On the second anniversary of the meteor hitting Earth, the news stations report on the anniversary of the event. Ben looks at the devastation, and is among those who know the truth: the "meteor" was a crashed alien ship with a pilot, Scarecrow.
On the Resolute in the present, Ben tells John and Maureen that the robot has been piloting the colony ship as his men lock it up in a cage. They watch from an observation window, and Ben suggests that they invite Will to join them since he has a connection to the alien robots. Hastings arrive, and Maureen remembers him as being involved with the alien engine project. Hastings explains that they couldn't reverse-engineer the alien drive so they built the Resolute around it. He takes them into the compartment with the pilot and shows them where the drive was.
Ben explains that he was able to communicate with Scarecrow in a rudimentary way, getting it to take them where they wanted to go. Without Scarecrow, the engine won't start. The SAR took the engine, but if they had another engine they could get to Alpha Centauri. Ben and Hastings are surprised when Maureen says that they have a second shirt.
On Jupiter 2, Will looks at Ben's men examining the alien engine. Judy packs to go to the desert planet where the 573 remaining people from the Resolute are camped, She assures Will and Penny that they'll only be gone for a week,
John packs and tells Maureen that they're sending him to the planet to troubleshoot a water drilling rig. Maureen has been assigned to bring the Resolute up to operational capacity, even though John thinks she should stay with ben and Hastings. He's surprised she's comfortable with someone else managing it, and Maureen says that she doesn't want her family involved anymore. John warns that Will won't want to avoid involving himself, but Maureen just tells him to get the water for the Resolute.
Don gets into the second Jupiter with John and Judy, and Judy is happy to be seeing new people after seven months.
On Jupiter 2, Maureen tells Penny and Will that eventually the crew will find the missing Smith, and tells her children to call security if Smith approaches them. Will finds Smith's copy of Penny's book, and Penny claims that Smith picked it up somewhere. As they leave, Smith watches them from the shadows. The soldiers move Scarecrow past them in the corridor, and Will realizes that it was trying to say something to him. He suggests that he can help the soldiers communicate with Scarecrow, but Maureen tells him that it isn't his responsibility. His mother says that it isn't Will's robot and takes him to meet his new friends.
The Jupiter arrives on the planet and John, Judy, and Don disembark. John heads to the drill site, and Judy tells him that she'll eat with the other first-years. Don offers to have dinner with John, who is less than thrilled. Judy meets with Dr. Luna, and introduces herself. He puts her to work restocking off-site facilities, telling her to follow protocol.
John arrives at the drilling site and Victor half-seriously complains that the Robinsons expect everyone to jump into action. Victor says that the local wildlife are sometimes a problem, and finding enough water to live on has been a constant challenge. He takes John to the #3 drill and asks what has changed on the Resolute in the last 24 hours. John keeps his silence and Victor goes to get the transport.
Don finds the other pilots, and one of them--Andre--punches him. Another woman, Ava, accuses him of deserting. Don claims that he was kidnapped and he's her top mechanic, and Ava has him look at a malfunctioning Chariot tanker. He goes to check the Chariot, unaware that there are spores growing on one axle.
John gets into a Chariot and discovers that Judy is going with him. She refuses to talk about why she's going to restock.
Izabel Azevedo takes Maureen, Penny, and Will into her family's Jupiter while Jupiter 2 undergoes maintenance. Her wife Aubrey says that her daughter Elise was thrilled when she heard that Will was going to be her roommate, because they've heard he can control the robots with his mind. Will and Elise are looking at Elise's photos of the planet, and Will talks about how the formations are created. Penny looks on and tells Elise not to get too astonished as Will's genius. Maureen heads for the systems hub with Izabel and Aubrey, and Will asks Elise if she saw the Robot leave. Elise was too busy to notice, and will goes to check on Debbie. Once they're alone, Penny tells Elise that Debbie is a pretty "chick". Meanwhile, Will sneaks into the area with Scarecrow.
John arrives at the drill site and Judy insists that she doesn't need help. She sets up and a worker asks for a bandage for his knee. He grabs it from Judy before she can treat him and limps away. Meanwhile, John meets with Angela and says that he's thankful there's someone there who can watch her back. As Angela says that she has concern, the head engineer Hilmi Farhan comes up and says that they hit a purifier recently but there's a gas packet that they also tapped what appeared to be a gas pocket. When they shut down and started back up, the high-pressure gas had disappeared and Farhan figures the pipe is blocked. Angela clearly isn't convinced it was a gas pocket. John figures someone will have to go down and check the apparent block, and Farhan tells John that he's going.
John descends into the drill hole with a derrick-man but doesn't find a bloc in the first two strings. They report in and continue down, while spores grow on the plastic pipe.
Will sneaks into the containment area and finds a ladder going down. He ducks back when someone comes up, and discovers that other soldiers are approaching on his level. He ducks into a room and hides, and a soldier starts to come in but then is recalled to the garage. Will finds his Robot model and realizes that he's in his own room, and puts the model on the shelf where it belongs. Will then turns on the intercom to the garage, and listens as the technicians try something new with the robot part there.
Smith comes to see Penny and she asks why their Jupiter is sealed in plastic. Penny points out that it isn't Smith's Jupiter, and Smith explains that the head of security wants to arrest her. Smith says that Penny is a lot like her, and Penny tells her that she can't hide there. The older woman asks for an extra copy of Penny's book that she can take with her to her cell, and Penny gives Smith Smith's copy.
