Date of airing: October 2, 2009 (Space)
written by: Sheri Elwood
directed by: Michael Rohl
When I almost start crying at the end of the tenth episode of a television drama, does it mean I really love the show, that I am connected to the characters, and that I am invested in the events unfolding on the small screen? Or is it just because the editing of the episode was splendid, and the music happened to hit the right marks when it comes to emotional manipulation? I am pretty sure the final scene with Sharon’s “The sky is red, Donner” would have been less emotional without a slow guitar song, but it was accompanied by an acoustic song with an emotional punch to it (is it obvious that I am too lazy to google what song was played?), and the scene itself was delivered with its own emotional punch that you do not even need music for to understand what level of emotion was depicted here. Knowing that DEFYING GRAVITY was a show that crashed and burned with audiences hurts even more now, especially after this episode managed to get me involved more with the characters, all while those characters live crazy lives at this very moment. A lot has changed since the revelation in the previous hour, and it shows in the narrative: Jen uncouples herself from everyone, Arnel is falling apart like a house of cards over what he now sees as the sacrifice he made during his days as an ascan, Paula is seeing the devil in disguise, Rollie has probably killed a woman, Nadia’s do-not-care attitude is being shattered by the fact that the universe does not care about giving her answers to the many questions she has. And in the meantime, the executives at ISO mission control are about to fear the inevitable leak of Beta’s existence to the public.
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| The Martian sky is red. |
And the latter was only one of the stories being introduced in this episode, which could have enriched future seasons if the writers had been given a chance. Granted, Arnel’s insecurity about what happened to him and whether Trevor successfully gets the big Antares secret out of him has already been part of the narrative in the previous episode, but this hour made it more obvious than ever. Not only was it shown what exactly Arnel sacrificed, and why he had to lose his leg when he was never even supposed to be on the mission in the first place (okay, maybe I just answered my own question), but his get-together with Claire, Ajay, and Rollie showed that he might not be the only one currently thinking negatively about the Antares mission, or how it will change everything for the worse. Rollie has already sort of lost his wife to all of the lying and deceiving, Ajay is probably still in the middle of finding his place and fate with the ground control crew (he should be equally disappointed and angry like Arnel, since they both never had a shot at being part of the mission), and Claire is carrying the weight between the ones at ISO who run the mission and those on the floor of Mission Control. She is essentially carrying twice the weight to keep an eye on the mission, while also keeping the secrets she still has to keep, even though Mission Control knows about Beta already (but they will never know absolutely everything, right?). Ten episodes into the show and the characters are being tortured with a changing environment, a world that is different now.
I found it intriguing that this episode decided to forego the flashbacks from five years ago, and instead went even further back in time, straight to the failed Mars mission ten years ago. And it was not just intriguing, as it was also a perfect opportunity to enrich the backstory of the show after the Beta reveal in the previous episode. Back then, Donner already asked himself and Eve if the failed Mars mission was about picking up Alpha, and back then the viewer might have realized already that the mission failed because Donner was not the one at Sharon’s side during the trip. The way this show has treated fate so far, it seems obvious that Zoe and Donner are the central couple of the universe (maybe Donner and Sharon were supposed to be that couple, but she is dead now), and that the fractal objects want them to run the show and no one else. It is why the Mars mission failed according to Donner, and it is what the viewers learned in this episode.
Hence Paula’s simulated crash in the Venus lander, just to show that she was indeed never intended to fly the lander – she was sick when the first test of the Venus lander was scheduled with Zoe, and Zoe tested the lander with Donner. Paula lost her thumb, just to make sure she will not be in full and complete health by the time the Venus landing comes around, simply because Beta and Gamma wanted Zoe and Donner. In a way, it wanted Donner with the love of his life by his side, making me wonder whether Zoe was “fated” into the ISO program, simply because Donner needed another love of his life (since Sharon was taken from him), or whether Paula was “removed” from the lander, because with her at the helm, things will go horribly wrong (like, maybe Zoe would be left behind on Venus, mirroring the Mars disaster?). Does it also mean Zoe was always destined to be with Donner after Sharon was left behind on Mars? Did Zoe’s life change completely after that failed Mars mission? Did something tell her to go for ISO and the Antares mission after the failure of the Mars mission? Does Beta’s reach go that far?
Besides all that, seeing Sharon having hallucinations without fully seeing or hearing them looked interesting as well. After ten episodes, we finally get to see what it looked like for Wassenfelder and Jen up there, who did not have had a hallucination and who had to witness their colleagues and friends going nuts while experiencing hallucinations. For the first time in the show, we got to see what it is like to witness an astronaut colleague potentially going crazy through hallucinations. Still, the writers could not hold back here and had Donner know what Sharon probably saw and heard back then. Who knows, maybe she did tell him, but maybe he just deduced it all, now that he knows what hallucinations around the fractal objects are all about.
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| Paula gets a moment of happiness after passing the landing simulation. |
Meanwhile, Jen, Paula, and Nadia went through their own emotional minefield, with each believing in a different way why they think that they are unworthy of the mission, or even see Beta as a threat to their jobs or livelihoods. I especially appreciated that Jen was put front and center in this episode, as she has always been sort of the background star of the show, only being put to the front when the scene needed an attractive woman in her 30s, or when the viewers needed to be reminded that there are two married people on the Antares and both their spouses have been left behind on Earth. And Paula specifically taking the devil’s word in her mouth could also show that the writers were very much interested in depicting the religious side of the journey through the solar system. Now that we are all wondering whether the fractal objects are gods or not, it is only fair to have one of the main characters carry the position of a believer and start arguing for or against it.
