DISCLAIMER: This recap of The Ark Season 1 Episode 7, “A Slow Death Is Worse,” contains spoilers. Proceed at your peril.
Welcome back, space travelers! Episode seven of The Ark puts the pedal to the metal on the narrative front, exposing new mysteries while diving into current ones. Felix learns his family is dead, which is devastating, while the crew discovers a solo passenger on Ark Three. More importantly, they discover what impacted their ship, as it’s the same force that struck Ark Three: Ark 15 in an apparent moment of war. It appears Evelyn Maddox has been busy constructing Arks beyond the original 12.
“A Slow Death Is Worse” focuses heavily on the plot, with the character development taking the back burner in a surprising move. Well, there’s the budding romance between Brice and Eva, which, admittedly, I don’t understand. There also seems to be something developing between Alicia and Angus that I do understand. The chemistry feels more organic between our adorable nerds.
Ready to delve into “A Slow Death Is Worse”? Let’s get to it.
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We open with Lt. Garnet (Christie Burke) calling out to the crew aboard Ark Three while Lt. Lane (Reece Ritchie) paces behind her. Nobody responds to Garnet’s hail. Lt. Brice (Richard Fleeshman) offers to closely inspect the ostensibly abandoned vessel, much to Eva’s (Tiana Upcheva) dismay. However, Brice and Eva return to Ark One to regroup with the team. Garnet allows Brice and Lane to gather a crew to survey Ark Three. Firstly, see if there are any survivors. Secondly, figure out what happened and why they’re here.
Before he departs, Lane thanks Garnet for saving their lives … again. He apologizes for judging her based on her clone DNA—these two crazy kids. I’m getting vibes of a particular persuasion from them, which might not be professional, given she’s his superior. But I digress.
Meanwhile, Brice prepares the shuttle for another trek to Ark Three. Eva trails him, scolding him for volunteering for yet another dangerous mission. Listen, you’re not his keeper, Eva. Plus, he’d rather go out swinging than waste away doing nothing. Leave him be! Cat (Christina Wolfe) tries to wander onto the bridge surreptitiously, but Garnet and Alicia (Stacey Read) catch her in the act. Cat reveals her best friend is supposed to be on Ark Three. She wants to ensure said friend is alive. Garnet orders her to watch from the viewing area for the plebs (I’m paraphrasing).
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Next, Angus (Ryan Adams) asks Cat if Garnet is on the bridge. He wants to thank her for her sacrifice and to gift her an aloe plant for her burns. Angus carries a torch for Garnet, which Cat picks up. She urges Angus to abandon his crush on Garnet in favor of someone in his age group. On Ark Three, Eva turns on life support while the gang stands, aghast, at the array of corpses littering the ground near their feet. Lane notes how they appear to have suffocated. Garnet, overhearing their conversation while on Ark One, orders the crew to disperse and perform their respective duties.
Lane heads onto the bridge and attempts to enter his codes to access the ship logs. Unfortunately, he’s barred from doing so. Brice and Eva try to track down the sleeper bay cryo pods, only to discover there are no cryo pods aboard this ship. Instead, there’s a massive crew quarters with bunk beds. Sasha (Miloš Cvetković) wanders into the captain’s quarters and finds a bottle of alcohol. Naturally, he takes a good swig. Suddenly, the dead captain falls out of a closet and lands on Sasha. Then, an alarm blares, revealing on a screen a hazard in that space. Sasha calls out to Brice and Eva and tells them the atmosphere is venting.
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Unfortunately, Felix discovers the body of his husband, Robert. After a moment of shock, Felix’s mind lands on their daughter Catherine. Where is she? He asks those aboard the ship with him to keep their eyes peeled for a young girl. Lane finds a lone passenger attempting to pick a lock. He chases them down. He removes their helmet. Kelly Fowler (Samantha Glassner) cries out in pain as Lane twists her broken arm. She says there are hostile crew members onboard. She was essentially at war with them. Brice and Eva reveal Kelly’s enemies overdosed collectively in the med bay. Kelly recalls her friend Ross is alone in the mess hall, so she and Lane make a beeline for him.
Once they reach the mess hall, Felix asks Kelly if she knew his husband. She doesn’t answer readily. Lane finds Ross on the floor, and he doesn’t look so hot. They transport Ross to Dr. Kabir (Shalini Peiris) on Ark One. She cuts off his shirt to reveal his immensely bruised torso. Kabir reveals Ross has internal bleeding, so she prepares him for immediate surgery. Unfortunately, Ross dies on the surgical table. You can tell, even in the silence, that Kabir blames herself.
