Extant recap: Don't Shoot The Messenger

Another week, another win for Extant. I truly hope this show doesn’t get canceled. The writers have done a remarkable job reviving this show from the lackluster season 1. Either that, or my obsession with Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character is clouding any criticism I have for the show.

This week brought more action and, unfortunately, more deaths. We also saw the return of Ares, back to corrupt Terra once again. Let’s dive right into the dirty details and break down “Don’t Shoot The Messenger.”

The episode starts back in Molly’s carnival sequence, this time with her dressed in her regular garb, holding a gun in one hand and a mysterious pendant-looking object in the other. A vision of JD walks toward her, bleeding from the stomach. It’s presumed Molly has “shot” JD, a metaphor displaying that this is now her new fear, seeing that in the last episode she came to terms with what haunted her during her human life.

Molly wakes up and is still old and decrepit. She begins to shed her old skin and hair, crawling out the shell that was her past life. She’s trapped inside of the room (remember, her hybrid-mojo won’t work in there,) but Ethan has come back to get her and opens the door. They embrace and are greeted by JD, who is equally as happy to see that Molly is alive and no longer sick with the virus.

They rush to escape the facility and come across the vault where Terra is planning her suicide mission. Molly’s mojo is able to see what she is doing behind the vault doors, and she enters to try and stop her. Toby is in there with Terra, and Molly is able to convince Terra that she and Toby are only wanting to promote peace between the hybrids and humans. Terra finally puts down the trigger, and Toby tells them both to escape with JD and Ethan through the secret evacuation tunnels. Toby snags JD’s handcuffs before they head out and pretends that he has been cuffed inside, a cover for their escape.

Meanwhile, Julie is looking for Ethan. She sees Lucy on one of the screens and fearfully hides when she enters the facility. Not knowing how Lucy was able to be rebooted, Julie continues to escape and look for Ethan. Lucy’s reboot seems to have the same attitude problem, as she swiftly breaks the neck of scientist Nate Malone when he refuses to let her through the door.

Lucy finds Toby, uncuffs him, and he instructs her to look somewhere other than the evacuation tunnels. She goes against his order, saying someone higher up overrules him. A bomb then goes off, killing several people.

Fortunately Molly and Co. have escaped by the time the bomb goes off and are safely in a bunker provided by one of JD’s friends. The bunker is cloaked in ferrofluid, preventing anyone at the GSC from finding them. An old TV in the bunker shows them that the bombing at the facility has been dubbed as a terrorist attack linked to JD and Molly, further worsening their situation. Even though the bunker has enough food for months, they know they can’t stay there forever.

Toby has headed back to the GSC and is greeted by the Madame Secretary, Fiona Stanton. He tells her that Molly is dead, but she wants to see her body as proof. She’s also convinced there is a mole, and she wants Toby to provide her a list of names of those who knew about the evacuation tunnels. Gulp.

Even more concerning, Fiona is fine with Lucy killing scientist Nate Malone. She called the situation, “regrettable,” but necessary and tells Lucy to bring her Molly—dead or alive. I liked Fiona’s character at first, but her tunnel vision on the hybrids versus Humanichs issue is starting to annoy me. Yes, some of the hybrids are a threat, but Fiona is starting to toss away innocent lives like it’s nothing, and that’s exactly what Lucy wants. I was hoping to see Fiona mic drop a hard shutdown on Lucy at some point, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

Julie escapes the facility unharmed and rushes to Toby’s office to see if Ethan’s alright. Toby assures her that Ethan wasn’t among those who died in the bombing, and Julie shares the details about Lucy, her reboot, and Anna’s (possible) mysterious part in John’s death. Toby plays it cool to start, saying he’ll privately investigate into everything and find Ethan. When Julie leaves, he hurries to research with the new information.

NEXT: Things heat up between JD and Molly.

Meanwhile, JD and Molly are in the bunker talking about their next steps. JD basically tells her that they are cosmically made for each other, and the universe has brought them together for a reason. Molly thinks this is all great stuff, but she knows they have to finish their fight before they can ride off into the sunset together. Even though JD has a way for them to disappear with new identities, he knows she is right, and they can’t keep running from their problems.

