Bull (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 10 - E.J. - full transcript
When Bull helps the CEO of a company accused of killing an employee with a self-driving car, he learns that his client is keeping a big secret that could sabotage a trial win.
[TIRES SCREECH]
[HEAVY ROCK MUSIC]
♪ You're automatic
So keep on walking
♪ Get off your knees,
baby Stop talking
♪ You got fire...
All right.
Very nice, EJ. You shaved
0.7 seconds off that run.
We'll need to up the negative
camber another degree.
- That's exciting.
- [CHUCKLES]
You wanted me to remind
you when it was time to go.
- Thanks, EJ.
- Anytime, man.
I still have to
load your upgrade.
- What's wrong with your wipers?
- Low moisture sensitivity.
They were coming on
too late when it rained.
I got a game to catch.
Come on.
Screw this. I gotta go.
[CLUNKING]
Really?
[SIGHS] I don't have
time for this crap, EJ.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
MAN: CEO of Ejetto
Technologies, Ginny Bretton...
- MAN 2: EJ kills...
- MAN 3: Technology on trial...
- Self-driving cars...
- My name's EJ. My name's EJ.
Would you like me to
stop for some coffee?
MARISSA: Ejetto
Technologies was founded
by tech entrepreneur
Ginny Bretton.
Say her name fast and
it rhymes with Einstein.
I don't think Einstein would have
devoted his life to autonomous vehicles.
Benny, do I detect a
hint of technophobia?
Just work better
with paper and pen.
- And by pen, I mean my Montblanc.
- Technophobe.
- So, what do we think of this case?
- It's a loser.
The plaintiff is Adam's widow,
married less than a year,
also an employee at Ejetto.
All they have to prove is that it was
negligence that caused the death.
Much as I hate to agree,
juries get lost in techno-babble,
so they're likely to find for a
young widow over big tech.
But this case has a
young woman behind it,
and Ginny has accomplished
more in her first 26 years
than most do in
an entire lifetime.
Who knows what she's
gonna do in the next 26?
You really think she's going
to make that big of an impact?
BULL: I do. Just got a text. She sent
a car. Least I can do is hear her out.
Hi, Dr. Bull. Please come in.
My name is EJ. How are you?
In case you're programmed to
care, EJ, I'm fine. Thanks for asking.
- Are you comfortable with me driving?
- "Comfortable" might be a bit strong.
I take it you're the
self-driving program
that Ginny is getting
ready to launch?
I am.
Were you driving the car that
was involved in the fatal crash?
Unfortunately, yes. But
don't worry, I've been updated.
- What went wrong?
- Unfortunately, I don't remember.
That's convenient. Good
thing Ginny contacted me.
Yes. You have a very
impressive success rate. 91.5%.
- Actually, it's a bit higher than that.
- Currently it is.
But Ginny also asked me to factor
in this case as well. I projected a loss.
Hmm.
All right, Dr. Bull. You have
arrived at Ginny Bretton's house.
Front door's open.
I'll wait here for you.
Thank you.
Hello?
Hello?
- Ms. Bretton?
- Oh, yeah, I'm back here!
Hey.
Want a fry?
Sorry. I'm Ginny. I'd shake your
hand, but, um... burger fingers.
So, is it Dr. Bull
or Jason or...?
- Just Bull.
- Well, hey, thanks for coming.
Let's... Where to start?
Oh, ah, first have a seat.
Interesting office.
My parents surrendered this
room to me when I was 12, so...
- Your parents live here?
- Oh, uh, they did, yeah.
I bought them a house in
Scottsdale, traded it for this.
This is where I get
all my best ideas.
So, ah, uh, personal
desalinization pods.
Self-generating solar batteries.
Um, the Arable
Gobi. I love this one.
It's turning the Gobi
Desert into farmland.
- Are all these realistic?
- Yeah, all of them.
I've just been too
busy working on EJ.
[SIGHS]
Adam was such a nice guy.
I feel terrible for
Adam's wife, Erica, too.
Erica said Adam died because
your program malfunctioned.
Yeah, and I've spent every
minute since he died scanning EJ,
but there's no glitch,
no error, nothing.
- Wasn't his fault.
- His?
Uh, yeah, EJ's.
When you give something a face,
it's hard not to anthropomorphize it.
Huh.
- So you think it was Adam's fault.
- It had to be.
He entered those updates
every day with a thumb drive,
but the day that he
died, he made a mistake.
He bypassed security protocols,
you know, prematurely shut
down and overloaded the system.
That's what killed him?
Once you have corrupted
files, anything can happen.
EJ was designed to save
lives, not to take them.
So, 33,000 Americans die
in car accidents every year,
but if every car had an EJ, we
could reduce that number by 90%.
OK, that's 30,000 lives
every year. That's a lot of lives.
Yes, it is. So what's
his speech based on?
I noticed he said
"unfortunately" twice.
You coded him to
use very human idioms.
Uh... yeah.
I had a friend who used to say
that all the time, about everything.
- "Unfortunately."
- Used to?
Mmm, yeah.
Hmm.
You know, I have a PhD,
three disciplines, in psychology,
if you need any help
with EJ's personality.
Thanks, but, uh, I
like him the way he is.
- Why don't you settle?
- I tried.
You know, I've offered
Erica whatever she wanted,
but this isn't about
money for either of us.
She wants revenge.
She wants to kill EJ.
Even if her employee screwed up,
why weren't there adequate fail-safes?
Ejetto is a tech company.
Safety should be job one.
It's gonna come down to
Ginny's credibility as an inventor.
They'll try and paint her as a
money-grubbing, heartless tech-head
who doesn't care
about her employees.
Nothing could be further from
the truth. She's a marshmallow.
She's also loopy.
Half-finished sentence next to a
half-eaten bowl of Count Chocula.
[CHUCKLES] So I'm
thinking we'll lose the pajamas.
Yeah, that's a good idea, because
a little loopy is nice, it's endearing.
Takes the edge off
the CEO stereotype.
But too loopy looks incompetent,
likely to make mistakes.
So we'll find the sweet spot
on the loopiness spectrum.
Here's a copy of the thumb drive that
the paramedics found near Adam's body.
Have Cable go through
that, find Adam's mistakes.
We also need proof he
bypassed security protocols.
I thought Ginny already
confirmed that he did.
People, say it with me.
ALL: Never trust the client.
That's my team.
Now I'm proud of you.
Danny, we're gonna go to Ejetto.
We've gotta get our hands
on Adam's personnel file
and find out what kind
of employee he was.
Yeah, I'm just the money guy.
That's why Ginny brought me in.
She makes the magic,
I make the payroll.
- You get along with her?
- Oh, are you kidding?
Ginny's like a daughter to
me, in more ways than one.
I mean, I feel like a father
to most of these kids.
- Right, Carter?
- That's right, Dad.
Course, you know, soon
they'll all be billionaires
and they'll be moving off to
start their own little tech families.
- When did you come on board?
- Eighth grade.
Ginny beat me out for
middle-school valedictorian.
Not that I'm still bitter
about that or anything.
Wait a second. You started
working on EJ in the eighth grade?
No, no, no, first we built a
robotic arm, firefighting drone,
a digital cornea and a few
others that aren't worth mentioning.
Then Ginny was
involved in a car accident
and next thing you
know, EJ came along.
- Tell us about Adam.
- Oh, was a great guy.
