S04.E07: A Shot In The Dark

[raven]

Quote

Naomi and Alex work to keep the Barbapiccola in orbit amidst a power outage. Avasarala faces a tough decision. Holden and Elvi race to find a cure for a disease spreading on Ilus.

Airdate 2019.12.13

Keep your discussion to this episode only - thank you!

[Holmbo]

As if the flood and lack of transport wasn't enough, now they have the threat of blindness and slugs whose slime causes cardiac arrest. I feel validated for questing why they went about without bio suit protection.

[MissLucas]

I feel validated for questioning why they went there in the first place 😉

Glad to see Prax' little garden installations are still around. That was about the only upbeat thing in this downer episode. You know things are really getting bleak when Amos looks as if he might freak out and Avasarala's about to lose it too.

I loved Doctor Okoye's enthusiasm when she talked about the green microorganisms eating away eyes - way to read the room (alien cathedral) lady.

[Macbeth]

22 hours ago, MissLucas said:

I feel validated for questioning why they went there in the first place 😉

Glad to see Prax' little garden installations are still around. That was about the only upbeat thing in this downer episode. You know things are really getting bleak when Amos looks as if he might freak out and Avasarala's about to lose it too.

I loved Doctor Okoye's enthusiasm when she talked about the green microorganisms eating away eyes - way to read the room (alien cathedral) lady.

I loved the call out to Prax as well.  It is also a fantastic way to give the set more life.  Some green among all the metal.

Amos freaking out was scary.

I swore I wouldn't plow through the show in one weekend.  And yet hear I am.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Macbeth

[thuganomics85]

Aww, even if they didn't mention him by name, I'm glad we got a reference to Prax and his garden!

Illus is certainly showing itself to be a horrible place to go on a camping trip to.  If the title-waves or sudden winds don't kill you (not to mention the walking danger that is Burn Gorman!), the slugs that kill you with just one touch certainly will!  Oh, and the whole "spores that are making everyone but Holden blind" thing.  Yeah, tourism on this planet is going to take a major hit here!

Chandra is clearly going to end up having to decide if she wants to remain loyal to Murtry and his sinister ways, or try her luck with Amos and Holden.  Lets see how great of a lover Amos is/was!

The Lucia/Alex scene was great: nice to see Cas Anvar get a good moment here.  And it looks like they've found a way to hopefully prevent the Belter barge from crashing and burning into the atmosphere.

Avasarala certainly could be having better days.  Nancy Gao is only three points away from overtaking her in the polls and that was before her attempt to capture Marcos ended up going pear shaped.  At this point, Chrisjen better hope that there is some kind of "October surprise" in store for Nancy.  Even then, it would probably have to be something extreme, like if Nancy has been secretly working for Mars or the Belt. 

[WatchrTina]

I love SciFi.  I do NOT like horror.  For me a story that  involves being trapped in an alien pyramid, surrounded by floodwaters, with limited food and water split unevenly between two hostile factions is pushing the limit of SciFi.  You introducing eye-eating micro-organisms and slugs that cause cardiac arrest and (IMHO) you've crossed the line into horror. I'm ready for this story-line to be over.

I'm certain the bad-guy that the marines were trying to capture got away.  And I'll be HE's the one who blew up the ship.  Man . . . Naomi's ex really sucks.

Edited December 20, 2019 by WatchrTina

[tennisgurl]

So the word of the day is "clusterfuck" apparently! Everywhere you look, everything is going from bad to worse, especially in the ancient bunker. Because the organisms eating everyone not pals with an alien ghosts eyes leading to blindness, the massive earthquakes and tidal waves, the scared and angry people about to kill each other, the evil murderer who wants to use all of this to his advantage, dwindling supplies, and the lack of basic laws of physics, now there is also a bunch of slugs that can cause death by just touching people! Not the best place to go on a camping trip, to be honest. 

The only bright spots in the darkness (what will apparently be literal darkness for the poor people in the ancient bunker) are that Naomi and Lucia's daughter have possibly figured out a way out of this whole mess, and, even better, we get a Prax reference and find out that they kept his little flower garden! I love how the flowers look in the middle of the ship and that they kept it and are apparently still taking care of the flowers, its this little splash of color and home-yness in the midst of all the metal and sheen. The talk between Alex and Lucia was really well done, and it was nice to give Alex a moment to ruminate a bit on his past, and give Lucia some good advice. Plus, thinking of Alex giving his son a box of Earth sand as a present is really sweet. 

