Hello, my fellow Debris fans,
I hope you enjoyed this latest episode as much as I did. With just two episodes aired already we can clearly see the influence and parallels between that other sci-fi show that J.H. Wyman was involved in that goes by the name of Fringe.
Certain showrunners or directors have signatures within their work that makes their work uniquely theirs and Debris is no exception. Especially with the latest episode that aired entitled “You Are Not Alone”, there are definite hints of Fringe and maybe some The X-Files as well sprinkled throughout.
As the episode opens, we are in a small town called Fleetwood where certain items made of metal are being dragged toward a specific area of town.
I could not help but think of X-Men and Magneto, how he was able to manipulate anything metal to his advantage. The metal items are forming a perimeter and the whole town is being evacuated, or so the team thought!
In this episode, directed by Padraic McKinley a well known film editor who has directed several television series since since 2016, the Debris team finds what appears to be a lone survivor named Eric (David Alpay) who was the only person left in town.
Before continuing with our review of “You Are Not Alone”, we include an interesting video, courtesy of NBC, featuring Jonathan Tucker talking about Debris and discovering the unknown in space with a real-life NASA Astronaut, Mike Massimo!
You Are Not Alone:
Not only do Bryan Beneventi (Jonathan Tucker) and Finola Jones (Riann Steele) find Eric, but also his clone or rather clones, three to be exact. The clone then proceeds to tell different members of the team what each of the clones needs and wants. Eric tells the team that he must take care of things, he is frantic and needs to take care of his unfinished business. It is with this scene that things start to get interesting.
The debris it seems can somehow alter consciousness or rather invade the mind of the victim and extract what it needs to feed off the person. It is as if the debris almost short circuits the brain of the victim, causing them psychosis of some sort. The body and brain are connected by and electrical system as it is, so it makes sense. We are “hard wired” as the phrase suggests to certain things and the debris takes advantage of it and alters it.
Energy seems to be a theme in this episode. The energy we feed off each other, the energy of the earth and the kinetic energy of the universe that is constantly around us. Energy also makes me think of “the Force” and what that means. Life energy, spiritual energy, universal energy it is all connected. What energy Eric is putting out in the universe is coming back to him, what his powerful energy is seeking has found him and is threatening to consume him and everything around him.
The debris again is the culprit of what is happening in the town of Fleetwood. And once again Finola’s father becomes the subject of discussion. As far as Finola is concerned her father is dead, but as we found out in the pilot episode that is not true. Bryan still knows that secret and is conflicted with knowing and not telling. We also come to find out that the last text Finola received from her Dad read “You are not alone”, which is a very loaded text.
That scene when we find out about Finola and her father again reminds me of Fringe and the parallels that Wyman has here. Fathers and daughters are prevalent in both series, strained relationships and nonexistent ones are present in both. Finola it seems had a semi-strained relationship with her father George Jones (Tyrone Benskin) who had a significant part in the Orbital’s mission. In Fringe, Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) we know her biological father had little to no impact on her life unlike her stepfather. Olivia’s stepfather was not only abusive to her mother but to her as well, which made a huge impact on Olivia and her future life as an FBI agent. Add into the mix Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) who became a bit of a surrogate father to Olivia while still trying to repair the damaged relationship with his son Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson).
The three clones of Eric King are in a losing battle, each fighting for dominance within the host. As Eric is being interviewed by the team, he mentions a ball of light that he saw and asks if they saw it too. One of the team members mentions that when people are dying, they often see their life flash before their eyes, their hopes, dreams, regrets, and everything in between. Those regrets or issues is what is making the debris act the way it is, what is making it pull the metal to make a barrier around the town and more specifically Eric’s house.
The three major issues that Eric is battling is regarding his professional goals, a major decision, and a lost love. All these issues are manifesting at the same time, bringing chaos into his life in the form of a fractured life currently. Eric is at the center of the chaos and until he finds a solution, the debris will still be manifesting itself in his clones.
Much like the Fringe Division of the FBI, Orbital is the department looking after the debris that has been slowly falling to earth the last six months.
Between MI-6 in England and the CIA in America, working together albeit reluctantly for reasons yet to be fully explained, hopefully the enigma that is the debris will be figured out.
Of course, it would be up to the individual agencies to be transparent with their agents, which they are not. There is a bit of secrecy on both sides of the pond and as the series progresses.