Poor Erica. We loved her here.
She's one of our best R&D engineers.
Nice enough guy,
but he had his issues.
Showing up late, missing some
days, falling asleep on the job.
This wasn't his first
mistake. It's all in the file.
So you think the
accident was his fault?
Hell, yeah.
It's obviously in our interest
to think so, but the truth is,
he did violate
security protocols.
You know you're supposed
to click eject before removing?
We have several things you're
supposed to log before removing the drive.
He didn't stick to the script.
Incident report's in there too.
- Should've fired him a long time ago.
- Maybe.
But Ginny thinks of everyone
here as family members.
You don't mind if we
take a look around?
- Sure, take your time.
- Thank you, guys.
All right, see what you can
find. Keep an eye on Carter.
He's not telling us everything.
It's a digital record from
the night of the accident.
Adam definitely screwed up in failing
to log the drive out, but watch this.
- He overloaded the system.
- So why was he in such a hurry?
- CABLE: I checked his calendar.
- BULL: A soccer match.
He was in a hurry to get
home and watch a game.
At 1:30 in the morning?
You've obviously never
seen an Arsenal/Man U match.
There's our human
error. Ginny's home free.
Except... the green thumb
drive is still a bit of a mystery.
I dug deeper and found
something I didn't recognize,
a bunch of junk code lines.
I'll try to decipher what I can,
but it's like eating a
bowl of soup with a fork.
Get slurping.
Well, we have our
first person of interest.
Your suspicions were right,
Bull. Carter's a recovering addict.
He was in rehab last year.
You wanna ask him about that?
I'd rather ask our client.
He was in a mountain
biking accident five years ago.
He messed up a
nerve in his neck.
Started out with prescription pain
pills and went downhill from there.
- He ever come back uphill?
- [SIGHS]
He says that he's clean, but
his money's going somewhere.
I mean, he's always hitting
me and Dean up for a float.
He's desperate for money. Could
be an extortion plot gone wrong.
No. I mean, Carter's got
his personal problems.
But he and I built this
company from nothing.
He wouldn't jeopardize it.
Plus I pulled his security
clearance on EJ a year ago.
- How'd he take that?
- With bitterness and sarcasm.
Bottom line, he couldn't access
EJ's program even if he wanted to.
When the Titanic sank, whose
fault was it, the ship's or the captain's?
MARISSA: And this helps us how?
BULL: Walking tech disasters
screw up tech ten times a day.
They accept human
error as a fact of life.
They'll blame the
captain before the ship,
Adam before EJ.
The ship had serious design
flaws. You can't blame the captain.
They told him it was unsinkable.
MARISSA: Middle-school
science teacher.
never gives anything over a B.
Hmm. Well, we don't
want him to flunk EJ.
[CLEARS THROAT]
- Move to strike, Your Honor.
- Juror number one, you're dismissed.
MARISSA: Next up is
Stella, artist, lives off the grid.
Now, this is where
tech disasters get tricky.
No social media
profiles, not even email.
I like the look. Old school.
I can smell the
patchouli from here.
We accessed postal archives.
She exchanges letters
with a transcendental guru,
signs her name
as her spirit animal.
I can't imagine trying to guide a
ship that size a hundred years ago.
The captain was only human.
The captain was negligent and
the ship was poorly engineered.
If I had to blame one
thing, it'd be the iceberg.
Hmm. There's an
outside-the-box thinker.
He's a wild card, but at least
his instinct isn't to blame Ginny.
Let's take him.
That look of quiet desperation
means you couldn't decrypt it.
But this look of excitement...
says I found someone who can.
An encryption specialist
named Sarcoma.
How come hackers never have
names like Parasol or Julep?
Well, hackers tend to pick
names that reflect their personality.
This one's cancer.
He won't meet with me,
but I happen to know that
he's dying to meet Goliath 918,
a notoriously
reclusive hacktivist.
Rumor is that he
anonymously shows at events,
so I was wondering if you could
pose as him at this get-together later.
As Goliath 918.
Well, no one knows what he looks
like, other than that he's... vintage.
- Huh!
- Sorry.
But with a little makeover,
you could totally pull it off.
Chunk, I got a job for ya.
[BULL CLEARS THROAT]
Wow. Amazing transformation.
If no one's ever seen this guy, how
do they know he doesn't dress like this?
Remember our little refresher.
If you forget what to say, just
throw out some hacker slang,
like "yak-shaving"
or "dog-fooding."
Whoa.
I think that's him.
Let's go shave that yak.
OK.
Sarcoma?
Hey. I'm... I'm Cable.
And this is Goliath 918.
You're not Goliath.
Ooh.
Goliath, it's an honor.
Don't touch me.
You're not Sarcoma.
I swear to God I am.
Junk code, two minutes.
- [PHONE RINGS]
- [SIGHS]
Speak.
I followed Carter home, and there's
something you gotta see. Um...
I'm sending it over
to Cable right now.
Oh, my God.
He did it in less than two
minutes. Unbelievable.
So, we cool?
It's just that I... I don't
like to be touched.
Thanks.
What was with the smashing?
How did you know
that that would sell him?
I needed a personality
that matched the name.
What's on this?
So, Sarcoma decrypted about 300
pages of real code embedded in the junk.
Not sure what it is yet.
- But it's not junk.
- [PHONE CHIMES]
Hold on. We're getting
live feed from Danny.
- BULL: Ginny's at Carter's house?
- Yeah. I got sound. Hold on.
GINNY: What the hell
have you done to us?
- She swore Carter was innocent.
- I told you, never trust the client.
- Where were you yesterday?
- Home.
Went to bed early, at ten.
In the past seven words,
you exhibited two of the
three most common lying traits:
you blinked twice
the national average
and you pointed your
feet towards the exit.
When we fib, we subconsciously
get ready to leave the room
in case we're caught.
We know you were with
Carter yesterday. Why?
- Wait. You had me followed?
- No, we had Carter followed.
- You were a surprise bonus.
- Carter and I are old friends.
What we talked about had nothing
to do with the case. It's private.
OK.
Am I really that bad a liar?
Let's just say it makes your
hair your second worst trait.
I guess fashion and tech
are mutually exclusive, hmm?
Not at all. In fashion,
social tech is everything.
Our profiles, our posts, our
images, they create our brand.
Not to mention the dating
apps that govern modern love.
Tech meets man's greatest needs.
Some people find love through
tech, others find tech through love.
It's a long story.
Well, we have a lot of problems
and a lack of time ain't one.
So spill it.
BENNY: Adam was
diagnosed with sleep apnea
two years before he
started working at Ejetto.
So the plaintiffs can't say
that Adam's insomnia and
inattention to detail were work related.
Benny, tell Danny to take a
closer look at our young widow.
Before we go to
court to defend Ginny,
we need to find out why
she's lying about Carter.
Let's talk to an
employee who won't lie.
Who's that?
EJ, what can you tell
us about Carter Spinell?
He was born 26 years ago on
March 21st in Hempstead, New York.
OK. Let's
fast-forward a little bit.
He and Ginny had a falling-out
over his drug use or something else?
Unfortunately, I don't know.
Did he recently alter
your programming?
Carter doesn't have security
clearance to alter my code.
Did Carter originally write
any of your programming?
Yes. My collision algorithm.
It makes choices
to minimize loss.
If the car is going
to hit an object
and, say, there are
motorcyclists on either side,
one wearing a
helmet, the other not,
the algorithm determines
which one you should hit.
