Extant: Season One, Episode Thirteen – “Ascension”
First aired September 17th, 2014.
The season finale of Extant wastes no time getting things started. Within the first five minutes Molly is on a rocket heading for the Seraphim. Armed with explosives, she sets out to end the alien threat once and for all.
Arriving on the ship, Molly finds Sean Glass (played by Enver Gjokaj) trapped in a hatch and, after scanning him to make sure he’s not infected, lets him out. She tells Sean about her plan to divert the ship away from earth by connecting it to ISEA technicians. He warns her that Katie (played by Tessa Ferrer) is dead and that her alien doppelganger sabotaged the vessel.
Meanwhile, on Earth, the Offspring (played by Shannon Brown) infiltrates the ISEA building. When they see what he’s capable of, the building is evacuated, cutting Molly and Sean off from Earth.
Back in space, Alien Katie attempts to stop Molly but is easily overpowered and trapped. It then transforms into Molly to trick Sean into releasing it, but he doesn’t fall for it. Unfortunately, Molly finds out she’s infected (again) and Sean may be as well. This is confirmed when she sees that he destroyed what she needed to change the ship’s direction. Molly drugs Sean and prepares for Plan B, detonating the explosives and escaping in the pod (we’ve never seen that before in sci-fi). Molly sets the charges but, since she and Sean were exposed, the ship’s computer views them as an exposure risk and won’t allow her to take off in the escape pod.
Molly should have thought to bring a gun with her for protection, Ellen Ripley never went to confront dangerous aliens without being strapped. Sure, it might not have done anything, but it’s better to have one just in case and, given that these aliens got her once, you’d think she would’ve thought to bring one. Now that he condemned her to a fiery death in space, it’s safe to say whatever love the Offspring had for Molly is gone, unless he wants to claim he was forced to by the other aliens.
The plan to blow up the ship could have been Plan J; it was always going to happen. It’s the classic ending to a story like this (Ripley almost never flew in a ship that she didn’t blow up). However, I don’t understand why it had to crash on Earth. You’d think it’d be easier to take the escape pod and travel to the planet’s surface comfortably. The best I can figure is that, this way, they can be released into the air and possibly infect more people. But then why would they have impregnated Molly and Katie in the first place? As soon as Molly mentioned being infected, I knew the computer wouldn’t let her leave the ship. Computers are all about calculations and would never let them leave carrying an alien virus.
Meanwhile, John (played by Goran Visnjic) and Julie (played by Grace Gummer) are trying to briefly shutdown Ethan (played by Pierce Gagnon) to see what Odin, aka Gavin (played by Charlie Brewley), did to him. Ethan becomes paranoid that they will shut him down forever and takes out the phone Odin gave him to “call for help” but will really detonate the bomb inside him. John reminds Ethan that he is his father and would never do anything to hurt him and Ethan hands over the phone. They open him up and find the bomb but are unable to safely remove it, so the building is evacuated to minimize casualties. John is later devastated when he learns the Offspring took over the ISEA building, leaving Molly without any backup. However, Ethan points out that, because he’s not technically human the Offspring, can’t warp his mind and he can get in to help Molly.
I guess Odin should have counted on the strong emotional connection between a man and his android son and had a backup plan. Seeing how easy it was for him to manipulate Ethan made him seem so much like a child you forgot at times that he was an android. That said, it was disappointing that Odin didn’t appear in the episode, given that this entire thing was his idea. We don’t know if John called the police (as he should have) and if Odin is sitting in a jail cell, or if he escaped and could come back next season. I hate loose ends like that.
I do at least like how the fate of Molly would be determined in a showdown between her two sons. I even made up a title for it in my head: AVA: Alien vs. Android.
Ethan rides through the ISEA building on his scooter and, after turning a corner, comes face to face with the Offspring. Locking doors doesn’t help this situation as the Offspring uses telekinetic abilities to break through them. Ethan manages to reach Molly and the ship and conferences in John. She says her goodbyes to them, but Ethan wants to try shutting down the ship’s computer himself. Unfortunately, to do that, he has to raise his temperature to the normal human level 98.6, which could detonate the bomb still inside him. Although he succeeds and Molly is able to pilot the escape pod to earth, the Offspring uses his powers to set off Ethan’s bomb. Ethan yells for the Offspring to run and moments later it goes off.
Several days pass and everyone is mourning the loss of Ethan when he suddenly appears on John and Molly’s home computers, his mind somehow transferred into cyber space. They all celebrate, although Molly is sure the Offspring is still alive, which is confirmed when he’s picked up by an unsuspecting couple on the side of a highway.
The image of Ethan riding his scooter through that building looked so hilariously out of place. It was sort of like a kid ignoring a fire drill to mess around at school. I am disappointed that several major characters were absent for the finale after playing such big roles this season, like Sparks and Yasumoto (played by Hiroyuki Sanada). They spent the entire time trying to capture the Offspring but they weren’t even mentioned. In fact, since both were locked in the ISEA building, you would think the Offspring would have confronted them during his hostile takeover. And because Ethan’s consciousness managed to get transferred into the Woods’ home, maybe next season he’ll take over as the computer that runs the house? It’d be a similar premise to that movie Her.
I suppose Ethan warning the Offspring to run before the explosion can be chalked up to a vague sort of brotherly love.
Quotes & Thoughts
“Wish me luck.” “I’ll apply the rules of probability.” “Oh God forget it.”
Since Ethan and the Offspring both survived we’ll call the Alien vs. Android battle a draw, until they meet again anyway.
“When he disappeared on the island, the sheriff acted like I lost a toy. Other people don’t see him like we do.”
Another loose end that’s bothering me this: if Molly and Sean were cured, from when they were exposed to the aliens in space? Could the Offspring be expecting a new baby brother/sister?
If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.
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