Jake 2.0 Overview

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

Heya, I'm LJC, and I'll be your Small Fandom Guide this month for Jake 2.0

Overview
Jake Foley was working in the IT department of the NSA with his roommate and best friend Darin when he went with his supervisor to reboot a downed server and was caught in a firefight between a research doctor selling out, and NSA agents. During the encounter, a beaker full of nano-bots--microscopic, self-replicating computers--shattered, and Jake was "infected" with the nanites clinging to the glass shards. Jake quickly discovered that Something was Up, and used his new-found powers (which include increased strength, speed, night-vision, macro-vision, and the ability to interface with any computer wirelessly using his neural interface) to rescue his college crush Sarah from an Irish arms dealer who had kidnapped her to get to Jake.

Jake, who had always dreamed of becoming a field agent and applied for agent training twice only to be turned down twice, was made the centre of a new special ops team headed by Deputy Director Louise Beckett. His training, lead by Lou's right hand man Agent Kyle Duarte, was fast-tracked, while Dr. Diane Hughes--Dr. Gage's research assistant who became primary researcher on the project after Gage's death--monitors how he's affected by the nanites as prior to Jake's exposure, the nanites had only been tested on lab mice. Jake slowly begins to learn the ropes, and occasionally the realities of being an NSA field agent are brought into sharp contrast with his James Bond childhood dreams.

His new-found abilities are cool--but they also isolate him. His roommate Darin is transferred out of the country, and his college friend Sarah can never know the real Jake, despite the fact that for the first time in almost a decade, she's actually looking at Jake and seeing more than the nerd from her dorm who was always there to fix her computer. Jake can't tell his friends or family what has happened to him--even when their lives might be endangered because of his missions.

Currently, the final four episodes of Jake 2.0 remain unaired in North America. They have however aired in Europe, Asia, and will air shortly in Australia and New Zealand.

The episodes are as follows (with links to spoiler-filled synopses)

The Tech
Training Day
Cater Waiter
Arms and the Girl
The Good, the Bad, and the Geeky
Last Man Standing
Jerry 2.0
Middleman
Whiskey - Tango - Foxtrot
The Spy Who Really Liked Me
Prince and the Revolution
Double Agent
Blackout
Get Foley
Dead Man Talking
Upgrade

The characters:

Jake Foley Jake is a tech geek in his mid to late 20s, originally from Akron, Ohio. He doesn't think of himself as a nerd, though he self-identifies as a geek now and then. He's earnest and naive, but also brave and smart. More than the superpowers from the nanites, it's his ability to think on his feet which make him a good agent. His lack of training is both a problem and a strength, as he thinks outside the box and often comes up with solutions which his peers miss. However, he also has a maverick streak, and often makes promises he is in no position to keep. Since becoming an agent, he has killed three people, a fact which troubles him deeply. His relationship with Kyle began as mentor/student, but quickly metamorphoses into genuine friendship. Of the team, he is closest to Diane. The two see themselves as partners in their particular adventure, and Jake's fledgling relationship with Sarah fell apart in part because he was beginning to see Diane as more than a friend.

Dr. Diane Hughes Diane is in her late 20s, and worked for three years as Dr. Gage's assistant until she took over the nanite project full-time upon his death. The nanites were originally a DOD project, intended to heal soldiers on the battlefield, but the potential for weapons/defence research became immediately clear. Diane is brilliant, quirky, not particularly tall, and from the moment she meets Jake, taken with the cute IT guy. As the series goes on, they go from flirting (on Diane's part. Jake was still wearing Sarah-blinders until episode #6), to best friends, to something quite significantly more in the last four episodes of the series. Whether she's aware of it or not, Diane's loyalties are to Jake first, and the NSA second, a fact which puts her in significant conflict with Lou at times and potentialy endangers Jake, while at the same time protecting him. Her comrade-in-arms is Dr. Fran Yoshida, who is her friend as well as her right hand in the lab.

Kyle Duarte Kyle was an undercover agent until his cover was compromised. Now, he works in Sat Ops and the closest he gets to the field is leading teams in the D.C. area. He's also put in charge of Jake's training. he's hard on Jake, but also one of Jake's biggest supporters. He was the one who pushed for Jake to be given active agent status, rather than shuffled off to some lab underneath a mountain in Colorado, because he saw the glimmer of potential in the kid. The two have since gone from trainee and mentor to close friends. However, Kyle will always be Jake's boss first and friend second, for Jake's own good.

