In the previous episode of Extant, the Humanich army launched an attack on the hybrid community that resulted in many deaths. During the attack, they released the hybrid-killing virus and Molly’s son became infected. Molly went to great lengths to try to save her son, but the virus was too advanced and he passed away. Meanwhile, JD turned himself in to the GSC in order to get his daughter released, everyone learned the truth about Lucy’s manipulation, Lucy attacked Julie and Ethan had to “kill” her, and Molly started showing symptoms of the virus.
In this episode, “The Other Side,” Molly experiences strange dreams thanks to the virus that is quickly taking her life. These dreams bring up a long buried memory from her childhood. Meanwhile, the surviving hybrids seek revenge for the attack on their community, and Louis Gossett, Jr. returns as Molly’s father.
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Are These Molly’s Final Moments?
Molly is fading fast thanks to the hybrid-killing virus. Toby’s team is working on finding a cure to save her, but it does not look good and Toby needs to get answers from Molly while she is still conscious. Toby wants to know how many of the hybrids survived and where they went. All Molly will say is that the hybrids want peace and that she would like to see Ethan before she dies.
Molly decides to leave a video message behind for Ethan so he can have some answers about his past. She tells him that she tried to be a good mother and a good wife but it did not come easy to her. Before she finishes the video, Molly slips into a dream-like state where she has a vision of her father.
In the dream/vision, Molly and her father are at a carnival he took her to when she was a child. But Molly sees people from her present-day life at this carnival as well, making it more of a hallucination than a memory. She spots Ethan in the crowd, sees Toby running one of the carnival games, and imagines JD showing up offering to help her.
As the creepy dream/vision continues, Molly sees her father kissing their neighbor. This is when Molly realizes that the dream is also a memory. When she was little, her father took her to that carnival so he could sneak off to meet up with his mistress. Later that night, they got the call that Molly’s mother died in a car accident.
We realize that Molly is having this dream/vision so she can confront her father, as well as herself. She tells her father that she could never forgive him for his affair, just like she could not forgive John when she learned that he cheated on her with Julie. Molly’s father tells her that forgiveness is what makes us human. He encourages her to forgive him, to forgive John and most of all, to forgive herself.
As the dream/vision comes to a close, Molly is heading for the final departures sign. She has seemingly given up the fight, but her loved ones beg her to stay. Molly does not listen to her father or even JD, but when Ethan appears in her vision, she fights to get back to him. Alas, she is told that it is too late and she already made her choice. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Molly flatlines.
I think it is safe to say that Molly will survive her brush with death, but will she wake up before it is too late to save the people she loves? What kind of world will she be coming back to?
I was not a fan of Molly’s father last season and I am not thrilled to see him again here. I wish the show had used John or Ahdu as Molly’s dream/vision guide instead of her father. While I understand that the reveal of Molly’s father’s affair was meant to explain why Molly reacted so strongly to learning about John’s affair, I am not sure this is something we needed to revisit. I wish the show had explored a different aspect of Molly’s past or had her guilt be related to missing out on raising her sons instead of not being able to forgive her cheating husband.
The Hybrids are Here
Throughout the episode, Toby’s team is trying to come up with a cure for the hybrid-killing virus. The first step in finding this cure is to examine one of the dead hybrids. But the “dead” hybrid is Terra, one of the hybrids Molly’s son warned her she could not trust. Terra apparently faked her death so she would be brought into the GSC. She then sheds her skin, thus aging several years, and uses her mind-control abilities to get the guard to let the rest of the hybrids into the GSC.
As the hybrids invade the GSC, Terra and the new leader of the group, Ares, make their way to the lab. Since the GSC used a virus against their people, they plan to find a virus to use against the humans. Apparently without Ahdu’s leadership, the hybrids are no longer interested in peace.
Does Charlie Make the Right Choice?
Kate Burton returns as Stanton, one of the GSC’s higher-ups. Julie and Charlie meet with her and report that Lucy tried to kill Julie. They tell her that they want to keep the rest of the Humanichs offline because they all had the same programming Lucy did and therefore, they cannot be trusted. But Stanton says the hybrid threat takes priority over everything else and the Humanichs are their best defense against the hybrids. She refuses to let them be shut down. She tells Charlie and Julie to work out the “glitches” in their programming and get them back up and running.
But Julie has decided that she is done making all the wrong choices so she tells Charlie to shut the program down right away, even though doing so could get them both sent to prison. Unfortunately, shutting the Humanichs down turns out to be a lot more complicated than they expected. Charlie finally finds a solution but just as he does, they get an alert that the Humanichs are needed at the GSC right away.
Charlie seemingly ignores the call-to-arms, but when Toby reaches out to him directly, he explains the situation. With Julie and Ethan stuck inside the GSC, Charlie decides to put the Humanichs back online so they can go after the hybrids and hopefully save those trapped at the GSC. Charlie makes this decision based on his feelings for Julie and Ethan, but I do not know if it is the wrong call. Granted, the Humanichs are a dangerous threat, but so are the hybrids. Was Charlie right to choose the “lesser” of the two evils or was there another option he never considered?
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Other Happenings
— Toby tells JD that Molly turned herself in so he would be released. JD refuses to answer Toby’s questions until he sees Molly. JD sits with an unconscious Molly and tells her that she needs to fight this virus. He tells her that she is the strongest person he has ever met and that there are people who need her. He is one of them. He also tells her that she turned his world inside out, but he does not regret a moment of it. It is a very sweet scene and makes me hopeful about their future together.
— With Molly dying, Charlie and Julie give Ethan back his memories of his parents. Ethan goes to see Molly and pleads with her not to leave him now that he finally remembers who she is. Ethan begging his mother to stay with him is probably my favorite moment of the episode and I hope once Molly wakes up, these two get to spend a lot more time together.
— While waiting for word on Molly, JD and Toby get drunk on 25-year-old scotch. They have another discussion about morality before JD asks about John’s death. Molly believes that Toby killed John, but Toby swears he did not and JD actually believes him. JD tells him about the call Julie made to Anna that night, but Toby knows Anna does not have the power to order a hit. Toby knows it had to be someone higher up in the chain-of-command but he does not know who. He does tell JD that John once had a problem with someone outside of the GSC, making one wonder if the GSC was involved in John’s death at all.
What did you think of this episode of Extant? What are the hybrids’ plans? Are they going to kill everyone in the GSC and then go live in peace? Or will they use the viruses at the GSC to wipe out the entire human race? Will the Humanichs be able to stop the hybrids and prevent more loss of life? Will Lucy be brought back online with the rest of the Humanichs or is her “death” permanent? Will Toby and JD work together to find out who killed John? Now that Ethan has his memories back, will he go back to living with his mom or will he stay with Julie? And will Molly remember the things Julie and JD said to her while she was unconscious? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Extant airs Wednesdays at 9pm on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
