Welcome Back Debris Lovers and WormholeRiders,
The fourth fantastic episode of Debris, “In Universe”, reveals many details only hinted at in previous episodes by series creator and executive producer J.H. Wyman, who also wrote this episode.
STOP READING NOW AS MAJOR SPOILERS LAY AHEAD.
In the first two episodes we learned that Craig Maddox (Norbert Leo Butz) has been rebuilding the Debris objects in an attempt to understand the extraterrestrial technology. In the third episode “Solar Winds” we found out that the aliens have portal technology that allows them to use extra dimensional transport technology when Bryan Beneventi (Jonathan Tucker) and Agent Finola Jones (Riann Steele) used alien technology objects found in Ohio to rescue people who had been trapped in another dimension or universe for many years.
The second episode, “You Are Not Alone” documented the ability of the extraterrestrials to clone people. As we found out, in the third episode “Solar Winds”, Finola’s father George Jones (Tyrone Benskin) may have been cloned subsequent to his death when his body was switched in a morgue in the United Kingdom without the knowledge of his daughter, Finola. “In Universe” blows our minds when it is revealed that the nefarious “Influx” organization is apparently holding Finola’s father captive! All of this is dovetailed the Pilot episode when a dead young man was materialized out of thin air from the memory of his mother and Finola is told by her contact at MI6, Priya Ferris (Anjali Jay) that Bryan knows things about her father that Bryan has not shared with Finola!
“In Universe” takes the viewers to another level of understanding when it is discovered that “Orbital Division” has made many more scientific findings than had been revealed, specifically that one object has the power of suspended animation to literally stop time for animals and humans in presence of what we learn is “Debris Piece 489”.
Perhaps most shocking aspect is that the object found “In Universe” has the capability of Terraforming Earth to a chlorine based atmosphere with the ability to also change the DNA of plants and animals to exist in our world in what would be otherwise a toxic atmosphere to life on Earth!
In this specific case, an area in Maxwell Nebraska is being adversely affected that has the Orbital Emergency Containment Team dispatched to cordon off the area and remove the object. While in the process of terraforming, several people are killed by the object, but miraculously others survive only to face an uncertain fate in the future!
To further compound matters, questions remain; was this extraterrestrial technology specifically sent to Earth to terraform our planet? Are the aliens controlling it’s crash, or as we suspect here at Team WHR, that the aliens shipwrecked ship was an accident with horrible circumstances?
For all these reasons, with more details analyzed below, Team WHR awards the “In Universe” episode of Debris with a solid grade of “A Plus PLUS”!
In Universe:
The “In Universe” episode begins at a large corporate farm with the lead farmer (Javier Lacroix) and his female assistant in the office discussing the schedule and breakfast. The assistant leaves the office to make breakfast for them at a large indoor greenhouse building located nearby.
While waiting for breakfast, the lead farmer continues doing some work when suddenly the fire in the wood burning heater is whisked out with a noticeable sound of the rush of air. The farmer goes to the window and notices a heavy rainstorm with his fellow coworkers scrambling for shelter. As he goes outside to investigate, venturing into the cornfield, he notices that strange flowers are blooming on the corn stalks and that he is becoming short of breath. As he ventures into an open space he gasps for breath and falls to the ground dead!
Next we are with Finola and Bryan who are travelling to the stricken region after being alerted that the Debris is a stage three alert.
When they arrive at the farm members of their team have already setup shop and are performing an autopsy on the dead farmer in a building using specialized Orbital Field Laboratory equipment.
The doctor performing the autopsy states that the farmers lungs suffered chemical damage from an unusual atmospheric change caused by the object that they were sent to investigate.
Whatever the farmer had breathed in, it killed him while some of the other farmhands have apparently survived, while still others who have yet to be discovered by Finola and Bryan have also been killed.
We then segue to Bryan and Finola cautiously headed for the weird rainstorm outside the Orbital Field Laboratory.
Both are in special sealed space suits with fully self contained independent breathing equipment.
Up ahead, the odd looking rain is observed to be of a different color than normal and it appears to be held back by some sort of force field, no doubt a new effect of the nearby extraterrestrial object causing all the trouble.
As they head into the rain hovering over the cornfield, Bryan comments “this place is all bad”, and that “the lighting is different here” while Finola captured samples of the strange blossoming flowers that are now growing directly on the cornstalks in the field!
Moving to the nearby greenhouse buildings, Finola and Bryan find several survivors who are understandably freaked out.
A man who looks scared to death says that there is “something wrong with the rain” and when they woke up “it was hard to breathe” and we “felt like we were going to die”.
The female farmer, named Mrs. Munoz, seen earlier with the lead farmer, is holding her daughter Maria Munoz (Sofia Hodsoni) closely obviously concerned about what she has experienced. Mrs. Munoz tells Bryan and Finola that her young son Arturo Munoz (Calix Miguel) is missing.
Finola stays with the farmers inside the green house while Bryan ventures back outside to see if he can find the alien object and any more survivors.
Bryan finds the object which is emanating an aura of power and locates one survivor, a terrified young Arturo who was hiding amongst another pile of dead farmer workers!
