S01.E05: The Severn City Airport

[Melina22]

I'm anxious to see this one.

 Okay, I'm halfway through the episode. What a weird one, but I'm totally interested. I am finding that when they take off in a whole new direction it takes me a while to remember who's who. 

It's fascinating how Covid shapes our viewing experience of this series. So many associations. 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Melina22

[Hanahope]

Yeah, it seems a bit incredible that not a single person on their flight was sick, nor in the airport.  I felt so awful when they shot the other plane survivor who was clearly immune (man can you imagine what he went through?), and then forced Elizabeth and Tyler to spend 30 days in the other small plane.  

and Tyler was creepy as F from the git go.  no wonder he morphed into David.  he has Arthur's charisma in a real corrupt way, especially with kids.

 

[Melina22]

Yes, what a creepy ending. 

[aghst]

Well if you watch Inside the Episode, Somerville is hinting that Tyler/The Prophet isn’t the bad guy, Clark was, because of his insecurities and jealousy of Arthur and the way he saw Arthur in Tyler.

He was going to cast out Elizabeth and Tyler if Tyler didn’t fake his own death and escape?

But Clark calling Tyler the Destroyer even before he blew up the plane and long before he gets those kids to kill Gil was prescient.

 

It might have been safe to leave the airport but they stayed away from that plane because they don’t know if corpses are still infectious.  So they might have left to find more resources or just split away, maybe not liking the triumvirate.

In episode 4 they referenced meth addicts who were possibly homicidal so would they be more secure at the airport or elsewhere?  Other survivors would see the electric lights on and come to the airport.

Clark did run towards the plane until it exploded so presumably he’d have gone inside trying to get the kid?  So maybe he wasn’t drunk with power?

[Melina22]

3 hours ago, aghst said:

Well if you watch Inside the Episode, Somerville is hinting that Tyler/The Prophet isn’t the bad guy, Clark was, because of his insecurities and jealousy of Arthur and the way he saw Arthur in Tyler.

What's Inside the Episode? Where do you watch it? 

I don't feel like anything in the episode explains what turned Tyler into a psychopathic murderer. Sure, he had an absent father and emotionally distant mother, and he got shut in a plane for a month in quarantine, but is that enough? 

4 hours ago, aghst said:

He was going to cast out Elizabeth and Tyler if Tyler didn’t fake his own death and escape?

I didn't understand this. What exactly was his plan and why? 

I definitely agree with your point that the airport didn't seem particularly safe. And where was their food supposed to come from? 

[aghst]

If you stream on HBO Max app, after the credits and previews for next episode, the show runner talks about the episode.

I don’t think it’s after every episode but it was definitely after episodes 4 and 5.

 

[Hanahope]

The airport had at least some food reserves from the various restaurants/food kiosks.  when "homeland security agent martin" left, he took about 1/3 of the people there, so the food reserves last longer.

I didn't think Clark was a bad guy per se.  jealous of arthur?  maybe, but i don't see how he would have transferred that to his kid.  I think he just saw in Tyler Arthur's charisma, but warped.  i think he thought Tyler was dangerous, but i don't think he really would have kicked him and Elizabeth out completely, i don't think he had the power, he certainly tried to reduce their quarantine.  now if the rest of the group wanted to do that, yeah, he probably would have gone along with it.  

and anyone who uses kids a suicide bombers is evil.  you don't do that just because your absentee father's old friend doesn't like you.

[xaxat]

I really enjoy this show, but I think there was a misstep in the Tyler/The Prophet. We see him engage in, perhaps misguided, but empathetic acts to help people. The kids' calls to probably deceased relatives and helping the survivor from the jet. I just have a hard time seeing him growing into a a guy who would recruit kids to be suicide bombers.

[txhorns79]

Just a personal pet peeve: Did the pandemic destroy everyone's scissors?  I get personal grooming may take a back seat to survival, but it isn't as though the only choices here are clean shaven with a proper hair cut, or uncut hair and out of control beards.  Even in an airport, people will still have access to basic grooming tools which do not require electricity.    

I also was a little confused about the electricity situation.  They mention the grid is out, so they are running on generators and electricity use needs to be limited.  Despite this, it seemed like they kept the landing lights for the runway and other associated outside lights on.  I get they needed the lighting so we could see what was happening in the scene, but it would seem like a huge waste to keep those outside lights going.

[Affogato]

On 12/25/2021 at 5:12 PM, xaxat said:

I really enjoy this show, but I think there was a misstep in the Tyler/The Prophet. We see him engage in, perhaps misguided, but empathetic acts to help people. The kids' calls to probably deceased relatives and helping the survivor from the jet. I just have a hard time seeing him growing into a a guy who would recruit kids to be suicide bombers.

I haven't read the book and am just starting to get unconfused. However. I don't think he is supposed to be a completely crazy, bad guy. I think Kristen and Tyler will turn out to be playing out some theme of the graphic novel (still not sure who printed it and why Arthur would give it to Kristen or send it to Tyler if ....it is confusing).  Maybe eliminating the pre pandemic people to prevent them tarnishing the new world, which would go along with wanting the actors to not preserve pre pandemic plays?  I suppose the museum of civilization will be under attack.

I don't know what makes the suicide bombers eventually make sense but perhaps it is an assassin thing, a strongly held religious belief, not only for Tyler/Prophet but for the children. Like Alex, they are feeling the weight of the past?

Edited December 27, 2021 by Affogato

[Nellise]

This quickly turned into one of those Lost rip-off shows.

So there are 2 copies of that comic in the world and the owners of them somehow run into each other 20 years later despite not knowing the other exists? Okay.

The first episode was quite promising, and the reviews seemed to be good so I pushed through this far, but it's been getting more and more ridiculous that I can't with it any more.

