rw2516

The way I understood it is management is the original scientists who were studying the two different worlds. Once the differences between the two worlds became greater, like a chain reaction, they couldn't do it all by themselves so they hired people to observe and exchange the info under some false pretense. The whole thing is still the original experiment. I think at some point they had to inform a few governments about it for funding.
The management of each side are working together but don't trust each other.

Bill Needle

Maybe the question is more: Why did anyone listen to and take orders from them? Under whose authority were they acting? What recourse is there if someone refused them? Now they have their security teams and such as muscle, but initially they were a handful of nerds with fancy ham radios. And who is paying for all of this?

rw2516

They are a private think tank with government funding. The entire thing is an experiment with the parallel worlds as the laboratory. Management are the original scientists who are running, controlling, and observing the experiment. At some point they had to let some government(s) in on what they had discovered in order to get funding. None of the show's characters are aware that they are just lab rats in an ongoing experiment. Even the ambassadors and security people who are aware of both worlds, and travel back and forth, are not aware that management is using them as a means to control the experiment by having them carry out orders to either achieve a desired outcome, or to see what happens.
The decision to give one girl the cassette and not the other was the first "management decision".
Think of the two worlds existing in a petri dish in a laboratory with management as the scientists controlling and observing what happens in the dish.
I get the impression management feels they are insulated from events. They are outside, looking in.
Cromwell's daughter, the terrorist, read his journal and is the only one who realizes what is really going on outside the original scientists (management). The lab rats are revolting against the scientists. Her mission is to take out management and end the experiment, possibly to let events continue in the two worlds without outside manipulation by management.
It's like The Matrix. Everybody is in The Matrix except management. Management is manipulating events in The Matrix. The daughter knows she is in a matrix because she read the journals and wants the end the outside manipulation.

andicus

My first reaction to this episode (last week's episode, that is) was 'Oh, shit. It looks like a bottle episode.' Once it became apparent what was going on, I loved it.

Really well done.

johnnysd

Another fantastic episode. The way the plot is shaping up it looks like this will only be a two year arc, but it is such a great show

Bill Needle

I agree, really enjoying this. Probably my go-to show at the moment.

Baron Of Hell

Oh I guess she wasn't cheating in the hotel. However, she could have waited to get some when she wasn't watching the kid.

cowtown

Dang, pseudo-Russian Farmer Babe really got played on that one.

Baron Of Hell

I would have thought people that paranoid would have some guards at all times.

RichC2

Starz has canned this, though it is being shopped around. Apparently their contracts ran out Feb 1st, so it doesn't look likely.

https://deadline.com/2019/02/counter...ns-1202554359/

Osiris3657

What???!?!?! That is such a buzzkill after finishing this latest amazing episode

SmithsGuy

Loved the episode except for the standard - "you'll let me out because my minions have your [dog/cat/mother/wife/husband/house plant/lucky coin] bit ... "

MrX

Gunde

So, no spoilers, but did the season end with closure or a cliffhanger?
I've lost interest in this season and found it to be a slog to get through. I'm several episodes behind, but if there's a satisfying ending, I might finish it out.

rw2516

Everything is wrapped up. A line is dropped that suggests a new and different direction, without the major characters, if the show were to continue, but can be ignored.

MrX

andicus

I think, fortunately, it works either way.

One is a somewhat happy ending, the other is not. But they both work as endings.

And, yeah, badass Howard was very badass. Loved that scene!

SmithsGuy