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S01.E13 Ascension


Rhetorica

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Season Finale Episode Synopsis:
 

Molly returns to space in an attempt to redirect the Seraphim away from Earth and protect the world’s population from the deadly spores. John discovers that Odin’s plan has put Ethan in terrible danger.


Well crap, we still use shuttles? Did they bring them out of retirement? I was hoping with corporate aerospace technology we would have been further along.
I'm glad they finally told Ethan the truth about Odin. That certainly moved the episode along to Ethan's destiny - and purpose. The little boys were great, creepy and lovable at the same time. I didn't need Molly's sermon at the end; I got the message.
Best line was from Ben: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Molly..." Echoes from HAL?

 

Edited by SilverStormm
Put synopsis in quote box to seperate from comments. :)
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 Well that was disappointing.

The terror plot with Odin went nowhere, as did Yasumoto’s girlfriend involvement in said plot, and where was Yasumoto anyway?  He seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth while all this was going on. Did he finally kill over before his 8 day deadline. Did anti-techy girlfriend take him out? Speaking of Yasumoto, what happened to Sparks? He was a huge part of the show all season then he dropped off the face of the earth too.

 

The biggest disappointment was Ethan's 'death.' John and Molly didn't realize they loved him until he bit it, and even then Molly was still talking about her alien baby and whether he survived the blast or not. SMH. Also, as persistent as the alien spores are/were, I find it hard to believe that Molly was able to return home after 5 days and not be still contaminated or had contaminated others.

 

They kind of wrapped things up in a half-assed bow. If they do get a renewal, which I don't think they will, it's hard to imagine where they'll go with the story or even if it'll be interesting. I really don't care that the offspring caught a ride with some strangers and Ethan now being "everywhere" is not very appealing either. The technology terrorists story is pretty much dead in the water as is Yasumoto's quest for eternal life. Honestly, the way the finale ended it seems like the writers have no interest in continuing the story. They gave no indication that more drama was bubbling up beneath the surface. They kind of just showed where everyone ended up and that was it. Again, very disappointing.

Edited by Enero
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For the most part, I enjoyed the finale, but Ben was right.

 

This show turned out different from my expectations, in a good way. I was expecting more sci fi, and when that didn't happen more horror. But, like Molly's opening voice over stated, it was a story about family. While I originally didn't like that aspect of the show, the writers made it work for me in the end. 

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Hmm...it felt like more of a SERIES finale, than a SEASON finale. Everything was wrapped up until the very end, and the very end was like an X-Files episode. where it's like 'well, there are aliens...whatever...'

 

I expect that this should be renewed, but it seems like the showrunners strongly feel that it won't be renewed. Hmmm,..

 

I don't like kid-centric stuff, but the "face-off" between alien-kid and Ethan was actually pretty awesome. Loved it. Evil bloody alien boy - yes!

 

You know, I really love Goran Visnjic - yes, there is too much "My Ethan, my boy" for my taste, but dammit, he is fine and a pretty good actor. I like him.

 

Can I just say that the launch of the spaceship that took Molly to the Seraphim...made me really sad. Because it looks very much like NASA's recently scuttled space Shuttle program and just to really realize that the Shuttle program is literally dead...again makes me depressed. (note: I drooled over the Shuttle Discovery in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian museum in Washington. It makes me sad, as a space geek.)

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where was Yasumoto anyway?

Yeah, I'm truly disappointed that there was no conclusion to his arc.

 

I was never able to buy into the Ethan storyline (why is everyone treating him like a child, HE IS NOT) so I was glad that he finally did something useful and exploded. Then they un-deaded him. ::sigh::

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Once again -- nearly two minutes of previouslies. No surprise there. 

 

This is an entire episode of WTF ?

 

E-than has petty jealousy issues over his half-brother, his mommy doesn't love him the most.

 

The box with the bombs for the Seraphim literally has 'Plan C" labeled on it.

 

Spores ??  Since when has anyone even talked about the aliens as spores ?? Weird blue energy, sure, but spores ?  That seems to have come out of nowhere.

 

Molly has a extra super special spacesuit that will allow her to circumvent the aliens mind control -- based on what research ?

 

Interesting that they changed the shuttle launch from the promo -- the promo had the standard space shuttle with a rust-colored external fuel tank, but now it's a new and improved shuttle with a blue external fuel tank.

 

They kind of bypassed all of the achieving orbit and then rocketing into deep space toward the Seraphim station. 

 

How can she see anything with that bright light in her eyes in the spacesuit ?

 

Did we skip and episode ?  How did the ISEA find out about the spores on the condensers on the Serpahim station ?  And would they even know that they would survive re-entry (space spores are invincible I guess) ? 

 

Where's Kern ?  There he is, and he's alive.  Where the hell has he been for the last couple of episodes ?

 

They still haven't shown how the spores even got on the outside of the Seraphim station ?  From the Aruna shuttle ?  From AlienKatie ? Could I possibly use the word 'Seraphim' any more than I have so far ?

