Gift From the Gods

**Gift From the Gods** is the sixth episode of the second season of *Another Life*, and the sixteenth episode of the series overall. It was released on October 14, 2021 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

Alone at last, or not? Salvare's team faces a rough ride home — and a cautious reentry. Elsewhere, Erik tests Achaian tech, then asks for a favor.

## Plot

Niko sees the Salvare make it through the wormhole and is approached by Richard, who tells her that Iara had trapped him on that side with her. She laughs at that and says that she might have a plan.

Erik chooses a place that had a lot of health issues for the people who once lived there. They place the orb in a machine, which drops it when they are at a safe distance and see that it causes a rumble. They have no idea what is happening and it explodes, releasing a green wave of dust, which heads right towards them. When they open their eyes, they see that the place which had been pretty much destroyed was now a forest.

Erik finds that there are no contaminants in the soil and calls what the Achaia gave them a gift, but Singh is still skeptical. Erik says that what humanity really needs is a new home, which the government says that the Achaia have a faster solution. Erik does not know if it was too good to be true, but a colleague says that it is a great option, which Singh says is short sighted. Erik says that they do not get to decide and an alarm starts ringing.

They find an anomaly near Jupiter, which is a wormhole. They prepare for the worst as the Salvare made its way through the wormhole. They lose it and see that the wormhole had collapsed.

On the Salvare, the crew is having a rough ride through the wormhole, but William tells Cas that they were orbiting Jupiter. Cas sees that Richard is not there with them, which Dillon finds meant that he was gone. William wants to open comms with Earth, but Cas does not allow him to do so because they need to get information to the right hands. Bernie says that they probably had already detected them, but Cas tells William to protect them from that.

Erik says that they had witnessed an entire ecosystem show up in weapons, proving that the Achaia had proven their good intentions. Cas, William, Bernie, Zayn, and Dillon watch the transmission and confirm that Earth was still fine, but they needed a plan to cloak data containing the information which included weaponizing neutrinos against Achaian tech and Cas wants to know if they would be returning in a good or bad way. Iara does not show up when they call her.

Cas visits Iara and tells her that Niko had chosen to stay, but Richard did not have the choice and Iara reveals that she had left Richard, but says that she would not have done something like that herself. All of a sudden, Iara calmed down and asked them if they wanted to know what Richard looked like trapped in a menacing voice. Iara says that she does not know what is happening to her and Dillon says that the Achaian code was consuming her. Cas tells Dillon to save her because she was their only shot at reopening the wormhole and saving both Niko and Richard.

Erik says that as far as he could tell, nothing had come out of the wormhole. A data file is received from one of Jupiter's moons. Cas starts broadcasting and introduces herself as commander of the Salvare, which saddens Erik. She sends them their mission to date. She tells them that Niko had sacrificed her chance at returning home like Richard had done. Erik cries at the news.

Later, Erik says that Niko has over two weeks of oxygen and could be saved since the hybrid AI could probably save her. Singh says that it was not that simple, which angers Erik. Singh says that her life is finding answers to the impossible, but she does not have an answer for him. Seth tells Erik that maybe the Achaia could help.

Erik goes to the Artifact and tells them that he knows he has asked them for a lot, but says that the task is easy to them, However, the Artifact remains closed until Seth approaches it and the door opens for him. Erik tries to stop him, but Seth does not listen and goes inside.

Dillon cannot figure out how to eliminate the Achaian code, but Cas tells Iara that they would fix her so she could stay on the Salvare. Iara says that William does not need her, but he says he does. She says that no commander would accept her until Dillon says that maybe she could expose the Achaia, but she says the only solution is to kill her. She says that the Achaian code is searching for data on the neutrinos, which worries Cas.

Erik is handed a cup of coffee by a woman, who talks about her deceased wife and also wonders if the Achaia had found a way to cheat death. The door to the Artifact opens and Seth walks out. Erik tells them that Harper had killed many people when she had the implant on her head and Seth reveals he had accepted the object on his brain. Erik wonders how he could let that happen when his wife was sacrificing her life for the planet. Seth tells him that that would be Niko's legacy, which alters Erik, but he is taken away. After that encounter, Erik looks at the card that the anti-Achaia group had given him.

