TV Review: Surface Episode 1.06

Monday, October 24, 2005

From NBC: While studying a sea orchid, Cirko (Rade Sherbedgia) figures out the origin of the "unidentified species" and subsequently is mysteriously run down by a car and left for dead after he tells Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) about his discovery. Meanwhile, Cirko's assistant, Singh (Shishir Kurupt), escapes a warehouse raid with the orchid and important computer files as well as a key to a storage locker before dying on her lawn. Elsewhere, Laura (Lake Bell) and Rich (Jay R. Ferguson) are now on the run because upon retrieving the orchid and returning back to Laura's house they find that her house has been ransacked by the government. Carter Jenkins, Eddie Hassel and Leighthon Meester also star.

My Rating:

No sign of the creature on this week's episode, but this episode had plenty of other things to keep us occupied, and we know the creature will make another appearance soon, probably on next week's episode. This episode just yanked us in deeper into the government conspiracy to cover up the existence of the creature.

We start this week with Cirko as he looks at a sea orchid. In one moment he has an epiphany, and he runs to locate Singh to tell him about it. He has discovered the origin of the creature. He goes to Lee with his findings, and Lee calls for transport to DC, but after Lee lives Cirko, the older scientist is run down and left for dead in a hit and run accident. Laura is the one called about Cirko. Last week, he had told her that he was bringing her into the investigation. Now he is run down, and from the look of things early on in the episode the situation looks grim. In fact, by the end of the episode, Cirko has passed away. Was Lee really calling for transport or for someone to run Cirko down?

This leaves Singh to go through Cirko's lab and retrieve his research. He takes everything he can and runs, but during the chase he is injured. He barely makes it to Laura's house as he crashes the car, handing her a key to a locker with his last breath. After some debate between Rich and Laura about using the locker, they decide to go forward - even if one man has been run down and another has died on her front lawn. They must go forward to discover what the creature is.

They go to the locker, where Laura finds the sea orchid and all of the research Cirko has collected on the creature up to this point. Turns out he has even used some of her own research to locate and track the creatures to their origin. After a few tense moments where the two think they are caught, they make it out safely with the research and head back to Laura's house. When they arrive, Laura and Rich discover quickly they aren't alone in the house and leave. Lee has broken in and has his men searching through the house for whatever information Laura might have. The two escape, but Lee does see them as they leave.

A good portion of this week's episode followed Miles and Nim. Nim is still being searched for by animal control after killing a neighbor's dog. At the end of the last episode, we saw Nim return to Miles' home and this only cause problems for Miles on this week's episode as the infant creature wrecks havoc in the house. Going through and destroying things wherever he can. The parents soon discover that the lizard is in the house, and his dad goes in search of it. Nim has actually ate through the wood of the house and is in the walls and ceilings.

Miles sees no other way to handle the situation but to run and take Nim with him. He takes Nim to an old hideout, but goes home the next day where his parents and animal control are waiting. He changes his mind and returns to where he hid Nim followed by his friend Phil. Unknown to Phil, one of the animal control agents also has followed suit, and the man tries to capture Nim. However, when Nim is touched with the stun rod, he lets loose a charge that appears to kill the man. Miles is once again on the run.

Not much really happens on this episode, but we do learn how far the government is willing to go to keep this creature and its origin a secret. They kill not one but two scientist working on the project, and it looks like Laura is next to go if she isn't careful. I love this show, and although this episode was a bit slower than previous episodes I still enjoyed it. The scenes with Nim really had an ET vibe to them, and these are actually good comic relief for the seriousness of other parts of the show.

One thing that I noticed this episode happened at the beginning when Cirko was explaining to Singh about his epiphany. He mentions about a triple helix. This is a term referencing to DNA, and it has also made an appearance on another show this season, CBS's Threshold. Is the origin of this creature once again alien as it is on Threshold? They certainly do keep us guessing here, and the previews for the week ahead look truly amazing.