During the previous episode of The Ark, Ark-1 made it to the Trappist solar system. The Ark season 2 finale sees Ark-1 make it to Trappist 1D, but is what they find too good to be true?
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for The Ark season 2 finale.
A lot happened in the last episode of The Ark, with the ending making it clear that there is a threat on Trappist 1D. Someone wants Trust dead, and they were willing to send Strickland out on a suicide mission to make sure it happened.
Of course, with Strickland knowing his daughter was on the planet, he had to get there to get her back. Would his need put everyone else in danger?
The Ark season 2 finale review: Strickland fails to trust his own crew
With everything that happened in the previous episode, the Ark-1 leadership team had to agree on the next plan for Trappist 1D. While Strickland wanted to get Katherine, whoever had blackmailed him believed him and Trust to be dead. They needed to make sure whoever it was believed that happened, and the best way to do that was to keep Trust and Strickland on Ark-1.
Garnet promised to get Katherine back, but Strickland isn't going to put his hope in her hands. Instead, he sneaks down onto the planet and goes looking for his daughter. As he hears the voice of the man who blackmailed him, he attacks. Only it looks like someone may have used this voice, because this man has no idea who Strickland is and there were no off-planet communications from his device.
Of course, we don’t quite believe that’s the case, do we? When Strickland finds Katherine only for her not to recognize him, it’s clear that something is going on. Strickland is taken away by guards as Katherine backs away from her own father.
As Garnet, Brice, Kabir, Ian, and Kimi take a look around Trappist 1D, it’s clear that there is something very strange going on. Things are a little too “perfect,” and nobody is allowed to ask many questions. As Brice and Kabir ask about what happened to Maddox, a member of the Ark-15 crew will only say that she died in a “tragic accident.” The way that’s said makes it clear that nobody should ask any more questions, but Brice doesn’t figure that out.
Ian finds out the truth about Maddox
While the rest of the crew is taken away, Ian looks around the ship and notices more issues. Ian comes across a woman in the halls saying how “fortunate” she is to be here. When looking into a room, he spots Maddox injecting someone with some sort of implant.
Didn’t Maddox die in a “tragic accident?” Well, that’s definitely not the case, and she is making sure everyone bends to her will with these implants. Every other member of Ark-1 is implanted with an implant.
They head back to Ark-1 so they can inject everyone else. Ian turns to Alicia for help, and they realize that Trust is the only person who might be able to do something. Maddox has managed to perfect the brain control chips, and now Trust is the only one who can stop her. He knows the kill switch.
The Ark continues to show how everyone is needed. Trust says that he needs something small to be able to get into the chips to implant the kill switch into one person; then the nanites can pass to everyone else. They don’t have anything small, though, at least until Angus realizes they can use Kelly's nanites. Kelly is more than happy to help with the situation, especially if it means taking down her own mother.
Trust has to start up Kelly’s implants so that she can fight against Garnet and hold her down. There’s just enough time before everyone else rushes into the room to inject Garnet with the nanites. That saves the whole crew from Maddox’s brain control.
Now it’s time to save the people on Trappist 1D. They need to get close enough to others with the chip for the nanite kill switch in Garnet to work.
I wish that this problem took a little more time to solve. It would have been great to have this happen over the course of two episodes to build up the idea that Maddox was up to something. After all this time of her being this background threat, it would have been great to see more of the monster that she was in the finale. However, The Ark has always fixed problems within an episode, so it is at least consistent with the rest of the show. I just think there was a lot going on and it could have done with being extended.
Maddox continues to prove herself as a threat
Of course, we know that Maddox wouldn’t just hide in the shadows. She was always going to be a threat as The Ark season 2 came to an end. As Ark-1 believes they’ve saved the people on Trappist 1D, Maddox abducts Katherine and takes her aboard the Ark-1 shuttle, threatening to hurt Katherine if Garnet and the others follow her.
Fortunately, Kelly took the device to control her own implants and stows away on the shuttle. She knew Maddox would run, and this was her chance to face the woman who turned her into the girl she had become.
It's beautiful to see how far Kelly has come. While she threatened to hurt Maddox, she wanted to prove that she wasn’t what Maddox had tried to make her into. The only reason she kills Maddox is because Maddox threatened her life.
The Ark season 3?
The Ark season 2 ends mostly on a happy note. Strickland and Katherine are reunited and the people of Trappist 1D are no longer under Maddox’s control. However, the show has to end in a way that pushes us into a potential (and much needed) third season.
Garnet makes it clear that she can’t remain on Trappist 1D. Arks 10 and 14 hadn’t arrived, and she needs to know where they are. Sure, she’d already done enough to get Ark-1 to Trappist 1D, but she couldn’t leave people potentially stranded out there.
She isn’t going to make anyone from Ark-1 come with her, though. People have a choice to join her if they want, which results in some couples breaking up, or at least dealing with long distance. While Eva is excited to start a new life on Trappist 1D, Brice makes it clear that this isn’t the life for a pilot. He needs to go with Garnet. Meanwhile, Angus is needed on the planet to grow food and plants, while Alicia is needed as Chief Science Officer.
It's a bittersweet ending with all these potential breakups, but it all makes sense for the characters. In the end, Garnet takes with her a mixture of GA, EF, and civilians. Kabir and Marsh remain on the planet while Ian joins Garnet on Ark-1.
As Ark-1 heads to the planet Ross 128, they manage to make contact. Someone on the planet tells them not to come and to turn around “before it’s too late.” Back on Trappist 1D, Angus and his fellow agriculturists are digging into the soil when Angus comes across something hard. There must have once been signs of life as there is a tablet with words in a foreign language written in it. What does it mean?
The Ark season 2 overall review
It’s the end of another great season. This season has all been about character growth and teamwork. Each episode has focused on how everyone is needed in their own way, and that was certainly the case for the season 2 finale. It doesn’t matter what type of background someone comes from or how young they are, they have had a role to play in each crisis.
As insufferable as Trust has been, he’s had his uses. He started to grow on me by the end, especially with his comments about how capable Alicia is. The character who got the most growth was Kelly, who started the season wanting to be executed for her crimes. As she understood her mother, her past, and her own abilities, she found a way to be useful—and she even learned when the right time to kill is.
My only complaint, and it’s about the finale particularly, is that the visuals felt too much like CGI. The planet behind the Ark-1 crew clearly made use of a green screen. I don’t know if that was purposely done to make it feel like it was a little too “perfect” or not, but it took me out of the storytelling at first.
What I will say is: Syfy, we need The Ark season 3!
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