Arcadia
Episode 8 of Intergalactic Season 1 begins in New London with Rebecca paying her respects to the death of Ash Harper. At least according to Rebecca anyway, the real Ash Harper is actually aboard the Hemlock. She’s also getting pretty close to Verona too, kissing her passionately. With the coordinates to Arcadia in their grasp, the group are due to make it there in an hour. However, Drew is not happy with Tula and demands she bring Genevieve back. Tula simply scoffs at the notion and walks away, claiming the girl is tough and can withstand this. However, they’re all distracted with news that there’s a tracking beacon on the Hemlock broadcasting their location straight to the Commonworld. Someone aboard is working against them. And how they’ve only just noticed that now, remains to be seen. Anyway, the fugitives all begin doubting one another, with Candy now recovered from her drug addiction and seeing clearly. She’s done a 180 too, back to her bitter self and suspecting Drew is the one responsible. After all, she can smell the fear on him. Although the others convince her it’s not him, Candy has her doubts. As she continues to search, the lights shut off completely and she’s grabbed from behind, knocked out so she can’t cause any more trouble. Meanwhile, Verona heads atop the Hemlock with a spacesuit on (oh so they DO have spacesuits aboard!) and takes out the comms device on the side of the ship. However, her suit starts malfunctioning and she begins running out of oxygen. Thankfully she makes it back aboard the ship in one piece. As she breathes a sigh of relief, Ash greets her and the two wind up sleeping together. Meanwhile, Drew lets Tula out of her cage but the girl runs directly at him with murderous intent. In self defence, Drew manages to hit her with a taser blast, knocking the woman back and forcing her back in her cage. When she awakens, Drew berates Tula and calls her a bad Mother. Suddenly, the door opens as Emma shows up and opens the cage. The coordinates she’s given them are heading straight for a sun, and the fugitives scramble together to make sense of what this means. With all the crew gathered on the bridge, Emma tells them that this is Arcadia’s gate and they need to fly into the star and use the gravity field to “feel” the right way. Ash manages to fly the ship straight to Arcadia, but as soon as she does she reveals the truth to everyone else – Verona is the traitor. The girl leaves via an escape pod though, inbound for the planet on a different route. Back on the ship, the group communicate with Yann, who happens to be on Arcadia and awaiting their arrival. Back on Earth, Rebecca is forced to face an enquiry regarding Dr Lee’s death. She immediately throws a spanner in the works though, leaking news to the public and causing riots on the streets. Rebecca eventually addresses the people in the Commonworld and promises a new wave of government authority. They’re going to uncover New Aurum sources and do the best they can. Just before the season closes, we’re graced with one final twist. It turns out there’s a rogue agent aboard the Hemlock – and it’s Echo.
The Episode Review
Intergalactic bows out with a whimper rather than a semi-decent roar, with unresolved character arcs, unfulfilling sci-fi and little answers to the big questions plaguing this series. With the exception of episode 5, this show has easily been one of the worst this year. The acting has been wooden at times, the plot lines completely butchered and the character motivations have been awkwardly contrived. Verona and Ash’s romance could have been a really touching, organic moment built across the season. Instead it feels shoehorned into the story and serves absolutely no purpose at all. Genevieve’s story is abandoned completely too, while Tula never grows or learns anything across the 8 episodes. Echo revealed as the traitor is a nice twist, but we’ve learned next to nothing about him across the season. With no emotional investment, the twist doesn’t hit as hard as it could have done. In fact, the only person here that actually had a good character arc until this episode is Candy. Her complete 180 this episode, becoming bitter and distrusting, is really disappointing. What happened to the caring woman who stopped Ash jettisoning out in the escape pod? Who helped others to see the truth? In the end though Intergalactic has been a poorly written and disappointing show. This is certainly not one to remember and whether anyone will stick around for a second season (if that’s green-lit of course) remains to be seen.
