“A Pack of Cards” is episode ten of season one of Extant.
In the previous episode, “Care and Feeding”, Molly called John and explained that Yasumoto had sent someone, Dr Mason, to help her find the baby. John heads to see Yasumoto himself; he’s not happy. John came to him for help and he’s sent Molly off looking for that thing. Yasumoto says it’s Molly’s child and half human; she sees it as her child. It’s not the human half John is worried about. He thinks he and Ethan should go. Yasumoto would rather John didn’t leave. Sparks is still out there. Yes, and Yasumoto has sent John’s wife after him. Yasumoto would feel better if Ethan and John stayed. Their safety is important to him. And to Molly.
Mason is in a van with Molly; he’s saying they will bring her baby back and this time handle it differently. Mason is enthusing when they pass a police car and Molly has a flashback to the accident, seeing Marcus dead and being told by Sam in the hospital when she came around that the baby had been lost too.
Sparks is with his wife, Anya. He wants to show her something. Kern and Kryger have found Anya’s car. Kryger says that Kern used to be a cop; it’s time to act like one. They enter the sheriff’s and explain they are looking for Sparks, who is wanted for questioning in regards to a kidnapping. The officer says the sheriff is out and is expected back at any minute. Sparks and Anya arrive at the camp, and she, too, sees her daughter. The sheriff, meanwhile, has arrived back. The lifeform had fed on him and when the robot starts telling him ab out Kern and Kryger and Sparks being spotted by a drone, he shoots it. Then the other officer when she comes out.
Mason and Molly are in a diner and he’s asking about her encounter. He’s very enthusiastic. She explains what she saw and he thinks it could be a mark of an evolutionary leap forward. Molly says that almost every species that has ever existed has died out. Yet humans still care about their survival, despite those odds. Every bad thing that has happened might be because of the lifeform trying to protect itself. Military vehicles pass the diner.
Kern and Kryger are talking when the sheriff approaches them. He says he knows where Sparks is and tells them to come with him. They get in his vehicle and, after questioning them about knowing someone, claims he can hear a loose contact and pulls over to check it. He lifts the bonnet and Kern tells Kryger that the contacts are in the boot. The sheriff pulls out a shotgun, but they’re gone.
Sparks is telling Anya that they need to keep it safe. It can bring back the people who’ve been lost, not just Katie. Everyone should have this gift. Katie doesn’t want her mother to send her back to the dark place where dead people go.
John wants to take Ethan to the lab, but the lift doesn’t work and guards arrive. Yasumoto thinks it would be safer if they remained in the office. Both John and the guard reassure Ethan that the threat talked about is just a misunderstanding. John looks at the lift; it seems he may have an idea.
In the van, Molly is checking with Mason that no-one else is being sent. The birds are forming a sign again. She wants Mason to pull over. He’s reassuring her when birds hit the vehicle and force it off the road. Molly returns to the diner and borrows a phone to call John, warning him he should probably get out. Of course, it’s not that easy, though John doesn’t have a chance to explain.
Molly may think that the Offspring is only doing what it needs to do to survive. But, at its best, it’s very manipulative. At worst, it’s willing to kill others or take complete control of them. Think what humans are willing to do to survive.