Failed Experiment – As the second season of The Ark begins, the rescue team is en route to Ark 1. Spencer (Reece Ritchie) tells Sharon (Christie Burke) that the systems are unresponsive. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman) is unable to get the door open. Alicia (Stacey Read) says they can’t reach the crew because the internal comms relays are down. They’re told to prepare for a hull breach. Sharon tells the others she never had a real family and never knew what one felt like. She does now. Sharon is adamant they’re going to get the rest of their family. The hull breach is successful. Kimi Joma (Diana Bermudez) welcomes them on board. She doesn’t want to help them check on the rest of the crew.

Joma’s orders are to bring them directly to the Ark 15. James argues they’re not going to follow those orders. Kimi hopes she’s not going to have a problem with him. Sharon gets in touch with Evelyn Maddox (Jelena Stupljanin) to say she’s worried about the rest of her crew. Maddox won’t let her help her crew until they meet. Once they meet Maddox, they find out that she’s not going to help their crew. James gets upset so Maddox’s crew pulls weapons on him. After the intro, Maddox tells Sharon that she owes her and not her entire ship. Spence asks why she wouldn’t try to rescue everyone. Maddox explains they needed to lose some people. Sharon did them a favor by killing some of them. Maddox says Ark 15 is full. Sharon asks if there’s a way to bring over an O2 cell from Ark 1.

Alicia says the oxygen scrubbers won’t be able to keep up if they bring everyone over. Maddox agrees to give them 24 hours to check on their ship and crew. Lane and Brice will go back to Ark 1 and come back with a shuttle. Sharon asks Alicia to see if they can fix the broken cell and see if there’s a way to adjust the system to support more people. Maddox claims it’s a waste of time. She agrees that Alicia is probably smarter than her people so she lets her try. Maddox says space telescopes mapped several more potentially inhabitable planets. That’s why she gave the command to go to Trappist 1D. At full FTL, they should arrive in just under eight months. She hopes they’ll already start building new colonies by the time they arrive.

Sharon wants to try using the hailing transmitter to see if she can raise anyone on Ark 1. When she’s unable to get in touch with anyone, Maddox suggests they’re all dead. Felix Strickland (Pavle Jerinic) gets up and begins moving around the ship. He finds Naomi Spencer (Jessica Yemi) nearby. Felix finds Cat Brandice (Christina Wolfe) who has been injured. He wants to take her to Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris). Cat says they’d have a lot of fun if he were straight. Felix gets her to the infirmary only to find Kabir stuck under a heavy object. He moves it and tries to help Kabir. William Trust (Paul Murray) rushes in and finds out what’s going on. William yells for Felix to help Cat. Cat tells William that she believes she really loved him. She says he’ll never be as good of a man as Felix so it was probably about the money and the connections.

Cat dies. Kabir wakes up and finds out what’s going on. Maddox tells Dr. Marsh (Jadran Malkovich) to prepare for incoming injured from Ark 1. He asks if she wants to know about her daughter. Her brainwaves are showing activity. They argue about whether she should be activated. Maddox says people on Ark 1 could use her space and be more productive. She says she’s a failed experiment and nothing more. Dr. Marsh activates her anyway. Kelly (Samantha Glassner) asks what her mom meant when she called her a failed experiment. Spencer finds Angus (Ryan Adams) injured. James rushes in to look for survivors. He finds a woman injured. Meanwhile, Felix tends to Kabir. He admits she really needs a doctor. James manages to wake up Eva Markovic (Tiana Upcheva).

She fixes the system so they can breathe. James tells her to rest and catch her breath. Spencer takes Angus to the infirmary where he finds out about Cat and Kabir. He says they need to get the patients to Ark 15. Felix tries to carry Kabir. He makes it to Sharon who learns it’s bad over there. They’ve already found 23 dead. Sharon asks Spencer and Felix to see if they can save any others. Spencer tells her that Cat didn’t make it. Maddox is not happy that they’ve brought more people on her ship. She tells them not to bring another soul. Dr. Marsh begins working on the new patients. Sharon tells Alicia to work on the oxygen system to keep her mind occupied. Alicia isn’t sure it can be fixed. Eva and James learn there’s been an explosion on deck 3B. Most of them were in there.