Molly says that Toby has new information, and she needs to go secretly meet him. Knowing he can’t stop her, JD gives Molly a cloak that will mask her from facial recognition cameras, plus a gun. His final gift is a kiss, and it did not disappoint. These two don’t have a sunset setting scene in the near future, and the place of their first kiss being in a bunker is kind of perfect. (Also, I’m not counting their technical first kiss when Molly was high on mojo-love and attacked him during a drunken, mid-alien transformation stupor.)

Then there’s the classic parking garage scene: Julie is walking to her car, when Lucy sneaks up behind her and starts interrogating her about Molly. When Julie asks how Lucy was rebooted, she declines to answer due to the reason being “classified.” Julie says that Molly is dead, and Lucy threatens her should she find out Julie is lying. I have a feeling that even though Julie thought Molly was dead at that time she talked with Lucy, Lucy won’t care when she comes for her revenge.

Toby and Molly meet up in an alley, and he shares all the information he’s been able to uncover. Molly knew Nicholas Calderon was the man who built the first Humanich prototype with John and that they had a massive falling out. Toby informs her that Calderon took a turn for the worse and blew up a defense building in Wichita and has hacked every firewall built to keep him out of TAALR, which was also built by him and John.

Toby believes Calderon is the one behind the sociopathic nature of the Humanichs and is using the hybrid threat as a reason to build his own army. He tells Molly to lay low while he finds Calderon and that he will reach out when he knows their next steps.

Back at the bunker, Ethan can’t sleep and wakes up JD. Ethan suggests a game of chess, but JD decides instead to teach him how to play poker. After kicking JD’s ass in Texas Hold’em, Ethan starts to glitch. He’s going in and out of Humanich-consciousness, and when Molly arrives she tells Ethan she’s going to give him a hard shutdown. Running at 200 percent, Ethan could suffer serious damage if they don’t get him help immediately. Having no other choice, JD and Molly take Ethan to see Julie, leaving Terra in the bunker. Not the best move, because Ares shows up after they leave, and who knows what his next move will be.

When they arrive at Julie’s house, Julie is surprised but ready to help. She tells JD and Molly to try and relax while she works on Ethan. Molly reveals her dream to JD, and it’s no surprise that JD isn’t fazed. Choosing optimism over cryptic hybrid-dreams, JD tells her that he’s here to stay.

Julie calls the two back into Ethan’s room, where Ethan is glowing Ironman-style in the middle of his chest. John’s voice takes over his body, and it’s revealed that John placed a secret message in Ethan’s system should these bad circumstances ever happen—a Humanich killing a human. The message states that the only way to stop the production of harmful Humanichs is to find Nicholas Calderon: “He’s your only hope.”

The message also makes Ethan draw a photo of the object they need, currently kept in Calderon’s protection. The object is the same one Molly was holding in the beginning of the episode while in her dream. Could Molly have seen this object before as a human, and now her intuition is making her remember? Or, does her new, hybrid-self have some sort of power of foresight?

Lucy is off ruining more people’s lives, finding video footage of Toby plotting with JD. She shows Fiona, and Toby’s arrest is ordered. Toby finds out too late and is caught trying to escape the facility. When he tries to explain the Calderon conspiracy, Fiona will have none of it. When taken away, Toby is able to fight to an escape and drive away from the facility. He realizes his car is being tracked by some sort of fighter jet and calls Molly, presumably to say goodbye one last time. Before he can get out any words, the jet attacks and his car explodes. Can everyone please stop calling Molly while in a car? It’s not good luck.

Questions:

• Did Fiona find out that Toby escaped and send the jet to kill him, or was it Calderon?
• Is Calderon “the savior or the devil”? Both?
• What is the object from John’s message, also shown in Molly’s dream?
• Did Toby redeem himself before his death?
• When the heck will Lucy die (again)?

Quotes:

• “Hello, little dove. It’s time to come home.” —Ares
• “Alright just so you know, you’re not the first woman to have that particular dream.” —JD
• “It must be Colonel Mustard in the freaking library with a candlestick.” —JD

Best scene:

Molly and JD sharing a (real) kiss. PS, how cute are they in real life?