Nervous Breakdown

**Nervous Breakdown** is the third episode of the first season of *Another Life*, and the third episode of the series overall. It was released on July 25, 2019 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

Niko flies blind as she contends with a damaged ship and an onboard contagion. Renowned reporter Harper Glass hounds Erik for information.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Jana tells her parents that she would be making pancakes because Erik and Niko do not want to get out of bed. They rush out when they hear a fire alarm and make breakfast while taking about playing hooky from work. All of a sudden Harper Glass sounds on the news, saying that the Artifact had arrived.

On the Salvare, Niko and Zayn carry Petra, who was still having a seizure, which Zayn believes to be odd. Niko asks if they brought something back from the planet they visited, but Petra interrupts asking them to throw her out of an airlock.

Later August wonders if they had a virus or bacteria, and when Bernie walks into the room, Michelle tells him to back off because he had brought soil samples on board. Niko calms everybody down, and Zayn tells them that Petra's stress hormones were all elevated. Michelle tells Niko that comms were still down, but William points out that they had Sirius A as a reference point, which Niko tells him to move them towards. She tells the team to help out and gets them moving.

August and Oliver check the cooling systems, while Niko fixes the ship with Cas. Niko hurts her hand and Cas tells her to take a small break because she has not slept in days. Niko complains about Yerxa, which Cas does not like and she tells Niko that Yerxa had read her wrong, because if he had known what she was really made of, he would have known she would kill him.

August tells Oliver that on Earth there was a man who she had had a crush on for a long time, who reached out to her for frozen yogurt. She had imagined a future with him because she always wanted a big family. Oliver tells her that his relationship had always been long distance, but August points out that he had never really left for good and wondered how their relationship was, but Oliver changed the subject.

Erik runs and stumbles upon Harper. She is glad to have his attention and tells him that he is on borrowed time in Dubois' eyes. She wonders if he would leave Niko alone so as not to risk his integrity and he leaves.

Niko is startled awake by Sirius A's Oort cloud, which they missed because they have no sensors, so Niko takes manual control, until she asks Cas to do it instead because she can't see. Zayn tells her that her stress hormones were off the charts and complains that she is not an astrobiologist, so Niko tells her to wake one up.

Julian is woken up; he asks what the soil samples Bernie had gathered contained. He tells Bernie that boron under the right circumstances can provide basic building blocks of life.

Michelle gets mad at Javier, who she tells she does not need his help. Cas tells her to go get some air, so she leaves.

In her room, Niko hears an email of Jana showing her how she does a cartwheel. She asks William to stop the video and asks him to tell her what is happening, so he tells her about what is happening in the video, which she cannot see.

Bernie talks to Julian, telling him that he was heating up the sample a bit too fast. Julian makes fun of him, which angers Bernie, but the former tells him that if he had been woken up before, he would have followed the decontamination rules. Bernie is still mad, but Julian asks him if it can wait until after he told everyone that he had isolated the virus.

Michelle walks into Niko's room and grabs her by the throat, chiking her and telling her that she was the real virus. Niko manages to get her off her and tells her that she was not thinking straight. However, Michelle keeps fighting, telling her that Cas was not there to protect her anymore. Niko slams her against a wall, which knocks Michelle out and she calls for William.

Later, Michelle tells Bernie to let her go because Niko wanted to kill them, but she is put to sleep by Zayn.

Julian tells Niko about the virus, and Zayn tells her that there were a huge spectrum of potential symptoms. Julian was excited because it was the first non-carbon life form ever discovered and decided to name it *Bernardium Pageius* because he was the source. Julian takes his suit off and tells Bernie that he was infected the moment he had woken him up from soma.

Erik is getting desperate because they cannot crack the song. He tells Singh that they should go to the bar. There, he sees Harper again which angers him. However, she tells him that she only wants the truth. He tells her that if he wins at trivia, she would leave him alone for a month, but if she wins she gets half an hour to talk about The Artifact. At trivia, Erik complains about pop culture questions, but he ends up winning with his team anyway.

The crew talks about Petra's infection, which she describes as a pain she had never experienced. Niko says she still cannot see, but Zayn tells her that she should be able to see again soon. Petra tries joking, but starts feeling unwell, feeling something growing out of the back of her neck. They hold her arms while her nervous system starts popping out of her and moving away.

They start talking about what to do with the virus. Julian says that they need to vent the infected atmosphere and contents into space, but Bernie does not like the idea because he thinks it's mass suicide. Niko tells him that the virus would kill them all, but he tells them that he is resistant and tells them to use him as their guinea pig so he could fix his wrong. Niko tells them to enjoy their last moments, and says that she wishes there was another way. Julian asks Bernie if he meant what he said and takes him away. William reassures Niko, telling her that they do not know if what happened to Petra would happen to her, but she says that it would.

Julian tells Bernie that he does not have a lot of time to cure everyone, but would try anyway. Julian's vaccine is working on Bernie, but tries it on himself as well because he does not have the same resistance. Bernie tries to stop him, but Julian injects himself and says he feels warm. He starts feeling the blister Petra had forming and runs into the cell where Petra was, telling Bernie to take his notes and press the button. Bernie resists at first, but after some convincing, Bernie blasts him off into space.

August approaches Javier and thanks him for everything he did. He shows her that he fixed everything. She hugs him and tells him that they should go tell Niko.

Niko is listening to Jana's message while crying.

Bernie keeps working on the cure when William tells him that it is time, but Bernie refuses to let a virus ruin the mission. Later, Bernie shows William how the infected cells were disappearing.

Niko tells the team that she could not believe that they were defeated by something they could not see. Michelle apologizes to Niko for what she had done, and Niko apologizes back. They walk into an air duct, but Bernie tells everyone that he has a cure - gamma rays, so they fly towards Sirius B and open the crows nest.

While on a run, Erik stumbles upon Harper and gives her a data cube and tells her to put it out there and see if her followers could figure it out.

Zayn and William tell everyone that there was no sign of the virus. However, William tells them that gamma radiation is very dangerous and everyone has been sterilized. Everybody has mixed feeling about this, but Bernie says that Julian fought for nothing. However, Niko comforts him and tells reminds him that the biggest sacrifice was signing up for the mission.

Everybody goes back into soma, and William tells Niko that he would miss her. She laughs because the engineers that made him made him feel lonely, but he says it's not his programming.

After a loud knock, Niko is awakened. She sees blood on the floor and finds August bleeding out. She tells Niko that there is something on board hunting them.

## Cast

* Justin Chatwin as Erik Wallace
* Samuel Anderson as William
* Elizabeth Faith Ludlow as Cas Isakovic
* Blu Hunt as August
* A.J. Rivera as Bernie Martinez
* Jake Abel as Sasha Harrison
* Alex Ozerov as Oliver Sokolov
* Alexander Eling as Javier Almanzar
* JayR Tinaco as Zayn Petrossian
* Lina Renna as Jana Breckinridge-Wallace
* Selma Blair as Harper Glass
* Jessica Camacho as Michelle Vargas
* Parveen Dosanjh as Nani Singh
* Chanelle Peloso as Petra Smith
* Alex Rose as Amos Bennett
* Helen King as Salvare Voice

### Minor

* Michael P. Northey as Vic
* Edward Ruttle as Julian Page

## Gallery

* Images
* Videos