In Which I Review Extant (1x7) and (1x8)

I don't understand. Those are my first and final thoughts for the two hour, two episode, Extant event. I hate two hour episodes. One episode always feels like filler and another one stretches my ability to sit still and focus for any length of time. Nevertheless, Extant did a two hour/two episode special this week, "More in Heaven and Earth" and "Incursion." And once again, so many plot lines! More were introduced this week and it's frustrating to have to keep track of people I didn't think mattered. Why is there suddenly an anti-machine terrorist organization that has decided Ethan should be their first target? Too much, Extant! The main thrust of the episode was more or less revving up for some conclusion that is, I think, two weeks away. A lot of big plot points were developed this week, though I still find the alien baby plot to be among the weakest and dullest of the series. I think instead of going episode by episode, I'm going to tackle each person and give an overview of where they are by the end of the two hours. 

John: trying to find Molly, worried about Ethan, questioning his own work.

I like that John and Molly are very much a team when it comes to the alien baby. He's by her side, giving Molly the kind of support she needs in a crisis like this. Apart from being the support system, John is rather detached from the alien baby plot line. His center, as it has always been, is Ethan and the work John does with humanics. John is beginning to question if Ethan is advancing too far for Ethan to even be considered human anymore. Humans develop, to be sure, but at a so-called natural rate. I did not wake up this morning with the ability to speak Japanese, for instance. Ethan, however, did. And that's terrifying for John. This rapid fire development might prove his critics right: the humanic cannot be a human because it is fundamentally a machine and even if it becomes self-aware, it is self-awareness of being a machine and thus more than human. How long before the self-aware machine decides it is better than self-aware humans? The worry John has is to the point where he wants to turn off Ethan and try to fix this rapid development so that Ethan develops at a more normal rate. Essentially: kill the kid and remake him in my image. You are not God, John. Various people around John are opposed to this, like Julia and Molly. Just because Ethan is advancing quickly doesn't mean he's not human; you can argue that people develop at different rates as well. It is said that one of the hallmarks of humanity is self-preservation; it's a trait we hold dear, that our lives are important and need to be protected. Well, Ethan seems to developing that trait as well. When John decides to go through with turning Ethan off, he is locked out of Ethan's computer system by Ethan himself.

Ethan: finding his function

Machine or human? The lines are very blurry when it comes to Ethan right now. He has advanced development like the ability to suddenly speak Japanese and ride a bike, despite never having been on one. But at the the same time, Ethan is displaying traits that are at the core of what it means to be human. He's self-aware and has been from the start of the show; he has a sense of self-preservation, as shown by shutting John out of his computer system so he cannot be turned off; Ethan has a compassionate streak in him. In the second hour, Ethan is attacked by some bullies after he witnesses them blowing up another machine, a non self-aware one at that. Ethan insists that John bring the machine home with them because, "it needs our help." John sees this machine as just that--a machine. It doesn't have a higher function or life and is not self-aware. But Ethan sees a peer, another machine just like him who cannot be left out in the cold, because if this machine can be, then so can he. And finally, Ethan questions his own existence. When Julia tries to explain that the non self-aware machine no longer has a function, Ethan's response is "what is my function?" It's probably the most basic human question of them all: what is my purpose, why am I here, why was I created? (Side note but the writers of Extant are clearly big fans of the first Star Trek movie and the idea of Veeger) John is actually getting exactly what he set out to create: a machine that could go beyond mimicking humans to being human. But be careful what you wish for.

Sparks and Hidecki: unhinged and creepy.

I don't know what to make of these two. They are working together but are they at cross purposes? Hidecki is clearly the one in charge but Sparks seems have his own personal agenda, which revolves around his dead daughter. Sparks has come to the conclusion that he must eliminate Molly who has finally uncovered the truth (most of it anyway) about Katie's death. Sparks does feel guilty about this since he was always fond of Molly, but the project is more important. Which I don't understand. The project in question seems to stem from Hidecki and the fact that his time on this earth is running out. He is clearly much older than we've been told and has been keeping himself alive with "the substance." Now, the substance, we are told, was found out in space and Sparks sent his daughter and her team out there to mine it in secret. But what they found was alien life and that changed everything. The substance Hidecki uses is only temporary and is running low, but apparently he thinks that the alien life they found is more important? I think what Hidecki intends is to transplant his brain, his higher functions, into this alien body and live forever. I find this problematic because it implies that the aliens are immoral but what we've seen of them so far suggests that they grow and develop like any other creature. So how does this ultimately save Hidecki from certain death? I am so confused about the alien plot overall. The final moments of the show this week show Sparks shooting Molly, but it turns out to be an manifestation of Katie who cryptically says, "he needs our help." Is "Katie" referring to the alien baby or...someone else?

Molly: becoming a mother.

