CBS Aired Two Salvation Episodes and Really Put the Show Into Orbit!

Darius, Grace, Harris and Claire

Oh what a tangled web Salvation is weaving with these relationships!  Despite that moment in “The Human Strain” where Grace’s secret boyfriend/public boss Harris Edwards (Ian Anthony Dale) takes Grace’s side in championing Darius these two are still at odds about him.  Meanwhile Claire Rayburn (Erica Luttrell) – an advisor to The President, and the woman who was sleeping with Harris when he was married – isn’t happy with Darius.  In fact she seems to take great pleasure in raking his reputation over the coals.

It’s difficult to tell how much of Claire’s wrath is about what Darius has done and how much of it is about Grace being on Darius’s side.  This is a good thing.  You know she doesn’t like Grace and has her suspicions about Grace and Harris.  At the same time the woman puts the “H” in  “hawk.”  The fact that Darius “burned through a billion dollars” is a valid one.  Plus, we’ve seen that Claire is quick to make decisions – no matter how brutal.

Nevertheless,  Claire tasking Grace with getting back the billion dollars from Darius, or else be taken off the taskforce, seems more personally motivated.  Grace is upset about this because she sees Darius as their only hope for survival.  Plus Harris said nothing when Claire was putting all the blame onto Grace.  She and Harris have a fight about this – but it all comes back to Darius himself, not the work he’s doing.

Grace: You never liked him.

Harris: Well, maybe you like him too much.

The tensions and subtexts in this scene are so well played by Finnigan and Dale!  It’s actually my favorite scene to date for Salvation.  Why?  Because it’s the first time it’s felt like this is more than a relationship of convenience.  These are two people that have been together for a while – despite their known differences and the problems involved with him being her boss.  You can see what they appreciate about the other.  When Grace says he’s one of “Barbarians at the gate” – he doesn’t take offense. Instead he tells her the bottom-line truth.

Get me proof that the EM drive has a shot.  I can’t sell it in that room anymore without proof.

Understanding that theirs is a connection with real substance is going to make things more complicated over time – which is good.  The easy way to deal with a relationship triangle is to make one pairing the obvious choice.  It’s much harder to create a triangle where you can see reasons for either pairing.   Ironically, it’s watching these two fight about Darius that truly illuminates they actually love each other.  Unfortunately love isn’t always enough….

Harris’s Plan B

Harris has told Grace he’ll supports her if  Darius can prove the EM drive works.  What she doesn’t know is he’s already set a plan in motion to identify satellites of other countries that can be crashed into Sampson.  Furthermore, his plan is to approach these countries under false pretenses and to “make it look like an accident.”

Can we talk about having no scruples?  This plan brings up the hardest part about Salvation: the US  government has been keeping this asteroid issue a secret!   While not making it public makes sense, it is unlikely that the US would be the only country to find the thing.  More importantly, it seems unlikely that in the face of global extinction the government wouldn’t have tapped every brilliant mind across the globe to deal with it.

However, the scene with the reporter makes me think there’s something else going on, something that has the U.S. keeping silent.  I’m willing to see if there’s a reason the government has been going it alone.  Unfortunately, whatever it is will likely make the government come off even worse.  It kind of reminds me of the ideas of government in The X-files.

Harris’s plan ‘B’ ends up failing because they soon discover that  someone has hacked any satellite that could have been used and crashed them into Jupiter.  Given what we know about Professor Croft and the Russians, it’s a fair assumption it was them.

More About Darius

Grace  (and the audience)  get’s to learn a few things about Darius’s past in this episode – and it’s not  only about his history.  The facts that come out are that Lazlo and  his sister Teresa, aka “Tess,” were childhood friends of Darius.  So, Darius’s faith that Lazlo didn’t betray him and was murdered-  says a whole lot about Darius’s sense loyalty.  His proving it to Grace shows her he’s a good  judge of character, even in the face of evidence that a person is bad news.  When Grace sees him with Tess she sees a man able to show tenderness to a women he hasn’t seen in 15 years.   It’s obvious to Grace that he loves her – but whatever happened, he also knows he can never have her.   His heartbreak is palpable.

On top of all of that, once Darius realizes that the professor killed Lazlo and took the EM drive he doesn’t shy away from owning his error in not vetting Professor Croft.  Grace is witness to this as well.  All of this makes it easy for her to back Darius at the Pentagon.

The Salvation Double-Header Wrap Up

At the Pentagon, Harris ends up backing Grace about Darius at a crucial moment.  Darius is able to trace the SUV  he sent Croft and Liam off in because his company made the onboard computer system   He needs to access a Pentagon  computer to do it.  Yet Grace takes off with Darius right afterwards – when he asks “if she’s coming.”  This doesn’t thrill Harris – and it gets a raised eyebrow from Claire.

Darius, Grace, and the government got to where Liam was, but were too late.  Precious seconds are lost when the government mistake Liam for a bad guy because he had a gun.  He’s wrecked as he collapses in Grace’s arms after explaining the professor was working for the Russians and that they took the EM drive.

Back at the Pentagon, Claire and Harris have gotten more bad news.  The plane has managed to avoid radar and gotten away.  As they discuss the dire reality, Harris says they’ll have to throw nukes at Sampson when it gets close enough and hope for the best.

Claire:  By then everyone will know. It will be chaos, anarchy.

Harris: We’ll have to inform POTUS, to prepare for the worst.

Claire:  Harris? Do you think Atlas is responsible for all of this?

What!? Miss, has-no-problem-using-torture-on-US-citizens know about Atlas?

Even worse is the anguished pause Harris takes before saying, “let’s hope not.”  In other words, quite possibly yes.

Does Darius have anything to do with Atlas?  He says he’s never heard of it, but then there’s that odd rock.  Plus…we really don’t know what sparked Darius to start building Salvation in the first place.

Darius tells Grace that he believes people will end up killing each other – which is what Claire said also….  Was his solution to Atlas the building of Salvation?

The last scene is Liam going home to Gillian – and lying about where he’s been.  In flashback we see him cradling a seemingly dead Professor Croft.  He has the memories of the night in his head when Gillian complains about not being able to reach him.

Gillian: I thought you were dead.

Liam:   I’m not dead.

No, he’s not dead – but he’s different.   He’s not the sweet and goofy MIT student she met and their innocent romance is going to get complicated fast.  Likewise, with these two Salvation episodes, the show have changed – for the better.   In the lexicon of TV sci-fi  Salvation now seems more like Fringe – not another Under the Dome.   Hopefully Salvation will catch on enough to get it another season to fully unpack whatever they’ve got to reveal.