Louise Beckett Lou worked hard to get where she is, and you cross her at your peril. A former helicopter pilot during the Gulf War, she would have joined the Wolf Pack special ops unit except they didn't accept woman. The NSA did. She graduated at the top of her class at Georgetown in 1996, and met Alex Brandt with whom she had a clandestine affair while they were both NSA field agents. The affair ended when she took the Director of Field Operations position, and when Alex was presumed dead in a mission she led in Serbia in 1998, Lou never stopped blaming herself for his death. Lou can be hard, she can be ruthless, and she can even be a badass. But she genuinely cares about her team, and backs them up when she believes they need it. Conversely, she'll be the first one to bust Jake's balls, when he screws up.

Recurring/guest characters

Sarah Carter attended Georgetown with Jake, seemingly unaware that the entire four years they went to school together, Jake had been carrying a torch for her. When they meet again years later, she's working as a Congressional Aide investigating DOD funds which were diverted to the NSA for the nanotechnology research. At first unable to look beyond Jake's geeky exterior, his new-found confidence prompts her to wonder if there might be more to Jake than she had previously assumed. However, after a disastrous first date, she bid Jake farewell.

Kevin Flynn (DuMont) is a hacker whom Jake and Kyle busted after he stole $2 million from the Federal Reserve Bank. DuMont attended Carnegie Mellon for undergrad, Cal Tech for his masters, has a Doctorate from MIT and did his doctoral thesis on heuristic algorithms. DuMont is a fantasy geek, spending hours online playing multi-player fantasy RPGS, and named his cell phone Fionnbhair, his mp3 player Earthsea, his PDA Gondor, his hard drive Gormenghast, and his password was Death Owl. Jake posed as DuMont, and brought down a ring of hackers intent on crashing a plane belonging to DuMont's former employers, Banatech, which would have killed everyone on-board. Dumont planned the job with McP, however Yori, Bit and Clu believed they were simply going to hold the jet for ransom. DuMont and Yori were having "cyber sex" for six months, but had never met face-to-face. DuMont is now being held in a Federal prison.

Darin Metcalf was Jake's roommate and co-worker. Darin used to pick up chicks using his NSA badge, pretending to be a spy. Darin was transferred "out of the country" after Jake was infected with the nanites.

Fran Yoshida is Diane's research assistant. She covered with Lou for Diane when Diane followed Jake to Seattle, and also helped Diane monitor Jake using the JMD when Jake lost his memory. In addition to being Diane's assistant, she is also Diane's friend, even when this means taking the heat from Lou and Kyle.

Chief Director James "Jim" Skerrit is Lou's immediate superior and mentor.

Executive Director Valerie Warner is Skerrit's immediate superior. Warner has taken significant interest in the nanite project, and Jake; an interest that worries the team. Unbeknownst to Lou, Warner has met several times with DuMont since he was recaptured.

Tech Agent Susan Carver works under Kyle in Sat Ops. Occasionally snarky, she is almost a fifth member of the team, and is always there day or night.

Tech Agent Hart works under Kyle in Sat Ops.

Seymour Lafortunata works out of the basement of the NSA. One of the NSA's best HUMINT resources, Seymour knows everyone. Literally.

Significant guest stars

Karen is Jake's neighbour, and seems unusually curious about Jake's life.

Kevin Park is one of Jake's best friends from college. Jake was Kevin's best man when Kevin got married. The wedding was held in Seattle, presumably where they live and work.

Jenny Park was a friend of both Jake and Sarah Carter from Georgetown. Jake was best man at her wedding to husband Kevin. She digs geeks.

Jerry Foley is Jake's 19 year old brother. Jerry currently attends junior college, and always has some scam going.

Dr. Gage was the head of the NSA's nanotech project, and Diane's boss for three years, until he was killed while trying to transmit his research to IRA arms dealer Eric Vaughn. Gage was a jerk who believed "Equal Opportunity" was something you put in your coffee.

Rachel (Yori) is a hacker recruited by DuMont and McP. Her speciality was telecommunications, and she and DuMont had been "doing it" online for six months. When Jake was revealed to be impersonating DuMont, Yori helped save the Banatech plane.

