Recap / Extinct E 10 The Ancestor

The final battle between the Skin Riders and the Reborns begins.

Teaser

Jax approaches the pool leading to the Ancestor, guarded by several Skin Riders lead by Duncan. He questions why there are so few guards, and Duncan suggests that Jax should have returned with turned Reborns from the other settlement instead of alone. Jax asks if he’s sure that Silas gave this location to the Reborns, and Duncan retorts that Jax’s failure at reprogramming the drone endangered the Ancestor, and that there is no greater offense. The guards aim their weapons at Jax, who says it’s stupid to kill their best fighter when they need him most. He says if he’s attacked, he’ll kill them all, and would then have to guard the Ancestor alone. Jax commands the other Skin Riders to continue guarding the pool, while he and Duncan enter the cavern.

The Reborns bury their dead: Ezra buries Nicholas, and he and Lynn comfort Kylie, then continue to the settlement, where Abram and Feena have just finished burying Silas. They introduce Kylie, and say they need to get inside and vaccinate her, and Abram breaks the news about Silas. As they talk, a gray drone watches them unnoticed. It then heads into space and enters an orbiting spacecraft.

Act 1

Ezra mourns at Silas’s grave. He sends the others inside, but Abram stands next to him. He says that Silas wasn’t in pain at the end, and Ezra thanks him. Abram tells him that Silas asked him to remove his crystal and use it to destroy the Ancestor. Ezra, having been just reunited with his daughter, is loath to put anyone in his family at risk, and Abram says he doesn’t expect him to come, but had simply wanted him to know that Silas was fighting for them, and that his last words were that he loved Ezra.

Ezra remembers the day of his wedding. Silas, the ringbearer, is checking him over to make sure he looks perfect for his big day. Ezra’s nervous, but Silas reassures him that he’s doing the right thing, and eases his nerves with a little humor.

Lynn and Feena escort Kylie inside. Yellow Drone gives a vaccine pill to Kylie, who reminisces about how the previous Ezra went to the lake for the virus cure and she never saw him again. She takes the pill, but has to wait outside for a few hours while it takes effect. Lynn goes inside to make her soup, while Feena makes a fire for her.

Feena gives her condolences for her uncle’s death, and asks how it feels to be back at the settlement. She says it’s home, but it was a lot noisier the last time she was there. She asks why the forcefield is gone, and Feena tells her about Duncan. She asks if Kylie remembers Duncan becoming a Skin Rider, and she says that Duncan wasn’t himself after Feena and Rosalyn died, finding any excuse to leave the settlement and be alone. He got turned just before the virus was produced. Kylie tells Feena about her own lost love.

Ezra finishes his mourning, Abram having stayed with him to stand guard. He says nowhere is safe while the Ancestor still exists. Ezra asks if that’s what the Obelisk told him, and he replies that he doesn’t take orders from the Obelisk anymore, but he believes Silas. Ezra says he’s tired of fighting, of risking losing his family. He thinks the other settlers had the right idea: running is safer than fighting, but he knows Abram won’t do that.

Jax and Duncan set a fire in the cavern, and Duncan tells him that Eleanor told him the weapon has destroyed Ancestors on other worlds. Jax is put out that Duncan never told him anything about the weapon, and Duncan says that he told Silas because he was the Ancestor’s priest. Jax demands to be told everything he knows about the weapon.

Abram and Feena explain the weapon to Ezra and Lynn, and Silas’s role: he has to create a space for the weapon inside the Ancestor and guide a Reborn’s brain state to it. Abram explains that although the crystal is the brain of the parasite, Silas is in there, too. The weapon intelligently retains the information about the Ancestor while filtering out the rest of the parasite’s personality, leaving the mind of the human intact. Ezra asks how to trigger it once inside, and they respond that they don’t know. Ezra thinks this is a suicide mission, but Abram and Feena say that not attempting the mission is equally dangerous: the human race will eventually be starved out if it’s confined to the settlement.

Act 2

Abram and Feena leave for the Ancestor, accompanied by Yellow Drone. Feena remarks that Ezra and Lynn staying behind is good, because the species will continue even if they die. Abram thinks they should be more optimistic, but Feena points out they’re heading into a fight while leaving behind their only professional soldier. Abram reassures her he has no intention of dying, but Feena says that he’s ready to, or he wouldn’t have brought the top piece of the weapon.

Lynn brings Kylie into a room, saying that Abram and Feena vacated it for their family, and Kylie remarks that it was their room before. Kylie thinks Ezra should have accompanied Abram and Feena, that they have to do whatever they can to make the mission a success, because otherwise, the Skin Riders will never let them live. Lynn says she just wants them to be a family, and Kylie says that her real mother never stopped fighting.