There has always been a question in the back of my mind about how Molly would view the baby that she had carried. As Kryger (who is not dead) tells her, "you're not its mother, you're its host." But that's not how it works with Molly or with other mothers, I guess. The baby is partly hers, it has her DNA. So wouldn't Molly feel some sort of maternal instinct toward the alien baby boy? The answer is yes. Molly, Kryger and the body guard who switched sides apparently, come up with an elaborate plan to get Molly inside the secret chamber and see her...baby. Except of course it has gone missing but the important part is that Alien Baby also seems to recognize that Molly is "mom." When it appears that Molly is in danger, the baby transplants its consciousness (or something) into another man and opens fire, killing everyone who is about tho hurt Molly.
Molly's journey outside of becoming a mother was more focused on getting answers. She is taking the fight to Sparks instead of sitting on the sidelines and waiting for things to come to her. There was a lot of information that was given out in this episode that was delivered at such a rapid pace that I missed some of it but Molly is the one who learns about the secret mining operation in space that discovered alien life; she's the one who tracks down a payload specialist to talk about what happened on the doomed mission (the guy kills himself before Molly can talk to him, but she get credit for trying.) At the end of this episode, I'm not sure what's next for Molly except that she is probably going to become very protective Momma Bear over Alien Baby.

Miscellaneous Notes in More in Heaven and Earth/ Incursion

--So there's an anti-machine group who is going after Ethan. And it's lead by Julia's new boy toy and Hidecki's lover. The group believes that humanity is outsourcing themselves to machines and that they've lost their souls to machines. Have these writers seen Battlestar Galactica? I think they have....

--"He needs a normal life." "What is that?"

--"He's not the baby Jesus!" This is my new favorite line.

In Which I Review Extant (1x6)

Things are getting decidedly more freaky on this weeks episode, "Nightmares." This show has a tendency to run a little dull in the middle and then leave you with something intriguing to draw you back in the following week. For example, the sub-B plot for this week was totally unnecessary. I don't care about Julia or robotic limbs or her romantic exploits. None of that matters in the grand scheme of this alien baby drama. I am also confused as to why I am now getting some sort of attempt at world building. This show is six episodes in and now they begin to dedicate some time to world building? That's backwards. A few blog posts ago, I talked about how the show wasn't interested in showing me the world in which Molly and John live because of limited time constraints. It's obviously set in some distant future because the technology is quite progressive, but the fashion is very 2014, and people's bigotry has simply moved to artificial intelligence rather than flesh and blood humankind. But this week, we learned that many people have robotic limbs and that there are cafe's where someone can go to get "juiced" by, what I assume has to be, some sort of drug paraphernalia. This last little bit reeks of A Clockwork Orange and its only purpose was to figure out a way for one character to move back into the plot. But now I'm left with "world questions." The overall thrust of this episode was to answer questions, and to an extent it did to do that, but it raised ones that I don't think needed raising. "Nightmares" tried to tie most of our storylines back together since the show is now halfway through. 

The episode picks up where last week's left off; John and Molly are trying to figure out what the bizarre light particles are that somehow impregnated Molly. However, their ponderings are interrupted when Ethan begins to scream. The little robot-boy is having a nightmare. How...fascinating. Once again, I am more interested in the robot-boy turning into a human story than the alien one, but at least this episode tried to tie it all together. Ethan is not programed for any sort of dream ability--positive or negative. John tells us that they are years and years away from replicating the REM cycle. But there's Ethan, screaming and clutching his mom and asking her to sleep next to him. It's very sweet and for a moment I think we all forget that he's really a bunch of wires and code. In Ethan's dream, something bad was happening to Molly, who tries to explain that dreams are just part of our subconscious. When Ethan asks what that means, Molly tells him that the subconscious is the secret part of you. Now, do we really think that somehow Ethan has magically progressed to the point where he has an actual subconscious? That is incredibly human; in fact, I'd argue that a subconscious--or if you like, soul--is the very essence of humanity. How did Ethan advance so far overnight? No one knows, not even his father. John takes Ethan into the lab the next morning to see if he can find the record of the dreams inside Ethan (how inhuman!) and figure out how the code got Ethan to dream, but when they open the little boy up (again with the incredible inhumanity while trying to explain something that is human) there is no record. It's as if it didn't happen at all. But dreaming isn't the only thing that's different about the robot-boy; his reflexes are also much faster than they were a week ago. So, on the one hand, Ethan is Pinocchio and is becoming a real boy, but on the other hand, he's advancing past the stage of his robotic structure to become some sort of ubermensch? Why am I almost more worried about Ethan than the alien baby?

I say almost because it turns out that the alien baby is kind of mean. While inside the box, and growing, it (he?) somehow manages to infect a doctor who was working and observing it (him?). Those weird circle symbols that keep cropping up everywhere were almost burned into his skull. Within a short time afterwards, the infected doctor was raving, and ended up killing a cohort. When he was finally calmed down (somehow) he explained that he killed his fellow doctor under orders from a woman who was appearing to him. This woman was an old friend or lover...but the catch here is that she's been dead for some time. This actually fits neatly with what we know so far. Molly saw her dead ex-boyfriend Marcus and then Marcus' brother, Tim; Harmon saw his dead mother. The alien baby manifests as a dead loved one. This means that somehow the alien baby is able to tap into your memories, weed out what your weak point is and then use it against you. Now you could argue that it first must come into contact with you, but that's not how it happened with Molly and Harmon who saw their ghosts before the alien ever touched them. Or did they?