Richard "Dick" Fox is a legendary NSA operative with a few secrets. Fox was plagued by mental problems, causing him to create a second personality, "Dick", to deal with the reality of being obsolete in the post-Cold War era, a well as the stress of his work during the 1970s and 1980s at the NSA. He is now on medication and seeing professional help to handle his problems, and is a friend to Jake.

Theresa Carano is the daughter of dangerous arms dealer Ruben Carano. When her father was killed in a plane crash, Theresa covered up his death and took over the family business. When the NSA discovered her "father" was smuggling micro-semtex into the country to sell to terrorists, she seduced Jake in an attempt to throw the NSA off the trail. However, she slipped up, and Jake discovered her true identity and captured her.

Steve Clemens was a Cryptologist working at the NSA. He was hired by the Russian Mafia to help Vasily Koronkiewicz kidnap Diane. Steve seduced Diane--who had no idea she was a target--and murdered Vasily to cover his tracks.

Angela Hamilton is an ex-CIA operative who stole three vials of varcon gas (a biological weapon the United States has never officially created, let alone sold) and tried to murder Colonel Enrique Alonzo, head of the Santa Costa revolutionary guard, in revenge for the death of her younger sister. Angela seduced Jake, then roped him into helping her. Jake felt compassion for her plight, and blackmailed the NSA into getting her released from a Santa Costan prison.

Miles Jennings sat on the Board of Inquiry which almost shut the nanite project down, following the Varcon gas incident. Jennings is highly critical of the project, and in particular, Jake. He was also disgusted by Warner and Skerrit allowing the team to blackmail the NSA and said as much to Warner, who threatened to cut out his tongue.

Wong Mei Ling is a double-agent with whom Kyle had a tempestuous romantic relationship. Two years prior, they had planned to run away together, however Kyle learned that his cover had been compromised and in order to protect her stood her up. Believing Kyle had betrayed her, she sold him out to the Chinese government. Upon learning the truth, she helped him escape.

General Wesley Freewald was a former member of the Wolf Pack, a black-ops team based out of Ft. McLelland. Lou Beckett served under Freewald during the Gulf War and the two shared a healthy respect for one another. When Freewald was murdered by the Pack, Lou personally led the mission to bring his killers to justice.

Vanessa Cardounel is DuMont's girlfriend, and posed as Jake's "wife" in DuMont's scheme to get revenge on Jake and acquire the nanites. Vanessa injected herself with the nanites, and disappeared.

Alex Brandt was a demolitions expert with whom Lou had a clandestine affair which ended when she took the job as Director of Field Operations. Brandt married a woman named Jennifer, but remained a member of Lou's team until he was presumed dead while on a mission to Serbia. After spending 5 years in a POW camp, Brandt was rescued, and attempted to kill Lou because she left him behind. Lou was unharmed, but Brandt did kill Agent Ben Wilton by mistake. Alex was smart, and funny, but not very nice.

The Fandom
Small. Very small. So far, a little over a dozen authors I've been able to find, archived mainly at Fanfiction.net, JMD and geek ♥, and posted to jake_fic, jake_fic, jake20_fanfic, jake2-0slash, geek_love, and on LJ to jake2_fic.

The main discussion forums for the series are Jake-2-0 mailing list, TWoP, and the j20fans message boards, and jake2point0.

The main romantic pairings in the fiction produced thus far are Jake/Diane, Jake/Kyle, and Kyle/Diane. Within the fandom, however, there is quite the following for Kyle/Lou, Jake/Dumont, and Dumont/Warner (okay, we're using the "romantic" label loosely).

Comments

[twigged.livejournal.com]

Okay, Jake is hawt. :P Thanks for this write-up - well done!!

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

I stole a fair bit of it from JMD *lol* (and it gave me an excuse to get off my backside and finish writing up the guest/recurring bios for the site, as well).

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Yay! Jake! *bounces up and down happily*

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

Now I just need to get organised and start posting recs. Only took me a week longer than i thougth it would, to get the overview pulled together *lol*

[byob-kenobi.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm so glad you're doing this!

[profshallowness.livejournal.com]

Very useful summary.

Dumont/Warner (okay, we're using the "romantic" label loosely).

Whaddya mean? Their love is so. . .*flounders wildly*

[octopedingenue]

Yaaay! Thanks for writing this up, darlin'! *bounces* Hoping this might make our small fandom a little bit bigger...

(pssst--all the links to loony-archivist for the episode summaries are broken, okay?)

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

Gotta love my inability to spell my own domain name corrently. *blush* thanks for the head' s up!