Extant: Take Shelter

Extant has been pretty solid so far.  In the first three episodes, we’ve seen Halle Berry only presuming what her pregnancy might mean, and we have witnessed the birth (so to speak) of a conspiracy against her and her family.  This week’s episode kept me on the edge of my seat, and it’s clear the higher-ups at the ISEA aren’t above messing with anyone to get their way.

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At the beginning of the fourth episode of Extant, Molly, John, and Ethan are on the run from the ISEA.    I appreciate that the episode doesn’t waste any time setting that up from the get-go.  Where is the Woods clan heading?  I’m glad you asked!  Louis Gossett Jr. plays Molly’s father (whaaaaat?!), and they are going to hide out in his island house long enough for Molly to perform the DNA tests on herself.  They wonder why Sparks would place Molly in quarantine if they told her the baby belonged to her and John.  The idyllic Vasper Island might be rocked soon, because it doesn’t appear that the gentlemen at the ISEA aren’t going to take Molly’s sudden disappearance lightheartedly.

After Yasumoto speaks with Sparks, he goes to a lab where two German doctors are replicating “the meteor’s substance.”  They’ve created a thick, earwax-colored gunk, and they have eliminated any side effects from it touching a person’s skin.  However, there are still complications when it comes in contact with one’s respiratory system.  Yasumoto asks one of the doctors to remove his mask, and the doctor starts bleeding from his eyes.  Perhaps he is trying to convince the audience that he is really the bad guy here and not the suited men of the ISEA.

The relationship between Molly and her father, Quinn, seems a bit strained (she hasn’t been back in 6 years).  Does it have something to do with Molly’s mother?  She tells a nice story to Ethan about how her mother got her name, and Molly wants to make sure her father hasn’t started drinking again.  Meanwhile, Sam is still being detained at ISEA, and when she tries to flush Molly’s blood sample, Sparks barges right in.  To be honest, I’m surprised Sam didn’t bite back about how she needed some privacy, but, hey, that’s just me.  When Sparks runs to Yasumoto (I’m going to start referring to him as Yasu’s bitch), he informs Sparks that the experiments “to recreate the life-altering substance has failed…the answer might be what Molly is carrying inside her.”  Apparently, Yasumoto wants to take out every award-winning actress on this show.

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We get to see the relationship between Quinn and Ethan, and it’s one of my favorite things from this week’s episode.  Quinn’s effortless acceptance of his grandson is a nice change from the adversities and prejudices that Ethan has been faced with (and he will eventually face later in life).  In one scene, he teaches Ethan how to skip rocks in the ocean.  Ethan struggles at first, and Quinn doesn’t allow him to get discouraged.  Their nice interaction is interrupted, however, by a stranger from the ISEA who approaches them.

Back at the house, John has used some of Molly’s older equipment to build a machine to determine the DNA of the baby.  This family is seriously the best at building something from almost nothing.  Between Ethan’s bird trap last episode and John’s ingenuity last night, they could take over the world.  Molly asks Quinn if she can look after Ethan in order for some “time to themselves” (I raised my eyebrow at that a bit), and Molly tells Quinn that she isn’t there to fight with him.  One of Extant’s strengths (especially in this episode) is showing the human interactions between the Woods family set against the backdrop of this huge, space conspiracy.  Right after this nice family moment comes a sequence where Yasumoto sets up a sterile tent where he obviously is going to hold a quarantined Molly as soon as he gets his hands on her.

Back at the ISEA, Sparks still has Sam detained.  Another layer of mystery is revealed when he brings up Sam’s brother.  Apparently, Sam erases the identity of her younger brother Billy after he was caught up in the shooting of an unarmed man when he was 19 years old.  Even though Sam insists that her brother is on the right track, Sparks still threatens her (“he’s susceptible to all sorts of pitfalls…seen and unseen…” Sparks tells her menacingly), and it appears that Sam will do whatever it takes to protect Billy.

Quinn takes Ethan to a neighborhood bar, and, let’s face it, we don’t think anything good can come from that.  The bar patrons are at rapt attention as Ethan plays a game where he tries to swing a metal ring onto a hook attached to the wall (my husband informed me that this particular bar game is actually quite popular…guess I didn’t go to the right speakeasies as a youngster).  Quinn’s excitement at Ethan’s expertise allows himself to start drinking (NOOOOOO!!!), but he gets furious with Ethan when he misses the third ring swing and causes Quinn to lose a handful of money.  It’s really sad to see Quinn speak his disappointment with Ethan in the car ride home after Extant shows their great connection earlier in the episode.  In his anger and frustration, Quinn storms out of his truck, and when he turns around, Ethan is gone.

In a truly scary sequence, we see armed ISEA soldiers carrying a terrified Ethan through the woods.  They place him on the ground and open up his back.  Using a cattle-prod like device, they shock Ethan and we see the sky from his point of view.  The stars he gazed upon with his mother hours ago is scrambled, and they leave him there to be discovered by Molly.  When she finds her son unconscious on the ground, the ISEA zeroes in on her and takes her away.  Meanwhile, John and Quinn are also feverishly looking for Ethan, and they are met with a bigoted sheriff who refuses to let his men and dogs “waste their time” looking for Ethan.  John punches the cop when he suggests the worst thing that could happen is Ethan rusting, and he and Quinn are arrested.

Molly wakes up groggy on a hospital bed surrounded by doctors (they are kind of dressed like Sub-Zero and Scorpion from the original Mortal Kombat).  They give her another shot and her stomach starts gurgling.  She makes a valiant effort at escaping, and it appears that Molly is aboard a ship in the middle of the ocean.  At the same time, Sparks breaks into Quinn’s house and finds the machine John rebuilt to test Molly’s DNA.  He presses the ‘Get Results’ button just as Molly is taken to Yasumoto’s sterile lab and her stomach is cut open.

This episode was great.  I’m most concerned with Ethan’s well-being because the preview for next’s week’s episode makes him look like he was completely reprogrammed.  Are we going to see Molly’s baby?  I don’t want to sound too politically charged here, but it appears that Extant is showing a woman’s body being manipulated by the white men around her.  Is that on purpose?  Is it pure coincidence?  All I know is that the ISEA is really concerned with Molly’s body, and it’s making for very thoughtful television.

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