Damn, when even Amos is clearly starting to freak out, you know its bad. I love how much Amos cares about kids and how good he is with them, they really bring out the warmth in him, even his kinda girlfriend looked a bit weirded out seeing him being so comforting. Amos is like a onion, he has layers! 

So immunity to catching the blindness plague is to have an alien ghost hanging in your head, ho figure. I am pretty impressed that Elvi, Holden, and Murtry managed to be so chill about that, when I would have been grabbing at my eyes with a freaked out "get them out get them get them ouuuut!" or something along those lines. 

 

[Netfoot]

On 12/15/2019 at 3:09 PM, Holmbo said:

I feel validated for questing why they went about without bio suit protection.

 

On 12/15/2019 at 7:31 PM, MissLucas said:

I feel validated for questioning why they went there in the first place 😉

Indeed, it seems the conditions do support the idea that a little more investigation is required before colonization begins, with families and kids and everything.

Remember Aesop's fables -- "Look before you leap" pretty much covers this situation.

[Danny Franks]

So, unexplained technology destroying their settlement, mysterious bugs affecting their eyesight, swarms of razor sharp, metal shards flocking about, and now slugs that apparently kill humans real quick... it's almost as if going to live on a strange, alien planet without fully studying and surveying it isn't the best idea ever!

But for the Belters from Ganymede, I guess it was the better of two evils. But they still ended up being stuck in close quarters without enough food or water.

I like Elvi's earnest, scientific curiosity. But I tend to side with Holden on this - the burden of being the one person who can communicate with the Protomolecule is not fun, and wouldn't be even for a scientist.

The CGI shots of the ships against the planet are gorgeous. The levels of detail are higher than that needed for spaceships against dark space, and it still looks flawless.

The election stuff is all a bit raw, as a Brit. The idea that telling the truth or trying to offer nuance to a situation is seen as a sign of weakness to be exploited, while simply denying and lying is the more electable option. Depressing.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Danny Franks

[LilJen]

I grew up in Seattle. Now EVERYONE ELSE KNOWS HOW EVIL BANANA SLUGS TRULY ARE.

[wanderingstar]

Whew - this episode was rough watching. The blinding organisms, the killing slugs, the constant dripping of gross water. It felt claustrophobic to me - and I was only watching it. I am surprised the tension between the Belter and RCE camps didn't boil over more.

Glad we got a Prax mention (I miss him). And I continue to love the bonding between Lucia and Alex.

Edited December 24, 2019 by Gillian Rosh
Removed a sorta spoiler for the next episode

[Haleth]

THERE are the worms!  I've been waiting for the worms.  Of course there are deadly slugs on Ilus.  Razor sharp nanobots, earthquakes that overturn vehicles, tsunamis that wipe out the settlement, moons that shoot rescue ships out of the sky, technology that makes ships fall from the sky, a highly contageous infection that makes you go blind... who wouldn't expect a swarm of slugs that kill on contact?

I suppose there was no one on the Belter ship capable of following Naomi's and Lucia's instructions?  They had to explain the idea to a teenager?

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, Haleth said:

I suppose there was no one on the Belter ship capable of following Naomi's and Lucia's instructions?  They had to explain the idea to a teenager?

That because there was only 2 people on the entire spaceship, until there wasn't.

[MissLucas]

Belters have a thing for handing out important jobs to teenagers - s. tls#1 and tls#2.

[ahpny]

It shouldn't have taken a needle in the eye to figure out that maybe the potent drugs Holden was already taking to combat further problems from Eros radiation might have something to do with avoiding or eradicating the green-spot eye disease. You know, one first questions many doctors normally asks, is "what medications are you taking?" How could they miss this for so long? That didn't ring true.

But kudos for Naomi for brightly recognizing that something good came out of the disaster on Eros after all. 

