Welcome Back The Ark Science Fiction Lovers,
The exciting tenth and eleventh episode set the foundation for the season one finale coming next week. As we move to the conclusion of the first season of The Ark, we are ecstatic that this superb science fiction space saga has been renewed for a second season as we tweeted and posted on Facebook the second we heard the fabulous news!
According to SYFY, “the first season of “The Ark” reached 6.5 million viewers across all platforms. Across all platforms in L+3, the Feb. 1 series premiere was the best in total viewers (1.1 million) since January 2021 (“Resident Alien”) and tops in the 18-49 demo since October 2021 (“Day of the Dead”).”
Co-Showrunners/Executive Producers Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner on the season two renewal: “We couldn’t be more excited to get back into space with the crew of the Ark. SYFY continues to be an amazing partner and home for this series.”
Lisa Katz, President Scripted Programming at NBCUniversal and Streaming summed up the success with this quote:
“The success of ‘The Ark’ is just another example of delivering on a promise to provide a wide spectrum of quality shows across our linear, cable and streaming portfolios.”
“Heading into space with Dean and Jonathan has truly been a trip worth taking and we’re tremendously excited about how this otherworldly adventure will continue in season two.”
We are therefore reviewing these two episodes together because we are not only celebrating the season two renewal, but because these two episode are penultimate in nature.
All of this is leading to a fabulous season one finale named “Everybody Wins” where everything becomes clear!
Hoping For Forever:
Episode ten of The Ark was written by Jonathan Glassner and Rebecca Rosenberg, and was directed by Sandra Mitrovic.
During the episode our heroes contended with the aftermath of a full blown mutiny aboard Ark-1 led by William Trust (Paul Leonard Murray) and wife Helena (Mercedes De La Cruz) who was tragically killed by Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner) during arm twisting of the crew including Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie) and Cat Brandice (Christina Wolfe).
The Ark-1 mutiny revolt occurred after Security Chief Felix Strickland (Pavle Jerinic) discovered that they had been hiding them in a secret room that also contains a library of biological genetic samples discovered as we delineated in the two previous episodes “Every Single Person Matters” and “A Slow Death is Worse”.
We begin with Kelly Fowler showing her true colors subsequent to getting Angus Medford (Ryan Adams) to repair her communications device reporting to Ark-15 that she has captured all the primary mutineers holding them at gunpoint.
A scuffle ensues when Spencer tries to grab the gun from Kelly that ends up resulting in Helena being shot and ultimately not surviving her wound.
Rest In Peace Helena Trust.
It is here that we confirm what has been suspected; that Kelly is not only mean, she is evil, made so by not only following Evelyn Maddox (Jelena Stupljanin) orders but by being obviously abused in the past by “Mom”. Therefore, one cannot but help feeling sorry for the Kelly character in The Ark.
We also learn later that Evelyn is Kelly’s mother! Samantha Glassner does an excellent job portraying the misguided Kelly character who is under assault with constant tough love barrages from “Mom”.
The mutiny causes ripples in the interpersonal relationships between acting Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke) and everyone who participated in the mutiny including once trusted Eva Markovic (Tiana Upcheva), Jelena Griff (Tamara Radovanovic), William Mulcahy (Steven William Moore) and many others.
Of the major characters, only Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman), Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris), Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read) and Angus Medford remained loyal to Sharon who attempt to stop a boarding party from Ark-15 by welding the shuttle hatch.
As the episode progresses, Kelly captures Angus and takes him, William, and Spencer forcing them to go with her Ark-15 for a meeting with Kelly’s mom, Evelyn Maddox.
We learn why Kelly has developed a misguided personality; Evelyn treats her terribly, criticizing virtually everything Kelly has ever done, or does, including bringing Angus onboard Ark-15 to help create food that will be needed on Proxima B. Kelly convinces her mom that Angus has such valuable skills and that Spencer saved Kelly’s life helping her escape from Ark-1.
During the episode we confirm from Alicia and Dr. Kabir the reason why Evelyn has been attempting to capture Ark-1 is for a type of spider contains venom that can extracted as a part of the cure for Klampkins disease.
Based on the story arc, it is highly suspected that Evelyn, like James, has Klampkins disease which is why she sent Kelly on missions to search Ark-3 where she was found to be the only survivor by Ark-1 crew members searching the destroyed ship.
Now that this factor is confirmed, Sharon knows that she can apply leverage to use Evelyn on against Ark 15. Reluctantly, Evelyn agrees to the exchange of the spider’s larva containing the DNA needed for the cure for Spencer and Angus who have been held hostage on Ark-15.
