Extrapolations season 1 episode 5 recap & review: 2059 Part II: Nightbirds

Open Go TV / April 3, 2023 / Reviews

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In Extrapolations episode 5, a small-time criminal and his daredevil companion embark on a high-stakes mission.

Recap

Gaurav is a delivery driver in Mumbai, a city that in 2059 has become a hellscape doused in smog that inflicts everyone with its toxicity. Amid perpetual coughing there are street side vendors with oxygen masks, that you can take shots of wiyh online payments.

Gaurav is tasked with another delivery and it soon becomes clear that his deliveries can easily be shady in nature. After he sees the plane that Gita Mishra was inside in the previous episode blow up in the sky, he meets the guy who’d brief him on the mission.

The delivery is for Varanasi, but he isn’t trusted with the nature of the cargo. His companion would be Neel, an amputee. Gaurav is reluctant to the idea of completing the delivery with someone else but the “Madam” they’re all working for has insisted that things be done this way.

Midway through their delivery, they’re stopped by the police who are about to shoot Gaurav dead when Neel turns the table and shoots all the cops down. They dump the truck take off for another route, after Gaurav shows a lot of reluctance.

Meanwhile, they’re being chased by a vicious woman who works for Nick Bilton. They reach Varanasi but Madam tasks them to go to Amritsar instead, where they also have to transport an old and kind of senile genetic scientist.

They are interrupted by Wet Bulb temperature flares and to save a silly boy playing outside, Neel gets out of the vehicle and the heat protection shield, following which he has to be treated by the young boy’s family in the village ahead.

Meanwhile, the woman chasing them catches up and in the shootout that ensues, Neel dies. Gaurav tries to fight but fails, only for one of the villagers to impale the woman’s neck with a knife.

Gaurav completes the mission, delivering the scientist to the concerned parties and also the seeds. He gives the young boy that they saved earlier the packet of seeds that the scientist handed him, just as rain starts pouring down, before Extrapolations episode 5 rolls the credits.

Review

Extrapolations episode 5 is one of the more tense installments so far, as the story is once again connected to the central thread that connects all stories in the show this far.
The moments of immediate peril that Gaurav faces leaves something to be desired and also a certain level of confusion as to why isn’t Neel shown to be wheeling away from the action first, only for him to then return and save Gaurav. What we get has tension, sure, but it could’ve been executed a bit more thoughtfully.
It’s a bit annoyingly trite at this point to once again show that a fatal sacrifice is what it takes for the prejudiced to qualify themselves as a fellow human worthy of equal treatment in the eyes of the bigot.
The extremely dire circumstances that India of 2059 suffers from don’t seem that far-fetched when one considers the amount of toxicity that pervades the indigenous atmosphere currently.
Adarsh Gourav delivers a solid performance as Gaurav and his chemistry with Gaz Choudary’s Neel is one of the best parts of Extrapolations episode 5.