Date of release: December 24, 2019 (Netflix)
written by: Vivian Lee
directed by: Jon East
The writers were very convenient in their choices to include flashback scenes, just to expand on certain relationships between the characters. It never really helped Smith two episodes ago when her flashback scenes were with her mother and her sister, since those flashbacks did not add anything particularly interesting to her character arc. In the case of Judy and John, however, it did help, since I am a sucker for good parent/child storylines, especially when they remind me what my life with my father could have looked like if he had not been an asshole during my childhood. In a way, this episode allowed me to live vicariously through Judy and her wonderful relationship with her father, proving once more that the bond between the Robinsons cannot be broken. It is what Don told Smith at the end of the second episode this season, which is probably why the writers decided to separate Smith from most of the Robinsons and essentially force Penny to figure out what Smith’s evil deal is. I can help Penny by telling her that Smith is just avillainous bastard with no plan, nothing more and nothing less.
If Penny had not followed Smith and roamed around the trash compactor for clues, Smith would have been useless in the narrative and the writers could have retired the character early. Penny’s sense of justice and never having to live with open mysteries let the writers continue with the villainous character though, and here we are, with Penny being the only one dealing with Smith, until the two head butts so hard that other people have to get involved. We are halfway into the season with this plot which has become a constructed storyline, but I do not know what would have made it better – if Smith had stayed with the Robinsons, would she have been more enjoyable as a villain pulling the strings in the background? Would the show be better in general if it was not forced to keep Smith in the running at this point? The show can live without Don West, who was in only one scene this episode (and I did not miss him for the rest of the hour), so it could easily live without “Zoe Smith” as well.
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| Judy runs for someone else's life. |
Still, there is some intrigue in the Smith/Penny story, even if it is full of conveniences, beginning with the fact that Smith’s efforts to manipulate Penny relied on Penny being a snooper, which Smith, for some reason, anticipated (if that was a sign of Smith being the smartest of villains, it kind of did not help her case, since she is somehow doing nothing to be extraordinarily evil this season). Penny is pretty much the only character on the Resolute who believes that Smith is truly evil, which means Penny can be a hero and save lives, just in case Smith plans to end the lives of some of the colonists. Smith could also bring Penny into some serious peril which could bring her family to a boil and that could mean a great confrontational moment between Smith and the Robinsons. And I am here for that story if it ever comes to that.
The return of Vijay into Penny’s life was to be expected ever since it was clear that the Resolute evacuated and the colonists would return to the spaceship (as soon as it has been disinfected), and I am glad that the story was not majorly cliched or too romantically inclined. It is the story of two teenagers having a crush on each other after all – a story that would find room in a lot of episodes of a teenage drama, but not a story that should take hold of Penny’s life while her family is doing stuff to save the colony and bring it to Alpha Centauri. However, Vijay is a solid character, and as long as he is not annoying, I can accept wherever the writers were going with Penny’s teenage romance.
The story on the planet seemed solid. I wished Judy’s run through the unsafe zone with dinosaur monsters roaming and ready to eat other living beings would have been the frontrunner of the entire episode and not just the second half of it after her chariot broke down, but the story was nicely connected to an emotional anchor, and with the flashbacks, the writers made sure that LOST IN SPACE remains about (cue Dominic Toretto voice) family and not the premise inside the science-fiction story. Judy pressing her father to not give up or she will hate him when he just dies like that was a strong scene, and it reminded me of the one between Penny and Maureen three episodes ago, right before the thunder was about to hit them – in the eyes of mortality and death, the Robinsons find themselves, connect with one another, save each other from certain doom. I love how this remains the strength of the show and how the writers continuously focused on that strength, which is also helped by the fact that the cast is wonderful. Granted, when the Robinsons are separated into three teams, each of them doing their own thing (Maureen and Will are on their way to the robot, Penny is investigating Smith, and Judy and John are saving each other), you cannot do much with that family bond and strength, but sometimes it does pop up, and when it does, the episode gets better.
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| Talk to the hand! |
Meanwhile, the characters have to fight another infection of sorts. As I mentioned during the previous episode’s review, it is super convenient that the metals start to fall apart after the Robinsons reunited with the colony, but the writers created another ticking time bomb in the narrative which should keep the story flowing at a quick pace for the next few episodes. Something needs to be found to stop the infection (how helpful of Don and his friend to notice that this was not just rust, but a literal infection, which means it is a virus, and viruses can be fought with vaccines, as we have all come to learn recently) and that something will define the premise of the next episode.
Ticking time bombs in a narrative help when you do not have much of a story or character development to offer, but they also bring enough tension and action into the story to just have fun. LOST IN SPACE is not an HBO drama that tries to be exquisite, it is not a Netflix show that is written and produced to win awards left and right. It is still entertainment that is supposed to give you joy, and for that, I applaud the writers. I may be annoyed by a few narrative moves here and there, as well as the actions of certain characters, but I cannot write off the fun I have while watching LOST IN SPACE.