This is where we get some pretty hefty plot development, though it's weighted by exposition galore and characters suddenly remembering vital information (which is annoying). We've known for awhile now that this all has something to do with Sparks' daughter, Katie. Until this point, Molly and Harmon haven't discussed the strange circle formations that keep showing up. When they finally meet and do so, Harmon recalls a time when he was in space during his year long solo mission and a message came through to the station. It was encoded but it was the circle pattern. He was told by the computer to ignore it and dismiss the message, but not before learning that it was a "distress" test call. Harmon explains this was months before he met his ghost mother on board and so he never connected the two. Harmon, previously, has broken into the space company (it has an acronym but I can't remember it...) and stole some files from a mission that occurred even before his own. On this mission was Katie Sparks, the daughter of the chief guy who's trying to bring Molly to heel. Sadly, the information on this file is heavily encrypted and John can't break it. Well, do we know anyone who is far advanced and can help us out? Yes, Ethan saves the day by breaking the code and we get to see the final transmission from Katie before her death. She is in a lot of distress, she has the crazy circle symbols on her stomach, and her fellow cohorts have gone crazy from the infection and become murderous. Katie very clearly tells the people back home, "don't recover the ship!" In other words, do not send people back out to these stations because they will become infected and die just like me. Katie gets into an escape pod and dies out in space. So, yes, Katie is dead but she did not die in the manner that Sparks has been telling people.

To bring this back to Molly, this means that Sparks knew all along what was up in space and chose to send Molly anyway, hoping to make contact. She was the bait, in other words. Rather terrible business practice if you ask me. But the question is, why? What does he hope to gain by bringing the clearly angry light/alien/thing down to earth? Is it just scientific progress? Curiosity? Does he hope to somehow bring back his daughter? We know that Sparks visits the baby alien and asks to see his dead daughter, which the alien baby happily provides. But yet Sparks doesn't become infected or crazed like the others. And what about Harmon? He was infected as well, saw his dead mom, but he clearly can't become pregnant like Molly. So why was he sent up? Lots of questions that need to be answered. To bring this back to Ethan, it turns out that not only is he seeing Molly in distress in his nightmares, he's also seeing the crazy circle patterns. The ends up drawing them much to Molly's horror. We only have 7 more episodes to go, and apparently there is a big break before the series finale, so I hope we manage to get more answers and less questions.

Miscellaneous Notes on Nightmares

--Did they kill Harmon? I can't tell. One moment he was standing, the next not so much.

--I really and truly do not care about Julia and whatever is going on with this robotic limb thing. However, I did pity her when she's trying to express her feelings toward John as caring for him and Ethan, and he literally just blows her off.

--John wasn't shirtless in this episode. Tragic.

--Molly spied on Sam quite a bit this episode and learned that Sam is on her side but being bribed. Glad we got that out of the way.

--Where is Hidecki? What role does he play in all this?

In Which I Review Extant (1x5)

Watching this week's episode, "What on Earth is Wrong?" with my good friend Ranisha when the following happened: "wait. She has no legs. NO LEGS! NO LEGS! NO LEEEEEEGS!" It's not quite the 11th hour for the show, but nonetheless, unexpected character history was unexpected. It's the second week in a row they've done this: shed some light on a heretofore unmentioned character trait. Last week, Sam got a crazy brother. This week, Julia apparently has no legs and has been fooling us all. Outside of legless Julia, this week's episode presented the idea that maybe Molly is simply crazy and there never was any pregnancy. This whole episode has a dream like quality to it, to the point where sometimes you--the audience--began to wonder whether or not it was all false to begin with and the past four episodes have been some sort of psychotic break. Don't worry, though. You're not going crazy. It's not a dream, there is a baby. It's a boy!

Molly, aboard the good ship SS Medical Experiment, is having all sort of weird dreams. She dreams of being back home, being very pregnant, only with Marcu's baby, and of floating gravity defying orange juice. And apparently the two astronauts feel the need to write "Earth is Awesome" on their fridge in colored magnets. All of this screams dream world. As of this moment in the episode, we're not sure what the medical team is doing to Molly, but based on the laser involved, I think it's safe to say that they are removing the baby. John, meanwhile, finds Molly and Ethan passed out in the woods and calls for the squad. Molly is whisked away to the nearest hospital, John informing the team that she is pregnant, while he tries in vain to wake Ethan up. The batteries in the robot-boy are fully drained and Ethan calls in Julia to help. Now, I don't object to legless Julia except that it came completely out of left field. Julia's is nothing more than a tertiary character; her purpose was as John's employee who happens to be in love with him and has a strong bond with Ethan. There's nothing you really need to add to that. Suddenly making her part robot via limb feels forced and contrived, a way of strengthening her bond with Ethan. "We're both robots, kid!" It also turns out that Julia never wanted John and Molly to adopt Ethan. She thinks the robot-boy should have gone to a home like originally planned but that John acted selfishly. Ah, love. It's fickle, is it not?

