Date of airing: August 9, 2009 (ABC)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.81 million viewers, 1.8/3 in Households, 1.0/2 with Adults 18-49, 1.2/3 with Adults 25-54
Ever since I watched this episode for the first time, the opening line “Doors are there for a reason” seems to be part of my regular vocabulary, even though there is never an opportunity for me to say the line out loud. It’s an episode that made me look a little different at doors and what they stand for, and how they both bring you personal space, but also prevent anyone from protecting you when you are unable to open the door, but need someone else to do it. Personal space is what belongs to you, but sometimes needs to be invaded for your own good. And the thing is, this episode’s theme wasn’t even about doors (well, except pod 4, which is literally a door), even if the theme happened to be the metaphor Donner was trying to mangle through in his voiceovers. Secrets are behind closed doors, but as soon as you open them, your world changes. Paula’s health was also a secret in this episode, as she didn’t let anyone in to check up on her, which also means secrets behind closed doors can be dangerous to you when you never ever going to find out about them. In a way, this episode is quite contradictory when it comes to opening doors or keeping them closed. I guess it’s up to the viewers to decide what they will take away from this.
It was an intriguing hour of television, as the writers continued to focus on the characters, which is surprising considering the genre of the show, and the fact that it is three episodes strong right now. Not unlike the previous episode, there was more character depth than a story, and the writers knew how not to advance the science-fiction and mystery plot and instead focus on the characters first, since this is still the beginning of the show, and James Parriott and his writers’ room knew that the viewers were supposed to connect with the characters first before they were about to be assaulted by narrative twists and CG visuals. Then again, maybe the show flopped from the beginning because it was more of a character study than a mysterious and twisted science-fiction show, and it’s not what the viewers wanted? But that also can’t be the case, since the show flopped from the beginning – it must have been how ABC advertised the show.
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| A little homoerotic action in your favorite sci-fi show never hurts anyone. |
The episode continued establishing character pairings. Zoe and Donner continue to grow closer to each other, both in the flashbacks (the very distant, but very close talk at the bus stop) and in the present storyline (arguing over the Venus lander, and connecting over the notion that Mission Control is re-coding the lander behind their backs); the flashbacks also had the first instance of Jen and Ted hooking up, creating an entirely new premise that can be told in the present-time narrative, which has Ted and Jen sharing emotions on the Antares while their spouses back on Earth can only watch and are unable to do anything (except you are Rollie and you constantly put emphasis on the words “my wife” when you calmly yell at Ted that there are seven astronauts under his wing, one of them being “my wife!”), and Wassenfelder continues to create a field for himself in which he converses, or is at least around, a couple of the women characters, still looking for things to do or what kind of character to be in this show.
The previous episode did have a moment between him and Nadia that could have led to something resembling a unique friendship, while this episode went into the notion that Wassenfelder and Paula could deal with each other, although in this case, it’s because I believe they are bunk neighbors, and Paula only seems to be around Wassenfelder for her more important screen moments. There is this theoretical physicist who might not have a place on the Antares for obvious reasons, so the only thing the writers could do with him is to connect him with a few of the other characters, essentially forcing Wassenfelder to be in a storyline that is defined by the journey of his character, and not the story itself. Zoe and Jen are the scientists, Paula is the documentarian and the Venus lander pilot, Ted is the commander, Donner is kind of the all-around fix-it Felix guy, Evram is the doctor and shrink, and Nadia has been depicted as the co-pilot so far. Now we are three episodes in and the show hasn’t managed to tell us what Wassenfelder’s job on the Antares is when you exclude him trying to figure out dark matter and stuff – but none of it has to do with what is happening on the ship.
Meanwhile, the writers prepared to advance the ongoing mystery surrounding Beta and how its effect on the mission seems to be growing. Changing the genome of the astronauts might be one thing, but now that the writers also alluded to Beta changing the genome of a person back home on Earth means its affections are more than wide-ranging, and pretty much galaxy-wide. That makes one wonder whether Beta can be more than just a physical subject and could be considered a godly being, whenever the show is going to reveal who or what Beta is. Or maybe this whole genome thing that Claire uncovered is part of evolution and what she found out is that this universe is coming up on their very own X-Men timeline, only are almost all the potential X-Men in outer space and therefore can’t save the world back home, if a supernatural war happened to break out or something like that. Or ... well, there is another one of those Beta things on Earth in storage, close to those whose genomes change on Earth.
However, be reminded of how the writers used Beta as part of the character narrative. Ted’s trip to Mars in pod 4 was clearly not real, and maybe just a hallucination or a dream, but what it did was screw up Ted royally – so far that he couldn’t even act out his role as the Antares commander, essentially risking crew safety. Beta only needs to give visions to one person like this, and suddenly the entire mission might be at stake. Considering how Beta is seemingly directing the entire mission from the secret rooms behind closed doors, it seems almost weird that it would risk the mission by mindwarping Ted into locking himself into his quarters and forgetting about everything that happens around him, including the dehydration of one of his crewmates.
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| Always drink your fluids! |
Finally, the HALO plot happened to be intriguing. You’ve heard about the HALO in the previous episode, and might have even noticed the green dots behind the astronauts’ ears, but the writers waited another hour to explain what those dots meant. That by itself is quite courageous writing-wise, but it also happened to be an enjoyable story when the flashback happenings turned into a frat house-type party, in which PG-rated sex and no-nudity nudity were involved. “Naughdia!” Also, did Rollie really say “Big tits, little Ted?”
And while the HALO plot was funny, it also had a deeply unnerving moment, when Wassenfelder revealed Ajay’s boner, and every single one of the guys (minus Donner, who already exited the bar) celebrated for Ajay to have pitched a tent. Holy cow, the sexual nature of that story was off the charts, and it reminded me that men are horrible. Even with hormone-activated libido inhibitors. Even on a broadcast network television show where sex gets censored to Hell and back.
