Watching 'Astra Lost in Space' Episode 11

By the time episode ten passed I had thought the surprises would be over, and how wrong I was. This episode is comprised of people standing and talking, coupled with Charce’s flashbacks to his childhood. We find that the story that he made up in a previous episode is not quite true. I say not quite, because the events loosely resemble those that actually occurred in his life. By manipulating the memory he made it so that it would be easier for him to lie at the time. As most good lies go, there is a hint of truth to them that makes them believable, this allows for the delivery at the time to be far more natural to the character. The confession here is a perfect example of that principle in practice.

It was Charce that was trying to kill everyone, and it was also the direct order of the king in the kingdom he grew up in. The truth that Charce exposed here was enough to hold my head in surprise. The signs were there, however as a result of them being so subtle that they were not even noticeable until they were pointed out, you find that they make total sense. Once more exemplifying why this show is a masterclass in plant and pay off.

Aries is actually a clone of the kings daughter Seira, and Charce is a clone of the king himself. Aries was raised outside of the castle's walls as a result of Seira having smuggled out the baby and her chambermaid Emma one night. The fact that Aries had different coloured eyes was not something that jumped out at me, however once it was pointed out, it was all I could see. When we see the backstory regarding Charce, we get to recontextualize why he was the way he was. Why he was having so much fun during the journey, and why he has such a deep knowledge in biology.

The dialogue and the story telling in this episode was completely riveting, so much so that I was glued to every word that the characters were speaking. The level of emotion that was expressed by the characters was hard to take as it was like you were watching a close family have a fight. Everyone on the crew was distraught, and pleading with Charce to go back to the way things were. After having spent so much time together, and experiencing the things that they had together, they truly were a family, more of a family than any of them have ever had before.

The show also goes so far as to explore something interesting through Charce. He is a great example of a character that is struggling between the concept of nature versus nurture. And considering both Charce and Aries were clones of father and daughter, this contrast is amplified that much more. Despite being blood related, Aries is the complete opposite of Charce, having been brought up in a way that was completely different. What is really interesting is that the rest of the characters recognize this as well, making sure to point out that they are all different compared to the people that they were as a result of what each of them had gone through. Despite this logic, as a result of Charce’s upbringing this is a massive shift in mentality, and something that he cannot accept, as it would be him discarding the person that he was all his life. We get to see just how much he is willing to lie to himself in order to maintain that logic within himself.

When things are reaching a boiling point in this confrontation he makes sure that the rest of the crew knew that the reason why he was not killing the others was because he wants to make sure Aries survives. He was justifying this as atoning for failing to protect Seira. The crew uses this as a starting point to help Charce realise that he is, in fact, a changed person compared to the one who first came onboard, and that his mask is the true Charce now, not the one that was raised to be a tool under the king.

Unable to accept this he reveals he has another of the teleporting devices and uses it, only it is not to kill the crew. It is so that he would be transported back to space where he would die alone. Kanata not wanting to abandon any of his crew runs towards him wanting to save him, just as he had done with every one of the crew members that was in need. Using his anti gravity boots, that were fixed in a previous episode, comes into play here as he jumps over the sphere and protects Charce. His arm is absorbed by the sphere and seeing this Charce panics shutting down the sphere.

The outcome is that Kanata has lost his right arm, and is shown to be floating in space on the former earth. Everyone rallies together so that they could stop the bleeding and make sure that Kanata would be able to live past this. It is only after this act of sacrifice that the former version of Charce, the version that was desperate for acknowledgement, is discarded and the Charce that has since developed through this journey is brought forward.

The multiple payoffs that occur within this episode is fantastic, primarily because the subtle plants throughout the show are so discreet that you do not even realize that they are, in fact, plants. This is yet another fantastic episode, where it feels as if they are paying off all the story threads that had been set up in the first six episodes of the show.

Granted the first six episodes were not bad by any means, if fact I was enjoying them quite a bit. However, the second half of the show has been plot twist after plot twist, and none of it feels out of place. The pacing of the reveals makes everything completely logical, allowing the twists to land with a lot more weight than they otherwise would.

I cannot wait to see what would happen in the final episode of the series.