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The eighth exciting episode of The Ark, “Every Single Person Matters” was written by Dean Devlin, Rebecca Rosenberg and Kendall Lampkin. The episode was directed by Orsi Nagypal. I “Every Single Person Matters” enjoyed because it focused on several aspects of humankind, both their strengths and weaknesses.
The human race has survived for thousands of years by maintaining family groups that have over time, developed into tribes, then into communities, and, eventually nations. To achieve this they have learned to unify into loyal groups. After all, you can’t fight battles and, ultimately, wars, if you don’t have common goals. You have to work together. Thus, when groups develop the necessary friendship values of honesty, loyalty, supportiveness, and trustworthiness according to some studies they experience bursts of oxytocin also known as the pleasure hormone.
In a much more evolved society when people feel threatened (in this case, a failing Earth) people become more self-centered as is the case for several characters on Ark-1, especially William Trust (Paul Leonard Murray), his wife Helena (Mercedes De La Cruz) and our newest passenger, the enigmatic and suspicious space seductress Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner), the only survivor from Ark-3 as we discovered in the previous episode “A Slow Death is Worse“.
Every Single Person Matters:
We begin the episode with Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman) and engineering specialist Eva Markovic (Tiana Upcheva) who are creating their own dose of Oxytocin by spending some time getting it on. It’s a one-time-only thing, of course, twice. From a behavioral point of view, this act or acts should bring them closer and create a bond between them. We shall see.
In other news, Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie) is not getting any, Oxytocin, that is. He is currently unconscious and missing. No one except the newest members of Ark-1, William Trust and his wife Helena, know where he is. The missus seems to be very good at protecting her hubby by knocking possible aggressors unconscious!
Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read), our resident gifted girl genius who has helped save the crew and passengers several times, is tasked with looking through the archives of Ark-3 by Acting Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke) who wants to know why Ark-15 has attacking the other Arks, apparently including Ark-1.
What is up with that we wonder?
Alicia heads off to the Biodome hoping that Angus Medford (Ryan Adams) will want to give her a hand. She has recently become aware that he has that wonderful quality all girl geniuses find so attractive. Sadly, she finds him with that new nuisance, I mean young lady, Kelly. Angus seems to have developed an interest in this new person. We know that she can’t be trusted since she has “borrowed” a pistol from the armoury and is now manipulating Angus.
Felix Strickland (Pavle Jerinic) has his orders as well. He must find Spencer. That should be challenging since Spencer is in the hidden chamber with the genetic samples. We also learn that the other occupants, Mr. Trust and Helena are guests of Ark-1 because Helena managed to get both of them on board without Trust’s knowledge or approval after she drugged William back on Earth.
Still trying to figure out what has happened to Spencer, Felix decides to look at the call logs and Ark-1 blueprints. He’s not too shabby in the brains department either. Where has Spencer been communicating from in the recent past on Ark-1? A nonexistent place called Sector OT. Where is that? When Spencer finally regains consciousness, he informs the Trusts that all of the leadership that they knew is now dead and he is the only one left that they can trust. Mr. Trust and Helena now have to trust Mr. All-Up-In-Everyone’s-Buisness, at least according to James Brice.
Alicia, having completed her archive assignment, I assume, is now working with Eva on the Faster Than Light (FTL) system that they found on Ark-3. As Alicia blathers on about this new system and medical discoveries, there is a glimmer in Eva’s eyes. Perhaps she has an idea about using this new device and medical procedures may benefit the people like James on Ark-1? Alicia explains how the FTL works to Eva and two support workers who do not have any idea what she is talking about. Fortunately, Mr. Trust understands it, or the crew would be in mortal danger once they decide to try to make the system work.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris) decides that she must autopsy an Ark-3 victim whom she is certain that she inadvertently killed.
Sanjivni is convinced that allowed the poor man to die while trying to save him because of her amphetamine withdrawal symptoms that caused her to fumble the instruments.
The autopsy confirms her worst fears and she break down in tears as a result.
As a result, she decides to visit Cat Brandice (Christina Wolfe) for a therapy session regarding her drug addition issues, which definitely must be the reason she has become a walking basket case. Cat’s solution is for Dr. Kabir to give her the key to the drug cabinet so the good old doc will now have to go through the self confessed drug addict (Cat) to get any pills she may need. Nothing could possibly go wrong now could it?
Mr. Trust, still with Spencer and Helena in their secret compartment is overjoyed to discover that Helena has rounded up all the genetic material of Earth animals that are now available to restart their new world. Trust seems to have no issues with playing God. As he revels in his new stash, including his favorite, butterflies that will be needed to pollinate other crops, Felix, Eva and Felix’s apprentice find their way inside the secret compartment. There goes that secret.
It turns out that Felix saved the lives of the Trusts back on Earth so Helena decided in her self-centered way to reward him by stowing him on Ark-1. How Helpful. She never thought to include Felix’s family thus making sure they did not survive! Chalk up another person for the list of people who hate William and Helena Trust. The list is getting rather long. James Brice has also just been included. Trust, we discover, is responsible for Brice’s illness. Due to that fact, the Trusts end up being isolated from the rest of the crew for their own safety. Speaking of having trust for your fellow crew members, Lt. Sharon demotes Spencer to an average crew member for not telling her about their newest passengers. Did he deserve it? Brice and Felix think so.
The next major crisis on board is the wonky FTL device. Trust warns them not to use it but according to Alicia, they have no choice with fuel running out. So they throw the switch. For moments everything seems fine. Then there is a problem with time distortion that progressively gets worse… really worse! They get to experience themselves at several points in time all at once. Fortunately, as I indicated a little while ago…a little while ago, Mr. Trust would come to the rescue, will come to the rescue, and tell them how to shut the FTL down. I suspect that FTL will no longer be part of the handy dandy technology that they use in the short term.
There are many people who have secrets on board Ark-1. So it should come as no surprise that Trust also has a secret or two himself. Besides being a womanizer, he has placed his trust in Cat who has knowledge of something called “The Juno Project”. He wants her loyalty. We don’t know why yet, but I suspect that it is for nothing good. Since Helena has also warned Trust about his “womanizing”, I’m sure she will have a surprise or two for her husband once she finds out he has been messing around on her AGAIN!
Finally, as we learned, Spencer wanted his own secret that cost him his rank when Sharon demotes Spencer to passenger!
Spencer then decides to swear his allegiance to Mr. Trust. This is not surprising. So what about Kelly? Is she cooling her heels with Angus or does she plan to use him in some way to complete her plan? And for that matter what the hell is her plan? Does anyone on this ship ever consider the consequences of their behaviour? What do you think?
While you ponder that question, we leave you to enjoy a sneak peak of The Ark episode nine.
Thanks to Kenn for staging images for my review and analysis of this episode of The Ark, the featured videos, and, many thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!
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