Date of airing: September 18, 2009 (CTV)
written by: Blythe Robe
directed by: Peter Howitt
Many answers, a new backstory, a fourth (maybe fifth, I am losing count...) timeline, and a pair of characters pushed to the front of the Antares storyline whom you were expecting to always be in the background. There is a reason why journalist Trevor and ground control member Arnell have been in front of the camera every once in a while, even though you probably do not remember their characters or names. The scene they shared near the end is the prologue to an entirely new storyline about to uncouple itself from the Antares mission. Meanwhile, Jen’s inability to see the object (no answer is given whether or not she can hear the interstellar singing) highlights a character arc that has been teased previously, but is now about to be fired up. And all this while the revelation of the Beta object changes the show’s narrative (although not really), the characters’ interactions with one another, and essentially the goals for them, as well as their fates. To think that only four more episodes exist almost hurts my feelings because the show managed to pick up some steam lately. Things are about to change, but there are only four episodes left. What were the writers able to do in that short time?
And the thing is, this episode feels like a slight reboot, even though it is not. Beta has always been the backstory of the Antares mission, but the characters did not know about it, therefore they were living their lives and executing their mission like nothing was changing them in the background, like nothing was directing them. But Beta has been changing the genome of the astronauts, and who knows how long it has been on the Antares before the Venus burn (although when Donner and Ajay were communicating about what is in storage, and who put the pod up there, it was mentioned that the corporation Eve works with loaded it up at the last minute). Still, it has been directing everything that has been going on ever since it was found in the desert in Peru. This object really must have patience, although things might be a little easier when you are able to communicate with your kind, even though you are planets away. It is certainly convenient.
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| The make-up department tried their best to make Eve look young. |
Jen’s inability to see the object is interesting. She helped give birth to Rufus the bunny in the episode “Bacon,” knowing that she will have to keep herself busy getting her mind “on Rollie and off Ted.” She mentioned in that same episode she would be lonely and it turns out she is quite lonely now, as she seems to be the only one unable to see Beta. Things will be getting weird and horrible for her, because she will not know what everyone else is going to talk about, what they will be connecting over, and all this will turn into an even bigger nightmare for Jen, for as long as she is keeping her secret a secret. Besides that, her decision to cut the fractal tomatoes makes for a good way to create a crazy person on the Antares, “seeing things” and “hearing voices,” even though in this case Jen neither sees things nor hears voices or sounds (which is a funny flip of a narrative stereotype and puts her at the opposite end of the spectrum Zoe and her baby-screaming hallucination was on), while everybody else can, but that does not mean she should not be any less of a crazy person in the future. But would that crazy element in her character arc turn into an act of desperation at one point? Is that going to be her ultimate character arc destination?
Explaining the hallucinations was also a good move, and associating those hallucinations with deep guilt was an even greater move to explain what the characters are dealing with when they are not part of the action right now. It seemed obvious already that the characters were facing their fears and failures with the hallucinations (Donner’s inability to save Sharon Lewis and Jeff Walker, Evram’s inability to save the girl in the rubble, Zoe giving up on the life within her, the death of Paula’s dog, Ted and the Mars mission), but that still does not explain Nadia’s hallucination, or why Jen and Wassenfelder never even had one so far, which they could be lying about, but in this narrative, it would be suicidal if they had hallucinations, the writers, however, decided not to share them with the audience.
Okay, with Jen you could tell yourself that not having hallucinations was an additional part of the mission she cannot connect with her friends over (here is something else she is unable to talk about with her friends and colleagues), but the other two still stand. All this does tend to show that the writers knew what they were doing from the beginning. They knew the deeper meaning of the hallucinations, and they knew how to connect them to the Beta object and therefore the overall mystery arc. Although the question remains why Beta wanted the characters to constantly relive their deepest shame and guilt over past events in their life. Is it really about overcoming something? Is it about hitting rock-bottom in life, which is the only way to save the objects? Is it about turning into the person you are supposed to be when recovering the objects?
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| They are just having a friendly chat in front of an alien lifeform. |
The most valuable player of this episode this time was religion. Paula was invested in looking up answers for her questions in the holiest of books, and I must say, it intrigues me. Paula as the only obviously religious character of the crew has some weight to carry on her shoulders now, as she will become the center of belief in the narrative. And as it turns out, putting religion into the story was super important, as you could not have gotten out of the way of it. You are dealing with higher beings and a higher purpose now, of course, religious people will ask God what all of this has to do with them. Despite being an atheist, it turned out to be great story development. And besides, television is not really strong when it comes to the depiction of religion, so I appreciate that the writers of DEFYING GRAVITY attempted the issue, even if I am a person who does not believe in higher beings at all.
