Date of release: April 13, 2018 (Netflix)
written by: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless
directed by: David Nutter
There has been some sluggish convenience in this show. Beginning with how the robot decided out of nowhere and contrary to its programming to be friends with Will again; going over to how John and Don were able to survive the way they did; continuing with Smith, for no reason at all other than screwing with our minds, shooting the harpoon again to give John and Don a chance for survival; and we are not stopping with the Resolute waiting for the Robinsons, even though they had no reason to wait for one family still fighting for survival in orbit of the planet. Besides, why was Victor taking over command of the Resolute when the spaceship should probably have been captioned by someone who was not voted into the colony representative position?
Finally, ending with my realization that everyone else forgot that the mini engine was on the Jupiter 2. Granted, the characters could have missed that something fell off the chariot and that “something” was a blue-shining egg the robots were about to grab, but I thought it highly convenient that this huge piece of alien tech was on board the Jupiter 2 and no one either bothered to notice or mention it, let alone ask what the thing is, especially since Judy and Penny were almost blasted out of the chariot for it. Maureen saw what the engine looked like, and she even should have felt the electromagnetic energy all around her (the other characters also should have felt something going on, especially Judy and Penny who pretty much sat on top of it), yet nothing. No reaction. While I found it cool that the engine connected to the Jupiter 2 (in fact, that might serve well in a potential second season, since being on an alien ship can fill your mind with so many stories to write down), the fact that it happened without anyone’s knowledge is... Ah, whatever, it served well as a season cliffhanger. At least now the Jupiter 2 can open wormholes and jump from one galaxy to another. In case the writers want to remake the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA episode “33” at one point. Because it is clear the robots still want their engine back. They do not seem to have a replacement for it.
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| The bad woman and her bad robot are locked inside. |
I am glad the Robinsons went off the planet quickly and the climax was happening in the orbit of the planet, even if I was not that excited about Smith’s involvement here. Damn, she did not have time to be a villain in this episode, because all she did was read the manual and screw with our minds while her robot was doing the job for her. Great, now we have a villain who reads a manual for a change, but that does not mean she suddenly got a whole lot more interesting. The way the show has been set up now for future seasons, and the Robinsons being on their own for real, with Smith in captivity and Don finally having shown some emotion to get closer to Judy might have been pretty cool in hindsight (so, the entire season was just a prequel of real LOST IN SPACE-y things to come?). But the whole thing did not help to make me warm up to Smith as a villain. Like I said before, she started intriguingly, but now she is just boring. Logically speaking, she does not even have a reason to be evil any longer. All she wanted was to get on the Resolute with her evil robot, but now the Resolute and the robot are gone, all Smith can do now is ... be more friendly to the Robinsons? Maybe even help them to survive out in this new universe they were transported to?
I mostly did not care for John and Don in this episode, since they were talking, moving wires, and crying all episode long, and maybe even saving a kid’s life somewhere at the end of the hour, but it was nice to see that Don can also be a character for a change and does not just have to be an asshole to be intriguing. What I noticed the writers did during this episode though is make sure that John and Maureen are full-on together again. They were kissing each other when trapped in the tar, they were making out in fear of not seeing each other ever again before John lifted off from the planet, and now they embraced each other after falling into each other’s arms. Kids, the separation is a thing of the past now, which is kind of a shame because the separation has been an interesting aspect of the Robinson family dynamic.
Now the kids cannot be indifferent about it any longer. They probably do not have time to be indifferent about it, considering how much danger awaits them where they are now. And damn, where they are now, it looks like an unhealthy binary star system. Or those are literally just hot gas planets having stopped crashing into each other, which happen to function as stars for the five planets (or moons) around it. It looked cool, and the only thing I can hope is that LOST IN SPACE will go into that backstory quickly, so that I can know what this is all about. Especially if the show goes down the route of the Robinsons lost in space, forgetting all about the Resolute and the supporting characters of this season. Yes, it would decimate the character pool, but considering the show’s budget, it may not hurt for half of the cast to not be in the show any longer.
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| Literally lost in literal outer space. |
The action in this episode was solid. Maureen smashing the robot with another robot was pretty awesome to look at, besides it being a metaphorical thing that was happening on screen. The robot versus robot fight to save Will and his family looked golden as well, even if there maybe were a little too many molten-blood moments happening, reminding me of the Terminator franchise past the third movie at times and making me wonder why none of the Jupiter 2 was damaged because of the bloody stuff the evil robot lost during the battle. I have no clue if the other robot was bleeding or what the blood even was (why am I thinking acid blood from the Xenomorphs?), because it looked like it should have burned a hole in the ground of the Jupiter’s basement.
Remember though that the robot sacrificed itself to save Will. There should not be a way for the robot to ever return, and the rest of the show had to go on without Will’s new old friend. But I am almost sure LOST IN SPACE will pull the move James Cameron did for ALIENS and the robot was somehow clinging onto the Jupiter 2 after throwing itself out, getting into the ship unnoticed, about to surprise everyone in the second season premiere. That would be one heck of a dumb twist. But the robot is part of the franchise, so it will have survived. Even if it will not make any damn sense.
