Summary
The Eternaut builds palpable tension in Episode 2, seeding the show with more clues about its wider mysteries amongst more pressing dangers.
If the first episode of The Eternaut was about the slow, creeping paranoia of questions without answers, Episode 2 is about how that paranoia spills out into violence and chaos at a moment’s notice. “Step Into the Sun” divides its perspectives more evenly than in the premiere, but it also provides much more tension while sustaining the same intrigue. The culmination is a hair-raising chase through an apartment building and some last-minute swerves that really help the narrative along.
Similarly to the premiere, there’s a brief and rather vague cold open depicting several citizens gathering to complain about the power cuts and electrical fires when a vehicle suddenly plunges through the wall. For now, I’m not sure whether these are just varied tasters of how the chaos began and how it affected different people, or whether they’re all building to later developments. We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, the core of “Step Into the Sun” branches into two distinct paths. In one, Juan wanders through the snowy streets of Buenos Aires on his way to Elena and Clara’s apartment building, and in the other, the survivors he left behind take account of their circumstances and try to figure out how to proceed. Somewhat unexpectedly, these two threads intermingle at the very end of Episode 3, which should give The Eternaut a more coherent focus going forward.
We’ll start with the group back at the house. Tano and Lucas begin boarding the windows and rationing the food and water while Inga and Omar drink and bond a little, both feeling like outsiders within the group. It seems like a dividing line has been drawn, and tensions are definitely beginning to mount, but I was once again expecting a slow-burning chamber piece here that never comes. Instead, Tano, who is planning to go out scavenging with a homemade gas mask, discovers that the headlamp on Inga’s bike still works despite the power cut, which gives him an idea.
We cut away at this point, and to be honest, my electrical knowledge is limited, so I’m not entirely sure what his profound idea was here. It’s something to do with old machines and circuits not being susceptible to the blackout. He proves his point with a record player and later by turning up to rescue Juan in the station wagon (more on this below). It’s also worth noting that Inga makes a point of mentioning that she was in the military in her country. I’m sure that’ll come up again down the line.
Anyway, Juan. His trip through the city streets is eventful, to say the least. They’re mostly deserted — but not entirely. Repetitive whistling heralds the appearance of a strange figure who also seems to be wearing a gas mask, but they don’t interact. A little later, Juan comes across a train packed with people stuffed like sardines into one of the carriages. But he can’t do anything for them beyond throwing them a bottle of water. They can barely understand him through his mask. But he has more pressing matters to attend to.
When Juan reaches Elena and Clara’s apartment building, that’s where The Eternaut Episode 2 takes an exciting turn. The building is packed with a snapshot of humanity all responding to the crisis in different ways — some thuggish types seem to be looting, many are praying in a candelight vigil, and a dead woman floats in an overflowing bath, having fatally opened her wrists (and flooded half the building.) But Juan is only interested in Elena and Clara. He only finds the former.
Elena tells Juan that Clara went out the previous night with friends. She had sent Juan details, including the address, but he was too busy playing cards to check his phone. The friend’s name was Luna Stefano. Juan plans to visit the local school to find details of the family and leave Elena behind in the apartment. But that plan backfires when the residents all confront Juan for information about how he made it there, and why he was able to survive the snow that had settled on the back of his hand. He claims it loses its power once it has fallen from the sky. They wonder if he’s immune. The conversation turns violent when Juan pulls a gun from his bag and pistol-whips his way through the crowd.
Juan and Elena are forced to take shelter in one of the apartments, but it’s imperative that one of them gets out to head for the school. Juan gives Elena his gas mask and suits her up in some plastic and sends her on her way. He remains behind. But rather than surrender to the men chasing him, he fashions a makeshift mask out of leftover plastic and breaks one of the windows, flooding the room with snow. He jumps out of the window, but when he lands he collapses, the plastic sucking taut to his face with each breath. Is it enough?
The implication is that it isn’t, since Juan has some kind of weird prophetic dream, and I’ve seen enough shows like this to know that usually denotes the early stages of some kind of infection. But the good news is that Juan wakes up in the back of the station wagon with Tano and the others. They’re all dressed in firefighter uniforms and managed to locate him through the gunshots. With the gang back together, the next stop will be the school. But has Juan already been too exposed?
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