The second Extant two-hour special event leaves us right where we left off in the boiler room with Alan Sparks and his hallucination of his daughter. His daughter’s message is simple: help the baby and he can imagine her forever. That’s exactly what he does, taking off with the baby, lying to Yasomoto that he doesn’t know where the baby is, and quitting this whole conspiracy thing. Add in an enraged Kryger, a trapped Molly, and a night in with a robot and his unsuspecting assassin — we’re in for another action filled two hours of TV.
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A Cabin In The Woods
Alan seeks refuge at Wimberly Woods, a campground he used to take Katie to as a child. He’s happy as clam interacting with the figment of his imagination, while the baby who’s responsible for all of this lays nearby drinking soda pops (that was super creepy). He’s so lost in it, he even steps out to call his wife, telling her to meet him out there. We don’t get a clear picture of the baby¸ just a pair of creepy eyes when it wanders outside and hides in the bushes. Esther mistakes it for a coyote and that assumption really does her in.
She returns back to the office, calling the police about the coyote when she sees that the door to Alan’s cabin is open. Afraid that the coyote may have gotten in, she and her shot gun go out to investigate. She calls out to Alan and at this point we’re thinking the baby may have killed him or something. But that idea is put to rest when she sees her dead husband. He tells her that everything is fine and she should go back to the office. She’s in awe that he’s there but the creak of the cabin door spins her around and Alan blindsides her. After struggling for the gun he accidentally shoots her, putting a whole damper on the dead daughter and crazy father outing he had planned.
The next morning, the police show up, getting Esther’s message about the coyote. This suspected animal sighting also gets him into a lot of trouble. Upon finding the camp owner’s body dead in the barn, he gets a shovel to the head. Alan is about to finish the job but his imaginary Katie tells him the baby needs him –he’s hungry. As you probably can guess from that, you would think it’s something gross and gory. But later on in the show we see the same cop except he is under the baby’s complete control, along with a car repair man, whose sole mission to make sure Molly and the baby meet.
To make the family reunion complete, Alan enlists the help of his ex-wife and it doesn’t take much to get her on board. One look at the younger version of her dead daughter is all it takes to do whatever she needs to keep seeing her.
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Yasomoto Kindly Takes The Family Hostage
In the midst of the losing the baby, Alan going off the grid, and the craziness at Claypoole, Yasomoto gets a visit from an unlikely person: John Woods. Believing he has no place else to turn, John goes to him for help to find Molly. Yasomoto has every intention of finding her but not for the reasons John thinks. He assures him that what’s happening is a grand shift in the world of humanity and to make sure everyone’s safe, Yasomoto suggests that he and Ethan should stay with him. At first John isn’t too cool with the idea but Yasomoto assures him that he can help find Molly and keep her family safe. So the whole gang meets up at his home, Odin included, with a slew of hidden agendas swirling under one roof.
John is totally okay with this until Molly finally does show up. He realizes that Yasomoto has a completely different agenda than he does and when he brings up his concerns, Yasomoto tightens up the home security.
John finds a way around it, enlisting Ethan to sneak down to the lab and get a message to Julie. He succeeds in getting out but runs into Odin instead. He tells Ethan that Julie just left but he would be more than happy to take him to her. I can tell you right now, this arrangement is not looking good at all!
Keep Your Enemies Close
Speaking of hidden agendas, Odin’s plan to stop the rise of the machines comes to the forefront of the show though we aren’t sure how he’s going to take out Ethan. What we do see is how he’s slowly but surely getting Ethan to be his BFF and encourage him to rebel against his father. After leaving the two alone for a tour of the lab, it’s clear by Ethan’s suddenly cold attitude towards John. Odin also does a good job of sweeping Julie off her feet so she won’t get in his way, either.
Another potentially dangerous pairing happens at Claypoole. Molly finally finds a way out –through the elevator shaft. The climb up proves tough and she has to think fast because Yasomoto’s men are there to bring her in. She finally manages to scale the wall high enough to get to the next floor up (though I don’t see how she did that with wedges on!). She sets off the alarm, the head goon kills the lights, and gets some crazy night vision going on. Molly proves how driven and resourceful she is, using a flashlight to blind him and take his gun when it gets too close to her hiding place. Just as she’s about to make a break for it, he tells her that Yasomoto has her family.
Taking the goon and his truck she heads out to meet him and he spills the beans about kidnapping her and taking the baby. His reasoning was that he thought it would be better for the baby but he was wrong. The baby belongs with his mother and he wants to help make that happen. They both have the same goal — keep the baby alive (and himself in the process). Molly reluctantly accepts his help in the form of Dr. Mason, a certified alien expert.
On the Road With Dr. Mason
Throughout the whole second half, we aren’t sure what end of the good guy/bad guy spectrum he falls on. At first he seems like an enthusiastic scholar who finally gets a chance to meet his first alien as he and Molly have lunch at a diner not far from Wimberly. The next minute a flock of birds attack the van he’s driving so she can get away. Molly runs back to the diner to get an emergency call to John. She tells him that the baby is warning her about Mason and she feels he and Ethan aren’t safe at Yasomoto’s.
Before she can go any further, Mason finds Molly. He cuffs and her and gets her back in the van. As they drive to the Wimberly place, he tells her that he just had a small army already onsite as a precaution. She doesn’t trust him and neither does the baby. He gets a blow to the back of the head by the mind controlled mechanic and Alan’s there to show Molly to her baby.
Well Placed Flashbacks
Unlike the first couple of episodes, flashbacks to Molly’s life before the mission were kept to a minimum. The glimpses that we did see offered the insight we needed to appreciate what’s happening now. Before Molly went up for 13 months, things between her and John weren’t too good. She couldn’t see herself as the family John wanted them to be. John went so far as to ask her not to go but she wouldn’t pass up such an opportunity.
Another flashback was of her accident where Marcus was killed and she lost her baby. She was 7 months along and had to deliver the baby at the crash site with Marcus lying dead a few feet away from her. When she wakes up in the hospital, Sam delivers that bad news — her baby boy didn’t make it. He was just too small to survive.
Molly Finally Gets To Meet Her Baby…Sort Of
Molly walks into the cabin but instead of camping décor, she’s finds herself back in the hospital the day of the accident. Instead of Sam giving her bad news, she tells her that Marcus was in ICU and her baby boy survived. She goes over to this cute mini version of Marcus and is utterly happy. In real life, she’s in a trance, being led out by Alan to the campgrounds office and set in front of a laptop. Molly thinks that something is wrong with the baby’s oxygen as the monitors start to sound and the baby starts crying. A voice that sounds like Ben from the Seraphim tells her that she can fix it by entering codes into the monitor panel. In reality, Molly is entering an ISEA code that’s sending a current spaceship back to Earth.
Alan tells his wife he has what he needs and prepares to get rid of Molly. Katie stops him, telling him the baby needs his mother. With the help of entranced repair guy, they get the dazed Molly and prepare to get out of there.
Kryger and Gordon Show Up Late to the Party
During the entire 2 hour show, these two had a hell of time finding Sparks and the baby. They were always a day late and dollar short until arriving at Wimberly. The deputy they thought was dead was doing a great job keeping them away but they finally took him down and arrived at the campgrounds. They were just in time to see Alan heading to his car where his wife and the baby were waiting. All the commotion snapped Molly out of her spell and into a gun fight. She manages to get away, Kryger shooting her captor in the arm. Unfortunately he catches a bullet and it doesn’t look like he’ll make it.
Watch an all new episode of Extant next Wednesday at 10pm on CBS.
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(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
