Extant - "It's Ok."

Is it ok?  Because if I see another dead person reappear I would be inclined to think not.

Extant did without the massive world building we saw in the pilot episode and got right into the conspiracy aspects. 

Fine with me.  The pilot was a thrill ride while this one, "Extinct" was a bit more sedate.  But we learned a few things including one real biggie.  Let's get to it.

Who gets to sleep this late these days?  I'm on vacation and I still wake up to my mental alarm clock.  So much for regimented astronaut training.  Fans of Fringe will remember this time of the day as Olivia's favorite.  I thought of her right away. 

Molly hears some thumping in the background.  This thumping sound will come into play later in the episode.  Cross my "heart."

As Molly descends the stairs to investigate we the viewers are greeted by several "skeletal tree" images that I mentioned in my first Extant blog post.

Trees are supposed to bear fruit right?  At the very least they represent our family trees that are also fruitful in that they represent the fruitful generations of our extended families.  Both living and dead are represented to remind us how we've passed on the family name throughout generations.  We remember our past and celebrate our future.

So what does a barren tree represent?  Just the opposite I would assume.  Knowing the premise of this show and the episode title, "Extinct" it seems the family tree of humanity is at it's collective end.

John heads off to work where he is greeted by "Jealous Julie."  It seems they can monitor Ethan from afar which I found to be a bit spooky.  I don't know why this surprised me but it seems to fit.  It has a big brother connotation and it also serves to dehumanize Ethan to some degree.  Some pseudo parents these two are.  Oh, why do I call her Jealous Julie?

Now there's a sad face of resignation.  Not only did John's wife make coffee for him but Ethan is going to visit the museum with his real mom.  You've been supplanted lady.  I wonder how this will play out?  (Crackpot theory!  She's going to remotely control Ethan into strangling Molly.)

Hmm, that was a bit dark. Maybe I should try to sleep in later myself.  Either way, I think "JJ" was more than just a pseudo mom to her little "Rabbit".  Methinks she may have been playing "wife" while Molly was in space.  She did mention what a long time 13 months was.  (How dare you come back!)

 Lest I get too far ahead, guess who's back?  Marcus!  And he was preceded by that thumping I mentioned earlier.  This time it wasn't sneakers tumbling about in the dryer.  The hearbeatbeat like thumping is thematic and it will soon return.  In the meantime Molly passes out again and as Ethan comes to investigate we get this little gem.

 

Circles and spheres are prevalent in Extant but what these raised spheres represent is a mystery.  (And a little disconcerting.)  Did Ethan see them?  Does the fetus have it's own satellite TV?  Maybe it is a way of communication the babies progress.  Not to ISEA necessarily but to some other "group."

 

I'm glad Molly is communicating all this to Dr. Sam.  (See the sphere in the background? They're in Ethan's floating ball game too.)  Sam seems trustworthy and she is keeping Molly's secret.  It'd be good for Molly to have a confidant but confidants on TV usually have a short life span.

Our friend Harmon Kryger has been watching Molly as she proceeds through the museum and boy does he have a tale to tell. 

We get a nice little flashback to Kryger's stay aboard the Seraphim station.  His visitor is his deceased mother and she is just as he remembered her just before she died.  (The same as Molly's visitor, Marcus.)  She's a bit wet too.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say she drowned herself.  Maybe Kryger bore witness to this event which led to his immediate dismissal as she being the real thing.  She also repeated the things that Kryger said to her much like Marcus did. "Mother" and "no."

It wasn't long before the spirit of "Mother" learned the true meaning of no.  Harmon was so aghast at her that he airlocked her.  Did you notice her countenance changed as she she repeated no over and over?  I think she knew what Kryger was planning.  Someone or something is not going to be happy.  

I'm merging both of Kryger's flashbacks here to get to a point.  In my previous post I had wondered what "they" had done to Kryger during his stay aboard the Seraphim.  Ben winks out on him and he gets the solar flare treatment.  (Is "Ben" complicit?)  Mom appears.  What's her role.

To get pregnant.

At least that's my theory.  Molly is the Earthbound vessel and dear ol' Mom is the space bound one. Yes, it's creepy but it seems to be the direction the show is heading.   Close call Kryger.

We'll skip back to Molly's ultrasound with Dr. Sam (woof, woof!) A normal 14 week old human fetus.  (Well, there are some circle things in the background Sam, any comment on those?  No?)

We get our thumping noise again and it's from the baby's heart.  As the viewing audience we know there is more to it than that!

Molly confronts Sparks and he goes running to Yasumoto.  Major conspiracy confirmation!

But that wasn't the "biggie" I mentioned earlier.  Here's how that confirmation/conversation unfolded.

Sparks, "You think we found them?"

Yasumoto, "I think they are already here."

I knew it.  Aliens.  Oh wait, the next evolution of humanity prematurely here?  Nah, I'm sticking with aliens because of the whole space angle.

And these guys are either in cahoots with our new alien overlords or they are laying out the welcome mat.

 Are you my mummy?

This moment wasn't without its creep factor either.  Yasumoto mentions the dearly departed daughter of Sparks, Katie, and how her sacrifice wasn't in vain.  That better not be her in the foreground!  You know, mommy/mummy an early run at the alien impregnation gone wrong.  (I said it was creepy.)

We saw the mummy earlier when John and Ethan went visiting with Yasumoto.  I had thought it was just thematic of man's wanting to preserve himself beyond death and it was coupled with the dinosaur skull and talk of extinction.  Everything comes to an end.  (I'm looking at you humanity!)

Speaking of mummification.  According to Yasumoto's little finger box he has a 102 day lifespan.

This explains the tub of goo Yasumoto awakes from in the first episode.  New age mummification.

Here's a theory, not only is Yasumoto trying to manipulate his own lifespan but humanity's also.  That's where all the alien cross breeding comes into play.  Either that or if you can't beat 'em then join 'em and preserve what little of humanity as you can.

Oh, and ha, I thought Dodd was "in bed" with Yasumoto's corporate plan but literally?  That's one way of finding out why Yasumoto brought John on board.  You sure you "won" John?

Well, all is not lost.

More tree imagery and this time they are fruitful!  Nice drawing Ethan,  I think I can climb down from the ceiling fan now.

Ethan also comes up a metaphorical plan to preserve humanity in this drawing of staving off extinction.

There's hope!

This suggests to me that the "Humanics" may have a hand in our preservation.  (And Dodd was worried.  Well, she was worried we may cause our own demise.  But let's not muddy the water too much just yet.)

 

Our closing scene is of the family dynamic just like in Ethan's drawing.  Safe in sound in their little bubble.  Only this time John is separated and Molly is close to Ethan as opposed to all those John and Ethan pictures sprinkled around the house.  Drat.  No matter, we still have the fruitful trees.

Hope!