A few months before the Lizard King came to Earth’s surface, Ethan won a free trip to outer space in a promotional contest sponsored by Pop-Tarts. He was the first person to collect and mail in all 477 space themed Pop-Tarts box tops, including the extremely rare 32 historical space traveling monkey box tops. A ceremony was held to celebrate the achievement, with special guest and prominent donor Lin-Manuel Miranda presiding.

Ethan was in the middle of a sugar crash nap onboard the space station MESS when the Lizard Apocalypse began. The other astronauts emergency evacuated the station, using all the shuttles and escape pods available to return to earth. In their haste, they forgot about Ethan. Ethan awoke to an empty space station and “assumed I was left behind, like in the movie Left Behind."

During his decade of isolation, Ethan had little to do. He watched movies, exercised, spoke with his simulated therapist, and engaged in a brief battle of wits against a malicious artificial intelligence (which he lost). He also did his own repairs on the space station on at least one occasion, went out for space walks, and performed medical procedures on himself when necessary, such as administering 4 stitches to his abdomen after tripping over a couch cushion.

Once the internet was back in operation, he began recording and releasing episodes of his movie review podcast online.