‘The Ark’ Recap: ‘Anomaly’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THE ARK -- "Anomaly" Episode 203 -- Pictured: (l-r) Tiana Upcheva as Eva Markovic, Reece Ritchie as Lt. Spencer Lane, Christie Burke as Lt. Sharon Garnet, Richard Fleeshman as Lt. James Brice, Tamara Radovanovic as Jelena Griff, Stacey Read as Alicia Nevins -- (Photo by: Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 203 of ‘The Ark’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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If there is one particular question that humanity has asked often when it comes to the stars that surrounds us, it would have to be… are we alone in the universe? Because the vastness of space may harbor more life than us, and we are quite curious to know if we are an outlier in the galaxy or if we are part of something more. So, we search, and we wonder and while we wait, stories explore the possibilities of such matters. Some for instance, look at the possible negatives of discovering we are not alone, while others explore the wonder of what such a revelation might entail, and those two concepts have helped science fiction to thrive for ages on end. 

But what if… the life we encounter out there, is nothing like what we think it might be? After all, we are but babes in space exploration and we don’t know the real rules and we don’t know what actually awaits us out there. So, life in the stars could be beyond even the baseline concept of the word alien and well, it just so happens that the pioneering SYFY series, The Ark, decided to explore what real alien life might look like amongst the stars, during last night’s episode. A feat that ‘Anomaly’ accomplished by revealing to the audience, and eventually the crew of Ark 1, that the lightning bolt we saw emerge from the FTL bubble, was indeed something alive and sentient in nature and that led… to quite the struggle aboard the ship.

Simply because, this alien life form was smart, but primal. In fact, all it really wanted to do was feed, and that allowed for this creature to essentially… hunt on instinct. Which meant, anyone that got between it and its electric food source, paid the price and our thinking on such matters are so three dimensional, that no one believed Alicia when she pointed out that something alien was aboard the ship. But eventually, the evidence presented itself, and that prompted the crew to get creative to do the right thing and capture this bolt of lightning and send it back into the FTL field. Which made for quite the unique story, one that really did ponder upon the possibility that life out there, may be unlike anything we have ever thought of. Especially if we come up with our own FTL system, and toy with the space between spaces.

All of which made for amazing science fiction, the kind that was wonderfully counterbalanced by some fascinating plot threads in between. One that primarily involved, Kimi and Strickland. Since the latter continued to fight against giving anyone from Ark 15 any measure of grace. For he simply did not trust them, and for a time it seemed we were enjoying another storyline involving the need for grace and trust. But as it turned out, Strickland was right to not trust Kimi, despite her attempts to be in his good graces. Simply because, Strickland’s worst fears are true and there is some chatter happening between Kimi and the Ark 15 crew. Hopefully, it’s a misdirection… but if not… real trouble could be brewing aboard the ship. 

Well… it already is. Since that cliffhanger ending was something else and has all of wondering what the heck is going on, and if that shocking surprise relates to the fact that Ark 3 and the stars are nowhere to be found on the ship’s cameras upon exiting the FTL field. But while we wait for answers on both, we can celebrate one amazing tale. One that took the first contact story to new heights, since we rarely think of alien life as well… truly alien in science fiction. But this series is all about challenging tropes and challenging audiences and it did that here in an amazing manner and well… now all we can do is impatiently wait for next week’s episode. To learn what the heck happened to Brice and where the ship ended up after coming out their static FTL bubble. Until next time.

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