[aghst]

Definitely a lot of Lost vibes.

That would not be a good thing, if they had this convoluted plot, raising questions, not answering all of them.

[boldblue737]

On 12/25/2021 at 4:12 PM, xaxat said:

I really enjoy this show, but I think there was a misstep in the Tyler/The Prophet. We see him engage in, perhaps misguided, but empathetic acts to help people. The kids' calls to probably deceased relatives and helping the survivor from the jet. I just have a hard time seeing him growing into a a guy who would recruit kids to be suicide bombers.

I think the point is he supports the children and people who clearly survived naturally the apocalypse vs the adults who have always betrayed him, showed their selfishness in protecting themselves first even now, and who he doesn’t see and the reason the world has collapsed in the first place. for the most part in his min everyone from “before” can die and the children can be left to rule just like in the station eleven graphic novel he was given as a token from his uncaring and dead father. 

[Hanahope]

3 hours ago, Nellise said:

So there are 2 copies of that comic in the world and the owners of them somehow run into each other 20 years later despite not knowing the other exists? Okay.

Well, Kirstin got her copy in Chicago from Arthur directly.  

Tyler got his copy because Arthur sent the second copy to his wife, Elizabeth, to give to their son, Tyler, and they were on their way to Chicago (due to Arthur's death) when the virus hit, but got diverted to Severn City.  

so both Kirsten and Tyler were near Chicago in the aftermath, and remain so 20 years later, because they now can only walk or ride horses.  So not that unusual that they were connect.

[aghst]

There has to be a lot of abandoned cars.  Nobody Googled how to hot wire cars before the power or their Internet access went out?

Or none of them watched The Walking Dead, where they never ran out of cars or fuel?

 

 

[txhorns79]

6 hours ago, aghst said:

Or none of them watched The Walking Dead, where they never ran out of cars or fuel?

Doesn't gas start to degrade after a few months?  20 years later, there probably is nothing usable left.

[Haleth]

On 12/27/2021 at 11:16 AM, Nellise said:

 

This quickly turned into one of those Lost rip-off shows.

So there are 2 copies of that comic in the world and the owners of them somehow run into each other 20 years later despite not knowing the other exists? Okay.

 

The book was not a Lost rip off. Tyler may have known of Kristen because she was in the play, even if he doesn’t know she has a copy of the book. The Traveling Symphony and the players are famous in the region so he might have recognized her name. 

On 12/25/2021 at 11:35 PM, txhorns79 said:

I also was a little confused about the electricity situation.  They mention the grid is out, so they are running on generators and electricity use needs to be limited.  Despite this, it seemed like they kept the landing lights for the runway and other associated outside lights on. 

Yeah, I yelled at them to turn off the lights so they don’t attract people, but they were thinking there weren’t any other people outside of the airport. Miles conveniently knew how to install the conveniently stored solar panels. How lucky is that?

[aghst]

Tyler quoted lines from the book to Kirsten and then claimed he thought of it in the moment.

He had to know Kirsten had a copy so by quoting lines, it was a signal.

But then he pretends it wasn't from the book?

He had to know that would cause Kirsten to distrust him.

 

As for the lights at the airport, even if the lights weren't on, it would be hard to miss the airport, especially in daylight.  People would be scavenging for any supplies and they're going to check out the airport regardless, unless it was so far out of the way from where they were.

You'd check any kind of building in that situation, homes, warehouses, offices, obviously grocery stores, which would be the first place that people raid.  Even little overpriced junk food snacks at gas stations and convenience stores.

 

[Cheyanne11]

2 hours ago, aghst said:

Tyler quoted lines from the book to Kirsten and then claimed he thought of it in the moment.

He had to know Kirsten had a copy so by quoting lines, it was a signal.

How so? 

[aghst]

4 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

How so? 

Now that I think about it, I'm not so sure.

For whatever reason, I assumed that Tyler knew who Kirsten was, that his dad knew her, etc.

It seems that he is targeting the TS and perhaps Kirsten herself.  And that Gil wasn't just some random victim, that Tyler chose him for some reason. 

 

I don't think he's going around and randomly getting people killed or threatening random people, as when he told Kirsten that people in the TS are going to start dying if Kirsten didn't let him and the boy join.

So if he deliberately made contact with the TS and Kirsten in that episode, tried to turn Alex against Kirsten, then it would seem he was deliberately quoting the comic book lines to her.

Edited December 30, 2021 by aghst

[Mr. R0b0t]

I think he's committed the book to memory and used it as his little cult manifesto and had no idea anyone else would recognize any of it.

[Cheyanne11]

7 hours ago, aghst said:

Now that I think about it, I'm not so sure.

For whatever reason, I assumed that Tyler knew who Kirsten was, that his dad knew her, etc.

I don't think so.  As Mr. R0b0t noted, the book is his manifesto.  He presumes everyone left in the world thinks these are his 'words of wisdom' and had no idea there was another person who had the book--and was actually as obsessed with it as him.

[aghst]

Hmm, so it was random that he encountered the TS?

[txhorns79]

On 12/24/2021 at 1:43 PM, Hanahope said:

I felt so awful when they shot the other plane survivor who was clearly immune (man can you imagine what he went through?), and then forced Elizabeth and Tyler to spend 30 days in the other small plane.  

They were right to try to isolate the survivor, and Elizabeth and Tyler.  Even if the guy was immune to the flu, that doesn't mean he wasn't a carrier and couldn't spread it to them.  (Think Typhoid Mary.)   

[Anela]

This show is so odd. So, did he fake his own death, to set them free from their fear of him? The one guy wanted them to leave.  That wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for the boy. 

[Armchair Critic]

I prefer the non Shakespeare company scenes.