Naturally, suspecting a double cross, Sharon goes with Stella Cogner (Jelena Moore) who gives the spider DNA to Evelyn. The episode ends with Stella being forced to give the what Evelyn thinks is Mediterranean “Recluse” spider DNA while Sharon space walks sneaking aboard Ark-15 to rescue Angus and Spencer!
The Last Thing You Ever Do:
The Ark episode eleven was written by Rebecca Rosenberg and directed by Milan Todorovic. Viewers will recall Sharon has secreted herself onboard Ark-15 during the previous episode “Hoping for Forever” as delineated and discussed above. Sharon immediately calls Ark-1 to report her infiltration mission is so far a success.
The events in “The Last Thing You Ever Do” primarily focus on acting Ark-1 Captain Sharon Garnet who works to disable the weapons system on Ark-1 while freeing Angus, Spencer, and William Trust who have been taken hostage aboard Ark-15 by Kelly and her mother Evelyn Maddox who we learn within the episode does indeed suffer from the Klampkins disease.
Along the way, Sharon finds the “Aliciaminium” weapons room used to attack Ark-3 and Ark-1 in the pilot episode.
Encountering two Ark-15 security team members in the hall and a guard inside the weapons room, Sharon with her clone enhanced abilities quickly kicks ass on all of them, contacts Ark-1 and transmits access data to Eva and Felix so they can hopefully disable the weapons system since Evelyn created “Aliciaminium” with no defense possible according to the weapons guard (Milos Vojnovic) on duty before Sharon knocks him out!
Meanwhile our other resident Ark Tech genius Eva attempts to remotely “ethically” hack into the Ark-15 computer system.
Alicia is observed using the “William Trust backdoor” as they previously have to disable the Ark-15 weapons systems that could destroy Ark-1 just as they did to Ark-3.
Alicia also steps Sharon through a weapons system reboot process providing remote access to Eva and Alicia on Ark-1. Alicia provides us with joy in this scene when she says that “I only do ethical hacking, this is ethical right?”.
We then find ourselves in the Ark-1 Med Bay with Alicia and Dr. Kabir substituted another type of Mediterranean spider very similar to the actual “Mediterranean Recluse Spider” that Evelyn is seeking to create the cure for Klampkins disease.
Here we learn that Alicia loves spiders; “I had a pet Tarantula when I was little” and that, like most people, Dr. Kabir is afraid of them. It’s always fun to see these two characters together with Alicia smiling ear to ear and Dr. Kabir cringing at the sight of spiders!
During the episode we observe Sharon communicating with Felix, Eva, Alicia, and the others on the Ark-1 Bridge about what they have done so far and what they need to do to be successful in their rescue mission on Ark-15.
Each has their assigned duties and set about defeating Evelyn.
Of importance is the deception that by providing the incorrect spider DNA to Evelyn will ensure additional leverage for Sharon. No doubt this will be needed since because as Evelyn clearly stated at the end of the previous episode “open fire on Ark-1” once they confirm they have the correct spider DNA.
On Ark-15 Alicia has Sharon, who does not like spiders either, to find the other substances that they plan to mix with the Mediterranean “Recluse” spider DNA with to create the cure for Klampkins.
In one of the many great scenes with Kelly, who has taken a liking to Angus and separated him from the others suddenly invites him to dinner with “Mom”. Viewers can tell from body and facial expressions that Angus is merely humoring Kelly in order to find a way to free the others and escape.
It becomes obvious that Kelly really is sincerely attracted to Angus when she tells him that she kidnapped him because Ark-1 “isn’t going to survive” and she is going to save him. As Angus looks out across space at the doomed Ark-1, you can feel Angus saying to himself how in the hell am I going to get out of this place? When asked by Kelly if he wants to apologize to mother, Angus feigns agreement so he can get out of being locked up, albeit in a nice room compared to the brig where William and Spencer are confined.
Speaking of William and Spencer, before “Mom” heads to dinner she stops by the Ark-15 brig. First offering mercy to William if he will help her, then, when rejected, Evelyn has one of her henchman dislocate one of Williams fingers.
As William writhes in pain, Evelyn promises “more convincing” likely by direct torture if William does not cooperate. As Evelyn heads off to dinner, Spencer sets Williams dislocated finger who writhes in pain yet again. The scene is very well done making this viewers skin crawl!
During the dinner with “Mom” featuring superb set detail , we are with Evelyn who is hurling more insults at Kelly over her attraction to Angus, and telling Angus that Kelly’s friends “don’t last very long”.
