Origin season 1, episode 4 recap: God’s Grandeur

Henri’s traumatizing past is revealed as he works to uncover what exactly killed the passengers and crew. Meanwhile, Eric wreaks havoc on the Origin.

Origin‘s fourth episode picks up with Eric (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) still at large. He attacks Logan (Tom Felton), and some tendril-like things start wriggling out Eric’s eye toward Logan’s, but Katie (Siobhán Cullen) intervenes just in time.

Shun (Sen Mitsuji) and Henri (Fraser James) follow Eric’s trail, but they get sidetracked when Henri sees Taylor (Wil Coban) and realizes they can use him to figure out what’s going on. Henri removes the top of Taylor’s skull with a laser in order to expose his brain and finds a parasitic organism attached to it.

Henri believes the organism essentially high-jacked Taylor’s brain and controlled his behavior, which means Eric probably isn’t in control either.

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Who is Henri?

As you’re probably suspecting, Henri actually is a doctor, or at least he was one — until Penelope Blossom ruined his life. Riverdale‘s Nathalie Boltt, using her natural South African accent, guest stars as Laura Kassman, an employee of the South African government who wants Henri’s help.

Back in the day, Dr. Henri Gasana was an expert in using gene regulation to treat rare hereditary conditions. The basic idea is that if you can target and “turn off” certain genes, the conditions won’t be activated.

But what if you could do the opposite? What if you could “turn on” certain genes to activate a hereditary condition that had been dormant? Laura approached Henri to do just that as a matter of “national security.”

Hundreds of thousands of refugees had been fleeing to South Africa to escape a dictator, Jakonya, in an unnamed neighboring country. The South African government feared conflicts between citizens and refugees over resources would eventually lead to civil war. They wanted to stop the refugee crisis altogether by taking out Jakonya.

But, of course, they couldn’t appear to be behind the assassination, so they needed an “invisible bullet.” Henri successfully created a “brain-based virus” that triggered the formation of a hereditary tumor in Jakonya’s brain but didn’t affect others in his family who carried the same gene.

Unfortunately, Henri didn’t fully consider the consequences, namely, that Jakonya’s death would be devastating for his wife and two young children. Laura told Henri that he was a hero because he shouldered a burden so that others wouldn’t have to, but Henri’s guilt didn’t subside. 

What happens to Eric?

While Henri is examining Taylor, Shun heads back out to look for Eric. Despite Shun’s protests, Lana (Natalia Tena) joins him, promising she won’t freeze again. But actually, they both end up freezing, literally. Eric’s trail of blood leads them to the Origin morgue’s (apparently it has one), but then Eric locks them in from the outside. The room’s temperature was -12 already, and it just keeps dropping.

Lana realizes shutting down the ventilation system will help. Shun removes the vent cover but cuts his hand badly and then gets knocked out when he tries to stop the rotating blades behind the cover. Lana manages to stop the blades but fears for Shun’s health. Abigail arrives shortly thereafter and lets them out.

Elsewhere, Eric finds a communication device and emotionally manipulates Venisha (Nina Wadia), who’s guarding Rey (Nora Arnezeder), into seeking him out. He claims to have no memory of trying to kill Rey and pretends to be remorseful and horrified by his actions.

The empathetic Venisha becomes Eric’s latest target, but Henri soon finds them in a compartment and helps fight Venisha fight him off. Eric proves to be incredibly strong and resilient, though. When Venisha stabs Eric with a scalpel as he’s attacking Henri, Eric shoves Henri out of the room and then punches Venisha.

Eric stands between Venisha and the doorway, but Henri realizes that he will not be able to stop Eric with his fists and that he can’t let Eric escape again. He has to make a sacrifice for the great good, again. When Eric lunges at him, Henri closes the compartment door, trapping both Eric and Venisha inside.

Eric tries to get Henri to cave by holding the scalpel to Venisha’s throat, but Henri reluctantly keeps the door closed and instead opens another one, spacing both of them.

Banding together

At the end of the episode, the Origin’s passengers connect on a new level. Rey and Abigail comfort a devastated Henri. Lana and Shun decide they’re even now that she saved his life and engage in some friendly banter.

Logan and Katie cook a meal for everyone. Then, as everyone finds quarters to sleep, Logan thanks Katie for looking out for him and kisses her. In addition to saving him from Eric in this episode, she helped him recover from an epileptic seizure back in episode two and agreed to keep his condition a secret from the other passengers.

The romantic tension between them has been pretty apparent, so I wasn’t surprised by the kiss. But Katie was. When Logan pulls away, she says nothing, except, “uh.” She awkwardly steps into her room, looks at Logan as if she feels bad that he likes her and then closes the door. I’m guessing whatever happened in her past has made her wary of relationships, but we’ll have to wait and see.

What threat remains?

As everyone else is going to bed, Henri goes back to the compartment where Eric and Venisha died and finds something disturbing. He had been too guilt-ridden to watch them get spaced, and when he’d closed the door again, the compartment had been empty.

The compartment is still empty, but Henri spots a bloody handprint on the ceiling, right by an escape hatch. So, it looks like Eric survived after all, and Venisha died in vain.

What do you think of Origin so far? Who’s your favorite character? Let us know in the comments section below.