 

Not the 'leap of faith' chat again -- didn't they do that already with Data in Star Trek: TNG ?  Does TNG even exist in this show universe ?

 

That's a pretty shitty space suit if the glove can simply pop off like that.  Just saying.

 

With that red hoodie, the Offspring looks like a miniature Mark Zuckerberg putting the hex on everyone at the ISEA.

 

The 'Molly-exposed-to-the-spores-shaky-cam' was just fucking annoying.  If it was from her point of view, sure.  But it wasn't, which makes no sense.

 

How did Molly 'fight the contamination' exactly so that she is now ok ?

 

I thought they were locked out of Ethan's neural net -- they said that in a previous episode.  Is that just yet another dropped plot point ?

 

Ethan is the only one that thinks about a mode of transportation like a skateboard -- are there no Segways in the Extant universe ?

 

The visual display outside Molly's shuttle shows the Seraphim plummeting towards Earth, but the tracking display at the ISEA shows a multi-orbit spiral path down towards the Earth ?  If the Seraphim is going to crash in minutes, it's not going to take several hours based on that flight path

Blowing up the Seraphim doesn't change the trajectory of the cloud of debris headed for Earth.  Sure it might all burn up on re-entry, but spacespores are made of tough stuff.

 

The kid actor playing the Offspring really needs some acting lessons.  How did he get out of that building so quick to avoid the explosion ?  Did he use Ethan's scooter ?

 

Hold on a minute, Ethan can't hold a body temperature of 98.6 F ?  But that's normal body temp, I would imagine he would be programmed to always hold that temperature to fit in with the other children at school.  Does that mean he can't survive outdoors on hot summer days or go to the beach ?  That makes absolutely no sense at all.

 

Ethan -- may the good Lord take a liking to you and blow you up real soon !! (never miss a chance for a SCTV reference)

 

5 Days later and Molly is out of quarantine -- she was exposed to 'the spores' and had the blue EM field cavorting about her hand.  How did they disinfect her of the spores ?

 

Ethan is everywhere now.  Is he supposed to be the chosen one now ? Some sort of non-Matrix Neo ?  If they couldn't back him up, how did his software get saved and uploaded to the Internet ? Did he evolve or much like Skynet achieved consciousness and is now going to eradicate humanity ? Plus didn't they do this plot element on an X-Files episode, only it was a woman who uploaded her consciousness to the web ?

 

Plus, who has that many flatscreens in their house ?  I know it's the future and all, but there must have been 20+ flatscreens in that house.

Edited by ottoDbusdriver
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I thought the offspring actor was creepy. He did well and is a gorgeous little dude to boot. Actually the actor playing Ethan is good too. Better than the kid on The Strain ugh.

What up with the Odin/Yasumoto's red haired girlfriend storyline?

Ok so Molly and John live in a sports bar. Wtf with all the flat screens.

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I completely forgot about Yasumoto! But I can catch up with him when Helix comes back. 

I think the communication 

technology is projected on any flat surface, right? Not just flat screen tvs.

Spores were introduced when we saw doppelganger Katie a few episodes back. Surely you saw the tardigrades on Cosmos? Those little things can live anywhere, so - spores. 

http://www.wired.com/2014/03/absurd-creature-week-water-bear/

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I had much of the same reactions as others here have already posted about this episode and some of the details/ plot points, but the one thing I couldn't get out of my mind every time Mollie was on screen:

 

CUT YOUR DAMN FORELOCK!

 

You're not a pony. Geez.

 

Who in their right mind would be trying to save all mankind in 90 minutes with their hair completely blocking one eye? I'd be getting it out of my face any way I could at that point, even if it meant slicking it back with crazy glue!

 

I was really expecting (read: hoping) that Mollie WOULD blow up so that the series had a shot at continuing without the expensive movie star lead, who could then return to making movies with her "stylish-even-in-the-face-of-Armageddon" haircut, having "launched" the series (along with the Seraphim!).

Edited by slothgirl
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What up with the Odin/Yasumoto's red haired girlfriend storyline?

 

Odin -- where did he go ?

Yasumoto -- is he dead, because the last time we saw him he only had 3+ days of life left ?

Red-haired girlfriend -- pulled a Kaizer Soze, it's almost like she never existed at all.

 

Spores were introduced when we saw doppelganger Katie a few episodes back. Surely you saw the tardigrades on Cosmos? Those little things can live anywhere, so - spores.

 

But my question was how did the ISEA on Earth know about the spores ?  Even Sean Glass didn't know about them and he was right there on the station, and even if he was aware of the spores he was unable to communicate with the ISEA due to the comms failure.  Which circles back to how did the ISEA know about the spores ?

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A mixed bag, this finale.

 

*"John" can't physically be around his son as his wife lifts off to save the planet? STFU, "John".

