The 12th episode of Surface aired this week, and it was a real doozey! I loved it. Even my wife, who has made fun of the show repeatedly, came running in from the other room, asking, “What happened!?” In my book, the show earned high marks for turning what was once a Disney-esque sci-fi story into a real, genuine thrill-o-rama. Final grade: A , with the note that this was one of the juiciest, most surprising hours of television this season.

Miles continues his physiological changes: his pupils are becoming oval, almost cat-like in their appearance; he’s easily angered; lights flicker as he walks past them; and he’s emitting loads of static electricity. His doctor blames it on puberty, but Miles knows it’s because of the bite he suffered. Meanwhile, Caitlin – Dr. Blum’s daughter – invites him to a party. He attends, and the pair nearly kiss, but she pulls away due to his static-y nature. That night, one of the revelers goes missing in the water; the following day, they find his left arm on the beach. (Miles knows it’s one of the creatures.) Mysteriously, Miles rushes to the aquarium – from which he was banned? – and learns that Nim has attacked an employee. Miles enters Nim’s room, feeds and cuddles him. The next day, shortly after telling Caitlin he’s sick, Miles and her meet and kiss. When he pulls his hands from her face, he has some kind of freaky slime that’s sticking to his fingers and her face. Yes, Miles, you ARE sick!

Meanwhile, Rich and Laura escape the bad guys who’re after them…by faking their escape. In other words, the bad guys thought Rich and Laura had climbed out the hotel window, when, in fact, they were hiding on the window ledge. As they run away, Rich beats up a goon for the Agency for Strategic Intelligence, grabs his badge and gun, and proclaims, “I guess it’s official. Now we’re fugitives.”  As they hide at a friend’s house, Laura receives an email. It’s from some Mystery Person who wants to sample the creature’s DNA from the tissue sample Laura has. The Mystery Person provides an address, and gives them a clue: 576.0162AR. Naturally, the clue is the Dewey decimal system linked to Darwin ’s Origin of the Species. Next to the book (the address is for a library) is a pouch containing fake ID’s, cash, and a phone. The phone rings immediately, and the Mystery Person says they want to meet Laura with the samples in 24 hours. Of course, she doesn’t have the samples with her, but she calls Sean and asks him to deliver them to her, which he does, dutifully. Rich and Laura meet the Mystery Person in the assigned spot, and it turns out it’s Martha Plimpton – who works for the Mystery Person. Plimpton only wants Laura, though. (Man, this is the second time Rich gets dissed!) He protests, but Laura goes with Plimpton, anyway. Soon, we learn that Plimpton is the Mystery Person and claims that she and “about 2500 other people” who were working for a “nonexistent corporation” engineered the creatures. When Laura dumbfoundedly asks why she would engineer such an animal, Plimpton says: “Because we could.”

Five reasons this episode were awesome:

* When Laura contacts Sean requesting he deliver the tissue samples to her, she closes her video message with “Help me, Obi-Wan. You’re my only hope.” – a cool tribute to Star Wars. (A few more geeky references would be cool and endear the show to, um, geeks.)

* Nim is going berserk. I love it when creatures go berserk. (It also foreshadows that the other creatures are…just…about…to…follow.)

* The totally horrific look on Caitlin’s face after she sees the slime on Miles’ hands (and her face!) was priceless. What a creepy, unexpected occurrence.

* Two words: Martha Plimpton. She’s one of the best character actors around, and I think her quirkiness will add a new level to the show.

* I love that the otherwise restrained Miles is assuming some of the characteristics of the creatures. I bet he ends the season as nearly super-human. (Will he become bad and dangerous, though?)

 

Did you watch? What did you think?