Date of airing: December 11, 1994 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 15.2 million viewers, 9.3.15 in Households
It was an alright-ish episode, but let’s start asking what kind of terrible things Terrians had to do for humankind to notice they were helping them. This episode was inconsistent with what has been established before, and the Terrians could have helped Devon and Danziger in a much easier fashion, similar to how they have helped the colony before. They could have spoken to Alonzo in his dreams and told him where and how to find water, or the Terrians could have not taken a nearly lethal shot at Devon and Danziger and just showed them where to find the water, maybe even leaving a cactus in the vehicle, for the two to realize that they have water in them, too (something Devon and Danziger didn’t bother to check out either, since this desert landscape had to have cacti). Also, the Eden Project hasn’t found out until now that there could be water in the plants? Are you freaking kidding me? They find out that Grendler saliva is first-class medicine, but they can’t figure out there is water in plants? Aren’t any of the plants on Earth filled with water? Then again, humanity may have been living on space stations for their entire lives, so maybe they didn’t know about plants and photosynthesis and stuff…
This episode was partly sponsored by love, which I found weird. I kind of got Bess’s words to Julia at the end of the episode, probably thinking that it’s a good thing to have someone to snuggle with at night on this strange planet, but I found the blooming romance between Alonzo and Julia extremely weird. It came out of nowhere story-wise, though it could have been depicted as a natural progression of their doctor/patient relationship, yet their first up-close moment wasn’t deriving out of that relationship. Instead, it felt like a moment true to 1990s drama television: There always need to be two people somewhere, finding each other, falling in love with one another, smacking their lips and exchanging fluids for the first time, and then turning it into a romantic storyline because television apparently can’t do without such a story. EARTH 2 doesn’t necessarily need such a storyline, since it’s already filled with science-fiction material and a budding case of conspiracy when it comes to Julia and her mysterious contact in the virtual world.
 |
| The water chasers need some rest. |
But I didn’t completely hate the story and the characters involved though. I found it interesting that Julia had a conflict of interest, in a way, with her secretive work with the “council,” which sounds like they are, in fact, on the planet, as Julia mentioned there are at least a thousand miles away from the Eden Project, making me wonder if the council is part of the project and survived on one of the pods that crashlanded. With that story keeping Julia busy, it could conflict with her promising romance with Alonzo, especially when she is forced to make a decision about which group she is standing with. Or maybe Julia just felt conflicted because being in a romantic relationship with someone was against her reason of existence. After all, this episode revealed that Julia was genetically created, with the purpose of being a doctor, and probably destined to become part of the Eden Project, even if I ask myself why she was never supposed to be on the ship in the first place. Then again, I always got the feeling she was never supposed to be the only doctor on the ship, and that happened because Devon accelerated the start of the mission, thanks to the bomb on board and the conspiracy that was unraveling behind the scenes.
There was also some erotic tension between Devon and Danziger, which I also found weird to watch. When he joined her on the blanket, he purposely put a lot of distance between him and her, probably for comedic purposes and potentially so that he won’t get too... uhm, excited. And the way he jumped up, realizing that he might have found a way to fix the vehicle... It rather felt like a way to get away from Devon and the awkwardness that developed in the silence between them. With Devon being a single mother and Danziger being a single father, it is already a little unnerving to see that the writers were thinking to start a thing between the two as well, just to make things more dramatic (or romantic). Granted, this is how television works these days (and always has been), but when the writers never bothered even teasing romantic feelings between certain characters, how am I supposed to buy that development when all of it is thrown into the same episode?
 |
| A secret meeting in the darkest of virtual worlds. |
Meanwhile, I’m starting to like Morgan, and that makes me sick. When he told Bess that he gave her his half of the water ration, I was like “awww,” but when he went nuts to Julia on his disorientation, I was like “shut up, man!” This guy is confusing and ridiculous at times, but every once in a while, he does have a heart of gold. At the beginning of the show, it seemed like he could turn into a villain at some point, but it turned out he is just a fool. A dumb, but charming and lovable fool. Not that it makes him a more intriguing character, but at least the writers didn’t go down the path I thought they would walk on when the series began.