*Sam cameo! ::happy dance::

* From my notes: "Decided: Like the helmet, except". I think I meant the placement of that light. It was pretty awkward.

*Bad premise to work from, Molly; that Not!Katie would be like hir mom. A very big assumption that turned out wrong- as you thought it might!

*Yay! Kryger! ::happy dances some more:: Stuff is gonna get done!

*I could almost hear Goran/"John" say "It's so crazy, it might work!" about sending Ethan in to help Molly.

*Why the scooter and not his bike? It was shown last episode and was a big deal to Ethan and "John". Whatev.

 

Instead of a slapfight, we get dueling exploding glass. Not as fun.*g*

 

I can see some threads for a second season, but I get the feeling TPTB aren't too interested or CBS isn't. (It did feel like there was a missing episode, to me as well. Some of those continuing stories could be:

a) How clean are Molly and Sean? The world? That must be some super-de-duper quarantining if it takes less than a week to make sure you have no perception-altering aliens dealing with you.

b)Are the couple that picked up Hybrid a new version of Martha and Johnathan Kent? Are they going to help him make up his mind about which side he wants to align with? (His mom/humanity or the bodyless aliens, natch.)

c)What happens to Humanix? Is it moth-balled due to Yatsumoto and/or the luddite terrorists? If not, what's next for our trio of 'bot lovin' scientists?

d) What happens to Ethan? Does he decide to stay "everywhere" or does he decide he wants a body as well? Is this where Hybrid and Ethan come to a meeting of the minds?

e)How hasn't Government waded into all of this mess and insisted it knows better? Will it shut down both sides--Humanix and privatized space exploration-- due to this perfect storm of a situation?

 

There are more stories left and I hope we get to see some.

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But my question was how did the ISEA on Earth know about the spores ? Even Sean Glass didn't know about them and he was right there on the station, and even if he was aware of the spores he was unable to communicate with the ISEA due to the comms failure. Which circles back to how did the ISEA know about the spores ?

Oh...my excuse is I've had a concussion the last four weeks so my memory is off. Maybe the writers have too?

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I'm not sure how I felt about that episode. I was briefly sad about Ethan's demise but the remote back up was sort of obvious in hindsight and undercut the dramatic sacrifice. I also went at least they still have Lucy the second after Ethan blew up. I also wondered if they were so concerned about alien contamination why was  Molly/Earthlings were so blase about the hybrid wandering around. Also Ethan you should have let the psychotic hybrid get blown up. 

 

John continues to be annoyingly self centered. I don't care about anyone's safety I just want to make sure my robot/son doesn't get blown up. 

 

I was confused by the lack of countermeasures employed by the space agency. Molly's solution for a half energy human antagonist is to get into a teenage grappling fight to get through the door... no energy weapons/ tasers/ lightning rods?

 

I agreed with Ben. Molly and Victor/james? did pose a high risk to the 9 billion people on Earth. At the very least Molly could of orbited the planet for a while. I get the strong vibe that this show wont have a second season considering the utterly lackluster finale. 

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It sort of feels to me like they tried to wrap it up under the assumption that they will not have another season.  So they tried to give us a resolution to as many points as they could so that at least we see that Ethan's consciousness still exists, Alien Boy is still alive, and supposedly the threat from the spores is contained (for now).  Unfortunately they had to drop a lot of major threads so that we didn't get to see Julie take a chunk out of Odin nor anything about Yasumoto, Femi Dodd, Sparks, etc.  Maybe if they do get another season they will pick up some of these threads.  Surely I would not trust that they did the decontamination correctly.

 

Well I did at least enjoy the showdown of sorts between Ethan and Alien Boy and am glad that Ethan survived in a sense.

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While they did leave the door open on some levels, it does feel like this could pass for a series finale, which will probably happen since the ratings haven't been great.

 

Not sure what to think.  Some of it I liked and it kept my interest when airing, but now that it's over, there was a lot of stuff I felt was anti-climatic, and a lot of dropped plots.  Did Yasumoto just die off screen or something (how many days did he have left?)  Did Sparks get tossed in a cell?  I wanted to find out what their fates were.  And I'm really not happy that there was no mention of Odin or Dodd.  I wanted Julia to get her revenge, and for Yasumoto to find out his lover was playing him.

 

Molly makes it to the station, fights Evil Katie, gets infected, but seems to recover.  Sean gets infected, but doesn't, so she puts him in status.  She almost can't escape, until Ethan sacrifices himself.  Are they sure both Molly and Sean are OK, now?  I was totally confused by all of that.

 

Kern is back!  Which is a good thing, since he apparently was the only one who thought maybe it would be a good idea to get everyone out of the building, before John just busted Ethan open.

 

Did Camryn Manheim go off to do something else, near the end of the shooting?  It really felt like Sam disappeared in the second half of this season.  Hopefully, maybe Control will be back on Person of Interest, and she's been secretly doing that.  Hell, maybe Yasumoto disappeared, because Hiroyuki Sanada had to go back to Helix, where he's basically playing the same character.

