premiere air date: November 11, 2001
summary: Flipping through various channels on his TV, Spike sees Faye-Faye
on the screen. It seems that she has joined the cult Scratch in order to rid herself
of debt. Looking a little bit deeper, Jet and Spike discover that the leader of
Scratch, Londes, is wanted for a whopping 38 milion Wulong bounty -- the real
reason behind Faye's desire to abandon her body and live "in the infinite sea
of electrons" (Scratch's raison d'être). Armed with very little information, Spike,
Jet, and even Ed (electronically, of course) go in search of Londes. All of their
searches turn up fruitless. No trace of the man can be found anywhere. A call
from Faye sends Spike off to help her; meanwhile Jet buys a game console that
purportedly scans the brain into the net, allowing Scratch members to abandon
their bodies. Jet, Ed and Ein work on hacking the Scratch website, while Spike
goes to face Londes alone. You know, right up until Brain Scratch I found CB fun
and enjoyable, but not imperative, if you follow me. I mean, I could take it or
leave it. Some days, I was in the mood for it, some days not. I actually didn't
get the last DVD until a month or two after I had watched the fifth disc. Something
about Brain Scratch, even though it is not a "plot" episode, lays the ground for
the ending of the series. I think it does have something to do with all five
members of the crew acting as a cohesive whole, perhaps for the first time during
the series. The feel is of the crew, for one brief shining moment, acting like
a family.
rating: A+++