Choosing between survival and
legalities. That was Carter's work?
The base code was done by Carter,
but Ginny revised many specific rules.
Well, just like any language,
programmers often inject
idiosyncrasies into their work.
If I look through the algorithm, I can
probably tell you exactly who did what.
Great. Work with Cable on it.
I have got an idea I wanna
prep Benny for in court.
About?
Making Ginny more
sympathetic for the jury.
MAN: From what you
told us, it sounds like Adam
was more than just a
wonderful coworker and husband.
He even used to make
me breakfast every morning.
Those were the
best days of my life.
You get that, Marissa?
Yes, and so did all
of our mirror jurors.
Heart rates are normal. Biometrics
are showing they are calm and attentive.
- They like Erica.
- Your witness.
Ms. Bunson, you say your husband
made breakfast for you in the mornings.
- Was that because he was already up?
- Of course.
In fact, it wasn't unusual
for him to be up all night?
Adam sometimes
had trouble sleeping.
- 'Cause he was an insomniac?
- There were a lot of factors.
BENNY: Well, these factors caused
him to miss at least two days every month
and be late three times
the week of October 15th.
Adam's job was hard.
They worked him very long
hours, so he didn't punch a clock.
Did you resent the company
for overworking him?
Yes, I did.
You two were seeing a marriage
counselor, is that correct?
Lots of couples go to therapy.
Heart rates are going up, Bull.
They are stressing. This is not good.
Relax. It's all part
of the strategy.
As a newlywed, would you say that
these were the best days of your life?
Objection.
BENNY: Withdrawn.
You were upset at the
company, at your husband,
and you stand to make an
awful lot from this lawsuit.
Objection! Is counsel gonna ask Ms.
Bunson a question or just insult her?
Sustained.
Bull, biometrics are showing
signs of stress, probably anger.
We're two to four against.
We can't afford to lose any.
- Make your point, Mr. Colón.
- Yes, Your Honor.
I just have one simple question.
Did you have anything to do
with the death of your husband?
Stop this! Erica, I am so sorry. I had
no idea they were gonna do this to you.
Ms. Bretton, please sit down!
Heart rates are going down.
Signs of de-escalating stress.
Almost as though...
They saw Ginny rush to protect
Erica and they connected to her.
BENNY: No further
questions, Your Honor.
I think this is a good
time for a recess.
Your stunt worked, Bull. Everyone
showed motions in Ginny's direction.
And we actually got one juror to
our side. Now it's three to three.
Which means the prosecution's
gonna be desperate for a new strategy,
and when one is desperate,
one resorts to fear.
Fear of technology. So
how do we push back?
We fight fear with fun.
If you squint, you can
see the future, Benny.
OK, so the jurors who are
afraid of this technology,
they go for a ride, they
have a wonderful time,
fall in love with the
whole self-driving thing.
Then they flip
and, boom, we win.
And here I thought my
plan was inscrutable.
BENNY: Problem is getting
them in the car and not killing them.
That's why you're going.
People are competitive, Benny.
If they think you're afraid,
they're gonna climb all over
themselves to get in this car.
Think you can look scared
enough? Hey, that's perfect.
- Your way of embarrassing me, isn't it?
- Yes. I made up the rest.
Good luck.
[SIGHS]
Don't worry, Benny.
I'll be right here.
So... who's feeling adventurous?
This self-driving car's gonna take you
for one loop around the obstacle course.
Benny over there is a little
nervous, but he's gonna do it.
- Love that jacket.
- Thanks.
You're Ginny Bretton's attorney,
right? You're afraid to get in this thing?
We should probably
not speak to each other.
To avoid any
perceptions of impropriety.
Fine by me.
Come on.
Live a little, lawyer man.
Have fun, lawyer man.
[BULL CHUCKLES]
You'll be all right.
EJ: Welcome aboard.
Please keep your arms and
legs inside the car at all times.
Expectant mothers and
young children should not ride.
[ENGINE STARTS]
That was a joke.
- Everyone ready? Here we go.
- No. But let's go.
[TIRES SCREECH]
Oh!
Oh, my God!
Ooh!
Thanks for your time.
Yeah, so the robot works now,
but would you really trust it out
there on the streets of Manhattan?
I think two of 'em switched
to Ginny's side. It's not bad.
- Could do worse.
- [PHONE BLEEPS]
It's not good enough.
What's up, Cable?
You know those 300 pages of code
Sarcoma found on the thumb drive?
I finally figured out what
they are. A back door.
A secret opening into EJ's code
that allows users to hack
in and control the vehicle.
It was what was used to kill
Adam, and it's in every copy of EJ.
Ginny says she
searched every byte of EJ.
It's called a heisenbug. It
doesn't show up on scans.
Here are three examples of code
written by Adam, Ginny and Carter.
Overlay each example with the
backdoor code found on the thumb drive...
Carter Spinell.
Find him now.
CABLE: Tracking his GPS.
Carter didn't have security clearance,
so he couldn't have loaded it into EJ.
Which is why he must have
swapped out Adam's green thumb drive
with windshield wiper
upgrade, disguise the back door.
- Why do it in the first place?
- Money.
Once EJ's vulnerable,
Carter could blackmail
Ejetto or sell it to any rival.
Destroy the company he
helped build? I don't think so.
- There's more at play here than money.
- Think Adam was in on it?
Either way, Carter probably
killed him to tie up loose ends.
If he did, that lets Ejetto
and Ginny off the hook.
Corporations aren't liable
for the crimes of an employee.
- CABLE: Got him.
- All right.
Carter's on the move.
Tell Danny to pick me up.
There he is.
Thanks.
Some bloodshot eyes, blue
skin and nails, traces of vomit.
- Heroin overdose.
- He set the car for one last ride.
- They're saying suicide.
- That's what it looks like.
- I guess we're back to square one.
- He could still be our guy.
Maybe Adam's death
got to be too much for him.
That would be the tidy
answer. There's just one thing.
If you were gonna kill yourself,
would you buckle up for safety?
OK.
If this was murder, maybe
he knew something about EJ
that somebody
wanted to keep secret.
Someone who had
a lot riding on EJ?
Exactly.
This is my fault.
So what happened
that day, Carter's house?
After you asked me about him,
I took a closer look at the junk
code in the green thumb drive.
Carter's coding
signature was all over it.
- You confronted him.
- Yeah.
I mean, I was... furious and
confused, but... I left him alive.
He swore that he had nothing to
do with the accident that killed Adam.
He just wanted to... punish me.
Punish you for what?
Well, he was upset that
I pulled his clearance.
But it was more than that.
He thought that I was choosing
my work over our friendship.
He was my best
friend, and he was right.
Well, Carter's admission
that he sabotaged EJ
means your
company is not liable.
Yeah, but it also means
that EJ can be hacked.
You know, our investors
will leave us in droves.
Look, if you win, you
can find new investors,
but if you lose, there's no
company left to invest in.
Right, but if I can just
patch up that back door,
then the problem disappears.
- I'm never giving up on EJ.
- It's just a machine.
To you.
Hey.
So what's the plan?
We're putting Dean Poole on the
stand as Ginny's character witness.
So you want the CFO, the most
corporate position of all corporateness,
as a character witness?
Ginny needs to see
EJ for what it really is.
Mr. Poole, you
knew Carter Spinell?
