diff --git a/src/components/categorical/value.js b/src/components/categorical/value.js
index a83b8159..b604faab 100644
--- a/src/components/categorical/value.js
+++ b/src/components/categorical/value.js
@@ -5,28 +5,31 @@ import actions from "../../actions";
 
 @connect((state) => {
   return {
-    selectedMetadata: state.selectedMetadata
+    categoricalAsBooleansMap: state.controls.categoricalAsBooleansMap
   }
 })
 class CategoryValue extends React.Component {
 
-  handleChange() {
-    console.log("dispatch", this.props.metadataField, this.props.value)
+  toggleOff() {
+    this.props.dispatch({
+      type: "categorical metadata filter deselect",
+      metadataField: this.props.metadataField,
+      value: this.props.value
+    });
+  }
+
+  toggleOn() {
+    this.props.dispatch({
+      type: "categorical metadata filter select",
+      metadataField: this.props.metadataField,
+      value: this.props.value
+    });
   }
 
   render () {
+    if (!this.props.categoricalAsBooleansMap) return null
 
-    /* has this value for this category already been selected? */
-    let selected = false;
-
-    if (!this.props.selectedMetadata) { /* there is no selected metadata */
-      selected = false;
-    } else if (
-      this.props.selectedMetadata[this.props.metadataField] && /* the key {Location: []} is present  */
-      this.props.selectedMetadata[this.props.metadataField].indexOf(this.props.value) > -1 /* "Tumor" exists in {Location: ["Tumor"]}  */
-    ) {
-      selected = true;
-    }
+    const selected = this.props.categoricalAsBooleansMap[this.props.metadataField][this.props.value]
 
     return (
       <div
@@ -41,7 +44,11 @@ class CategoryValue extends React.Component {
             margin: 0,
             lineHeight: "1em"
           }}>
-          <input onChange={this.handleChange.bind(this)} checked={true} type="checkbox"/> {this.props.value}
+          <input
+            onChange={selected ? this.toggleOff.bind(this) : this.toggleOn.bind(this)}
+            checked={selected}
+            type="checkbox"/>
+            {this.props.value}
         </p>
         <p style={{
             margin: 0,
diff --git a/src/middleware/updateCellSelectionMiddleware.js b/src/middleware/updateCellSelectionMiddleware.js
index 19d6449b..b5e08f4f 100644
--- a/src/middleware/updateCellSelectionMiddleware.js
+++ b/src/middleware/updateCellSelectionMiddleware.js
@@ -27,7 +27,9 @@ const updateCellSelectionMiddleware = (store) => {
       const filterJustChanged =
         action.type === "continuous selection using parallel coords brushing" ||
         action.type === "graph brush selection change" ||
-        action.type === "graph brush deselect"
+        action.type === "graph brush deselect" ||
+        action.type === "categorical metadata filter deselect" ||
+        action.type === "categorical metadata filter select"
         ;
 
       if (
@@ -110,7 +112,61 @@ const updateCellSelectionMiddleware = (store) => {
         })
       }
 
-      let modifiedAction = Object.assign({}, action, {newSelection}) /* append the result of all the filters to the action the user just triggered */
+      /*
+        1. figure out if the users have unchecked boxes
+        2. put them in an array
+        3. filter on them
+      */
+
+      let newCategoricalAsBooleansMap = s.controls.categoricalAsBooleansMap;
+
+      /*
+        ...spread for merge: https://github.com/reactjs/redux/issues/432
+
+        we do the update here instead of the reducer because we need it for the reactive computation
+      */
+      if (action.type === "categorical metadata filter select") {
+        newCategoricalAsBooleansMap = {
+          ...s.controls.categoricalAsBooleansMap,
+          [action.metadataField]: {
+            ...s.controls.categoricalAsBooleansMap[action.metadataField],
+            [action.value]: true
+          }
+        }
+      } else if (action.type === "categorical metadata filter deselect") {
+        newCategoricalAsBooleansMap = {
+          ...s.controls.categoricalAsBooleansMap,
+          [action.metadataField]: {
+            ...s.controls.categoricalAsBooleansMap[action.metadataField],
+            [action.value]: false
+          }
+        }
+      }
+
+      const inactiveCategories = [];
+      _.each(newCategoricalAsBooleansMap, (options, category) => {
+        _.each(options, (isActive, option) => {
+          if (!isActive) {
+            console.log("category: ", category, "option:", option)
+            inactiveCategories.push({category, option})
+          }
+        })
+      })
+
+      if (inactiveCategories.length > 0) {
+        _.each(inactiveCategories, (d) => {
+          _.each(newSelection, (cell, i) => {
+            if (cell[d.category] === d.option) {
+              newSelection[i]["__selected__"] = false;
+            }
+          })
+        })
+      }
+
+      let modifiedAction = Object.assign({}, action, {
+        newSelection,
+        newCategoricalAsBooleansMap,
+      }) /* append the result of all the filters to the action the user just triggered */
 
       return next(modifiedAction);
     }