Summary
“All That We Have Found” raised more questions than answers and will likely prove divisive, but it seems a fitting way to cap off a flawed but undeniably interesting show.
This recap of Nightflyers Season 1 Episode 10, “All That We Have Found”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
You might assume that things can’t get any worse for the ill-fated crew of the Nightflyer, but that would make you an idiot. Since shit hit the fan in the penultimate episode, allow us to briefly take account of just how bad we find things in the season finale, “All That We Have Found”.
Dr. Agatha Matheson (Gretchen Mol) is dead. Rowan (Angus Sampson), who chased her with an axe and then tried to hack up the ship’s captain, has been contained in his quarters, free to go completely nuts in isolation. Captain Roy Eris (David Ajala) is in several pieces as a result of that attack, and his paramour, Melantha (Jodie Turner-Smith), is on the one hand devastated over his fate but on the other still furious that he lied about being a sneaky robot man. The consciousness of Cynthia (Josette Simon) is still piloting the body of Lommie (Maya Eshet) around and convincing Auggie (Brian F. O’Byrne) to act against the best interests of the crew. And to make matters worse, the Volcryn are chilling outside.
Phew. Things aren’t looking too hot.
Naturally, Karl (Eoin Macken) is still determined to get chatty with the aliens, and his only means of doing so is Thale (Sam Strike), who is in better shape now that Agatha isn’t hogging all the psychic Volcryn energy. But reaching out to them properly requires the expertise of Rowan, whom Thale naturally isn’t happy with – he even tries to telepathically crush his head, just to let him know what time it is, but the mission must come first. I, for one, am really struggling to buy into the idea that the Volcryn’s energy was just amplifying everyone’s emotions and all sins can be immediately forgiven, and there’s still another implausible reluctant team-up to come in “All That We Have Found”, but I’m mostly willing to overlook it just to properly enjoy Nightflyers’ willingness to be completely bananas.
And there’s more nuttiness to come, believe me. Captain Eris briefly awakens to communicate with Malantha, who digs out one of his robo-eyes to bypass the retinal scanner of the door next to his bed. In the weird room of circuits and other electronics she finds a vat containing a hideous, withered humanoid hooked up to tubes – and it has Roy’s face. Well, after the hologram and the robot, I suppose this is form number three; the true identity of Cynthia’s son, whom she created to be the fleshy physical vessel for her maniacal will, as she explains when she arrives on the scene, still puppeteering Lommie’s body. And as though this wasn’t horrific enough, she also takes great pleasure in revealing that Melantha’s advanced genetic makeup is hers – she and Roy, who have been having sex for months, are siblings. George is at it again!
Cynthia’s plan is to sabotage the Nightflyer and escape, and for help with that she enlists the ever-eager Auggie, who stomps out Murphy (Phillip Rhys) when he discovers what he’s up to. With the ship rigged Cynthia attempts to make her escape, alone, but is thwarted by Karl, who is able to escape in the one-man pod and head straight towards the Volcryn. But more on him later.
In the meantime, the ship’s fucked. The engines are failing, and Auggie, having discovered that Cynthia never had any intention of taking him with her, has ordered Lommie to be sedated. Time for unlikely last-minute team-up number two! Auggie explains that his sabotage can’t be reversed – not from the outside, anyway. Lommie can do the reset from within the ship’s systems, but she’s otherwise engaged, which means that Thale (once again!) needs to reach her telepathically. He’s able to do so, and she insists on helping even if it kills her, which I’m pretty sure it does. With the ship’s systems all shutting down and the crew about to be exposed to a complete loss of heat and oxygen, the crew of the Nightflyer huddle together under thermal blankets and wait for the shutdown.
That’s… the last we see of them. So, let’s check in on Karl, who is barrelling towards the Volcryn. As he nears, he begins to experience visions of his wife and daughter. Memories? Hallucinations? It could be either – or, as “All That We Have Found” reveals in its final moments, perhaps neither. When we cut back to the escape pod, Karl isn’t there.
And so ends a flawed but nonetheless rather fascinating show, one that ended, as speculative sci-fi tends to, with more questions than answers. The ending will surely prove divisive, but it certainly didn’t prove uninteresting. Let me know what you think happened in the comments. Maybe together we’ll work it all out.
Or, you know. Maybe not.