A Better Earth

**A Better Earth** is the fifth episode of the second season of *Another Life*, and the fifteenth episode of the series overall. It was released on October 14, 2021 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

The new planet holds promise — and unexpected threats in the brush. The tables turn as Richard reaches out to Iara. The Achaia open up to Erik.

## Plot

Niko asks Zayn how Javier is doing, but ze does not know if he will wake up again. Niko tells hir that they would make it back to Bernie's planet and comforts hir.

Bernie tries reaching out to the *Salvare*, but gets no response as the team makes camp. Cas and Paula try coming up with a name for the planet, but Bernie is against that idea because he did not want to stay on the planet. Paula finds copper, which she says could help them make many things and injects Cas in order to tell her that she was pathogen-free. She tries to do the same for Bernie, but he does not want to comply since it had been three days. Cas convinces him that it was all okay and Paula calls her a natural talent at colonizing. Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched.

Niko tells Dillon that they have company, but it turns out to be a comet. Dillon tells Niko that the AI could be reinitialized, so they bring William back, who does not have his experiences. Niko calls William a clone of the original William, but the AI identifies himself as more of a "factory reset" while Gabriel has been completely deleted. Niko feels uncomfortable with the new William and asks him to bring back the FTL. Dillon tells her that he and Iara were fixing the comms as well. Richard walks in and wants to borrow Iara since he was relieving Niko on deck. Iara does not want to be with Richard, but Dillon says that she does not need to forgive him, but she needs to give Richard a chance to prove himself.

Cas and Paula are awoken by a loud crash on the shuttle. They follow the noise and while the Salvare finally makes it back to the planet. Paula shoots at the creature, which goes away.

Cas, Bernie and Paula make it back on the Salvare and tell Niko that they were doing okay. The new William presents himself while Zayn greets Bernie, but Paula needs hir to check a creature's blood and run tests on it. Niko asks them what they got, and Cas mentions that it seems they had found the future.

Richard and Iara try interpreting Achaian data to see how they moved in order to avoid them. Iara tells him that the data is useless and they need to build some sort of Rosetta stone.

Niko, Paula and Cas check the new planet, which seems to accommodate humans because it is very close to Earth. Cas admits to drinking water, but they wait for Zayn to analyze the planet so they knew if they could actually live there. Zayn tells them that the blood was yellow, which meant an absence of hemoglobin, which was akin to an insect on Earth. Paula says that if they were the new apex predators, they could inhabit the new planet because they had to accept some could die. Niko says that they needed to fully analyze the planet.

Richard and Iara analyze the Achaian movements, which they find could be similar to theirs. Richard realizes that the Achaia are always in communication and sees cosmic strings forming, which they realize are the Achaia's energy source.

Erik asks the Achaia where Niko is, but they tell him that they had lost contact with her and with one of their ships. Erik asks why they are there and the Achaia asks him what was missing from Earth that they could fix. Erik argues that they could start again on another planet and wonders if they need their help, but is told that they do not. However, they want them to stay there. The Achaia tells him that they never want them to explore outer space ever again, in return offering salvation in a ball. The Achaia tells him to place it in a place that was destroyed and witness.

Erik and Singh check out the ball, but they wonder how they should test it out. Singh says that it would change the entire world. Erik asks if they deserve a better world, but they are told that the President would need to decide.

William tells Niko that everything on the new planet seems to be okay, but she still does not accept him. Niko tells Cas to wake up the colonists so that they could start working on the planet and then to go back to the Salvare, but Cas says that she would need to help them as well.

On the new planet, Paula analyzes the wood on trees, while Cas tells a man that she was on the Salvare, but wanted to help them out. Paula reminds Cas that she told her that she was a good colonist. However, Cas does not want to leave Niko and wants to go back to Earth. Paula keeps trying to convince her, but a large wooden branch is thrown at them. They notice they are surrounded and a creature approaches them. It tries communicating with Cas, but Paula shoots it and it dies.

Cas tells Niko about the creature, which she describes as having war paint and using weapons. She uses a lot of information and says that they were intelligent life-forms, but Paula describes them as cave-people. Niko reminds her that to the Achaia, they were the cave-people. Paula says that they are not a threat to the creatures, but Niko tells her that the USIC says that they cannot colonize a planet with a preexisting civilization. She tells Paula to pick all their stuff up, which Paula does not like since the planet is perfect. Cas says that the planet is not for the humans, so Paula says that they do not need their help anymore.

