, John hacks into Valence’s company database to retrieve valuable information that could help him find Crowley. John also finds Ben’s manifesto, “The Algorithms of Control,” in the safe. It is a document that talks about the dangers of using algorithms to manipulate people’s behavior and how it can be used to control people’s thoughts and actions.
As John uncovers more about the conspiracy, he realizes that his father’s warnings about the dangers of the world were true all along. However, John also learns that his father’s involvement in the conspiracy has put his life in danger. John’s best friend and former partner, Valence, is murdered by Crowley’s agents, leaving John to race against time to find the conspirators and clear his name.
In the final scenes of the episode, we see John tricking Madi (Enid Graham) into going to Arda Analytics headquarters, using it as a distraction to get Xander, the IT specialist, out of the room while he pulls Valence’s data. When Xander returns to the room, he sees that John has stolen all the data, and he must tell his boss. When Xander delivers the news by phone, he looks sick. A few moments later, Madi is on the phone outside the building, talking to her boss. She hears a “splat” behind her and sees someone has fallen to their death.
The ending of Episode 3 leaves viewers on the edge of their seats, wondering what’s going to happen next. The show’s creators have done an excellent job of building suspense and tension throughout the episode, keeping the audience engaged and eager for more.
In conclusion, Episode 3 of Rabbit Hole is a thrilling and engaging installment that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. The show’s creators have done an excellent job of building suspense and tension throughout the episode, and the flashbacks provide valuable insight into John’s past and his relationship with Valence and his father, Dr. Ben Wilson. The episode ends with a shocking twist that leaves viewers eager to see what happens next, making Rabbit Hole a must-watch for fans of suspenseful, action-packed thrillers.
