An astronaut emerges out of some woods and is shot by terrified teenagers. An investigation reveals that the astronaut would have died of Hypoxia anyway, but John discovers signs that connect the astronaut's demise to what happened to him.
This is a bit of a weak episode, really. Leaving aside the fact that some kids are paranoid and stupid enough to shoot an astronaut by mistake, surely something of a worry for our current space explorers, it's just a combination of bluffs and pointless plotlines. The connection to John is barely mentioned after its first appearance, and we're left to assume it was just a weird coincidence, unless someone's going to come along and tie together a lot of disparate loose ends as the season heads towards a conclusion.
The part of the story set in the landing module/research station that John, Hayes and Digger investigate is pretty pointless, serving mainly to get most of the cast out of the way for the bulk of the story. It relies too much on convenience as well; there's no reason that when the air is turned to poison, John should be the last one standing after the others have collapsed, there's no way they should be able to shake off the toxic effects and stop fighting among themselves with willpower alone, and considering how late in the day John manages to signal Avery, the chances of her getting out to where he is, past the field of traps and getting in through the sealed door are slim to none. Yet somehow, this supercop manages it. I mean, exactly how near is a forest to the Seattle police precinct? It certainly doesn't look like there's any greenery especially close, and this is meant to be a quiet environment where no one is likely to go!
It's also a pretty poor conspiracy-related outcome. The motive for killing the astronauts is pretty poor, and to have one suspect throughout, only to then chuck in a scapegoat at the last minute is just a twist for the sake of having a twist, and I don't buy it at all. There are points of this story that are fun and interesting, but not enough to make it especially good.
**
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