The Bringers of Wonder (part two)
a.k.a.
Definition
The 18th episode, in production order, of Y2.
The 42st episode overall of the series.
Second part of the two-episode
The Bringers of Wonder story.
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Summary
John survives another attempt on his life,
and convinces Maya he might be right.
She undergoes the same treatment as him,
and sees the aliens for what they are.
Transforming into one, she finds out they
intend to blow up a nearby waste dump and
feed off the energy, which will destroy Alpha.
Helena comes up with a way to snap the mind control,
but Alan and two others, setting up the nuclear trigger,
are still under alien influence,
but that is whittled down one still-affected Alphan at a time,
until the aliens are left with nothing, and fade away.
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Plot
Helena and
Maya walk into Medical Center,
and what John sees as a hideous alien backs off and leaves the room.
The two women try to convince John,
while he tries to persuade Maya with logic.
He is partially successful,
enough that she is willing to try the cerebral complex.
Helena, with enough doubt growing too, applies it.
When Maya re-awakens, she sees the same aliens John does.
Meanwhile, the pilot ship lands,
those aboard thinking they are on
Earth,
but are actually at nuclear waste domes on the Moon.
John convinces Maya to
transform into an alien,
and she finds out they wish to force Alan and the
nuclear physicists to blow up the nearby dumps,
for the huge dose of radiation the aliens,
who are starving, need to survive.
This will destroy the Alphans.
John tries to get to an Eagle,
but is intercepted and stunned by Tony,
who returns him to Medical Center, leaving behind a guard.
Maya stuns the guard.
John awakens, and he and Helena discuss
how to quickly get the Alphans to see the danger.
White noise started from Command Center is the answer,
and it brings everyone out of the psychic influence,
to their horror at what they now see around them.
The aliens vanish from the base,
but now all are at the waste dump (Area B7),
concentrating on Carter's group.
John, Tony, and Maya fly in
Eagle 1
to intercept Carter and Ehrlich,
who are on their way to return a nuclear trigger to
Bartlett,
while Helena remains on Alpha to control things there.
Multiple steps by the whole command/officer team
whittle down the amount of control the
aliens have, the final confrontation being between
John and Alan, the former prevailing,
dooming the aliens,
who have some parting words (see Quotes)
before they and their ship disappear.
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Details
- Maya is eventually semi-convinced by logic on three main factors,
which either John suggests to her and/or she starts wondering about:
everyone being friends/family of Alphans;
details of Kander's death; and the likely
time dilation problem.
- Carter, Ehrlich, and Bartlett think they have
landed in the New York City area,
have met up with their girlfriends or family,
have gone to a hotel or are at home,
are driving around in the woods in a dune buggy, etc.
All are images masking their real location
and what they are really doing.
- Maya stuns the guard using a gun she retrieves from a drawer
in Medical Center.
Speculation: It is evidently there as a precaution,
perhaps after earlier incidents in Medical Center,
and is perhaps only known to
officers;
though why it is not remembered by Tony is not clear
(slipping his mind while under alien influence,
perhaps, especially since the alien's influence
is shown as limited, and may leave odd gaps?).
- Applying the brain complex to everyone on Alpha would take too long,
but Helena thinks a sonic blast of white noise
could block the pathways in the brain the aliens are using.
This is a medical technique,
in the form of a data card,
but which in this case must be started from Command Center.
- As John, Helena, and Maya advance towards CC
with the white noise card,
Helena and Maya are in the lead,
the latter with a stun gun.
A guard appears behind them,
but Koenig appears behind him and stuns the guard,
whose stun gun is found to be set on kill.
- After Koenig is lowered to intercept the moonbuggy
(which Carter and Ehrlich see as a dune buggy
which is also carrying their girlfriends),
there is a fight, while Maya is lowered and then
transforms
into a vacuum-tolerating larren.
Carter escapes on the moonbuggy with the trigger
while Maya tends to Ehrlich, whom she/larren injured.
John pursues the moonbuggy on foot to the waste dome,
which has been sealed.
He uses the moonbuggy to break through,
which takes time.
- Helena eventually has to knock out everyone else on Alpha,
using anaesthetic^ "contact gas,"
to block the aliens from obtaining psychic energy from
the 300 there.
- Inside a waste dome, Koenig has to fight Bartlett.
After Helena knocks out the rest of the Alphans on base,
the aliens lose most control over Bartlett,
but force him to the sidelines while concentrating
their remaining mental energy on Carter.
John and Alan fights, until the former knocks out the latter
and removes the atomic trigger from the core, dooming the aliens.
- The aliens have been using and extrapolating from happy memories,
as a means of manipulation, yet also as the sole
form of mercy they are intending to show the Alphans,
though they are like genius vultures in every other way.
See also Quotes below.
Quotes
- Maya, after returning from a
metamorphic masquerading as an alien
(and having trouble reverting from its form):
"Don't ever ask me to do that again.
They have the minds of geniuses
and the instincts of vultures."
- Alien (much later, after Koenig prevails):
"You are a truly primitive organism, Commander.
We could have given you an eternity of
happiness in an instant of time.
Now your life will be what the life of
your species has always been...
cruel and futile."
- Koenig, in reply:
"It's better to live as your own man than
as a fool in someone else's dream."
See Also