Date of release: December 24, 2019 (Netflix)
written by: Kari Drake, Katherine Collins
directed by: Jabbar Raisani
And here I was, thinking that the mutiny would spin its webs through the final episodes of the season, but before the end credits rolled, the mutiny was already over and the characters were about to deal with something else instead. I am a little sad that the mutiny had to be breakfasted this quickly, but I guess the Robinsons still got to the point I wanted them at after the mutiny: in trouble with the “law” of the Resolute. And with Hastings having established himself as the true villain of the story, the family and their allies can now fight against human scum for once and do not necessarily just have to try and find a way off a crazy planet to survive. Still, going into the final two episodes of the season without much of a teaser of things to come is a bit weird. At least the first season signaled what the final (two) episode(s) would be about, but except for the alien ships that are currently making their way toward the Resolute, I do not know anything about the upcoming story. And now I am wondering if that is a good or a bad thing. Is it good because the show stays surprising that way or is it bad because it may prove that the writers did not know where to go this late in the season and therefore did not find the time or the opportunity to tease those stories in this episode?
I do not believe they never knew. So many plot points have been used to get the characters this far, and with certain elements from the previous season’s narrative that have returned to haunt the characters (Maureen’s trade to get Will into the colony, Smith not saving the security personnel who got sucked out of the airlock before the Resolute was attacked), the writers had a picture of how to keep the characters emotionally busy this season, even if it seems a little bit weird in hindsight that Smith was doing her own thing for two episodes, hindered by absolutely no one to become “Dr. Zoe Smith.” Maureen even transformed from a mother to an authority figure during this hour, and I can imagine that her endgame as a character on this show is taking over in a leadership position within the colony, right after all the white men of power with bad intentions have been removed from those positions. LOST IN SPACE must not generally be about Will’s standing with the robot any longer, because now it looks like Maureen has also found her calling. So did Judy, as she will become a very talented doctor, and even Penny will make bank writing books about the experience of being lost in space. Now what to do with John?
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| They are marching toward taking over command of the spaceship. |
The actual mutiny itself looked pretty solid. I liked that Maureen and Captain Kamal were not too keen for a conflict on the bridge and that the Captain of the Resolute did listen to Maureen and learned something from what happened, following her mission. I liked that the writers made it themselves very easy with this mutiny by letting it happen under a skeleton crew currently running the Resolute, which means there was less resistance from staff and workers and the show was able to continue with the family aspect of the show without having to depict a few violent and bloody action moves that preceded the mutiny, which would have pushed the family-friendly tone out of the series. I even loved the image of the robot being the “emergency repair protocol,” and how Samantha must have liked that image of the good robot continuing to save lives on this space station, fueling her hope that everything will be fine after she had the darkest of days after the murder of her father. Even Don got his little moment of redemption with Ava and the man continues to be a delight in heated and dangerous situations.
The only thing I did not like about the mutiny was the role of Hastings. First of all, I was unable to understand why he needed to open the airlock to the OGS to get his bidding done. I knew that he wanted the workers down there to stop collecting the ammonium, but the Resolute was already below the clouds of the gas planet, so why not just try to get the command of the ship back and steer away from the planet? Why a convoluted plan of killing people to show Maureen that she was the bad guy in this mutiny when the ammonium collection and water filtration were already happening? Secondly, Hastings has been depicted way too harshly as a killer, now that he was able to make a move against Maureen or anyone else who wishes to survive this trip to Alpha Centauri, and I am not so sure that is going to help him in the long run. Just have anyone else hear what Hastings has done, no matter how he did it, and he will find himself in an airlock about to open as well. Did he just pull this stunt to showcase to everyone that he is the bad guy? The answer to that question seems to be an astounding “Yes,” which means not even LOST IN SPACE can create a villain with character depth and whose actions mean something to him and other people. But I guess the only villain the writers cared about was Smith.
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| Prison break of the robotic kind. |
And Smith is very much in hot waters after this episode, and this time around she is not even to be blamed. She was at the bridge, but no one heard her. She was scared when Samantha and her mother were suddenly in front of her and she ran away, but no one is ever going to know about her deep flaws because it would establish her as a ruthless killer. All she wanted to do was to warn Maureen and do a good thing for the Robinsons (and everyone else on the Resolute). With John hating her for something that was not her fault, it should define the remainder of the relationships Smith has with the Robinson family. The only good thing she was ready to do this season and she failed to deliver – now her path to redemption has been blocked by a huge boulder and she will not be interested in going around or climbing over it, metaphorically speaking. Because she is not that strong a person to get over the evil things she has done, which means the murders will always affect her and hinder her to be someone good.
