On Debris latest episode, “In Universe,” a Debris created storm affects those trapped in its range and rewrites their DNA. Bryan and Finola come to a head on how to solve the problem- if they can.
Harder to Breathe | We begin in Maxwell, Nebraska, where a few farm workers get caught in a storm that seems to only be contained to their area. One of the farmers follows the path of the rain out through the cornfield and suffocates to death once he leaves the field and the circle of rainfall. Enter Bryan (Jonathan Tucker) and Finola (Riann Steele), who are told by the coroner who found the body that the change in atmosphere caused him to suffocate and the change was most likely Debris related.
Bryan and Finola suit up in survival suits and venture into the storm’s range, where they find a group of people hiding in the greenhouse who tell them that they’ve had problems breathing outside and one woman says that her son is missing. Bryan quickly realizes that anyone who leaves the storm’s circle dies before he finds the missing son next to the Debris chunk and a few other dead bodies.
Terraforming | Bryan returns the boy to his mother, just as a man named Efraim arrives at the farm to check on his family. Finola can’t tell him what’s going on, but keeps him on the premises and proceeds to analyze a flower she plucked from the cornfield and determines that the atmosphere is now almost entirely chlorine based and the people inside the greenhouse are now breathing chlorine exclusively, meaning they might not survive if the Debris is removed. To make matters worse, the storm is widening its range.
Finola takes a blood sample from Efraim, who turns out to be the uncle of the missing boy, Arturo, and he feels guilty for leaving for work after his brother died and wonders if this is his punishment. With Bryan’s help, Finola also takes blood from Arturo to compare the two to find a way to save them. At that moment, a containment team from Orbital arrives and prepares to remove the Debris against Finola’s wishes, since doing so could kill everyone inside, but Bryan tells her that they can’t save everyone and if they don’t remove the Debris, the spreading storm could terraform the planet.
One Last Chance | As the agent from Orbital talks to Bryan about his former partner named Julian, who is apparently dead, a doctor tells Finola that the storm has changed the peoples’ DNA to the point that it may be irreversible. Finola then remembers Debris Piece 289, which creates suspended animation in a subject and convinces Maddox (Norbert Leo Butz) to have it flown in so they can put the affected people in stasis until they can find a way to save them.
But when Finola tries to tell Efraim the truth, Bryan orders her not only to keep him in the dark, but take him into the city against his will, which doesn’t sit well with Finola, but she does it anyway. Finola then gets a call from Ferris (Anjali Jay) with the worst timing of all time: Ferris informs her that they found evidence of George’s death being faked and that the American agents have known for a long time, but she can’t tell anyone about this.
This inspires Finola to tell Efraim the truth about what’s about to happen to his nephew and sister and Efraim runs into the greenhouse and goes into suspended animation along with the rest of the affected people so he can be with his family. They turn off the Debris, clearing up the storm, but Bryan sees the agents checking on the frozen people and sees Efraim with them. He asks Finola why she did it and she is clearly shaken up and tells him that he will never understand before she walks back to the plane.
Debris airs Mondays on NBC.