It seems the relatively sedate days of investigation are over for the agents of Orbital, as episode 12: ‘A Message from Ground Control’ suggests things are about to change significantly. *Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*
After the events in last week’s episode, Asalah, the role of the debris itself now appears to be switching from a passive element to a much more active one. There have been hints that it won’t just sit there waiting to be collected before, but now things are just so much more overt.
This episode also teased us again with parts of Bryan’s (Jonathan Tucker) past once again, as he seems to be the chosen focal point for the debris, which must be connected to either a previous mission, or the mysterious injections which have yet to be explained. Or indeed both!

The crux of ‘A Message from Ground Control’ is that the main warehouse at Orbital experiences a serious event, with debris taking action, and not just remaining inert in its storage boxes. With all the warehouse workers under some kind of mind control and seemingly collecting bits of debris at random, it initially looks like it’s all gone a bit haywire. Soon though, the truth is revealed and there is method in the madness, with very particular boxes being chosen and thrown through a pocket universe, for a particular purpose.
‘A Message from Ground Control’ is an interesting extension of recent developments in the overarching narrative, and they keep Bryan at its heart. After many episodes of Finola (Riann Steele) being the true believer and less cynical than Bryan’s regimented outlook, the tables are turning, with Finola being asked to trust and believe Bryan. This turn around happens due to Bryan seeing Asalah (Zarina Sterling) briefly, and then having another encounter with Mariel (Erin Karpluk) in the midst of this mystery, which gives him an insight none of the others possess.
This was an unexpected twist, but a welcome one, especially if it means that there will be more appearances by Karpluk and Sterling, who have been extremely strong guest stars. The debris needs a face for its communicating with Bryan after all, so we could see Karpluk’s involvement being a more regular appearance.

Away from the main mystery this week, ‘A Message from Ground Control’ has George (Tyrone Benskin) secreted away trying to find a key missing piece that will help locate all of the debris, worldwide. This is sort of a companion piece storyline to the exploits of Ash (Scroobius Pip), who manages to somehow escape from prison and who seems to be aware of what George is up to. Ash appears to have the ability to connect with people that he has touched at least once, which is a nice ability to have alongside being able to teleport.
Although that could become far too powerful a combination of skills in future episodes, it is relatively tamed here, and there does appear to have some limitations. We’d got that indication before when another Influx agent had a negative reaction to repeated teleports, but so far Ash is hanging on in there. There is much we still don’t know about these characters and Influx remains a bit of an undefined entity. With Ash now surely headed to see George, and there being a suggestion that he has been keeping tabs on George from afar, these storylines are due to come crashing together, which will reveal more.

Even though we know that Debris is trying to confound and surprise by having Bryan be the one who is evangelical about the whole thing, what they’re doing here with his militaristic background still makes a nice change. It both works in this instance, and confounds any expectations we might have about a Mulder/Scully type duality in Finola and Bryan’s partnership.
‘A Message from Ground Control’ is an episode that successfully works on its own, but also moves things along with the overarching narrative. The awakening of the debris is a significant step, and we can’t imagine that things will be the same again. At the very least it could easily put the petty ‘race for the pieces’ between the ‘superpowers’ into the shade, and open up a whole new line of intrigue.