Date of release: December 24, 2019 (Netflix)
written by: Daniel McLellan
directed by: Tim Southam
“We need a plan” is almost like the first step towards the final story of the season. With the Robinsons, Vijay, Smith, and random ally Izabel planning a mutiny to not only give the colony a chance to survive, but also get the people from the rust-infested planet to safety, the writers have created the ultimate premise to fill the next three episodes with, since the show is known to carry a premise over two or three episodes and create a narrative that is fitting for a feature-length presentation. It is what I like so much about the first three episodes of the series, and even the first two hours of this season, when edited together, they could serve well as a feature for a random release in movie theaters to get excited about science-fiction television again. Building a mutiny plot in which the Robinsons break all the rules to save lives and lead the colony to safety from rust and more robot aliens would be the plot I would go with and advertise for in the writers’ room, and I would find a way to expand it into three episodes and make it as exciting, thrilling, and action-packed as possible.
Because this will not just be a random mutiny, this is going to be one in which the Robinsons have to tackle leadership to commandeer the space station, visit a random planet to fix the water filtration issue, and then save all the stranded people on the planet. And you can be sure that this is not going to happen without a single hitch. There will be issues and forces that will go up against the Robinsons and their allies. Besides that, it is the premise that would turn the band of Robinsons and their friends into rebel fighters who go against the Imperial army of Resolute captains and executives who have a different agenda, and that is always a premise that works, both in television and on the feature side.
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| A robot and a horse walk into a saloon... |
The episode made some fine work in letting the robot be as mysterious and unexpecting as possible. It was looking at the horse and it figured that it was in shackles, a prisoner, a slave only living to do the work for the human race. Yet Will constantly told his robot that the horse was a friend, that it does not know any better, that it would just walk off confusingly when untethered (that sometimes happens to humans, too, and now I am asking myself if slaveholders thought the same of slaves back in the day – “They just don’t know any better”).
At this point, I do not even know if the robot just believes in everything Will says and therefore is not confused about the relationship between a human and their shackled animal, or if it was starting to doubt humanity and if Will might just be another lying piece of crap who does not realize how dangerous a relationship between a master and their slave can be. Maybe the robot has a bit of experience with that, and since it has been able to connect with Will even at a distance, the question can be asked if the robot was also able to be connected in a distance with Scarecrow, which means Will’s robot knows that Scarecrow has been tortured and currently sits in a box in the engine room, and the robot does everything to just get back on the Resolute to get to Scarecrow and free it.
That would kind of bring the story back to the moment with the robot and the horse, and Will explaining that it “doesn’t know any better.” Although I am questioning myself right now whether or not the writers were even conscious of the connotations they offered with this minor story. Because as a whole, Will and the robot connecting on their trip was a story to throw back to Ben and have him rethink what he knows about the robots, essentially putting himself on a path to redemption and allyship with the Robinsons after preventing the robot from being taken violently by the Resolute captains. Who knows, maybe it is just me who sees imagery of slavery in the story of kids, their robots, and the horses they ride.
By the way, I would love to see what happens when Will’s robot sees Scarecrow in the box when they enter the engine room, because chronologically speaking, this is where we last saw Scarecrow, not feeling well, treated terribly, ready to become one of the central characters in a story of rebellion between humankind and robots.
Ben has also been a bit confusing in this episode, as he walked between being a villain to Maureen and Will and a friend to the robot. It seemed inconsistent that Ben would change his mind over “catching” the robot, just because it was able to feel for other living beings, even grieve for them. The thing with the rock was a nice throwback to the memorial John and Will put up during the first season, and this season has not been shy delivering throwbacks to previous episodes, proving that whatever the characters go through, it sticks and is part of the backstory now, which is not always the case on television. Maybe that is the thing that will turn Ben into an unsuspecting ally during the mutiny part of the season’s narrative, or maybe all this just makes him angrier in the end – a kid managed to do what Ben could never do, and that is usually something an angry white man gets even angrier about. But considering how Hastings has been slowly placed into being the chief antagonist of the season, the outcome looks rosy for Ben.
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| Let's get together, plan a mutiny, have a few laughs. |
The lead-up to the mutiny plot seemed good enough, and I have to thank the writers for not waiting to reveal that John’s house arrest and Smith’s induction into Hastings’s field of trusted people was just a ruse to get inside information to the Robinsons. At this point, Smith is on her redemption arc as well and you start to wonder why she is still part of the series when her nature as “evil Dr. Smith” has already been cast aside for the sake of having her be more of an ally, albeit a more reckless one. If Smith is ready to work with John to spy on Hastings, then why behave like she is still following her own agenda?
By the way, I have come to stop thinking about the possibility that Ben may be an older version of Will. First of all, the writers would have started seeding the plants for that twist by now, especially after Maureen has been riding alongside Ben for a few days and would have come to realize that Ben and her son are very similar in their behavior. Plus, Ben would have built a connection to the robot at this stage. None of it happened though, so this story is very much toast. Secondly, there is no way for LOST IN SPACE the television show to copy LOST IN SPACE the 1998 movie, because it would just be too obvious and lazy. It is a good thing the writers decided to cut that out, and I am almost sure they were thinking about the idea in the room at least once before someone came to their senses and said “This was the twist in the movie already and everybody hated that movie.”
