(S02E09) Oh. My. God. What a fantastic episode! A good number of fans, myself included, had been saying that we thought the season was rather slow, especially the last few episodes. But this week's episode was unlike those last episodes as it was filled with Kyle XY mythology and was action packed.

Foss is back! There were a lot of flashbacks with Adam Baylin, Kern, and Bryan Taylor at Zzyxz. And we finally know what Andy has. Sadly, Nicole, Stephen and Emily weren't in the episode but I'm sure we'll soon enough know what they were up to. (What do you think Stephen did on his business trip? Was Emily with him so she could follow through on her mission to take care of him?)

Foss is back!

Foss is one of my favorite characters on the show. He is complex and, even though this week's episode gave us more information on his motives towards Kyle, he still is cryptic and mysterious. I was rather surprised that Kyle gave Foss so much info before asking the man where he had been. I personally would have been more cautious before telling Foss that Baylin sent a warning and showing him the pictures of Lori (Foss admitted he took those).

Thanks to the many flashbacks, we learned that Foss is a good guy... well, he still his shady since we don't know where he went and why plus I still suspect a connection with Emily. It was great consistency from the writers to have the CD-player pop up in the past and present and show Foss trying to revive Kyle in the forest where Kyle woke up in the pilot.

I hope that Foss will start to trust Kyle more and confide in him. Foss seems to have too many things bottled up inside; he needs to let some of the steam go. Declan needs to know about the content of Kyle's "visions" (well, the camera footage he downloaded from the Zzyzx's database) because if not, we will go back to angry Declan who is pissed because he doesn't know everything. Wouldn't a Foss/Kyle/Declan team be great?

Zzyzx/Madacorp

Kyle was Adam's last try at making his project work. Does that mean that Kern's team created XX when XY turned out to be faulty per their standards? What Kern and his bosses wanted to do with XY reminds me of the NBC show The Pretender in which highly intelligent kids were brought to "The Center" where they were given various scenarios (ranging from JFK's death to war plans) and they had to solve them. Since he is viewed as faulty, I doubt that Madacorp wants him back to put him back on that type of work. It's clear, after watching "Ghost in the Machine," that they need him back because he downloaded the database and the camera files in his brain. Imagine the info that must be hidden in there? (That information surely includes a few shots of XX in her tank.)

Brian Taylor. He always seemed somewhat shady but I didn't suspect he was that bad! For sure someone (surely Taylor himself) found out that Baylin left Kyle a warning and that it said "Do no trust Brian" and not "Do not trust Foss." I wonder at what level Taylor is in the Madacorp food chain. It'll be interesting to see a Kyle/Taylor face off down the road!

But what will be more interesting is seeing what is in the box. As we expected, the ring comes back into play as it is the key to open Baylin's box. As Adam told Kyle: "Find the answer, you already have it." Kyle had the ring, the camera footage of where the box was hidden, how to open the safe, and what opens the box (see picture on the right). Thing is, he sold the ring and Ballantine has it. How will he track the ring down when the pawn shop owner didn't want to give him the name of the buyer? Foss could be of invaluable help in this quest especially if they look for where Taylor is.

XX's reboot

The reboot (or reformatting?) Madacorp did changed XX a lot. She seems to still have some of the memories she gathered since her "birth" (she didn't ask the teens who they were, so I guess Madacorp left some stuff in there) but she is now focused on Kyle. This particularly affects Declan and Amanda, on different levels. I'm curious to see how they changed her relationship with Emily.

XX's experience while inside the destroyed Zzyzx was quite different than the one XY had. XX not only got quite angry when Amanda told her to back off from Kyle but she also saw memories of her birth, which had a tremendous effect on her. She'll definitely require some more therapy. But I think that when she and Kyle understand they are alike, it may solve her identity issues (or at least part of them).

Andy's revelation

Since the instant headache scene, we have been suspicious about Andy. Some thought she was a Madacorp employee, others speculated she was sick. We found out tonight that it was the latter: Andy has cancer. The actors playing Andy and Josh gave a good performance tonight because I'm sure that you too felt the despair both characters felt. Josh wanted to love Andy but she doesn't want to be loved because she has cancer. Aww...

Other scenes of interest

• Amanda and Kyle kissing for the second time (making them a couple per Lori's dating standards).
• Jessi telling Kyle that she felt safe for the first time in her life when he took her hand.
• Foss standing up for XY against Kern.
• Kyle pushing the play button on Foss' CD-player.

Best lines of the week

• Listen. I need you to do me a favor. I want you to read Andy's mind. I don't know, note her sweat glands, analyze her aura. Work your extra terrestrial mojo. - Josh to Kyle
• Following her through a portal to hell is not part of my job description. - Josh about following Lori
  
• She's a lot scarier than anything else running down here. - Lori about Jessi.