Molly pursues the truth about her pregnancy and compares experiences with Harmon. John tries out his new lab and gets closer with Yasumoto.
The Breakdown
Molly awakes to an ominous sound, like a fetal heartbeat. When she goes to investigate it is merely a pair of sneakers in the dryer. John sets up an extravagant lunch to celebrate his funding and Molly’s safe return. Director Sparks asks Sam when he can expect Molly’s re-entry exam results. Sam lies and says she doesn’t have them but that they can be expected that night or the next morning. John arrives at Yasumoto Tower to check out his new lab. Molly and Ethan play games and reconnect at home. As Molly prepares to go out she hears the ominous sound again and then feels an intense pain in her abdomen. Marcus appears and tells her that it will be okay. Ethan hears a thud from his room and finds that Molly has collapsed. A circle pattern rises from her stomach and leaves an indentation in her shirt as she comes to, telling Ethan that she’s okay.
Molly takes Ethan to the museum where there is a party for Ethan’s friend Andrew. Sam meets Molly there where she tells her about her experience that morning. Sam wants to tell Sparks but Molly says she doesn’t trust him. She tells Sam that Harmon is alive and was so afraid of whatever is happening at the ISEA that he faked his own death. Sam reveals that Harmon had some kind of neurovirus that caused abnormalities in his brain scan and that Molly has the same abnormalities. Molly demands an ultrasound and Sam says she’ll set one up in secret. Meanwhile, Ethan has gone missing in the museum and Molly goes to search for him. When she finds him she scolds him for running off. Ethan asks her not to tell John, so she says she’ll keep his secret if he keeps her secret about passing out that morning. Harmon is watching them from the balcony. Harmon has a flashback to his time on the Seraphim. The onboard computer warns him about a solar flare as the power goes out, like it did when Molly had her experience. When he goes to investigate he finds wet footprints leading to what appears to be his mother.
Molly brings Ethan to John’s lab for his meeting with Yasumoto. Molly talks with John’s lab partner Julie, which seems a bit tense and awkward. Yasumoto expertly feigns interest in John’s Humanics Project and manages to ask how Molly is since her return, saying he’d like to meet her. He suggests they all have dinner together. Molly goes to work and accesses the security footage from Harmon’s mission. She does not have access to main cameras during the solar flare, but can watch from secondary cameras. After the power is restored, Harmon works on barricading a door. Before Molly can find out more, someone remotely terminates her session. Molly gets freaked out and removes a device that monitors her health and vitals. As she leaves, Harmon arrives in a car and tells her to get in. Sparks and Kern discuss Molly’s behavior. Kern asks if they should bring her in and Sparks tells him to give her some more room.
Harmon tells Molly that everyone in charge told him that he was crazy, but that he saw someone on the Seraphim. He has a flashback to when his mother stepped out of the airlock. She touches him and he recoils. He barricades her in, but when he turns around she is behind him. She reaches out for him but he runs away. He lures her to another airlock where he locks her in and ejects her into space. Harmon thinks that they exposed them to something to make them have visions, to test the effect of deep space on the human body without them knowing they were the experiments. While, John is waiting for Molly at the restaurant for their special lunch, Molly meets up with Sam and tells her about her meeting with Harmon. Sam takes Molly to a vet to do the ultrasound, where she uncovers what appears to be a completely normal 14 week old human fetus.
Molly confronts Sparks and tells him that she’s pregnant. She wants to know what they did to her and Sparks seems stunned. He promises that he would never do anything like that to her and that if anyone at the ISEA is responsible, that he’ll find out who it is. Sparks reports to Yasumoto who takes it as proof that they’ve finally found “them”, that “they” are already here. Sparks says that if that’s true, then they’re way out of their depth. Yasumoto says that they’ll be honoring Katie Spark’s sacrifice, that it all started with Sparks’ daughter. After Sparks leaves, Yasumoto checks in with a device that tells him he has a life expectancy of 102 days. It is revealed that he has a relationship with one of his board members, Femi Dodd, the woman who opposes his involvement with Humanics. Molly comes home where John is upset that she missed their lunch, but tells her that he’s here for her whenever she’s ready to share what’s going on with her.
The Analysis
I still find it highly unbelievable that Molly would find herself impossibly, mysteriously pregnant and not seek immediate medical attention. I suppose I can understand that a woman who believed herself to be unable to conceive and had tried unsuccessfully for ten years would hesitate to terminate what seems to be a miracle pregnancy, but finding yourself infested with what amounts to a parasitic being in the guise of a human baby is pretty alarming. I am reminded of Noomi Rapace’s mad panicked dash in Prometheus (2012) to extract the rapidly gestating mystery fetus from her womb. That is how I would react. And I think that reaction would be pretty reasonable, given the circumstances. I’ve seen enough David Cronenberg movies to know how this turns out.
On another note, what’s up with Julie and John? Did they maybe have a fling while Molly was in space and now its all awkward? I think there’s probably a lot more that will be revealed in this area in the coming episodes, because something is happening with Julie. First it was the disappointment when John brought his own coffee from home, then it was the forced conversation with Molly at the lab. John is appropriately oblivious, and in fact doesn’t seem to have any very special relationship or feelings toward Julie at all, which makes it doubly strange. Either he’s an expert actor, or Julie’s issues are only on her side. Perhaps she merely felt like part of the family while Molly was gone and feels like that family was taken away from her. Maybe Julie, too, is coming down to Earth and has some adjustments to make.
The conspiracy around the Seraphim and the mysterious “them” that started with Katie Sparks’ unknown sacrifice is weaving together nicely. Its all pretty vague right now, and how it all comes together with Humanics, Molly and Harmon, Yasumoto’s short life expectancy and his affair with the disapproving board member, or Julie’s awkwardness, is anyone’s guess really. I guess we’ll just have to see what’s relevant and what isn’t when it all comes together.
