Limitless Recap: Apocryphon Now

The season finale of Limitless is finally here. Okay, it’s actually the first half of a two-part season finale, so it’s just the penultimate episode but, you know, whatever. Same difference. Bad stuff happens.

“Finale: Part One!” resumes four weeks after Sands’s arrest and Brian’s split from the CJC. Using his now-trademark vision-boarding skills, Brian lays out the situation for us: Piper is still in captivity (… somewhere), and he’s a working stiff at a Best Buy-ish big-box retailer. He occasionally has weird moments of clarity, complete with an NZT-assisted tint shift.

But he’s still focused on finding Piper and is feeding Rebecca information on Sands and his group of shadowy unknowns, deemed the Legion of Whom (sorry).

While all of this goes down, NZT starts hitting the streets again. It’s everywhere, even lame-o drug dealers making “Damn, Daniel” references are selling it. (Side note for TV writers: Never, ever reference a meme. It is very uncool.)

Because of this new epidemic, and because Brian is no longer on the team, the DEA and Agent Adam Brewster are brought in to help handle things. Harris and team explain their pervading, suitably bonkers theory: Rhat Sands and Morra are involved in a vast conspiracy to distribute NZT.

“You’re telling me there’s a sitting senator on a Schedule 1 drug, and his deputy has split off to create some brainiac cult?” Brewster asks. In one sentence, Limitless makes a solid case for being the weirdest low-key procedural on TV. The drug — street name: Apocryphon — continues to cause a ruckus on the street, and a string of murders involving pharmacology experts only adds to the chaos.

Meanwhile, Brian continues to struggle with his humdrum existence. When Rebecca visits him for help, he specifically name-checks Flowers for Algernon. And honestly? Kudos to Limitless for waiting until its season finale to make that reference. (I only waited until the second episode.)

Fed up with this new life, Brian and his slovenly co-worker Grover head to a party to score some NZT from an Illuminati conspiracy theorist. Finally back on NZT — where everyone moves at fast speed and there are two of him — Brian decides to track down the source of Apocryphon and spends the night talking himself up the chain of NZT dealers.

Brian eventually figures out that Apocryphon is a person, not the drug itself. He pays Apocryphon — real name: Clay Meeks — a visit in the Bronx, and Meeks is pretty out there. He intends to flood the market with NZT, giving everyone a “dose of truth.” Then, I kid you not, he disappears in a puff of smoke.

While Brian is tripping, Rebecca meets with Sands in prison. He offers a very helpful tip: “Look for someone buying a lot of brain chemicals.” I’m paraphrasing, but duuuuh. Rebecca thinks that’s a good idea.

Harris and Brewster are eventually led to a drug manufacturer named Jacoby, who rats out Sands and six other people. The entire Legion of Whom goes down. There’s an arrest montage for a bunch of characters we’ve never met, but rest assured — we are told they’re bad. Case closed!

Sands knows he’s screwed, so he offers to return Piper and testify against Morra in exchange for a deal. “I will bring you the head of Edward Morra,” which is a bit dramatic for my taste, but Limitless paints with broad strokes.

“Wow, pretty convenient that this is all wrapping up so cleanly,” you might be thinking. “Is there a catch?” Yes.

As the episode winds down, Naz and Rebecca head to the airport to arrest Morra. He’s not there! Suddenly, Brian shows up and informs them that it was all a setup. At that very moment, Brewster — a DEA plant — is busting Sands out of jail, and the Legion of Whom are being murdered via car bomb. (It is very difficult to empathize with characters who collectively did not speak a single line of dialogue.) Turns out it was all a coordinated effort to take down Morra’s operation and seize control.

“Whooooooopppps!” says everyone at the same time.

To be continued. Next week: Maybe Bradley Cooper will appear!