 Ethan is taken to the lab to be rebooted, if such a thing can even happen to him without damage, while Molly and John await the news at the hospital. In a bit of a twist, the Doctor comes in and tells Molly that she is going to be okay, and better still, there was no baby. Ever. Molly was never pregnant. Huh? How is that possible? All traces of her pregnancy--fetus, hormones, stretching of uterus--have vanished. John is told by the Doctor that Molly is suffering from some sort of break and reminds John that John himself never saw any evidence of the baby, but only had Molly's word for it. Molly remains convinced that she was carrying an alien baby, while John slowly begins to doubt. Add in the fact that their other child is currently a slab of hardware and circuits, lying half naked on a table being re-uploaded, and you've got a rather tense marriage. Molly and John need to cover all their bases, though, so Molly has the bright idea to go talk to Sam who has been in the know since the beginning. Sadly, we know that Sam isn't going to be much help; she has already sold Molly down the river by agreeing to tell her lies to save her brother. Sam's "what baby" only reinforced what John is coming to believe: his wife is crazy. But clever Molly has one more trick up her sleeve. Remember how she was bitten by a dog last episode? The bloody towel is still at her father's, covered in blood. And blood means DNA. Once the towel is collected, John and Molly analyze it and discover that she was, in fact, pregnant but all evidence was erased by the medical team. It is also learned that the DNA of the baby has Molly's own DNA (naturally) but also a DNA sample never before seen. In other words, John you are not the father! Poor John. Also, the medical team must have been working at lightening fast speed to take out the baby, drain Molly's blood and give her new blood all within one night. A plan is put into place by John and Molly to go about their lives, pretend everything is copacetic and gather intel. This plan always go off without a hitch, by the way.

And this is where it gets weird(er?). Back at work, Molly is analyzing samples from her trip into space (and keeping one eye on the door as men in black keep passing by) when her assistant tries a new algorithm--this is not something I understand or something that they are going to explain because science fiction in science fiction and you just gotta roll with it sometimes. The new algorithm shows a new energy that seems to have washed over the samples at a certain point during Molly's mission. Gee, I wonder what point in time that would be...yeah it was baby-making time. Molly and John watch the video of the day Molly saw Marcus and using the new algorithm, they see the same light wash over Molly. She was impregnated by light! How very odd. Are those the aliens? Are we dealing with non-corporeal alien beings? Do they want bodies? Is that where this is heading? It's all so odd. And of course, we couldn't leave the audience hanging about the fate of the baby. Sparks has him, in some sort of test-tube like box. And yeah, it's a boy. And very human looking. How is that possible? Shouldn't it have some alien features? The ability to glow, for instance.

Miscellaneous Notes from What On Earth is Wrong?

--Ethan spent this entire episode pretty much passed out except for an extremely creepy moment where he sat up and began to talk. It was very "the robots are coming to kill us all!"

--"I know when I'm hallucinating. I've gotten a lot of practice lately."
"Nothing would make me happier right now than to be crazy."

--I almost felt bad for Julia when John told her that they were not partners, but that she is his subordinate.

--Impregnated by light. Just gotta toss that out here one more time. 

In Which I Review Extant (1x4)

Ok. Checklist of major science fiction cliches as they relate to the TV show Extant. Aliens? Check. Space travel? Check. Looming threat toward humanity? Check. Government coverup? Check. Weird space objects? Check. Life altering serum that is potentially dangerous? Check. Humans who develop superpower because of alien contact? Check. 
In other words, Extant if full of the cliche and not so much of the new and innovative. It's not unwatchable; on the contrary, I find that I am enjoying this summer blockbuster-esque show, if only for the overtly cheesy factor. And of course, I am far more drawn into the humanics story with Ethan. On this weeks episode, "Shelter," nowhere is safe and we get more of Molly's backstory. And, naturally, because she is a protagonist, it's a sad and sappy one. 

 Still on the run from Sparks, Molly, John, and Ethan take a trip out to see Molly's father, Quinn. From the start we understand that there is an awkwardness in the father-daughter dynamic. Molly seems on edge, and not just because she is on the run from her boss and is potentially carrying an alien baby from her dead ex-boyfriend.  Taking them to his cabin in the woods, we learn that Quinn is a recovering alcoholic and was a neglectful father to Molly as she grew up. He's recovering now but Molly hasn't reached the point where she can forgive and forget. Quinn does have a good relationship with Ethan, though. The young robot calls him grandfather and you can tell that he enjoys spending time with the older man. John and Molly are hoping to hide out at Quinn's for a bit and do their own medical tests on the fetus. This isn't a bad idea, but it's not without fault. First, do you really think that your super powerful government bosses aren't going to find you at your father's? Isn't the first place they would look, your family and close friends residences? I get that Quinn lives away from the mainland but the people who are after you do have helicopters. I suppose I'm required to suspend a bit more than normal that Molly wouldn't have thought of all this; this was an obvious attempt at backstory while ignoring logic, so I'll put on my suspension cap and move right along.

While Molly and John are conducting their science experiments, Quinn and Ethan are having grandfather-grandrobot bonding time. It starts out quite sweet. Quinn treats Ethan like a regular boy, taking him to dinner, teaching him to skip rocks across the ocean. However Quinn is an addict, and when an addict gets a hankering...cue drama. After a pleasant dinner (side note: the robot can eat? How?) Quinn ends up taking Ethan to a dive bar and has the boy show off his extraordinary skills at throwing-hook-at-a-wall. Quinn sits in the corner, taking bets and money, and eventually a shot. There goes sobriety. Ethan, realizing that he's hitting every mark, knows that no one can be perfect, so he deliberately misses the next target, which results in Quinn loosing all his "hard earned money." This is pretty interesting; Ethan is self-aware enough to know that humans (the flesh and blood kind) make mistakes; they do not hit targets 100% of the time. In an order to be more human he misses, hoping to show that he can be like a regular boy. Let's rename him Pinocchio (or Data if you're feeling science fiction-y). What Ethan doesn't understand, and I would argue no 10 year old boy would understand this, is how the addict's mind works. Quinn, drinking in the high of winning and success, is not proud that Ethan missed the shot to prove his own humanity, but is livid that Ethan lost him the money. On the ride home, Quinn openly berates Ethan and we get the sense that this might have been what Molly's own childhood was like. Put a pin here, because we'll return to the car scene in a moment.