I bet we will see more and more of this conflict unfold as Debris continues to unfold in season one. Not only has MI-6 and the CIA both kept the secret that George Jones is alive (or so they think), but there are other parts of the agency that are still classified if you will.
Once the agents investigate further, they enter Eric’s house and Bryan comes face to face with his own clone! Seeing this clone visibly shakes him and he has no choice but to eliminate the clone to save himself. I have a theory as to why his clone appears and I will mention that a bit later.
The Orbital team also encounters the third and final clone of Eric, This clone is focused on one thing as we find out Eric must resolve his lost love. With all these clones now in existence the team must figure out how to solve the situation.
Subsequent to killing the clone, Finola and Bryan discuss what is happening to Eric, that it is like what happens when a person is in survival mode. The body discards the non-essential parts of the body, psyche, emotions that are clouding the situation and leaves only what is utmost for survival. Once the team figures out that the original victim, Eric King is still alive, they race to find him, and they do. He ends up being trapped in his car that has become entrenched in the twisted metal wall surrounding his home. As Bryan makes his way to help Eric, the debris signals the metal wall via a ball of light to start compacting itself, essentially crushing whoever is in its path.
As Bryan is trying to help extract Eric from his car, flashes of Eric’s life are seen with one of the main parts being his lost love. With the original host still living the clones are still destroying Eric’s life as he knows it. Once Eric is saved, his clones virtually disappear, Eric found something to live for, his lost love. He resolved that that is the main part of his life that was causing the chaos, the main part that was changing the energy and creating the metal wall that became his temporary prison. All the other “debris” in his life that was not part of the love he had for his wife, fell by the wayside and that is what saved him.
That message is significant and can be applied to our lives every day. We have often heard the energy you put out is the energy you get back, what goes around comes around and other clichés that we have heard for years. Energy is all around us, in everything we do, breathe, think, manifest. If there is a disturbance in that energy (or in the force) it is reverberated in the subject’s life. Until balance can be restored, chaos will reign supreme. That negative energy will control your life, lead you down a dark path (or to the dark side). What you do with that energy is what will ultimately dictate the rest of you as a person.
As I promised I have a theory of why Bryan sees his own clone. He saw it because of the secrets or chaos that he holds within himself regarding his life as well as what he knows about Finola. He knows about her father and has been sworn to secrecy by his boss Craig Maddox (Norbert Leo Butz). That secret he keeps is causing chaos within himself, it is the conflict that Bryan must currently live with that manifested in the clone.
That secret he is keeping goes against everything he has known. As a Marine, Bryan swore an oath of loyalty and trust, how can he uphold that within himself if he cannot uphold it with is partner? The secret he is withholding from Finola goes against that loyalty he dedicated his life to. Finola joked about what she would see in his clone. Would she see the loyalty he has to her or the betrayal he has in just knowing the secret about her father? We also see a glimpse of someone from Bryan’s past which will hopefully be revealed at a later episode.
As the episode ends, we see that Eric’s life does become whole again when he reaches out to his wife who it seems has left him. Once that part of Eric’s life becomes whole again, the debris lets go of the grip it had on Eric and his life. The clones are essentially destroyed and what is left is what was missing or balanced in Eric’s life.
Bryan’s conflict is only compounded as his boss Craig Maddox (Norbert Leo Butz) reminds him that he is to uphold his end of the bargain regarding Finola and her father. His last line of the episode is “buckle up” and I have a feeling that is not only a warning but to her but to the viewers as well.
We conclude, courtesy of NBC, with the video of Bryan confronting his own clone!
Well, Debris fans, I hope to see you this next week for the third episode “Solar Winds”! Stay tuned for more coverage by TeamWHR of Debris, the new NBC series and make sure to catch the series on Mondays at 10:00pm!
Thank you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency. Thanks to Kenn for video embedding and adding images for my feature article. I will be back later this season to provide additional analysis about Debris as we learn more about this fabulous new science fiction series on NBC!
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Until next time,
Regards,
Hi Lori,
Thank you for this superb analysis and review of the send episode of the 2nd episode of #Debris !
#DebrisNBC series is really knocking it out of the “In (our) Universe” (excuse the pun, that’s the name of episode 4!).
Best Regards,
Kenn of #TeamWHR