S02.E02: Morphoses

[HalcyonDays]

Episode synopsis: Molly and JD discover another pregnant woman suffering from inexplicable and fatal symptoms, while Molly begins to question her own mental stability. Meanwhile, Julie struggles with Ethan’s rebellion.

 

[wayne67]

Well that was interesting though I do wonder about the potential for a Humanics army.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Nearly two minutes of previouslies -- that's never a good sign.

 

The offspring, in his new body, has stepped up his game and took out an entire kill squad -- wouldn't they have learned that lesson from the previous encounters with the Offspring, or did Alan Sparks not pass on his files to the general ?

 

Isn't that a bit of a design flaw if Ethan can overheat his power source and kill himself at any time ?

 

I'm surprised that Metro Mednet didn't tell Molly that she had cancer -- because that's the go to diagnosis on WebMD.

 

Molly is going through the DTs from something.  Funny I don't remember her seeming to have those symptoms last season.

 

And she goes to the bar to pickup the Offspring -- right as the drone attack is on its way.  Come on show -- of course neither Molly or the Offspring will be hurt, so why go through the pretense that they are in danger.

 

So, did Julia just wipe all the memories of Molly and John in Ethan's brain ?  That seems like a pretty selective process -- and I'm sure it will cause problems later on.

[Enero]

Though Molly was completely right about her warnings, she came off looking like she was BSC.

 

I felt bad for Ethan, "trying to die."  Poor kid. His father is dead. Julie has pretty much kidnapped him, is using him for her own gain and is lying to him and his mom has made no attempt to try and find him (though he doesn't know the latter), no wonder the poor kid wants out.  

 

So was Molly mindwarped into sleeping with some strange guy in a bar? And why would the alien target her? Because she once hosted one of them and survived and is now susceptible to their mind manipulations? What does it hope to accomplish by doing this? Will she somehow end up preggers again with an alien baby? God I hope not. And what's with the rash on her arm? It doesn't look like she started to have these issues until she escaped the hospital.

 

Argh my hate for Julie knows no bounds. Now she's programmed Ethan to think she's his mom?

 

This episode was all over the place, none of the stories really jelled. Psycho and confused Molly doesn't really work when I as the viewer am just as confused as her and don't really know what the heck is going on.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Enero

[Rhetorica]

I like Molly and JD together. Julie is totally in over her head and ruthless. Where do her actions leave Ethan? Surely this will backfire. Lucy is beautiful. She will lead a good looking army. Looks like they're moving the storyline along quickly next week. Don't spoon feed me show! I saw Molly and the pills. I saw JD pass out. I don't need a damn flashback to connect the two. Give me mysteries to solve!

[thuganomics85]

So, now Hilarie Burton shows up as Julie's boss, who seems to be the classic "I want results now!" type of jackass, who doesn't care who gets hurt, as long as they are meeting deadlines.  Good news is that those type of characters tend to meet fitting ends: usually at the hands of whatever danger they caused.  So, my prediction is the new and improved "Lucy", will be her doom.

 

But now Julie just wiped Ethan's memory to not only forget about Molly and John perhaps, but make him now consider her mom.  Yeah, that's just creepy.  What in the hell is wrong with her?  It's really hard to respect her between this and how easily she folds when under pressure.

 

Holy crap!  Tobias/David Morrissey's girlfriend is totally Isabel from The Event!  One of the best, awful bad sci-fi shows I ever had the honor of witnessing.  And speaking of Morrissey, we had another Walking Dead folk make an appearance: Zoe was played by Alexandra Breckenridge, who is currently playing Jessie on that show.  And then there was John Billingsley's randomly showing up for a scene as Zoe's doctor.  Poor Dr. Phlox: he's better then this!

 

JD really isn't good at this whole "Keeping an eye on the potentially crazy lady" thing, huh?  First, he accepts a drink from her, that of course, ends up being spiked.  And then he allows her out of his sight and near windows that are easy to access.  At least that time, he had the sense to put a tracker on her, but he better be glad she isn't actually crazy, and especially isn't a "Stab you with a knife" crazy, or he'd probably be dead.

 

I usually don't mind Halle Berry's performances on this show (I know some do), but I did think she did some horrible overacting in this episode.  At least it kind of made it funny, but someone should probably tell her to tone it down.

 

So, Tobias and crew are so freaked out over Alien Baby, they are willing to launch a drone in America, in a place full of civilians, to get him.  OK, then.  I would not want to be the President or the military the next day, having to release a press release explaining why they just bombed their own country.  Maybe they'll have a lie made-up, like the club was a terrorist front.  Those lonely singles were all part of ISIS!

Edited July 10, 2015 by thuganomics85

[roomtorome]

This is basically an entirely different show, which is not a bad thing - but, neither is it (yet anyway) a good thing, for me.