Very well. It was a tragic loss.
But isn't he the second employee to
die in one of your self-driving vehicles?
Objection! Facts
not in evidence.
Sustained. Watch it, Mr. Inglis.
Yes, Your Honor. I withdraw.
Exhibit 14.
Ejetto's so-called
algorithm of ethics.
Mr. Poole, would you
describe its purpose?
It determines the
car's course of action
in situations where the loss
of human life is unavoidable.
INGLIS: That's pretty hard
to wrap my head around.
Say a large tree's
fallen into your lane,
and on your right side there's
a car with two passengers
and on your left there's
one with three passengers.
Which car does your
car choose to hit?
The algorithm's designed to
save as many lives as possible.
So it would swerve into the
car with only two passengers?
No. The car would
stay its course.
In order to kill the
fewest number of people,
your car would run straight
into the tree and kill you,
and there's nothing
you could do about it?
It takes millions of
calculations into account,
far better than any human could,
again, in order to save
as many lives as possible.
Is it possible the
upgrade had a glitch
and that it identified Adam as a
danger, as a life it had to take?
No. I mean... I'm not
qualified to answer that.
Well, that's terrifying.
No further questions.
My spirit animal
ain't feeling this.
Machines do not have a choice,
but their makers do. She chose poorly.
You mean that carny ride was a
tree trunk shy of my early demise?
Hell to the no.
The mirror jurors have flatlined.
We're back to two to four against.
Getting 'em back on board
is gonna be a steep climb.
Like EJ, sometimes you have to
make a choice of whom to save.
[PHONE BUZZES]
[KNOCKING]
That was insane. They
totally misunderstood EJ.
He's not some Frankenstein
monster. He'll... save thousands of lives.
Millions of lives.
Ambition.
It's a positive thing.
But often comes from
a deep-seated need to...
recover something
that's been lost.
What have you lost?
I've left some people behind.
You wanna tell me
what you've lost?
I know about EJ.
The boy you loved who died
in a car accident ten years ago.
Chunk filled me in.
And then my office sent me this.
I was driving him home.
And it was dark, rainy.
There was an oncoming
car, a narrow bridge.
He died in my arms.
I killed him.
Evan Johnson. The real EJ.
And now Carter is dead.
Carter.
Well, he loved you too.
But you can't love anybody else
because you're still in love with Evan.
You've transferred it onto EJ.
But, for Carter, it was
jealousy, not blackmail.
He was trying to take out his
rival. You have to tell the jury this.
They need to know what really
happened. I mean, you need to testify.
The idea that Carter hacked into EJ
and that's what caused Adam's death,
they'll buy that.
I'm not coming to
court, not until I fix EJ.
Evan's gone, and EJ
can't bring him back.
I didn't take this case to
save your tech company.
I took it to help you,
to help you move on
and do all the incredible
things that you need to do.
And if you don't, your
only legacy will be
that you were the girl who
created the killer self-driving car.
That's why you put
Dean on the stand.
To manipulate me.
At least come for the verdict.
OK, but I won't testify.
Ginny, would you like me
to stop for some coffee?
I can't believe I left
Carter like that. So alone.
That's not on you. I
think he was murdered.
We don't have proof, but...
[TIRES SCREECH]
- EJ?
- I can't get the door unlocked.
EJ, stop the car.
[HORNS BLARE]
- I don't know what's happening.
- I do. EJ is trying to kill us.
EJ, all systems abort. I
repeat, all systems abort!
Cable, someone is sending
us into the East River.
Would you put your latte down,
please, and hack us the hell out of here?
Got you.
EJ's been breached.
The back door's in use.
- I don't know how to lock the door.
- It can't be locked.
You have to force them out of EJ
by flooding the door
with an unbridled virus.
How about... self-replicating
MyDoom? I've got that one.
Gonna save the life of
Ginny freaking Bretton.
I'm in the car too.
It's not working. The door's
been laced with malware.
Enter the back door multiple times
at once, OK? Force a shutdown.
I'd be impressed if I
wasn't about to die.
200, 400, 800 entrances
in the back door.
Still nothing. 1,600,
3,200, 6,400...
Systems down!
You sure you wouldn't like some
coffee? Maybe a cappuccino?
I'll testify.
You've heard their witnesses say
that Adam Bunson's death
was caused by your technology.
Yes, I have.
Well... we believe that it was his
own error that caused his death.
Now, you've investigated
everything involved,
hardware, software,
thumb drives, hard drives?
Yes, I have.
So, in your
professional opinion,
as the creator and chief
programmer of all these things,
what killed Adam?
Man or machine?
Machine.
EJ killed him.
You do realize that by saying
it was the technology's fault
that... you could
lose your company?
Yes, I do, uh...
The technology was compromised,
and that's what caused Adam's death.
BENNY: This is a
very important question,
because if the compromise
was caused by your error,
then your company is liable.
But if it was caused by the
illegal acts of someone else,
your company cannot be held
liable for the criminal acts of others.
So, I ask you... what
caused the compromise?
A man I trusted.
A man who loved me
but I never loved back,
because I was in love
with someone else.
Someone I couldn't let go of.
The system was compromised
when he hacked it with malicious intent.
Who hacked it, Ms. Bretton?
Adam's death was the result of a
criminal act caused by Carter Spinell.
And I now have the
evidence to prove it.
Madam Foreman.
In the case of Bunson versus
Ejetto Technologies, how do you find?
WOMAN: We the jury find the
defendant, Ejetto Technologies,
not liable for the
death of Adam Bunson.
JUDGE: Ladies and
gentlemen of the jury,
this court thanks
you for your service.
Court is adjourned.
[BANGS GAVEL]
Hi. Thank you.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
Erica?
I'm so sorry.
Please know that my
settlement offer still stands.
But... you won.
Yeah, but we both lost Adam.
Here, here. Come here.
Dean.
- Congratulations.
- Thanks.
Sorry I won't be able to
help you with your next trial.
For double murder.
- Police are on their way.
- What?
You used Carter to create the
back door and Adam to load it in
and then you killed them both
so you could exploit
it any way you wanted.
'Cause you're the money guy.
That's quite a theory.
Oh, no, the theory was that
someone hacked into EJ twice,
once to kill Adam and then to
send Carter on his ride into oblivion.
We traced that user to you.
And that's not a
theory, it's a fact.
One family member
just became dispensable.
You have the right to remain
silent. Anything you say...
So, still have mixed feelings
about advancing technology?
She wasn't at fault.
Your uncle was a
cabbie, wasn't he?
Yeah, for 32 years.
I swear, he knew everyone in San
Juan by name and everyone knew him.
Man, I miss riding in that cab.
So, this is where
it all began, huh?
The crash that inspired
you to create EJ?
First time I've been back here.
I know our little
joyride was your doing.
[LAUGHS]
Getting Cable to use
the back door to hack it.
- You caught that, huh?
- Timing was just a bit too convenient.
I guess you needed to do it
or I wouldn't have testified.
[SIGHS]
♪ Hello
♪ I have something to say
♪ Let's just pretend...
I don't know if I
can let him go.
You don't have to let Evan
go. He'll always be a part of you.
EJ isn't Evan.
[SIGHS]
- So what are you gonna do now?
- I don't know.
I've had this, uh, overwhelming
urge to check out the Gobi Desert.
Wow.
How about you?
I've got a phone call to make.
Someone, uh... I left behind.
