Debris Pilot Recap: “You Get What You Need”

There was certain point mid-way through the pilot episode of NBC’s new scifi drama Debris last night in which a man was partially phased through a concrete bridge support thanks to some rogue alien tech gone wrong, that made me realize we were in true J.H. Wyman territory at last.

Although very much its own thing, Debris brings an unmistakable Fringe flavor to events, thanks to Wyman’s creative and E.P. input on both shows. And while Fringe may have brought the wonderful John Noble (as Walter ‘vagenda’ Bishop) to the attention of a younger TV audience Debris too offers a bevy of new characters just waiting to be explored.

The series pilot kicks off with the illegal sale of some alien tech to some shady European gangsters. The opening credits cut through 5 minutes of exposition helpfully explain that a downed alien spacecraft has been raining debris onto the planet over the last 6 months.

We witness firsthand that these pieces have mysterious, powerful and potentially fatal attributes when, fleeing from the sudden arrival of our show’s heroes (more on that in a moment) a hotel worker touches a hastily abandoned piece of wreckage and phases through 14 floors of the hotel structure to crash to her death in the ballroom on the ground floor.

Cue the arrival of Orbital, a secret international agency headed by British MI6 agent Finola Jones (Riann Steele), and her CIA counterpart Bryan Beneventi (Jonathan Tucker), hot on the heels of the latest artefact.

While the seller accidentally falls to his death from a second floor ledge (or was he pushed?) in the ensuing chase through the hotel’s corridors and kitchens, his accomplices mysteriously make good on their escape by seeming to literally disappear into a solid wall.

Bryan and Finola recover the piece and take stock of their situation, in a slightly clunky and wince-worthy moment in which Bryan discusses his relatively new partnership with Finola (She’s trying hard not to fall in love with him, he quips to boss Maddox, played by Norbert Leo Butz), while Finola likewise discusses Bryan to her own Boss, Priya (Anjali Jay). She neglects to mention she’s falling in love with Bryan. Probably an oversight, or something.

While Finola and Bryan are all business, we get the impression that neither the CIA, nor MI6 are especially eager to trust one another.

A quick plane ride later and Bryan and Finola are ready to tackle their next case — a missing woman whose gravity-defying body is discovered floating near an empty field. Her young son, picked up on a security camera in the back seat of the car is missing. And guess what’s also missing? A tell-tale piece of debris which might explain why physics has run amok on this unassuming stretch of lonely road.

Bryan untangles the snared woman’s sweater (just go ahead and touch the potentially lethal phenomenon, Bryan) and she floats off into the field, accompanied by the team (side note: I love that Orbital is a full team of scientists, doctors and experts, and not just 2 gorgeous leads investigating an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town weekly). The gang quickly discovers several other “bodies” floating together near a river.

While the bodies are brought in for further investigation by Orbital, Finola and Bryan continue the investigation on foot, and discover that the missing child is not the son of floating woman. Further investigation yields three important clues — the identity of boy’s real parents (also found floating in the same field), the fact that the boy, Kieran, died 6 months ago in a car crash which his mother survived, and that there is a MASSIVE piece of debris in woodland near to their house.

By getting too close to the artefact (seriously you two, stop randomly touching stuff!), Finola is suddenly emotionally overwhelmed by memories of her late mother, and begins to piece together the nature of their latest assignment, with help from Kieran’s sister.

Finola explains her hunch to Bryan. Kieran is dead dead, but the debris has recreated his form because it intuited (from Kieran’s grieving mother) that it was “needed”.

However keeping a creepy version of a dead child alive consumes a lot of power, and Kieran must possess a series of new ‘mothers’ to keep himself present in the world. Eventually though, when they are drained like batteries, he discards them to float in the field, which just happens to be the exact location of the car crash, and the original Kieran’s death.

When news of yet another disappearance is reported, Bryan and Finola reason that Kieran has abducted another battery momma and the pair head out to a sighting at a nearby gas station to prevent him from adding another floater to his collection. However, while Bryan tries to convince the abducted woman that she is not actually Kieran’s mother, Finola approaches Kieran, and accidentally falls under his innocent-eyed, chubby-fingered, curly-haired spell.

Bryan is too late to stop Finola driving away with her new debris-son.

Convinced that Kieran’s mother, who was responsible for willing her dead son back to life, is at the root of the case, Bryan convinces Kieran’s sister Isla to try to reach her comatose mother. Why not heroically chase after Fionla, Bryan? Well, Bryan rationalizes that Kieran’s spell is so strong, that even if he were to catch up to Finola, he would never be able to get through to her.

Speaking of getting through to people, Isla is able to get through to her own mother. Breaking down, Isla tearfully reminds Mom that hello? her other still-very-much-alive child desperately needs her mother. A child’s direct and visceral appeal to a mother is exactly what is required. The spell is broken. The collection of floating bodies, including Isla’s Mom, hit their beds hard, and wake from their comatose forms, alive, and presumably very happy to be no longer floating a half inch from the ground, along highways and byways, their hair and clothing snagging on all manner of twigs and goop…

It’s all over apart from a couple of major points. The bearded man, who we will come to know in future episodes as Ash (Scroobius Pip), puts in a brief appearance as he and his colleague attempt to steal the latest debris piece.

However, when they are spotted lurking ominously in the woods near the object, and fired upon, they quickly phase away by ingesting a mysterious pill that allows them to transport to another location. However, Ash’s accomplice doesn’t quite make it, phasing into a concrete support on a bridge, and forcing Ash to shoot him in the head … presumably to put him out of his misery? Yes, let’s go with that.

Next up, Bryan’s boss calls to casually let him know that the physicist who first discovered the debris, who also just happens to be Finola’s Dad (!), is not as dead as everyone, including Finola, assumes. Not only is Dad alive, but he is possibly working with Ash. And Bryan is not allowed to tell Finola anything about it. Because secrets!

I have a feeling this is not going to help Bryan and Finola’s working — or personal — relationship going forward.

Meanwhile, in a final gratifying scene we see the latest pieces of debris collected from Orbital being carefully pieced together and added to the original spacecraft from which they originated, inside a government facility. And guys, that alien craft is long. Like, seven seasons and a movie long.

Random Debris

Debris continues Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.

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