Date of release: December 24, 2019 (Netflix)
written by: Katherine Collins
directed by: Tim Southam
I was mouthing “finally!” after Will and the robot were reunited halfway through the episode, but it turns out that my excitement was for nothing, because the writers decided to include a twist that was not only surprising, but in hindsight makes almost zero sense. That the second alien robot, also known as SAR, would want to trap Will seems kind of plausible and interesting in a storytelling way, considering his connection with the robot, but the ending of the episode neither gave a reason why Will was being lured into a trap by SAR, nor has it explained why SAR did not just do with Will what it wanted to do with Will when it and the kid united after the almost attack by the dinosaur-looking monsters. Wanting to lead Will into the cave to show him some paintings felt like a waste of time for whatever mission SAR was on, except of course it was the paintings that SAR needed to show Will for reasons yet to be explained. Then again, maybe SAR just needed to stall time because Will’s mother was also around and it could not just kill or torture the kid for information without risking the rage of the mother in the process. That would make SAR extremely intelligent, feeling the need to manipulate Will away from his mother, so that it can get what it hoped to get from the kid.
Of course, the whole story does level up the premise of Will and his connection with the robot, and how it may even become something mythological of sorts for the robot’s race: a friendship between humankind and robots that could either save the two species or kill the entire universe. That connection is not just known by the people of the Resolute now, the robots also know about this – it cannot just be SAR’s own knowledge. And as Ben is probably manipulating Will into doing his secret bidding, some of the robots will most likely have the same plan and go for Will. Like the Resolute was torturing Scarecrow to pilot the spaceship to Alpha Centauri, the robots probably had something similar planned with Will. And again, Will is the central character of the entire series and it seems like the fate of humanity and the robots, or at least this very colony of future Alpha Centauri residents, rests in Will’s hands.
 |
| This is the perfect opportunity for boys and men to behave like they are in the Wild West. |
It was a solid episode that could not quite entertain me with Will’s story, but had some great intrigue when it came to Don’s rescue attempt. The writers continued to give Penny screentime and development, having her find out what she is good for as a person in this new life while also creating a rapport with Smith that could either help the latter towards her redemption arc or help her in winning over Penny in her duel against the Robinsons. Although at this point I am wondering why she even has to go up against the Robinsons – they might be the only ones who know who she truly is and what she is capable of, but at this point, Smith has already done everything she needed to get away scot-free (except maybe killing all those who know her secret – like the Robinsons), so there does not need to be a continuance of conflict between Smith and the Robinsons, and she can become friends with Penny instead.
There was something heartbreaking about the scene with Don opening the container with four people inside it and there he was, holding Penny in his arms as she was crying and being happy about living to see another moment in her life again. Penny has had a lot of growing-up moments this season (beginning with writing the book, continuing with her experiences with her mother in the chariot during the electrical storm on the creepy ocean planet), as she comes close to defying death over and over, and she comes out of those moments as a girl who just grew up a little and who realized that she can trust her family and friends to get her out of dangerous situations, while she learns that she can do and be more than the useless Robinson girl she thinks she is.
Yes, that kind of makes Penny the damsel in distress at times, as she had to be rescued by Will and her father four episodes ago, and by Don in this hour, but it shows once more that she is the character she is supposed to be at her age: just a kid, a teenager in love with another teenager, a person who is just figuring out who she is.
 |
| Penny is safe and sound wrapped in Don's arms. |
Meanwhile, consider me disappointed that the “virus” on the Resolute was breakfasted in the way of only a little part of the space station being affected by the rust, instead of the entire vessel and threatening it to either fall apart or crash into the desert planet. I honestly believed that the infection would have spread to more than just this tiny part of the station, especially since infected people (like the ones with screws in their knees) were walking around like nobody’s business, silently infecting other parts of the station and risking the entire structure giving in, which meant the colonists would have been forced to evacuate to a random planet quite quickly.
But no, here we are, the infection has been severed from the station (hence the episode title) and the writers could get rid of that plot device for the next episode, not giving any thought about the virus reappearing like any good and deadly virus does on planet Earth currently. No vaccinations for the characters of this show or the tech used by them. Maybe we will revisit that premise in seven months in the narrative, which seems to be the incubation time of the virus.
