Welcome Back The Ark fans,
As we enter the second half of season two, this superb science fiction series pivots to focus more on the character development of each crew member. Added to these details, viewers experience budding romantic interactions between lovers relationships on the Ark-1 crew.
As the details of these relationships are revealed, the viewers are treated to a hopefulness that our heroes will be able to find happiness in the dangerous depths of deep space rather than constantly facing issues with their ship that was extensively damaged in the second season opener “Failed Experiment“.
In one case however, the potential for heartbreak is exposed to the viewers of this episode of The Ark near the end of this exciting episode that motivated this reviewer to pen the title of this analysis as “It Can’t Be True But We Tragically Learn That It Is”.
Fortunately in “It Can’t Be True” the inhabitants of Ark-1 experience no further deaths despite an obsessed person who we learn is manipulating the implants of Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner) for their own questionable motives to kill a valued member of the ship. This person creates chaos on Ark-1 until the suspect is identified and Kelly is no longer their puppet in an attempted murder of a beloved crew person.
Several suspects, including prime crew members are investigated. Late in the exciting episode the actual villain is identified surprising this reviewer as well as viewers of The Ark.
Along the way we learn about another individual whose secrets are not only exposed, but the person identified, when confronted, freely admits they were involved with the Eastern Federation. Obviously motivated by her guilt, there appears to be a sincere need to admit to Captain Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke) about the details of her past life that she attempted to conceal up to and including the previous episode “Pretty Big Deal”.
Before beginning our analysis, we remind admirers of The Ark that it is last remaining scripted science fiction Space Opera series on a major networked owned television station. As such, if viewers want to see a third season, be certain to tune in live each Wednesday, turn on your DVR’s to increase ratings, and thank SYFY for broadcasting The Ark.
It Can’t Be True:
The seventh episode of The Ark was written by Madeline Hendricks Lewen and directed by Milena Grujic. The episode opens with Captain Garnet investigating the explosion of the Ark-8 FTL drive on the surface of planet Raynick-J where they had been subsequent to receiving a distress signal that pinpointed Ark-8’s location.
Ark-1 learned in the previous episode that the crew of Ark-8 was made up of clones who had commandeered the ship on Earth in the future to escape our doomed planet. Sadly, only one clone named Ian, a clone of Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie in a dual role) apparently survived the catastrophe on planet Raynick-J.
Captain Garnet calls for a Council meeting to begin the investigation of the Ark-8 FTL explosion. In attendance are Captain Garnet, Lt. Spencer Lane, Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman), Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read), Eva Markovic (Tiana Upcheva), and security Chief Felix Strickland (Pavle Jerinic) as they seek to identify who onboard Ark-1 was involved. Alicia Nevins states that she conducted an analysis of the event on Raynick-J confirming that the FTL drive exploded. However, Engineer Eva states that an FTL cannot explode on it’s own accord, indicating that it must have been a deliberate act in order to hide any traces of what happened on the planet. At this juncture we are left to wonder who could have been so callous and for what reason(s)?
Eva goes on to share that a signal was sent from the observation deck by someone on Ark-1 just prior to the explosion proving that someone on Ark-1 caused the death of all remaining clones on the planet. Captain Garnet orders a search for clues on the observation deck.
Kimi Joma (Díana Bermudez) joins Felix the hunt for the perpetrator on the observation deck. Eva and Kimi work together and find an Ark-8 device hidden under a stairway that had been reconfigured to transmit long range signals that set off the sabotaged FTL explosion.
Suspicion immediately falls on Ian the clone who is the only person with engineering knowledge of devices on Ark-8. Lt. Lane and Felix confront Ian who denies any involvement claiming he is innocent and someone else must had done it. Ian is locked up pending further investigation.
Captain Sharon Garnet seeks out Lt. Spencer Lane to discuss the situation bringing along the Juno Project Tablet that contains the pairings of humans that are projected to procreate our species on their journey to save humanity.
During their time together, we learn that Sharon was never paired with anyone because she too is a clone and that since William Trust (Paul Leonard Murray) wouldn’t allow clones to breed out of fear they would create defective babies, so she has no one to pair with.
Spencer states that his paired match was killed in her cryogenic pod, and since he is a clone as well they are both “available”. This interpersonal interaction with both smiling reinforces the process of bonding viewers have has been observed between these two individuals leading this reviewer to conclude that romance between Sharon and Spencer is highly likely.
The scene shifts to Eva and Lt. James Brice. James had Alicia unlock her cabin room door so he could bring a large number candles there so she could meditate.
Viewers will recall that their relationship which included intimate contact hit a snag when Eva began to be less than truthful about criminal activity file that she deleted from the ships computer that Kimi and Lati Meir (Coral Mizrachi) were certain that Eva has been helping James hide his association with the Eastern Federation. Eva and James share some of Lati’s vodka that she grew in Angus Medford (Ryan Adams) Bio Dome Shelter. Later we will learn that is not all Lati grew there!