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I also wondered if they were so concerned about alien contamination why was  Molly/Earthlings were so blase about the hybrid wandering around.

 

Molly is still attached to it, as though it were really her and Marcus's baby.  That, for me, is the big WTF? of this show.  Instead of being freaked out that she'd been implanted with alien spores and had an alien inside her body, which would have exploded out of her just as Katie's "baby" exploded out of her if Yasumoto hadn't extracted it first, Molly is all, "my baby, my baby" about it.  Does not compute for me. 

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Just wanted to add this - I would expect that - even in a scenario with modern computer technology - that manual overrides are possible. For Extant, when "BEN" would not let the shuttle/ship launch from the Seraphim. I mean, yes, computers are great (when they work properly), but I have it in my mind that you still need the ability to shut that computer down and literally pull a manual lever which launches you..that kinda irked me. Because it would be a massive mistake for humans to solely rely on computers to help them. And Molly pleading with "BEN" - please. It knows no emotion - it's not going to respond. So it would be wise to have an override protocol where one could manually disengage docking clamps (terminology stolen from ST:DS9) and get the heck out of there. That really ran false to me.

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The last few episodes were overstuffed with plot and a little lean on the coherence and clarity.  But sue me if you must, I was entertained by the show.  I know a second season is in doubt--and there was enough resolution here to be at least somewhat satisfying, but enough left open to base a second season upon.  I'd at least sample one.

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Molly is still attached to it, as though it were really her and Marcus's baby.  That, for me, is the big WTF? of this show.  Instead of being freaked out that she'd been implanted with alien spores and had an alien inside her body, which would have exploded out of her just as Katie's "baby" exploded out of her if Yasumoto hadn't extracted it first, Molly is all, "my baby, my baby" about it.  Does not compute for me.

She lost a baby fairly far along in her pregnancy in a tragic way, so she's easily attached. I can't even imagine going through that...Not to mention her man dying that same night. What doesn't compute?

I'd drink the koolaid too.

Just wanted to add this - I would expect that - even in a scenario with modern computer technology - that manual overrides are possible. For Extant, when "BEN" would not let the shuttle/ship launch from the Seraphim. I mean, yes, computers are great (when they work properly), but I have it in my mind that you still need the ability to shut that computer down and literally pull a manual lever which launches you..that kinda irked me. Because it would be a massive mistake for humans to solely rely on computers to help them. And Molly pleading with "BEN" - please. It knows no emotion - it's not going to respond. So it would be wise to have an override protocol where one could manually disengage docking clamps (terminology stolen from ST:DS9) and get the heck out of there. That really ran false to me.

I agree but maybe there wasn't enough power for a manual override *shrug. Perhaps in the face of death all she could do was plead even though it made no sense. The timer was counting down after all.

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Just wanted to add this - I would expect that - even in a scenario with modern computer technology - that manual overrides are possible. For Extant, when "BEN" would not let the shuttle/ship launch from the Seraphim. I mean, yes, computers are great (when they work properly), but I have it in my mind that you still need the ability to shut that computer down and literally pull a manual lever which launches you..that kinda irked me. Because it would be a massive mistake for humans to solely rely on computers to help them. 

 

Not necessarily. Increasingly powerful computers combined with increasingly complicated systems are already leading to situations where the need for human interaction is eliminated. Google's prototype self driving car was originally designed without a steering wheel, brakes or gas pedal. (Although states made Google put them in for testing purposes.)

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I agree but maybe there wasn't enough power for a manual override *shrug. Perhaps in the face of death all she could do was plead even though it made no sense. The timer was counting down after all.

 

Honestly, my thinking is coming from a TV show called Mayday - which details the causes of notable airplane crashes (really fascinating show, BTW - highly recommend). One of the most glaring aspects of the show is that as planes become more and more advanced, the pilots have to rely more and more on computers to fly the birds. But if something happens to the hydraulics or the computer cannot adjust the necessary aspects of the aircraft (aileron, elevator, landing gear) etc, then it would be in the best interest of the pilot to have the option to manually do the work.

 

As a Canadian, I am partial to the story of the "Gimli Glider" - a perfect example of how automation can only do so much and isn't the answer to everything. It highlights how a pilot's natural skill in flying clean (no automation) is so, so important.

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She lost a baby fairly far along in her pregnancy in a tragic way, so she's easily attached. I can't even imagine going through that...Not to mention her man dying that same night. What doesn't compute?

 

It doesn't compute for me that she would still consider it her baby, and not an Alien that invaded her body and would have killed her had it not been forcibly removed, and that it killed hundreds of other people and was planning to use more people as hosts (killing them in the process) once the spore-ship landed on Earth. 

