Extant' recap: Arms and the Humanich

Thank you, Extant, for not making the entire episode the war scene. This week’s episode went straight to the action, showing the Humanich soldiers attacking the hybrids at their flower-power camp. They were slaughtered, and Molly found herself in possibly her worst situation since season 1 when she returned from space pregnant with an alien-hybrid. Julie also surprised me this episode, and—dare I say it—I actually liked her. Maybe like isn’t the right word—I just wasn’t thinking, “Julie you suck!” the whole time. We had numerous deaths this episode, and many characters’ story lines shifted dramatically. Let’s break it down.

The attack on the hybrids’ camp panned out as expected—Aris convinced the hybrids to stay and fight their attackers, with Molly realizing too late that the soldiers were Humanichs, not humans, thus making them immune to the hybrids’ eye-mojo. The hybrids were slaughtered, and Lucy attacked Molly. Trying to protect Tara—the adorable little girl hybrid—Molly jumped in front of the bullet Lucy shot, injuring her shoulder. Before Lucy could finish the job, JD came in and blasted the side of her Humanich body. Of course JD would come back for her after seeing the helicopters fly in! Tara runs away, so JD takes Molly to get bandaged up.

Molly and JD meet up with Adhu, who tells them the Humanichs have gone, but several hybrids are dead. Confused as to why the Humanich army left so abruptly, Adhu begins to appear ill. Molly realizes that the Humanich army came in to release the virus, and they were successful. Molly doesn’t have any immediate symptoms, but Adhu is quickly fading, so she has JD take them to his house to map out a game plan to save her son’s life.

A few episodes ago, I thought Adhu was some weird alien-pervert, and in this episode I found myself wanting Molly to save his life. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, season 2 is light-years from season 1. It’s like it’s a different show, and I’m totally fine with it. Also, I’m still attributing this season 2 shift-for-the-better to Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

When the gang arrives at JD’s place, his ex-wife Dorothy (Dot) shows up. She’s understandably pissed about Kelsey being taken by the government and JD being called a terrorist all over the news. JD tells her that he’s protecting the two injured people that went into his house (Molly and Adhu), and Dot storms in to tell them she’s turning them in to get her daughter back. A natural reaction, Adhu does his eye-mojo to her, scaring her to death. She picks up a gun, not understanding who or what Adhu is, and “Momma Bear” Molly uses her own mojo to get her to put the gun down.

A glass of bourbon and a chat with JD later, Dot now knows that Adhu is an alien-hybrid. JD tells her that he can’t turn them in, knowing that they will be killed, so he is going to turn himself in to the GSC in exchange for Kelsey’s release. Molly shares she is leaving as well to find the scientist who helped her produce the virus, hopefully obtaining a cure for Adhu. They leave Dot to take care of Adhu, and while hesitant at first, she agrees to stay and keep him stable.

Dot almost calls 911, but after speaking with Adhu she decides against it. She learns he can read minds, and he shares how JD cares deeply for her and their daughter, but he didn’t need to read JD’s mind to know that. He calls JD a hero for trying to save the last of his hybrid-race and tells her he understands if she calls the police. Realizing that calling 911 to turn in a dying man while his mom is out trying to find a cure to save him is probably a crappy thing to do, Dot decides to sit with him during the last hours of his life.

Meanwhile, Lucy was brought into the Humanich’s lab for repairs. Can I just say I laughed out loud when she was wheeled into the lab like she was a human going in to the ER? Ethan blew up in season 1, and his new body is rocking and rolling just fine. Considering how much money has been invested in Lucy, though, it explains the urgency to get her repaired. She tells Ethan that Molly hurt her, continuing to manipulate him into becoming her right-hand minion.

Proving further that she’s off the rails, Lucy blackmails Charlie while he works on her “injuries.” He tells her that a Humanich’s expiration date cannot be removed without shutting them down completely. She responds saying that unless he finds out a way to do so, she’ll tell Julie about their makeout session and how he never installed her limiters. She even pulls up the video on the screen in the lab, letting him know she isn’t messing around.

NEXT: Charlie takes Lucy’s threats straight to—Julie?