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Next, Felix sets Kelly’s arm and orders her not to move it. She reveals she lied earlier — she did know Robert. They occasionally had lunch together. According to Kelly, Ark Three prioritized spouses of Ark One passengers, hence why Robert was on the ship. She claims he was excited to reunite with Felix. However, there were no kids on Ark Three. After learning this development, Felix storms into the hallway and drops to his knees in grief. Kabir holds him close while he sobs. Aw, that’s what he did for her in the previous episode.
Later, Garnet brings Kelly into a council meeting. Everyone proceeds to ask her questions simultaneously, shouting over each other. Here’s a new drinking game: Take a shot any time there’s a scene featuring folks shouting over each other. Kelly discloses she’s an engineering intern, so she doesn’t know much. She set the boobytrap for Sasha, thinking he was one of the hostile passengers with whom she was warring. Kelly reveals Evelyn Maddox, the trillionaire who bought William Trust’s company, figured out how to implement Faster Than Lightspeed (FTL). Ark Three was redirected to Proxima B, the same planetary destination as our ship, because it’s more apt to sustain life.
Lane asks about Ark Two. Kelly divulges that some ships attempted FTL and failed. Everyone on Ark Two perished. Garnet wants her team to return to Ark Three for more supplies. She also urges Kelly to explore her new home.
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Then, Garnet limps into the viewing bay to chat with Cat. She brings Cat the updated Ark Three manifest for the latter’s perusal. Cat breathes a sigh of relief when she notices her friend isn’t on the list. They hear a commotion near the entrance as the crew swarms Kelly, pestering her with incessant questions. Garnet scolds the crew for overwhelming Kelly. However, Kelly agrees to tell all.
Someone records Kelly’s information dump for the entire ship. She reveals that Earth succumbed to intense climate change, including fires and tidal waves. Everything either burned or was submerged. While the Ark program moved forward as planned, with 12 Arks set to depart Earth, she’s unsure if all of them escaped. They might be the last survivors from Earth. Glassner delivers a beautifully raw performance here.
After her monologue, Cat takes Kelly aside and cleans her up. Garnet calls Kelly to the bridge and reveals they plan to leave for a supply run to Ark Three. Alicia and Angus will retrieve the video footage to study it and learn what hit Ark Three. Everyone else will grab food, supplies, medicine, etc. Kelly volunteers to accompany Felix to snag some weaponry for the ship.
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Jelena (Tamara Radovanović) finds a samurai sword while collecting passenger items. It belongs to Felix, so she returns it to him. It appears that Robert was storing it for his hubby. Felix is taken aback. He tells Kelly he used that sword to train. Meanwhile, Kabir receives all the medical supplies from Ark Three. She’s still experiencing withdrawal symptoms from her substance addiction. Naturally, bottles chock full of pills become temptations. Don’t do it!
While filling their storage container with guns, Kelly confesses the truth: Robert did talk about Catherine. The little girl took a stray bullet amid a protest on Earth. She died before Robert boarded Ark Three. Oof. That’s heartbreaking. Felix tries to suppress his pain, claiming he should know now. Felix decides to send the weapons through the airlock. He asserts that they don’t need guns on a spaceship. Kelly agrees with him, but when she walks away, we see a handgun stashed in the waist of her pants. Something’s fishy here.
Next, Alicia and Angus attempt to salvage the video footage from Ark Three. Alicia implements an algorithm to save the good parts of the video. Angus and Alicia discover that Ark 15 struck Ark Three. That also means Ark 15 attacked their ship, too. But why? Eva and Brice wander into the engine room on Ark Three and discover Maddox Corporation’s FTL device. He urges Eva not to touch it, but she insists that, as an engineer, she knows what she’s doing.
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Suddenly, an alarm blares, and a countdown to self-destruction begins. Uh-oh. Garnet calls Kelly onto the bridge and asks if this is another of her boobytraps. She insists it’s not. Maddox’s device is the most important thing in the universe, so naturally, it’s protected. They need a code to counteract the self-destruct. Brice and Eva share a tender moment. They grab hands and decide to spend their final moments being lovey-dovey. As they’re about to kiss, Lane reveals he’s got the code. Eva enters it quickly, and it switches off the self-destruct. Huzzah!
Garnet wonders aloud where Lane is. We see he’s in the secret room with William Trust (Paul Leonard Murray), who he woke up. Trust wonders where he is and why. Dun-dun-dun!
“A Slow Death Is Worse” doesn’t let its foot off the gas, even in the quieter moments. With every episode, The Ark slowly but surely improves. I can overlook its flaws because the overarching mystery is engrossing enough to keep me invested. The acting is probably what bothers me the most; however, there are a few strong players that make up for some of the weaker performances. The three leads are solid, for starters.
Do you think Garnet will learn about Lane waking William Trust? What’s up with Ark 15? Will our team attempt FTL? Only time (and more episodes) will tell.
The Ark drops new episodes every Wednesday at 10/9c on Syfy.
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