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That was honestly pretty bad.  There's this feeling that the writers simply gave up in this last episode.  Very little made sense.  Spores on the ship that ISEA just happened to know about, these spores could apparently survive a firey reentry but I guess not if the reentry is done when the ship is in pieces, and then these spores can contaminate humans but have it doesn't matter because fewer than five days in quarantine will fix it.  These spores seem like losers and I was left wondering why there was even any worry about them.  I could never develop any connection with the alien baby story because Molly's love of the baby even after she discovered what it was just didn't work.  Plus the baby grew exponentially each passing hour and then seemed to completely stop growing once it reached 12 years old.  Rapidly growing hybrid stories are never good. 

 

The only story I ever cared about in this show was Ethan's.  It felt like a satisfying ending even though I choked up when he blew himself up.  Then they went and ruined that by having him miraculously survive.  There were zero consequences for the main characters.  This series was like nine to ten episodes of just filler.  Such a shame that the writers just couldn't commit to one or two storylines because it was a decent premise.  

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It doesn't compute for me that she would still consider it her baby, and not an Alien that invaded her body and would have killed her had it not been forcibly removed, and that it killed hundreds of other people and was planning to use more people as hosts (killing them in the process) once the spore-ship landed on Earth.

I guess feeling it move in her womb had the reverse effect on her. I didn't say she's right, but i can see how she would be irrationally attached to this baby. The mindf**k that it was able to do on her and Sparks didn't help either. It tapped into that parental instinct.

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This show sucks. Halle Berry has got to up her hair game! Those bangs managed to make a hot woman look mundane. I can't believe they wasted so much time on the 9 year old stare down battle. You have to love the "where's Ethan" stance of Molly and John. Arms out marveling that their robot son apparently turned himself into a computer virus. At least Sean made it. That's all I cared about.

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I found it to be much better than I expected.

Good call to not show Ethan exploding.

Rhetorica, I've never had a concussion, but a recent MRI showed that 60 years of migraines has left brain lesions, so I forgot about Yasumoto but thought Kern died in a recent episode.

...I can see some threads for a second season, but I get the feeling TPTB aren't too interested or CBS isn't. (It did feel like there was a missing episode, to me as well. Some of those continuing stories could be:

a) How clean are Molly and Sean? The world? That must be some super-de-duper quarantining if it takes less than a week to make sure you have no perception-altering aliens dealing with you.

b)Are the couple that picked up Hybrid a new version of Martha and Johnathan Kent? Are they going to help him make up his mind about which side he wants to align with? (His mom/humanity or the bodyless aliens, natch.)

c)What happens to Humanix? Is it moth-balled due to Yatsumoto and/or the luddite terrorists? If not, what's next for our trio of 'bot lovin' scientists?

d) What happens to Ethan? Does he decide to stay "everywhere" or does he decide he wants a body as well? Is this where Hybrid and Ethan come to a meeting of the minds?

e)How hasn't Government waded into all of this mess and insisted it knows better? ...

My thoughts on your thoughts:

a) They successfully passed through an alien spore detector. (Yeah, I know, how could the ISEA possibly know enough about the spores to detect them, but it's a show.)

b) Yes.

c & d) John and his assistants make a new body for E-than. It's slightly older because he is more mature (and so is the wonderful young Pierce Gagnon).

e) I'm guessing the government is fostering scientific innovation in general.

...I agreed with Ben. Molly and Victor/james? did pose a high risk to the 9 billion people on Earth. At the very least Molly could of orbited the planet for a while.

Yes, this would have been more believable, but it would have meant a finale with Halle Berry left in orbit. Edited by shapeshifter
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...I agreed with Ben. Molly and Victor/james? did pose a high risk to the 9 billion people on Earth. At the very least Molly could of orbited the planet for a while.

 

Yes, this would have been more believable, but it would have mean a finale with Halle Berry left in orbit.

 

 

They could have had a subtitle thing saying 2 weeks later after a 1 second image of Molly hovering around the Earth in the shuttle. After ISEA found a secondary location to receive her and upload the spectrum 5 program to check for swirly blue energy spirals and possibly figure out a more effective way to disrupt the energy spiral effects other than pure willpower and slap fights? (or whatever allowed Molly to counter Not Katie and her spirally badness) 

 

As for the ISEA they apparently had enough time to figure out that there was a credible threat by blue energy spiral aliens and they apparently didn't bother to distribute that information to the military.

 

P.s John shut up... The military isn't useless. They could have sent in those much maligned drones that Odin whined about so much with the special spectrum energy detecting software to blow up the little hybrid bastard who is a) a mass murderer b) a pawn in an intergalactic scheme to invade Earth to suck out brains. 

 

I'm guessing since the security cams picked up the Hybrid wandering through the halls that hybrids can be spotted by conventional cameras which poses the question of why they were playing coy for so long. Unless it changes shapes physically as well as through hallucinations now. Hybrid Vigor perhaps?

