TV PREP: Extant – Season One, Episode Five

First aired August 6th, 2014.

The ISEA worked double time cleaning up after themselves and removing any traces of Molly’s pregnancy. After waking up in the woods with no baby and no memory of what happened to it, she goes on a mission to find answers.

Everyone, including Molly’s best friend, Sam, swears up and down that the entire thing was in her head. Even her husband, John, starts doubting her story after he realizes he never actually saw any evidence with his own eyes. However, Molly remembers that a dog bit her hand before she was caught and has her dad, Quinn, send the bloody bandages. She and John use some hospital equipment to run DNA tests that prove she was pregnant but half of its DNA is from an unknown (and non-human) source.

I loved that look on Molly’s face when people kept pretending she was crazy. It looked like she would beat their asses at any second. The “big reveal” that her baby’s daddy wasn’t human was something we already knew from the get-go, but it’s good that the characters finally know. Still can’t believe Molly or John bought that story about John being the father. They’re supposed to be scientists?

Using that old bandage from her dog bite was pretty smart. I don’t even remember it from the last episode because it seemed so insignificant. That kind of makes up for them buying that crap story the company told them.

To get answers about the mystery DNA, Molly goes back to the ISEA and pretends to believe that she imagined everything. She talks with a scientist analyzing worm samples that died during the space mission and, using special camera techniques, they see the worms were killed by a wave of blue energy. Using this camera filter, Molly replays the footage where she saw her dead boyfriend, Marcus, and sees the same blue energy in his place.

In other news, Molly’s child was revealed to be a healthy baby boy, which for some reason is growing healthier outside of her womb.

Molly going back there for answers was smart but I can’t believe no one kept a closer eye on her. When she played loud music while talking with that scientist it was obvious what she was doing, but that didn’t seem suspicious to anyone.

That blue energy is obviously alien. The only thing left to figure out is what it is and where it came from. My new working theory is that it was an actual alien and the baby left inside Molly was a way for it to take on a solid shape. Since the baby is doing so well despite being taken out of her belly after only three months, I think that’s a pretty solid bet.

Meanwhile, John and Julie are trying to repair Ethan after he was shocked into a coma. John tries to rush the process, nearly wiping out Ethan’s memory. Julie vents her frustration that although they both built Ethan together, John is the one who gets to make all of the decisions and raise him as his own. We also learn a little more about Julie. She has robotic legs from an as yet unknown accident/medical condition. Eventually, they manage to fix Ethan and he goes back home with Molly and John, happy as a clam.

Although they managed to reboot Ethan to his old self, the real purpose of this subplot was to give Julie more character depth. That said, there wasn’t much there. Julie not having legs had a visual impact, but without some kind of backstory as to how it happened, that’s all it amounted to. It could be another reason why she’s so emotionally attached to Ethan. This is the most screen time Julie had in a single episode and yet we learned so little about her. If she’s going to stick around as a main cast member, that’s going to have to change for anyone to invest in her as a character.

Quotes & Thoughts

“Molly, if there is any part of you that trusts me right now, please go back to the hospital.” “They better have a gun to your head.”

I’m really excited to see the backstory for these blue energy aliens (and to find out their name so I don’t have to call them that anymore).

“I know you’re there. You smell better than anyone else in this building.” “Well, that’s not saying much.”

Cabs are automated now, I wonder what other jobs computers have taken away from people in this future.

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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