Scott Z. Burns’ dystopian sci-fi drama “Extrapolations” on Apple+ released its fifth episode today, and it brings something hopeful for a change. The last we saw of the planet suffering because of man’s extreme greed was in 2059 when Gita Mishra and her stepson Rowan Chopin devised a method to artificially cool the earth down. After Rowan exploded calcium carbonate across the earth, it was left up to fate to see how it’d impact the world, and “2059: Part 2” is the immediate aftermath of their actions. The title card shows the temperature hike is 2.2 degrees, and 93 million people are displaced annually because of climate change. The entire episode takes place against the backdrop of India, where extreme heat causes deaths daily, and it hasn’t rained in a year. Under such severe circumstances, two men set out on a journey to deliver precious cargo to someplace, and here’s what happens afterward.
Spoilers Ahead
India, 2059
Before the title card rolls, we see someone steal a packet of seeds from a location in Svalbard, Norway, before jumping into the sea. “Extrapolations” Episode 5 marks the second part of the year 2059, and we pick up immediately after the explosion of Gita Mishra’s carbon-neutral plane, The Rowan. We get a brief look into the life of a street-smart Indian man named Gaurav on the streets of Mumbai, which are at all times heavy with pollution and smog. People have to pay to take a breath of clean air from oxygen masks that are sold by vendors. We also see a vendor selling specially made drought-resistant seeds in jars, and it’s a shame that an agrarian nation like India has been reduced to such a state where crops no longer grow naturally. After taking quite a few swigs from a mask, Gaurav hops on the back of a scooter and heads to the Marine Drive of Mumbai, where he awaits as the driver heads inside. It’s here that we saw him last week witness the explosion of Gita’s plane in the air, and he questioned his companion about what the explosion was about. The other guy pays no attention to the matter and ushers Gaurav inside a factory where he meets a crippled man named Neel, who offers him biriyani made of synthetic rice and demands that he speak only English. Gaurav mentions that something exploded in the air, but he doesn’t know what, and the contractor, Neel, doesn’t really care either.
The Journey
There’s apparently a job for Gaurav where he has to drive some cargo to Varanasi, but he’ll need to do double shifts for the same, and when he argues, Neel asks him to take it up with “madam.” The contractor says the job will pay him 10,000 euros for him to drive an unnamed cargo from Mumbai to Varanasi and states that he’ll be tagging along with Gaurav for the 35-hour road trip. As Gaurav begins driving his truck through the Mumbai highway, Neel continues jabbering about things like his love for music, his ex-girlfriend, and his love for movies while the driver keeps getting increasingly irritated. The sweltering heat doesn’t help either, as Gaurav takes a swig from the oxygen mask before barking at Neel to stop talking. Neel takes notice of his oxygen mask and suggests using a device called Nas-Bots that uses nanobots before mentioning he was in the war with the Fifteenth Infantry in Amritsar. Gaurav goes on a rant about how Pakistan was rumored to use chemical weapons and how the war might still be ongoing, even though Neel assures him it’s over. The driver says he’s “agro-exempt” because his whole family committed suicide after the crops failed, so he didn’t have to join the war. This man from a small town in Bihar says everyone will be getting cancer because the air is toxic, but Neel vehemently argues that things will improve, though he can’t give a clear answer.
Trouble Begins
In a motel, as they go to sleep inside the oxygenated mattresses that wrap them up like a burrito, Gaurav and Neel talk about their individual hopes and dreams before discussing the chances of success of geoengineering. It’s the same concept we saw last week, where volcanic ash is spread into the atmosphere in hopes that the temperature cools down, and while Neel is hopeful, Gaurav is rather pessimistic. In 2059 India, people can no longer stay outside during the day, and life can only resume when the sun goes down. As the two men resume their journey, their truck is stopped by cops on the road at Karni, Madhya Pradesh, and they announce they’ll be searching the truck because they’ve been alerted to contraband being smuggled. The cops drag them out and start pummeling them before searching the truck. As they immediately go for a particular barrel, Gaurav slides Neel’s wheelchair to him, only to earn a few more thrashings by the brutality-prone cops. They find a lunchbox inside the barrel, and that’s all they need to aim the gun at Gaurav’s head, but Neel shoots all three policemen dead with a concealed pistol before ordering the driver to get back into the truck.
As Gaurav begins freaking out about the contents of the lunchbox and the consequences of killing three policemen, a woman who checked into a Mumbai hotel is alerted about the news of the suspects, and she sends out three drones to await the delivery of some package. As Neel wheels through a dirt road after dumping the truck, Gaurav demands to know what’s in the box, but apparently, it’s fingerprint-coded, and he suggests they hitchhike to Varanasi in a bus. When Gaurav turns to leave, Neel tells him that he’s needed for this job because of how important the package is, and they don’t have a choice but to move forward. The woman watches the live feed from the drones she sent, one of which picks up the scene of the shootout while the other locates the two men sitting on the road. Neel says he’s been assigned as Gaurav’s bodyguard as they hail a bus to reach Varanasi. They reach a clothes shop and meet a woman named Anusha, the “Madam.” Neel praises Gaurav’s courage, and Madam says the job isn’t over—they’ll have to deliver the package to Amritsar by the next day, and since they’re being hunted by cops, they’ll need to carry it out during the day. The package itself, which unlocks through Anusha’s thumbprint, is a cylindrical device that contains something suspicious. She shows them around a fully automated car with fake French pasted on the doors to make them appear as relief workers and gives them a bunch of instructions on how to survive the heat of the day, which can even melt the road. Anusha also introduces them to a Punjabi man named Harbaksh Mann, a genetic scientist who’ll also be going with them to Amritsar, all to ensure the success of some seeds. Mann had gone blind from a hypothermic shock because he was collecting data during the day, and although his eyesight was returning now, he had been in delirium for 2 weeks.