Not letting Lucy ruin his life and career, Charlie shows Julie the videotape and explains the entire situation. Julie freaks out, and as Charlie starts to explain himself, they realize Lucy has been playing them all along. They uncover that the picture book Charlie found of John and Julie had been planted by Lucy—Julie never had one to begin with. Because Charlie never installed limiters on Lucy, she has no ethical boundary to stop herself from becoming a robotic sociopath. Knowing they have no other choice, Julie and Charlie plot to shut Lucy down. Ethan hears this from his spider-spy and tells Lucy, warning her that her expiration date is sooner than she thought. Here’s a question: If Lucy never had her limiters installed and they used her program to launch the 100 new Humanich soldiers, does that mean they all have her same motives and are potentially just as dangerous?

Molly finds the scientist who helped her with the virus and brainwashes him into getting the plasma machine for her to save Adhu. By the time she returns to JD’s house, Adhu has aged decades and is nearing death. Dot looks distraught, realizing that he doesn’t have much time left. Molly tries the plasma plan, but slowly realizes it won’t work. Adhu tells her that he wants to lay under the stars, and Molly sits with him outside. He thanks her for giving him life, and even though the virus has wiped out most of his people on Earth, there is more of his alien-race out in space. He warns her that not all of them are as peaceful as he, and then he passes. Molly is comforted by Dot back at the house, but Molly’s grieving is cut short when she realizes the virus has started attacking her body.

Meanwhile at the GSC, JD turns himself in and gets his daughter released. Toby tells him to give up Molly’s location, and JD throws it in his face that it doesn’t matter where she is, because she’s dying—and it’s all Toby’s fault. The virus will eventually surface itself and attack Molly’s body. Putting salt in the wound, JD tells Toby that his “war for the human race” was really genocide of an innocent people. Toby doesn’t seem to care, but I have to think that deep down he has no idea what he’s doing and is clinging to the hope that the aliens are life-threatening to justify all of his actions. Also, he totally knows what happened to John or at the very least was involved.

Back at the Humanich’s lab, Julie and Charlie prepare to shut down Lucy while she’s in standby mode. Ethan shows up and says he’s done with both of them and storms off, and Charlie runs after him and says that Lucy is not who he thinks she is. He explains good versus evil and what that means as it relates to people and Humanichs, and that Lucy’s lack of limiters and organic human experience has made her self-serving—not caring about who she hurts to get what she wants.

Meanwhile, Julie is preparing to shut Lucy down. Lucy wakes up and attacks Julie, telling her that she’s going to kill her. When Charlie storms in to help, Lucy elbows him across the room, and I’m thinking that Julie is going to get killed off (I was actually upset about it!). Ethan comes in to save the day and rips out her “spine,” killing Lucy and saving Julie. I loved Lucy at first, but I’m glad she’s gone—she was teetering on the verge of becoming the next Julie. Before I’m judged for my now-sympathy for Julie, let’s look at how Julie defended Molly earlier in the episode: She said to Ethan that Molly probably didn’t shoot Lucy and that Lucy’s program could be “off” from her injury. This was before the debacle with Charlie and uncovering the scheming Lucy has been up to. Julie may be annoying, but I don’t think she’s vindictive at her core. However, Julie could be helping Charlie just to cover her own ass and not because John’s work is being turned into a weapon.

Molly knows the plasma-machine isn’t helping, so she heads to the GSC as a last-ditch effort to find a cure for the virus, for both herself and the hybrids that survived the attack. When she arrives, she falls into the arms of Toby, who clearly still has feelings for her. I also found myself shouting, “gross” when she collapsed into his traitorous arms. Molly will definitely play on his love for her to get what she wants—let’s just hope she does it before it’s too late.

Questions:

• Are the 100 other Humanich soldiers going to have the same motives as Lucy, since they were built from the same program? Or, will Julie and Charlie “fix” them all before it gets to that point?
• Is Aris a threat? We know he’s (probably) alive, and I can only imagine he’s off plotting revenge somewhere.
• When will we find out what happened to John?
• Halle Berry teased a romantic scene between her and Jeffrey Dean Morgan at San Diego Comic Con—when will this happen? The show isn’t forcing this relationship, and it’s making me ache for their inevitable romance. I also found myself not wanting the episode to end, which is something that never happened during season 1. Bravo, writers!

Nicknames of the episode:

• “Tough Call Toby” —JD
• “Momma Bear Molly” —Okay, I made this one up.

Quotes:

• “Being sad is a part of being human.” —Molly
• “I appreciate your flower-power mentality, but I’m not taking any chances.” —JD
• “Certainty is the devil, general.” —JD

Moment of the episode:

When Ethan Russell Edginton-ed Lucy. (For my True Blood fans.)