Ezra stands before the inert Obelisk, and remembers trying to pick baby names with Silas and the pregnant Lynn. After they reject a number of names for various reasons, Silas suggests “Kylie.” Ezra puts his hand on Lynn’s abdomen and asks their baby if her name is Kylie, and she responds with a kick. Her name is chosen: Kylie Rose Nyers.

Lynn is surprised to find Ezra at the Obelisk, and knows he’s having second thoughts. Ezra says that Silas’s being the center of the issue makes him feel personal obligation, but Lynn says Silas is gone. He expresses regret at not believing in him in the past, and says that it would make sense that he was chosen for this role: who would be more motivated to help than him, when he wanted so much to fix things with Silas? Lynn says his mission is to keep the family together. Lynn mentions that Kylie is upset that she’s lost everyone she ever loved, and her parents aren’t doing anything about it. Ezra says that they will tell her they love her, and keep doing so until she accepts it.

Kylie consults the computer in the control room, and pulls up a map to the Ancestor. Armed with a bow, she leaves the settlement and heads into the night.

Lynn realizes that since they were married “until death do [they] part,” that they are not currently married. Ezra points out there’s no government, so it doesn’t matter, but Lynn insists it does and asks him to propose to her. Ezra chuckles, and comments that he doesn’t even have a ring, but she says that doesn’t matter. He gets down on one knee and asks her to be his wife… again. After she jestingly stalls to consider her “prospects,” they stand and kiss. The moment is apologetically interrupted by Red Drone, who informs them that it can’t find Kylie.

Act 3

Ezra and Lynn head out to look for her. Lynn wonders if she could have gone looking for the other settlers, but Ezra knows she headed for the Ancestor: she’s taking the action her parents wouldn’t. Meanwhile, Kylie finds Abram and Feena at a fire, and quickly puts it out, saying it would attract Skin Riders. When Abram protests that this mission is too dangerous for her, she says that she’s far better trained than them. Abram tries to say that they can’t let her come, out of respect for her parents, but Kylie insists the survival of the human race takes priority, and the odds are better with her. She tells them to keep moving if they want to stay warm, and it’s best to stay moving. Feena comments that if they survive, Ezra and Lynn will kill them, so they’re dead either way, and they keep moving.

Ezra and Lynn wonder if Kylie could have gone another way, but the way to the Ancestor still seems like the best path. Ezra comments that they’ve undertaken ops in the cold before, during their first life after the Karik invasion, and they never end well. Lynn assures him, this one will. Ezra remembers a firefight during the invasion. The survivors around him cheer as they manage to bring down a Karik warship. Ezra notices Silas among the celebrants and confronts him: he had disobeyed orders and moved out of his assigned position. He argues that the need was greater there, but Ezra says he should stay where he’s ordered to be. He’s lost all his other loved ones, and Silas is all he has left. Silas realizes Ezra has been ordering him to be in safer locations, and decides to find a new platoon.

Daylight arrives, and Ezra and Lynn find Kylie with Abram, Feena, and Yellow Drone. Kylie starts to explain, but Ezra and Lynn abruptly embrace her. After a brief conversation, they agree that they’ll all go together to the Ancestor. At the pool, Ezra says he’ll swim down alone to assess the situation. Feena says he should then return and get their help, but he says others shouldn’t endanger themselves unnecessarily. Feena objects, but Ezra says he’s not doing it to be noble, or because Silas is his brother, but because it feels right. Abram feels the same. They approach the Ancestor pool, and are suddenly ambushed: four hidden Skin Riders suddenly emerge from hiding and surround them, bearing shields.

Act 4

Yellow Drone attempts to fly behind a Skin Rider, and gets an arrow for its trouble. Ezra hits a Skin Rider in the shoulder with an arrow, then charges and engages him. Lynn and Kylie take on another. Lynn gets knocked back, and Ezra is distracted as he gets up to help. The Skin Rider he was fighting gets up and hits him in the back with the prod weapon. Feena and Abram engage the other two Skin Riders. Kylie and Feena successfully take down their opponents, and Kylie shoots Erza’s as he was about to hit Ezra while he was down. Abram gets a knife in the gut, and Kylie shoots his attacker, as well. Lynn rushes to Abram’s side. Kylie says to get him in the water: she has brought sparks. Lynn appears injured as well, but hasn’t told anyone about it.