Thank you.
Travel safe.
Amy, hi.
Yes, it is.
I know. It's been a while.
[HEAVY ROCK MUSIC]
♪ You're automatic
So keep on walking
♪ Get off your knees,
baby Stop talking
♪ You got fire...
All right.
Very nice, EJ. You shaved
0.7 seconds off that run.
We'll need to up the negative
camber another degree.
- That's exciting.
- [CHUCKLES]
You wanted me to remind
you when it was time to go.
- Thanks, EJ.
- Anytime, man.
I still have to
load your upgrade.
- What's wrong with your wipers?
- Low moisture sensitivity.
They were coming on
too late when it rained.
I got a game to catch.
Come on.
Screw this. I gotta go.
[CLUNKING]
Really?
[SIGHS] I don't have
time for this crap, EJ.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
MAN: CEO of Ejetto
Technologies, Ginny Bretton...
- MAN 2: EJ kills...
- MAN 3: Technology on trial...
- Self-driving cars...
- My name's EJ. My name's EJ.
Would you like me to
stop for some coffee?
MARISSA: Ejetto
Technologies was founded
by tech entrepreneur
Ginny Bretton.
Say her name fast and
it rhymes with Einstein.
I don't think Einstein would have
devoted his life to autonomous vehicles.
Benny, do I detect a
hint of technophobia?
Just work better
with paper and pen.
- And by pen, I mean my Montblanc.
- Technophobe.
- So, what do we think of this case?
- It's a loser.
The plaintiff is Adam's widow,
married less than a year,
also an employee at Ejetto.
All they have to prove is that it was
negligence that caused the death.
Much as I hate to agree,
juries get lost in techno-babble,
so they're likely to find for a
young widow over big tech.
But this case has a
young woman behind it,
and Ginny has accomplished
more in her first 26 years
than most do in
an entire lifetime.
Who knows what she's
gonna do in the next 26?
You really think she's going
to make that big of an impact?
BULL: I do. Just got a text. She sent
a car. Least I can do is hear her out.
Hi, Dr. Bull. Please come in.
My name is EJ. How are you?
In case you're programmed to
care, EJ, I'm fine. Thanks for asking.
- Are you comfortable with me driving?
- "Comfortable" might be a bit strong.
I take it you're the
self-driving program
that Ginny is getting
ready to launch?
I am.
Were you driving the car that
was involved in the fatal crash?
Unfortunately, yes. But
don't worry, I've been updated.
- What went wrong?
- Unfortunately, I don't remember.
That's convenient. Good
thing Ginny contacted me.
Yes. You have a very
impressive success rate. 91.5%.
- Actually, it's a bit higher than that.
- Currently it is.
But Ginny also asked me to factor
in this case as well. I projected a loss.
Hmm.
All right, Dr. Bull. You have
arrived at Ginny Bretton's house.
Front door's open.
I'll wait here for you.
Thank you.
Hello?
Hello?
- Ms. Bretton?
- Oh, yeah, I'm back here!
Hey.
Want a fry?
Sorry. I'm Ginny. I'd shake your
hand, but, um... burger fingers.
So, is it Dr. Bull
or Jason or...?
- Just Bull.
- Well, hey, thanks for coming.
Let's... Where to start?
Oh, ah, first have a seat.
Interesting office.
My parents surrendered this
room to me when I was 12, so...
- Your parents live here?
- Oh, uh, they did, yeah.
I bought them a house in
Scottsdale, traded it for this.
This is where I get
all my best ideas.
So, ah, uh, personal
desalinization pods.
Self-generating solar batteries.
Um, the Arable
Gobi. I love this one.
It's turning the Gobi
Desert into farmland.
- Are all these realistic?
- Yeah, all of them.
I've just been too
busy working on EJ.
[SIGHS]
Adam was such a nice guy.
I feel terrible for
Adam's wife, Erica, too.
Erica said Adam died because
your program malfunctioned.
Yeah, and I've spent every
minute since he died scanning EJ,
but there's no glitch,
no error, nothing.
- Wasn't his fault.
- His?
Uh, yeah, EJ's.
When you give something a face,
it's hard not to anthropomorphize it.
Huh.
- So you think it was Adam's fault.
- It had to be.
He entered those updates
every day with a thumb drive,
but the day that he
died, he made a mistake.
He bypassed security protocols,
you know, prematurely shut
down and overloaded the system.
That's what killed him?
Once you have corrupted
files, anything can happen.
EJ was designed to save
lives, not to take them.
So, 33,000 Americans die
in car accidents every year,
but if every car had an EJ, we
could reduce that number by 90%.
OK, that's 30,000 lives
every year. That's a lot of lives.
Yes, it is. So what's
his speech based on?
I noticed he said
"unfortunately" twice.
You coded him to
use very human idioms.
Uh... yeah.
I had a friend who used to say
that all the time, about everything.
- "Unfortunately."
- Used to?
Mmm, yeah.
Hmm.
You know, I have a PhD,
three disciplines, in psychology,
if you need any help
with EJ's personality.
Thanks, but, uh, I
like him the way he is.
- Why don't you settle?
- I tried.
You know, I've offered
Erica whatever she wanted,
but this isn't about
money for either of us.
She wants revenge.
She wants to kill EJ.
Even if her employee screwed up,
why weren't there adequate fail-safes?
Ejetto is a tech company.
Safety should be job one.
It's gonna come down to
Ginny's credibility as an inventor.
They'll try and paint her as a
money-grubbing, heartless tech-head
who doesn't care
about her employees.
Nothing could be further from
the truth. She's a marshmallow.
She's also loopy.
Half-finished sentence next to a
half-eaten bowl of Count Chocula.
[CHUCKLES] So I'm
thinking we'll lose the pajamas.
Yeah, that's a good idea, because
a little loopy is nice, it's endearing.
Takes the edge off
the CEO stereotype.
But too loopy looks incompetent,
likely to make mistakes.
So we'll find the sweet spot
on the loopiness spectrum.
Here's a copy of the thumb drive that
the paramedics found near Adam's body.
Have Cable go through
that, find Adam's mistakes.
We also need proof he
bypassed security protocols.
I thought Ginny already
confirmed that he did.
People, say it with me.
ALL: Never trust the client.
That's my team.
Now I'm proud of you.
Danny, we're gonna go to Ejetto.
We've gotta get our hands
on Adam's personnel file
and find out what kind
of employee he was.
Yeah, I'm just the money guy.
That's why Ginny brought me in.
She makes the magic,
I make the payroll.
- You get along with her?
- Oh, are you kidding?
Ginny's like a daughter to
me, in more ways than one.
I mean, I feel like a father
to most of these kids.
- Right, Carter?
- That's right, Dad.
Course, you know, soon
they'll all be billionaires
and they'll be moving off to
start their own little tech families.
- When did you come on board?
- Eighth grade.
Ginny beat me out for
middle-school valedictorian.
Not that I'm still bitter
about that or anything.
Wait a second. You started
working on EJ in the eighth grade?
No, no, no, first we built a
robotic arm, firefighting drone,
a digital cornea and a few
others that aren't worth mentioning.
Then Ginny was
involved in a car accident
and next thing you
know, EJ came along.
- Tell us about Adam.
- Oh, was a great guy.
Poor Erica. We loved her here.
She's one of our best R&D engineers.
Nice enough guy,
but he had his issues.
