Da'an and Zo'or are in disagreement over their projects for humans. Da'an insists that accelerating human evolution to merge with the Taelons is the only true way to resist the Jaridians, while Zo'or, as the last Taelon born within the past millennium, hates the very idea of merging with a primitive race and instead tries to convince the Synod that his supersoldier program is the better investment of resources. He has Sandoval get one of the doctors working on Da'an's project taint the accelerant. Dr. Julianne Belman introduces her daughter, Dr. Joyce Belman, at a press conference, who demonstrates the accelerant on a wounded chimp, which results in the chimp's wounds healing in seconds. Despite Da'an's insistence that he needs a human trial to keep the Synod interested in the project, Julianne refuses, claiming the accelerant isn't ready. She has an argument with her daughter, who believes it is ready. To prove her point, Joyce injects herself with the accelerant, unaware it has been tampered with. Meanwhile, the chimp, also injected with the tainted accelerant, begins exhibiting telekinetic abilities and increased aggression, attacking guards and scientists. Besides self-healing, Joyce begins to rapidly gain abilities far even beyond those of the Taelons, including manipulating her environment and reading minds. Her mother analyzes her blood and realizes that there's pure Jaridian DNA in the accelerant, even though she only synthesized parts of it for the project. She learns that the accelerant was somehow tainted. Sandoval takes Joyce to the mothership to speak with Zo'or, where Joyce explains that she no longer has any use for either humans or Taelons, planning on cleansing Earth of both species in order to repopulate it with a new race made in her own image. With her growing power, she takes control of the mothership and sets it on a collision course with Earth. With Augur's help, Lili is able to repair the ID drive, and the mothership jumps away seconds before impact. Joyce wants Liam to repopulate Earth with him thanks to his mixed genetics. Instead he asks her to merge with him in order to feel all the races inside him. She comes away from the experience much wiser. Joyce restores the chimp to its pre-accelerant state, says goodbye to her mother, and leaves Earth to explore the universe.
Meanwhile, Joshua Doors tries to convince President Thompson to put a stop to Da'an's project due to the lax safety measures. When Thompson refuses, Joshua resigns and takes the job of running the election campaign of Thompson's political opponent. He believes that there's only one person capable of defeating Thompson, who has the support of the Taelons - his father. Jonathan Doors is initially outraged, but Lili and Augur convince him that it would be the perfect way for him to re-emerge. Joshua comes home to find his father waiting for him.
- Adam and Eve Plot: Knowing that Liam has the DNA of many species within him, Joyce offers him a chance to repopulate Earth with her, even saying they'll be like Adam and Eve. Liam responds that he isn't arrogant enough to think that the resulting world will be a desirable one. Joyce tries to claim that she can go to any man in the world with the same offer, only for Liam to point out that she needs someone like her, with the DNA of multiple species inside him.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Joyce comes to get Liam, Da'an asks her how she can call herself evolved if she's planning on destroying two civilizations. She counters that Taelons can't really call themselves evolved either after destroying thousands of civilizations in their war with the Jaridians. Da'an tries to brush off that it was a matter of survival, causing Joyce to wonder if those races would see it that way.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end, Joyce says goodbye to her mother, turns into a wisp of energy, and leaves Earth to explore the universe.
- Colony Drop: Joyce plans to exterminate humans and Taelons by causing the mothership to drop onto Earth, which would result in the ID drive exploding and sending pieces of the planet to other dimensions. Thanks to Augur, Lili is able to repair the ID drive just in time for Sandoval to jump the mothership away moments before impact.
- Dying Race: Zo'or reveals that he is the last Taelon to be born in a thousand years, and Da'an explicitly calls them a dying race. When Liam presses him, Da'an explains that the precursor species to the Taelons and the Jaridians had the full component of DNA necessary to evolve, but when the races split, they became evolutionary dead-ends. Later attempts at merging the DNA of both species failed due to the accumulated differences, but it seems that humanity is the missing piece.
- Evolutionary Levels: Da'an plans to speed up human evolution to Taelon levels in order to join both species and save the Taelons. The tainted accelerant inadvertently results in Joyce rapidly evolving to near-godhood.
- A God Am I: Joyce begins to see herself this way, perfectly willing to exterminate humans and Taelons and repopulate Earth with a new race made in her image. Liam counters that she may have godlike powers, but mentally she's basically a child. She gets wiser after experiencing the feelings of the species in Liam's DNA.
- Mental Fusion: Liam agrees to leave with Joyce, but only if she joins with him and feels all the species inside him.
- Parental Neglect:
- Joyce is resentful of her mother being distant for the past several years and even pushing to keep Joyce away from this project, with Joyce only getting the job thanks to Da'an. After becoming telepathic, Joyce learns that Julianne did that to protect Joyce from the possible fallout, in case Julianne's true allegiance to the Resistance was ever discovered.
- It seems that Joshua Doors is willing to once again work with his father after 3 years of ignoring him.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Dr. Joyce Belman injects herself with the accelerant in order to prove that the serum works on humans. However, she doesn't know that Sandoval tampered with the accelerant, and the result is very different from what was expected.
- Puny Earthlings: Played with. Zo'or clearly believes that humanity is vastly inferior to the Taelons and bristles at the very idea of speeding up their evolution and joining with them. Joyce also quickly begins to see humans as inferiors, but she feels the same way about the Taelons too.
- Super Serum: The accelerant was designed to give the subject a Healing Factor as a first stage in speeding up human evolution. It uses Taelon DNA, coupled with some components of Jaridian DNA, which Dr. Julianne Belman was able to synthesize, specifically limiting the accelerant to grant only a Healing Factor. However, thanks to Sandoval's agent tainting the accelerant with pure Jaridian DNA, the combination was able to rapidly evolve Joyce to near-godhood.
- Telepathy: Joyce is able to read minds and tells her mother that she knows that she's a member of the Resistance and that it was why she distanced herself from her daughter. She also learns of Zo'or's true plans for humanity, putting him on the defensive.
- Teleportation: One of the powers Joyce develops. She laughs at Zo'or attempts at keeping her a prisoner before teleporting away.
