I'm not convinced because it seems so out of left field, but calling him "Riffington" after seeing it was his mother would be a very Bun-Bun thing to do.

Well then, since we got that reveal, let's get Spec crazy.

1. Sasha/Kusari is a limited resource because only made a certain number of them and there isn't a process for making any more. Dunuloa is responsible for making them either directly or through eggs left behind.
2. The OASIS rebirth process thus is either Dunuloa being kept in the facility, or a repeatable process she left behind.
3. Kusari's personality is different from Sasha's because of a sort of "assuming direct control" method by the system running the program, suppressing the base personality.

...Suddenly the use of Harbinger as a name for the 4U city enforcer gets somehow a littler more sinister as I remember the Mass Effect 2 Harbinger and knowing that Pete's worked Mass Effect references in before.

Aaaaaarrrrrrgh! With this giant bombshell part of me wants to trawl Sasha's history with the gang.
There was the night at Le Snootiers when both Sasha, Kusari and Oasis we all together.
Heck hC had the sub OASIS tech then too.
There's so much I'm wanting to relook at.

I'm gonna make the call of multiple Sasha/Kusari clones with a connected mind.

OK, since I'm so good at posting spectacularly wrong spec, here I go again... (I may or may not come back at the end of the week and add links, but I'm a tad busy this week)

We suspect that Sasha is another Sinthea La'Mort 'creation'/daughter. She is "sister" to Oasis and resembles Monicruel. She appeared to have met Crushestro before Shankraft Island - but that may be misleading, since Crushestro and Monicruel do not appear to hook up until then. Perhaps that was also planned?

While Schlock could have sent additional hC agents after Kusari & Chen, I somehow doubt that the paranoid Schlock would let minions in on the BIG secret. So who fired the dart? Could be Teresa (she's fired a dart gun before).

We know that Chen previously worked with Sin'thea - and dropped that hint more than once in recent history.

Notable absences in 4U City: No Bun-Bun; Missing or dead Zoë; No Teresa or Monicruel (that we saw); No Sasha or Sasha/Kusari. Zoë was critical for keeping Torg in the game and ultimately destroying most of (but not all) of hC. Currently, it is the latter absence that seems relevant...

So new (probably spectacularly wrong spec): Chen needed to distract Torg for a little longer, but wants him (or maybe even needs) him to learn the 'final' truth about Oasis, while he exits and gains control of Oasis. Maybe he's not really stopping Torg... Maybe Chen isn't the 'bad guy' here... Maybe he is still working for Sin'thea. Maybe he's been a plant in the new hC all along. Now he apparently has the ability to control Oasis (with help from Roberts, presumably); and just maybe that same ability will also help them control Kusari. Perhaps he always had that (again with help from Roberts). Schlock is about to be betrayed by Roberts; so even if Chen cannot control Kusari with the tools at hand, Schlock's surrender will. And Roberts and Chen will gain control of the La'Mort ladies. Maybe the "twist" is that Roberts is the original and not a copy!

And all of that spec will be spectacularly wrong. LOL

That said, this scenario may actually make it OK that Kusari turned out to be Sasha. Otherwise, it just feels annoying at the moment. Although I trust the Master will make it all OK in the end, one way or another...

Some good spec there swmartin.
In a dystopian future no Bun Bun in a city of lab rats doesn't phase me. He'd either willingly dimension hop or would be away commanding a group of people happily ignoring the nerder of schmoes.
Three dart gun could be Teresa, because she wants revenge on Riff fit exposing her cover.

I wonder if Sasha & Kusari both knew and understood their connections with each other?

I actually meant for the Dr. Lorna thing to be taken as a joke, or else I wouldn't have put it in Reactions. Sorry to whoever moved it. I should have known that when it comes to Sluggy no twist is unthinkable.

The current actual theory I am working through is that there were a certain number of Sashas out in the world working undercover for hC, and every time hC lost a Kusari, they had to pull one of their Sashas out of deep cover in order to replace her. Thus explaining why Kusari is a finite resource.

Still turning it over, it has some holes (like why Kusari lacks social skills... and I'm not sure the one time we saw a Sasha get pulled out of cover lines up with a Kusari death that we know of).

We see who shot Riff and it turns out to be...another Kusari/Sasha.

I'm just not buying Teresa, even though it does make a kind of sense with the dream foreshadowing from earlier in the arc. We're due for explanations about Kusari and Oasis, and Teresa showing up and hindering the gang for no reason just feels out of place.

You could be right. My spec score is spectacularly low - except for the very obvious. But the reason that I think it is Teresa is that we are about to reach a culmination of sorts with the La'Mort clones (assuming that Sasha is also one), and Teresa is stopping Riff from interfering with that, because she is also a 'sister'. So it would not be random interference hindering the storyline, she'd actually be part of the explanation... ...eventually.

Whoever it is, however, must also deal with Aylee and Bun-Bun. And Bun-Bun's not done with his revenge...

Either way, the fun has not even begun...

There are potential reasons. Theresa showing up could well signify Synthea taking a hand in the game again.

This strip seems to indicate that they were about to have a fairly deep and meaningful conversation.

That's what I thought as well but then someone pointed out that darts have always been Teresa's weapon of choice. Plus the last time we saw her she was getting an information download from LaMort on Oasis and Marcus Chen. And presumably the connection between her sister and Sasha/Kusari. Her appearance now would make a lot of sense.

I answered myself and made a timeline in a separate thread. Only between 3-5 days might have happened in the story since January!

Yeah, that was me as well. As below, I think Theresa and her mom may be in play now.
Strom has a tendency to snipe for keeps, not sleeps.

The only others using tranq darts are the elves and I don't think that's likely in this context.

... and Noogy

....and the REA-5's in 4U

Okay!!! Lots of people use darts!

(But I still think it's Theresa)