 

I like the energy JD brings, too bad his dialogue and role so far is pretty dull - give him more to do for pete's sake - the one actor with energy on the show and they are not taking advantage of him.

 

I never found HB to be anything more than very mediocre as a performer so nothing she does/doesn't bring to a role surprises me, nor does it interest me, and I can see every second of her acting.  I want to get to get lost in a performance and her acting is all I see.  Another actress may have brought more life and dimension but it's hard to tell given the all over the place writing and lack of coherent story line.  Again, maybe that is coming but so far?  Not seeing it.  Feels like they are winging it.  

[Free]

 

This is basically an entirely different show, which is not a bad thing - but, neither is it (yet anyway) a good thing, for me.

 

Same here, I feel indifferent.  Last season was mediocre and boring, it's different, but not exactly good so far.

[Sandman]

I like the energy JD brings, too bad his dialogue and role so far is pretty dull - give him more to do for pete's sake - the one actor with energy on the show and they are not taking advantage of him.

 

My favourite part of the episode was JD's meta-commentary on how cracked the first season was, what with Molly's robot child, her half-space alien offspring and her dead possibly-robot husband.

 

I don't have strong feelings about Hilarie Burton one way or the other, and her completely generic boss-lady character isn't likely to change that impression. It's not so much that I could see her thespian gears turning; it's just the character is a plot device, and nothing more. The actress is delivering lines that the script requires from the designated heavy. Other than she fades into the hypoallergenic office decor. Miss Gummer at least has the virtue of being an enraging, entitled cyborg crank, and the actress (the actual Miss Gummer) conveys that most effectively even if Julie's motives appear to have been substantially rewritten between the first and second season.

 

Maybe Ethan and Lucy will bond over what fools these mortals be.

 

I have no idea why Molly is still tuned into the hybrid's broadcast from Radio Station KRZY, or why she should be having plot-derived blackouts. Not liking that so far.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Sandman

[ApathyMonger]

That Lucy was modelled on a young Molly mostly just made me want to see Kiersey Clemons as Storm in a new X-Men movie. I wonder if she was considered for the role in X-Men: Apocalypse at all.

[90PercentGravity]

I read an article before the season started that said this would be like a whole new shows. Unfortunately, they didn't rework the right stuff: bad writing, bad directing, bad acting. Why did they even bother renewing this?

[ribboninthesky1]

After watching the season opener, I had the impression that Molly doesn't know Ethan is "alive."  After all, John was killed, which was right after they took Ethan. I thought the same group that "killed" the offspring was who took Ethan.  I'm not sure why I believed SHE thought Ethan would be killed, but for me, it explains why Molly hasn't gone after him.  

 

I think Halle is fine in the role most of the time (no one's exactly master class here, except Gagnon), but the scene outside of the restaurant/store/whatever as she was chasing Zoe was hilariously bad.  On the plus side, Molly is getting some action.  With all of the BS she's endured, sometimes a girl needs to relieve some stress.  I'm hoping she doesn't get romantically involved with the cop, but I know it's coming. Her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.  I see you, Molly! 

 

And why would the show tease me with Greg Vaughan eye candy, only to not have him as part of the show? Boo, show.  Boooooo. 

 

I figured her alien son wouldn't kill her, but would try to get in contact.  So I assume he telepathically lured her to that club? 

 

No surprise that the general and his chief of staff are involved.  Even before the reveal, she was clearly jealous.  I guess I'd feel uneasy as well if the man I was involved with spontaneously proposed to another woman on her wedding day, assuming she knows.  And I'm betting no proposals for her.    

Edited July 9, 2015 by ribboninthesky1

[greenbean]

I'm annoyed about what the show has turned into. Usual scheming military plot, and Julie who went from one of my favourite characters, to one I now can't stand. The writing is so much more derivative. For all S1's faults, they at least had something imaginative.

 

JD is one walking cliche imo, I don't see how he's an upgrade to John. I rolled my eyes when he called Molly his side-kick. Their whole back and forth is so hackneyed. I feel like Ethan calling Julie mom is a sort of retcon. Like they really want to get Ethan out of Molly's life, so she can traipse around with JD in this new pulp action drama that they're trying to create.

 

Molly always being the crazy woman on the hunt is already played out. She is thoroughly isolated as a character, she has no one else to play off, so we can't see anything else from her. And I don't think this role is Halle's strong point. She was better when things were mixed up with a family and work setting. I don't know why they had to trash Sam like that, they're going to end up writing a very one dimensional Molly.

 

I'm bummed that we probably won't see her being an astronaut/scientist again. She'll be the crazy babbling lady, who has blackouts, and who JD has to protect or some such.