Showing up late, missing some
days, falling asleep on the job.
This wasn't his first
mistake. It's all in the file.
So you think the
accident was his fault?
Hell, yeah.
It's obviously in our interest
to think so, but the truth is,
he did violate
security protocols.
You know you're supposed
to click eject before removing?
We have several things you're
supposed to log before removing the drive.
He didn't stick to the script.
Incident report's in there too.
- Should've fired him a long time ago.
- Maybe.
But Ginny thinks of everyone
here as family members.
You don't mind if we
take a look around?
- Sure, take your time.
- Thank you, guys.
All right, see what you can
find. Keep an eye on Carter.
He's not telling us everything.
It's a digital record from
the night of the accident.
Adam definitely screwed up in failing
to log the drive out, but watch this.
- He overloaded the system.
- So why was he in such a hurry?
- CABLE: I checked his calendar.
- BULL: A soccer match.
He was in a hurry to get
home and watch a game.
At 1:30 in the morning?
You've obviously never
seen an Arsenal/Man U match.
There's our human
error. Ginny's home free.
Except... the green thumb
drive is still a bit of a mystery.
I dug deeper and found
something I didn't recognize,
a bunch of junk code lines.
I'll try to decipher what I can,
but it's like eating a
bowl of soup with a fork.
Get slurping.
Well, we have our
first person of interest.
Your suspicions were right,
Bull. Carter's a recovering addict.
He was in rehab last year.
You wanna ask him about that?
I'd rather ask our client.
He was in a mountain
biking accident five years ago.
He messed up a
nerve in his neck.
Started out with prescription pain
pills and went downhill from there.
- He ever come back uphill?
- [SIGHS]
He says that he's clean, but
his money's going somewhere.
I mean, he's always hitting
me and Dean up for a float.
He's desperate for money. Could
be an extortion plot gone wrong.
No. I mean, Carter's got
his personal problems.
But he and I built this
company from nothing.
He wouldn't jeopardize it.
Plus I pulled his security
clearance on EJ a year ago.
- How'd he take that?
- With bitterness and sarcasm.
Bottom line, he couldn't access
EJ's program even if he wanted to.
When the Titanic sank, whose
fault was it, the ship's or the captain's?
MARISSA: And this helps us how?
BULL: Walking tech disasters
screw up tech ten times a day.
They accept human
error as a fact of life.
They'll blame the
captain before the ship,
Adam before EJ.
The ship had serious design
flaws. You can't blame the captain.
They told him it was unsinkable.
MARISSA: Middle-school
science teacher.
never gives anything over a B.
Hmm. Well, we don't
want him to flunk EJ.
[CLEARS THROAT]
- Move to strike, Your Honor.
- Juror number one, you're dismissed.
MARISSA: Next up is
Stella, artist, lives off the grid.
Now, this is where
tech disasters get tricky.
No social media
profiles, not even email.
I like the look. Old school.
I can smell the
patchouli from here.
We accessed postal archives.
She exchanges letters
with a transcendental guru,
signs her name
as her spirit animal.
I can't imagine trying to guide a
ship that size a hundred years ago.
The captain was only human.
The captain was negligent and
the ship was poorly engineered.
If I had to blame one
thing, it'd be the iceberg.
Hmm. There's an
outside-the-box thinker.
He's a wild card, but at least
his instinct isn't to blame Ginny.
Let's take him.
That look of quiet desperation
means you couldn't decrypt it.
But this look of excitement...
says I found someone who can.
An encryption specialist
named Sarcoma.
How come hackers never have
names like Parasol or Julep?
Well, hackers tend to pick
names that reflect their personality.
This one's cancer.
He won't meet with me,
but I happen to know that
he's dying to meet Goliath 918,
a notoriously
reclusive hacktivist.
Rumor is that he
anonymously shows at events,
so I was wondering if you could
pose as him at this get-together later.
As Goliath 918.
Well, no one knows what he looks
like, other than that he's... vintage.
- Huh!
- Sorry.
But with a little makeover,
you could totally pull it off.
Chunk, I got a job for ya.
[BULL CLEARS THROAT]
Wow. Amazing transformation.
If no one's ever seen this guy, how
do they know he doesn't dress like this?
Remember our little refresher.
If you forget what to say, just
throw out some hacker slang,
like "yak-shaving"
or "dog-fooding."
Whoa.
I think that's him.
Let's go shave that yak.
OK.
Sarcoma?
Hey. I'm... I'm Cable.
And this is Goliath 918.
You're not Goliath.
Ooh.
Goliath, it's an honor.
Don't touch me.
You're not Sarcoma.
I swear to God I am.
Junk code, two minutes.
- [PHONE RINGS]
- [SIGHS]
Speak.
I followed Carter home, and there's
something you gotta see. Um...
I'm sending it over
to Cable right now.
Oh, my God.
He did it in less than two
minutes. Unbelievable.
So, we cool?
It's just that I... I don't
like to be touched.
Thanks.
What was with the smashing?
How did you know
that that would sell him?
I needed a personality
that matched the name.
What's on this?
So, Sarcoma decrypted about 300
pages of real code embedded in the junk.
Not sure what it is yet.
- But it's not junk.
- [PHONE CHIMES]
Hold on. We're getting
live feed from Danny.
- BULL: Ginny's at Carter's house?
- Yeah. I got sound. Hold on.
GINNY: What the hell
have you done to us?
- She swore Carter was innocent.
- I told you, never trust the client.
- Where were you yesterday?
- Home.
Went to bed early, at ten.
In the past seven words,
you exhibited two of the
three most common lying traits:
you blinked twice
the national average
and you pointed your
feet towards the exit.
When we fib, we subconsciously
get ready to leave the room
in case we're caught.
We know you were with
Carter yesterday. Why?
- Wait. You had me followed?
- No, we had Carter followed.
- You were a surprise bonus.
- Carter and I are old friends.
What we talked about had nothing
to do with the case. It's private.
OK.
Am I really that bad a liar?
Let's just say it makes your
hair your second worst trait.
I guess fashion and tech
are mutually exclusive, hmm?
Not at all. In fashion,
social tech is everything.
Our profiles, our posts, our
images, they create our brand.
Not to mention the dating
apps that govern modern love.
Tech meets man's greatest needs.
Some people find love through
tech, others find tech through love.
It's a long story.
Well, we have a lot of problems
and a lack of time ain't one.
So spill it.
BENNY: Adam was
diagnosed with sleep apnea
two years before he
started working at Ejetto.
So the plaintiffs can't say
that Adam's insomnia and
inattention to detail were work related.
Benny, tell Danny to take a
closer look at our young widow.
Before we go to
court to defend Ginny,
we need to find out why
she's lying about Carter.
Let's talk to an
employee who won't lie.
Who's that?
EJ, what can you tell
us about Carter Spinell?
He was born 26 years ago on
March 21st in Hempstead, New York.
OK. Let's
fast-forward a little bit.
He and Ginny had a falling-out
over his drug use or something else?
Unfortunately, I don't know.
Did he recently alter
your programming?
Carter doesn't have security
clearance to alter my code.
Did Carter originally write
any of your programming?
Yes. My collision algorithm.
It makes choices
to minimize loss.
If the car is going
to hit an object
and, say, there are
motorcyclists on either side,
one wearing a
helmet, the other not,
the algorithm determines
which one you should hit.
Choosing between survival and
legalities. That was Carter's work?
