TV Recap: FX’s “Class of ’09” Episode 3 – “Thank You for Not Driving”

The third episode of Class of ‘09 is spent primarily in the present, although it certainly moves the needle in the future, too. With an attack on the FBI looming, Tayo leads a manhunt for Mark Tuprik while Poet gets a front-row seat to the implementation of the system that will drive her team apart in the future. Here is a recap of “Thank You for Not Driving.”

The Past – 2009

It’s driving test day at Quantico, and Poet (Kate Mara) is in the passenger seat as the instructor (Mike Wilson) takes her through a J-turn. While she rides, her classmates watch as Gabriel (Jon Jon Briones) and Drew (Brooke Smith) discuss the historical significance of driving and the success of the FBI. When Poet gets behind the wheel, her first attempt at a J-turn results in the car stalling, and her instructor told her that she needs to lose control to achieve the maneuver. She does it perfectly on her second try.

The Present – 2023

Tayo (Brian Tyree Henry) leads a team through a motel where they apprehend a mysterious man (Benjamin Keepers) connected to Mark Tupirik. He doesn’t respond to any of Tayo’s questions, but simply says, “You got no idea what’s coming.”

Hour (Sepideh Moafi) swipes her badge to escort Poet into the surveillance room of “Project Better Tomorrow,” the program she designed to help the FBI. She describes it as a data repository where any FBI agent will have access to historical data to help them in their decision-making. With this system, she hopes that no evidence gets overlooked.

After her tour, Poet meets with Lennix (Brian J. Smith) to report on her observations, referring to the system as “a guardrail against bias and error.” Lennix passes Poet a report on Hour and points to two highlighted facts: “Sexuality and a repressed personality; unpredictability.” Poet thinks both items are ridiculous to even be in the file, but Lennix says he believes Poet’s motivations for creating this system are personal and tied to her identity. Poet realizes that Lennix didn’t put her Hour’s department simply to report on the software, but as an agent who could shut Hour down. She shakes her head, recalling how the bureau wanted agents with different experiences and backgrounds, yet they want them all to behave the same way.

Hour presents her program to a board, which includes Lennix. She brings up the 1985 system Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) as having had the potential to be similar to her vision but without the support to make it a success. Lennix is the most vocal board member to oppose moving forward with the program, saying that agents feel spied on and that it would create a conflict when recruiting new agents. Hour stands firm that her software is designed to assist the agent, not replace them and that the system would simply present all of the information needed to make an unbiased decision. She says it will help agents become smarter, faster, and fairer. The board decides to shut Hour’s program down by the end of the month. Poet consoles Hour and accompanies her back to her office so she can share the bad news with the team.

Tayo watches from behind a two-way mirror as officers interrogate the man who was brought in for questioning. He’s not answering any of their questions and is sketching what looks like a grid on paper on a clipboard. Tayo opens a black box on the desk and peels away a seal. “What have we got to lose?”, he asks the Billings FBI Second in Command (Mark Rowe). “If you open that box, you’ll never be able to close it,” Tayo’s colleague warns him.

The next morning, Tayo has a police officer (Collin Shephard) protecting his home as he leaves for work, giving the officer a cup of coffee. As Tayo drives away, a construction van pulls up and watches his home. His wife Vivienne (Rosalind Eleazar) walks out of the front door and opens the garage, getting in her car and starting to exit when the van pulls in front of her driveway, blocking the exit. A man gets out and fires at the police officer, killing him. He then begins to shoot at Vivienne’s windshield, and when the bullets don’t make it through the protected glass, she takes the opportunity to ram into the first attacker (Micah Thompson). She pulls back and rams into the van until the driver (John Nania) is knocked unconscious. Tayo races back home to find his wife being looked after by a flurry of police activity. She asks him about the windshield, and he tells her that he’s been receiving threats for a long time. He wanted to protect her and didn’t want to scare her.

 “YOU KNEW ABOUT THE ATTACK,” Tayo yells at the man in the interrogation room, who keeps drawing and remains calm, asking, “What attack?” Tayo announces that his wife is still alive and that he’s going to be restarting the interview process personally. Tayo exits to grab the devices from Hour’s program. He calls his former classmate to ask for help setting it up.

Tayo’s call to Hour came just after her engagement party. Poet was present at the event, which also allowed her to reunite with Drew. “You were our best class,” Drew told Hour and Poet, referring to the two of them as the highlight of her career. When Hour asked Poet to dance, Drew looked on as if she always knew that Hour had feelings for her best friend Poet. “Poet, I know that they sent you to spy on me,” Hour confessed while slow dancing with Poet. She wasn’t mad, as it gave her the opportunity to show her best friend the top-secret project she’d been working on. Hour told Poet that she plans to quit the FBI once she is married to Hector (Kurt Yue). After most of the guests had left and the caterers were cleaning up, Hour received a phone call from Tayo for the first time in a long time. He asked to know everything about the program.

