The second episode of The Ark's continues the pilot's theme of something always inevitably going wrong and the problems are really starting to pile up. Not only do we lose another crewmate in a spacewalk as they try to figure out what damaged the ship, we also have Brice and Lane discovering mysterious crystals in the ship that melt through pretty much anything when they're broken, a disposed murder weapon leading to a drastic loss in water and a controversial decision to shut down the coolant system for the engines, leaving them dead in space for the privilege of a few more days of water.
It's not a permanent solution by any means so the characters are going to have to scramble to find some way of replenishing their water and getting the engines back in order so they can continue their mission. I do appreciate the desperation of problem solving involved in this show. Solving one problem leads to another problem and something is bound to go wrong after they fix the water and engine problems.
It's more vital than ever that they at least make it to the planet they were travelling towards so that it isn't all for nothing. Though, what they're going to do on this planet when they get there is a mystery. They're already starting to use all the resources meant for the planet on the ship so they can survive and they're running out of all the supplies they would have had on arrival.
It makes the plight of the saboteur even more interesting. At first, it all seems a little odd that the saboteur would deliberately destroy a ship they're living on and ruin all chances of survival. Do they not want the mission to succeed? Is it some kind of corporate plot or rebellion against the man funding the mission? It's too early to tell but now that the Ark is in such dire straits, it's possible that the saboteur might think it's better to complete the mission because the likelihood of surviving anywhere now is pretty minimal.
I do wonder if it is sabotage though. It feels like an easy path to be led down, in the same way as the show wants us to believe this early on that Lane is implicated in some way in the murder. Obviously, sabotage is a fairly strong basis for a plot and a mystery but the destruction of the ship could also be an accident. Those crystals were only dangerous after being broken and with all the secrets and mysterious backstories being hinted at, I wouldn't be surprised if someone turned out to be a smuggler of some kind.
We also get another bit of information about Garnett's background. It turns out she wasn't trained with everyone else on the crew, instead being a last minute addition presumably by someone higher up. It gives Lane enough reason not to trust her but I'm hoping the three lieutenants sort their differences out soon as I think they could have a really supportive dynamic. We almost got there in this episode but with every step forward they take, there's another step back and it's only going to get worse as things get more dire.
What did you think of the episode? Got any theories about the saboteur? Sound off in the comments below!
