Never Gonna Give You Up

**Never Gonna Give You Up** is the seventh episode of the second season of *Another Life*, and the seventeenth episode of the series overall. It was released on October 14, 2021 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

Giving up isn't an option: Niko hatches a plan and spars with Richard. The chase is on when the crew tries to stand strong, and noises rattle nerves.

## Plot

On the Salvare, William tries testing protons and sees a hallucination of Niko. He sees engineers working on the Salvare and asks them what they are doing. He tells them that their FTL drives would not work without enough exotic matter, but he is told that the Salvare is being decommissioned even if Niko was still alive.

Niko works on sails when Richard joins her. She tells him that if they use enough photons, they could go to the colony planet, which was away from their last known coordinates. Niko tells him that they could sit there and wait or move. He tells her to call her when she was ready to hoist the sails and says that he would like to go on a space walk. He opens the doors and looks out at space.

Niko manages to shoot the photons at the sails and they start moving towards the colony planet, but she tells Richard not to get too excited. The Salvare tells them that they would reach the planet in ten days, which Niko says she might be able to improve. Richard asks her to take a break and eat. They break by bowling on the ship with a bowl and some metal pins. They start talking about life and the food they have left.

They start cooking, but are having a hard time doing so, when they suddenly hear a crash. However, the Salvare says that the structural integrity is at 100%. Richard starts talking about his past and calms her down with a wine, saying that he had not thought of what he would do returning to Earth, but says that going back to Zimbabwe would be nice. He says that he always wondered what would have happened with him if he had not moved, so Niko tells him to go find out, since they both had earned retirement. However, he tells her that they were not making it back to Earth or the colony planet, since it would take one small slip up to break the sails.

Dillon, Cas, Bernie get together in the cafeteria, which Bernie says is unfair. Dillon complains about USIC's new reintegration procedure. Zayn joins them and they say that they need to make it through the exit interviews. Zayn is a little distracted, but says ze is doing fine.

Niko cannot sleep and hears movement. She calls for Richard, but does not hear him, so she goes back to sleep.

Mackenzie tells Erik that Niko had been a competent commander, but Seth says that was until they encountered a magnetar. They mention that Javier was left dead after an unnecessary medical procedure. Seth and Mackenzie know that the crew of the Salvare was being dishonest, so Erik recognizes that they wanted to use his wife's memory to manipulate them, which he refuses to do. Seth tells him that he gets it, but they are using him since they want to know what happened around the magnetar. Seth tells him that he could get that information by other means but does not want to resort to that.

Erik tells Cas that he would conduct her exit interview. He asks why Javier had come home brain dead. Dillon says that Sasha and his Achaian implant had done that to Javier. Zayn says that ze took a chance with the surgery, which worked until they encountered the magnetar. Bernie says that while the implant was protecting Javier, it was also being destroyed faster than it could be repaired. Cas explains that they did not leave the magnetar because both Niko and herself were still on the Achaian ring at the time. They thought it would be best to remove Javier's implant since it was deteriorating, but Zayn says that they were not able to determine why. Erik says that it does not make sense and knows that something happened around the magnetar and tells Cas that all he wants is to complete Niko's mission. Cas tells him that they had all made sacrifices and leaves.

Niko wakes up and sees Richard, who says that he had spoken out of turn, but Niko says that it is fine. Richard says that they had had smooth sailing, but says that he was not near her quarters. Niko says that that was weird and sees that they were now 3 weeks away from the colony planet, but the laser output was diminished and they did not have the power supply. He tells her that they do have enough oxygen if only one of them breathes, but she does not accept that suggestion. She asks him to help her push a table, which turns off.

Richard and Niko then start moving all objects into one room. They open the shuttle bay door and throw all those objects into space, which brought the ETA down one week. She tells him that tearing the ship down was their last resort and orders him to sleep, which he is reluctant to do.

Richard walks into his room and hears grinding and a thump. He hears the noises grow louder and removes his room's vent. He looks at what was making the noise, but does not see anything, but still hears the noises.

Seth approaches Zayn, which makes hir ask what ze is doing there. He tells hir that he can read people and could tell that ze was lying. Ze says that ze would like to be with hir mother since she was sick, but Seth tells her that her mother only has a day or two at the most. Seth tells her that the Achaia could save hir mother's life if ze confessed.

Niko hears a noise in the Salvare and starts to investigate what could be happening. She turns to look and sees the pins that they had left up, fallen down and crushed. She picks one up and is startled by Richard; she tells him that there is something on the ship, which they needed to deal with. They grab their guns and start looking around. Niko finds pills that Richard had in his room and keeps looking. They hear a loud crash at one point and keep moving through the Salvare. Niko tells Richard that it was an Achaian, but all they see is plastic.

They start moving out, but Niko is convinced that the pins did not fall down on their own. Richard says that maybe Niko had come up with the story on her own, but she tells him not to convince her to take the easy way out since she had seen the pills in his room. He tells her that he has not given up, but does not have any fight left in him since he was tired even before the mission and says that he cannot do it anymore. Niko tells him that there is something, so he needs to bury his feelings so they could fight together. An alarm sounds, telling them that there is damage done to an outer sail - it was completely crushed. Richard asks her to take a minute, but she does not listen to him and goes outside.

Niko sees Achaia moving towards her, saying that she was being attacked. Richard looks from inside the Salvare, telling her that there was nothing there. The Achaia approach Niko as she yells in fear.

Cas gets a knock at her door; Erik says that he hopes he is not being followed and asks her what information she was withholding, but she says that she had not revealed anything to him. Erik asks her to remember what she had told him, but she says that she does not remember. Erik asks if she remembers anything about the magnetar and she thinks it is weird that she does not remember. Erik tells her that Seth had probably wiped her memory .

William runs simulations, but is frustrated because they were not going the way he wanted them to go. He wonders if he is going crazy and another hallucination appears, this time of Iara. They tell him that he can push them away or integrate them, offering to let him remember everything. He turns around and allows them to integrate with him. Then, he starts remembering everything that had happened.

Richard calls for Niko to wake up, telling her that there were no Achaians on board and tells her that the ship was under too much atmospheric pressure, which means they were suffering nitrogen narcosis, which explained a lot of their behavior. However, the pressure was returning, so they would be fine, but Niko tells him that they are definitely not fine. Richard says that that was a shame since they had already drank all the best wine.

Niko opens up a bottle of wine for both of them and toasts to Earth. Both her and Richard start drinking and Niko gets sad that she would never see her family again. Richard tells her that there are enough pills for both of them so they did not need to suffer when they died. He opens up the pills, which she takes a few of. All of a sudden, an alarm sounds and they get a proximity warning, which Richard recognizes as the Achaia. They look outside, but Niko says that the ship was not Achaian.

## Cast

* Justin Chatwin as Erik Wallace
* Samuel Anderson as William
* Elizabeth Faith Ludlow as Cas Isakovic
* Tongayi Chirisa as Richard Ncube
* A.J. Rivera as Bernie Martinez
* JayR Tinaco as Zayn Petrossian
* Dillon Casey as Seth Gage
* Shannon Chan-Kent as Iara
* Catherine Lough Haggquist as Annette Mackenzie
* Melice Bell as USIC Supervisor
* Helen King as Salvare Voice