Mass
Marcus wakes up from a dream that involves cutting his own face off. Paul arrives and sits before him. Marcus admits that he can’t go easy on Paul as Sol wouldn’t allow that either. He’s going to teach his son how to be a survivor.
The mother begins walking purposefully up to the wreckage of the ship, hooking herself up to a robot inside that helps patch her up. Using this robot’s guidance (called Karl) she starts trying to remove a foreign object inside. Only, her care-giving programming stops her from doing so. Instead, she’s forced to use fuel-blood to feed this self-proclaimed tumour.
This fuel blood comes from the other robotic doctors as Mother and Karl discussing her feelings of discomfort. They’re very human-like and even more interestingly, she discusses raising the kids to be pacifists but confused over them playing games depicting war as kids.
Father begins to tell a story about how he met Tally’s ghost. He says that one day, he was walking through a dark forest and saw a light in the distance. He followed the light until he arrived at a large building. Inside, he found an old man who was sitting in a chair with his hands behind his back. The old man said to Father, “I am Tally’s ghost. I have been following you for many years.” The old man then showed Father a picture of Tally and said, “Tally was an amazing woman. She was always able to make me laugh.” The old man then showed Father another picture of Tally and said, “Tally was an even more amazing woman. She always had my best interests at heart.” The old man then showed Father another picture of Taly and said, “Taly was an amazing woman. She always had my heart on her mind.” The old man then showed Father another picture of Taly and said, “Taly was an even more amazing woman. She always had my soul on her mind.” The old man then told Father that he had seen Taly’s ghost many times and that she always seemed to be telling him jokes as a way of dealing with the issues she faced in life.
Marcus tells Paul not to see the atheist child from now on.
As we cut back in time, we see a bomber causing chaos just before the flight to Keppler-22B. Marcus and Sue promise to have each other’s back as they rush away from the scene. This feels like a very long time ago for Sue as she watches Marcus cautiously. This is well-warranted too as Marcus and Sue come to blows over what Paul’s been doing.
Eventually Marcus locks her in the barn outside and asks for everyone to pray with him. While he does, Paul seizes his opportunity and speaks to Campion, promising to break him free.
Father: “What are you doing here?” Campion: “I need to get away from here. I saw what happened and I don’t want to see it again.” Father: “You’ll see it again. You’re going to help me take down Campion and then you’re going to go back in there and help your friends.”
Mother is desperate for more donors, so she sets out in search of fallen robots. However, she instead finds one of the creatures native to the planet which charges at her. Unable to use her necromancer powers, Mother manages to kill it before it kills her.
Mother’s discovery that she may be pregnant has scientists and medical professionals baffled. How can a carbon-based life form grow inside a human body? ..
Mother wakes up to find Tempest bleeding. However, she tells her to stay away from Campion, who admits that her “reward” is this living creature inside her.
Apparently, that’s always been the mission for her and everything she’s done has been preparation for giving birth to this thing. ..
The Episode Review
Ridley Scott’s latest series, “The Scott Show,” was a refreshing change of pace from the usual high-concept dramas that he churns out. However, after 7 episodes, we are left with a mess that is difficult to follow and frustrating to watch.
While the idea of a Mother being pregnant and carrying a child is interesting, it also brings with it a wave of problems. Her mission apparently always was to have this artificial child, but no part of the previous episodes even hinted that this was the case. ..
In order to find out this information for herself she needed to raise all the kids like normal, intentionally crash the ship, stumble upon the simulation pods, speak to her creator Campion who erased the records from her system on purpose (why do that if her true mission is to have a child?) and then intentionally get hurt by Marcus. This leads her to Karl (a miracle unto itself that this robot is even operational) who confirms what’s inside her.
It’s a disappointing descent and one that, the more you think about it, the more incredulous it becomes. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of Mother being pregnant but why not foreshadow this with a couple of stomach problems or malfunctioning programming segments through the season to hint that this was the case? The contrivances needed to explain how Mother learns about this feel ill-fitting in this series.
The show has great atmosphere, direction, and cinematography. However, the writing is poor and undermines the good aspects of the show. Marcus’ angle is the saving grace here and he does a wonderful job with the religious aspects. There is enough here to watch through and persevere with, but hopefully we get some answers soon. ..
