Inside Job Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Clone Gunman
By Wade Wainio
Episode 2 of the Netflix series Inside Job is mostly about the dangers of cloning, but so much more! After being defeated and presently contained, ROBOTUS (Chris Diamantopoulos), the robotic replacement President, is stored in the basement of Cognito Inc., and it begs to be logged into the internet.
The team remains unconvinced and has been busy distracting the world from the robot attack fiasco. However, the “Shadow Board” is not happy with what happened.
There are to be no more backwards masking in music, and fewer extravagant crop circles as a punishment (apparently). Brett Hand (Clark Duke) is tasked with firing people.
When Magic Myc (Brett Gelman) catches wind of this, he decides the others must become sycophants to avoid getting the proverbial axe. As the story progresses, we see several areas of research at Cognito Inc., such as the human-animal hybrid department and its “sheeple,” as well as the clone lab.
Inside Job: Inside the clone zone
After introducing us to 2pac, 3pac, and 4pac (Carl Tart), Inside Job also gives us a new character named Grassy Noel Atkinson (Alex Hirsch), the real JFK assassin. Atkinson says he had to assassinate the President because he had slept with an alien and became pregnant.
His clutch of eggs might have jeopardized the world! Brett calls him the “Texas wisdom depository” and Glenn Dolphman (John DiMaggio) says that he resolved the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Crazy things are revealed in rapid succession, including vague revelations about media manipulation and subliminal messages. Also, in a pathetic attempt to avoid getting fired, Dolphman offers to put the face of Reagan Ridley (Lizzy Caplan) on Mount Rushmore.
We’re also offered that Myc has unusual physical properties, as he gets milked for memory-erasing chemicals! Then there is the open mic at MC-Ultra’s.
The plot against J.R.
Randall “Rand” Ridley (Christian Slater) has ranted against J.R. on Inside Job before. We learn that he’s also willing to blackmail J.R. to attain new liver transplants, address his own rampant alcoholism, and regain footing in Cognito.
Meanwhile, as Reagan assures key employees that they are safe from lay-offs, she does inform them that Grassy Noel Atkinson is about to be fired, which doesn’t go over well. To boost morale, Reagan decides to free a JFK clone for Grassy to assassinate.
It, however, ends up freeing a whole bunch of additional clones. Endangered, Brett kills a bunch of JFK clones with Axe body spray and a lighter.
However, things escalate as the heat turns the JFK clones into a weird, aggregate monster. Dr. Andre (Bobby Lee) is tasked with creating a chemical compound to destroy this mutant monster.
Surprisingly, ROBUTUS provides schematics to help them in their efforts. Also, in accordance with JFK lore, Magic Myc dresses as a Marilyn Monroe-esque “honeypot” to lure the monster into a poison trap.
Finally, the JFK clone monster head escapes on spider legs (like in John Carpenter’s The Thing) but Noel arrives and expertly shoots it. Reagan delivers the JFK livers to Rand.
Final thoughts
This is quite an action-packed episode of Inside Job, and the best line from the episode is probably: “What’s the point of unchecked power if you don’t abuse it?” Seriously, that is genuinely a classic line, and it may very well have originated in this series, so let’s give it some credit for that.
Additional memorable moments include a Marx clone who wants to “seize the means of duplication” and Reagan saying, “Let’s go make some dead Kennedys” (likely a reference to both the historical event and the punk band Dead Kennedys). You also have the obvious homage to John Carpenter’s The Thing, which is likely welcomed by most horror fans.
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