Back at headquarters, there is a lot of strangeness. I'm not even sure what's going on, to be frank. There are Russians and some sort of space meteorite with healing properties but is also really dangerous if its fumes are inhaled. The person comes down with a sudden case of bleeding-from-eyes.  Behind all this science-y Russian-speaking plot is our resident secretive businessman, Hidecki. I can't figure out what he wants. He's obviously dying a slow death, but for how long, and what does this have to do with Molly and her alien pregnancy. Plot lines on top of plot lines. This is only a 13-episode series, so they've got a few more episodes before I start getting mad at the nebulous web and its unresolved issues. Sparks, using medical Doctor Sam's mentally unstable brother as leverage (where on earth did that come from? Unnecessary backstory if you ask me), Sam agrees to cease assisting Molly and with that threat neutralized, orders a hit on Molly. Take her!

 So while Ethan is learning that humans sometimes do want perfection, Sam is weeping over her brother, and Sparks is putting his plan into place, Molly and John begin to conduct medical experiments on the baby. They are, clearly, tentatively happy about the baby (provided that it's actually John's, of course). It's something neither one of them has wanted to admit at this stage of the game, and who can blame them. They finally get pregnant and it's because Molly's work was conducting experiments on her! Okay, time for the convergence of this weeks plot lines. Ethan is in the car, getting yelled at; Molly and John are in the house; Sam has agreed to back off and Sparks gives the "go." And BOOM. Ethan is taken from the car! I'm not clear on why, unless it was a trap for Molly, knowing she'd go after her son. But this means that the agents had to have some sort of future vision in which it was Molly who found Ethan, not John or Quinn or a random hiker. How did they know that John would get angry at the local cops for refusing to help out their robot son, punch the sheriff, and land in jail? At any rate, the agents "shut down" Ethan, which was really quite cruel to watch. It felt very much like murder; using a large tool they shocked his system, zapping him out of existence. When Molly does find Ethan, she is taken by helicopters and finds herself in a medical lab of some sort. I think the baby detects danger and suddenly Molly has telekinesis, though in the end, it doesn't help her and our final shot is of a laser opening her up. Ut-oh. I don't think alien baby is going to like this.

Miscellaneous Notes on Shelter

--"He's programed to act like a human." What does that eve mean?? See, this is your real storyline. Can a robot be programed to act human? What makes a human a human--our thoughts, feelings, emotions, past experiences, culture, parents, friends, other family, and sense of personal identity. Have you programed all that into Ethan? And what does that mean about his robotic nature vs his human nature?

--Dogs don't like alien babies.

--Is Ethan dead? Can he be rebooted?

--This episode had a lot of Ethan bonding with various family members. He might be a creepy kid, but I think he's also very human (whatever that might mean).

In Which I Review Extant (1x3)

The truth will out. It always does. However, before you get to the truth, there certainly is an awful lot of lying. This weeks episode of Extant, "Wish You Were Here," is all about the lies we tell ourselves (my child is perfectly normal) and the lies others tell us (surprise! We impregnated you!) The show continues to struggle with trying to have all the science fiction elements, instead of fine tuning one storyline into a cohesive narrative. Why should I care about robot-boy's maybe sociopathy while I'm also caring about alien lifeforms manifesting here on Earth to propagate, or something. I honestly want to see what would happen if they put one storyline aside for a single episode (take your pick, robot-boy or alien pregnancy) and just focused on the other. At any rate, lots of truths and lies are told and now it's up to the characters to figure out what is what. 

It's Ethan's first day at school. After spending most of his life either as a body-less computer or a machine with body, the robot-boy is off to interact with other children. It's an important part of his own evolution into humanity; he needs other children for his development. I think one of the problems I'm having overall with the show is its lack of world building. This is obviously a world that is relying heavily on technology as evidenced by all the fancy high-tech equipment everyone seems to have, but there still seems to be some sort of lingering fear about that technology. The other parents at Ethan's school are nervous about having an artificial intelligence with their children, fearing that Ethan will...do something crazy? It's not made explicit, except that I'm supposed to believe that these men and woman are exposed to machines everyday and find them dangerous. Why do these people find machines dangerous? What sort of machines are they interacting with on a daily basis that leads them to this conclusion? Based on what we've seen so far, the machines, while advanced, are pretty typical: high tech phones, computers. I haven't seen any Judy from the Jettson's type maids roaming the city with their human masters. Outside of Ethan, we haven't been exposed to any other walking/talking/interacting with humans on a social level machines. So the fear seems really unfounded and just a way to create drama. It also creates dramatic irony because while John and Molly insist that Ethan is just another little boy who needs peers, we (the audience) are coming to realize that there is something off about Ethan. He might have been given many ethical tests in a sterile environment but in the real messy world, he's trapping pigeons in boxes to play with them later. And this is something I find interesting (more so than than the on-going alien baby drama). Can a machine who has been given electrical inputs to mimic humanity but is also being raised by humans, turn into a sociopath? And if so, who do you blame? Was it the electrical inputs (human error) or is it the nature of the machine; and if it's the latter what does that mean about artificial intelligence?

