“The Edge” is episode fifteen of season three of First Wave.
A scientist, Dr. Pierce Malcolm (Malcolm Stewart), is telling Cade, Jordan and Eddie that the lab complex they are in used to be a fallout shelter. The data has been promising and he’s made a breakthrough he thinks they will find interesting. Cade is suddenly struck by a headache. Malcolm indicates a device, a Gammatrex, that fires radiation in controlled bursts. Cade asks about there being no guards. Malcolm prefers to be alone and the automated security measures keep him sage. If he needs company, he has a Gua in a cell. Captured seven months ago, her blood and tissue samples have been vital. The Gua is staring at Cade and she laughs. Cade has a vision of himself strapped to the lab’s table and being injected with something. He has a bruise where the injection went in.
For some reason, Cade has a bad feeling about this place. Malcolm demonstrates what he has discovered. The Gammatrex irradiates two blood samples; one human, one Gua. The Gua sample changes colour. The radiation reacts with the shields that stop the Gua DNA spliced into human DNA from being detected.
Cade wanders over o the Gua again, who says she knows what he is. Brother. Cade is having a headache and looks into a mirror. His face shimmers like a Gua and he punches it. He remembers being injected and, when Jordan checks his hand, it’s healed. Cade says the was injected with something in this lab last night. He must have been drugged. Cade accuses Malcolm and asks Eddie to test Cade’s blood. It turns out to be Gua.
Malcolm admits he injected Cade with a serum derived from the Gua DNA of their captive. The Gua genome is powerful and Malcolm did this to benefit Cade. The invasion is coming and Cade will be able to face the Gua as an equal. Cade is the best hope humanity has and now he’s even better. Malcolm can reverse this, but won’t. He wanders too close to the captive Gua during his tirade and she kills him, then is killed herself.
After moving Malcolm’s body, Cade is blaming Jordan for recruiting the doctor until Eddie intervenes and reminds them to deal with this professionally. Malcolm said the process could be reversed and Eddie might be able to understand the research. Cade and Jordan can go through the paperwork whilst Eddie goes through the computers. Jordan finds some gruesome material, but nothing of help. Cade goes for a lie down, then immediately gets up with a change of demeanour. He goes to Jordan, kisses her then starts strangling her. Then wakes up; he’s been asleep for seven hours. Cade says the Gua is coming. Then an alarm sounds. Perimeter security is breached which means the automated defences are being bypassed.
The intruding Gua is Joshua. Eddie called him and disabled the security measures, because he knew how the others would react. They’ll not find a better expert on the Gua. When Jordan asks why Joshua will help, Joshua tells her he doesn’t care about Jordan or Raven Nation, but Cade is another matter.
Joshua explains that Gua DNA replicates aggressively. In its purest form, it’s like a virus that rewrites the host. He wants to see the research. Cade gives Jordan his gun. He trusts Eddie for some things; her for others. He’s being realistic and he doesn’t want to become Gua.
Jordan doesn’t trust Joshua and someone seems to be sabotaging things. Cade gets locked up in case it’s him. Malcolm’s attempt to make Cade more capable of fighting the Gua seems to have backfired spectacularly. Rather than Cade using Gua DNA to more effectively fight the Gua, he’s turning into a Gua in mind as well as body, wanting to further Gua aims, and Mabus can detect him, knowing where he is. More Gua are coming. If Malcolm was alive, at this point he probably would be willing to reverse the process. Unfortunately, he’s dead.