Welcome Back The Ark admirers,
The fifth episode of season two, “Museum of Death” thankfully begins with no further deaths after Cat Brandice (Christina Wolfe) succumbed to injuries she suffered at the end of season one and revealed in the first episode of this season “Failed Experiment“. Although we saw an alternate reality version of Cat again in “The Other You“, Alt Cat returned to her universe reality at the end of that episode.
Fortunately all of the series main characters are okay including Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke), Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie), Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman), Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris), Angus Medford (Ryan Adams) and Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read), Eva Markovic (Tiana Upcheva), Security Chief Felix Strickland (Pavle Jerinic), Sasha Novak (Milos Cvetkovic), William Trust (Paul Leonard Murray), Jelena Griff (Tamara Radovanovic), Naomi Spencer (Jessica Yemi) and Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner) who like William Trust have been locked up because of their past misdeeds that caused injury or death.
New Ark-1 new crew members include Kimi Joma (Díana Bermudez), Lati Meir (Coral Mizrachi), and Dr. Marsh (Jadran Malkovich) are from Ark-15. Kimi, joined Felix and the Ark-1 the security team. Dr. Marsh is helping Dr. Kabir in the medical bay while she recovers from her injuries and Lati helps in Bio Dome engineering while Angus is recovering.
Mental illness is an issue that affects societies around our world today. This episode, written by India Sage Wilson and directed by Sandra Mitrovic, focuses on the serious issue of mental illness. In “Museum of Death”, the mental illness of an individual is a direct result of close interactions and the ever present life or death situation of a broken Ark. And, of course, dead people. Lots of dead people, Horrifically, all the deaths are found on Ark-3.
Museum of Death:
Ark 1 finally comes along side Ark 3. The Ark-1 crew discovers that an Eastern Federation Shuttle has arrived before them. Now they have to contend with the fact that they might have to fight an enemy or find another way to get the equipment they need to save their own Ark.
It seems that William Trust and his people have done a pretty shoddy job of building a fleet of Ark vessels that are supposed to be used to save the human race.
The council meet to decide how to proceed. Captain Garnet, as always, leads the discussion. Lt. James Brice and Felix Strickland both advise caution.
They seem to believe that going in guns blazing is the way to go. Only, these people don’t have guns. They have fancy tasers.
Further investigation uncovers that there appear to be a large group of people inhabiting Ark 3.
We discover that it is a still photo, so the information they get is limited. It is enough to know, however, that a diplomatic approach likely won’t cut it. Spencer Lane, when he discovers that the Eastern Federation is on board, decides that he must be part of the boarding party. He wants to get even for the loss of his father to the bad guys, a group we learned are called the Eastern Federation.
The thing is, we have no idea who the Eastern Federation are. Are they a group of countries made up of Russians and other eastern countries that have grown in power and influence? Are they the Chinese or even India? Like all the viewers, I am curious to find out.
Meanwhile, Kelly Fowler is getting checked out in Med Bay by Dr. Marsh. Dr. Kabir is attending. I think at least she is attending. Kelly begins grilling Marsh about all of her implants and why she doesn’t have control of them herself. You’d think this would be an easy answer, but Marsh is vague about why.
Kelly is not satisfied, decides she is being lied to and uses her powerful arm implants to shove Marsh up against a pillar with her hand around his neck. This alarms everyone present.
Kelly threatens to kill Marsh if she doesn’t get the answers she wants. Dr. Marsh explains that when she was given her implants she was just a child. Not anymore, Kelly argues. Not the way she is behaving. Dr. Kabir warns her that she could get thrown off the ship if she doesn’t behave. Honestly, after that performance, would anyone be willing to let her have control over her own implants? Marsh also tells her that it’s not possible for her to have control of her implants. If they shut down she could be damaged beyond repair. Kelly is obviously still not satisfied with the answer she was given as she is escorted back to her cell.
Captain Garnet confers with Lt. Lane who is still troubled by the death of his father. The boss seems to spend a great deal of her time sympathizing with her crew and acting as councilor now that Cat is gone. Lane is missing his father more now that he has a glowing belief about the man, thanks to Brice. Lane needs something else to focus on. That won’t be Ark 3. Garnet is correct in her assessment that he would want revenge if he was permitted access to Ark 3. Not exactly the task at hand.
