Through the Valley of Shadows

**Through the Valley of Shadows** is the second episode of the first season of *Another Life*, and the second episode of the series overall. It was released on July 25, 2019 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

As tempers fray aboard the ship, the crew suits up for an expedition to an uncharted planet. On Earth, Erik tries to decode a clue from the artifact.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Niko tells the crew of the Salvare that she killed Ian because he was a threat, which worries most of them and causes them to get angry. Bernie and Javier support her and Niko reminds them of the mission, but Michelle calls her a murderer and wants to throw her out of the ship. There is a crash and they start losing oxygen.

Niko is told by August that they have five hours until they are all unconscious, but they could source a comet. William says their long range sensors are down and suggests backtracking to Sirius, but they would not have enough time. Michelle suggests microlensing and they try looking for nearby planets.

Erik looks at the alien Artifact which plays Ode to Joy back to them with a four second delay. Dubois tells Erik that they lost contact with the Salvare, and they had a partial communication with their chief engineer, who told her that they were trapped in a decaying orbit around Sirius A with a lot of damage to their engines. Dubois tells him to go home and tells him to take all the time he needs.

Erik tries calling Niko at a restaurant when he is approached by Harper Glass, who he says fucked Niko over nine years ago, but she asks if they can move past it and also asks if Niko was dead. Erik tells her that this was not one of her gossip shows and tells her to leave, but she wants to know the truth and he tells her that he would not answer her questions.

William tells Niko and Michelle that they have a planet which is different that what they were used to, but she asks Javier and Bernie to go outside and do visual inspection. Bernie asks why, when she could send August or Oliver and she tells him that they would go mine for ringwoodite, which contains hydrogen and oxygen.

In order to fly the shuttle in order to mine, Niko wakes Cas up, who asks for Ian and Canis Majoris. Niko told her how Ian tried to kill her and she acted in self defense. She understands and is told by Niko that she wants her to fly.

Javier and Bernie check the planet out and the latter wants to grab a soil sample, but Javier does not want him to. There is an earthquake, but William tells them not to worry because the rift valley was very far away. Niko tells them to hurry up, so as not to be there longer than needed and tells Michelle to take a break because she was not doing all right.

August, Oliver and Cas walk into a cave where they find enough crystals to breathe a lifetime and start mining.

Michelle is startled by Sasha who wakes up. Sasha is not feeling good and remembers how he passed out in front of everyone, which makes Michelle laugh. She asks for his hand and rubs a pressure point which would make him feel better. Sasha asks if everyone hates him, but she says that not everyone. Sasha says that he can help and Michelle tells him that he can make sure that they're not accomplices to murder, being a congressman. He tells her to watch her mouth around Niko.

As the crew mines, August suddenly lifts her visor, which worries Oliver. However, she tells him that oxygen is at 19% and she can see as opposed to when she had her visor on. She tells Oliver to lift his visor up as well, so he agrees, which makes them the first people to ever breathe air on another planet.

Niko asks Zayn if ze has anything to help her stay awake and tells hir she does not want to talk about Ian and tells hir the story of her great-grandmother who left a baby on the side of the road. Niko thanks hir and leaves, but Zayn tells her that she will need to talk about it eventually for her own wellbeing. As Niko walks down the hall, she hears Ian talk and then sees a hallucination of him, which reminds her of the ten people she had killed on the Saturn mission. The hallucination was created by William, who does not understand how she had killed Ian.

Jana watches Harper's news and starts walking away from Erik, telling him that if he won't do anything about the soldiers then she would, asking if Niko had died. Erik tells her that they had just lost communication, but admits that he should have told her before.

August and Oliver talk, and the latter says that he signed up on the mission because he wanted to feel something real. He says his home was not the same since St. Petersburg had been flooded. She tells him that her brother should have been there and she wanted to honor that. Oliver apologizes for what he had said before and she accepts his apology. Cas tells them that she would go to the Salvare and tells them to keep their visors down, which they do not obey.

Javier sees Bernie far away and is hit by a rock. He sees a moon rising and warns Niko. William says they missed it because it was in a low orbit. Niko instructs him and Bernie to get back on board. However, Bernie is busy collecting soil samples. Javier berates him and they run towards the Salvare, due to all the magna being pulled by the moon's gravity.

William tells Cas that they need to get back into orbit in 9 minutes or the mission would end. As Oliver and August leave the cave, they try contacting Salvare, which is already in the air. Oliver complains that Niko did not even try to save them, but is surprised when a shuttle, piloted by Niko herself saves them. As they lift off, August and Oliver hold hands and they make it in the end.

Back on the Salvare, Niko has to keep her hands from shaking. She has trouble walking starts hyperventilating, but tells William not to call Zayn. She tells him she needs to talk to Ian. William transforms into a hallucination of Ian and asks him if killing him was her only option. Ian tells her that life was about making choices, but admits to not knowing if he could have lived.

Erik tells his coworker that he had told Harper everything she needed even though he did not ask a question. His coworker tells him that she filled in the gaps, which gives Erik and idea. He believes that the audio the artifact had blasted at them contained something they had not seen: the negative patterns, which was a sort of puzzle.

Erik takes Jana to the artifact and tells her that he thinks the aliens were trying to talk to them because they would already have done bad things to them. He also tells her that he knows Niko is doing fine. Erik also believes that the aliens were testing them, which was what he was figuring out.

Cas watches Ian's goodbye video, filmed before leaving on the Salvare. Ian tells her that he loves her and would cross the universe for her, which makes her cry.

Later, Cas tells everyone that Ian was her rival at first, but thanks him for helping her grow as an astronaut and believed that in his heart, he thought he was right. However, during the eulogy, Petra starts retching uncontrollably and cracking her spine and other bones. Zayn does not know what to do and the crew does nothing but watch.

## 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
* Barbara Williams as General Dubois
* Jessica Camacho as Michelle Vargas
* Parveen Dosanjh as Nani Singh
* Chanelle Peloso as Petra Smith
* Helen King as Salvare Voice

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