 

[AudienceofOne]

Can't say that was my favourite episode, watching everybody basically lose their shit all over the place. Murtry's "Get Rich Scheme" seemed utterly bizarre considering they're stuck in an alien pyramid underneath an ocean and quickly all going blind.

Avasarala losing her shit is the most difficult thing to watch since, for the very very first time in the show, you feel her decision-making has been compromised by her desire to win the election. It's a difficult thing to watch. 

[btp]

On 12/28/2019 at 6:37 AM, MissLucas said:

Belters have a thing for handing out important jobs to teenagers - s. tls#1 and tls#2.

Oooh, I like that, but I'm coming up short here. Diogo  and ... who?

 

On 1/12/2020 at 5:20 AM, AudienceofOne said:

Avasarala losing her shit is the most difficult thing to watch since, for the very very first time in the show, you feel her decision-making has been compromised by her desire to win the election. It's a difficult thing to watch. 

Of all the plot lines this season, I find this one the least believable, unfortunately. I mean, I get it, they needed something for Shoreh to do, and I get it, it might be interesting to see what happens when Avasarala ventures out of her comfort zone into places where she may actually not Get Shit Done or Keep Her Head Attached To Her Neck. But this is just a little too on the nose for my taste. This show usually eschews the broad and obvious in favor of the nuanced and enigmatic, but Chrisjen's story this season is pretty heavy-handed. Very uncharacteristic of this show, and very unfortunate.

They can't all be winners, of course, and overall this show still continues to amaze and delight. But so far, at least, I feel this part of the story rings rather false for me.

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by btp

[JZL]

On 1/3/2020 at 1:05 PM, ahpny said:

It shouldn't have taken a needle in the eye to figure out that maybe the potent drugs Holden was already taking to combat further problems from Eros radiation might have something to do with avoiding or eradicating the green-spot eye disease. You know, one first questions many doctors normally asks, is "what medications are you taking?" How could they miss this for so long? That didn't ring true.

But kudos for Naomi for brightly recognizing that something good came out of the disaster on Eros after all.

Was that in this episode?

I dunno, this is my favorite show ever and I'm not feeling it this year.  I've only read the first book so I don't know where this is headed.  People tell me it's a good season, so there's hope.

Alex, Frankie, Avasarala, and Drummer have all been relegated to the back seat with Naomi not far behind.  Maybe for the first time since her introduction in s2e1 there was no Frankie.  I don't think we've seen Fred Johnson at all.

The ending of this ep sure piqued my interest.  Was there anyone else yelling, "That's a big-ass bomb under that tarp in the middle of the room!  GTFO!!"

Edited January 22, 2020 by JZL

[wanderingstar]

On 12/16/2019 at 5:01 PM, Macbeth said:

Amos freaking out was scary.

Wes Chatham has been so great this season. I was struck by how Amos started panicking as soon as Holden told him about the fact that everyone would be blind soon. You could tell he was terrified of losing control.

[blackwing]

I’m liking the season so far but I’ve been wondering if there was any particular reason why they recast the role of Avasarala’s husband?  The previous actor was the guy who was Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld.  Now there’s this guy.  They seem to have expanded his role as well.  Sorry, but I don’t buy that this guy and Chrisjen are married.  This one seems extremely effeminate and I’m wondering if that’s supposed to be an acting choice for the character or if that’s just the actor.

[MissLucas]

On 1/14/2020 at 2:09 AM, btp said:

Oooh, I like that, but I'm coming up short here. Diogo  and ... who?

Sorry, late reply and also sorry because tls#2 goes into spoiler territory.

Spoiler

Filip Inaros - son of Marcos and Naomi. He shows up in episode 10.

 

[Clanstarling]

On 2/28/2020 at 9:13 PM, blackwing said:

I’m liking the season so far but I’ve been wondering if there was any particular reason why they recast the role of Avasarala’s husband?  The previous actor was the guy who was Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld.  Now there’s this guy.  They seem to have expanded his role as well.  Sorry, but I don’t buy that this guy and Chrisjen are married.  This one seems extremely effeminate and I’m wondering if that’s supposed to be an acting choice for the character or if that’s just the actor.

Wow, mileage does vary. My thought when watching this episode was how much more masculine he seemed than the previous actor - even though I preferred the other actor.