‘Lost in Space’ Recap: ‘Stuck’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 305 of ‘Lost in Space’.
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Over the course of the past couple of years, the Netflix series, Lost in Space has put the Robinson family in some genuinely precarious situations. The kind where they had to use their wits to escape danger and killer robots and while those moments were indeed thrilling and tense… there was always a sense of safety that surrounded them. For Sci-Fi shows rarely kill off a lead in the middle of the series and doing so in those instances would have infuriated fans of this saga. But what’s fascinating about this show, is that the closer we get toward the series finale, the more that sense of safety is beginning to fade away and it makes sense as to why.

After all, we are in the midst of the final season for the series and when you reach the end, anything goes and well… that particular line of thinking allowed for the next episode to be quite uncomfortable in nature. For ‘Stuck’ is a tale that saw the Robinson family race to solve several crises on a world where SAR was near and having their sworn enemy next to them on a dangerous planet, really did remove that sense of safety and leave us wondering if by chance… something bad was going to happen here. A concern that was further reinforced by the incredible struggles that this poor family and their friends had to go through on this mucky and desolate world.

For instance, Don had an ugly run-in with SAR, one that saw him outright get knocked out by the lethal robot, leaving all of us to wonder if he was going to make it out of this episode okay. Plus, Smith and Will were quite literally on the edge of the world as Will tried to rescue the alien skull, he found on the Robot home world and John and Penny… had to race against the clock to save the Robot from a bulkhead collapse aboard the Fortuna. And to top it all off, Maureen and Judy had to figure out how to save the Jupiter 2 from a giant alien creature that wanted to eat it and keep Maureen from dying by way of a broken ejection chair and well… the stakes don’t get much higher than that, nor does the genuine risk of bidding farewell to a critical character.

But thankfully, those respective scenarios were nothing more than tricks to put us on the edge of our seats… since thankfully, everyone survived through ingenuity and guts, and unconsciousness. Since Penny and John succeeded in their mission and got Robot free, who in turn saved the skull and kept Will safe and Don… well he just rode the mini coma that SAR put him in and walked away when he shook off the primary effects of the concussion he likely suffered from. As for Maureen and Judy, well they simply made the Jupiter 2 a bad piece of cheese if you will, by giving the giant slug-like being indigestion, courtesy of having Maureen leave her explosive seat. But what truly made this episode so exciting, is that the sense of danger didn’t fade at the end of this tale.

For SAR is still out there and eagerly hunting the Robinson family, and that means the next episode could in fact lead to a terrifying showdown between man and machine, one that might end badly for the Robinson family and their intrepid friends. But while we wait to see what comes next on this bog-like planet, we can revel in the majesty of a bold and brave tale. One that really pushed this story into new and unsettling territory and also took the time to grow the characters as well. Since we learned a great deal about what space travel means to Maureen and how the kids are continuing to come into their own and well, it will indeed be quite interesting to see what the Robinson family’s next moves are going to be, since they really stuck in what appears to be a no-win scenario. Until next time.

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