Contingencies on Contingencies
Episode 7 of Lost in Space Season 3 picks up right where we left off. The Robinson family arrive at Alpha Centauri. There’s no sign of SAR, as they head down to take a look at the planet. It’s a beautiful paradise and it doesn’t take long for them to hone in on the colony. Will is rushed in to see the doctors, while Judy too stays behind to gain help for her injured shoulder. Penny of course gets wrapped up in her love triangle with Liam and Vijay again. Meanwhile, John lets the rest of the colony know that the robots are en-route. However, they have no defences set-up, given they’ve been busy getting other essential parts of this colony prepared. This leaves John and Maureen in need of a more creative solution. The base seems to be giving off a lot more power than is necessary, prompting them to head down into the basement. There, they find Alastair Hastings. It turns out he’s actually prepared a system of EMFs hidden away to defend the colony if the need arose. Or “unforeseen aggression” as he calls it. However, in order to use this, Hastings wants a pardon and to be let free. With little other choice, they begrudgingly agree to the terms. However, it seems they’re not alone. Hastings is attacked in his room, leading Maureen to believe Robot has been compromised and is being used like a puppet. In the wake of this drama, Will awakens. He’s stabilized and on the mend. Maureen is there to see him, encouraging the boy to get better soon. In the wake of this, Smith heads off to find a place of her own. She heads out into the great outdoors but there’s a problem. Robot stands waiting for her. Sporting a maniacal red face again, it seems like he’s been infected. He doesn’t hurt Smith though, walking away and letting her go. Back at the colony, Grant Kelly speaks plainly to Maureen about the original mission. It turns out the Fortuna was originally sent off to explore the strange rift, and just what was behind that. Long story short, the only way to activate the defence system on Alpha Centauri is by using the voice of a dead man. Ben Adler to be precise. This reveals means the card Hastings was holding when he was knocked out now makes more sense. It seems like these words are the code to activate the defence system – but Ben is the one who needs to read them. So in order to solve this, Grant and Maureen start poring through old voicemails and recordings to scramble up the message and activate the defences. Thankfully this works and the defence system activates, shielding the colony in a large forcefield. The colony breathe a sigh of relief, but they’re not out the woods just yet. While this is going on, Don leads the kids into an abandoned dam where they find SAR’s robots trying to take out the turbines. Vijay though deduces they should use water – given they’re in a dam after all – and flood the place. Judy serves as the distraction, as SAR suddenly bursts out a tank and stalks toward her. Robot shows up too, confronting the murderous robot and his goons. Robot smashes one of the tanks, sending a large jet of water out and propelling SAR and the others to their doom. It turns out Robot didn’t sabotage them after all, he’s been working on their side. However, the defence system suddenly goes offline. As alarms wail overhead, the Robinson’s realize that SAR is coming for them.
The Episode Review
Lost in Space returns with another good episode, albeit one that’s slightly more contrived than the others. It would be remiss to pick holes in this show now, given the entire three seasons have been chock full of moments like this, but the penultimate chapter adds a fair few contrivances in order to ramp up the tension on Alpha Centauri. Robot not being under SAR’s influence all this time was perhaps obvious, but it’s still a nice inclusion nonetheless. Likewise, the show does a great job with its various characters, giving them plenty to do. There’s some nice moments between Maureen and Grant here, and their scenes in this episode are certainly one of the stand-out scenes. The end-game is upon us though, as everything looks set to converge onto our characters getting their happy ending… or is there a final twist to come?
