The Ark crew gets an unusual distress call in "Pretty Big Deal": Season 2, Episode 6 review

The start of The Ark season 2, Episode 6 focuses on the successes of the previous episode. It doesn’t take long for Ark-1 to get waylaid on their mission to find a new home, though. This time they get a distress call from Ark-8.

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from The Ark season 2, episode 6

I will say that I love how the relationships among the Ark-1 crew have grown. In the recap of events from before, we get that reminder that Spencer Lane hates clones, which means he hated Sharon Garnet at first. However, we see at the start of this episode how much he has come to respect and cherish her, making sure she gets to sit in her new Captain’s chair before doing anything else.

We also got to see how Sharon cherishes everyone on the team. With the news that there are more solo cabins from Ark-3, it means every council member gets their own room. There’s also a sweet moment when we learn that Ark-3 had a time capsule of sorts to help them remember things from Earth. The contents include a guitar (yes, Richard Fleeshman can really play), baseballs, knitting needles, wool, and more. I do have to question Kimi getting the knitting needles and wonder if this is foreshadowing something to come.

Review: The Ark season 2, Episode 6, "Pretty Big Deal"

The main focus of the episode is a distress call. Ark-8 had sent on to Ark-3, and now Ark-1 hears it. Ark-8 had crash landed on a planet. Was it inhabitable? Not quite. Brice quickly points out that the radiation levels are high, which makes everyone wonder if they’re going on a recovery mission or a rescue mission.

Once on the planet, we get a shock that is sure to lead to some great storylines for Spencer. It turns out that Ark-8 was full of clones, and one of them looks exactly like Spencer. The clone, Ian, shares that there were three of them in the lab, but then Spencer was taken away. Ian and his clone—who is presumed dead, I think—believed that Spencer had died, so Ian is excited to find out that he is still alive.

The clones escaped Earth on Ark-8 after finding out that the humans were just leaving them behind in a lab. They all went together, creating their own family.

Of course, Spencer is livid. He had no idea that he was a clone, and he’s always hated them. When Ian points out that clones have barcodes on their feet, Spencer realizes that the scarring on his heel must have been a way for his dad to remove the barcode tattoo when younger. His dad always told Spencer that he injured himself, but Spencer never remembered that. It means Spencer’s dad knew all about Spencer being a clone and kept it from him.

There’s a big identity crisis for Spencer coming up. Everything he thought he knew is wrong, and I think this opens the door for him and Garnet to get closer.

The attack of the clones

Spencer hates clones because of their psychosis, but it turns out that this was a flaw in the Gen 3 clones specifically. Ian is a Gen 2 clone, which means he and the others like him won’t suffer from psychosis. However, they did bring some Gen 3 clones with them, and they quickly started to go crazy once they got into space. That’s who the Gen 2 clones have been running from, and they thought Ark-1 was the Gen 3 clones coming to ambush them.

Ark-1 agrees to bring the Gen 2 clones onto Ark-1. However, Garnet also wants to bring the Gen 3 clones along. They may be dangerous, but they are still people. While they’re trying to get everyone back on the ship, the Gen 3 clones do start to sabotage the shuttle. It’s clear that they don’t want to be “rescued,” but that’s due to their psychosis.

Once Garnet’s crew and the Gen 2 clones are back on Ark-1, Garnet hatches a plan to get the Gen 3 clones. An explosion on the planet makes it clear that the Gen 3 clones are now likely dead, but what and who caused it? We’ll need to wait until the next episode for that. It’s not often that a storyline is split across two episodes, but considering this is about clones, it seems poetic that it is.

Angus starts to feel back at home in his garden

In the last episode, Angus went to his garden and was berated by an Ark-15 crew member over his irrigation system. That lead to a bit of an identity crisis at the start of this episode, as I expected. Alicia helps to pull him out of that, making it clear that he built that garden. Ark-1 survived because of him. He should own that success. And yes, the kiss those two finally share is so cute and awesome!

When he goes back, Lati points out that the soil is muddy and blames it on Angus’ system again. He finds the flaw quickly, pointing out that there is a blocked pipe. Why didn’t Lati find that? It gives Angus the boost he needs, but I have to wonder if this is all a trap to get Angus to talk.

Lati is working with Kimi to find the members of the Eastern Federation on the ship. They’re sure that Brice and Eva are both Eastern Federation. One of the best ways to get information is to get other people on the ship talking. Angus likes to talk, which leads to Lati learning that Eva had a boyfriend on the ship who died in the initial hit at the start of the series. When Lati looks him up, she realizes that he was Eastern Federation too.

Lati and Kimi are getting closer to exposing who's Eastern Federation. Considering Brice’s hatred for Eastern Federation ships, I have to wonder what his actual backstory is. We know that he was hiding that he had Klampkin’s in the first season. Surely he wouldn’t have been with the Eastern Federation as well. Eva I could get, but not Brice, so I’m curious to see why Kimi is so certain that Brice is Eastern Federation.

At this point, does it matters who was Eastern Federation and who wasn’t? Ark-1 is all one team, one family. If they were there for a different type of mission, that all changed when so many died while in cryo. The mission changed to be about survival and new bonds were formed. Kimi and Lati can’t see that, though. They clearly have a personal vendetta, and I want to know why. I do feel like this storyline is dragging just a little.

Kelly gets her bomb removed

Meanwhile, Kelly’s storyline continues as Dr. Marsh and Kabir remove the bomb from her head. Kelly wants all the other additions removed from her as well, but that’s impossible. It would mean Kelly would lose her hearing and her right arm, as the implants are all connected to bones, cartilage, and more. Kelly doesn’t care, but Dr. Marsh won’t do it, and you can’t really blame him.

Has he actually removed the bomb, though? I guess we’ll find out whenever we come across Ark-15 again. We all know that’s going to happen, and Maddox is sure to ignite the bomb once more.

Kelly and Trust also have a little bit of bonding time. He gets her to give him the device that Cat 2.0 left behind so that he can figure out how to work it and help her. There has to be an ulterior motive there, though. Trust will know that device does more, so how is he going to use it?

Kelly is far too trusting of Trust at this point. I know she’s in an impossible situation, but after everything with Maddox and Dr. Marsh, you would think she wouldn’t trust anyone else. I can’t help but think Trust is playing her.

The Ark airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on Syfy.

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