Asalah
Episode 11 of Debris begins with a group walking through the woods. With the area quarantined and our officers wearing hazmat suits, they uncover a strange reading coming from a woman sitting on the grass. As we later find out, her name is Mariel Caldwell and a shimmer shrouds her. The scientist approaches, as Mariel repeats Bryan’s name. Meanwhile, Finola rings her Father and is exasperated when she learns he’s off on the road heading for a set of antennas. He once again asks for the files, which Finola promises to bring him asap. Before that though, Finola and Bryan arrive at another debris site. Inevitably, this brings our pair to the site, who rock up in hazmat suits themselves. Bryan approaches as the girl whispers details surrounding his time in Afghanistan. Bringing her back to the lab, Bryan tries in vain to learn more from her . Only, she repeats important conversations from his life; fragments of important moments linking back to Afghanistan. And then he’s whisked off to the dry, choked deserts, complete with a really awful fake beard. As he relives moments in Surobi, Finola is forced to try and save her partner. In Afghanistan, Bryan continues on his mission but finds a young woman called Asalah. Bryan promises that her grandfather will be safe and that he’ll find the man. As the soldiers all begin talking among themselves, Muriel broadcasts the exact details of their conversation as it happens in the dream sequence to those outside. Finola believes this could well be linked back to when Bryan was cloned in Pennsylvania. In essence, we could be looking at a hive mind situation, with Bryan’s memories “backed up” in a network of debris. Back in Afghanistan, Asalah and Bryan grow closer together. On the eve of an important mission, Bryan tells Asalah to leave and take her grandfather to safety as well. As the fighting gets underway, Bryan suddenly stands up in the middle of everything and looks down at the dead body of Asalah – she’s been shot. She was killed in the ensuing skirmish, leaving Bryan in a bit of a mess. After laying her down, Bryan turns around and finds Muriel sitting on her chair in his vision. He’s confused and unsure why he was forced to relive this memory again. As he steps up to her, he’s suddenly whisked out of this vision. He snaps out of his unconscious state and bolts upright. In doing so, he learns that Muriel has died. Bryan reflects back on his time with Finola in the aftermath of all this. With a picture of Asalah, Bryan admits that he carries this with him as a reminder of what it’s like to invest in something he could lose. Stuffing the picture in his pocket, Finola and Bryan reflect on the true nature of the debris. They’re both in agreement – the debris and humanity are both studying and learning from one another. For what reason the debris is doing this however, remains to be seen. It does seem to be taking a big interest in Bryan though. As the episode closes out, we cut to Arizona where an Indian man lays out on a mat and stares at the sunset.
The Episode Review
After a really well written two-part episode, Debris slows down slightly for a more reflective chapter. Focusing on Bryan, we see more of his time in Afghanistan, sporting a really awful beard. I mean, that may be Bryan’s real facial hair but it definitely looks fake. Although we don’t get any answers this week, one thing does become clear. The debris is a sort of hive mind and seems to be learning from us. Could it be that all these different, unexplained phenomena are a way of learning about the good and bad elements of humanity? It could also be a test of sorts, to see what the human body is capable of. Either way, the hive mind for the debris pieces seems to be honing in on Bryan. But why? Why Bryan specifically? Apart from the obvious answer (he’s the protagonist), it seems like he’s the bridge between the debris and Earth. Either way though, Debris is definitely one of NBC’s brighter jewels on the broadcast roster and it’ll be interesting to see what answers (if any) we receive this season.