We segue to Kelly and William who are locked up per Captain Garnet’s orders. William says he has been able to activate the Wrist Device that Kelly received from Alt Cat Brandice (Christina Wolfe) who gave it to Kelly when Alt Cat was visiting Ark-1 from the other reality in “The Other You”. Suddenly Kelly activates and breaks out of her cell. Viewers are led to believe that it is William Trust who is involved when Kelly attacks by strangling Eva in her room.
This will prove to not be the case when the investigation confirms that William Trust did not activate Kelly’s implants, but in fact deactivated Kelly, stopping her from strangling Eva to death. Captain Garnet interrogates Kelly and William Trust who is asked how he got out of his cell. Trust admits that he can override the locking controls since he built the ship. Kelly and William also admit that Alt Cat gave the Wrist Device to Kelly and that William only used it to stop Kelly from killing Eva.
Suspicion then shifts to Dr. Marsh (Jadran Malkovich), who does know how to control Kelly’s implants. When Dr. Marsh’s Wrist Device is examined, Captain Garnet and Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris) find that the software used to control Kelly has apparently been erased or the Wrist Device was switched.
This development further confounding the search for the culprit(s). As they leave the Medical Bay, another character named Milos Warren (Kieran Mortell) who Dr. Kabir was helping, can be observed taking drugs that will likely figure prominently in the next episode.
The investigation takes a break when Angus and Alicia prepare consummate their relationship after being caught hugging and kissing in the Bio Dome Shelter by Lati who the tells Angus she is happy that he finally got the “balls to kiss her”.
Lati also tells them to “get a room”, which they do!
Unfortunately Angus gets nervous and throws up before they can complete the act!
Lt. Spencer Lane then goes to visit Ian the clone to tell him he is no longer a suspect. While they discuss this, Ian informs Spencer that most of the other clones where only created for organ harvesting and that both were disposed of after they served their purpose. Meanwhile, in the Medical Bay, Felix and Captain Garnet confront Dr. Marsh accusing him of controlling Kelly to kill Eva. When his Wrist Device is inspected, they learn that Dr. Marsh no longer has the software on the device to control Kelly’s implants further clouding the investigation. So who has the actual Wrist Device that controlled Kelly? Shortly thereafter, Dr. Marsh makes a pass at Dr. Sanjivni Kabir which she rejects since she is not attracted to Dr. Marsh. Sanjivni does however share that Jelena Griff (Tamara Radovanović) is attracted to him. Dr. Marsh and Jelena later share their feelings with each other thanks to Dr. Kabir playing matchmaker for this new romantic pairing on Ark-1.
Without Angus’ knowledge, Lati is confirmed to have grown the castor beans in the Bio Dome Shelter that poisoned Eva who is found nearly dead. The episode winds down when Captain Garnet and Felix discovers that Kimi have been part of an official investigation that suspected Lt. Brice and Eva were part of the Eastern Federation. Kimi admits she was working with Lati who must have gone “Off book” to try and kill Eva .
Lati uses the Wrist Device she swapped with Dr. Marsh to control Kelly to break out of her cell and head to the shuttle bay dragging Alicia down the hallway. When Lati is confronted, she tells them that killing Eva and any other Eastern Federation is the only form justice remaining in deep space. Lati tries to escape by demanding a shuttle with supplies or she will use the Wrist Device forcing Kelly to break Alicia’s neck.
Captain Garnet is able to break through to Kelly despite Lati’s control. Thankfully, Kelly doesn’t kill Alicia. Lati is captured with Captain Garnet later found talking with Kelly about helping her overcome her implants by taking the Wrist Device from Dr. Marsh and working with Kelly to use Alt Cat’s Wrist Device to help her.
In an ironic twist, Lati is placed in the cell that was formerly occupied by William Trust who Captain Garnet has removed from custody. We witness Kelly peaking through the wall at a terrified Lati!
Another potential romantic pairing of the episode that occurs when Felix finds Dr. Kabir punching a boxers bag to reduce the pressure she has felt with the events of the recent past including running from her ex husband.
Instead of taking drugs that she became addicted to in season one, Felix helps her by holding the boxers punching bag so Sanjivni can drain the stress from her psyche as well as offering her technique’s he used when he was bullied. Will these two become a match? We shall see!
The final scenes find us with Eva being questioned by Lt. Lane and Captain Garnet about Kimi accusing Eva of being an Eastern Federation operative.
Eva tells them the truth, that she was part of the Eastern Federation but that she has changed. While being taken to her room by Felix to be confined, a tearful James Brice begs Eva to say it is not the truth, which it tragically is.
We look forward to seeing you on X next week as we find out more in the eighth episode of season two named “We Don’t Kill Our Own” when our Ark-1 space heroes must deal with other Eastern Federation malcontents who apparently stage a mutiny on Ark-1 with the drugs Milos stole!
We will be back soon to continue reporting on our analysis of The Ark and our adventures in San Diego for Comic-Con 2024, including exclusive interviews! In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
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 X, 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
