Secret Level – Episode 11 “Exodus: Odyssey” Recap & Review

Exodus: Odyssey

Episode 11 of Secret Level transports us over to the world of Exodus: Odyssey. Our story takes place on Lidon, a frontier planet. A new world that’s always been too small for Mari. Mari’s mother died when she was young and she’s been raised by her father, Nik. Mari is desperate to do more with her life, including exploring the galaxy, but her dad is not so sure that’s a good idea.

However, a guy called Rafe Sabatine has the solution she needs when he touches down on the planet. Mari seizes her opportunity and jets off with Rafe, leaving behind a datapad saying sorry to her pa. For Nik, his daughter is everything and as a result, he loans some money from Thady to get himself into a cargo hauler to work and get his daughter back.

He makes it over to a planet called Scotia, which happens to be a radioactive wasteland. While it’s only been a year for Nik, its been 8 for Mari, given the way time works in intergalactic travel.

After a close call on a mission, Mari and Rafe jet off for Melayu, the homeworld of the Sabatine family. Unfortunately, Nik’s journey is fruitless, given Rafe and Mari left years back. You see, while its only been a few years for Nik, its been 26 for the duo. They were after some form of treasure at the time but something went horribly wrong, resulting in them being attacked by Celestials.

With little other choice, Nik decides to surrender himself to the Celestials, becoming part of their indentured human crew in order to find Mari and save her.

We then cut forward in time. Its been 53 years for Mari and Rafe, and the Celestials have now closed in on them. Nik has armed a detonator to destroy the Celestial ship, giving the pair enough time to get out in one piece.

Nik communicates with Mari over the comms unit and guides her through, eventually attacking the Celestials but, unfortunately, Mari ends up hit in the process. Nik charges onto the ship to find his daughter, who is much older than before.

While she survives, whisked off to a hospital to tend to her injuries, the wound is just too severe. In her last moments, Mari and Nik sit together and the former talks about her travels, reinforcing that she is a proper traveller.

Nik eventually returns to Lidon and pays off his debt to Thady. She’s passed now, but Kara Voss, our narrator, receives the debt (with interest) to help smooth things over.

The Episode Review

This episode feels like its ripped the ideas from Interstellar about aging and space travel, and then extended that out into a chapter about two souls fighting for very different reasons. The trouble is, there’s nothing here that would make you root for Mari. Sure, she’s Nik’s daughter but in all those years she never once thought to head back home and see her dad? Or even try to send a communication to him? She just cast him aside and left.

As for Nik, his only purpose has been to get his daughter back and surely now that he’s done that, the Celestials will have a bullseye painted on his back for sabotaging their ship. So realistically, it’s a bit of a bittersweet chapter that I guess one could make the case as a metaphor toward allowing your kids to branch out and letting them go on their own journey.

All that considered, the actual plot elements and ideas are good and they’re woven effectively into the fabric of the episode. Furthermore, the visuals are great and the world is certainly interesting.