 

I really think this reboot is a mistake. I notice the ratings are even lower. Well I can see people who actually enjoyed S1 moving on. They were never going to get new people with these changes, so I don't know what they were thinking with this massive shift. They should have tried to build on the fanbase they already had. The show could have been a slow burn. I don't' think they even did the con circuit did they? They could have pulled in a few more sci-fi fans from that, especially if they had increased those elements.

Edited July 9, 2015 by greenbean

[HalcyonDays]

Love JD's character, and don't blame him for being like, "the hell you talking about?" However, he kept saying over and over again that Molly needed to take her meds, and something about that she was a "crazy drooling patient" or something. Um, dude. She's sitting next to you (in the car) articulating quite clearly and without a drip of drool. That lost me a bit, his insistance that Molly was a "crazy" person, because she surely didn't act like it.

 

So the government/military's response to alien invasion is a blanket drone strike. That's so going to work *sarcasm*

 

And please tell me Molly didn't sleep with her "son" in the bar, when she was having those dreams/visions. Because I sure thought that her adult son was there, and she found him and they had sex. Yeah...

 

So Julie wants to protect Ethan. I get that. She loves him. But assisting on allowing that shady corporation to develop an army of Humanics. Not good. Hopefully someone is smart enough (Hi Charlie) to program in a failsafe into the Humanic's neural net. You know, like a automatic shutdown that no one else knows about except Charlie and Julie. It might come in handy some day.....

 

Overall, episode kept me entertained. And I will say this - I am not missing the fact that in season 1, every other word out of Molly's mouth was "My baby! My baby!"

[Free]

 

She is thoroughly isolated as a character, she has no one else to play off, so we can't see anything else from her. And I don't think this role is Halle's strong point. She was better when things were mixed up with a family and work setting.

 

I think this is my main problem, this show relies on Halle and she can't completely carry this.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Free

[Happytobehere]

I like the direction of the reboot, even with my feelings that John's character could have been killed off without being trashed and Camryn M. Should have been kept.

I like the faster move to that we seem to be approaching. I think these two episodes are the showrunners's way of tying up the ends from last season to highlight the changes. However, in order for the tracings to improve, a massive ad campaign would have to happen to possibly grab new viewers and/or bring back views who left last season.

Julia is completely out of her mind. She really believes that she, John and Ethan had some happy nuclear family, but John is building androids that look like his wife, which supports his contention to Molly that you were just something to do and not a relationship, and you can't get Ethan, an android, to even tolerate you without wiping out memories of his real family. She tells herself that she loves Ethan and loved John, but Julie strikes me as a self-absorbed narcissist whose love is based on hher delusional view f the world is propped up.

JD actually works for me based solely on his willingness to accept that on some level, Molly's perceived mental illness is less stereotypical crazy, but is rather a result of her just being beaten down mentally and emotionally. I also think he plays the straight-man role in a way that does not condescend.

[wayne67]

I'm wondering if the Military thought about a sniper attack ?

It'd be nice to know there was some testing to see what his range is now that he's all grown up.

 

It feels like they are trying to cram Ethan back into his bot box after he became part of the cloud. I don't understand how being captured by anyone would be a problem. Why can't he just upload himself into the cloud and take over their military hardware and tell them to leave him alone already. He stood toe to toe with a telepathic,telekinetic alien sibling but he can't deal with mean military officials?

 

I call Industrial bullshit on that nonsense.

 

*sigh*

[Actionmage]

You know, like a automatic shutdown that no one else knows about except Charlie and Julie.

 

Charlie, if he did that, would be most intelligent to not tell Julie. She has so many agendas that have her on edge, that Charlie's crushed hand will only get him so much sympathy. ( Really, Julie? 'I'm sorry' is going to make up for a coder's crushed hand? Even if he is also a scientist?) If Charlie works in some kind of failsafe, he had better keep it somewhere on his person and unknown to Julie because she has secret phone calls and then people are taken away. Like, Billy Mummy in The Twilight Zone taken away.

 

Our alien-Humanechs hybrid overlords will at least be very good-looking. Hopefully, Julie's death, along with Hillarie Burton's character's, will come sooner rather than later. After wiping Ethan's mind as she appeared to do, she can die now. ( Looking forward to a role where I am not hating Ms. Gummer in the future.)

 

I thought I was tuning in to the continuing story of an astronaut/botanist/mom, not three or four miniseries mushed together and done worse than last season. I understand about actors and contracts and trying to get more eyeballs to the network and timeslot. Still. "Crazy" Molly's WooWoo Adventures with Dead Denny and The Governor is not what I was hoping for, and I like the cast.

