The Ark season 2

 I didn't expect it, but The Ark got a second season so we took a look of course.

You see, this isn't a bad show, it is just, well, normal sci-fi that has been done so many times before, either better or worse.

It picks up right where we left, with our heroes trapped on the bridge of the damaged Ark 1, after the explosion of Proxima B.  A shuttle from Ark 15 is on the way to render aid though.  Maddox wants to leave to a new destination, Trappist 1, leaving behind the stranded crew of the damaged Ark 1 as they can't support them on their rations.  Garnet convinces Maddox to have them try their FTL engine, but on the wrecked Ark 1 casualties have fallen, like Cat, much to the dismay of William Trust.

A heap of the crew of Ark 15 want to join Ark 1 instead, not wanting to live under the joke of Maddox anymore, and this includes the implant driven killing machine Kelly, Maddox's daughter, who is put on trial for her earlier crimes.  But the new medical officer, Dr Marsh, reveals things about her program, saving her from being spaced, and Marsh removing the bomb embedded in her brain.  

As the crew go on with their journey, a slow bonding and healing needs to take place between both the Ark 1 crew and the new arrivals of Ark 15.  But the vessel drops out of FTL to early, clearly lost as there are no stars, as Brice disappeared and Cat, now called Catherine, is back.  It turns out they are both taking the same space of alternative reality Ark 1's, and need to find a way to connect each other to be able to get going again and out of the anomaly.

 

Needing spares after the events, they travel back to the derelict Ark 3, but find it turned into a museum of death by Eva's crazed brother, which also teaches us she was a member of the Eastern Federation.   Trust, with information gained from his alternate reality Cat, is working on ways to make Kelly control her own implants and become a safer person as such to have around.  But when her brother wants to return to Ark 3, he is caught and killed in a debris field.  Lane later discovers he is a clone when they follow a distress call from Ark 8.  They find the crashed wreckage, and a complement of clone generation 3 survivors, all prone to go insane, but also Ian, a clone looking exactly like Lane.  It turns out he is indeed also one, and needs to come to terms with this.  The other clones try to hijack the shuttle, but the crew escapes and before any rescues of "okay" clones can be undertaken a massive explosion takes them all out on the surface.

 

Eva is discovered as an EF agent, but claims she has proven her loyalty enough.  A massive EF vessel appears though, and a truce is formed between both sides eventually, but a disgruntled second officer of the EF vessel stabs Lane and his captain.  Knowing that only the captain has any chance, Lane sacrifices himself as an organ donor, the purpose he was made for, and cement the fate of a better world and cooperation between both vessels.   Later on garnet and Ian are cuaght in a surge of electric power, living their lives in a coma dream and falling in love with each other.  They are brought back, but this makes it hard to talk about the feelings they harbour to each other.

 

 

But when they finally reach Trappist 1, it turns out Maddox, who arrived earlier, uses implants to enslave the entire population under the guise of preventing inner war between the Ark's.  They overcome her devices, and Kelly kills her mother in a fight, as Felix is reunited with his young daughter.  Garnet decides not to stay however, taking Ark 1 with a crew of volunteers to look for the still missing Ark's, splitting the crew in two.  Angus, Kabir, Felix and Trust stay on the planet, where Angus discovers a plate of strange writing in the fields.  Ark 1 makes contact with colonists on Ross 128B but are warned not to come...

And so the second season ends, with an open ending and I'm still curious if a third will also be made in the future.  As I said, it is just good fun without being over the top or super memorable, but enjoyment is a big thing after all.