Dillon says that he has finished downloading Iara's matrix into the shuttle's mainframe, which meant she was good to go. Iara asks William to promise he would find her, which he says would not be hard to do. She thanks him for making her and letting her go. After that, she leaves.

Cas asks if Iara had been contained and William says that she was currently thinking that she was going to outer space, which Bernie confirms as a working trick. Cas asks what would happen if Iara found out she was just being sandboxed, but William tells her not to worry about it now even though he could feel her.

Erik makes it to the anti-Achaia group and tells them that Seth had a "spider" on his head. He tells the leader to remove her mask, which she does. He tells her that he is there to see Harper Glass since she could talk the Achaia into bringing Niko back.

Erik and the woman walk into a room where he sees that they were analyzing an Achaian implant in real-time; however, they never said that it was Harper's. Erik says that Harper and Seth were the only people with an implant. She tells him that Harper had killed some of her people, which means that she had killed Harper by ripping the implant out of her head. Erik complains that her wife would die now, but she offers to help if they receive the data dump, but Erik leaves.

William tells Cas, Bernie, Zayn, and Dillon that he would be fine without them because he had to wake people out of soma. Cas tells them that they should keep information about Achaia vulnerability between them until they could figure out how to use it.

Erik tells Singh that he needs to get to Cas even if it is for a couple of minutes. However, Singh is approached by a soldier who tells her that she needs to leave the site since she no longer had security clearance. Erik complains to Mackenzie telling her that Singh had been taken, which he is told is due to leaks. She tells him that Seth was worried about the leaks, but Erik asks how Seth is relevant if he had an implant in his head, but the woman says that they want to communicate with the Achaia effectively. Seth approaches Erik and asks them if they are ready to receive the crew of the Salvare.

Cas, Dillon, Zayn, and Bernie make it back to Earth, where Bernie and Zayn talk about meeting hir mom. Mackenzie welcomes the crew of the Salvare, who get ready to see their loved ones, except for Cas. Zayn is told by hir father that hir mother had a disease.

Erik calls for Cas and says that Niko could probably be brought back and asks for contact with her, but Cas tells him that Iara is gone and asks if the Achaia would not help him since he had done so much for them. He says that he has not done a lot and says that the Achaia already have their emissary: Seth. Cas says that she knows about the implants and tells Erik that Niko wanted her to tell Erik that she loved both him and Jana very much. Erik tells Cas that Niko would be proud of her as she always was, and Cas proceeds to tell him that her mission was not over since she had stored intelligence with William, but changes the subject when Mackenzie approaches them.

Zayn, Dillon, Bernie, and Cas are brought to hidden, underground rooms, which Zayn calls illegal since they were being held there against their will. Cas asks to speak to whoever is in charge or a lawyer, but is ignored. When she walks into her room and sees a letter from the president thanking her for her service. However, she is locked into her room.

Erik visits Seth's office and sits down. Seth asks him why he had given his bio-ID to their enemies, but he does not know how that happened. When asked who it was, he tells him that a group of self-styled resistance fighters tried to recruit him, but he told him that he was not interested. Seth asks how he could meet with them, but Erik says that he does not have their address. Seth says that when he took over the Achaian portfolio, he put a tracker on Erik and all USIC staff and the two go for a drive.

USIC visits and shoots the self-styled resistance fighters, killing all of them. The leader calls Seth a traitor and yells at him for having an implant. However, Seth says that he is happy with his implant and does not want them to disrupt an Achaian-Human alliance. He asks her for Harper Glass, but she tells him that she would never confess. He grabs her head and starts drilling into her eyes in order to receive information. When Erik tries to stop it a soldier's eyes glow white and he is stopped. Seth then grabs Erik's head and smiles, saying that Erik had told the truth and asks him to be careful with his bio-readings and advises him to stay friendly.

## 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
* Kurt Yaeger as Dillon Conner
* Shannon Chan-Kent as Iara
* Parveen Dosanjh as Dr. Nani Singh
* Catherine Lough Haggquist as Annette Mackenzie
* Alex Rose as Amos Bennett
* Nathan Witte as Daeva
* Christina Lewall as Denise Conner
* Luz Elena Rubio as Elena Martinez
* Mark Kandborg as Aram Petrossian
* Mathew Yanagiya as Special Ops Soldier
* Cassandra Naud as Soldier
* Marlene Ginader as Barracks Guard
* Helen King as Salvare Voice