 

Since I doubt that this show is going to be picked up for a second season, I'm going to go with the worst case scenario and blame Molly for bringing about the end of Days by helping Hybrid baby survive rightful retribution and infecting the ISEA staff with blue spirals. This will allow Ethan to use his new computer Virus powers to take over the worlds military tech to wipe out the alien menace permanently and fix Mommy Molly's terrible fixation on the Hybrid by killing his sibling. 

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I enjoyed it.  I've never put a lot of thought into this show, it's just something I watch, and so I'm often surprised by the amount of plot holes that sailed over my head.  I give it full credit for moving the story along fast and not sticking us with a cliffhanger, two things I greatly appreciate.

 

The idea of Ethan "living" in their smarthouse did give me vicious Holly-on-Eureka flashbacks though. 

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Well crap, we still use shuttles? Did they bring them out of retirement? I was hoping with corporate aerospace technology we would have been further along.

Best line was from Ben: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Molly..." Echoes from HAL?

I think the Russians are still using shuttles, as are Virgin and several other companies. It's the most cost-efficient vehicle for repeated trips, since at least 75% gets reused -- all of the shuttle, and the solid rocket boosters (I worked on the SRB disassembly program at NASA many years ago). It wasn't nicknamed the "space truck" for nothing!

Agree about the HAL line. Too bad there weren't any pod bay doors to open!

 

Instead of a slapfight, we get dueling exploding glass. Not as fun.*g*

That was dumb!  Hybrid hasn't done anything remotely like that -- a new special power gets trotted out at the very last minute.

 

And, ya know, they may not have had the very latest Ethan backed up at the lab, but they would have had a pretty recent copy.  Let this particular "shell" go BOOM (loved the SCTV -- McKenzie Bros references) and install the last "clean" copy in a new one.  Ethan won't even know that he's lost a few days unless you tell him.

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Yeah, I'm truly disappointed that there was no conclusion to his arc.

 

I was never able to buy into the Ethan storyline (why is everyone treating him like a child, HE IS NOT) so I was glad that he finally did something useful and exploded. Then they un-deaded him. ::sigh::

Me, too. He's a robot. I was so annoyed that they had to convince him to allow them to turn him off. So weird. They never really explained the limits of his emotional capabilities. While being fairly -- well -- robotic throughout the season, suddenly he's super petulant and bratty. Um, yay, science? Again, I have to ask, why make a robot child and try to make him mimic the particulars of a real human child? What's the advantage, when the robot boy is dumbed down below what any computer-based AI could do? Was it to test social AI and ability for an AI to emotionally develop? That might be interesting, but instead his father/creator expected everyone to treat him like a real-live boy, instead of like what he is, an experiment in AI.

 

And Ethan being "everywhere" at the end was more than a little creepy, considering I just saw both Lucy and Transcendence. Plus the shades of HAL 9000 in another scene. Ew. Is the little-boy robot going to be in his parents' bedroom, too?

 

You have to love the "where's Ethan" stance of Molly and John. Arms out marveling that their robot son apparently turned himself into a computer virus.

That scene where John and Molly are reacting to finding out Ethan is still with them was so badly done -- both stood there with their hands stretched out at their sides and their mouths agape, like they were mimicking each other. It made me laugh.

 

Hold on a minute, Ethan can't hold a body temperature of 98.6 F ?  But that's normal body temp, I would imagine he would be programmed to always hold that temperature to fit in with the other children at school.  Does that mean he can't survive outdoors on hot summer days or go to the beach ?  That makes absolutely no sense at all.

 

Such a transparent twist to get Ethan into a place where he could sacrifice himself. Why did the security system only ask for a temperature, and why did the reading take so long? Just long enough to endanger Ethan's systems. Why didn't it ask for a PULSE? Or, even more foolproof, actual fingerprints of security-cleared people? And how did Ethan, who supposedly is operating at a human child's intellectual level except for suddenly knowing Japanese (something never explained), know how to operate this system?

 

This show lost me in so many places, I just finished watching out of habit. I couldn't accept Molly's attachment to the alien child, even before she'd seen it and after she saw how it could manipulate people, including herself. So what if it grew inside her -- so did the aliens from Aliens, but you didn't see the Nostromo crew getting all warm and fuzzy over them. And I already talked about my issues with Ethan.

Edited by Andromeda
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What a crock. Sparks and Asian Richard Belzer just disappear without a mention and we don't even know if the latter is still alive? How did Sparks react to finding out that Katie was really dead? What happened to Odin and the girlfriend?

 

 

Overall, I found it all to be pretty underwhelming --  too many tangents and subplots that didn't seem to go anywhere.

 

Like drugged-addicted Kern's father. Evil!Ethan and the pigeons. Ethan's little robot friend. Julie's split from John and potential rebellion. Yasumoto's pregnant wife. 

