Debris Episode 5 recap: Earthshine

In Debris Episode 5, Finola struggles to balance her newfound knowledge with business as usual. INFLUX experiments with a dangerous piece of debris.

This week’s episode of NBC’s new science fiction series begins with a seemingly casual city bus ride. A young girl drops her glove, and a helpful fellow passenger points it out to her, so she doesn’t lose her second pair that month. Within seconds, things go topsy-turvy as the entire bus is plunged into silence and then disappears into some kind of portal.

When we next see it, it appears all of the passengers are dead except the good samaritan who slowly crawls out from the shattered windows. He notices a figure standing on the precipice. “Help me. Where am I?”

Up in the sky, Finola and Bryan have just received their newest case file on the Boston bus situation. Things are tense between them. Bryan assumes it’s because of their different case methods in Nebraska, but we know it’s because Finola has learned the truth about her dad.

Debris Episode 5 recap: Finola and Finn discover debris that creates wormholes.

On the scene in Boston, they find out that the bus came in contact with a piece of debris that opened up a wormhole and transported the bus from New Jersey to Boston. Bryan notes that a few months back, a piece of debris rumored to have that exact capability was stolen from Germany, shortly after another event in China. The usage of the debris caused “human strings of spaghetti.” Yuck, thanks for that visual, Bryan.

Detectives in New Jersey contact Bryan and Finola to send a brief video they have when the bus vanished. It shows the bus disappearing into a wormhole, and witnesses reported hearing a strange, high-pitched whining sound. Finola notices a man in the video’s background who disappears right after the bus does, but he leaves a coffee cup behind. Finola tells the New Jersey investigator to take the cup and test it for fingerprints.

In Boston, Finola and Bryan find the sole crash survivor. He’s not alive anymore. Whoever found him shot him and then took a skin sample and hair to test for DNA. It seems like INFLUX is behind this, and they’re experimenting.

Moments later, Finola is upset to discover the footage from the China incident is suddenly gone. Then fingerprint results arrive. Results show the coffee guy was Peter Joseph Eickmann. He arrived at JFK from Germany the day before. He’s on the CIA, MI6 and Interpol watchlist. They review footage of Peter arriving and meeting with the men who took Finola’s father, like Anson Ash.

Alone, Finola contacts Ferris. She’s frustrated because she wants to go after these guys, and she’s still confused as to how her dad could be alive. Could he be a clone? Finola is realizing that INFLUX knows more than they did before. They’re now able to do things they couldn’t a few months ago. Finola asks if Ferris can access the China video. She can’t. It looks like the Americans took it down. Finola wonders how on earth they can trust the Americans if they’re dishonest. How can she trust Bryan? Ferris assures her they have their own secrets from the Americans.

Debris Episode 5 recap: INFLUX experiments with debris that could create a massive, deadly weapon.

Then Finola and Bryan hear the high-pitched sound again. Uh-oh. “It’s going to happen again.” And the camera hones in on INFLUX leader Anson nearby.

Back in suburbia, Craig is struggling to keep his marriage afloat when he gets a call regarding the latest incident. The latest event is taking up more significant space. INFLUX is planning to make me than just a bus disappears this time; they’re planning to vanish a whole city.

Bryan presses Craig about the missing China footage. His handler claims not to know anything about it. Isn’t he the one who approves things like that? “Well, MI6 doesn’t always do what they’re told.”

Elsewhere, Ferris ignores Finola’s call and promises to call her back ASAP. Finola’s sister suddenly calls her moments later, asking her the name of an old song. Dee Dee is sitting outside of a hospital. She says Justin got “carried away.” Dee Dee appears to be in a bad place, which couldn’t be happening at a worse time. Finola asks her sister to go home and get some sleep. She’ll check in later.

Bryan’s been looking to see where the INFLUX operatives are staying, they notice Peter across the street, and he tries to make a runner. Bryan and Finola pull their guns on him and demand to know how to stop the next wormhole. “Even if you could stop it…you couldn’t stop it.” What the heck does that mean!?

Of course, before Bryan or Finola can get any answers that make sense, Peter says, “Another will rise in my place, this technology will be free,” and shoots himself in the head.

Finola gets back in touch with Ferris, desperate for the China footage. This time, Ferris has it. She gives Finola a secret meeting place because she doesn’t want to risk sending it over the network. A man pulls up in a truck (Sebastian Roché!) to hand her the file. He tells Finola that Ferris knows more than she’s letting on –– her dad isn’t a clone.

Using the footage, Finola deduces that the wormhole has to happen between two conductive metal poles. The whining sound is the charging process, like two big tuning forks. “If we don’t find the debris they’re using here, a whole chunk of Manhattan could literally disappear.”

After Craig arrives and the team narrows down the potential structures, they split up to take down one of the structures. All they need is to disable one, and the debris can’t complete its charge-up phase. As all this is going on, we go back to Anson. “The debris is charged 80%. It won’t be long.”

Finola’s group gets to the right skyscraper first, and Anson calls off the mission, at least at that location. He and his men grab the piece of debris and make a run for it. The debris piece is still above 70. Anson says as long as they keep it there, they can keep the charge for 15 minutes and reattempt their plan from a different place in the city. He gives his men another smaller piece of debris to “jump” from one point to another to successfully (and quickly) relocate the debris.

There is a lot of running and bullets flying from the assorted teams, Mallory gets shot and Finola goes rogue as she tries to follow one of the INFLUX agents.

Debris Episode 5 recap: A race against the clock.

While nursing a gun wound, Mallory proves herself a bada**  by walking Bryan through what he needs to do to desync the building and save the city.

Across the city, Finola runs into Anson, who comments that she has her father’s eyes. Finola starts screaming at him to tell her what he’s done with her father, but she’s cut off when the telltale signs of the wormhole begin, such as complete silence. Luckily, Bryan and Mallory manage to get the debris depowered in the knick of time, and the team arrives to assist Finola, incapacitating Anson.

Finola and Bryan talk after Anson’s arrest. She wants to know what they’ll do with Anson next, where they’ll take him. “Somewhere they can’t hear him scream.”

Outside, Finola meets Craig, who she obviously does not trust. She doesn’t tell Craig what Anson said to her before the agents took him down, but she does want to know if she can interview him. Craig assures her he’ll get what he wants out of Anson. He doesn’t really answer her question.

Across the pond, Dee Dee gets home safe and sends Finola a clip of them as kids dancing to the song she was striving to remember earlier, “Porque Te Vas” by Jeanette. And in the final seconds of Debris Episode 5, we see Anson sitting in the back of the transport vehicle singing the same song.

What did you think about Debris Episode 5? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

New episodes of Debris air Monday nights at 10:00 p.m. EST / 7:00 p.m. PST on NBC.