After Penny leaves, Elise is watching from the door. Smith notices her and says that she's the Robinsons' family therapist and they have a lot of issues. Penny comes back and asks Smith how she turned into who she is, and Smith tells her that it's better to be feared than loved. When Penny asks if Smith has ever been loved, Smith breaks off the conversation and takes the book. Captain Radic and his security officer arrive in response to Penny's call and place Smith under arrest.
Don tells Ava that the axle locking bolts were missing, and the Chariot is repaired. It still doesn't start.
As Angela looks desperately for her wedding ring, Judy asks her if she's okay, Angela insists that she never takes it off and it's all she has left of her husband. Judy assures her that they'll find the ring.
Don asks Ava to let him take another look at the Chariot, insisting that it should be working. Ava isn't interested, saying the water is top priority.
Judy finds Angela's ring in a sink drain, but it falls apart in her hand. It's made of titanium, and Judy realizes that something is disintegrating the metal in the drill site.
John tries to open a valve and the handle falls apart in his hands.
Judy yells at everyone to get away from the well.
John hits the emergency retract on the derrick-man's belt, sending him to the surface as the metal falls apart around them. His own harness falls apart when he tries to go up, trapping him. John starts climbing up the side of the drill shaft, but the drill structure above collapses. One worker is injured in the collapse, and Judy takes charge of removing the debris from him without injuring him further. She confirms that they need to get him back to the base for the equipment to treat him, and wonders where John is. Fahran says that he sent John down into the drill shaft.
Will waits outside the garage until the technicians take a break. The boy goes in and approaches the Robot engine and the open cage holding Scarecrow. Ben walks in and tells Will that Scarecrow isn't in any pain. He says that they're jolting Scarecrow to generate a response and not hurting it, but Will points out that it's like talking to someone by hitting them with a stick. Ben explains that he was brought in to communicate with Scarecrow when they found it at the crash site, and Will notices that its lights don't look right and it's confused. The scientist warns that they're going to be stuck if they can't convince Scarecrow to move the engine to the Resolute. Will suggests that Scarecrow might not want to help, and Ben figures that he's personifying the robot. The boy says that he and the Robot were connected and asks for the chance to connect with Scarecrow. Will insists that they can't ask for Maureen for permission because she doesn't understand, and insists that he knows the missing piece.
Judy contacts John on his radio and says that she's getting a patient to Medical and will be back. John warns that the tanker heading back to the base camp has water from the well.
As Judy is driven back to the base camp, she calls Don and warns that there's something in the well that rots metal, and he has to quarantine the tanker. Don tells her that it's already on the Jupiter and it's ready to take off, and he runs over and tells Ava not to lift off. Ava doesn't believe him, but Don says that she's going to promote him because she'll save the Resolute by stopping the Jupiter.
Ben shuts down the containment fields and Will introduces himself to Scarecrow. It emerges from the cage and Will offers to help with its missing pieces. He offers it the arm that they recovered and says that some robots hurt people but they don't have to. The robot attaches the arm top itself and then touches Will's arm where the scar from the Robot's initial attack is.
Maureen, Izabel, and Aubrey check the hub systems, and Aubrey notices that Maureen appears distracted. Maureen continues looking out the window at the quarantined Jupiter 2.
Will takes out the Robot model and says that the Robot is his friend and saved his life. He hopes that he and Scarecrow can be friends, and Scarecrow smashes the model on the floor and lunges at Will. It stops short of hitting him, and Maureen runs in. Will tells her that he's fine, and Scarecrow goes back in its cage when Ben reactivates the containment field. Ben and Maureen talk privately, and Ben assures Maureen that Will was never in danger. He admits that he was out of line but they're running out of options, and Maureen tells him to improve his security to keep Will out.
Radic confirms that Smith has hacked the computer and put her identity into Zoe's file. Smith says that she saved John's life, sailed the Jupiter, and donated blood to Don. She gives Radic Penny's book, insisting that Penny wrote all about her. Radic isn't impressed but reads the book and finds the kelp that Smith hid between the pages. The captain picks it up with his bare fingers, and Smith demands evidence that she killed one of his men as he believes. He tries to bring up the security feed but it's wiped from Smith's previous actions. Smith suggests that it's stress, but Radic says that he's judge and jury... and then discovers his arm is paralyzed from the kelp. It spreads through Radic's body and he collapses, and Smith whispers to him him that they'll put him in a medical coma before the toxin reaches his brain, and then yells for help for the benefit of the surveillance camera.
Maureen approaches Will and says that she went to Jupiter 2 because she was also curious about what was going on. Will says that he thought he could connect with Scarecrow but Maureen was right. Maureen sits with her son and talks about how her mother thought Maureen was wasting time looking at the stars because they could never get there. She explains that she was going to do whatever it took to get to where they are because she believed in her heart it was what she was meant to do. Maureen says that she figures the way to get to Alpha Centauri is to start working with others, and takes Will to something she thinks he needs to see.
Ben is in his cabin looking at the scar on his side, and a technician calls to report that Maureen and Will want to access the engine room. The technician informs him that Scarecrow is back in its place and secure, and Ben tells the technician to let mother and son in.
When they enter the engine room, Will tells Scarecrow that it doesn't belong in a box. Scarecrow extends one claw out between the bars and points at a damaged section of the engine housing. Maureen and Will realize the SAR and Robot fought there, and when Will touches the Robot's claw print, he sees through the Robot's eyes to the planet below. He staggers back and tells Maureen that the Robot is on the planet.
On the planet, the Robot looks at its claw and touches its chest with it, then looks up at the sky.
Written by Gadfly on Dec 29, 2019