‘Extraordinary’ Season 1 Recap — What to Remember Ahead of Season 2

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of ‘Extraordinary’

The Big Picture

• Extraordinary
  takes a comedic approach to portraying superpowers, focusing more on the characters’ personal journeys.
• Jen’s relationships with her family and friends are central to the plot, highlighting themes of self-discovery and growth.
• The season ends with hints that Jen may possess a unique superpower, setting up intriguing possibilities for the upcoming season.

Hulu’s Extraordinary, created by Emma Mora, is the latest of many shows attempting to portray a world with superheroes through a more realistic lens. But while similar series like The Boys and Invincible show their super-powered societies as a terrifying reality filled with narcissists and deranged supervillains, this program does something different. Namely, it trades bloodshed for the angst of trying to find purpose in your 20s.

Taking a more comedic approach to the subgenre allows this series to use the existence of superpowers as a tool to tell its story rather than a core component to drive every plot point. Even with this more “normal” approach, it goes to some surprisingly complex places, adding a level of depth to its comedy that allows the characters and their interesting powers (or lack thereof) to shine. With Season 2 fast approaching and its first season featuring a variety of interesting storylines, fans can feel lost as they prepare to once again enter this super-powered, super-relatable world. Well, have no fear, because here are all the things you have to remember before Season 2 premieres.

Extraordinary focuses on Jen (Máiréad Tyers), a struggling 25-year-old in a world where everyone develops a superpower when they turn 18. Jen never developed a power (to her knowledge) and this ineptitude compared to the superhumans that fill her daily life makes the young woman bitter towards the world she feels has wronged her, which she expresses in a fierce rivalry with her little sister, Andy (Safia Oakley-Green). While Andy is a musical prodigy and straight-A student, Jen’s distinct lack of both a power and a successful job has the two constantly at odds as they compete for validation from their honest-to-a-fault mother, Mary (Siobhán McSweeney).

Their sisterly feud peaks at an academic ceremony in which Jen decides to embarrass Andy in front of her whole school. She reveals that Andy’s recent discovery of her ability (super-strength) has led her to lose an important conservatorship and her girlfriend, a revelation that leaves the girl in tears, her family furious, and Jen finally having to grapple with the consequences of her actions. This leaves their already tenuous relationship shattered, and while her mom forgives her, it’s questionable whether her sister will want anything to do with Jen going forward.

This isn’t the only relationship Jen’s thoughtless nature damages. A significant plot point in Season 1 is the strife between Jen and her long-time best friend and roommate Carrie (Sofia Oxenham), a shy woman whose inability to stand up for herself has allowed Jen to boss her around since they first met. Carrie’s finally recognizing this mistreatment leaves the pair fractured, spelling out serious consequences for Jen as it was Carrie’s ability to channel dead spirits that allowed her to speak with her long-dead father. They fight, with Carrie rightfully calling out Jen’s victim mentality and seeming inability to care for anyone but herself, and while they eventually make up, it’s clear that Carrie’s words have an impact on the show’s protagonist. She vows to work on her selfishness and become someone who others could actually rely on, a journey audiences will hopefully see more of in the series’ sophomore outing.

Real Powers Are the Friends We Make Along the Way

While Jen has her own romantic adventures, the main partnership of Extraordinary Season 1 is between Carrie and her boyfriend Kash (Bilal Hasna). The goofy duo are visibly in love, having an endearingly awkward chemistry audiences can feel through the screen as they always support one another’s dreams (though Carrie wishes Kash’s aspirations included getting a consistent job). Kash’s attempts to form a vigilante “super-team” throughout the season put a serious strain on their relationship, making Carrie realize just how different their priorities are. While she works hard to advance her career and search for a meaning that doesn’t revolve around her admittedly astounding power, constantly seeing Kash blunder through random pursuits forces her to understand that he isn’t mature enough to give her the more structured life she wants. And once she finds out that he’d been using his power (the ability to rewind time) constantly in an attempt to avoid having a serious conversation with her, she finally understands that he isn’t ready for the more structured life she wants to lead. At least, not yet. The pair breaks up in a genuinely heartbreaking scene, though the love they clearly still hold for each other could signal something rekindling as they return in Season 2.

They aren’t the only ones of Jen’s friends who have serious questions to work through. The biggest mystery of the season revolved around “Jizzlord” (Luke Rollason), Jen’s pet-turned-boyfriend whom the roommates adopted, not knowing that the cat they’d begun fostering was a shapeshifter unable to leave his feline form. This sustained transformation left him with amnesia, and he spent the majority of the series’ first eight episodes trying to jog his memory and rediscover who he was before getting stuck. Though, eventually, he stops.

As he and Jen begin to develop feelings for each other, and he grows more comfortable in their apartment, he ceases worrying about who he might have been and begins to embrace the new life in front of him. This created a beautiful climax for the season with him and Jen committing to a relationship with each other. That is, until the last scene, when a young boy points out Jizzlord in a supermarket, saying he “looks like dad!” This has immense implications for Jizzlord’s identity. Not only might he have a son, but also, if the shocked woman with the little boy is any indication, a wife who has been searching for him! It’s obvious that these newcomers hold answers to the identity he’s forgotten, though with the breakthrough he just had with Jen, it’s unclear whether Jizzlord will even want to try and uncover what they can tell him about his past life.

Throughout Extraordinary Season 1, Jen and the audience wonder: does our troubled main character even have a power at all? Her wish to gain one leads her to a special clinic that helps “induce” abilities in people who’ve taken too long to manifest theirs. Thanks to a special donation from a past date, she gets the funds she needs to begin the process of trying to awaken her latent power. It’s amazing to see her finally happy as she prepares to finally find “what makes her special,” though the season’s finale reveals the answer may be closer than she thinks.

A terse interaction with kind-of ex Luke (Ned Porteous) leaves Jen satisfied as she finally criticizes the charmer for how badly he’s treated her. And it leaves him…grounded. His ability to fly suddenly malfunctions, and for the first time since the viewers have seen him, he is unable to soar away from his problems. This has huge implications for Jen, namely that she may have already manifested a power that nullifies other people’s! While this isn’t clarified, the small moment means that Jen may already have what she’s been searching for all season long.

Extraordinary is available to watch on Hulu in the U.S.

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