This episode is narrated by True Danziger. She remarks that
it has been two weeks since the team crashed on G889.
Gaal constantly refers to True as Poppet. This is a British
term of endearment for a girl. The term also means "puppet",
which plays ironically when, at the end of the episode, True
remarks in her narration that she never found out what
"poppet" means, not knowing that Gaal has been pulling her
strings since they met (and still is).
True remarks that she feels like a prisoner here, with all
the rules and the wristlock she (and Uly) have to wear to
monitor her whereabouts. This is ironically similar to
Gaal's situation when he first arrived on G889 15 years
ago, as a genuine convict; his grasp of this allows him to
manipulate True's feelings towards him and against the people on the
Eden Advance team, even her father.
Working on the broken DuneRail, Danziger finds that the
solar converter is shattered. But just one minute later he
tells Devon the crystal fuse is missing. A bit later, we see
Danziger remove a partially-shattered transparent cylinder
from the undercarriage of the DuneRail, presumably the
previously-mentioned solar converter. And that night, Gaal
is seen handing off something that looks like a large,
glowing spark plug to a Grendler, presumably the crystal
fuse. One could assume then that Gaal shattered the cylinder
in order to steal the fuse inside to prevent the group from
moving any further while he made his plans.
As the foal is emerging from it's artificial placental sack,
Yale exclaims, "Oh, my God! It's an Equus callabus!"
He's trying to state the scientific nomenclature for the
domestic horse, but (oddly, since he's a cyborg tutor) he
mispronounces it. He should have said, "Equus caballus".
Uly decides to name the new horse Pegasus.
Pegasus was a winged horse in the
ancient Greek mythology of Earth.
When True is crying over not having her own horse like Uly's,
Gaal exclaims, "A horse...a horse...my kingdom for a horse!"
This is a famous line from Shakespeare's play Richard
III.
Doing food inventory, Bess discovers that two boxes of
alpha-glutenate are missing. Alpha-glutenate does not appear
to be a real world food product, but gluten is a protein
composite found in wheat and other grains. In previous
episodes, team members have been seen eating
semolina bars, another wheat-based product. Even today,
wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in the
human diet worldwide.
As Yale does a search of his own database for
background on Gaal, we see lines of information scrolling
across the screen via the POV of his left eye. The lines
indicate that no data on Gaal is found in Yale's general
database. Yale then searches through records of the galactic
exploration projects Pontel 1-6; no Gaal found. Looking in
the personnel records of Pontel 7, of which Gaal had
indicated he was a member in
"The Man Who Fell to Earth (Two)",
Yale also finds no listing of Gaal. We do see the names of
other participants in the Pontel 7 project: J.T. Murrah,
A.L. Pfaffinger, and M.J. Pabone. (J.T. Murrah is likely a
wink to John T. Murrah, who was a visual effects compositor
on the two-hour pilot episode
"First Contact").
Spying the E2 tattoo on Gaal's neck, Yale's database reveals
a
sanitation
program on the stations by that designation, established in
2159, the program being designed to rid the stations of
non-recyclable waste, with the waste locations being
classified, but possible location given as "E2 G889".
The odd thing is that Yale doesn't seem to react to
the possible location of the waste as being G889 until
Morgan makes a remark about it later. According to the
stories they were always told on the stations, G889 has been
essentially untouched by humans until the Eden Project, so
shouldn't he immediately be suspicious of anything
suggesting past use of this world?
True tells Gaal that at a synth-arcade she rode a bronco
horse for the first time and no one was able to break her
record, staying on for 22 minutes. Presumably a synth-arcade
provides robotic or virtual reality experiences such as
bronco riding.
As True tries to show Gaal how to use voice commands to
operate the TransRover, he jokes, "Like, um, 'open sesame'?"
The phrase "open sesame" as a magical command originates
from the English translation of the
classic Arabic tale, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
The person that's supposed to be True riding the horse at
28:43 on the DVD looks rather larger than young actress J.
Madison Wright, don't you think? Must have been a stuntwoman
for this particular shot.
As a reward for their servitude, Gaal gives two Grendlers
each a leaf smeared in his own blood, which they devour
and seem to enjoy immensely. Is he trying to inculcate a
taste for human blood in them so they will want to kill the
colonists? In the later episode
"Brave New Pacifica",
we see that some Grendlers seem to be addicted to human blood
from a medical case of human blood scavenged from one of the
cargo pods.
When Gaal discovers True spying on his transaction with the
Grendlers, he says, "My, Poppet, what big eyes you have."
Obviously, Gaal is quoting from the fairy tale "Little Red
Riding Hood". Ironically, he is speaking as if he were the
innocent girl and she the wolf, but we know he is truly a
wolf in sheep's clothing.
At 40:03 on the DVD, there appears to be a jet contrail in
the sky, which shouldn't exist on G889. Unless a Grendler is
flying around in the VTO aircraft missing from the cargo pod
found in "First Contact"
Part 2? Yeee-haaaaa!
Notice that the white diamond-shaped spot on the horse's
head appears to have been painted on in shots throughout the
episode.
If you watch closely, it becomes obvious that the location
where True falls off the horse and rolls over to watch Gaal
riding away, is different than the one she stands up at as
her father races up in the DuneRail.
If you watch carefully at the moment Danziger knocks Gaal
off the horse at about 44:03 on the DVD, a telephone pole
can be seen on the horizon in the background!
As Danziger and True pull away from Gaal in the DuneRail at
46:23 on the DVD, there appears to be a tower of some kind
on top of the mountain in the distance.
Memorable Dialog
two little steps from camp.wav
usual
mischief.wav
I
hate this planet.wav
is that you, Poppet?.wav
he's not of your caliber.wav
I hate this dirty, filthy planet.wav
my kingdom for a horse.wav
a place where magic happens.wav
why do you say things like that?.wav
Gaal would say the Grendlers took the boxes.wav
that's the spirit.wav
never doubted you.wav
I couldn't be more proud.wav
all these Grendlers wandering around.wav
Mr. Danziger has disappointed me for the last time.wav
what big eyes you have.wav
you must trust me, Poppet.wav
whistle for yourself.wav
I
will shoot you.wav
the land where magic happens.wav
Back to Earth 2
Episode Studies