The Lost Symbol Review: Noögenesis (Season 1 Episode 7)

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol Season 1 Episode 7, “Noögenesis,” gives us the flashback episode that absolutely no one asked for. Zachary’s journey to Mal’akh obviously happened at that prison, but I doubt any of us were sitting around wanting to know the specific build-up to it.

Well, unfortunately, The Lost Symbol didn’t take our feelings into consideration. The hour starts out with such promise as Sato walks into the room to talk to/interrogate Mal’akh. A great interrogation scene was within our reach, and instead, we drift to the past.

There’s nothing horrendously wrong with The Lost Symbol Season 1 Episode 7; it’s simply boring. It halts all the momentum that the series had going for it, which at times isn’t all that much, but the Mal’akh is Zachary reveal at the end of The Lost Symbol Season 1 Episode 6, “Diophantine,” had breathed some new life into the series.

This is one of the rare instances where it would have been better to tell us how Zachary became Mal’akh instead of showing us. The mystery aspect of Langdon solving all these puzzles and clues is what we’re here for, not to learn how Zachary found a mentor in Turkish prison who showed him all the magic of the universe.

The one intriguing aspect that the flashback reveals is that the mentor set Zachary down this specific journey; he told Zachary to get something from Peter for him. We don’t see Zachary and the mentor meeting up post jailbreak, but you have to think that we haven’t seen the last of him.

In addition to following Zachary’s transformation into Mal’akh, we also see what Katherine, Langdon, Peter, and Isabel are up to during this time, and not even Katherine and Langdon can save this episode.

We’ve seen flashbacks of Katherine and Langdon before, and “Noögenesis” doesn’t offer anything new. We do see more of Peter attempting to orchestrate their relationship, which isn’t a good look. It’s better that they broke up and found their way back to each other without Peter trying to nudge Langdon in the right direction.

Of course, his kidnapping brought the two of them back together, but it’s not as if Peter set this whole thing in motion.

Eventually, we return to the future, but we’re once again deprived of a good interrogation scene. There’s no extended back and forth; it maybe lasts five minutes. Mal’akh plays on Sato’s emotions and lies. Sato buys it until her brain starts working again and realizes something is up, and then Mal’akh kills her.

If we’re being honest, I didn’t expect Sato’s death to be as sad as it was. There weren’t any tears shed, but it is sad to see her go. She was a good part of the team. Are you going to miss Sato?

Stray Thoughts

• Isabel eating Zachary’s baby teeth is the most horrifyingly disturbing thing I’ve seen. I want to know why, but I also really don’t.
• The healing breathing/finding vibrations thing is still creepy.
• What’s going on with Peter’s vision of a hand coming out of the pool? The Araf must still have a hold on him.

What did you think of this episode of The Lost Symbol? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of The Lost Symbol premiere Thursdays on Peacock.

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