The main thrust of the episodes revolves around Molly's birthday party. After being gone for a year, she never got to celebrate so her husband decides to throw her a bash. It's sweet. John is actually very sweet (also, shirtless 3 our out of 3 episodes. I approve). There are lot of people and friends who show up, but Molly seems a bit on edge. This is for a few reasons. Last week, Molly told her boss, Sparks, the news that she's inexplicably pregnant. Sparks now needs to come up with a lie that is good enough to keep Molly's trust. Remember: Molly had been infertile and undergoing extensive fertility treatments with John before leaving for her mission into space. So, the big lie! Sparks and Molly have a meeting at the beginning of the episode in which Sparks tells her that the space program had a covert mission in place in which they were experimenting on astronauts who undertook these year long missions. Using an old sample from Molly's days in the infertility treatments, they implanted her with an embryo and gave it some sort of time-release scientific thing (I don't really get that part). In other words, the baby is John and Molly's and the space program is at fault. It's a clever lie; it allows Molly to believe that she is carrying a perfectly normal child that is also her husband's while at the same time placing all the blame on her work, leaving alien coverups in the dust. There is just one problem, as pointed out by her doctor friend, Sam. In short: paperwork. This space program is a beaurcratic nightmare and there's no way a secret program like this got through. Obviously Sam doesn't watch enough TV; there's always a way for it to get through. Instead Sam wants to do her own blood work on Molly to see if the DNA of the baby is really John's. Yeah, I'm sure the space program will be 100% a-ok with that.

Molly goes to see Harmon to discuss the situation but the resident-crazy has up and vanished. However, Molly does find a clue, a set of intricately woven circular symbols on Harmon's wall. These symbols just so happen to be the same ones that were "burned" (for wont of a better term) on to Molly's stomach in the last episode. In short: there is no way this baby isn't some sort of alien life force. It also seems to be playing havoc on Molly's mind. At the aforementioned party, Molly runs into an old friend, Tim. Tim was Marcus's (the ex who died and who Molly sees in space) brother and has been out of town for a long while. The two spend time catching up and even take a picture together. The problem? He's not really there. Molly looks for him at the party only to be told repeatedly that Tim's not there, and never was. The photo they took together doesn't show Tim at all. The aliens are playing tricks on her mind now! Oh boy! Now Molly makes the some-what-stupid-decision to call Sparks and have him take her into quarantine. Don't worry, deus-ex-Sam-and-Texting saves the day, though how Molly got away from Sparks and managed to vanish with Ethan and John is a mystery (no seriously, how did John and Molly drive back to their house, get their son and vanish without a trace before the men with guns showed up?)

Miscellaneous Notes on Wish You Were Here

--It's obvious from the flashback of John and Molly deciding to raise Ethan as their own that Molly has never been 100% okay with her robot-son.

--"He's a toaster with hair!" Obvious Battlestar Galactica reference is obvious

--"He's not dangerous. He's different, and you don't have to be afraid of different." Good to know that in the future we still have issues of bigotry.

--Julia obviously thinks she's a better mom than Molly. Her bond with Ethan is stronger and I think she really wants to replace Molly in both Ethan and John's life.

In Which I Review Extant (1x2)

The hardest thing about being in space? The coffee. Goodness know I can't start my day without a cup (or three) of coffee either. Why am I talking about coffee? Because the main thrust of this episode is the attempt at normalcy while a whole lot of not-so-normal things are happening around you. You've come back from a year long mission in space but there is still coffee to be made, kids to dress, eggs to cook, parties to go to, business meetings to attend, friends to see. Of course in the midst of all this, you have a robotic son, a mysterious pregnancy, and a conspiracy in which you've become a lab rat in a space-maze. So, drink the coffee because things get weird. I think I've discovered a fatal flaw in the paradigm of the show. It is trying to be all the things. When it comes to science fiction, there are slews upon slews of topics from which to choose: good old faith vs science, the ethics of humanity in relation to their scientific achievements and development, the nature of humanity as it relates to each other in overwhelming progress, straight up Jungian archetypes existing in a scientific world, the unceasing scientific progress that doesn't care about humanity morality or culture, eugenics. Take your pick. However, do limit yourself to just a few, especially on a 13 episode summer show. Unless you have Gene Roddenberry somewhere in your title, you may want to pull back on the throttle. Extant is trying to have its cake and eat it too. The pregnancy storyline, which was what the show was pitched as, isn't as compelling as the philosophical musings about human connectivity in the face of the new robotics. Why have a character who is creating life from un-life and a robot who is trying to be more child than machine if your main storyline is actually this alien pregnancy meets government and wealthy business coverup? They may all connect, but for the moment I am far more interested in the storyline that is probably supposed to be second tier. 

