Gift from the Gods
Episode 6 of Another Life Season 2 begins with Richard catching up with Niko and confirming that he’s been left behind too. However, Niko has a plan. Speaking of plans, Eric organizes an experiment to test the Achaia orb and see if the aliens are actually telling the truth. Placing it in an abandoned area, the explosion ripples out and turns the run-down dystopia into a lush utopian forest. Further readings confirm there are zero pathogens in the atmosphere too, with the gang convinced that Achaian gift is just that – a gift. However, alarms soon start wailing as they catch wind of a massive energy field just past Jupiter – a wormhole. It collapses just after the Salvare makes it through but it seems our crew are heading back to Earth after all! Cas decides against communicating with Earth just yet, given they don’t know what’s going on. Instead, they intercept broadcasts and find out about Eric’s experiments. Upon hearing this, Cas is curious over whether those on earth will invite the crew back as heroes or villains. In the midst of this, the gang learn that Iara has trapped Richard back on the old ship. This is the Achaian side of her code kicking in, with her essentially at war with herself over this revelation. The rest of the crew team up with William and trick Iara into believing she’s being allowed to travel across space. The reality is that she’s being kept in this sandbox to prevent her becoming a threat. Speaking of opening portals, Seth wanders into the Artifact alone, much to Eric’s dismay. He soon heads back though with a brand, spanking new implant, allowing the Achaians to take control. With few other options, Eric decides to meet that weird mask-wearing group again. He’s there to speak about Harper Glass, believing her to be connected to everything that’s going on. So what’s with the masks? Who knows. Anyway, it turns out Harper and Seth both have those implants in their head, which are being studied right now. As Eric leaves, the gang decide to enact Plan B. And that plan appears to involve Eric’s second-in-command, Singh, taken off the case. Back aboard the Salvare, Cas decides to keep all the information they have on the Achaians to themselves for now. They soon make it down to Earth though where reunions are made between the family members. Eric meets Cas for a brief second, desperate to use the wormhole to get back through to save Niko. With Iara offline, that’s obviously not possible. However, Cas does learn that Seth now has an Achaian implant in his head. Hurriedly, Cas mentions that William has intelligence stored in him before leaving. Only, leaving comes from the gang being kept in specially crafted cells to keep them in containment for the time being. While they get accustomed to their new surroundings, Eric is invited into Seth’s office, where they speak privately. There, Eric opens up and reveals the truth about the resistance fighters and how they’re trying to recruit him. Now, it turns out Seth has actually put a tracker on him and the UCIS team, so he knows exactly where this base is. He encourages Eric to join him too, as we cut across to gunfire breaking out and a massacre being left in their wake. Seth invites Eric in, where he witnesses Seth use this strange implant to extract information from their leader, courtesy of a weird metallic prod from his eyeballs. When he finishes, Seth turns around and nods, confirming that Eric is telling the truth, and at least for now he’s in the clear.
The Episode Review
This chapter is all about getting back home but in doing so, there are some sacrifices to be had. It’s probably fair to assume that Niko and Richard are absolutely fine and I’m sure we’ll figure that out in the next episode. We also have no clue how Paula and the rest of the colonists are getting on at the “perfect planet” but I’m sure this will resurface at some point in the near future. For now though, this episode focuses on Iara being hidden away while the group focus on getting back to Earth – which they do manage. Now it seems like the attention going forward is moving away from outer space and more to grounded sci-fi on out planet. Although the word science does some very, very heavy lifting here. However, the Achaian threat is still lurking and their true intentions are still unknown at this point. This is a much improved chapter though in truth, despite the very obvious glaring issues with this series.
