“Reawakening” is episode twenty-one of season two of Mutant X.
There’s a freighter in the ice and a team of people digging in an ice cave. The woman in charge tells them to slow down; the cave has been untouched for half a million years and they don’t know what they might find. She wants to prove the Protocanth exists. The captain of the freighter contacts the woman, Dr Koby, and tells her there’s a storm coming; they need to get back immediately. She’s ignoring this until another crewman yells at her. Koby gives a wall one last hit with an ice pick, and uncovers something behind.
Adam gets a video message from Koby. She tells him she found it, in the Arctic Circle. Just like her father said. A fully formed specimen. Koby is showing Adam it and he’s excited. There’s a humanoid figure under the ice. Emma seems more concerned than excited. She says something’s wrong, very wrong. Then faints.
They’re going to head there in the Double Helix. Adam asks Jesse how the plane is. Fine; for going everywhere but where they’re going. Adam says it will be fine. Jesse thinks that will be a great comfort when they crash. On the Helix, Adam says the Protocanth is a lost species, thought to be the ultimate predator. Some scientists theorise it might be related to man. Outside, it’s very cold, but Adam says back then it was like the tropics (which does not seem remotely accurate for the Arctic Circle).
The freighter is ahead and the Helix lurches as they approach. The landing gear didn’t deploy. Jesse fixes it and they land on the deck. Koby tells Adam they have extricated the specimen in an ice block and are thawing it. They head inside and she tells them not to worry about the sound of ice closing in around the ship. You get used to it. The Protocanth is defrosting; there’s been virtually no decomposition. Brennan says it’s been flash frozen. Essentially, accurate. Emma looks and decides she has to leave. Adam takes a sample and then touches it, which stings. He agrees Koby has found the Protocanth, something her father died looking for.
The freighter is leaving when Jesse and Shalimar arrive on the bridge. The captain doesn’t like the Protocanth and says it’s bad luck. There have been problems and now they can’t get out of the ice. If they run into trouble, they’re on their own. Naturally, the engine then breaks. When Jesse and Shalimar leave, the captain says their luck is about to change.
Adam and Koby are looking at the sample; it looks like living tissue and they’re trying to work out why it’s so intact. Emma is outside and says to Brennan she got a powerful vibe from the Protocanth. Yes, she knows how it sounds. Meanwhile, the captain and one of his crew are with the fully thawed Protocanth. The captain wants to throw it overboard. Before this can be done, the Protocanth revives and grabs the captain’s head. Outside, Emma says it’s alive.
Adam, Koby and Shalimar find the Protocanth is missing. Shalimar hears a noise and the other crewman is there with a gun. They need to get out of there. Emma takes the gun from him and the crewman says the creature will kill them all, just like it did the captain. Koby and Adam return; Koby doesn’t believe the Protocanth could have woken. Adam will feel better when they find the captain. Or maybe not; Emma finds the, very dead, remains of the captain.
Koby examines the captain’s remains; there’s no liquid left. Adam asks why and Emma says it was feeding. It kills because it’s hungry and it’s getting stronger. They won’t survive unless they get off the ship. Meanwhile, the Protocanth sprays something and causes the ship’s power to fluctuate. The rest of the crew are with Jesse in the galley.
So, they’re trapped onboard a ship with a monster roaming it. That’s a plot that’s been seen before, so, sooner or later, more people are going to die.