Suddenly, Duncan pops out of the water and shoots Lynn and Kylie in the chest. Feena grabs a shield and charges Duncan, knocking him into the water. They struggle under the surface. Ezra recovers his bearings, and rushes to Lynn. She tells him to grab the Sparks and heal Kylie first. He picks Kylie up, brings her to the water, and dumps in the Sparks. He returns to Lynn, but she’s unconscious. He brings her to the water as well, then returns for Abram and helps him into the pool. Feena surfaces and gets to the shore. Ezra notices she’s bleeding, but Feena tells him that the Ancestor is down there, and that Jax is protecting it. She says to swim straight down until he sees a light. Abram gives him the weapon. Ezra dives with it and a spear.

He surfaces inside the cavern, and soon finds Duncan injured on the ground. He tells Ezra that he tried to fight the parasite, but it was too strong. Ezra’s skeptical, but Feena broke Duncan’s crystal: he’s dying. Duncan says he’d die a thousand times to undo what he’d done, and Ezra assures him it wasn’t him, and that Feena knows who he really is. Duncan wants to help, but he’s too injured. He apologizes, closes his eyes as he grunts with pain, then becomes still.

Ezra approaches the Ancestor, pulls out the weapon, and attaches the bottom part to it. He puts Silas’s crystal inside the middle part, and starts looking for a crystal that it will fit on, but is confronted by Jax brandishing a prod weapon.

Act 5

Jax says Duncan was supposed to stop him, but he knew he would fail. Ezra says Duncan is dead, but Jax does not care. He says his human remembers Ezra, and hates that he hurts Ezra and those he loves. Jax says he enjoys putting his human in his place, which is why he killed Ezra the first time. Ezra had gone to find Jax at the lake, but the parasite had already taken him and the Sparks. Ezra returned to the settlement, and stayed and buried each settler as they died. Jax watched, refraining from killing him to make his human watch Ezra’s suffering. Only when Ezra was alone and was ready to return to his family did Jax finally kill him. Ezra doesn’t believe that Jax would have given him a proper burial, but Jax suspects that Raven might have done it… “Or Silas. There’s no telling with him.”

Jax declares that now he’ll kill Ezra again, but Ezra says that he could have done that when he first came in, but couldn’t miss the chance to gloat. He wonders who Jax is trying to convince, Ezra, or himself. Jax attacks in fury. They quickly disarm one another, but Jax pulls a knife, and soon has Ezra on the ground. Before he can plunge it home, Duncan charges him and knocks him over, and tells Ezra to go. Ezra slips the center part of the weapon on a crystal, and finds himself inside the Ancestor.

He’s in his parents’ cabin, and is greeted by Silas. He explains that only his brain state is inside the Ancestor; Ezra’s real body is still in the cavern, but only nanoseconds have passed there. Ezra says he needs Silas to guide him to the weapon, but Silas says he already has. Only Skin Riders can create places inside the Ancestor. The cabin is a Trojan horse, brought from his memory, so that Ezra can bring the detonator from his own. They look down, and see the box with the “Knowledge” glyph on the lid. Ezra remembers seeing it in the real cabin, and speculates that their mother must have left it there by accident, but Silas says she never does anything unintentionally. Ezra opens the box, and sees the same round object from before. Silas says, “Knowledge is the greatest weapon.” Ezra asks what he would have done if someone else had come, and he simply says, “It wasn’t them. It was you.” Ezra asks what will happen if it works. Silas responds that they’ll both die, but the Ezra in the cavern will live on.

Ezra tells Silas that there are things he needs to say to make amends, but Silas already knows: he said it all in the settlement. Suddenly, they hear pounding at the door, and Silas says Jax has found them. Ezra hesitates to activate the detonator, but Silas assures him that they are good and he loves him. Jax bursts in, and Silas and Ezra press the button together.

The Cavern begins to collapse. Ezra rushes to Duncan, but he’s dead. Jax screams as the dust of the Ancestor crystals falls through his hands. Ezra offers to help him, but Jax swears it isn’t over. Ezra leaves and swims to the surface, where Abram, Lynn, Kylie, and Feena are waiting. They’re being healed by the Sparks. Ezra tells them what happened with Silas, Duncan, and the Ancestor, but doesn’t know what happened to Jax. Lynn worries they’ll still die, being soaking wet in the cold, but Ezra says he’ll build a fire, and the dead Skin Riders have dry clothes. Then, they can go home.

The gray drone watches the Reborns unobserved, then returns to the ship in orbit. It displays the footage to a human: Eleanor. “So, it’s done,” she says, and thanks the drone. She goes to a control panel, and a wall dissolves into a window overlooking earth. A man approaches. “They’re alive,” Eleanor tells him. “Are you ready?” “I’ve been ready for a long time,” Duncan replies.

Jax surfaces in the pool and clambers to shore. He turns and is shocked to see the Sparks forming another body in the water, that slowly rises in front of him. Smash to Black.