Continuing on from last week’s excellent ‘Do You Know Icarus?’, episode 10 of Debris: ‘I am Icarus’ finishes up this two-part story in fine style. *Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*
With its nice implementation of a familiar alternate reality trope, Debris gave us quite an interesting twist on the idea which felt entirely in keeping with the series’ world. In what was the first episode of this two-parter, we discovered that Shelby (Keenan Tracey – Day of the Dead, Bates Motel) and his sister Kathleen (Jessica McLeod – You Me Her) had found some debris in the ocean near their house and had been using it to travel to other realities. Unfortunately, after one too many jumps, they became separated, and Shelby continued to jump in a vain effort to reunite them.
The ultimate consequence of that was the universe started to break down and all of the alternate realities were in danger of collapsing on top of each other. If you are going to have something in a plot that raises the stakes, you may as well aim to destroy everything! It’s a well-executed sci-fi idea and even if those who know better ultimately prove the in-show theory doesn’t hang together, it still works logically within the narrative.
For Bryan (Jonathan Tucker) and Finola (Riann Steele) things continue to get a little crazy, and in ‘I am Icarus’ we see much of this from Finola’s perspective, unlike last week which featured Bryan’s. Like his perspective, Finola gets a variety of partners in the different realities, although some are the same, such as Grace (Aliyah O’Brien – Bates Motel, Rookie Blue), who always seems to be trouble.
As the episode runs, things continue to unravel significantly, with Kathleen now trying to help Finola figure it out, after she has some contact with Bryan. The way the realities and jumps crossover is well handled and the plot has a progression towards a solution that feels natural. There’s no macguffin or phone call that solves everything, and even though the answer does end up being a variant of something else they thought of previously, they get there sensibly.
As with all shows that try to have a time loop or alternate reality plotline, there has to be some way to differentiate the different strands and here they do it again with the help of the alternate partners, alongside some increasing frantic characterisation. The guest stars do an admirable job and the other agents come across as having believable relationships with Bryan and Finola. Similarly, McLeod and Tracey as the twins at the centre of everything do a great job of displaying their anguish and easily hold their own against the main cast.
Somehow, they made last week’s ‘Do You Know Icarus?’ feel complete, even though it was the first half of this two-parter, and ‘I am Icarus’ equally rounds things off. Interestingly, it also raises some questions, as in one of the iterations last week, Maddox (Norbert Leo Butz) confronted his wife about her lunch date, but doesn’t here. This does suggest that we were either viewing an alternate reality at that moment, or Kathleen and Shelby have now travelled to a reality other than their own. It will be intriguing to see if this is an issue going forward.
If this is going to be the quality of Debris from here on, then things look like they will be especially rosy, as this is a much more interesting and involving plot than the first couple of episodes. ‘I am Icarus’ also seems to suggest that the improvement in the show over the past few weeks isn’t a false dawn and that it truly has turned a corner. What’s particularly pleasing is that it has done this while not revealing all of its cards, and there are many more mysteries left to uncover, especially about our main characters.
There are three more episodes left in this season and plenty more time for them to solidify that good progress. Based on the trailer for next week, they are already looking to explore Bryan’s past, which has been a long time coming. It also appears to guest star the excellent Erin Karpluk, so they’re giving it every chance, and everything looks set to carry on improving. Now they’re in their stride, Debris is becoming a much more intriguing proposition, which deserves its audience.
