The Super Powered Fancast

Lost in Space

Netflix

Season 1 Episode 8

“Trajectory”

All hell is breaking loose as Victor decides to take off in the Jupiter 4 with his family to try to reach the Resolute. Maureen and John have to spring into action because Maureen knows that the Jupiter 4 doesn’t have enough fuel to reach escape velocity. Maureen is desperately trying to get Victor to listen to reason and that’s when another secret gets revealed; Penny told Vijay about the planet.

John goes into full bad-ass mode and leaps onto the 4. He manages to cut power enough so that the ship is forced to land and Maureen decides to tell the colonists about the planet. After everyone gets over the initial shock, the geeks get to work trying to figure out a solution. This part made sense because of who they brought on as colonists. I believe they would spend their time working on the problem rather than lamenting it. As Maureen comes up with a possible solution, Judy confronts her with the information she’s learned about Smith.

This is the moment when Parker Posey shines as this character. After Maureen tricks her into going into the storage room and locking her in, Smith immediately starts to tell her just enough truth to make her dangerous. She uses her stolen sister’s identity to convince Maureen that she might have sabotaged the Jupiter 4. Her ability to manipulate everyone is in full effect in her scenes in this episode. You can tell that she’s been listening to everything and everyone and making her plans accordingly.

Maureen decides that the best way to get the ship into orbit is to strip it of everything non-essential. I have to admit that this entire sequence reminded me of The Martian, but it still worked in context of the story. After going through the colony records, Maureen discovers that John is the only one with the scores necessary to survive the trip and wake up in time to steer the ship into orbit. Will is worried about his dad being on the trip alone and Smith uses that as a means of tricking Will into freeing her. As she escapes the Jupiter 2, she begins the next part of her plan and a tragedy shakes the entire group, especially the Robinson family.

Definitely one of the stronger episodes. After the previous one, this episode brought so many storylines to a head and put some actual tension in the mix with outing Smith.