Season 1, Episode 6 - Cold Comfort

Two grocers discover a young woman frozen solid in their meat locker. Assuming her to be dead, they receive the shock of their lives when the young woman, Brin, awakens and flees. Brin, like Max, is one of the 12 Manticore escapees. She contacts Zack and tells him she needs his help. But when Zack arrives to rendezvous with Brin, men in black SUVs attack and grab Brin; Zack is helpless.

Meanwhile, a businessman by the unlikely name of Mr. Sivapathasundaram has shown an interest in purchasing Jam Pony. Normal, in an attempt to spruce up the place, designs official "Ride With Pride" jerkins for the gang and imposes an iron-fisted regime. Miserable at the thought of working for the new and improved Jam Pony, Original Cindy vows to take matters into her own hands.

When Max returns home after a day's work, she finds a wounded Zack waiting for her, about to pass out. "Lydecker has Brin" is all he can say before losing consciousness. Zack wakes to find himself at Logan's. He explains about Brin: she'd been acting erratically, she called him, but Lydecker's men took her before he could get to her. Max tells her brother that they have to find her, but Zack insists that she's gone; they should move on. Max refuses to follow Zack's directive -- she'll try to save Brin with or without his help. The first step is to find Lydecker. With Logan's help, they unearth Lydecker's DOD records, which tell the tale of his shining career in the military... until his wife was murdered. Upon losing his wife, Lydecker descended into a life of alcohol, eventually pulling himself out of it and presumably heading up Manticore. Hoping that Lydecker's still "in the program," Max and Zack attend a local AA meeting, find Lydecker and kidnap him.

Meanwhile, the Jam Pony gang springs into action. Having neutralized Normal with laxatives, they take over the place and, as Sketchy leads Mr. Sivapathasundaram on a tour, fake a toxic chemical spill. Sketchy hurries Sivapathasundaram into the back room. They must escape this place, urges Sivapathasundaram. Sketchy directs him to the chained-up trap door that leads to the steam tunnels. That way lies salvation. They bust through the steam tunnels just as Normal arrives at Jam Pony looking for Sivapathasundaram. Original Cindy informs him that the prospective buyer flaked. It's back to normal for Jam Pony.

Max and Zack interrogate Lydecker, but their nemesis insists he doesn't have Brin. He informs them that a number of interested parties could've kidnapped Brin in order to sell her as a sophisticated weapons system. After all, her DNA is worth millions. With Logan's help, Max and Zack discover that she has indeed been put on the market by Major Jake Sanders, a former colleague of Lydecker's who has been using the nearby Fort Xavier to broker illegal arms deals. They resolve to spring their sister from captivity, but Lydecker insists on tagging along. He can get them in the front door. Max and Zack warily agree, but as soon as they are within the gates of Fort Xavier, Lydecker betrays them and puts them in lockup with Brin.

Max and Zack aren't surprised by Lydecker's betrayal, but they are taken aback by the condition in which they find Brin. She's suffering from a form of progeria that is causing rapid aging and could cost Brin her life within forty-eight hours. Max and Zack spring into action, and sneak the ailing X5 out of the brig. Meanwhile, Lydecker and Sanders turn against each other, and their soldiers duke it out while the X5s barrel out the front gate in Lydecker's Hummer.

But Brin's condition is deteriorating; Lydecker contacts Max on the radio and convinces her that the only way to save Brin is to hand her over to him so that he can return her to Manticore. Brin pleads with Max... she doesn't want to die. Max and Zack tearfully return Brin to Lydecker.

Back to top