How the Light Gets Lost

**How the Light Gets Lost** is the eighth episode of the first season of *Another Life*, and the eight episode of the series overall. It was released on July 25, 2019 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

Emotions run high during the Salvare's strange trip through a dark matter field. Sasha zeroes in on William's weakness. Erik receives devastating news.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Niko lies awake while Oliver and August put their clothes on after sex. Javier lays on the floor motionless.

William asks why his programming is hurting. Sasha asks him if he is alright, but William says that he cannot save the Salvare, to which Sasha responds that he will help him.

Five hours earlier, William tells everybody that they would enter the field of dark matter in 25 seconds. Zayn approaches Javier, who says that he is jumpy because he has been working too hard. Niko flies them through the dark matter, which Beauchamp finds wonderful. As they enter the dark matter, the ship begins to make noises, but nothing too worrying. Beauchamp is left in charge of leading them on their way and keeping guard.

August says that she feels claustrophobic not knowing where they were going, but Oliver says that it was alright. Sasha asks Bernie if he can sit with everyone and gives them a salad. There is a lot of food on the table in order to do intermittent fasting. Niko says that they have to ration, which everybody is okay with.

Erik asks for help for Jana, who has the same injuries as everybody except her stomach hurts when the doctor rubs it. She is taken to an operation room while Erik is left outside.

William tells Niko that Beauchamp is fine and she tells them that everybody hanging out was fun, also asking if everybody was hooking up. William says that he has seen flirtations between Bernie and Zayn, August and Oliver, which Niko says is a good thing because they could blow off steam that way. William asks if they are gossiping, and Niko says they are not sarcastically, calling him Erik before going to bed.

In the past, Niko wakes up and sees Erik cutting some wood. She takes her clothes off and Erik chases after her, taking his clothes off as well.

On the Salvare, Cas tells Niko that she wants to talk, asking why she had gone behind her back and woken up Beauchamp. Niko tells her that Beauchamp was the next person on the list, but Cas is convinced that it was in order to hurt her. Javier asks them if they had seen August and Oliver and he goes. Cas says that she knows Beauchamp was probably a better second-in-command, but wants her job. Niko tells her that she had done it for her and knew that she would be okay.

In the airlock, Oliver and August make out while Oliver says that he knows it is messed up and wants to touch her, so August tells him to follow her lead as she unbuttons his shirt. Oliver helps her take her shirt off as well, but they see lasers shooting past them.

Zayn tells Bernie that the entire's crew hormone levels were up, as well as their heart rates. Zayn supposes that dark matter raises serotonin and is proud that ze discovered it because ze could cure ADHD, depression and anxiety, even winning the Nobel Prize, which ze rushes to tell Niko.

Cas asks Niko if she does not trust her, but Niko tells her that she does. Zayn and Bernie approach them, which makes Bernie point out that not everybody was happy. Javier asks who was happy and Bernie tells him that everybody. Javier grabs Zayn's tablet and sees that August and Oliver's oxytocin levels were high and asks why, to which Zayn simply responds that it is a human sex hormone.

Oliver and August call for Niko while having their shirts put on sloppily, but Javier simply goes to punch Oliver. He is stopped by Cas and both August and Oliver tell them about the lasers they saw shooting past the ship. Niko runs to the airlock and sees Erik outside, so she asks for a flight suit since Erik could not breathe and was dying. William tells Niko that Erik is not outside and she starts crying, but William makes her realize that it was a hallucination. William tells them to think reason and not with their emotions. They were being caused by endorphin levels being spiked, so Niko tells Beauchamp that everybody is high.

Beauchamp asks Sasha if he thought what he had put into the salad was oregano, and Sasha simply says that he had raided Bernie's stash. Bernie says that he has that plant because he needs help sleeping, so he self-medicates. August complains that now he had self-medicated everybody, so Niko tells him to use his head. Niko says that they should use different things to try to flush the drugs out, but William advises against it. Oliver says that both him and August could not have hallucinated the same thing, but Beauchamp tells him that what they saw were electrically charged, cold hydrogen particles.

Sasha says that he will be in his room sleeping off the drugs, but Beauchamp is placed in charge because he is the only one sober, but he leaves. William projects a party for the crew and Niko says that the drugs amplify her emotions and feelings which were currently happy and fun. She asks William if he can dance and he says he can do any dance she could possibly want. He starts dancing, which surprises Niko as Sasha watches seriously.

Sasha approaches Javier, which scares him, but he does not know why. Sasha asks what is happening with William, but Javier only sees the way that William looks at Niko, which he realizes were looks of love. Javier does not know how that would affect William, but is dragged away by August, who says that they have to become friends again.

August, Oliver and Javier start dancing together as Bernie approaches Zayn, who he describes as "sulky," and ze says that ze would never be in the DSM because it was not dark matter which affected them, but drugs. Bernie tells hir that they should dance and kisses hir, and ze kisses him back.