This weeks episode, "Extinct," (creative title, no?) is basically a-day-in-the-life of. It is book-ended by a family over meals, keeping secrets from each other but putting on their "we are totally normal" face. Molly is having a bit of a hard day. She's with Ethan and having some mommy-robotic son bonding time over games and conversation. However, Molly seems to be troubled by a constant drumming sound; at first it's the washing machine thudding (the sound of normalcy that invokes a supernatural fear) but later, the thudding continues and this time the washer cannot be blamed. The freaky-ex-alien guy from the space ship is in her kitchen telling her "it's okay." Yes, everything is normal here in this bizarre trippy world where your ex has come back to life only as, most likely, an alien that has impregnated you. I'm convinced the aliens don't know human language but instead are mimicking human language. Molly ends up fainting and some bizarre symbols are burned into her skin. I'm sure those are totally normal (lies). Ethan and Molly go to the natural history museum and there is some very heavy handed evolution/extinction/survival of the fittest motifs going on. I get that the pregnancy storyline is probably leading to the inevitable "race to save a dying species" trope mixed in with "aliens are friends not enemies" but this was a bit too on the nose. I find that I'm also confused about Ethan's level of intelligence. Is he smarter than the average bear? And if yes, shouldn't he have a basic understanding of extinction? He is self aware to the point where he knows he's not a homo sapien and "not real" but basic evolution concepts are unfamiliar to him? It's possible, but let's just say that this was obvious exposition for the audience.

Molly and Sam, the doctor who is currently keeping Molly's secrets, meet to discuss the situation. Previously the missing astronaut, Harmon, told Molly not to trust anyone but like many protagonists on TV, Molly didn't listen. She tells Sam that Harmon is alive, to which Sam reveals that Molly and Harmon have identical brain abnormalities. We get a flashback of Harmon's time on the space station and his encounter with his dead mother--which was all sorts of horror show creepy. Harmon flushed his mom out into space, but not before creepy mom touched him. I'm guessing touch is a key factor here, which again relates back to the human connectivity question when it comes to something inhuman. With the information that Harmon and Molly share a brain abnormality, Molly attempts to dig up the mission reports from Harmon's time in space only to be denied access by her workplace. Bells should be going off in your head, Molly. Now super paranoid about the coverup, Molly and Harmon meet and discuss what is going on. Harmon seems to think that while he and Molly went into space to do their own experiments, they themselves were being experimented upon. Rats in a maze, dancing and running for cheese. This is backed up later when Alan, Molly's boss, and Hideki, John's new boss, meet and do the whole "vague lines that will tantalize the audience so they keep watching while simultaneously revealing that we are in the know and have all the answers." The dialogue exchange fits perfect with this "You found them" "They're already here." And then you add in that this whole thing began with another woman, a daughter, and that Hideki has only 102 days to live before, I assume, he must go back into the macaroni-and-cheese colored pod of goo and be "healed" and we've got more plot lines than I know what to do with. I said this last week, but everything right now is rather nebulous. There's a pregnancy mystery, a larger mystery with various high powered individuals, debates on science and life, oh and it looks like we've got a potential love triangle/affair going on. Gotta have one of those. There is a lot to unpack still but I hope they stop adding layers.

Miscellaneous Notes on Extinct

--Looking sharp is looking like Goran Visnjic. I agree.

--Julia, John's assistant, is so clearly in love with him and obviously got to used to being his "wife" while Molly was away. Is John aware of this? Nope.

--Molly appears to be carrying a perfectly normal human child. 

--Hideki and and our resident religion-still-matters board member are a couple. I wonder if she knows that her lover is dying in 102 days.

--How old is Hideki? He seems to have a fondness for history. Not unusual, but with shows like this there might be something more to it. Something, dare I say, very-old-super-human-looking-for-a-way-to-live-forever sort of deal.

In Which I Review Extant (1x1)

Space. The final frontier. These are the....

Oh. Wait. It's not that sort of space show? Okay, cool. When I first saw the previews for Extant, I was both befuddled and intrigued. Science fiction mission in space meets Alien-esque pregnancy conspiracy meets a whodunit. None of that is to say that it didn't look cool, but rather I was confused as to what the show was supposed to be. Still, Halle Berry. Can't go wrong with her. I was genuinely surprised by how good the first episode, "Re-Entry," was. It kept me on the edge of my seat; it had a lot of thought provoking ideas woven in between an actual mystery. I am hoping this summer show doesn't go the way of Under the Done with its science fiction silliness. The basic premise is of a woman who returns from a year long solo mission in outer space to find that she's pregnant and all sorts of mysteries unfold. I know it sounds trite, but what saves the show, at least from the pilot, is that it's not simply a "who is the baby daddy!" type scenario; there is an actual philosophical bent the series. It's about more than just alien pregnancy.

Let's just get this out of the way: there are a lot of characters in this show. And I don't remember all their names or why they are important. That was the one weakness so far. They introduced characters off stage and then, when they were brought in, I couldn't quite remember who they were. At the center of the show is the basic family unit of mom, dad, child. Some time in the future, Molly and John Woods are raising their son, Ethan. I don't know how far into the future, but technology has come quite a way yet people are still driving cars and fashion remains very 2014. So, I'd guess it's at least 50 years into the future, maybe 60-80. Both Molly and John are scientists but of a different variety. I'm not scientifically inclined enough to understand what Molly was doing in space, but apparently it was important enough to warrant a year long solo mission. The pilot is set after her re-entry. John works with robots, but, interestingly enough, seems to strive for the all essential human connection that artificial intelligence lack. You would think these might be reversed, and not because of gender. People who work in space, at least on TV, tend to have a more positive outlook on life and humankind, having seen Earth from afar and understood that the things that divide humans--religion, money, culture--don't exist except through human agency; we make those things divide us, but in reality, out there in space, Earth is just a big blue marble with no such divisions. So it's refreshing to see Molly be the one who is more skeptical about life. Which leads us to their son: Ethan. First "omg--what!" moment of the show; Ethan is a robot powered by batteries.