Edited by carryanation
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There were times during this final episode where I had to pause the DVR cuz I was laughing so hard. It's possible this series will become a cult favorite in years to come. There were moments of hilariously bad acting, I mean, if I had any doubt that Halle Berry and Luka from ER are both really shitty actors, this was the clincher. There were plot stupidities too numerous to count. And there were some moments of true coolness, worthy of a much better show. The subplots involving Ethan were good and could have developed into something really interesting. The scene at the beginning, Molly is packing for her rescue mission. Packing what? Her bikini for a quick dip in the pool? Clean underwear? And then the two saying goodbye to each other, one note acting, no chemistry. And then off she goes with a case labeled PLAN C. I died laughing. I agree with those who suspect the last episode was cobbled together sloppily when everybody had given up on a second season. 

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...I agree with those who suspect the last episode was cobbled together sloppily when everybody had given up on a second season.

Definitely something like that.

But the little boy actor--whether accidentally or on purpose--was still perfect.

This may seem out of left field, but after every episode of Extant, I think of the actor who played Jake on the early seasons of Two and a Half Men (when it was still almost watchable). He seemed to have talent and perfect timing, but, alas, as years went by, it became obvious that it was just him being a cute kid.

Then there's Opie (Ron Howard) who became an award winning director.

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There were times during this final episode where I had to pause the DVR cuz I was laughing so hard. It's possible this series will become a cult favorite in years to come.

I should have known from the very first episode that this show was going to be dissapointing. I had major eyeroll syndrome everytime the voiceover at the beginning says "This is a show about Earth. A show about Family. A show about What. Ev. Er."

 

If they have to TELL you in the intro EVERY week what they show is about, then you can bet it isn't going to be written well enough for you to figure it out on your own. Even the writing of the intro was lame, hokey and corny.

 

Sorry for speaking in triplets. ("You just said 3 things that mean the same thing" - CJ Cregg). but even that last sentence was better written than the show intro!

Edited by slothgirl
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It's been a busy week so it's taken me forever to get to this. 

 

The voiceover told us it was about family, and the finale delivered. (Family is in Hollywood's comfort zone, which no doubt helped.) Pretty much everything that happened was set up in previous episode, even a line about the condensers. Yasumoto, Sparks, Odin, Dodds, Kern, Julia's rebellion or whatever, however tempting a subplot may have been, it was sacrificed so the show could concentrate on its main theme. Evidently people disagree but for my part this is called good writing. Nothing left hanging detracts from the theme. The family theme is rather overworked but given that they did very well I thought. 

 

I know everybody feels things differently. One of the most interesting reactions was thinking the box marked Plan C was funny. But that kind of labeling is exactly what NASA (by extension ISEA) does, precisely to remove all possible error in emergencies. What was perceived as foolishness just wasn't. Well, nobody can control their reactions. 

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Again, I have to ask, why make a robot child and try to make him mimic the particulars of a real human child? What's the advantage, when the robot boy is dumbed down below what any computer-based AI could do? Was it to test social AI and ability for an AI to emotionally develop? That might be interesting, but instead his father/creator expected everyone to treat him like a real-live boy, instead of like what he is, an experiment in AI.

I actually think that a story about an AI learning to be more human (or whatever) would be a cool idea for a show; I just don't think it fit here on this show where the main story is about aliens.

 

 

 

This show lost me in so many places, I just finished watching out of habit.

Yeah, I just needed to see how it ended.

 

But the little boy actor--whether accidentally or on purpose--was still perfect.

I had lots of issues with the Ethan storyline, but I agree, the young actor was really good playing a robotic little boy.

 

Also, I don't know if it counts as a plot hole, but it bugged me that they never explained why the aliens approached people in the form of dead people. (Well, besides that they wanted to be creepy...)

Edited by Trini
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Also, I don't know if it counts as a plot hole, but it bugged me that they never explained why the aliens approached people in the form of dead people. (Well, besides that they wanted to be creepy...)

 

The only movie to reach their planet is The Sixth Sense?

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Also, I don't know if it counts as a plot hole, but it bugged me that they never explained why the aliens approached people in the form of dead people. (Well, besides that they wanted to be creepy...)

 

The alien did it differently with John - he had fake-Molly talking to him after their argument (when Ethan walked in on John "hugging" Molly-who-wasn't-actually-there).

Edited by izabella
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I did watch the finale, though I did miss some of the season. Can someone tell me who the head ISEA guy's daughter was?  He thought it was his dead daughter as a child, but was it?  Was she just an illusion or was she Molly's son in disguise?

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Well, looks like Molly finally embraced her family, as eccentric as it was; and she finally had an authentically maternal experience: her older son now spends all his time online -- they barely see him! And the younger one left home -- to "find himself," presumably -- and he never calls and never visits! Kids today, honestly.
 

I had lots of issues with the Ethan storyline, but I agree, the young actor was really good playing a robotic little boy.

 

I agree; he was terrific -- I may have got a little choked up at Molly's goodbye phone call with E-than and "John Woods."

 

But of course E-than's burnout/ascension starts right over his heart. Gah.