The three men drive through the burning heat inside the intensely chilled car, and Neel asks Mann what’s so special about the seeds inside the lunchbox. The scientist explains that these are rice seeds that were stolen from the seed vault at Svalbard and then agrees with Neel that the geoengineering process of spreading ash in the atmosphere will help the world. Later, Gaurav has Neel use a microscope app on the seed packet to realize the seeds don’t have a watermark on them like every other seed in the world. In 2059, there are no naturally occurring seeds, and each of them is produced in a lab, so Gaurav theorizes that these seeds might be part of the old strain, but they’re useless as the weather is too hot for these seeds to grow. The woman who’s been tracking the two men is seen inside Anusha’s shop. She informs an Alpha employee of how their targets have escaped, and she leaves. While driving, Gaurav spots a few kids out in the sweltering heat, and one of them shoots a mango using a catapult, at their windscreen. Neel fires his gun to scare them off, but one of the kids begins to suffer a stroke because of the heat. Neel limps out and gets his wheelchair, determined to save a soul in exchange for the three he killed last night, and wheels to the kid and puts him inside an oxygenated mattress with a reflective surface. By the time Gaurav reaches them, Neel has passed out from the heat, so he has to drag them both to the car. Gaurav drives the kid to his village, honks for his parents to come, and then requests that they help Neel. As Gaurav and Harbaksh carry Neel inside, the man who’s frothing at the mouth tries pointing towards the drone that’s tracking them. Realizing they need to cool Neel’s body, Gaurav is preparing to go to the next village to fetch ice and instructs Mann to keep a watch on Neel when the scientist is struck by a needle and rendered unconscious.
A Shootout And Two Deaths
The woman shows up, gun in hand, demands the seeds, and then hands Gaurav a knife to slash the tires. Just then, Neel rushes out once again, firing at the stranger, and a shootout ensues, with Neel getting shot. As the woman approaches the downed man for the kill, the kid’s mom runs out and begs her to spare Neel’s life. While she’s asking the woman to go back inside, she’s distracted by Gaurav, and the mother uses the opportunity to stab the attacker in the neck with a piece of glass. Despite Gaurav’s best attempts, Neel succumbs to his wounds, and in anger, the driver tries shooting the drone with the woman’s gun, but it’s the kid’s slingshot that downs the Alpha drone. As Gaurav and Mann drive to Amritsar, they’re stopped by a checkpoint, but thanks to the diplomatic plates, they’re allowed to go free. Gaurav helps reunite Mann with the people waiting for him, and before parting, the scientist hands him a packet of rice seeds and recounts the Indian version of Jack and the magic beanstalk. Gaurav dumps the car and takes the bus to reach the village where Neel died, and while walking by, he hears thunder. As he’s sitting in Neel’s wheelchair, it finally begins raining for the first time in a year; the kid he and Neel had saved comes out to get drenched in the first rain. While enjoying the purifying rain that shall cool the earth and save the planet, Gaurav hands him the packet of seeds and says it’s probably magic—the same magic that might help reproduce crops once more, naturally.
‘Extrapolations’ Episode 5: Ending Explained – Why Did It Finally Rain In India?
In “Extrapolations” Episode 4, we saw 2 million metric tons of calcium carbonate being detonated in the atmosphere all across the globe, thanks to Rowan Chopin and Gita Mishra’s plan. The next episode, which continues immediately after Gita’s plane’s explosion, follows the journey of a driver and a bodyguard who is tasked with transporting a package. This package contains special rice seeds—special because these were from before the world’s corporations began artificially producing seeds because natural crops wouldn’t grow anymore in the extreme heat. As a result, a portion of seeds that was stolen from the seed vault in Svalbard, Norway—known to store samples of natural seeds—was transported to India so that genetic scientist Harbaksh Mann could help mass produce these seeds in India so that rice can be produced naturally again. However, there was little chance of naturally growing crops in this sweltering heat until the rain came to the rescue. The question is, what made it rain after one year of such extreme heat waves?
It was the calcium carbonate that Rowan spread across the globe that created a layer of refracting surface that brought on precipitation by increasing air convection. According to Mann, centuries ago, nomads had done the same on desert patches, but they were too far from the sky, so covering the entire stratosphere with ash helped create the desired effect across the world and finally bring rain. Not only might this rain help save the planet, but it’ll also allow the natural growth of crops, which the evil corporation Alpha wanted to stop by sending the hitwoman. Did this effort save the planet for decades to come? We’ll have to wait for the next episodes to find out.
