‘Salvation’ Season 1, Episode 6 Spoilers: John Noble Appearing As Darius’ Father?

John Noble is set to guest star in next week’s Season 1, episode 6 of “Salvation.”

According to the synopsis for episode, Noble is playing the role of Nicholas Tanz. While it’s unclear if Nicholas is related to Darius Tanz (Santiago Cabrera), Noble’s character could easily pass as the tech billionaire’s father. Viewers got a first glimpse of Nicholas in the “Salvation” trailer released at the San Diego Comic-Con last month.

Details about Noble’s character are being kept under wraps, but promotional photos for episode 6 seem to suggest that Nicholas collects meteorites. In some of the photos, Nicholas appears to be showing one of his collections to Darius and Liam (Charlie Rowe). Interestingly, some of the photos show Liam and Harris (Ian Anthony Dale) seemingly breaking into Nicholas’ gallery and harvesting some sort of substance from one of Nicholas’ meteorites. Does this particular meteorite contain icosahedrite?

READ: Which book did Santiago Cabrera and Charlie Rowe read before filming “Salvation”?

In Season 1, episode 4, Liam and Dr. Croft (Dennis Boutsikaris) found out that the EmDrive needed a stronger and more reflective interior copper lining for it to work. The duo then tried dusting the prototype’s lining with platinum, glass and gold, but all didn’t work. Just when he thought he could never make the EmDrive work, Liam had a light-bulb moment while having a heart-to-heart talk with his girlfriend, Jillian (Jacqueline Byers), right after the government completely lost its control of the IO Probe.

Liam thought of dusting the EmDrive’s interior lining with icosahedrite, a quasicrystal with fivefold symmetry, which he and Jillian talked about before their day at work started. Liam harvested the icosahedrite from a small piece of meteorite displayed at the entrance of Tanz Industries and used it on the EmDrive’s prototype. The prototype worked, but it was stolen by the Russians at the end of Season 1, episode 5.

And since all spacecrafts orbiting Jupiter were hacked, it seems that the government’s only option left to save the human race from the asteroid colliding with Earth is to build a full-scale EmDrive. But because a full-scale EmDrive will require a larger amount of icosahedrite, Liam, Darius, Harris and Grace (Jennifer Finnigan) have to figure out where and how they could quickly get the amount they need.

“Salvation” Season 1, episode 6, titled “Chip Off the Ol’ Block,” airs on Wednesday, Aug. 9, at 9 p.m. EDT on CBS.