TV REVIEW: Extant Poses More Questions & Offers Potential Answers in “Extinct”

By Chelsea Hensley

Extant is moving ahead at a brisk pace considering it’s only the second episode. The most pressing questions are still there, though they’re being joined by more involving ISEA and its motives while some potential answers are floating around. The specifics of what happened to Molly on her mission are still unknown, but we do know it’s something she has in common with Harmon who saw someone on his own solo mission: his dead mother, and now he and Molly share brain abnormalities.

Molly’s encounter with Marcus was disturbing on its own, but Harmon’s with his mother is even more disconcerting. Perhaps it’s because Harmon’s mother was sickly before she died, and she appears just as ill as she was then as she approaches her son, touching his abdomen just as Marcus touched Molly’s. Harmon’s attempt at fleeing and erecting a barricade between them proves futile since his mother only appears again (uttering a refrain of “Mother?” and later, “No”), following him into the airlock where Harmon traps her and tearfully sends her flying out into space.
Harmon’s return home was a bit different from Molly’s as well as he was immediately forthcoming about what he saw, even showing ISEA the security footage (which Molly only gets to view some of before she’s locked out). But it only got him designated as crazy. So Molly keeping things close to the vest and deleting her own footage is looking like a particularly good decision in the wake of this new information, even as Molly’s not very intent on keeping her secret anymore anyway, at least not from everyone.

John’s still in the dark as Molly dreads the change that will come with telling him that she’s inexplicably pregnant, but Ethan’s probably caught on to something being up after finding Molly unconscious on their kitchen floor after another Marcus sighting. But Sam’s in the know (and she knows most of the truths about Molly’s current situation), and once the pregnancy is confirmed with an ultrasound, Molly doesn’t waste time confronting Sparks. It’s probably the moment when Molly’s character begins to make the most sense. She’s straightforward, even painfully rational. Rational to the point that she doubts her pregnancy despite all evidence, even convinced that her brain abnormalities have her experiencing a hysterical pregnancy, until faced with an image of the fetus that makes denial impossible. Harmon fakes his death and holes up in a trailer while trying to figure out what ISEA did to him, but Molly plants herself in Sparks’ headlights and just asks.

Halle Berry as Molly Woods. Image © CBS

Molly’s questions don’t yield many answers as Sparks denies everything and assures her that as her friend, he’d never do anything to hurt her least of all conducting experiments on her that leave her mysteriously pregnant. It’s hard to tell how much of that Molly believes though probably not much if her tearful reminder that he was supposed to protect her and Harmon means anything. Then Sparks is with Yasumoto and spilling the beans, talking about a mysterious them Yasumoto believes is on Earth already. Throw in a mention of Sparks’ dead daughter Katie, and the conspiracy only gets bigger.

John’s research takes a backseat this episode even as Femi Dodd (Annie Wersching) turns up again to voice her reservations about the Humanichs. She’s just a smaller piece of a storyline made up of many smaller pieces including Ethan’s new body, being formed to make up for his inability to age normally, and Julie’s obvious feelings for John and resentment at Molly’s return. None of these things are particularly interesting on their own. It’s obvious that John’s project is probably going to end up being just as much trouble as people suspect, and Julie (Grace Gummer) having grown too attached to him and Ethan is nothing but predictable, but neither of these stories got enough time in this hour to wear their welcome.
But the same can’t be said of John and Molly’s strained relationship. It’s hard to call it strained when it doesn’t feel that way until John says so. Having Molly skip out on their lunch because she’s with Harmon gives John something to be irritated about, but like his argument last week that it feels like she’s pulling away, it doesn’t look that way from our end. First, it doesn’t feel as though Molly has been back on Earth long enough to put distance between herself and her family. She’s actually been pretty attentive at least to Ethan (who isn’t as busy as John is) taking him for ice cream last week and to a museum birthday party this time. It’s clear that the show is trying to sow troublesome seeds in their relationship to add to the drama of Molly’s pregnancy and her having to tell him, but it doesn’t feel natural.

The episode’s called “Extinct”, and for a second episode of a series, it’s incredibly illuminating, opening up a lot of possibilities for what the show is about. Yasumoto has a life expectancy of around one hundred days, and Ethan is now drawing pictures of his family in a spaceship where he hopes they’ll be safe from extinction. Is all of this about immortal life or just extending Yasumoto’s? Perhaps it’s about creating some protection from the them Yasumoto and Sparks are so interested in, that Sparks’ thinks they’re not equipped to handle at this point? Are Marcus and Harmon’s mother just representations of an alien life form trying to invade (like the video game Ethan gifts his friend)? And if so, does that mean Molly’s baby is the first of the invaders?

Stray Observations
Molly is approached by a pregnant acquaintance who questions how they got Ethan into school, implying that his eventual first day isn’t going to go all that smoothly.

Sam says the fetus is normal and human, but how human can it be considering the circles Ethan saw emerging from Molly’s abdomen?
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