Date of airing: October 23, 2009 (Space)
written by: James Parriott
directed by: Sturla Gunnarsson
I do not know whether I am happy or sad that the show was over for good after this episode. I do not know if I could have handled everything that was intended to come following these cliffhanger endings of miracles and missing pieces. I do not know if the show would have kept the mixture of partially hard science-fiction and esoteric storytelling with religious undertones interesting, which made this one and only season such an absorbing TV drama for me.
This episode kind of showed a downturn in that regard (since it did not have a conversation between two characters like Wassenfelder and Paula had at the beginning of the previous episode), as the narrative became something else with the collection of the Gamma object from the surface of Venus. It became an object filling in the blanks of your very own miracle or fairy tale that you experienced in the past. It became a life-saver, as it kept alive Zoe for long enough to join the Beta and Gamma objects on the Antares. It became a plot device for the astronauts’ changing genomes, which by this point could mean anything, but will definitely mean that Zoe was fated to survive the experience of being almost fried to death on this Hell planet called Venus.
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| She is coming with their baby boy. |
It becomes the way for writers to explain things happening on the show, whether it makes sense or not, and all of this begins with Paula’s miracle that was being filled in with the cold hard facts of her being sexually abused (or almost being abused, because I think Hector running out of the house saved her). Not that the objects were not guilty of uncovering most of the characters’ backstories already, but it seemed quite convenient that the Gamma object would show Paula what memories she had been repressing, and, conveniently, those memories would have served to become the plot device in her character arc. And with that, the writers would have used the fractal objects more often for sudden changes in character development, whenever the writers were having a great idea and needed to get it into the show pronto. Later seasons would have gone deeper into that direction, making the fractal objects more annoying as plot devices than an element in the lives of the characters.
It was an intriguing hour for television, but I think that is only the case for the few dozen people who have come to adore this show and its characters, the story and its mysteries, the esoteric mixed with religion and fate. It is intriguing because something was off during the narrative and something made the experience of watching it kind of weird. Four episodes ago, we got to learn what Beta was and the writers decided to focus on the mystery of it all. But it was still not explained what the objects wanted from humankind, and thanks to the early cancellation of the show, it never got explained whether humankind was about to embark on its darkest hour, to its more difficult life.
The comparisons of Zoe carrying Gamma to Crossbow, and Paula and Evram talking about Job from the Bible were punching their way through the hour, and you can certainly say that DEFYING GRAVITY was something of an adaptation of God’s trials for Job (especially in this episode), but that was not really part of the show’s narrative before the Venus landing, yet it happens to be the main reason for the objects’ existence after the Venus landing. As a non-believer, I do not have a problem with religion in scripted programming, but when it becomes the main focus, then there might be a chance of the show losing itself – especially when the writers were about to marry the hard science of this science-fiction show with the religious subtones of some of the characters, as well as their explanations of the objects’ existence. I do not know if we would have come to accept this kind of show, and I do not know if it had been the death of it if it had survived another run or two. Plus, would it have worked in a series format? The fact that DEFYING GRAVITY got canceled quickly speaks for a negative response, but then again, the show did not even have religious undertones in the beginning.
With all that in mind, the episode continued to focus on Zoe and Donner, kind of making this episode part two of the two-part season finale. It is noticeable with the flashbacks, which continued right where they left off at the end of the previous episode, as if there was no cut at all. The thing is just, the episode focused a little too heavily on Zoe and Donner. Again I wondered if their relationship was the one to rule them all, and if the other characters were a little less interesting and important in comparison. Paula’s miracle moment was placed at the end of the episode, Jen was between yes and no when it came to “Can she at least see the Gamma object?” (she saw it on the video feed, she did not see it live and in person, which means the objects can be “overwritten” by human technology?), Nadia was emotional, and with that, Florentine Lahme became a bit worse in her portrayal of the character (or it might just be the fact of her, as a native German, acting in another language), and the rest of the character pool wasn’t at all developed. It was all just Zoe and Donner. It was all that one relationship, which happened to be working since the beginning of the show, and maybe the writers noticed, so that is why they gave those two lovebirds the season send-off. Turns out DEFYING GRAVITY was no much of an ensemble drama at all.
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| Every miracle is filled with missing pieces from your reality. |
But hey, at least Donner’s realization that he was a father for a few seconds worked to perfection... His face, the quick flashbacks to the episode “Bacon,” and his decision to stick around until Zoe is in the lander, or else he will perish on this hell planet like Zoe, who, by a miracle, did not stumble over her feet and fell down, making it much harder for her to continue walking. You know, that scene in SUNSHINE that had Capa flipping out inside his Kenny-style spacesuit, while the clock of payload separation was running out. Sometimes, when I watch science-fiction, I force myself to find ways to compare it to other science-fiction I have watched. Nevertheless, there was some solid face acting in this episode, which might not necessarily be a surprise, but is a welcomed addition to a show that was quickly forgotten by the American audience.
In the end, it is a shame that a somewhat hard sci-fi show did not get the patience of the viewers, because broadcast television was (and still is) in need of a proper space fiction series, simply for the sake of getting some of the science right for an ever-shrinking intelligence quota sitting in front of the television screens. DEFYING GRAVITY would have never been that kind of show (it became too esoteric towards the end), but it did the hard sci-fi parts kind of right. Or at least tried to be as realistic as possible, even if no real astronauts have been consulted during the writing process of the series.
