Excellent Chariots
A Viral Outbreak
Episode 4 of Away begins with Ram, bleary-eyed and delirious floating around the ship alone. Jack tries in vain to communicate from Mission Control. However, the situation turns desperate when Ram tries to open the airlock. Thankfully, Emma gets there just in time along with the rest of the crew. They grab Ram and sedate him to prevent the guy from endangering the mission. It turns out he has a virus and that puts the crew in a difficult position. They need to work out the best way of dealing with this without infecting themselves. Emma heads in to see him but he hallucinates, seeing his older brother Rohit in her stead. Speaking Hindi, he shakily asks her to leave (referring, of course, to his brother) Thankfully he breaks through his delirium long enough to speak to Emma. He shakily asks her to throw him out the airlock if his condition doesn’t improve.
Group Therapy
Back on Earth, Matt attends a therapy session and laments his condition. However, he is heading home. He’s not the only one attending therapy though. A distant Lex talks to her Mum’s psychiatrist about Emma and worries about her well-being. However, his probing questions about her grades rubs her up the wrong way. She storms out the room and leaves him hanging. She immediately phones Emma but the signal conveniently breaks up midway through. Just in time too, as she looks up and finds a boy at school. It’s here she first meets Isaac and the two start talking. That talking soon turns to her doing a social media stalk, figuring out who he is and his connections. Outside, Matt meets a wheelchair-bound man named Travis who encourages him not to leave the centre. Given this is the best rehab around, he’d be a fool to give that up. For now, Matt weighs up his options.
Recovery
Emma and Kwesi sit together and discuss Ram’s personality. Specifically his loyalty to the mission. As we soon see from flashbacks, Ram and his brother Rohit shared a lot of time together and a close bond. While bed-bound, his brother tells a story and promises they’ll go to Mars. Despite the duo outside the door making sure he’s okay, Ram falls off the table and slices his back open. He’s going to need stitches. The group decide to ignore Mission Command and Emma heads in alone to try and fix him up. Obviously given the contamination it’s a risk. However, the crew all decide to work together and fix him up too. Lo and behold it’s Misha who’s the one with the quick thinking and he staples up the wound to prevent it bleeding anymore. While Ram recovers, the rest of the group clean up to make sure the virus isn’t contaminating the surfaces.
Stitching Up Old Wounds
As we soon learn, Rohit was Ram’s brother but he passed away when he was little. As Emma stitches him up, the two get talking about the past and his motivation for the mission. Meanwhile, Lex sabotages her exam prospects by heading out and finding Isaac. She decides to bunk off school and admits she wants to have some fun. While she heads off to go biking with Isaac, Matt decides against flunking his test and is discharged from hospital.
The Episode Review
As a bit of a goof, it’s worth mentioning that Matt’s phone switches between left and right ear in this episode while he’s on the phone. It’s a brief moment but one of those continuity issues that’s hard to ignore. In terms of the episode itself there really isn’t a lot to write home about. We’re given a vague viral storyline but it all feels like window dressing to showcase some of Ram’s backstory. However, all of this pales in comparison to the melodramatic issues on Earth. Lex and new boy Isaac play out the angst angle while Matt has trouble adjusting to his newfound situation. Personally though I would have liked more from this episode. I actually think the story would have worked better to have ethereal dream segments diving into the past and seeing Rohit and his brother growing and loving each other. This would have made his motivations so much more powerful. Still, the episode does well give Ram a bit more back-story. As a stab in the dark I’d imagine we’re going to get a Kwesi-centric episode next. Quite what dramatic situation will arise in the process however, remains to be seen.