The base code was done by Carter,
but Ginny revised many specific rules.
Well, just like any language,
programmers often inject
idiosyncrasies into their work.
If I look through the algorithm, I can
probably tell you exactly who did what.
Great. Work with Cable on it.
I have got an idea I wanna
prep Benny for in court.
About?
Making Ginny more
sympathetic for the jury.
MAN: From what you
told us, it sounds like Adam
was more than just a
wonderful coworker and husband.
He even used to make
me breakfast every morning.
Those were the
best days of my life.
You get that, Marissa?
Yes, and so did all
of our mirror jurors.
Heart rates are normal. Biometrics
are showing they are calm and attentive.
- They like Erica.
- Your witness.
Ms. Bunson, you say your husband
made breakfast for you in the mornings.
- Was that because he was already up?
- Of course.
In fact, it wasn't unusual
for him to be up all night?
Adam sometimes
had trouble sleeping.
- 'Cause he was an insomniac?
- There were a lot of factors.
BENNY: Well, these factors caused
him to miss at least two days every month
and be late three times
the week of October 15th.
Adam's job was hard.
They worked him very long
hours, so he didn't punch a clock.
Did you resent the company
for overworking him?
Yes, I did.
You two were seeing a marriage
counselor, is that correct?
Lots of couples go to therapy.
Heart rates are going up, Bull.
They are stressing. This is not good.
Relax. It's all part
of the strategy.
As a newlywed, would you say that
these were the best days of your life?
Objection.
BENNY: Withdrawn.
You were upset at the
company, at your husband,
and you stand to make an
awful lot from this lawsuit.
Objection! Is counsel gonna ask Ms.
Bunson a question or just insult her?
Sustained.
Bull, biometrics are showing
signs of stress, probably anger.
We're two to four against.
We can't afford to lose any.
- Make your point, Mr. Colón.
- Yes, Your Honor.
I just have one simple question.
Did you have anything to do
with the death of your husband?
Stop this! Erica, I am so sorry. I had
no idea they were gonna do this to you.
Ms. Bretton, please sit down!
Heart rates are going down.
Signs of de-escalating stress.
Almost as though...
They saw Ginny rush to protect
Erica and they connected to her.
BENNY: No further
questions, Your Honor.
I think this is a good
time for a recess.
Your stunt worked, Bull. Everyone
showed motions in Ginny's direction.
And we actually got one juror to
our side. Now it's three to three.
Which means the prosecution's
gonna be desperate for a new strategy,
and when one is desperate,
one resorts to fear.
Fear of technology. So
how do we push back?
We fight fear with fun.
If you squint, you can
see the future, Benny.
OK, so the jurors who are
afraid of this technology,
they go for a ride, they
have a wonderful time,
fall in love with the
whole self-driving thing.
Then they flip
and, boom, we win.
And here I thought my
plan was inscrutable.
BENNY: Problem is getting
them in the car and not killing them.
That's why you're going.
People are competitive, Benny.
If they think you're afraid,
they're gonna climb all over
themselves to get in this car.
Think you can look scared
enough? Hey, that's perfect.
- Your way of embarrassing me, isn't it?
- Yes. I made up the rest.
Good luck.
[SIGHS]
Don't worry, Benny.
I'll be right here.
So... who's feeling adventurous?
This self-driving car's gonna take you
for one loop around the obstacle course.
Benny over there is a little
nervous, but he's gonna do it.
- Love that jacket.
- Thanks.
You're Ginny Bretton's attorney,
right? You're afraid to get in this thing?
We should probably
not speak to each other.
To avoid any
perceptions of impropriety.
Fine by me.
Come on.
Live a little, lawyer man.
Have fun, lawyer man.
[BULL CHUCKLES]
You'll be all right.
EJ: Welcome aboard.
Please keep your arms and
legs inside the car at all times.
Expectant mothers and
young children should not ride.
[ENGINE STARTS]
That was a joke.
- Everyone ready? Here we go.
- No. But let's go.
[TIRES SCREECH]
Oh!
Oh, my God!
Ooh!
Thanks for your time.
Yeah, so the robot works now,
but would you really trust it out
there on the streets of Manhattan?
I think two of 'em switched
to Ginny's side. It's not bad.
- Could do worse.
- [PHONE BLEEPS]
It's not good enough.
What's up, Cable?
You know those 300 pages of code
Sarcoma found on the thumb drive?
I finally figured out what
they are. A back door.
A secret opening into EJ's code
that allows users to hack
in and control the vehicle.
It was what was used to kill
Adam, and it's in every copy of EJ.
Ginny says she
searched every byte of EJ.
It's called a heisenbug. It
doesn't show up on scans.
Here are three examples of code
written by Adam, Ginny and Carter.
Overlay each example with the
backdoor code found on the thumb drive...
Carter Spinell.
Find him now.
CABLE: Tracking his GPS.
Carter didn't have security clearance,
so he couldn't have loaded it into EJ.
Which is why he must have
swapped out Adam's green thumb drive
with windshield wiper
upgrade, disguise the back door.
- Why do it in the first place?
- Money.
Once EJ's vulnerable,
Carter could blackmail
Ejetto or sell it to any rival.
Destroy the company he
helped build? I don't think so.
- There's more at play here than money.
- Think Adam was in on it?
Either way, Carter probably
killed him to tie up loose ends.
If he did, that lets Ejetto
and Ginny off the hook.
Corporations aren't liable
for the crimes of an employee.
- CABLE: Got him.
- All right.
Carter's on the move.
Tell Danny to pick me up.
There he is.
Thanks.
Some bloodshot eyes, blue
skin and nails, traces of vomit.
- Heroin overdose.
- He set the car for one last ride.
- They're saying suicide.
- That's what it looks like.
- I guess we're back to square one.
- He could still be our guy.
Maybe Adam's death
got to be too much for him.
That would be the tidy
answer. There's just one thing.
If you were gonna kill yourself,
would you buckle up for safety?
OK.
If this was murder, maybe
he knew something about EJ
that somebody
wanted to keep secret.
Someone who had
a lot riding on EJ?
Exactly.
This is my fault.
So what happened
that day, Carter's house?
After you asked me about him,
I took a closer look at the junk
code in the green thumb drive.
Carter's coding
signature was all over it.
- You confronted him.
- Yeah.
I mean, I was... furious and
confused, but... I left him alive.
He swore that he had nothing to
do with the accident that killed Adam.
He just wanted to... punish me.
Punish you for what?
Well, he was upset that
I pulled his clearance.
But it was more than that.
He thought that I was choosing
my work over our friendship.
He was my best
friend, and he was right.
Well, Carter's admission
that he sabotaged EJ
means your
company is not liable.
Yeah, but it also means
that EJ can be hacked.
You know, our investors
will leave us in droves.
Look, if you win, you
can find new investors,
but if you lose, there's no
company left to invest in.
Right, but if I can just
patch up that back door,
then the problem disappears.
- I'm never giving up on EJ.
- It's just a machine.
To you.
Hey.
So what's the plan?
We're putting Dean Poole on the
stand as Ginny's character witness.
So you want the CFO, the most
corporate position of all corporateness,
as a character witness?
Ginny needs to see
EJ for what it really is.
Mr. Poole, you
knew Carter Spinell?
Very well. It was a tragic loss.
But isn't he the second employee to
die in one of your self-driving vehicles?