Bernie, Niko, and William figure they will need to ration food because of the new crew that had been awoken. Niko tells William that they needed to try to improve Gabriel's way home and he leaves. Richard asks Niko if she feels like telling Erik that she was on her way home.

Iara explains how cosmic strings work and tells her that it was a new discovery she had made. Richard, Dillon and Iara tell Niko that they might be able to use the cosmic strings sort of how the Achaia use them, so they could get the comms working again. Dillon says that it would be tricky, but they give it a try, which shuts the Salvare down for a bit. However, they were able to receive data from Earth, which contained a lot of information.

Richard asks Zayn if ze had gotten any messages. Ze mentions that ze had gotten a message from hir parents, but does not want to talk with him.

Bernie works when Zayn walks in. He talks to hir for a bit and suggests that both of them co-shack together, which ze is not sure of. Bernie says that ze had said some horrible things to him and Zayn agrees. However, ze admits ze was angry, but was happy he is back. After talking about it a little, ze kisses him.

Dillon tells Cas that he is an uncle, which she congratulates him for blandly.

Cas approaches Paula, who says she is almost ready to go, but asks Cas to do the shuttle pre-flight, which she says is the least she could do. Cas tells Paula that she thinks that maybe she is built for colony life and asks Paula what she doing. She finds Paula was launching the colony pods and gets a gun pointed at her.

Erik and Singh discuss what could be in the orb. They are told that USIC had received confirmation of a data transmission to the Salvare. Erik is excited that they were alive.

Niko watches a video of Jana, who tells her about the ring she had given her on the Artifact. Niko realizes that that encounter with Jana was real and tells Richard, William and Iara about it. Richard realizes that the Achaia also send matter across wormholes and they see how the Achaia move so quickly. Iara realizes how they are possible, which includes high-tension loops and Iara says that in theory it could work.

Cas cannot believe that Paula is committing mutiny because she does not agree with protocol, but Paula says that she is not a psychopath who would eradicate an entire species. Niko tells Paula that they had found a way back to Earth, but she complains about the planet. Cas and Niko distract her and fight, while Cas tries deactivating the protocol. Niko ends up knocking Paula to the ground and orders her to be confined in her quarters. Paula asks if she has enough quarters for the twenty-four colonists and threatens to not leave that planet alive. Cas tells her to let Paula go so nobody else had to die, which Niko does in the end. Cas tells Paula to not fuck up and chooses to stay with Niko.

Richard tells Niko that they were at the high-tension loop. She tells William that starting over was not easy for her, which he understands. Cas tells them that Iara, Dillon and herself were all ready. Niko tells the crew that they know what they have to do and they prepare to go home. The wormhole opens and the Salvare starts going through it. They see Jupiter on the other side of the wormhole, but the wormhole started dissipating earlier than expected because the Salvare had too much mass. Niko orders everybody to get to deck 3.

She tells Richard that she would be taking manual control and turns off comms. Niko tells William that Cas would need him and Richard asks for her to let him do it, she tells him that he is not the commander. Richard tells her that it had been a pleasure working with her and heads towards the rest of the crew.

Richard runs through the Salvare, but cannot make it through. Iara tells him that she had tried to forgive him and reveals that she was keeping him on the other side of the ship.

Niko opens the comms and tells Cas that she was getting them home and asks her to tell USIC about what they knew about the Achaia and what to do to protect Earth. She tells Cas to tell her family that she loves them and wants Erik to understand. Cas promises that she would do all that and thanks Niko for everything. Niko tells Cas that she is proud of her and initializes manual override, which makes the ship separate.

Niko sees the Salvare make it through the wormhole from her window and smiles when they make it through.

## 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
* Lina Renna as Jana Breckinridge-Wallace
* Dillon Casey as Seth Gage
* Carlena Britch as Paula Carbone
* Shannon Chan-Kent as Iara
* Parveen Dosanjh as Dr. Nani Singh
* Alex Rose as Amos Bennett
* Kamran Fulleylove as Nestor
* Helen King as Salvare Voice

## Trivia

* After his deletion in *Will to Power*, William is restored via a clean reinstall of his AI interface as he had requested. However, William lacks the memories and experiences of the original William. Niko refers to him as a clone while William calls himself a "factory reset."
* Gabriel is confirmed to have been destroyed with Dillon Conner stating that he has been wiped completely clean and deleted.