Eva can’t fix the ship without their help. Sasha likely wasn’t in there. Eva asks James to find him. Tammy tells Dr. Marsh that Ms. Maddox locked the synthetic blood bank. When Marsh leaves, Kelly looks at the new patients including Angus. She tells him she’s sorry. Marsh confronts Maddox about locking him out of the synth blood vaults. She tells him he’ll have to clear access with her. Maddox doesn’t want to give him blood for Angus because he adds no value to the ship. Alicia learns she’s wanted in the crew meeting. Sharon is told the same. They meet Marsh who says some people want to go to Ark 1. He wants to go there to get blood for Angus. Kimi believes their engineers can help repair the ship. They don’t want to stay under the thumb of Evelyn who they call a monster. Dr. Marsh claims staying there makes them accomplices.

Marsh warns Sharon that Evelyn has no intention of saving her people. She doesn’t even want him to save Angus. Alicia thinks they should do it. Sharon questions how they’ll sneak everyone off the ship. Kelly yells for someone to save Angus. Kabir tells her to go find an injector labeled adrenaline. Once Kelly gets it, Kabir shoots herself with it. Then, she tries to take care of Angus. Kabir believes she can give Angus some of Kelly’s blood since they have the same blood type. Spencer and Felix run into a live electrical wire with someone injured nearby. They call to Jelena Griff (Tamara Radovanovic). Spence and Felix need to find a way to shorten the cable so it isn’t so close to the water. Felix cuts it with his sword before they check on Griff who says she’s okay. Sharon and Alicia try to find a way to sneak off the ship.

Alicia shuts the doors to lock everyone else inside. Evelyn learns that someone has activated an override. She immediately blames Sharon. Kabir manages to save Angus who isn’t happy to see Kelly. Kabir asks if there is something wrong with Kelly’s blood because Angus is recovering too quickly. Angus wants Kelly to get away from him. Kabir has to sit down since the adrenaline is wearing off. Marsh, Alicia, and Sharon enter. Alicia pushes Kelly. Kelly tells them they better go quickly because Evelyn will block them from the shuttle. Kabir takes another shot of adrenaline even though it could kill her. Alicia and Marsh try to carry Angus to safety. Evelyn sends her people to med bay. Once they arrive, they find it empty and immediately report back to Evelyn. Seconds later, Evelyn wants to know who is going to the shuttle.

Alicia doesn’t like the fact that Kelly is going with them. Sharon explains that she saved Angus. She admits Marsh will only come if they take Kelly too. On the shuttle, Evelyn orders Kimi to stand down. She doesn’t respond. Dr. Marsh doesn’t cooperate with her either. Kelly won’t either. She warns Evelyn that she’ll kill her the next time she sees her. Evelyn says they left her with no choice. She puts something in and it triggers the plasti-gel failsafe in Kelly’s body. Sharon worries there’s a bomb inside Kelly. They argue about whether they should eject Kelly. Marsh wants to save Kelly because she can be very valuable to them. Sasha Novak (Milos Cvetkovic) is returned to Eva. She kisses James and insists she’s just fine. Evelyn refuses to let Sharon and the others live.

Sharon tries to convince her to change her mind. Evelyn relents and disarms the bomb inside Kelly. She says they’re even now. Sharon says they’ll fix the ship and meet her at Trappist-1D. Evelyn doubts it. She doesn’t want to see her daughter who is now dead to her. James tells everyone on Ark 1 that their most critical systems are intact or fixable. He insists they will preserve because they have to and they’ll get to a planet they can call home. Sasha fixes the system and they begin receiving reports.

 

The Ark Review

The opening episode of The Ark’s second series makes me sincerely question why this show was renewed for a second series. It’s not so much about science-fiction and instead feels a lot more like a soap opera with performances on the level of Days of Our Lives. The episode had a little more going on than usual after what happened on Ark 1.

Otherwise, it probably would’ve been a little dull too. Even with bad performances, this could’ve worked with strong dialogue and a better story. The writing makes everything extreme in one direction or the other. It’s just so corny though even when something serious is happening such as a character death. For instance, Cat’s conversation with Felix was horrible.

With that being said, this might be watchable with the right expectations. Expect the worst and you might just feel that this is so bad it’s somewhat good. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of The Ark can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here.

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