Edited by Sandman
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The alien did it differently with John - he had fake-Molly talking to him after their argument (when Ethan walked in on John "hugging" Molly-who-wasn't-actually-there).

Which, by the by, is interesting, in that Molly never saw a fake John. She saw Marcus umpteen times, his brother & her daddy, but never ever John. The alien hybrid baby always used the person with the most emotional leverage for the victim and John wasn't it, for Molly. Sad.

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Which, by the by, is interesting, in that Molly never saw a fake John. She saw Marcus umpteen times, his brother & her daddy, but never ever John. The alien hybrid baby always used the person with the most emotional leverage for the victim and John wasn't it, for Molly. Sad.

 

Yes, great observation!  And that's precisely the point John was trying to make to Molly during that discussion in the kitchen. 

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I thought it was quite a good finale.  The last two or three episodes rescued the show from the terrible shark-jumping that had seemed to occur about two-thirds of the way through the season.  There were a few bumps, though: most notably, did anyone else notice how they screwed up the screen graphics right after Molly is pleading with Ben? They had the manual override access allowed as soon as Ethan talked to her; whereas the dialogue made it so that she felt she was still locked out several dramatic beats later, after the commercial break.  And then they portrayed Ethan as having to use his handprint to override.  They should really fix this in the streaming versions and before they put it on DVD or play it internationally.

 

I think now it is fairly clear that the flaws earlier in the season were in large part caused by the artificial requirements for 13 episodes, regardless of what amount of story the creator had to tell. It would be like if movies had to be exactly 100 minutes long, regardless of their individual nature.  In this show's case, I think this story could have been told in as little as a tight 300 minutes so, rather than the 500-odd that we got.  Even ten full episodes would have been pretty good, with only a little filler here and there in a few of those episodes.  But it seems pretty clear that when it got kind of X-Files-creature-of-the-week-ish for about two or three episodes in the later middle portion of the season, they were just tap dancing to fill in time until they could get into the stretch run.

 

Hmm...it felt like more of a SERIES finale, than a SEASON finale.

 

 

I really thought the same, HalcyonDays.  But then I've seen a lot of comments on Twitter and elsewhere from people complaining of too many threads left hanging.  Huh?  Have you watched serialized TV before?  Most shows of this nature that get cancelled after one season leave a LOT more unresolved, and often leave us with a cliffhanger, even.

 

That's a pretty shitty space suit if the glove can simply pop off like that.  Just saying.

 

 

Yeah, that was horrible.  The fancy spacesuit with all the protective element integrated into it to survive the Martian surface--and in this case to save all humankind--has a glove that's not securely attached, seriously? Come on. That thing should have been bonded together like Iron Man's armor.

 

Though as I say, I actually quite liked this episode overall, my other big issue was when she took off her helmet. She rationalized it that she was already infected through her hand; but the helmet at least kept the stuff out of her lungs, and had the other crucial advantage of helping her see what was real.  I couldn't help but interpret this in a meta sense of the producers not wanting Halle Berry to spend too much time in a helmet, instead of having her hair and face fully visible.  But since aspects of this show are clearly influenced by 2001 ("I'm afraid I can't do that", says Ben), they should have kept in mind how compelling the sequence was when HAL 9000 is decommissioned, and Dave Bowman is wearing a full spacesuit, including helmet, the whole time.

 

By CBS's normal ratings standards, one would have to assume this is going to be cancelled.  But Les Moonves said last year when Under the Dome premiered that it had to get hardly any ratings at all for CBS to make money off it, due to the underwriting deal with Amazon.  Thus, my guess would be that it ultimately is up to Amazon as to whether it comes back.

Edited by SlackerInc
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This was basically a fair to good show.  It gave us an ending, but nothing incredible.  If it comes back, I would take a look, but not really something that would bother me if it isn't renewed.

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I agree that a lot of what went on here was streamlined to make for an expedient wrap-up. In general the show had a lot of watchable qualities but tried to do a little too much and wasn't deft enought to make it totally successful.

 

Les Moonves said last year when Under the Dome premiered that it had to get hardly any ratings at all for CBS to make money off it, due to the underwriting deal with Amazon.

 

And if anything, Extant was overwritten.

 

I had lots of issues with the Ethan storyline, but I agree, the young actor was really good playing a robotic little boy.

 

Mrs. beedub liked that little dude so much she wanted to adopt him. And, he found his purpose!

 

I should have known from the very first episode that this show was going to be dissapointing. I had major eyeroll syndrome everytime the voiceover at the beginning says "This is a show about Earth. A show about Family. A show about What. Ev. Er."

 

If they have to TELL you in the intro EVERY week what they show is about, then you can bet it isn't going to be written well enough for you to figure it out on your own.

 

Oh come now, this is how all the true classics do it, for example: "This is the story of a man named Jed..." or "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship." And those shows wouldn't think of pandering to their audience.  ;-)

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