The first three episodes of the Apple TV+ series, “Extrapolations,” created by Scott Z. Burns took place between 2037 and 2047 as Earth’s ecosystem rapidly crumbled. It introduced us to a handful of characters but largely focused on Rebecca Shearer (Sienna Miller), Marshall Zucker (Daveed Diggs), and Nick Bilton (Kit Harington). While Bilton represented money-hungry billionaires who would rather earn more money than save the Earth with their resources, Shearer and Zucker represented those who are trying to fight for a better future, even though the odds are stacked against them. With this week’s episode, we are moving forward into Earth’s predictable future by a whole decade in 2059 and focusing on Jonathan Chopin (Edward Norton), his son Rowan (Michael Gandolfini), and Jonathan’s ex-wife Gita Mishra (Indira Varma).
Major Spoilers Ahead
Jonathan Figures Out That Gita And Rowan Are Upto No Good
“Extrapolations” Episode 4 with President Elizabeth Burdick (Cherry Jones) signing the Climate Intervention Treaty and putting a stop to all forms of geoengineering that seek to artificially manipulate the climate. Apparently, Burdick came to this conclusion because Jonathan advised her to do so. Rowan evidently doesn’t agree with this and stops communicating with his father for several weeks. While Jonathan worries about this unpredictable behavior, we see him in Djibouti with his step-mother, Gita Mishra, preparing for a big announcement. Well, technically, Jonathan is not just worrying; he’s also in touch with an employee of his former company, Alpha, Martha Russell (Diane Lane), to track Rowan down. Anyway, we see that Gita, who started her journey in tech from Badlapur and is currently the CEO and founder of New Sky Initiatives, is launching the world’s first unmanned, fully carbon-neutral cargo plane with the ability to stay in the air perpetually.
To the surprise of her assistant, Gita announces that, in order to instill some confidence in the planes’ buyers, she’s going to be inside them during their maiden journey. The red flags of this mission start to show up when Gita starts comparing herself with Gods, changes the access codes, and even changes the destination of the planes from wherever it was going earlier to Badlapur. Additionally, the planes start to ascend, thereby deviating from the original plan even further. In the meantime, Jonathan theorizes that Gita and Rowan are planning to release calcium carbonate, hydrogen sulfide, or sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to block sun rays, thereby allowing Earth to cool down. As he’s unable to flag Alpha about this issue, he calls the FBI and requests them to take him to DC and put him in a room with a President. A very interesting thing happens during this scene, and that is Jonathan doesn’t question the fact that the FBI is monitoring every single move of his. This insinuates that, in the near future, we are going to give up on privacy and accept snooping by investigative agencies.
Madam President Calls Up Nicholas Bilton For Help
President Burdick learns about Gita’s plan, which is exactly what Jonathan has been talking about. She wants to stop the gradual increase of the planet’s temperature by artificially manipulating the environment. But why is this wrong and dangerous? When Jonathan finally gets to the Oval Office, he explains that this change in the atmosphere is going to result in unpredictable changes in the weather. That raises yet another question: is it a one-time thing or an event that has to be recreated every few years? Because the particles that are going to block the sunlight will dissipate after some time. So, it has to be done again and again. Jonathan says that’s correct. However, that’s not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is that if this “gamble” works, then oil, gas, coal, and every other company that contributes to worldwide pollution is going to ask New Sky Initiatives (which is backed by Alpha) to continue shooting stuff into the sky to keep the Earth cool.
The White House finally manages to establish contact with Gita, who re-explains her theory because she’s so sure that it’s going to work. Rowan Chopin joins the conversation as well and repeats the same thing that his step-mother is saying. But that’s when the call gets cut off because of a fly-by (where a fighter jet flies beside the plane it’s trying to intimidate), and Jonathan gets escorted out of the Oval Office under the suspicion that he’s working with the members of his family. A squad of FBI officers tries to nab Rowan, but he turns out to be a hologram, as the real version of him is somewhere else in Africa. Gita orders Rowan to go ahead with the dispersal of the calcium carbonate if the plane she’s in is shot down. And as they go over the plausibility of that scenario, we see President Burdick talking to Nick Bilton about something called “cover for action.” In my opinion, she’s telling Bilton to strike down the plane because if she does the same, it won’t be a good look.
‘Extrapolations’ Episode 4 Ending Explained: What Happened After Gita’s Plane Went Down?
Gita’s plane is eventually shot down near Mumbai. We get a brief glimpse of Gaurav (Adarsh Gourav), who’s apparently going to appear in a full-fledged role in next week’s episode. The officials at the White House say that Russia is blaming India and India is blaming Pakistan, but there’s no concrete answer on who has done the needful. Even though Burdick says that she wants to know who’s responsible for bringing down Gita, I think she is aware that it’s Bilton. However, before we can learn any more about that, Jonathan barges back into the office to let them know that the planes are all a distraction from the actual plan. Rowan pretty much confirms that theory with a call and by launching all the drones operating all over the world to release the calcium carbonate. The map in the Oval office becomes littered with yellow markers. Jonathan, knowing full well that the damage has been done, returns to his wife, who asks him what’s going to happen now. Jonathan says that he doesn’t know, as calcium carbonate creates blue circles all over the world.
The main question that comes up here is whether Gita and Rowan’s work is eco-terrorism or a step in the right direction? Well, it’s all a hypothesis, isn’t it? Gita and Rowan don’t exactly know if shooting all that calcium carbonate in the sky is going to work. They don’t know what they are going to do if it works. Because, if it works, it’d mean creating a new layer between Earth and the Sun every year. That’s going to bring about a different set of ecological complications that don’t have any precedence. Jonathan underscores all these points as he’s adamant about a solution that doesn’t involve geo-engineering. Maybe it’ll take time, and maybe they’ll have to change their strategy in the middle of the process. But at least it won’t bring about unpredictable weather changes, which will destroy more lives than the natural process would. That said, desperate times call for desperate measures, and it’s possible that this is the kind of push the world needs to come up with good solutions. Because if we don’t, then some mad scientist is going to go up in the air and try to alter it.
