| "Re-Entry" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 01 |
| Aired | July 9, 2014 |
| Stars | |
| Recurring | Brad Beyer as Harmon Kryger Sergio Harford as Marcus Dawkins Maury Sterling as Gordon Kern Annie Wersching as Femi Dodd Tami Roman as Cass Hendy |
| Writer | Mickey Fisher |
| Director | Allen Coulter |
| Next | "Extinct" |
"Re-Entry" is the first episode of season one of Extant on CBS. It first aired on July 9, 2014 at 9:00 pm.
Synopsis[]
When astronaut Molly Woods (Halle Berry) arrives home from a 13-month solo mission in space, she’s delighted to see her husband, John (Goran Visnjic) and her son, Ethan (Pierce Gagnon), and is also eager to be cleared by her doctor and friend Sam Barton (Camryn Manheim) so she can have a celebratory drink.
And yet, Molly’s not feeling well - she's constantly throwing up. Perhaps it's the adjustment back to regular altitude after a year-long tour in space - that would mess with anyone’s stomach. Or is it? After completing the required medical tests for her re-entry into society, Molly learns the unthinkable. She doesn't have a case of super sonic jet lag, she’s pregnant.
Mean whilst Molly’s son Ethan appears to be sweet but is easily angered; his personality turns on a dime. When Ethan tells his Dad he “needs to flip,” John reaches for his son’s back, opens up a special compartment and flips a battery-like device. It turns out Ethan is not Molly and John’s biological son. He’s a Humanich, a robot like simulation created by John, giving them the chance to have a family after infertility left them childless.
During a flashback to her space mission, we see Molly talking to a computer voice that controls the capsule, named “Ben.” Suddenly, Molly has a vision of her ex-boyfriend, Marcus Dawkins (Sergio Harford), a young astronaut who passed away years ago. Is he the culprit of Molly’s condition? Suddenly the computer temporarily goes on the fritz. It’s during this computer shut down that Molly reconnects with Marcus and (we assume) becomes pregnant. On her return to Earth, Molly tells her superiors there was a solar flare when Ben went down, deleting the 13-hour camera footage of her encounter with Marcus. Only we know the truth – Molly deleted those tapes after watching them and seeing herself embracing nothingness. Was Marcus a vision from her imagination? Molly decides to cover up the experience with her solar flare explanation.
Meanwhile, John tries to get funding for his robot like humans project, Humanics, showing off his son Ethan as the first prototype. At first, scientists rebuff him, frightened by the prospect of robots we cannot control. But the NASA like organization wants to keep an eye on Molly and her husband, so they convince a wealthy investor, Mr. Yasumoto, to fund John’s research and keep an eye on all of them. Maybe they’ll find out what happened during the missing footage.
At the end of a long day, while taking out the trash, Molly encounters Harmon Kryger (Brad Beyer), an astronaut colleague who had committed suicide after returning to Earth, overwhelmed by the stress of re-entry.
Harmon tells Molly that he’s real. He’s not another robot. Or a vision. He tells Molly not to trust them.
“Who?” says Molly.
“Anybody.”[1]