Extant – More in Heaven and Earth/Incursion – Review

The double bill of “More in Heaven and Earth” and “Incursion” delivers a bunch of answers to the audience as Molly makes progress in piecing together what happened to her and the motivations of those around her are bared.

Through Molly’s investigation and an insightful talk between Sparks and Yasumoto, we see that the Aruna was a secret mission to mine more of the extraterrestrial element that Yasumoto has been using to extend his life. It’s at the substance’s source that they also stumbled across the entity. And they viewed it as so valuable to their agendas that, even after what happened to the Aruna, they still sent more missions into space to interact with and secretly study it.

After seeing the video from the Aruna and realizing the depths Sparks has sunk to, sending her up on the Seraphim even after what happened to his own daughter, Molly seethes that she wants to make him sweat. I liked seeing her take the gloves off, dropping all pretenses of civility, tormenting him with the video and snarling that he should pray for Katie’s forgiveness. But it becomes clear over these episodes that Molly’s being driven by a more personal reason than revenge. It’s not just about exposing what was done to her, as John suggests she can do now that they have the video. She wants, she needs, despite the danger, to see her child again.

It’s too bad for Molly that she’s surrounded by allies she can’t fully trust. Sam’s loyalties remain in question. We see her providing information to Molly about the Aruna astronauts, but we also learn that Sparks ordered her to regain Molly’s trust so who’s to say which of them she’s playing. Kryger’s a wild card. While Molly’s acting out of maternal instinct, he seems more damaged by his experience on the Seraphim and sees the entity as something dangerous that has to be stopped. Then there’s Kern, who has a drug problem and a family history of mental instability working against him. And, as Kryger points out, his suddenly flipping sides is suspect.

But at least her baby has her back. The entity comes to Molly’s aid twice, first using a flock of birds forming the mysterious symbol to send a warning to her and then using its mind control powers to save her from a firing squad. Yasumoto theorizes to Sparks at one point that harming Molly could have an adverse effect on the offspring. Something tells me that their symbiotic bond will be important in the weeks ahead.

Ironically, if anyone could relate to Molly’s yearn for her child, it’s Sparks himself. Whatever his reasons for getting involved with Yasumoto in the first place, it has cost him dearly. His daughter is dead. He drove his wife away (she coldly dismisses a call from him in the second episode). And his clinging to the cold comfort of the ghostly visions the entity can generate has led him to do unspeakable things to a woman he considered a friend, including advocating for her death. Is there any way back for him?

Ethan’s turning Japanese! Well, he’s speaking it fluently, anyway. It’s the first of several unexplainable evolutionary leaps forward Ethan takes this week, from seamlessly riding a bike on his first try to empathizing with a broken robot and questioning his own function. And it’s freaking John out, I think, because it’s a failure on both the professional and personal fronts for him. The aim of the Humanichs Project was for artificial intelligence to learn to be more human, but Ethan’s development is already outpacing that of his peers. And John’s crestfallen face after telling the story of how he and his father bonded over bike riding lessons only for Ethan to take off almost immediately showed how stung he is by Ethan’s pulling away from him, which is probably only compounded by Molly’s mission over her own child.

He frantically decides to install controls to impede this progress, which both Molly and Julie call out as being against everything he’s said thus far, but it becomes moot when he discovers that Ethan has blocked access to his programming. Julie rightly points out to him that it’s what they wanted, for Ethan to be his own person, but for John, it’s a classic case of being careful what you wish for.

Meanwhile, Julie – seemingly oblivious to her suitor’s “Danger, Will Robinson!” vibe and co-worker Charlie’s jealousy (in a cute comedic moment, he mocks her flirting using a robot arm) – continues to act on her attraction to Odin. Even though his every action comes across as shady, from prodding her about her work when she wants to change the subject to his unamused laugh when he hears that her hope is that Ethan develops free will. So it’s not a huge shock when we learn that he has a sinister agenda. It seems his experience during the war (his injuries are due to a drone attack) led him to join/found an anti-technology terrorist organization. A group that, no surprise (though the show seems to think it is, given the shadowy silhouette of her walking into the meeting), also counts Femi Dodd among its members. They’ve been taking small measures so far (for example, they’re responsible for the rolling power outages we saw in episode three), but they’re ready to make a statement and it involves Ethan.

Did you think “More in Heaven and Earth” was more heavenly or hellish? What insights did “Incursion” give you into the show’s endgame? Sound off in the comments section.