The Ark, “One Step Forward Two Steps Back”, Review!

This episode of The Ark brings up the murder mystery, the crew's faith in Garnet, and another danger to the ship! Re:cap - “We Weren’t Supposed to Be Awake”, the crew of the Ark-1 was faced with the toxin particle which was from the comet water! A cure was found from Lt. Sharon Garnet’s clone blood, but there was another problem. Angus has analyzed the crystal that caused the loss of the command crew and says, “It could have been a weapon”! Garnet states that they are the only ones that have reached that far in space. Angus Medford says, “I didn’t say people.” Dr. Sanjivni Kabir is placing her medical tools in a kit in the now empty med bay. She is still tired and reaches for her pills. Dr. Kabir is interrupted by Lt. Spencer Lane who thanks her for her work saving the ship. He questions her about how she came up with the cure. Lane offers to watch over the med bay while she sleeps. First time Dr. Kabir has had that offer. She thanks him, but then we get a grim look from Lane!  When Dr. Kabir leaves, Lane starts to type on her computer, I think when any medical personnel is away from their computer, their password is needed! 

Lt. Garnet is walking when Lane bursts out that she is a clone. She says it is on a need to a know basis. Then, Garnet says Dr. Kabir knew, and Lane admits that he had illegally checked her medfiles. One this breaks confidentiality with a senior medical personnel and two it breaks chain of command, two wrongs don’t make a right. At the most, Lane should have brought this up privately. She says he could be court martialed and he brings up her sister. This angers Garnet who tells him to leave. Very tense, but Lane continues since he thinks he is up to lead the ship. Garnet says she will step aside if she feels she has lost control. He wants a vote, really classified information is a threat, and Lane should be court martialed. Is he the villain of this show? The video of bar killing is reviewed by Lane at the command room. Dr. Kabir who should be angry at him and Lt. Brice finds it pointless to vote. Nevins asks what is wrong about clones. Strickland explains that clone were used as soldiers, the Clone Wars?, Dr. Kabir adds cloning the same soldier (like Jango Fett) causes degradation and they became psychotic! 

This is what may have happened to Garnet’s clone sister, Denise, and she admits she is a normal human. Finally, Dr. Kabir is angry at Lane, really he is a danger playing politics and should be confined to quarters. Her last comment about him is very funny! Lane tries to keep his point that clone were a danger, Nevins says she saved the ship, and Eva Markovic says Garnet is human. He turns to Felix Strickland’s persepective and he votes to support Garnet as leader. The others raise their hand in support and Garnet smiles. I like when loyalties are test and win out! Garnet gets an update on the ship, Eva notes that they are not ready for near lightspeed with one working engine, and she goes to see what she can do about the engine. Next, Garnet turns to Strickland about the murder investigation. He was going to question people when stopped by politics so he goes to continue the investigation. Garnet gives James Brice command of the bridge. She asks Nevins to work with Angus on the crystal to “weaponize” it or to make a shield, I like option b. It should have been clear that Garnet’s clone origin is to be kept a priority secret. 

THE ARK - - “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”  - -  RICHARD FLEESHMAN, REECE RITCHIE, TIANA UPCHEVA, STACEY READ, CHRISTIE BURKE - - Photo: Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY

Garnet confronts the sulking Lane and says his problem with her was before he knew she was a clone. He didn’t like how she took command. She orders him to go to Cat Brandice for his “mommy issues”, burn, and then take his place as her second-in-command. Bold move to put someone in charge probably to keep her in check. Eva walks to the engine room with Gregor (Asenije Beric), a beautiful shot of the conduits in the engine. He brings up the possible radiation from the engines and Eva advises to raise speed from 5% and use the emergency shutdown if there are problems.  In a corridor, Cat quietly tells Strickland that she thinks Eva is the murderer, and that she said Jasper deserved what he got. This was told in a confidential session, The Ark personnel can’t keep secrets! Strickland checks handcuffs and then meets with Eva. He asks her where she was during the murder. She locks him in the cell and sends Strickland gasping for air. He collapses and then Eva opens the door saying that she would have made it look like a heart attack and would not be stupid enough to throw the knife in the water pipe! Strickland gasps, “Point made” and Eva stomps away, tough lady! 

Gregor is working in the engine room, an alarm sounds, and radiation canisters break! They leak green fluid right by Gregor’s boots, he struggles to reach the shutdown switch with his radiation swollen face, and collapses. On the bridge, Brice checks the drop in speed, and has Garnet look at the xenon levels. It is a chemical used for ion thrusters and radioactive from nuclear fission. She says they are the same. Brice puts together the xenon level should match the speed unless… there is a reactor leak! Garnet contacts the engine room and no response from Gregor of course. She contacts Eva to go to the engine room via wrist communicator. Nevins finds Baylor Trent at the mess hall and it is an awkward apology from both of them. He says they can do over their first date. Nevins sits and tells him about seeing her mom who disapproves of him, mother’s know best. Then, Nevins asks him who he saw and Trent admits he saw Susan Ingram (Lisa Brenner). She asks him how he knows Susan. We get a flashback of The Ark-1 in dry dock, very cool, a hexagonal cage-like structure as it drifts from the Earth. This is like the drydock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) until there was the Spacedock. 

He thanks Commander Ingram for assigned him to the ship. I thought the actress, Brenner, was familiar. She was Anne Howard in The Patriot (2000). They look out a large window to see the Earth, a massive storm formation covers the lower half of North America, there are bursts clustered around the middle of the continent! An even larger spinning cloud appears off of the tip of eastern Canada, producer Dean Devlin was the co-writer and director of Geostorm (2017). It would be heartbreaking to see ground level the apocalyptic Earth. They start kissing. Then, we get Trent on the ship saying she was his mentor, and he says “Hallucination Susan” liked her. Red flag! Commanding officers are not on a first name basis! Nevins gives him a quick kiss. She tries to apologize, he kisses her again, and Nevins is stunned. Eva reaches the outside of the engine room, the door lock is sealed, and she sees the drift of fallout particles. Through the door, she sees the radiation leak and Gregor’s body. I’m surprised that there is not an automatic ship warning with the leak. Eva rushes to the bridge and reports to Garnet and Brice. She has her crew working on containment, but if it spreads she says the ship will go into automatic lockdown! 

                        THE ARK - - “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”  - -  PAVLE JERINIC - - Photo: Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY 

We finally get to Angus who is examining on the metal pieces in his green house while mulling over Garnet’s order. Nevins is too love struck to pay attention. He should have labs and a science station separate from the gardens. He is worried about turning it into a weapon. Angus compares the situation to using a cup of water to make a rainstorm. Nevins brings up an umbrella. An analogy that could be made into a defense. She brings up Ensign Trent to him, yes Angus you are in the Friend Zone, he says he doesn’t really know him. They go back to working on the substance which he says was in a pellet and Nevins adds container. Angus says it could be natural like a coconut. Nevins continues saying the pellet could have been shot at them. Interesting ideas. Strickland returns to the security division which is surprisingly busy compared to the rest of the ship and checks with his aide, Officer Jelena Griff (Tamara Radovonović). He mentions if she has worked on the message sent to Lane and Jelena notes that she only finds a code from the sender. Clues lead to the murderer, but of course there is the threat of the radiation leak.  “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” has the ship threatened, more mysteries, and a look back at the Earth that may be lost! 

Four Compression Suits out of Five!   

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