Alec gets a call to help NASA in The Irrational season 2, episode 16, and naturally he can’t say no. The question is whether a married couple can head to space to save another couple of astronauts.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for The Irrational season 2, episode 16.
The episode starts with us focused on the NASA mission that goes wrong. A couple of astronauts are trapped in space, and NASA needs to send others up to rescue them. There is something against a married couple going up for a variety of reasons, but this married couple are the best at their jobs, and NASA wants to send them.
So, they need to make sure the couple will be able to get along while under pressure. Alec is called in to assess them. Things go wrong, but it’s not from Alec’s experiment.
A simulation goes wrong in The Irrational season 2, episode 16
Alec uses the Gottmans as a way to test the couple. If you’ve ever been through marriage or couples counselling, you’ll know all about the Gottmans. I won’t go into them in this post. What I will say is that their research is a good baseline for Alec’s tests.
During a simulation with NASA, Andre suffers a real medical emergency. The whole simulation proves that the two can work together, but it opens up another situation. Bo, who runs the simulations, encouraged Andre to fake an oxygen leak to test his wife, Selena, but Andre told Selena. The only way Selena will continue with the mission is by Bo stepping down.
Well, while Bo does end up being removed from the simulations, it’s not the end of the mystery surrounding what actually happened to Andre. When Bo turns up dead, it’s clear that this case is going to involve the authorities.
It turns out that the Cosmonauts who were going to jump on the shuttle with the Americans were at Bo’s house the night before. We get a huge story that involves a Space Race. The Russians in this want to build their own space station instead of working with others from the International Space Station. Preventing a fix on the International Space Station would be better for the Russians, and it’s soon clear that this could be something much bigger than the murder of a NASA scientist.
The case of the white and gold dress!
Do you remember the gold and white/black and blue dress situation? Well, The Irrational brings it up with Rizwan’s shirt. A good amount say blue and black, which is what it appears to be on the screen, but others say white and gold. It turns out that everyone is right, and there are a lot of theories.
One of those is that we connect an image with another picture in our heads. This leads to us viewing somethings differently, and the rule is to not believe your eyes!
Well, all it proves is that both Cosmonauts that remember the different color shoes may be right. That doesn’t explain who killed Bo. The head of the program, Shel, is certainly fast to get Marisa off the case, though, so what is he hiding? You know, when someone wants to get the authorities away, they’re usually hiding something. That isn’t just the case in work; it happens in life as well.
The backup crew is heading up to the space station instead. As the case gets trickier, it’s time to get answers about Bo. Andre makes through his hypoxia situation, he is able to share that Shel wanted Andre to fake a situation. With that, Alec was able to figure out that Shel wanted to prevent Andre and Selena from going up together, and when that didn’t happen, he needed to take down Bo for self-preservation. Selena and Andre are able to help prove that Shel did it.
It had nothing to do with the Russians, though. The show decided not to go the Space Race route, and I’m glad for that. There’s enough going on in the world with Russia right now. As real as it could be, sometimes, we just need to focus on fictional drama.
In some great news, Andre and Selena end up back on the mission. That’s great news for the crew on the space station.
Seeing Alec and Marisa consistently working together has been great this season. There’s no jealousy and no question about whether they’ll get back together. We get to see that exes can just end up working together and be friends, especially when they ended on somewhat mutual and understandable terms.
Kylie wants to avoid a course with the FBI in The Irrational
Throughout the episode, Kylie wants to avoid doing a driving course with the FBI, but she’s interrupted by Marisa. It turns out that Cam is considering moving to DC, but it’s not for Marisa. It’s for a woman he’s just met, and Marisa wants to tell him that it’s not a good idea. Is it a good idea to step in as a parent? She does step in, and it turns out she had good advice but it took a breakup for Cam to see it. That’s okay; kids are meant to do that!
There is a more important storyline with Kylie. This driving course involves crashing, and Kylie really doesn’t want to do it. She has seen enough crashes in the ICU.
Well, Raina Allan (played by Supernatural’s Briana Buckmaster) decides that Kylie isn’t getting out of this. She’ll join Kylie on the course. I do love Raina’s character and she reminds me a lot of Donna from Supernatural. She’s not quite as quirky and joyful, but there’s enough there to put a smile on my face.
In the end, Raina was just what Kylie needed. She absolutely loved the course. Raina not so much! Kylie passed Crash-Bang One, though. I do want to know the same as Kylie. Is there a Crash-Bang Two?
I guess she won’t say no to another course like this, then!
What’s going on between Simon and Phoebe?
Throughout The Irrational season 2, episode 16, there were a lot of looks between Simon and Phoebe. It doesn’t take Rizwan long to figure out that they are a couple. Well, not quite.
The last we saw the two of them, they kissed, but it seems their relationship hasn’t gone further than that. The two just need to talk about it, showing us the issue with a lot of couples. Too many people don’t talk about what they want and need, and this isn’t just in terms of a romantic relationship. Friends don’t always talk either, and I’ll be the first to admit that I can have a problem with this.
In the end, Simon and Phoebe realize that they want to go on a date together, and they kiss again. Can we see another healthy relationship in this series? I mean, I’d love more of the conversations about perfect birthday gifts again. I’m so on board with Alec getting the barbecue sauce, although flying out to see Rose is much better!
I’m intrigued by how the dynamic will shift between the three after this, though. Rizwan does give a look that shows he’s concerned about it.
The Irrational airs on Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC. Catch up the following day on Peacock.
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