Evelyn suddenly suffers a heart attack and falls to the floor. Angus applies CPR, saving Evelyn’s life. They rush her to the Ark-15 Med Bay, the doctor confirms that the attack Evelyn suffered is from her case of Klampkins disease which by the way is getting worse.
This is much to the surprise of Kelly who apparently did not know her mother was ill. Evelyn gives the doctor a dirty look who informs them that space travel exacerbates the progression of Klampkins disease. Nevertheless, Angus’s life saving action earns him much needed credibility with both Kelly and Evelyn saying (falsely) “I’m loyal to you now”.
Kelly then states “If you betray me it’s the last thing you ever do!” Smiling and giving Angus a kiss on his cheek. Naturally this is sarcasm, but everyone must agree what a sweet thing Kelly is!
Seriously, Samantha Glassner is a fabulous actress portraying the Kelly Fowler character that The Ark fans have learned to love to hate. Great job Samantha!
Sharon attacks an Ark-15 guard in a hallway and forces him to take her to the brig where she finds Spencer and William. Unfortunately, one of the guards had triggered a ship wide alert. Sharon is captured and locked in the brig with William and Spencer making things look quite bleak for them.
While in the brig Spencer confesses to Sharon that she was correct “about everything” effectively apologizing for his duplicitous actions that in part caused this mess. As the episode progresses, fans are overjoyed as Eva who had been part of the mutiny apologizes to James and the two make up. Cat and also apologizes to Felix who had been confined to her quarters but Felix leaves her locked up and says “You should have thought of that before you became part of a mutiny”. Felix is not one to forgive people easily even holding Jelena Griff at arms length.
Back on Ark-1 James collapses on the Bridge with the same apparent symptoms as Evelyn. Fortunately, Dr. Kabir tells Felix and Eva that James did not have a heart attack. James appoints Felix to take command of Ark-1 while he is incapacitated. Although reluctant, Felix rises to the occasion.
Meanwhile, Alicia and Dr. Kabir redouble their efforts to synthesize a cure for Klampkins. They come to a point where they are confident that their serum will work, but have not conducted any testing to ensure medical efficacy. James is told testing will take a long time. Concerned that he may not have that much time, James takes the cure without tests. He has a violent reaction that seems to be a heart attack, but survives.
Dr. Kabir notices the cure serum crystallized making it ineffective. Investigate reveals the spider venom cure was adversely affected by helium in the ships atmosphere and that it will need to be specially fabricated to avoid contamination.
Alicia comes up with the idea that if James allows himself to be bitten directly by the “Mediterranean Recluse Spider” that it’s venom would be shielded from helium contamination. Although risky, James sticks his hand in container full of the spiders and is cured!
Kelly comes to visit Angus bringing him breakfast. Kelly had promised to do something for Angus so she can thank him for saving her Mom; Angus requests seeing the Ark-1 prisoners in the Ark-15 brig. Angus tells Kelly he can convince William, Spencer and Sharon to join Evelyn’s efforts on Ark-15. Kelly, who is falling in love with Angus, believes him.
Once in the brig, Angus whacks Kelly with a rather stiff looking food tray. Kelly collapses and the Ark-1 prisoners head for the shuttle bay. Once there, they find out that Ark-15 has a security feature that the shuttle docking release mechanism requires a person outside to manually release the latch. Spencer convinces Sharon that he will volunteer to do so. William, Angus and Sharon escape.
We are then with Kelly who is shedding a tear in front of her Mom for her failure in allowing Angus and the others to escape.
Poor Kelly is slapped and further insulted by her mother.
Viewers are left to wonder does Evelyn love her own daughter. We hope this is addressed in the season one finale since Kelly’s behavior is obviously a product of her mother lack of expressed affection evidenced when she scolds Kelly barking at her “Now I have to clean up your mess … AGAIN!”
As the episode concludes, Eva successfully jams the Ark-15 weapons system by sealing the outer hatch which must be open to fire.
As Evelyn orders it to fire to teach Ark-1 shuttle a lesson, the weapon explodes making it useless.
Evelyn goes mad with anger realizing she is powerless and cannot destroy the shuttle with Sharon, Angus or William onboard!
The last scene of the episode finds us with Spencer who is captured by Evelyn’s Ark-15 security team. We feel sorry for Spencer since Evelyn has a nasty habit of torturing or killing her prisoners.
Will Spencer survive?
Find out next next week for the exciting season one finale named “Everyone Wins”, and we hope that they do!
We will be back in the near future with more of The Ark as well as our favorite television series and movie analysis. In the meantime, 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! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on Twitter, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
Thank you. 
Best Regards,
Kenn of #TeamWHR
