‘Pandora’ Season 2 Episode 5 Preview: Ralen resorts to senseless sporting violence to cope with loss of wife
In episode 4 of ‘Pandora’ Season 2, we saw many things happen. One, Ralen (Ben Radcliffe), after losing his wife Matta, cocooned himself in a virtual reality world with a virtual Matta to run away from the pain. Surprisingly, the person who came to his rescue was Jett (Akshay Kumar), a man who usually has the tact of a wooden block. Also, it’s worth noting that his “friends” Jax (Priscilla Quintana) and Xander (Oliver Dench) really left him to wallow in grief while they went on an adventure. Some friends, eh?
Anyway, sharing his own grief over the death of his sister, Jett snaps Ralen out of his grief cocoon -- only to have it backfire. Ralen leaves in search of a new world to start over. At the same time, in the aforementioned adventure Jax and Xander went on, they reached a planet and discovered a long-lost alien species with almost zero effort -- they couldn’t have been that long-lost then, can they?
On their way to find this long-lost race, Jax, Xander, and Shral experience chaotic and apocalyptic dreams that seem to get more powerful as they near the coordinates. We see Xander’s deep dark fears, as well as Jax’s and Shral’s (Vikash Bhai). Anyway, the long-lost race turns out to be a couple of meditating bald aliens who give Jax a shell necklace. No one knows what it does. Jax wonders how it would help her unite all species and change the mind of the Ancients who want to destroy their universe.
So, what comes next in episode 5 of ‘Pandora’? The episode is titled ‘On a Night Like This’ and that doesn’t give much away but the promo at the end of episode 4 does. For starters, we will see the return of Greg Li (John Harlan Kim). For those who may not remember, Greg is a medical student from the Earth Space Training Academy. In the promo, we see him point a gun at Xander, while on a different planet called Las Venus.
The only possible reason that Xander was there (as one can presume) is that he finally realized that he had been a terrible friend to Ralen and was there looking for him. But why would Ralen be there? We see, to much surprise, that Ralen has taken refuge from his grief with cliche. He has turned towards sporting violence to forget his now-gone wife. He has become a prizefighter on the planet, which is likely home to gambling in this universe. That name leaves little doubt.
At the same time, it seems that Jax’s uncle Donovan (Noah Huntley), who is now a fugitive, has left a secret mission for her. And it’s so secret that Sharl knows about it and informs Jax. Donovan’s plans must have something to do with Jax’s mother. So hopefully, that arc will take shape again and won’t be quietly discarded by the show. But how is that going to help her with her mission to save the universe? Lord only knows and knowing ‘Pandora’, it’ll not be subtle at all.
New episodes of ‘Pandora’ Season 2 arrive every Sunday at 8 pm ET on The CW.