The story location changes to Langley Virginia. We are in the home of Craig Maddox who is with Dario Maddox (Christian Rose), a teenage boy who has learning disabilities or is perhaps autistic who has motor skill coordination challenges and is unable to catch a toy ball that Craig is gently throwing his direction.
A cell phone is heard ringing on the nearby dining room table. Craig goes to answer it noticing it is from an unknown caller.
A comely woman named Julia Maddox (Jennifer Copping) enters the room asking Craig why he is answering her cell phone?
Craig says it seemed weird. Julia tells him bluntly that “not everything is a conspiracy Craig” an obvious reference to Craig’s work at the CIA.
There is obvious friction between the two Maddox’s but is it unknown if they are husband and wife, or perhaps brother and sister. Nor is it revealed if Dario is their son, or their brother at this juncture.
Back to the Orbital Team at the farm, Finola learns that a man is demanding to see his family. The man appears genuinely concerned showing Finola a picture of Mrs. Munoz and her children.
Inside the Orbital Team field laboratory, Finola is conducting an analysis of the strange flower specimens that we growing on the corn stalks. Her tests conclude that the flowering blossoms do not produce oxygen like Earth plants. Instead using a process similar to photosynthesis, the blossoms produce toxic chlorine gas which is obviously what killed the victims they have discovered so far.
However, the surviving humans have been determined to have been changed genetically to allow them to survive breathing the chlorine atmosphere being Terraformed inside the power field of the object in the cornfields.
Knowing that the Orbital Containment Team is on the way to neutralize the object, Finola comes to a frightening conclusion; what happens to the transformed chlorine breathing humans when the object is taken away? Dr. April Han (Michelle Choi-lee) takes blood samples from the changed farmhands and confirms their worst fears, all the survivors will die when the object is neutralized and taken away to Orbital Headquarters!
Finola and Bryan then receive some very bad news. The object is expanding the chlorine producing rainstorm threatening a nearby town.
Led by Beck (Steve Bacic) of the Orbital Division Emergency Containment Team, the evacuation plans are moved up to removed the object before it Terraforms the township area killing untold thousands. Bryan informs Finola that the farms survivors might not be able to be saved.
At this juncture Dr. Han confirms that some humans can withstand the changes to their blood to breath chlorine but that the technology to reverse the changes is decades ahead of current Earth technology. Finola is devastated knowing that all the survivors will be sacrificed to save the people in the nearby city.
Now is when learn about just how many objects have been studied by the Orbital Team… Many!
Finola talks with Dr. Han who is familiar with an “Object 489” that can be used to induce suspended animation in the survivors until they can develop a cure to return the farm survivors back to oxygen breathing human beings. Finola contacts Maddox and receives approval to have “Object 489” shipped from Norad’s Cheyenne Mountain Complex to the farm immediately.
The story then takes a disturbing new direction for Finola when her MI6 contact Priya Ferris calls disclosing that her father has been spotted, apparently captured by the enigmatic “Influx” organization when he was already dead in the morgue, and that Bryan knew about this but was ordered not to disclose it to Finola!
The episode concludes with Finola deciding to violate orders and allow the farmer who came back to be with his adopted family & join Mrs. Munoz before “Object 489” is used to place them all in suspended animation rather than have him suffer not knowing what has happened to them.
The last scenes depict the surviving farmers in suspended animation with their friends and family members. The visual effects are absolutely stunning! Bryan walks among them and spots the farmer who came back knowing that Finola must have been involved in reuniting the farmer family.
When asked why, Finola, who wants some alone time away from Bryan “to work on reports”, says if it were her family, that she would have wanted to know because “it is right”. Bryan looks at her knowingly, perhaps suspecting that Finola has been made aware that her father, or a clone of her father is alive!
This leaves the viewers with several Debris summary questions that will certainly be answered in future episodes:
Is Julia Maddox the wife or the sister of Craig Maddox?
Who is Julia Maddox receiving unknown cell calls from?
Is George Jones a reanimated clone of the original father of Finola?
Are Anson Ash and his “Influx” organization members actually extraterrestrial aliens or is Anson just working with them and for what purpose?
Next week in a Debris episode named “Supernova”, more secrets will certainly be revealed! “Supernova” will air prior to the WonderCon at Home convention on Friday March 26th at 1:00pm featuring cast members Jonathan Tucker, Riann Steele, Norbert Leo Butz, Scroobius Pip, and creator, showrunner, and executive producer J.H. Wyman in a panel to be moderated by TV Guide Magazine’s Damian Holbrook, so be sure to tune in this Monday to NBC as the epic science fiction mystery of extraterrestrial alien Debris series continues to discover mysterious objects on Earth!
As we proceed to the future with Debris in our thoughts, Team WHR will return with more analysis of our favorite series including select science fiction book and television reviews. Additionally, we will be migrating the entire WHR YouDecide interview series here during 2021! Please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or family and leave your comments! We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future!
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Thank you. 
Best Regards,
Kenn of #TeamWHR
