[712] Some guys?

I expect they'll be Nobodies, but those which have enough power to cross into the material plane.

Great timing, Annie! Waiting until the situation is totally FUBAR with the cops closing in and the reactor in the terminal phase of startup before trying to convince Jack to get help. Somehow, I don't think she's thought her cunning plan all the way through.

The only way this could get any better is if Jack books it and leaves her to get caught by the authorities to take all the blame. Followed immediately by the power plant exploding in a giant ball of fire after causing hundreds of deaths and millions/billions of dollars in property damage with an artificial lightning storm.

But really I don't see how this could possibly end well for anyone.



That seems pretty unlikely, it's probably just the SWAT team/power plant security come to bust some heads.

Crikey, it's the rozzers. Let's scarper.

There is something very non-swattish about the way they are disembarking. I bet there's going to be another interpretation. I vote Jack and Annie hide in a closet so they can eavesdrop on whatever the people have to say when they get to the control room.

I think it might have been a better idea for Annie to have spoken up sooner. Just a hunch.

There are six people disembarking. I'm guessing the seventh is still in the cabin or already past the monitor's edge.

Even if Jack had gotten Zimmy's attention without attracting a lot of other people's attention in the course of so doing, I wonder whether it would do him any good. We know that Zimmy doesn't care about anybody other than Gamma (she'll tolerate Annie, but only out of self-interest - Annie's the only person she knows who can relieve Gamma of her duties); she wouldn't be at all moved by his plight. The only way I can imagine her helping Jack would be if he grabbed Gamma and put a knife to her throat or a gun to her head - and that would have its own problems.

I'm hoping that Jack will turn away from the screen to address Annie, only to discover that she has taken Rey's advice and is no longer there.

Well... that makes Jack's actions slightly more logical. Though still somewhat hairbrained. How did he NOT expect that to bring other people than Zimmy?

Also, that look on his face in the 4th panel is dangerous. I don't think he appreciates Annie's efforts to help, which could cause issues if she takes a more proactive role.

For those who say Annie should have spoken up earlier... perhaps, but it's unlikely Jack would have listened to her. Annie is more reactive than aggressive in her manner of helping, she prefers to let people figure things out on their own, with her giving nudges in the right direction.

The fact that she's coming out like this shows how much Jack has precipitated the situation. She realizes she needs to do something now.

So it *was* to bring Zimmy out, and the boat *was not* a red herring, and people probably come that soon because they *did* notice the guardbot faillure. How about that: EVERYBODY WAS RIGHT!

Annie probably ate her dinner.

Forgive me for (possibly) being obtuse, but why does Jack expect that turning on the power station will draw Zimmy from hiding? The artificial, ether-less rain doesn't seem to "do" anything for her, and besides, this activation wasn't scheduled.

Actually - it did plenty for her. It caused her to scramble and end up in Zimmyham. I think what Jack has done is put the event chain together to the best of his knowledge. He probably thinks that if he simply triggers the chain of events again, it'll take him back there. He probably did overhear that the station was messing with her head, so he probably figured "Turn station on, bring out Zimmy, go back there for whatever reason, and stop this entire mess."

He only likely assumed Annie was the other useful subject because he saw her there in Zimmyham, and she's distinctly less difficult to get ahold of. Result - he thinks she has a part in this somehow, and could improve his chances of doing something. He may even have seen her "gop" the nobodies, in which case, he might've thought her and Rey would make good etheric shields if they ended up out in Zimmyham again.

It's actually pretty logical IF we didn't know the backstory behind Zimmy's powers (or at least what Tom has seen fit to show us). Nothing too harebrained about it besides his turning on the power station on his own. That was foolish, but a logical enough part of his plan.

So...with that in mind, I'm going to say to Annie: "Listen to Rey. He's right."

There's not much you can do there, and it would be probably wisest for them to *let* the authorities get their mitts on Jack, so he doesn't do anything else stupid/crazy/etc. They might even benefit from telling Jones the situation so he doesn't cause worse problems. (She's a free agent and would be more likely to come up with the right way to help deal with him without a Court or Forest bias.)

Two ways I can see this going, and Tom's probably going to throw me a curveball:

1) Annie stays and tries to meditate this entire mess with Jack before the Gold Buttons or whoever gets there - she has her etheric powers, and might be able to cause an interesting upset, now that she knows what his Plan is. Then she and Rey may still be able to bolt given enough time, or at the least, prove to the authorities that they weren't to blame.

2) Annie comes to the realization she simply is in over her head as far as helping Jack goes, and decide the smart move is to leave him for the authorities. Later she may drop a few hints in Jones' ear (Jones strikes me as the one adult she can trust simply because she isn't biased towards the Court or the Wood - and right now she's probably wary of both organizations.)

The wild-card aspect in this is whether or not the station does something to her and Rey, or even Jack's etheric cargo. If that breaks out and makes things....well....interesting, then we might see a very different (and probably much more complicated) situation emerge. Annie's pretty etherically gifted, *and* she's carrying a blinker stone. All bets are off on what happens as far as that combination goes. Rey wasn't at the power station the last time, so I'm not sure what this could do to him.

Oh, man. There's a possibility - a freak incident causing him to jump into Jack's body? If the etheric stuff does go crazy, it's possible his, Annie's, and Jack's abilities could go completely haywire. That I'd both want to (and dread to) see.

I don't think Jack's just going to stand by and wait for the people on the dock to catch up with him.

I'm not sure just giving up Jack will get her out of this one. I mean, sneaking out of your dorm after curfew is one thing, but sneaking out of your dorm to break into a highly-sensitive facility and then activate it is quite another. Simply being there is likely enough to get her tossed in the clink, ignoring everything else that's transpired since they got there (destruction of property at the very least).

Then again, she did get out of the bridge incident without significant punishment, so who knows. I guess we'll have to wait and see.