Extant - S1E3 - Wish You Were Here

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Previously on Extant, ‘Extinct’

The third episode of Extant turned up the heat! Sparks showed his bad side, Dr. Barton got caught trying to help Molly, and the Woods family is now on the run.

Molly Woods

Mr. Sparks, Molly’s boss at the International Space Exploration Agency (ISEA), decides to tell Molly “something more believable than the truth” regarding her pregnancy. He tells her that the medical team at ISEA performed an unauthorized fertilization procedure on her that resulted in her pregnancy. He claims that they impregnated her with one of the fertilized eggs left over from her and John’s fertility procedures. Molly believes him, and this gives her the courage to tell John that she’s pregnant. She does this during the middle of her birthday party, because really there’s no good time to do these things.

We learn that Molly was once pregnant with her late boyfriend Marcus Dawkins’ child. Both Marcus and the unborn child died after a car crash. Marcus’s brother, Tim, shows up at the birthday party, having had no contact with Molly for eight years. He and Molly have a long talk, then he joins the party. At the end of the night, though, it’s revealed that no one else at the party has seen Tim all night. He doesn’t even appear in the group photo, where he should be standing right next to Molly.

Frightened, Molly decides to submit herself for quarantine at ISEA to find out what’s happening to her. Sparks picks her up, and talks about how he’s changed since his daughter Katie died in space. Dr. Barton, trying to analyze Molly’s blood work at ISEA, discovers that the agency is collecting her computer in the middle of the night. She texts Molly to get out of Sparks’ car, which Molly does, but not before Sparks gets to see the alien Olympic rings swelling up on Molly’s abdomen. It was like she had the bubble guts to the 10^th degree. They fight over the steering wheel, and Sparks is knocked unconscious. John arrives at that moment to pick up Molly. At the end of the episode, armed men accompany Sparks to the Woods residence and find no one.

• Every time a Black man shows up to interact with Halle Berry, it’s trouble and the lights go out.
• Since the Other beings in this show have thus far taken on the form of dead loved ones, is Marcus’ brother also dead?

Harmon

Molly goes to Harmon’s RV to ask him some questions, but he’s not there. What is there is a drawing of overlapping circles, a larger version of what keeps showing up like so many embossed hula hoops on Molly’s belly.

• Has Harmon been taken by ISEA? One of their cronies was following Molly this episode, so they could very well have followed her to Harmon’s house. It’s also possible that he was taken by the Others, or that another deceased person showed up in his life and scared him away.

John Woods

We learn that John proposed the idea of raising Ethan as his son in the aftermath of a failed fertility treatment. We also learn that Molly signed up for her solo space mission in the wake of this disappointment. She didn’t have very much time to get to know Ethan before going away. John has been raising him solo for most of the time that they’ve had the child.

John plans a belated birthday party for Molly, to make up for the one she missed while on her solo space mission. His employee Julie shows up, because women who want your life have no shame in showing up at your birthday party. She and John argue about whether going to school is best for Ethan, and he tells her in so many words to stay out of the decisions he makes for his son.

Ethan

Ethan builds an elaborate (and awesome) bird trap and successfully catches a pigeon. This is the second indication that he has a thing for birds, though this one doesn’t wind up dead. That doesn’t stop scary music from playing while Ethan lures the bird into his trap.

Ethan goes to school for the first time, and the other parents are not happy about it. They’re afraid that he’s dangerous. A parent who works with lower-level robots at his factory says Ethan “is not a kid; he’s a toaster with hair.” When John tries to defend Ethan, he’s as ineffective as he was during his presentation in the pilot. Molly jumps in, telling the parents that they “don’t have to be afraid of different.” At the end of the day, factory parent’s child has made friends with Ethan.

At Molly’s birthday party, Ethan gets sent to bed after John discovers that he disobeyed him. Julie comes up to his room and lies next to him on the bed. She reads him The Velveteen Rabbit, which she’s been doing since before Ethan had a body. It’s clear that Julie really wants to be more involved in Ethan’s life and misses the degree of interaction she had with him before he became John’s child. This might prove dangerous to the family if John makes any contact with her, because getting Ethan back might be her top priority.

• I’m sorry, but no friend of the family should be getting in bed next to someone else’s child, especially without the parent’s knowledge or consent. I would have pulled her out of that bed by the hair and dragged her to the police station.
• Do you think Julie will be used to locate the Woods family?

Bits and Pieces

• John has to be the nicest husband in the world. I’d like for him to make me a humanic that’s a replica of himself.
• Dr. Sam Barton was cornered by security guards while trying to covertly analyze Molly’s blood sample. What do you think will happen to her?
• Who’s Harmon’s real estate agent? Seriously, that secret RV has the greatest view.

Extant airs Wednesdays on CBS, and is available on demand the next day through Amazon Instant Video.