Friday 17 July 2015

Extant: S02E02: Morphoses

Rating: 6

In A Nutshell

After last weeks sort of promising opening episode of some, err, promise, this week just about manages to almost match it, which is a relief. We do however now get an opening blurb at the beginning of each episode which is quite a long winded overview by Molly.

So, things kick off with a failed government attempt to take down an human alien in, of course, a warehouse. The soldiers start to turn on each other as the alien's eyes glow and take control of the situation. David Morrissey's chief of security character is naturally dismayed at the outcome of no captured alien and dead soldiers. At their funeral, which is a fraction of a second later, he gets more bad news that Molly is out of the hospital with JD. Seems he's only now catching up on last week's episode.

Ethan this week looks like someone hell bent on being mean because he can. He's not happy with Julie looking after him, and gets angry at home by throwing his breakfast over the floor, and then at her work he starts playing games loudly. Overhearing Julie's boss telling her to do as she's told or they'll take him away from her, he attempts to go all Carebear on us, by glowing his core chest battery to dangerous levels and threatening to kill himself. He doesn't of course. He's talked down by Julie and her sidekick Charlie. To help Ethan get over this "pain" of being with her, she "takes away" his memories, so that he now thinks she's his mum. You can be sure as anything, that that's not going to end up going well for either of them. Not least when earlier, the enforced test of the new humanbot, Lucy, ends up with Charlie's hand getting crushed.

JD is the star of the show, with all the good lines, and he and Molly roll together nicely, although even though he's beginning to realise that she knows stuff, they clearly aren't fully on each other's side yet. Back at her apartment, after a failed attempt to extract information from a lady they suspect has an alien baby inside her, she drugs JD in a rather pathetic way, and then goes back after the lady again, yelling at her at a supermarket, before things go seriously weird. We have visions of Molly having sex in some club and then awaking in a forest where she chats to the obligatory scary child with bright eyes. Yes, an alien. Seconds later and JD is waking her up in her own bed. She nor he knows how she got there but he's not happy with her behaviour. Thankfully he places a tracking device on her secretly, because she absconds yet again, but this time he knows where she's gone.

Seems so do the military, because in the closing scenes, as they prepare to take out an alien human again, who happens to be Molly's aged and not dead at all alien son (yes, really), they get a visual on the scene and see Molly with him! Shock and not much horror. A little rattled, David Morrissey's general guy orders the drone strike, and we get the credits come up. It's supposed to be a cliffhanger but only an idiot would think the star earner of the whole TV show will be blown up in episode two, so expect JD to have something to do with that.

What I liked

JD; what a cool charismatic guy.

David Morrissey adds character, but he seems to play the same kind of strong voiced guy in every show I see him in.

It was quite a fast paced episode, which is useful, because if it wasn't, we might doze off.

What I Didn't Like

Ethan; I know critics like this side of the story, but I feel this human/robot thing has been done so many times in other shows and much better. I just find it cheesy and him to be plain intent on being nothing but a nuisance.

Aliens and their glowing eyes. Don't mind the concept, just looks naff on this show.

So, Molly's Alien Son had his head explode last week, but this week we're told he escaped the morgue and has aged to be an adult? What was that all about last week then??

Even though Molly was seen with tablets just seconds before, when JD passed out due to the drugs in his drink, we got a flashback to Molly putting the tablets in the drink. AS IF WE COULDN'T HAVE WORKED THAT OUT?!?!

Huh?

Julie's boss and she's quite demanding. Gotta like that in a woman ...

Wait! It's Star Trek: Enterpise's doctor, Phlox! And he's playing ... a doctor!

The new human bot's female look was deliberate by creator John. She's supposed to look like Molly. Guess he got the skin colour right ...

Scary non-talkative children in woods? Tick!

It's carebear Ethan!

Molly on a date? Surely not, as that's her alien son you know!
And Finally

So, JD aside, Mr Morrissey gives a decent performance, whilst Ethan is the usual brat and Molly the usual frantic mad nut who doesn't stop for a breather. Still, things move so quickly in this episode that interest is maintained.

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