 

ITA with wayne67--if Julie has left Ethan alone at times during the period following her kidnapping him, why couldn't he upload himself again? He could at least look for Molly and John, as he clearly didn't fully believe Julie's explanations. If he as a tutor 'bot, he can probably gimmick up something. Unless we are told that Julie has taken everything that could possibly be tinkered with away from him. That could be why he looked so freaking bored when he was revealed at the end of the season opener.

 

I just get the feeling that we are supposed to believe that a cybernetically smart, bored kidnapped boy isn't going to find a way to escape and find his family? After last season and Molly and John and Ethan working so hard to reunite? That's the wrong plot to drop and want us to forget, CBS.

 

Yes, Dr. Phlox is too good for this. I hope he is an alien scout who is an ob/gyn to zero in on potential "carriers". ( Just a guess. I don't read spoilers, but this show has piled on so many tropes in just two episodes, it wouldn't surprise me if it happened.) That or I hope he joins Molly's merry band. Just because I think the good doctor is better than this, at least he's getting a network check for his time.

 

I also think the rash is due to Molly not taking her meds. Or at least, it may have something to do with not taking the drugs and the spores we saw floating around her hand.

[Neurochick]

Is it wrong to hope that Ethan kills Julie?  I never liked her even last season.  She was stupid, basic and petty.  She nearly got everybody killed last season when she picked up some random dude who wanted to kill Ethan.  She probably got John killed too.  

 

I just want Molly to run her ass over.  Yay!

 

And yes, I liked seeing Kiersey Clemons as Lucy.  

Edited July 11, 2015 by Neurochick

[Black Knight]

I don't think it's even a matter of speculation that Julie got John killed, is it? The show laid out the sequence of events pretty clearly and drew a direct line between Julie's ratting John out on her phone call to John being murdered.

 

Usually I can't stand when TV children are being bratty, but I had a huge smile on my face every time Ethan gave Julie grief. I hate her that much. Then I got very unhappy when Ethan backtracked on his hatred for Julie. I guess I understand, because he overheard that he might be taken away and given to someone else and at least she's a familiar face, but still. And then Julie's wiping Ethan's memory and programming him to call her "Mom" was just the worst.

 

Molly was referring to Ethan in the past tense tonight. I agree with the poster upthread that Molly thinks Ethan has been decommissioned and that's why she's not looking for him. I'm looking forward to their reunion - poor Ethan has been through so much. Except, they have to fix that crap Julie did to his memory.

 

I was wondering where I had seen Keirsey Clemons before, and then I found on IMDB that she was on Transparent. That explains it. I liked her portrayal of Lucy a lot and I think she's a great addition to this season. Since Molly's alien son is now an adult, they needed a bigger robot than Ethan to take him on, given that no human can stand up to the alien's mindfucking. But I do hope Lucy takes out a couple of others along the way - Julie, for starters.

[freebie]

Argh! Why I am still watching? So much wrong, but I'm mostly here to vent about Lucy. When she was just a face, wasn't she a little kid, maybe Ethan's age? Now she's a teen capable of making grown men (OK, Charlie) lose their composure. And that line about John modeling her after Molly could be taken in a pretty squicky direction if you have my brain. I hope Ethan is faking it. And I hope Molly and the Offspring join forces to reign terror upon all who would seek their destruction!

[SlackerInc]

I like Molly and JD together. Julie is totally in over her head and ruthless. Where do her actions leave Ethan? Surely this will backfire. Lucy is beautiful. She will lead a good looking army. Looks like they're moving the storyline along quickly next week. Don't spoon feed me show! I saw Molly and the pills. I saw JD pass out. I don't need a damn flashback to connect the two. Give me mysteries to solve!

Yeah, that super spelled out connecting of the dots annoyed me too. But they are in a tough position. If they left that shot off, you can bet a bunch of people would be saying "man, what a lightweight that guy is: passing out after less than one beer!" LOL

Edited July 14, 2015 by SlackerInc

[Trini]

Argh! Why I am still watching? So much wrong, but I'm mostly here to vent about Lucy. When she was just a face, wasn't she a little kid, maybe Ethan's age? Now she's a teen capable of making grown men (OK, Charlie) lose their composure. And that line about John modeling her after Molly could be taken in a pretty squicky direction if you have my brain. I hope Ethan is faking it. And I hope Molly and the Offspring join forces to reign terror upon all who would seek their destruction!

 

Why was that line even there anyway?? They didn't really need to explain how she looked.

[sockii]

Having just caught up on the first two episodes of the new season, I'm so disappointed. Basically everything I liked about the first season is gone. The show first caught me like a gut punch for the honesty in how it dealt with infertility, Molly's difficulties bonding with Ethan, and many other deeper issues. Now it just feels like an X-Files wanna-be.

[jhlipton]

Posted in wrong thread...

Edited August 4, 2015 by jhlipton