Syfy’s Nightflyers
Episode 9: “Icarus”
Directed by Stefan Schwartz
Written by Amy Louise Johnson

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Rebirth” – click here
* For a recap & review of the finale, “All That We Have Found” – click here
Rowan (Angus Sampson) is left reeling after the death of Tessia. All he can do is bury their child in the terraform’s garden. He can’t do the same with Tessia, after she was evaporated. Once Rowan does lay his child to rest, he sees a swarm of bees hover over the new grave. “Hello, darling,” he says while grabbing the axe we saw him use in the first scene of the first episode. Uh oh.
On the bridge, Auggie (Brian F. O’Byrne) shows Karl D’Branin (Eoin Macken) the Volcryn on their radar, and what was one blip is now a thousand— an entire fleet. He also gets a message from Lommie (Maya Eshet), who’s still connected to the system. He goes to find her. It’s then he hears the words “Little Bear” come from her mouth, he knows it’s Cynthia, and she doesn’t want them to reach the Volcryn.
What about Captain Roy Eris (David Ajala)? How did he survive the decontamination? He says his “eyes were manufactured with the ship.” That’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Not to mention Melantha Jhirl (Jodie Turner-Smith) feels endlessly betrayed by Roy for his lies.
Dr. Agatha Matheson (Gretchen Mol) finds Rowan in her quarters. He questions who really ordered the quarantine purge. He’s also brought honeycomb for her. She starts to see visions of Tessia, and she’s rightfully getting scared of how he’s acting. She gets him out of there, then lies down, only to have an out-of-body experience briefly during the painful psychic feedback she hears constantly in her head.
Karl goes to Thale (Sam Strike) to speak about the Volcryn. He wants the L1 to try communicating with the ships and “push past the voices” to figure out what they’re doing. Thale agrees, though he’s unsure of how to really approach this conversation. Rowan arrives to lend a hand in spite of his deteriorating psychological condition, acting strangely cheerful and looking for Cpt. Eris. Very creepy moment
Thale is hooked up to the Nightflyer’s system, reaching out to the Volcryn. He hears a loud voice “like music.” But his heart’s pounding, which concerns Melantha. D’Branin insists they keep going. The telepath’s vitals go blank for a few moments before he returns to life. He says he witnessed “a thousand worlds,” “death,” and “rebirth.”
Now that Auggie and Cynthia are sort of reunited, he’s willing to do even more to preserve the “Eris legacy” by making sure she returns to her place as captain of the Nightflyer. This means he’ll go head-to-head with her son. Roy’s already curious why his right-hand man is challenging his authority out of the blue. All these things occurring at once are creating the perfect storm for chaos. We’ve seen what happens to Rowan and Agatha down the line, and every passing scene in this penultimate episode feels like we’re on the precipice of terrifying madness breaking loose.
Thale’s rocked by the painful feedback. He grabs a knife and puts it to his wrist. Before he can cut into himself, he’s stopped by the voice of Agatha. She’s come to him in her out-of-body self. She tells him to push himself out of his body, which he does, and the two meet outside of themselves. She speaks of a place called “Sutherland” where Ls were housed, separated because of the feedback. Now she worries the Volcryn’s feedback could kill them.

“I’ll see you on the other side”

The Volcryn are perched, waiting for the Nightflyer to make contact. Is it to talk? Or, are they seeking to destroy the ship and all the people on it? D’Branin isn’t thinking of any other possibilities than mutual communication, driven by the obsession with his daughter, and Melantha cautions against appearing “predatory” to the Volcryn. She experiences the patriarchy making decisions on their own, as Auggie, Eris, and D’Branin choose their own path. Well, Auggie’s doing his own thing cutting power to a part of the ship’s dome in the terraform, further undermining the others in loyalty to Cynthia.
Agatha goes to Karl, revealing her out-of-body self “channelling the TEK energy” of the Volcryn. She urges him to push forward with his mission. He goes to the bridge, insisting they head for their target faster. Melantha now notices the terraform is damaged, and the dome is prepared to blow unless they’re able to fix it— remember all those trees floating out in space during the initial episode? Oh, yes. Chaos is getting closer!
The Nightflyer falls into a state of madness. Systems on the ship fail as the dome explodes. Gravitational pull is now out of wack, sending people floating through the halls, like Agatha being chased by a Jack Torrance-like Rowan. Dr. Matheson makes it to a recorder, beginning to explain what’s happening, right before she hears the familiar whistles we began this series with, and Rowan comes in with axe in hand, a sole bee companion flying around the room.
When Agatha finishes her message, she prepares to send it into outer space through the bio-waste disposal. But she hasn’t yet escaped Rowan. He attacks her, though she manages to stab him in the leg, giving her time to send the recording off to its destination. Afterwards, Agatha kills herself to release Thale from their constant psychic feedback, allowing him the full use of his powers. An excellent full circle back to the first episode that changes the perspective slightly.
On the bridge, Rowan continues raging, cutting off one of Roy’s robotic hands. The captain starts malfunctioning, though it’s not long before the xenobiologist tries to finish him off. Not so easy when Cpt. Eris isn’t quite human and isn’t quite robot, he’s somewhere in between. Rowan’s stopped and hauled off, not that it particularly solves all the problems. Auggie’s helped Cynthia back to full form using Lommie as a vessel, and there’s no telling what Mrs. Eris has planned next.
Oh, and the Nightflyer’s made a full approach to the Volcryn. Should be interesting.
Just incredible! Father Gore’s loved every episode, even the couple that weren’t as amazing as the others. The storytelling has been top notch, and same goes for the performances. Lots of wild horror and sci-fi elements mashed up into a fun package. “All That We Have Found” is next— the big finale.