Extant S1 Ep5 – What On Earth Is Wrong?

Josh Malina guest-starring was a definite high point!

A very good episode; nothing dragged, unlike the stuff with Molly’s dad last week.

I’d seen in some promo somewhere that this episode would include evidence casting doubt on Molly having ever been pregnant. That made me nervous that everyone would gaslight her, even her husband. And naturally, Sparks and his cronies – sadly now including Sam, with what he’s holding over her – did attempt this. However, even when John leaned toward thinking Molly was crazy, I appreciated that he was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. And I was extra pleased that we did get to finally see DNA results, and that John did, too, so now they’re on the same page again. (I definitely don’t mind being wrong about the show continuing to carefully not show us the results!)

Speaking of the DNA results, that’s a much cleverer use of the dog bite from last week than I was expecting. Kudos to the show for not going the magical-healing route, and to Molly for the idea of using the blood from the bite. When, I wonder, will Sparks try to obliterate the evidence that Nerdy Tech Guy Danny found about the energy that killed the worms and, as it turns out, seems to have been what got Molly pregnant? And will he try to force Danny to pretend it doesn’t exist?

This was an unexpected tidbit of characterization, too.

On the Ethan front, it was good to see Julie come out and admit her misgivings to John about him being a part of the Woods family. I do feel for her, having obviously put a lot of herself into Ethan and now being forced to stand back. That would have to be a weird and highly uncomfortable position. The fact that John wouldn’t even call her his partner can’t be helping, though it’s accurate, I suppose. Also, Ethan being awakened before he was ready was nice and creepy. But I’m glad he seems to have kept his personality and memories, for the most part.

So we’ve got alien energy spores that kill worms, give humans hallucinations, and also can impregnate women. That sounds like a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode I’ve seen, but as long as the baby doesn’t disappear into a beam of energy anytime soon, I guess that’s not necessarily a problem. I imagine the life-support thingy that Sparks and co. are keeping the baby in now might be used as a convenient way for it to develop faster than normal.

Molly doesn’t seem extremely good at keeping secrets, so I’m not sure how many answers she’ll be able to find working from inside the ISEA. But I wonder if she is destined to be reunited with her little Chosen One. I saw the show-runners say on Twitter that this episode is the end of the first of three planned storyline arcs of the season, and I’m intrigued to see what the next one will be like.

What did you think? Did this episode impress you? Let us know in the comments.