TV Show Review

TV Review: EXTANT: Season 2, Episode 10: Don’t Shoot The Messenger [CBS]

Halle Berry Genneya Walton Extant Don't Shoot the Messenger

CBS’ Extant Don’t Shoot The Messenger TV Show ReviewExtant: Season 2, Episode 10: ‘ Don’t Shoot the Messenger ‘ seemed to shed much of season 2’s major events like so much Hybrid skin. Never mind Molly’s (Halle Berry) death, never mind Tobias’ (David Morrissey) internal conflicts, never mind the Molly-Julie (Grace Gummer) feud, over Ethan (Pierce Gagnon), and never mind the wrath of either Hybrids or Humanichs… for now.

I suppose you can add forgetting about the Other Side to that list – ‘Don’t Shoot the Messenger’ seemed to skip the decision Molly made, at the end of the previous episode, for another we never got to see. All the same, it was to stay with her all the way back to the waking world and maybe a few more episodes to come.

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For the time being, it served to get Molly & JD (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) closer. Other close calls allowed for Tobias to see the light, regarding the Hybrids (and not the one in their eyes, even); Julie to shed some light on a puppeteer, pulling on Humanich strings; and Ethan passing along plot notes to the cast, by way of a preset message, in John’s (Goran Visnjic) voice. Between Julie’s dilemma, Tobias’ conclusion, and John’s message, Extant may be attempting to slip a little Keyser Söze into the Hollywood Asimov punch. We should be so lucky.

For one thing, nobody puts Lucy (Kiersey Clemons) in the corner; but someone clearly set her focus on things other than… well, everything else she had been up to. The Ares (Cleo Anthony) incursion amounting to a one Terra (Genneya Walton) suicide bombing was one thing; but putting the wrath of Lucy on the back-burner made her return more than a little anti-climactic. Ares seemed set to follow up on his scheme, so maybe Lucy will be getting a little ‘personal time,’ while the show follows the new mastermind rabbit.

No wrath of Lucy also meant that her one meaningful kill was just business. I half-expected her to explain the difference, between android & ‘robotnik,’ to the re-occurring character she removed from the cast; but I think we were meant to pause at said character’s passing. At least, until the really big exit, anyway.

I’m not entirely thrilled that Lucy, arguably the best thing to come out of season 2 (if not the series, so far) was reduced to a walk on, and intro to someone else’s scheme. As for this Calderon fellow (Tobias’ demon, John’s angel), we already know who he is – he’s Keith David – right there, on the TAALR screen (wasn’t he?). Whether he turns out to be the season’s big bad, or not: I’m guessing not. Way too late in the day to just invent a mastermind, who just conveniently takes over everything. Nah, it’s someone we know; and something to always bear in mind, where suspense mysteries are involved, always be mindful of where the information provided comes from. Greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, ask the correct question, and all that….

I wasn’t entirely thrilled about our new character coming as a replacement, for a well-established one, either. It almost felt like the showrunners were so enamored with the question, of ‘is he for us or against us,’ that they’d sooner re-apply it to the incoming character, than finally settle it for the outgoing. As for the going of the outgoing: given that Death from Above could’ve come without warning, I’d say that hit was kinda personal. Like I said, someone we know.

Unless this episode turns out to be something of a red herring, we may be headed for a tacked on resolution to season 2. Sure, Terra may wind up being the new Adhu; but I’m voting red herring. Lucy slips her new chain, and gets her wrath on, Terra grows a pair (of adult Hybrid eyes), and handles her own Ares problem, the Julie-Molly truce breaks (somehow – I don’t care), JD puts the mom-jeans away, and gets back to throwing monkey-wrenches, or I walk.

Some part of me walks, anyway. I’ll bite, and follow the rabbit; but if the showrunners really run with the set up we’ve been left with, I will have to get pretty snarky about it. Just being the messenger, here….

Leave your thoughts, on this Extant review, below, in the comments section. For more Extant news, photos, videos, and information, visit our Extant Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on TwitterTumblrGoogle+ or “like” us on Facebook.

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Sam Joseph

Sam is an Avid consumer/observer of Geek culture, and collector of Fanboy media from earliest memory. Armchair sociologist and futurist. Honest critic with satirical if not absurdist­­ wit with some experience in comics/ animation production.
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