Just A Rat In The Cage
Episode 8 of Another Life Season 2 begins with Niko and Richard waking up aboard an alien ship, succumbing to painful experiments. Their insides are ripped open, screams are muffled and as Niko gasps for air, Richard finds his chest ripped wide open as Niko leans over and asks if he’s okay. Does he look okay?! ..
Richard and Niko wake up completely fine. They’re both naked and hurriedly scramble to put their clothes back on. There’s no trace of what happened to either of them, save for a wristband attached to them, and no visible scars either. A camera in the corner though watches them, a glowing red eye unblinking as the pair move about the room.
The aliens have been testing the pair, seeing what their limits are both biologically and psychologically. The pair decide against niceties and decide they should just head in and attack them full force.
Richard mentioned that they should “understand who they’re fighting and why” before striking. I remember too. Funny that.
Niko and Richard are led to a strange room with a contraption that appears to hold a power core to the ship. When Niko touches it, she experiences strange flashes. However, Richard does not. ..
Niko is dropped into a strange snowy area below. It’s freezing outside but she seeks refuge in an abandoned ship nearby - which also happens to hold a weapon and extra clothes. She finds that the ship is haunted by the ghost of a sailor who died in a storm years ago. The sailor’s ghost warns her not to come any closer, but Niko decides to take the risk andopens the door to find herself in an eerie and dark room.
It turns out that Paula is actually on this ship. The creatures happen to be called the Decuma and they landed a week after the Salvare left them, slaughtering most of the colonists. It seems Paula is the last one left alive. I hate to say I told you so comes to mind here.
Anyway, it turns out that severed limbs of these creatures help to unlock their bio-scan systems on the ship. With bits of these creatures just lying about, Niko grabs a severed hand and manages to turn the ship’s power back on. She also finds a power core too, which she hurriedly grabs, realizing this will come in handy later on down the line. ..
When Niko speaks to Paula again, she confirms that when their wristbands turn red, they begin to turn into one of the Decuma. With black goo over Paula’s face, she pleads for mercy, which Niko obliges too by killing her.
Niko manages to switch the power back on and finds a contraption able to remove her and Richard’s wristbands too. When she makes it back on the ship with Richard, the pair remove their wristbands and keep the power core to hand – along with a gun- as they remain determined to confront and kill the Decuma.
Niko threatens to destroy the power core and the strange creature emerges from hiding. It charges at Niko and grabs her around the throat, pinning her against the way. Richard quickly uses the console to freeze the creature, watching as it shatters into pieces.
Richard begins to turn into a Decuma, with his arm blackened and hardening. Niko decides to cut his arm clean off (off-screen with a laser or something I’m guessing) before dropping him in the strange tank of orange goo to help him heal up. ..
Richard comes back out again, and is in good spirits.
Eric gathers the crew together and finds out they’ve all been brainwashed. The gang deduce that they need to bring William back in to this again, given he’s the only one who can help fill in the blanks. However, William is busy checking through the logs on the ship and dealing with Seth. Together though, they decide to enlist Eric’s help to pass clearance and break into the base. ..
Back aboard the Decuma ship, they figure out that these aliens have been monitoring the Achaia all this time. In fact, their map shows a whole bunch of Artifacts all over the galaxy. Looks like this is their ticket home! ..
The Episode Review
The crew of the Decuma is scrambled to tie up loose ends as they try to find a way to save the colonists on board. However, there are only a few survivors on board and they are all turned into Decuma. What is going on? Where are the rest of them? Why did they pick up Richard and Niko from their ship? How does that work? And what are their origins? There’s no time for that, we’ve got people to save!
This entire episode is a convenient stop-gap for Niko and Richard to recover their health, stock up on supplies, and prepare to travel back to Earth. What are the odds of this ship finding Niko and Richard alone on this vessel, experimenting on them and also monitoring the Achaian? Yeah, it’s quite a stretch.
This season has been really bad and this chapter only emphasizes the problems this show has in abundance. Out of all the chapters, this one is by far the most egregious and hardest to forgive for its sins. Still, we’ve got two more episodes to go and I’m sure everything will be wrapped up by the end… right?
