The Ark season 2, Episode 2 recap: Ark-1 learns more about Kelly as she faces trial

What can Ark-1 do about Kelly? That’s the biggest question in The Ark season 2, episode 2, "Kill or Be Killed." However, Eva has a much bigger issue to deal with.

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

The episode opens with Garnet trying to quickly integrate the new members of Ark-15 into Ark-1. It’s not easy, and not everyone is happy that they have to deal with a bunch of new people. Eva isn’t happy about her work being double checked, and Brice isn’t happy that there are people he can’t trust on the ship.

The question of moles come up. Are there people from Ark-15 who are spies or loyalists to Maddox? Everyone just has to hope that there aren’t any loyalists on board, but I get a sense that this is going to come up again soon.

Eva needs to get FTL back up and running in The Ark season 2, episode 2

I do feel for Eva. It’s hard to remember that she wasn’t the main engineer on the ship at the start of the series. There were others who were meant to be above her. In fact, each crew member of Ark-1 was supposed to have someone above them. So the idea of someone checking Eva’s work isn’t absurd, but it’s hard considering how much good Eva has done.

She needs to get FTL back online. That’s okay, because she stored equipment in case something happened. The problem is that “something” happened where the equipment was stored. Now they all need to find a new way to get FTL up and running so that they can get back to Ark-3. Then they can use some of the equipment from that Ark to fix their own.

That plan seems to have worked by the end of the episode. That is until there’s a crash to the electrical system. Now there is a shot of electricity from the FTL system flowing through the ship, and we just know that can’t be good!

Kelly faces trial in “Kill or Be Killed”

The bulk of the episode is focused on Kelly, who does not want to go by the name Kelly Maddox. Her father’s name was Fowler, and that’s what she wants people to call her. She continues to separate herself from her mother as she learns more.

She’s not the only one learning more about herself. Dr. Marsh explains everything that he did to help Maddox. It turns out that Kelly is an experiment. She had a bunch of enhancements put into her, making her stronger in her right arm and giving her better senses than most people.

Garnet is clearly shaken by this. She is a clone and enhanced, and we saw how people reacted to that. She was just fortunate to grow up well enough to be kind and considerate. Kelly has grown up with a monster, and that’s turned her into a monster.

Strickland, who understandably wants justice for the murder of his husband, acts as prosecutor in the trial, while Garnet is the judge. Dr. Marsh eventually agrees to serve as defense for Kelly. He is able to unlock the enhancements so that Kelly can remember everything that happened on Ark-3, where before she claimed to not remember anything after initially being attacked.

Well, it turns out that her enhancements were turned on during the attack. She became a completely different person, carrying out murder on the orders of her mother. This technically means she can’t be fully blamed for what she did, but Garnet still decides that she is guilty, something Kelly knew was going to happen.

But Garnet is somewhat empathetic, since she knows that this is what she could have been with a different upbringing. Maddox created Kelly to be a weapon, and that’s what Kelly became. Because of this, Kelly won’t face death, but she will be imprisoned until Garnet figures out what to do with her. I get a sense that someone else will go after Kelly to get revenge. Could that be Strickland?

Strickland reassigns Jelena for some good reasons

Due to the new people coming aboard Ark-1, Strickland needs to reassign someone on his security team: Jelena, who apologizes for everything that she did in the first season. While Strickland has somewhat forgiven her for the mistakes she made, he still makes it clear that she needs to head to Med Bay. With Dr. Kabir out of action for now and Jelena having medical experience, she needs to head to Med Bay to work with Dr. Marsh.

She’s not happy about it, especially when she feels like she does more for the security team. This is when Strickland points out that there are a few too many Ark-15 people in Med Bay right now. Strickland doesn’t trust Dr. Marsh considering what he did to Kelly for Maddox. Jelena can keep a much closer eye on things when she’s in Med Bay, which satisfies her a little more.

Meanwhile in Med Bay, Kabir is ordered to go on bedrest for a week. She has had major surgery on her spleen and liver, so it makes sense. It does seem like Marsh is setting things up to take over Med Bay, though. Like Eva, Kabir was never supposed to be the main doctor in charge, but ended up with the top stop after everyone woke up from cryosleep. It does technically make sense for Marsh to take over, but can we trust him after he blindly followed Maddox for so long?

The Ark airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Syfy.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.