Project Blue Book recap: Hynek and Quinn come face-to-face with an alien

Hynek and Quinn infiltrate Operation Paperclip and come face-to-face with an alien subject on the newest episode of Project Blue Book.

Operation Paperclip was a clandestine organization composed of German scientists recruited after the second world war to work on America’s behalf. The goal of the operation was to utilize the knowledge of these scientists and their expertise on German warfare to create more lethal weapons for American arsenals in preparation for the Cold War.

The secretive nature of this operation was a necessity due to the controversial employment of former Third Reich affiliates. An official mandate from President Truman stated no scientists with a record of Nazi war crimes would be allowed to participate, but this rule was largely ignored. The agency officials valued intellect over ethics, and if necessary, would whitewash criminal records to maintain their viability as part of Operation Paperclip.

Werner von Braun, notable for his technical expertise on a V-2 rocket that destroyed much of England during the war, became a figurehead for the operation, and eventually the director of NASA’s flight program. It was Braun who was instrumental in creating the rocket that would put American astronauts on the moon.

The return of Henry Fuller

After getting Joel on the bus to school, Mimi notices Henry Fuller lingering outside of their home. He wants to warn Hynek they’re all in danger. But who does Fuller think they are in danger from? Aliens? Or the government?

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Rattled by Fuller’s visit, Mimi calls Susie. Together they make a visit to the airforce and learn Hynek was supposed to be on a plane headed back but failed to board. Mimi, stressed and easily trusting, lets it slip to Susie – the Russian spy – that her husband is investigating UFOs.

But Susie may have a weakness – Mimi. She’s back in her own safe house, gathering clues and intel she’s stolen from the airforce when she overhears a disturbing house call through the bug in the Hynek residence. Fuller has returned and he’s a little too antsy for Mimi’s comfort.

In storms Susie, gun at the ready. She spooks Fuller and sends him running but she may have also spooked Mimi in the process. For the first time, Mimi appears to be a little suspicious of Susie.

Gurley, Alabama

Hynek and Quinn visit a pig farmer in Gurley, Alabama who claims he witnessed a cigar-shaped craft hovering near his barn. He isn’t the only one, an entire aircraft of civilian passengers back up his claims. Learning about Warner von Braun working nearby, Quinn theorizes what the farmer may have seen.

After a bumpy road into the facility – including a brief visit to a prison cell – the boys are treated to a special demonstration of Braun’s latest rocket prototype and it fits their witness’s description. Except, there are still pieces of the puzzle that don’t quite fit and neither Quinn nor Hynek wants to leave town without getting a peek inside the laboratory at the center of Operation Paperclip.

Quinn devises a scheme to get the two of them apprehended once more, but this time by a new ally (the guard they met when they first arrived). They are returned to the lab after dark and able to continue their investigation – officially off the books.

It is inside the lab where “Operation Paperclip” really gets interesting. Floating inside of an incubation tank filled with sea-foam green water is a sedated, extraterrestrial. There is a possibility it is a malformed human, misshapen from experimentation, but given the context, my money is on alien.

Not long after breaking and entering, Hynek and Quinn are apprehended – again. I think that’s three times in one episode? Quinn is finally catching on to the fact something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Clearly, General Harding is on the cover-up. I think we’ll be seeing a more Hynek-cooperative version of Michael Quinn in the future.

After the two men are dismissed, Braun brings out the UFO. Turns out, he was testing a propulsion system on a flying saucer all along and he’s forcibly pushed a lone pilot into the driver’s seat. The spacecraft fires up in a dazzling spectacle of technicolor orbs and light rings before vanishing altogether.

“It worked.” An awestruck Braun remarks. And I don’t know what he means by that exactly (I’m guessing the UFO traveled at the speed of light or… is it sound? But it isn’t made clear yet), but I don’t think it’s good news for anyone.

Odds & Ends

• The pilot at the end is forced on to the alien hovercraft against his will. That means the suits Hynek and Quinn stumbled upon in the lab, the ones that were hanging ominously from the ceiling rafters, may have been from the all the pilots who came before him. I’m sure you can use your imagination to picture what may have happened to them.
• Was there a point to finding out Joel is being bullied at school? It doesn’t come up again in this episode.
• Curiously, when Susie tells Mimi to stay somewhere safe, she specifically tells her to call the receptionist at the airforce so Hynek knows how to get in touch with her. My first thought was that she wanted the bug to pick up the phone number but I don’t have a reason as to why she would need that.

A new episode of Project Blue Book titled “Foo Fighters” airs February 5th on the History channel.