The Ark season 2, episode 9 review, "Cycle of Violence": What to do about Eva

It’s taken two episodes to find out what would happen to Eva after learning she was an agent of the Eastern Federation. The Ark season 2, episode 9 delivers some answers as Ark-1 deals with the arrival of an Eastern Federation ship.

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from The Ark season 2, episode 9, "Cycle of Violence"

The end of the previous episode left us with the threat of an Eastern Federation ship dropping out of FTL and aiming weapons at an Ark-1 ship. The new episode, "Cycle of Violence," grapples with that problem, and a bit with the Eva problem as well.

The Ark season 2, episode 9 review: The GSA isn’t necessarily all good

It’s easy to think that the side we’re on will always do the right thing, but that’s not always the case. As Garnet and others try to deal with the ship, they realize that they need to pull Eva in. She’s the one who can share details about the EF ships.

Except she can’t. Eva admits that she and her former lover Harris were EF agents, but they weren’t traditional spies. They smuggled their way onto the GSA ships because the EF ships weren’t good enough to get off Earth. They wanted to survive, so they pretended to be GSA agents.

What about the lunar mission? Well, the EF only had shuttles to use. Eva doesn’t know anything about the weapons on the ship. She does share a few truths about the GSA, though. She hated a lot of the GSA command that had died in the initial attack on Ark-1 at the start of The Ark. That’s because they did a lot of questionable things, such as sending a young recruit on a suicide mission without telling her.

That lunar mission wasn’t even a heroic one. It turns out the GSA was working on a weapon that would kill a billion people, believing the needs of the many outweighed the few. It’s a shock to everyone, especially Spencer who now learns that his father wasn’t the hero he thought he was.

I like that The Ark isn't afraid to show some of the difficult decisions those in power need to make. I also love that it's showing us that propaganda is a real problem. Those on the side of the GSA believe the EF is bad simply because of what the GSA has told them, and yet there really are three sides to a story: the two sides and the truth. That truth is usually somewhere in the middle, and it means life isn't black and white.

Garnet tries to negotiate with the Eastern Federation

After initially trying to get away from the Eastern Federation ship by jumping into FTL, Garnet realizes she has no choice but to talk to the EF Captain. The EF is tracking the shuttle that was taken when Ark-1 found Eva’s brother. The Captain wants his man and his shuttle, but Garnet can’t do that. Eva’s brother died.

What about Eva, then? Well, that would be fine if Eva actually wanted to go. As much as she hated the GSA command, she doesn’t hate those she’s come to know on Ark-1. She doesn’t want to leave.

That means negotiations need to happen. Strickland and Jelena head over to the EF ship while the captain and his lieutenant head over to Ark-1. Negotiations don’t initially go well, but then Garnet is able to get through to the captain. If the EF destroys Ark-1 and heads to Trappas, the planet that everyone hopes to call home, the rest of the GSA will destroy the EF ship. This captain says that he wants to stop the mindless killing, and it’s time to prove that.

While the captain is happy with that, his lieutenant is not. He stabs his captain in the back with a knife he smuggled on board. Spencer steps in to take out the lieutenant, but it’s at a cost; He’s stabbed three times in the abdomen and collapses. Garnet and Kimi rush the captain and Spencer to Med Bay.

Is this the end for Spencer Lane on The Ark?

The Ark season 2 has given Spencer a crisis of identity. This episode saw him get more answers from Ian to find out who his dad really was. It turns out that Ian recognized Spencer’s dad as a man who would look through the window at the lab.

Spencer remembers that his mom couldn’t have more children after his birth. What if she could never have children? Is it possible that Spencer’s dad bought him to raise him as his son? That certainly seems likely.

Yet the show clearly isn’t going to do much with that revelation. While in the Med Bay, Kabir makes it clear that Spencer can’t be saved. His kidneys and spleen have been destroyed. I thought at this point that Ian was going to do an honorable thing. Garnet is devastated that Spencer wouldn’t make it. This is a man she loves, and we had some hope that this was a ship we could get behind. Ian knows that he was created to be a donor, so he could have stepped forward to offer up his own kidneys to save his brother.

Instead, he offers up Spencer’s body. Spencer isn’t the only one who will die. The EF captain will also die if he doesn’t get a liver transplant. Spencer was created to be a universal donor, so he can be used for that transplant. I hated this moment. Spencer deserved so much better than this, and I started to wish that it was Ian who stepped in the way of the knife and was stabbed. Spencer doesn’t get to make this choice. He doesn’t get resolution for everything that he’s learned over the last few episodes. We don’t get to see Spencer and Garnet together!

And yet, this moment feels real and raw. We don’t always get the happy ending that we want in life. Things happen, and it means words are left unsaid and closure unobtainable. As much as I want better for Spencer as a character, not killing him off would come across as ungenuine. TV shows need to be willing to put their main characters’ lives on the line, and The Ark has done it with this storyline.

The episode ends with the Eastern Federation ship threatening to execute either Strickland or Jelena. Eva tries to get through to the lieutenant, whom she knows from years ago, but it’s not enough. If the captain doesn’t pull through this surgery, we’ll be saying goodbye to at least one other member of Ark-1. After Spencer’s death, I can’t say which way the show will go.

Kelly needs all her nanites to heal her

While all this is going on, Angus suffers from visions of Kelly while fully awake. He's compelled to go to her in Med Bay, which is where she was after collapsing at the end of the previous episode. Marsh and Kabir can't understand why Kelly’s nanites aren't healing her, but it soon becomes clear when Angus turned up.

Kelly’s nanites are calling to Angus'. Remember when Angus healed quicker than he was supposed to after the blood transfusion from Kelly? We knew it was going to come back up, and now it has. Some of her nanites ended up in Angus’ body. Kelly can't heal until all her nanites were back, and they literally called to each other.

As Angus leans down almost like he's going to kiss Kelly, his nanites passed back into her and she's miraculously fully healed. It’s a shame that this technology can’t be used to heal the EF captain and Spencer.

The episode ends with Garnet getting ready to say goodbye to Spencer. I just hope there’s a way in the next episode to reverse all this. I’m not ready for Spencer Lane to die in The Ark.

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

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