During another council meeting, they decide to take three teams to Ark 3, hopefully for diplomatic discussions, but they will fight if they have to.
The fact that the crew of Ark 1 have no real weapons may be the reason for the less than stellar reception of this series. Americans, who would be (are) the major viewers of this show, expect lots of violence in Space driven science fiction these days. Or, am I wrong?
Upon arrival on Ark 3, the teams, including Garnet and Eva, discover an abandoned ship.
The environmental system has been turned down to the point that, although they have air, the ship is like a giant freezer.
This becomes important later when the teams discover dead people all arranged like mannequins everywhere. The three teams on Ark 3 discover the gallery of dead people. Captain Garnet comments that this discovery is very creepy.
I am certain that everyone agrees with her. It becomes obvious that there is obviously someone on board who created these stationary dead folks.
Captain Garnet is the first one to come across this individual who is very much alive. It turns out that the stranger is Eva Markovic’s brother named Bojan (Vas Batricevic).
Although there is a happy reunion of Eva and Bojan, sadly, this happiness will not last long.
Kelly, back in her cell, probes William Trust, in the next cell, for more information about her father. He decides to become forthcoming, telling her that her father was a good man and everything she thought she knew about him was wrong.
Kelly has learned that they moved form town to town so he could protect her from her crazy mother. Her dad didn’t have a heart attack. He was poisoned by her mother. This, she says, is not a surprise to her. All the bad things in her life were caused by her mom.
As well, Angus, now healthy and back on his feet, has returned to the Bio Dome.
Angus wants to return to his old job, only to find out that everything is running quite smoothly without him.
The others don’t appear to need him anymore. This would be jarring to anyone who felt really needed until, suddenly, they weren’t. Despite Alicia Nevin’s reassurances that he is still very much needed, Angus continues to doubt it.
As the teams aboard Ark 3 get to know Eva’s brother, Bojan, they discover that he’s a little different. Not functioning in the normal range.
Or, with a bit of liberty, I could say that his elevator doesn’t go to the top floor, the candle is burning, but nobody’s home, Bojan is “three fries short of a happy meal…wacko”. From the perspective of psychology, Bojan would have to already have borderline psychological issues to fall so far into the deep end.
Bojan ends up in Med Bay. Eva arrives to have a conversation with him. Everything seems okay until she accidentally presses the button that sets him off. In that state, he accuses her of being an Eastern Federation Spy. Dr. Marsh has to sedate him. As Eva’s drama continues, we discover that there is more going on. Obviously, she cares for her brother, especially when he escapes and takes an EVA outside the Ark, trying to get back to his own Ark. He chooses the worst time to do it, however. As Eva follows him out into space, the senior officers are trying to move the front section of Ark 3 onto the front section of Ark 1.
The visual effects are amazing as the effects of the front section of Ark 1 show small explosions with debris flying off in different directions. Then the explosions get bigger and bigger until one massive explosion takes out the entire front to the ship.
In so doing, Bojan finds himself in the path of a particularly large piece of debris taking out Bojan. Goodbye Bojan. Thankfully, with an emergency rescue performed at the last minute by Felix, Eva survives.
The crew successfully connects the front section of Ark 3 to Ark 1 allowing them to continue their journey to the new destination Trappist-1D where they hope to establish a new colony for humanity.
As the story moves forward, Angus continues to feel useless. Captain Garnet and Lt Lane seem to be getting closer. However, with everything that has happened, the relationship between Eva and Lt Brice seem to be drifting apart.
This may be for the best because, although Eva is grieving her brother, she has time and the surprise motivation to delete criminal records about her past from the library of Ark 3. Finally, Kimi is not taking the comments of Bojan that his sister is a spy as the word of a man with an addled brain. Kimi is pursuing Eva with all the relish she can muster.
What spying did Eva do that was criminal? Find out more in the next episode of season two named “Pretty Big Deal” that will hopefully reveal those details and what is next for our heroes searching for answers in our galaxy!
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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