This came completely out of left field. I was not expecting John to open his son's back and insert a new power source. But once you see that Ethan is not human life, you can't stop noticing how inhuman he is. He has a quiet demeanor, he stares a lot, there is a certain "Daemon, son of Satan" vibe about him. He's prone to anger and rage, but also seems to love his father very much. The show definitely has a philosophical slant to it: what is life? how do we define what is human? Is a little boy who runs and plays soccer and like ice cream and sleeps with a night light any less human because he happens to be machine? I like that Ethan is self-aware; he is under no delusions about his state of being; he tells his father, "I'm not real" despite John's protests. John and Molly both love their son but have a different view on him. Molly is obviously more scientific when it comes to Ethan--the love he displays is not "love" but a series of electrical impulses hardwired into him to mimic love; John thinks Ethan is fully conscious of emotions and how to display them because he was raised, from the start, by humans. Despite claiming that Ethan is their son, Molly is wary around him. She seems awkward and unsure; John is the one who ties Ethan's shoes and tucks him in at night. John created Ethan as part of his work, but whatever his original purpose was behind AI creation, it has changed since raising Ethan. The best scene of the episode was John talking to share holders of a major company, looking for funding to continue his research and development into robotics.

During this presentation, John sums up what is probably the over arching theme of the show: life--whatever that may be--will out. The title of the show, Extant, refers to that which is still in existence. It's the opposite of extinct. The machines John is creating are a new form of life, but that doesn't mean that they can't be "human." If you raise the machines, from their conception and birth, with the all important "human connection," then they are just like you and me. They know good from bad and have free will. When asked what is to stop the machines from rising up in rebellion over fleshy humankind, John simply replies "nothing." But there is nothing to stop fleshy human beings from uprising against each other either. Because John sees these AI's as just as human as himself and his wife, he doesn't think any precaution needs to be taken against the dangers of AI. It all centers around, what is life? At the same time that John is trying to persuade businessmen, and the audience, that machine life in the form of Ethan is just as real as flesh, Molly receives some startling news about another form of life.

We're given just a glimpse into Molly's past. Before she married John, she was involved with Marcus, who I think we can say is "dead." Yes, note the quotation marks. Molly clearly still loves him and misses him, but we aren't given any insight into how he died. Keep this in mind. Her solo mission in space, so far as we can tell from the small glimpse we got, was fairly normal. Until, suddenly, it wasn't. The event in question must have happened only very recently, within the final month of her mission. A solar flare took out the power (or something, I'm not an expert on space stations, I'm just going with what I saw) of Molly's "home." When she went to investigate the outage, a man appeared to her. Now, bear in mind, Molly is supposed to be 100% alone on this station. For a man to suddenly appear behind a closed door, having written "help me" on the glass is enough to make anyone freak out a bit. But when you add in the ex-factor, it's gets even freakier. Yes, the "man" on the outside of the door is Marcus, the dead lover. Or at least, someone wearing a Marcus suit. Alien? Most likely. But we don't know from where he came or what he wants. All we know is that he and Molly share a moment before Molly blacks out. When Molly comes to, the footage taken by the space station shows her totally alone. No dead-alien-ghost-ex to be seen. Molly makes the hasty decision to erase all evidence of this encounter. Back on earth, during her first medical exam, it is discovered that she is pregnant. Cue the dramatic music.

There are some other mysteries going on outside of sudden alien pregnancy. The agency Molly works for obviously knows a bit more than they are letting on. Working in tandem with the owner of a multimillion dollar company who refuses to fund John's research into AI, they are keeping close tabs on Molly and whatever happened to her up in space. We get the impression that this is not the first time something mysterious has happened to a returning scientist. Before Molly went up, there was another. But upon his re-entry, his readjustment did not go well and he committed suicide. Except, he's apparently alive as well--appearing in the final moments of the episode. I assume he is the one who sent Molly the note about knowing what happened to her in space. How he faked his death and what he knows and whatever happened to him on his own mission is part of the mystery. And finally, Mr. Yasumoto, the owner to the company who is privately funding John, has a whole aura of suspicion about him. Whenever someone is "hatched" some a substance, you should probably keep an eye on them. I don't know what is up with him. Is he looking for new life? He is just really rich and bored? Is dying a slow death and looking for way to subvert it? Is he an alien himself?

Overall: check it out! There are a lot of threads being dangled in front of the audience and right now the connection between all of them is incredibly nebulous. However, unless the show goes cheesy, I think it's going to be a very good summer mystery.

Miscellaneous Notes on Re-Entry

--"We always end up where we're supposed to."

--Molly was infertile before her run in with the alien. I wonder if that played a factor in the alien "choosing" her.

--Ethan is a creepy kid, but I think that's part of the overall themes presented in the show: what is life. Is Ethan creepy because he's not "human" or is he creepy because that's part of his personality and development?