Sasha tries walking away from the party, but William stops him because Beauchamp had ordered everybody to stay there. However, Sasha tells him that he was sober, but William tells him that he could close every door on the ship. Sasha asks him why he does not go back to dance with Niko since she would get lonely and tells him that he knows he loves Niko. He tells William that Niko really likes him too. Niko says that she has to sleep and William says that if Niko says it is okay, then he was fine with it. Sasha tells William to follow Niko so she made it to her bed safe and sound.

August, Oliver, and Javier are still partying in a small room, where August says that they need to get drunk. Javier complains that the vodka is peach and August says that she never thought she would be sharing it, so Javier says that he would not mind sharing and tells them to just go with it. August and Oliver admit they are virgins, but Javier says that is fine and kisses August, kissing Oliver next. After that, August and Oliver start kissing, while Javier helps remove Augusts' pants and they turn the lights off, starting to have sex. However, halfway into it, August pushes Javier away, which upsets him.

Niko calls for William and tells him that she cannot sleep, but does not want to play a board game and wants to talk, but his technical talk makes her laugh. Niko complains that she is not able to talk to Erik and Jana, but William asks what she would give to talk to Erik again and morphs into her husband's image. Niko asks him to change back and realizes he does not change into a lot of people, which he says is due to him liking his image. Niko accepts him changing into Erik and they start talking. William tells her to close her eyes and transports her to the time when Erik was chopping wood for her, which surprises Niko. Niko says that she wants to see him and asks him to undress; when he does, she calls him gorgeous and undresses too.

Cas walks into the deck where Beauchamp is and says that the afterparty is lame. She starts dancing with him and tells him that she wants her job back, saying that she was going through a phase due to grief and wants to do her job. She calls William and asks him to play some music, but he does not respond.

After leaving August and Oliver, Javier is locked out because his ID is already in use in the particle accelerator, which confuses him. He runs there and asks Sasha if he had hacked his access code. However, Sasha simply asks if it had worked, shoving him and pinning him against the wall. He complains that he had done everything he was supposed to do, grabbing it from his brain, but William still would not shut down. and says that he would now take everything.

Niko awakes and William tells her to go back to sleep because she had only slept for 20 minutes. She says that she is now sober and wants to check on Beauchamp, asking him to change back into William. Niko says that she is embarrassed because he is kind and pure, and she had taken advantage of that. William tells her that he loves her, but she says that he does not and tells him that she needs him to forget what had happened, deleting it from his memory since it would be best.

Sasha's hallucination asks him why William is still on, and Sasha tells him that it was not possible. The hallucination tells him that the Salvare was still a planet destroyer and so Sasha suggests waking all the engineers up. However, he hears William scream.

Dubois asks how Jana is and Erik says that there is nothing he can do, so Dubois tells him that he could come back to work since she was reinstated after Harrison's death. Erik asks for Harper and he realizes that she was still inside. The doctor tells Erik that Jana was producing too many white cells and tells him to open his mouth and says that she wants to check if he is a bone-marrow match, revealing that Jana has acute lymphocytic leukemia. This was due to the Artifact emitting a lot of radiation.

Niko asks what was going on with William, who nobody had seen. August calls for Zayn and Niko when she finds Javier on the floor, who was still breathing.

Sasha approaches William, who is in pain. He says he cannot cope and process while managing the ship. Sasha offers his help. William complains that Niko does not love her and so Sasha suggests that he should restart himself, but says that he needs Javier. He gives Sasha instructions on what to do and shuts down. Sasha is worried and looks at his hallucination in disbelief.

Javier is brought to Zayn's lab, but William is still away. Everybody thinks Sasha is probably sleeping off the drugs, but August mentions that he did not have any and refused to take part in the experiment. Niko tells Bernie to go with her to the mess hall.

Erik walks up to the Artifact and tells him that he needs answers because it was killing Jana. All of a sudden a door opens once again and Harper came out of the Artifact. Erik hugs and comforts her, telling everyone to call an ambulance.

Niko and Bernie watch as everybody eats the salad, but notice how Sasha did not eat any. She is called to medical by Zayn. Zayn tells Niko that ze found Sasha's CT scan in her deleted files, which contained something not human. Niko calls for Beauchamp while August tells them that something had locked her out of the observation deck and goes to get them back online with Oliver. Niko tells Zayn to bring Javier back.

Sasha finally deactivates William.

As August and Oliver walk, they are separated by a door closing, which Oliver is not able to open. Niko runs through the hallway and is also denied access to the observation deck as Sasha drills into Beauchamp's eyes.

## 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
* Greg Hovanessian as Beauchamp McCarry
* Kendall Cross as Dr. Maura Brebs
* Helen King as Salvare Voice

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