“Ascension” is episode thirteen of season one of Extant and the season finale.
Molly heads to see Ethan to apologise for yelling at him in the previous episode, “Before the Blood”, when the Offspring arrived at their house. Ethan says he was just trying to protect her. Molly understands, but the Offspring just wanted to talk. Ethan wants to know why she cares so much. Because the Offspring is her child. Ethan thought he was. Molly says he is, but Ethan thinks it’s different with him.
Molly talks to John, who wants to take Ethan back to the lab to find out what Odin did to him; Julie having discovered that Odin was not Odin’s real name, that he was opposed to technology – and that he had recorded a video claiming that Ethan blew up Humanichs. Molly is heading up to the Seraphim.
Jackson starts a briefing. Molly will try to redirect the Seraphim first. They aren’t sure if Katie and Sean are alive. The extreme measure is to blow the station up. Molly is going to take a prototype suit to hopefully stop her from being affected by the spores, as well as using the algorithm designed to see them.
Molly docks with the Seraphim. Ben says there’s no answer from Sean or Katie. Molly enters and finds Sean where Katie locked him. She first checks to be sure it is him. Sean explains that Katie has been dead for a while; something ripped its way out of her. Whatever is walking around is not Katie. It also sabotaged the comms. Sean wants to just go but Molly explains they can’t. The Seraphim can’t be allowed to just burn up because of the spores. They will first try to fix the comms. If that works, ground control will be able to guide them. If it doesn’t, they can use the fuel reserves to alter course. If they can’t do that, they blow the station up.
At the lab, Julie shows Odin’s video to Charlie and John. John wonders if the bomb has actually been planted yet. The other two are sure that it has. John wants to open Ethan up; Charlie wants to call the bomb squad. John does not, because they’d just blow Ethan up in a controlled explosion. No-one else looks at him like they do. When he went missing on the island, the sheriff acted as if he’d lost a toy. John is going in. They can go or call the police if they want.
Ethan doesn’t want to be shut down, because Odin told him that they would never turn him back on again. He’s like Odin and they have to stick together. Ethan takes out the phone Odin said to use to call him if he thought he was going to be shut down. The others realise that it’s probably the detonator. John fortunately manages to convince Ethan to hand it over, and promises to wake him up again.
Molly has got the spare module for the comms from the shed. Which is filled with spores. Not-Katie has followed her in there and won’t let her out. Molly manages to get out anyway, but lost a glove in the struggle. She’s got spores around her hand.
Not-Katie tries to convince Sean that she’s actually Molly. The Offspring has got into the ISEA, and they have to evacuate and put the place into lockdown. With the Offspring inside, they can’t stay as they can’t trust what they’ll do. Plan A is out of the window. Molly will have to go to Plan B. Plan B quickly follows. The Offspring is loose, Seraphim is heading to Earth and Ethan has a bomb inside him. Lots of problems.