Summary
The Eternaut reveals more of its antagonists in Episode 4 in a scurry of serviceable VFX and engaging action. But it still feels like we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.
Just in case you were wondering what the creature we glimpsed at the end of the previous episode was, we now have an answer. It was a bug — a big, beetle-looking alien that webs up its prey like a spider and eats its own dead. Episode 4 of The Eternaut, “The Creed”, provides a pretty clear look at these antagonists, but also suggests that they’re probably just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a full-scale alien invasion underway, after all, and you wouldn’t trust a cockroach to fly a spaceship.
It’s here that the show takes a definite sci-fi turn, which is welcome after how much it has been teased throughout. It’s also where the action kicks into gear, with Juan and eventually Tano venturing downtown, where a pile of cars blocks an underpass, the army is roaming around, and the bugs have set up shop in a network of underground tunnels. Juan’s backstory — or at least some of it — is revealed, which is perhaps just as well, since his facility with firearms is thus far the only thing keeping him and Tano alive.
In truth, Juan and Tano occupy the vast majority of the drama in this episode. Tano was initially adamant on venturing to Tigre, and was accumulating the final load of supplies to be able to do so when Inga radioed to tell him that Juan had ventured downtown alone. After finding a phone book in the trash, he was pursuing the only lead that might help him find Clara. Elena remains behind with Pablo, whose fever won’t budge, and the others, waiting to leave. Needless to say, the trip has been delayed.
The alien invasion twist comes at a bad time for Tano, since he had just landed on a credible theory that the snow was the radioactive fragments of the Van Allen radiation belt, which is generally kept in suspension by the Earth’s now-ruined magnetic field. He probably hadn’t even considered aliens until he and Juan followed the military to a checkpoint and were beset by a horde of the things. They seem easy enough to kill — Juan drops several using an assault rifle he picked up from a fallen soldier — but the bugs have numbers on their side.
Juan and Tano are led to the relative safety of a church by a group that includes Omar and an older man, Rengo, who recognises Juan. As it turns out, they both fought in the Falklands War, which explains Juan’s gun handling and PTSD. He later asks Rengo if he ever experiences any similarly strange visions, but it’s becoming pretty clear at this point that the snow has done a number on Juan’s psyche. And it seems to be worsening.
It’s this group who mention the red lights streaking across the sky, which confirms to Tano that an invasion is underway. He wants to leave to return to Ana, but the streets are crawling with bugs. When Juan identifies a working vehicle in the pile that has been used to create the checkpoint, he leads a group out to it, leaving Rengo and his wife, Rita, behind.
This stretch is where The Eternaut Episode 4 really excels, with the group becoming overwhelmed by the bugs until Rengo and Rita ring the church bells to lure them away. This is their noble self-sacrifice, and they douse the place in petrol ready for the aliens’ arrival. As Juan and the others finally pile into the truck and drive away, they see the church burning in the distance.
The back half of the show is well underway now, at least, providing us with a much clearer look at what the group is dealing with. I’m sure, though, that there are still more unpleasant sights to behold as we progress through the final two episodes, especially after the brief, eerie encounter with a much bigger bug that didn’t seem to pay them much mind. There’s more going on here than meets the eye, it seems.
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