Extant: Wish You Were Here Review

Thus far, Extant has been well-acted and action-packed. The third episode continues this trend.

After only three episodes, Extant has dropped some huge reveals in the laps of its viewers, but who would have guessed the characters themselves would receive their own shockers as well?

Thank goodness Molly’s husband is no longer in the dark about her pregnancy, though; I don’t know that I could have tolerated that for too many weeks. But even though I somewhat expected that secret to come out (thanks a lot, previews), there were still plenty of jaw-droppers in this episode.

It should be noted that Molly’s confession came out at yet ANOTHER party, which bothered me at first, but the crowd provided the perfect context for the conversation with Tim, Marcus’ brother, who made a surprise appearance at the soiree. 

Except, wait a minute, he wasn’t even really there!

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This adds another dimension to Molly’s hallucinations because, unlike the space encounters which included only limited, echoed vocabulary, the phantom Tim was able to carry on a discussion: a cryptically revealing chat about “seeing” Marcus. Now it’s likely that many of Molly’s encounters will be brought into question – did that really happen? With Harmon supposedly missing as well, can we trust that he even exists? Tricky stuff.

Trickier still, perhaps, is Ethan navigating his first day at school, although apparently the worst part of his day was the cafeteria sloppy joes. It seems the parents are concerned that Ethan might be dangerous to their children, and we finally get an answer to how informed the general public is about Ethan’s android status. And despite John’s logical protestations, there obviously IS something to worry about. Ethan is not only deceptive, defying a given rule not to go outside, but his obsession with birds, although it likely springs from curiosity rather than psychopathy, is clearly dangerous.

And Ethan isn’t even the creepiest android anymore! Humanichs partner, Julie, is working on a female robot named Lucy, who is learning at a faster rate than her predecessor. Between her saying, “Shall we play another?” and the earlier reference to Ethan as a “toaster,” I’m not sure whether to fear the allusion to War Games or to the cylons of Battlestar Galactica. Either way, Julie might even be more blind to the danger of robots than John, and her over-protectiveness of Ethan, although admittedly pragmatic, is tied up in too many emotions.

But the real meat of this episode is in the action that builds from a fabricated story told to Molly by Director Sparks: that her pregnancy was caused by a covert medical experiment. In the attempt to contain the situation, Sam is put on her guard by happenings at ISEA, and Molly is being set upon by a much less sympathetic Deputy Director Kern. Although Sam is detained, Molly makes her escape with the help of her newly enlightened husband, and the family – including Ethan – is now on the run.

Wow – I was completely breathless in the final scenes of the episode tonight! Although the show stretches credible science now and then, the story is compelling, well-acted, and action-packed. At this rate, we may actually get the answers we seek by season’s end. Here’s to hoping!

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Rating:

4.5 out of 5