There are a lot of answers crammed into Pandora Season 2 Episode 8 and, at the same time, some great potential is wasted. Again.
While I’m grateful for the backstory on Bloom’s existence, an explanation of Eve’s plan, and the reappearance of both Tierney and Osborn, there are still so many strange little inclusions that I wonder how much of the original script got scrapped in the interests of expediency.
There’s also the spotlighted reversal of Zazie and Jett’s roles by the end, with her being the betrayer seeking absolution and him the trusted team member.
Despite the heinousness of Jett’s previous transgression, I can’t help but feel that Zazie’s child-snatching (not to mention the insemination itself) is an even greater violation and it seems unlikely (but what do I know) that she’d just be forgiven.
To give canon its due, there is precedent for Bloom’s memory-sharing with previous Pandoras.
Jax experienced the memories of earlier Pandoras on Pandora Season 1 Episode 7 where the Pandora of the moment is a spy-assassin.
In fact, perhaps the cleverest element of this offering is the fact that Zazie’s world is the Earth where Jax’s predecessor didn’t kill Nelson Fisk (or whoever he was in that universe), and he convinced the Earth to buy into his carbon-scrubber scheme instead of migrating off-world until the Earth could heal itself.
What bends my brain is that Bloom apparently also taps into the memories of the test-tube cloned Pandoras that died before Zazie shot Jax up with an embryo cocktail.
How many people have you hurt on your quest not to hurt anyone, Zazie?
Jett
The wasted potential here is that the Westworld-like routine that starts with Bloom waking up in Jax’s dorm room could have led to a reveal where each awakening was a new clone, the previous Bloom having become unstable or damaged/killed by her curious nature.
It would’ve tread dangerously close to ripping off the HBO show’s concept but it would’ve made more sense than the idea that Bloom could have an adventure with Ralen, get zapped into unconsciousness, and wake up with no memory or trauma of that happening.
I don’t know why I continue to look for logic in this show but does time move differently on Zazie’s Earth?
Because Bloom’s apparently had multiple days, maybe weeks, in her isolation campus while, on — let’s call it — “Earth Prime”, Jax has only just discovered her baby’s gone.
It would actually make sense (despite never being explained) because Eve’s only been running around for about a year and she and Tierney have only had portal tech for a few months.
So, assuming Zazie was rescued from the certain death of the biotoxin released into her planet’s atmosphere just before the school year started on Earth Prime, her universe’s accelerated time means that the biotoxin has dissipated to safe levels and the plant life has had time to overgrow the buildings.
Tierney: We were searching for another universe to call humanity’s home if ours was destroyed.
Jett: What, like Noah’s Ark?
Tierney: Something like that. But we couldn’t get back home. Traveling between universes can be a bitch.
And that brings us to the portals that are now able to bridge dimensions. (And time too if the little scene of Bloom spying on Jax and Atria means what I think it means.)
So we’ve got an incredibly naive and immature Pandora with the ability to shoot lightning out of her hands, open portals willy-nilly, and apparently glows when she’s happy, running around without a keeper or guidance.
Meanwhile, the Jax who’s supposed to unite the five races of the galaxy (despite not having made contact with the Chronoms yet) is under arrest for meeting with Osborn.
Oh yeah, and she’s completely obsessed with finding her missing baby (who is now a fully-grown and identical copy of herself) so saving the galaxy is kind of low priority, it seems.
Regarding Osborn’s reappearance and subsequent arrest, how rusty are Shral’s spy skills, seriously? If he’d been followed for days and hadn’t noticed, I’m downgrading his abilities in my books by several degrees of magnitude.
How about I interrogate the pretty girl and you walk around alone for a change?
Jett
Meanwhile, Jett’s actually climbed the ranks on points of loyalty, priorities, and straight-up BS spotting.
I mean, he called the “let’s separate and you go wander the empty campus while I make time with my amnesiac girlfriend” plan of Xander’s the crap idea it was, right? Not that it did him much good.
What I don’t get is, if he’s been on the up-and-up all season, what was he doing under Zazie’s desk on Pandora Season 2 Episode 1?
Tierney and Eve obviously don’t see eye to eye on plans for the universe. How Tierney’s dad, Harlan, factors into this remains to be seen.
With Shral, Jax, and Osborn, arrested, one wonders how closely Lucas is watching Captain Duvall. After all, he was Osborn’s protege and Jax’s lover-ahem-teaching-assistant.
Oh, and that reminds me. What was with his reaction to news of Jax’s pregnancy?
Xander: Who’s the father?
Shral: Her pregnancy appears to be the result of parthenogenesis, the spontaneous development of a diploid gamete cell into a fetus. Immaculate conception, Captain Duvall. Please, read a book on occasion while you’re galloping across the cosmos.
Considering they’d been in each other’s company constantly — far more than necessary, if you ask me — until he took off for Las Venus, he’s got a lot of nerve asking about the baby’s parentage.
And, keeping in mind that Jax wasn’t the one pounding back fermented whatchamacallit with Councillor Jennifer on Clayton’s World, I’m pretty insulted that the writers would even imply her infidelity.
Especially since their ultimate goal appears to supply a Jax for every household.
Zazie: Who wins?
Bloom: Adam wins, seven to three. But why does the man always have to win? He’s such a scum weasel.
Computer: Correct! Do not recognize expression ‘scum weasel’
In any case, when you watch Pandora online, consider the fact that Bloom is actually far more capable of saving the galaxy at this point than Jax.
Also, when is that shell necklace going to do something useful?
And where’s the lost tribe member who was ordered to help Jax save the galaxy?
Two episodes to go and things really aren’t looking good for the galaxy.
How do you see this going? Are you even watching?
Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.