Debris S01E08: Spaceman

© NBC

Finola finally finds what she's been looking for.
by Chuck Duncan

Guest Cast: Sebastian Roché

Now that's what we're talking about! Debris finally delivers on the promise of its on-going story arc, while keeping the actual debris artifacts to a minimum this week. The debris story will certainly pay off down the road but it did give us something to consider as a young woman finds herself with the ability to phase through objects -- and gruesomely, people -- and remain invisible as well. When Bryan and Finola unexpectedly encounter the woman, who escaped from a testing facility in which most of the subjects have apparently died, they find something completely shocking that no one had considered before -- the woman's powers came about because the debris was implanted under her skin. We've seen Ash and his men transport themselves after swallowing a pill, but giving people powers through an implant is a game changer.

But that is something we'll have to deal with later because the major point of this episode was Finola's father, and the question of who exactly Bryan and Finola can trust. Bryan is really beginning to question his allegiance to Maddox after being given the order to not let George Jones leave the facility alive ... and not to let Finola know they're going to kill him. This really puts Bryan in a pickle because he can't afford to lose Finola's trust. He's on thin ice with her as it is, so Maddox has really complicated his life.

On the way to the facility, Finola confides in Bryan that MI6 has an 'ambush' set up to take George from their convoy once they break him out ... which forces Bryan to admit to Finola that George isn't leaving the facility. Luckily, only one other person on his team knows of the plan, so the new plan is to make sure he believes George isn't in the facility. Bryan assures Finola that he will not let her father die. But things get more complicated when they come under fire in the facility ... but there is a silver lining as the one guy who knew of the mission is killed. Now it's easy for Bryan to lie to Maddox that the intel they had was bad and George was not in the facility.

But Finola is having a crisis as well because she knows Ferris used her sister to try to get her back to the UK, but the question is why? Ferris could have easily recalled her agent so why go through so many machinations involving Finola's sister, who managed to tell Finola what happened, to lure her back? Nothing is adding up at this point and Finola tells Bryan that they aren't going to show up at the MI6 rendezvous point either. It looks like Bryan and Finola are going rogue. Interestingly, the man awaiting them to pick up George is the same man who delivered the files to Finola, and told her that Ferris knows more than she's telling Finola. Even more intriguing is that this man seems to not be who he seems to be as he has a body on hand that looks like him, and from which he removes the face to rejuvenate the one he's currently wearing. Yikes!

But the question Finola wants to know is how her father is alive. He tells her that as far as he knows, he's been reanimated, and they went in through his eye ... which answers that particular question. Knowing that that they are tied up in a web of lies, Finola and Bryan take George to a hotel. Unfortunately, they damaged a part of his brain while re-animating him but he says he can remember the important things like how Maddox took his research away from him and that perhaps he should want Maddox dead ... but he doesn't. Knowing that Maddox wants him dead gives him something to think about, but says that everyone on Earth is going to die so it's rather irrelevant.

George tells Bryan and Finola that Influx is seeking a very dangerous and game changing piece of debris and if they get it, well, they can refer back to his statement about their deaths. He was being forced to build a device that could track the debris that emits waves that are difficult to comprehend. George fears that the Americans, Russians, Chinese or anyone could have already found the debris ... but without his device they wouldn't understand its power. But, he's done enough work to allow the government to finish his device, of that he's pretty sure. But what does the debris do? George doesn't remember.

Finola gets some alone time with George to confront him about leaving his kids alone. His work took precedence, but whatever happened in the past doesn't matter at this moment because what's going on now is an attempt to restore balance to a a world on fire, and the only ones capable of restoring this balance are the beings who created the debris. None of that matters to Finola because she's still that little girl who missed out on so much time with her father. But George says this is his chance to set things right with her and with what he's done. She's still not ready to forgive him yet. But he needs some files to build his device because he can't remember the math.

George gives Bryan a list of items he'll need to build the device, but George wants to hit the road because he doesn't feel safe. Bryan assures him that he will be safe as he'll be right outside, and Bryan sits himself in the car with eyes on George's room. George, however, slips out and goes to the office to ask for aluminum foil which he then makes into a blanket to sleep under. Finola calls Ferris and admits to her that she has George and wants to know why Maddox wants him dead. Ferris denies knowing why, and Finola lets her know that she knows of all of Ferris' lies and manipulations and how she knows Ferris would have separated her from George the minute they landed in London. She tells Ferris about the piece of debris they need to find and that she'll elaborate when she knows more but now she needs Ferris to obtain the files George needs because if she does it herself, it will set off all the red flags. Ferris says she'll see what she can do.

So, can Finola trust Ferris to play ball with her, or did she make a huge mistake in this little game she's now playing with her boss? How closely is Ferris actually working with Maddox to have known the story that George wasn't in the facility, only to learn that Finola has him? Will she spill the beans or will she play along with Finola? Hard to say at this point, but it's all made for what's probably the best episode of the season so far.