“Rubicon” is episode seventeen of season two of First Wave.
Cade breaks into a car and starts examining a briefcase. He calls Eddie and says it’s too easy. Eddie replies that it took weeks to crack the code. There’s a regular transfer with the car left in the lot for daylight pickup. Cade wonders why it isn’t in the boot. Eddie says there’s a high percentage of thefts from there. Cade has found no explosive residue on the briefcase and he opens it. Inside are alien orbs. He thinks they’re real lucky or this is a hell of a setup. Then he notices the door. The door is covered in C4 residue. Because there’s a bomb under the seat. Cade opens the door and flees, managing to get a bit of distance between himself and the car before it explodes, but is knocked down.
He wakes in a bed linked to medical equipment, but clearly not in a hospital room given the decor. Outside the room is obviously some sort of facility with people wearing ID badges. Cade heads towards a room where people are working at computers and there’s mention of aliens. Plus a map showing alien surveillance. He’s greeted by the man who looks to be in charge.
Someone explains the car bomb to Cade and says there was a malfunction in it. The time between Cade getting out of the seat and the bomb exploding did seem excessive. Cade has been unconscious for 13 days. He’s in a protected facility of the National Defence Agency outside Detroit. They found him in a hospital in Detroit and they put things together from the orbs. Cade’s fingerprints led back to his murder warrants which lead to his journals on the website. The orbs were analysed and found to contain alien consciousnesses. Cade has delivered hard evidence of something they’ve suspected for a long time.
Cade wants to make a call and is offered a secure line. He then decides he wants to leave but is told he needs to stay for his own protection. The Attorney General is clearing him of murder charges but that will take a few days. Now the Gua are exposed, they will kill Cade on sight. Cade suspects that they are aliens and takes the leader, Blaylock, hostage. Blaylock offers Cade his hand to cut. Cade stabs it. Blaylock doesn’t heal.
Back in Cade’s room, there’s a knock on the door. A woman enters. She introduces herself as Dr. Heather LeGuin (Teryl Rothery), a psychiatrist hired by the agency. Cade had concussion and three week’s rest is normally recommended. She has someone who wants to see Cade; his Uncle Harry. Cade believed Harry was killed by the aliens. Harry knows things only he should be able to know.
Cade tells Blaylock he wants out. Either let him or he’ll find his own way. LeGuin agrees that this is a good idea. Security can go with him. They hired her to give her opinion; this is it. Cade’s mental health is important. Blaylock agrees and says Mitchell will go with. Where does Cade want to go? Home. They are accompanied by armed agents and are given vests to wear. Cade’s old house was bought by another couple several months back. They’ve been convinced to clear out. The house sparks memories of Hannah.
They return to the NDA. Cade asks about Eddie. They haven’t managed to find him; Blaylock says he’s either underground or dead. Also, two Gua and three FBI agents were killed in an attack on a facility. The president is preparing to make an announcement at the appropriate time. The NDA knows that the Gua have infiltrated the military and government at the highest levels. It’s only a matter of time before the Gua hit them.
Blaylock wants help. He shows Cade photos of U.S. intelligence agents who, one week ago, were pegged as hostiles. One of them is Colonel Grace. Blaylock says they need help identifying the subversives. Grace’s picture seems to make Cade think twice. Back in his room, he tears it apart, looking for bugs.
LeGuin does a Rorschach test with Cade. He sees all the blobs as aliens. She says he believe they are all aliens. They could be. She asks why they haven’t killed him yet then. Because of the Nostradamus book. LeGuin tells him the book is no longer vital. He has crossed the Rubicon. Paranoia was vital to Cade’s security and now he doesn’t know how to turn it off.
Are they telling the truth? Cade has been manipulated before, with visions that were not real and artificial worlds you could die in. He seems to have finally got everything he wants.