Objection! Facts
not in evidence.
Sustained. Watch it, Mr. Inglis.
Yes, Your Honor. I withdraw.
Exhibit 14.
Ejetto's so-called
algorithm of ethics.
Mr. Poole, would you
describe its purpose?
It determines the
car's course of action
in situations where the loss
of human life is unavoidable.
INGLIS: That's pretty hard
to wrap my head around.
Say a large tree's
fallen into your lane,
and on your right side there's
a car with two passengers
and on your left there's
one with three passengers.
Which car does your
car choose to hit?
The algorithm's designed to
save as many lives as possible.
So it would swerve into the
car with only two passengers?
No. The car would
stay its course.
In order to kill the
fewest number of people,
your car would run straight
into the tree and kill you,
and there's nothing
you could do about it?
It takes millions of
calculations into account,
far better than any human could,
again, in order to save
as many lives as possible.
Is it possible the
upgrade had a glitch
and that it identified Adam as a
danger, as a life it had to take?
No. I mean... I'm not
qualified to answer that.
Well, that's terrifying.
No further questions.
My spirit animal
ain't feeling this.
Machines do not have a choice,
but their makers do. She chose poorly.
You mean that carny ride was a
tree trunk shy of my early demise?
Hell to the no.
The mirror jurors have flatlined.
We're back to two to four against.
Getting 'em back on board
is gonna be a steep climb.
Like EJ, sometimes you have to
make a choice of whom to save.
[PHONE BUZZES]
[KNOCKING]
That was insane. They
totally misunderstood EJ.
He's not some Frankenstein
monster. He'll... save thousands of lives.
Millions of lives.
Ambition.
It's a positive thing.
But often comes from
a deep-seated need to...
recover something
that's been lost.
What have you lost?
I've left some people behind.
You wanna tell me
what you've lost?
I know about EJ.
The boy you loved who died
in a car accident ten years ago.
Chunk filled me in.
And then my office sent me this.
I was driving him home.
And it was dark, rainy.
There was an oncoming
car, a narrow bridge.
He died in my arms.
I killed him.
Evan Johnson. The real EJ.
And now Carter is dead.
Carter.
Well, he loved you too.
But you can't love anybody else
because you're still in love with Evan.
You've transferred it onto EJ.
But, for Carter, it was
jealousy, not blackmail.
He was trying to take out his
rival. You have to tell the jury this.
They need to know what really
happened. I mean, you need to testify.
The idea that Carter hacked into EJ
and that's what caused Adam's death,
they'll buy that.
I'm not coming to
court, not until I fix EJ.
Evan's gone, and EJ
can't bring him back.
I didn't take this case to
save your tech company.
I took it to help you,
to help you move on
and do all the incredible
things that you need to do.
And if you don't, your
only legacy will be
that you were the girl who
created the killer self-driving car.
That's why you put
Dean on the stand.
To manipulate me.
At least come for the verdict.
OK, but I won't testify.
Ginny, would you like me
to stop for some coffee?
I can't believe I left
Carter like that. So alone.
That's not on you. I
think he was murdered.
We don't have proof, but...
[TIRES SCREECH]
- EJ?
- I can't get the door unlocked.
EJ, stop the car.
[HORNS BLARE]
- I don't know what's happening.
- I do. EJ is trying to kill us.
EJ, all systems abort. I
repeat, all systems abort!
Cable, someone is sending
us into the East River.
Would you put your latte down,
please, and hack us the hell out of here?
Got you.
EJ's been breached.
The back door's in use.
- I don't know how to lock the door.
- It can't be locked.
You have to force them out of EJ
by flooding the door
with an unbridled virus.
How about... self-replicating
MyDoom? I've got that one.
Gonna save the life of
Ginny freaking Bretton.
I'm in the car too.
It's not working. The door's
been laced with malware.
Enter the back door multiple times
at once, OK? Force a shutdown.
I'd be impressed if I
wasn't about to die.
200, 400, 800 entrances
in the back door.
Still nothing. 1,600,
3,200, 6,400...
Systems down!
You sure you wouldn't like some
coffee? Maybe a cappuccino?
I'll testify.
You've heard their witnesses say
that Adam Bunson's death
was caused by your technology.
Yes, I have.
Well... we believe that it was his
own error that caused his death.
Now, you've investigated
everything involved,
hardware, software,
thumb drives, hard drives?
Yes, I have.
So, in your
professional opinion,
as the creator and chief
programmer of all these things,
what killed Adam?
Man or machine?
Machine.
EJ killed him.
You do realize that by saying
it was the technology's fault
that... you could
lose your company?
Yes, I do, uh...
The technology was compromised,
and that's what caused Adam's death.
BENNY: This is a
very important question,
because if the compromise
was caused by your error,
then your company is liable.
But if it was caused by the
illegal acts of someone else,
your company cannot be held
liable for the criminal acts of others.
So, I ask you... what
caused the compromise?
A man I trusted.
A man who loved me
but I never loved back,
because I was in love
with someone else.
Someone I couldn't let go of.
The system was compromised
when he hacked it with malicious intent.
Who hacked it, Ms. Bretton?
Adam's death was the result of a
criminal act caused by Carter Spinell.
And I now have the
evidence to prove it.
Madam Foreman.
In the case of Bunson versus
Ejetto Technologies, how do you find?
WOMAN: We the jury find the
defendant, Ejetto Technologies,
not liable for the
death of Adam Bunson.
JUDGE: Ladies and
gentlemen of the jury,
this court thanks
you for your service.
Court is adjourned.
[BANGS GAVEL]
Hi. Thank you.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
Erica?
I'm so sorry.
Please know that my
settlement offer still stands.
But... you won.
Yeah, but we both lost Adam.
Here, here. Come here.
Dean.
- Congratulations.
- Thanks.
Sorry I won't be able to
help you with your next trial.
For double murder.
- Police are on their way.
- What?
You used Carter to create the
back door and Adam to load it in
and then you killed them both
so you could exploit
it any way you wanted.
'Cause you're the money guy.
That's quite a theory.
Oh, no, the theory was that
someone hacked into EJ twice,
once to kill Adam and then to
send Carter on his ride into oblivion.
We traced that user to you.
And that's not a
theory, it's a fact.
One family member
just became dispensable.
You have the right to remain
silent. Anything you say...
So, still have mixed feelings
about advancing technology?
She wasn't at fault.
Your uncle was a
cabbie, wasn't he?
Yeah, for 32 years.
I swear, he knew everyone in San
Juan by name and everyone knew him.
Man, I miss riding in that cab.
So, this is where
it all began, huh?
The crash that inspired
you to create EJ?
First time I've been back here.
I know our little
joyride was your doing.
[LAUGHS]
Getting Cable to use
the back door to hack it.
- You caught that, huh?
- Timing was just a bit too convenient.
I guess you needed to do it
or I wouldn't have testified.
[SIGHS]
♪ Hello
♪ I have something to say
♪ Let's just pretend...
I don't know if I
can let him go.
You don't have to let Evan
go. He'll always be a part of you.
EJ isn't Evan.
[SIGHS]
- So what are you gonna do now?
- I don't know.
I've had this, uh, overwhelming
urge to check out the Gobi Desert.
Wow.
How about you?
I've got a phone call to make.
Someone, uh... I left behind.
Thank you.
Travel safe.
Amy, hi.
Yes, it is.
I know. It's been a while.