Extant: Season Two, Episode Nine – “The Other Side”

First Aired August 19th, 2015.

Molly (played by Halle Berry) lies in the GSC on bedrest after being exposed to the hybrid virus. Tobias (played by David Morrissey) works to save her life and Molly continues trying to convince him to that hybrids aren’t a threat.

Knowing she will likely die, Molly requests to see Ethan (played by Pierce Gagnon) one last time. Molly starts to hallucinate about being at the fair with her estranged father, Quinn (played by Lou Gossett Jr.), as a child with other characters as carnies. She remembers that her father brought her there as a pretense to meet his mistress and relives several other memories. Eventually, Molly realizes the meaning behind the dream is for her to move on and forgive her father and John (played by Goran Visnjic) for their various wrongdoings. Julie (played by Grace Gummer) downloads all of Ethan’s memories of Molly and John at his request. Julie takes the opportunity to apologize to Molly for everything she did with Ethan and voices her concern that she got John killed. Tobias and JD (played by Jeffery Dean Morgan) share a bottle of scotch and mull over who could have ordered John’s death.

After everything Molly’s been through, it’s surprising her mind wasn’t even more warped, the only thing missing was a scary clown. The message from Molly’s dream journey said she was supposed to begin moving on from all the hurt she suffered throughout her life, but there’s no way she doesn’t have a long road of healing ahead of her. Ethan processed a lifetime of memories like it was a software update, I know he’s an advanced android but damn. Julie has finally realized how awful she is and is trying to become a better person, she’ll either go down the path of redemption or die quickly and suddenly. JD and Tobias’s detective work into the death of John would have been more impressive if they did more investigating and less drinking. All they really did was eliminate all of the known suspects and leave the mystery back at square one.

Julie and Charlie (played by Tyler Hilton) tell Fiona (played by Kate Burton) that Lucy (played by Kiersey Clemmons) nearly killed Julie. They want to shut down the Humanichs that were programmed with her neurological protocols but Fiona wants the Humanichs in the field hunting hybrids. Julie and Charlie decide to shut down the program regardless rather than risk innocent lives. Several hybrid bodies were brought back to the GSC for study, the body of the young girl Terra sheds her skin and then has the appearance of a teenage girl (played by Genneya Walton). Terra uses her powers to allow Ares (played by Cleo Anthony) and other hybrids into the facility who begin killing the humans. When JD and Tobias spot the hybrids on security cameras, Tobias calls Charlie who has them activated to save Julie and Ethan who are still there.

When faced with hostile aliens and hostile robots I guess it’s logical to worry more about the aliens, they assume robots can just be deactivated. Julie and Charlie (having probably seen every sci-fi movie that proved that theory wrong) try to do the right thing but, of course, fail. Since these Humanichs have Lucy’s programming, her uprising idea will continue through them. But right now the issue is pissed-off aliens who are done with the peace and love mentality. Terra is a particularly interesting character now, having gone from wide-eyed little girl to an alien assassin. I’ve waited all season for the tension to boil over and I’m looking forward to some intense battles between the hybrids, humans and Humanichs. There may be a chance for peaceful coexistence at some point, but that’ll be after a long and bloody war.

During the attack, Molly begins to flatline but due to the chaos nobody is available to help. Julie and a hysterical Ethan are rushed out of the room to a bunker to wait out the attack. Meanwhile, Ares and Terra plan to release lethal viruses from the GSC on humans as retribution for their use of the hybrid virus. Molly’s “shocking” recovery will have to wait until the next episode, but the shot of her flatlining is a more suspenseful end for the episode. Ares’ plan to use human viruses to kill humans has a poetic appeal to it but there’s also a major flaw in that plan, The hybrids are half human so there’s the chance they could be vulnerable as well, I wonder if they thought of that.

Quotes & Thoughts

“Sometimes there are no good decisions, just the lesser of two evils, and from my seat that’s the best you can do.” “Evil is still evil, General, even when it’s lesser.”

At this point it does anyone care who killed John? He died because he wanted to stop the development of the Humanichs army so my bet is Fiona, but the storyline hasn’t had much attention which makes it feel unimportant.

“That’s what keeps us from going under, it’s the struggle. Mistakes are what makes us human, all of us, but forgiveness that gives us humanity.”

According to the intro, over 99% of all species became extinct. Those aren’t very good odds.

If you enjoyed Manny’s humanity, 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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