Tayo returns to the interrogation room with a black device connected to his tie, which has a camera on it. “Where is Mark Tuprik?,” Tayo asks, eliciting a laugh from the detainee. “No matter how hard we try, sometimes because of how hard we try, in the end, we always reveal ourselves,” Tayo says, sitting back patiently. Six hours later, Tayo is staring at the mysterious man as he continues to draw a grid.

Hour rushes back to her project’s office with Poet in tow, instructing her crew to tune in to the live feed to assist Tayo. Poet tries to tell Hour that they should get approval to test her program in the field. Hour is sure they won’t give approval and tells Poet that if they want to shut her down in the middle of assisting an active investigation, so be it. Poet reveals that she has the authorization to shut the program down and that she is doing it. Hour is angry that Poet is personally blocking her program. But their conversation is interrupted by what just came in from Tayo. He grabbed the clipboard from the mysterious man, tore the paper off, and uses the side of a pencil to see the imprint left in the clipboard. Some kind of a symbol becomes visible, and Hour’s software starts analyzing it. In no time, it establishes that the man’s drawing beneath the grid was the logo of a construction company, the same one on the van that attacked Tayo’s wife.

Tayo leads a team through a warehouse owned by the construction company. The entire team is wearing Hour’s devices. Meanwhile, Hour’s team is monitoring traffic cameras around the state and caught another van driving in Kentucky. Tayo is sure that Tuprik must be inside. When the van pulls into a gas station, a team of agents takes out the three drivers and searches the back. They quickly find Mark Tupirik (Mark Pellegrino), who sets fire to his blueprints before willingly surrendering.

Tayo goes home to tell his wife that the man responsible for her attack has been captured. She doesn’t understand why Tayo is personally being flown in a private jet to interrogate him. But Tayo tells her he wants to do it.

We see Tayo arrive in a high-security bunker where Tuprik sits in a round cement room with orange dots all around it, which seem to be part of Hour’s program. Tayo is wearing the device on his tie as he enters, and Tuprik laughs at it. “I’m exactly where I want to be,” Tuprik says, describing his chair as the best seat in the house. “And why is that?”, Tayo asks. “Because I get to see the expression on your face when you get the news.” Tayo asks what news, but Tuprik’s lips are sealed.

The Future – 2034

Poet drives her Tesla through remote farmland, coming upon a home with black boxes on poles along the side of the road. Poet’s electric eye begins to glitch, as does her car. She gets out and walks towards the house, being greeted by a gun staring her in the face. But when the woman holding the gun sees who it is, she puts it down. It’s Hour, who brushes Poet’s cheek as she embraces her old friend with a sad smile. She takes Poet into the backyard to introduce her to her wife, Anna (Rebecca A. Lines), and their daughter Sara (Aria Jennai Pulliam). “Are you my mom’s friend?”, Sara asks Poet, but Hour speaks for her. “She was my best friend.”

“You were right, and I was wrong,” Poet tells Hour later once they’re alone. Hour recalls how she told Poet this would happen. Poet tells her that Amos Garcia is dead, and Hour says that’s good, citing him as the person who stole her program and turned it into something bad. “I was there when he was shot,” Poet reveals. “He gave me something. Something that I need your help understanding.” Hour recalls how she begged Poet to have her back, and she refused. And she adds that it probably didn’t help that she had just confessed her love for Poet. “I lost the bureau, I lost my best friend,” Poet admits.

Poet drives Hour back to the city, and Hour uses her device to monitor channels. She notices that Poet’s Tesla is communicating with the police about their every move. “It’s not supposed to share information without reasonable cause,” Poet says. Hour points out that they have reasonable cause because Poet is driving manually. “State police have taken control of this car,” a voice announces from inside the vehicle. “Please remain calm.” It pulls them into a checkpoint where a billboard reads, “Thank you for not driving.” As an officer asks Poet why she is driving manually (“I like to drive” is her answer), we see that Tayo is watching her from his command center. The officer releases them, and Hour gives Poet a look that says, “I told you so.”

Poet and Hour sneak into Amos Garcia’s home, which has a digital “Do Not Cross” police line around it. They enter Amos’ surveillance room, and Poet shares that the FBI hasn’t been able to get into the computers. She pulls out the black card that Amos gave her and finds a place on the console where it fits. As soon as she slides it in, the machine powers up. Hour looks at the code on the screen and sees how her database was modified to be an artificial intelligence system that predicts the future and finds people guilty before they’ve ever committed a crime. “This is an intelligence nothing like our own,” Hour says. Suddenly, a video Amos recorded begins to play where he talks directly to Poet about how she’s been lied to.

Poet brings Hour to her home, and Hour can’t believe that she still lives in the same place. Looking around, Hour notices that all of the photos and accolades decorating the home are from prior to 2023. They say goodnight and go to separate rooms, but Hour finds herself peeking into Poet’s room to see how she’s doing. Poet was crying, and Hour joins her in bed to console her old friend.

FX’s Class of ‘09 returns next Tuesday, May 24th, with “Not Your Girlfriend” on Hulu. Here is the official episode description.

At Quantico, the Class of ’09 faces the meaning of taking a life. In the present, the Agents must thwart a terrorist attack and to save lives, they must take a life. In the future, we come face to face with their trauma.