“Rabbit Hole” Episode 3 gave us another peek into John and Ben’s past and how their lives came to be the way they are now. John built his life based on what his father had left behind, and Miles had been by his side throughout the time. These were clearly the two most important people for John, and they had pretty much defined his life. And this is how they brought things to where they were.
Spoilers Ahead
John’s Past And How His Company Came To Be
In “Rabbit Hole” Episode 2, we saw that John’s father was still alive, and John had known about it for a while. We came to know exactly how long that “while” was in Episode 3. But before that, let us take a look at John’s past. When John discovered his father’s “body,” Ben had been right outside the window but had been unable to go back to comfort his son. He had to leave because it was important to detach himself from his family for their safety. Years later, Ben tells John that his wife knew that he was alive. Though John has his doubts about it, he says that he doesn’t know whether his mother started drinking because she thought her husband was dead or because she knew he was alive.
Back when Jonathan was a child and was still reeling from his father’s supposed death, he kept visiting his old house in hopes of opening the safe from which his father used to take candy. He found some newspapers in his father’s drawers and found numbers and letters circled on them. John tried many times to open the safe but was never successful. One time, he tried to blow it up with some fireworks, but that didn’t work, and it also brought the local authorities to the place. His mother was infuriated at his disobedience and his actions, so she sent him to a boarding school, which is where he met Miles Valence.
The reason John approached Miles was because the latter was good with numbers. John wanted to know how to open the safe, and he sought out Miles’ help for that. Miles always had the philosophy that there was safety in numbers. When they were trying to open the safe, Miles finally cracked the code. He figures out that it is John’s name turned into their respective numbers, and that is the code for the safe. In it, they find certain documents regarding using data for human manipulation and such. As kids, they don’t know what to make of it, but those very papers become the basis of the company they build together as adults.
Miles and John started their corporate espionage business together and in 2013, Miles suggested some changes. He told John about a study on how Facebook used its data to increase a person’s engagement by predicting their behavior. Miles recommends that they build a simulation that could collect and analyze all this data to predict human behavior and then sell it to whoever wants it. John agrees, and they start doing that for four years. But in 2017, John’s life changes once again.
One fine day, when John comes back home, he finds that somebody is already there. He threatens to call the police on that person, but to his utter shock, it is his father. That is when he realizes that his father has been alive this whole time. Ben tells him that he has come back because he has nowhere else to go. He had almost caught some man (we assume he is talking about Crowley), but he blew up a plane and was now out to kill Ben. John asks his father to leave his apartment, but the next thing we see is John with Miles, telling him about his father being back and talking about a lot of conspiracies.
Ben tells John, who in turn tells Miles about a guy named Crowley who was all set to establish a new world order by hijacking governments. The person bringing Ben proof of that had been on the AeroDelhi flight, which had disappeared the previous year. We had seen John’s colleague watch the news about the said flight just minutes ago. But though this is an event that has already happened, the real proof comes when another one of Ben’s conspiracies is confirmed. The Russians planned on bombing the Panama and Suez Canals so that they would have the only viable trade route for oil to Europe and North America. Well, it is 2018, and this actually happens, proving that Ben is completely right and not just a nutcase, as Miles has said again and again.
Ben is eating breakfast with John and Miles and talking about his work manipulating populations in favor of US interests. Crowley had likely been one of Ben’s colleagues, and he got more ambitious. He wanted a world of his own and was out to make it. Ben wanted to stop him and wanted John and Miles’ help with that. Crowley is looking to control US media and infrastructure so that he can find a candidate to elect as the next president and control him. This goal of Crowley would attract him to the duo’s data-intel business. Crowley needed to find the two, and that is why they had to show the world that they were not working together anymore. John would continue working secretly with Ben, while Miles would take the company public and make it known that he did not mind working with shady clients. John and Miles listen to Ben and have been acting accordingly for the past few years—that is, until everything changes.
The Present-Day
We suspect that Miles Valence was not an ally like John and Ben thought him to be. When John was telling him about his father’s conspiracies, the expression on Miles’ face suggested that he was hearing this for the second time and not the first. Additionally, Ben had made it clear to both of them that he and John had to not let their relationship come out because that could be exploited. Seeing how John’s world came crashing around him years later, maybe Miles finally told the person he was reporting to (allegedly) that John was Ben’s son. Finally, when orchestrating their break-up, Miles asks John whether they should come up with a strategy to stay in touch with each other under the radar. In “Rabbit Hole” Episode 1, he told John not to be a stranger. We don’t think it was part of an act and believe that John had indeed stopped communicating with Miles.
In the present day, when John, Ben, and Hailey are having food, we come to know a few more things. Ben is not happy with Hailey, as he thinks she is a wild card that John has brought with him due to an error in judgment by not being able to deal with Miles’ death. He wants John to stay on the mission, but he is getting sucked into the events happening around him. He wants to trace Valence’s communications data and find the source of the last call that Valence got, thinking it might lead to Crowley. John has 15 minutes to use the internet and figure out everything he wants. If he goes more than that, he would be making them all susceptible to getting traced. That is true because the minute John gets online to crack Miles’ password, the team at Arda starts tracking him.
Meanwhile, Ben starts trying to get Edward Homms to talk. They have kidnapped him because he might have a clue to Crowley. He may have come across the name in some of his dealings in previous investigations, and that is the information that Ben and John need. As for Hailey, we believe there is something fishy about her. She uses her phone to make a money transfer, despite knowing the danger of it being traced there. Ben doesn’t trust her and, in fact, almost catches her near the apple tree, but she evades suspicion by letting the mobile fall out of her hands.
‘Rabbit Hole’ Episode 3 Ending Explained: How Did John Access Valence’s Communications Data? Did Arda Analytics Track Him?
John gets five attempts to figure out the password to access Valerie’s data. His clue is “safety in numbers,” and he has already failed four times. But as the memory of them opening his father’s safe together as kids come back to him, he figures out what the code could be. The clue was the word “safety.” John cracks the code and gets all the data he needs.
Meanwhile, Xander Arnaz in Arda is very close to figuring out where John is. The longer he is online, the closer they get to an exact trace of his location. Hailey’s mobile use also helps them a bit, and they are pretty close when Xander gets the message that Agent Madi is there to see him. When he goes to meet her, she tells him that he was the one to call her and shows him the email. Xander realizes what is happening, and he goes back inside to the tracing room. John is already in the system, and he yells to cut him off. But it is already too late since John has everything he needs.
John tells Ben that they must leave immediately, and he destroys all electronics that could be used to trace them or reveal what they were up to. As for Xander, he calls someone to whom he is reporting, likely Crowley, and gives him the update. Down the building, when Madi is telling Rasche that things might be more complicated than they look, Xander jumps to his death, and his body lands right behind her.
What Can We Expect In ‘Rabbit Hole’ Episode 4?
We certainly think that Hailey comes with some ulterior motivations, but there is a good chance they might be explained away in the next few episodes. Edward Homms might also start talking and tell what he knows about Crowley. He was clearly a colleague of Ben, so we might start getting a character sketch of him. Also, Miles was not innocent in all this. The communications data might reveal the extent of his betrayal. Finally, when Miles and John were talking in the flashback set in 2017, he referred to something that happened to John 8 years ago, which means 2009. This could refer to some mental breakdown and may be a major reason for John’s paranoia, other than the genes inherited from his father. All these will be revealed in the next episode of “Rabbit Hole.”
