TV REVIEW: Extant Escalates Quickly As Molly Goes on the Run in “Wish You Were Here”

By Chelsea Hensley

Last week’s episode of CBS’ Extant was pretty liberal with sharing information, but “Wish You Were Here” locks down on what it has revealed thus far. The conspiracy angle ratchets up some as Sparks and ISEA seek to move Molly into the quarantine Harmon mentioned, but other than that it’s not an episode looking to offer more answers, it’s other big concern is Ethan’s first day at school. Extant’s brisk pacing shows itself again as the episode concludes with Molly, John and Ethan abandoning their home to go on the run, a plot point that doesn’t seem like it should be upon us so early, and one that may be coming too fast.

But we’ll come back to that.

We already know that Harmon’s paranoid. His brand of paranoia (the trailer with no cell-phone reception and the wildly growing facial hair) seems over the top in all iterations, but he probably has the right idea. After his and Molly’s chat last week he’s nowhere to be found, his trailer left abandoned except for a drawing on his wall of the same circles that appeared on Molly’s abdomen when she collapsed, circles that turn up again on Molly’s arm in this episode. While Harmon’s paranoia may seem over the top, Molly could probably use some of it for herself. She’s excessively trustworthy considering Harmon’s warnings, and most of that comes from her being just too practical.

This is the same woman who denied all evidence of her being pregnant because she’s never been able to conceive, a woman who doesn’t hop on her husband’s bandwagon about how easy it is to make their robot son love. She’s a scientist after all (though you can argue that John is also a scientist), and when presented with valid alternatives to strange questions, she accepts them.  So she believes Sparks’ explanation about her pregnancy: it’s the result of a secret medical experiment using Molly’s eggs and John’s sperm left over from their infertility treatments. Though Sparks peppers it with the requisite apologies and self-deprecating promises of his career surely being ruined when it comes out, it’s a lie, and he plans on whisking Molly into quarantine.

The problem with delving into what the bad guys (Sparks and Yasumoto) are up to is that we know things the heroes don’t know. Sometimes this works, but it can only go so far. Eventually it ends up making our heroes look stupid and/or naive for trusting these obviously untrustworthy people, and “Wish You Were Here” falls into this trap. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so annoying if there were other people willing to believe Sparks’ explanation, too. But on top of the disappeared Harmon, there’s Sam who doesn’t buy that anyone in medical would pursue experiments like that. Then there’s John, brought into the loop about Molly’s pregnancy (quite anticlimactically) and is just as uncertain about trusting Sparks and ISEA.

Image © CBS

It’s just Molly who’s willing to along with it. Though she does a DNA test with Sam, she’s eventually willing to accept Sparks’ offer. To be fair there’s an understandable reason for this decision. Her hallucinations are picking up. She recalls Marcus aboard the Serafin (with more of “It’s okay” and the abdomen touching) then sees Marcus’ brother who seems to surprise her at her birthday party before Molly figures out he’s not really there.

But it just feels so wrong. Rather, it doesn’t feel as though it’s unfolded enough to get here. Last week Extant‘s quicker pace worked in its favor, and here it just leaves me wondering where it’s going. Now that the family is on the move, we’re being taken out of the environment for some new destination, and apparently leaving behind the universe the past few episodes have built up.

Like Ethan going to school for the first time, which takes up a prominent portion of this week’s episode. It’s off to a rocky start with parents wondering if Ethan’s safe to have there, leading John and Molly to leap to his defense. Whether or not Ethan actually is safe is up in the air. We didn’t actually see him kill that bird in the first episode, and though he has his creepier moments it’s still unclear if he could be violent. The bird he catches this episode is kept in John’s workshop with no food or air, but that could just be the results of pre-adolescent carelessness.

Image © CBS

This uncertainty undermines Molly and John’s continuous defenses of him, and it’s more confusing in this episode than it has been in the past. Molly pointing out that people are just scared of Ethan because he’s different is powerful and important, but it loses its credibility since we still don’t know how valid people’s concerns are. And Extant‘s not exactly advocating for understanding when they show Ethan shrouded in shadow like every demon child ever as John finds his hidden pet.

The question is how can Extant maintain momentum in that when we’re leaving it already? It’s the same with Julie who’s concerned about Ethan going to school with a bunch of kids who may or may not be complete terrors. It’s not an unreasonable concern (because little kids aren’t known for their tolerant playground politics), but Julie seems disturbingly opposed to it. She’s even more put-off by John’s reminder that Ethan’s his family now, and he’s therefore especially invested in doing right by him. I’m glad Grace Gummer’s getting more to do on the show, but it’s difficult to see how much time the show will be able to invest in it now that we’ve escalated to the Woods’ running. Whatever her problem is, whether it be an inappropriate obsession with John and/or Ethan or some residual resentment for a difficult childhood of her own, why should anyone care about it when John, Molly and Ethan have fled and are now certainly going to be unable to contribute?

The only side character who doesn’t have this problem is Sam, thoroughly ingrained in the main arc. Her role in getting to the bottom of Molly’s pregnancy mystery gets her into trouble with ISEA who empty her office and apprehend her as she’s leaving. Whatever’s next for her can withstand Extant‘s quickly moving plot, but it remains to be seen if the same is true for other characters.

Stray Observations

• Molly seems to have a lot of friends, even ones that are pretty important to the family, like Brynn who looks after Ethan at school and is important enough to warrant an appearance with her newly issued driver’s license in Molly’s birthday video.
• Speaking of, why didn’t they show that video at Molly’s actual welcome home party?
• Flashbacks explain that Molly’s been pregnant before (first with Marcus’ baby and then with John’s), but other than that there doesn’t seem to be reason for going back. In a show full of questions and blank spots, these flashbacks filled in things that weren’t all that empty to begin with.

Leave your thoughts in the comments.