Extant - Baby Blues

In this past episode of Extant, "What On Earth is Wrong?" we learn that nothing is wrong, Earth is awesome!

It is awesome.

Not so much for Molly though as she struggles with her suddenly lost pregnancy and the realization that she is on the verge of becoming crazy or at least everyone thinking she is crazy.

What would Freud do?

Look at her dreams of course and by happy coincidence Extant starts with two dream sequences. (Or better yet, the dream within a dream TV device.)

Molly awakes in her home, seemingly unaware of the previous night's (and episode's) events.  As she staggers to the kitchen the bread we see Ethan munching on during "Wish You Were Here" lies waiting to be consumed.  Here we find another thread that doesn't seem to belong yet we consistently find throughout Extant.  Unrelated events, bits of dialog and symbols that shouldn't be related yet somehow are.  More on this soon.

When one invokes Ethan we get the allusion that he is not a real boy through the placement of a toaster.  (Here seen in the foreground.)  Battlestar Galactica fans appreciate the toaster reference as the derogatory name of the Cylons (mechanical beings) and the insult hurled by the mean parents also seen in "Wish You Were Here."

Molly's poured orange juice sits at an odd angle and as she gazes upon her childhood Spaceman toy she suddenly feels the comforting touch of familiar hands.

It's Marcus and by now just about everyone in the viewing audience knows we are seeing a dream. 

Marcus tells Molly about his busy day and how he has to drive down the coastal highway.  He also remarks how much he likes Molly's hair.  Molly, concerned about the poor weather insists and going with him.  As they proceed we glimpse that fateful day where Marcus is killed and Molly becomes infertile forever.

The shock of these events awakens Molly and now we are sure we were seeing a dream instead of a possible flashback.

Ethan appears at her bedroom door concerned for her well being.  He's not wearing his standard dinosaur pj's substituting cars instead.  Something is amiss.

A baby's cry is heard and when Molly pulls aside the covers Marcus lays dead beside her with his neck broken.

This is right about when Dr. Freud clears his schedule and tells his secretary to hold his calls.

The reality of the situation is Molly and Ethan lie abandoned in the forest unceremoniously dumped there by Yasumoto upon completing his fiendish procedure.

So what have we learned and is any of it important?

We have learned many of things some of which are very important.

Obviously in her unconscious state Molly still struggles over guilt.  The trauma over the loss of Marcus and her subsequent infertility pains her deeply.  Her mind conflates the existence of Ethan in a world where he doesn't exist.  Even when he does appear, Molly imagines herself post pregnancy hearing a child that was taken from her only to find the twisted corpse of her former lover.

Why has the dead Marcus been substituted for the wailing child?  Manifestation of trauma or a clever plot point in our story that relates Marcus to the baby?

I've often wondered how disparate points manage to reappear out of context.  One would be Ethan telling Molly he liked her hair in episode one and Marcus repeating the same thing in this last episode.

Molly's subconscious could have brought the two together.  Ethan spoke his words when he ran away from Molly.  Marcus spoke his when he made his dreamlike return.  Both traumatic events.

But how did Molly know about Ethan's toast? 

Seemingly unrelated events brought together.  Should we jump ahead to the common denominator that brings all these oddities together?

We should!

Thanks to this episode we finally got an answer to the mysterious visitations that have been plaguing Molly.  The space spores.  (Read my previous theory on these here.)

The spores that infected the space probe sent from the Seraphim station and killed the worms have now infested Molly.  It appears not only can they impregnate a host but they can inhabit and steer your conscious and subconscious mind. 

Did Freud have a theory about this?

Seizing Molly's subconscious, the spores appear to Molly as her long dead partner.  She becomes a willing victim and allow the spores to inhabit it's host.  Whenever the host feels threatened the spores react.  Either by attacking Molly or projecting Marcus to reassure or distract her. 

The spores that tried to infect Kryger did not find a willing host.

So do the spores still inhabit Molly?  Her last vision of him came to her in a dream.  Now that the fetus has been "harvested" they may no longer need Molly and the visions should stop.

If I'm right that is.

All of this is bad news for John as realizes he is not the father.  Despite all their misgivings about Sparks they still bought into his lie out of desperation.  Fortunately, this does not split them apart.

Odds and Ends

Did you notice that both of Molly's children appear concurrently in a lab?  Interesting.  I think the message here is neither are really Molly's children.  Yet to some degree, both really are.  Both are in a fragile state and each are starting from the beginning.

Speaking of frustrated mothers.  Jealous Julie has two bio mechanical artificial legs.  Does this explain her deep affinity towards Ethan.  Common ground?

John telling Julie, "You work for me, we are not partners" is definitely going to come back to him.

Molly telling Dr. Sam, "They better have a gun to your head" was a powerful moment.  I don't think Sam is long for this world.  Time to have her fitted for a "Red Shirt."

Pierce Gagnon sure can do spooky.  When he kept repeating, "Who are you?" after he was jump started, I was sure it was from an early Twilight Zone episode.  I just can't place it.  The words were definitely from an old Clint Eastwood film, "Hang 'Em High" when a cowboy hood keeps calling this out to Eastwood's character, a U.S. Marshal that has seemingly returned from the dead.  A connection here?

The tree of life, I mean, light.  No "Skeletal Tree" here.  Instead we get a tree that is alive with light.  A clue that Molly has been freed from the spore infestation?

Ethan is awesome!

He is, isn't he?

No skeletal tree here either.  Just ones filled with life.  The sailing ship is interesting  It made me think of the Styx song, "Come Sail Away" where the singer realizes the people he has been sailing with are really aliens and there ship is really a spacecraft.  The song comes from the album. "Grand Illusion."

Sheesh, I know!  Molly's hallucinations, grand illusions, spacemen.  Maybe the writers are big Styx and Clint Eastwood fans.

This was a little heavy handed but still fun.  As Molly grabs the "Origin of Species" book where she is hiding the evidence of her Spore visitation we transit to the lab where Sparks is holding the fetus.  Origin of a new species Mr. Darwin?   I'd say evolution got a jump start here.  (I wonder if survival of the fittest will come into play?)

We close with the fetus that we have come to learn is a boy.  I've theorized in the past that the baby will evolve into Marcus.  Can space spores do that?  Well, it was a crackpot theory.  Spores that can inhabit your subconscious and turn it into a living being.  Neat trick!

Did we get a clue that this may be so?

Remember the baby wailing in Molly's dream only to be revealed as Marcus? 

Yes, that's my proof.   Ironclad proof?  Not yet, but we are inching closer.  I'm going to stick with my "Alien space spore Marcus baby" for now until proven otherwise.

Hey, I was right about the "space seeds" wasn't I?

(Let's hope they're friendly!)