Summary
After its too-bleak premiere, Earth Abides introduces some hope in Episode 2, just so long as you’re willing to overlook some contrivances.
The premiere of Earth Abides was, in a word, bleak. And that set my expectations for Episode 2, “The Space Between”, which to be fair isn’t exactly laugh-a-minute. Animal fans, for instance, need not apply, at least not if you don’t want to see a cow get shot and butchered and an army of rats savage a cute doggo. But the relentless misery of the opening eventually gives way to something a bit new here – a little ray of hope.
I should point out that this show is pretty terrible at depicting the passage of time. Ish has grown a beard, but we’re supposed to buy into the idea that ages have elapsed. Some title cards – Year 1, Year 2, etc. – help, but given we’re only one episode removed from the premiere, I personally felt like ten minutes had passed.
This is something to keep in mind because the entire dramatic thrust of “The Space Between” really hinges on our ability to handwave this away. You’ll recall that at the end of the premiere Ish noticed a smoking chimney in a neighboring property, and he and Lucky went out to investigate. What he finds there in Episode 2 is another survivor, Emma, and these two become so comfortable with each other so quickly that it borders on ridiculous. If you can’t get past that, you won’t get on with this episode at all.
I think it helps to remember that Earth Abides isn’t your typical apocalypse. There aren’t any zombies or – as far as I can tell, anyway – organized groups of nutcase survivors with gimmicks and specific aesthetics. Almost everyone is dead. The threat is Mother Nature and the animals that have risen up to reclaim the Earth, as we’ll see. So in that context, you can kind of understand why Ish and Emma would be so desperate for connection.
And Emma’s suited to the apocalypse. Her father was in the military, her mother was a nurse, and she spent her childhood camping and hunting. She’s much more attuned to the wilderness than Ish, a bookish geologist who doesn’t know how to live off the land. Together, they’re a complete survival unit. So Emma decides to move in with Ish five minutes after meeting him. Why not?
Ten minutes after that, she’s pregnant. Again, you just have to accept this. Earth Abides isn’t interested in the kind of conflict that would inevitably arise from two complete strangers suddenly living together in a ruined world. They develop back-and-forth patter instantly. Ish even cuts down the noose he had hung just in case it all got too much for him. They’re in it for the long haul.
Jessica Frances Duke in Earth Abides | Image via MGM+
Emma’s pregnancy adds a bit of urgency to Earth Abides Episode 2. She’s confident in her ability to have the baby and raise it, but Ish isn’t so sure. He loses himself in books to try and prepare for the birth. It says very little about their biggest issue, which turns out to be rats.
This is a good sequence. I don’t like rats very much, which helps, but it’s hard to imagine anyone watching this wouldn’t get a pang of anxiety seeing thousands of rats swarming a house, looking for sustenance. Whether they get the cow or the dog, they don’t mind (they get some of both). They’re a ravenous horde of teeth, and Ish and Emma dealing with them is the most sustained period of tension that the show has managed to conjure.
In the end, though, it’s the cats. As we enter the second year of the apocalypse, the felines have predictably adapted to the new status quo even more than the dogs. They hunt the rats into extinction, making it safe for Ish and Emma to leave, and presumably for other survivors to wander in their general direction.
It’s in these slightly more idyllic circumstances that Emma has the baby. In a quiet scene before the stressful childbirth, she confessed to Ish to having already had (and lost) two children, which explains her confidence in being able to deliver another. But she does require Ish’s help; he has to reach in and flip the baby around to ensure the head comes first. But Emma gives birth to a healthy baby girl, whom they name Heather. Two becomes three.
And, with a bit of luck, three will soon become more, as Emma graffities their address around town so that other people know to head there for safety. A shot at the end of Earth Abides Episode 2 implies someone is coming. In most apocalyptic shows, I’d be worried. But in this one, there’s a better-than-average chance that whoever turns up will fit right in.
