S03.E08: The Sands of Ares

[tessaray]

Release Date: July 29, 2022

After a sudden crisis, the Martian crews pull together.

[PurpleTentacle]

What kind of massive dumbass takes aspririn after suffering head trauma or trauma in general? I swear they are writing these smart, highly trained, highly skilled astronauts and cosmonauts like the dumbest morons in the universe. And Kelly not making him throw that shit up after he told her what it was, after taking it? Isn't she a biologist? She should know what acetylsalicylic acid does.

Speaking of dumbass things these dumbasses did: Of course they didn't use protection. I guess that all tracks...

They even brought up Ed's testosterone injections, which it seems they were trying to show in some kind of seedy light, like I kinda suspected early in the season. Which, as discussud in earlier episode threads, is some sexist bullshit.

I am really getting tired of the writing this season. Everything but the pure science is just so dumb.

Edited July 29, 2022 by PurpleTentacle

[Tuggy]

I really agree with you, @PurpleTentacle! I had the exact same reaction when he mentioned aspirin. And Kelly should definitely have reacted, especially because women are told again and again to NOT take aspirin when having their menstruations... The fact that she is pregnant is similarly baffling.

The writers are really chipping at my suspension of disbelief, this season. It really feels that a lot of stuff is happening for the plot's sake and not organically. Which is very surprising considering the first two seasons.

Anyway, the science stuff remains highly entertaining and gripping so it still is a very nice watch. The idea to blow up the lava tube under the hab was a clever one, glad it worked. I just regret that Danny did not have to do something like sacrifice his oxygen for Ed and could not make it. Missed opportunity 😈

Edited July 29, 2022 by Tuggy

[whiporee]

I thought it was good. Glad Dev saved the actual day. 

I DID NOT like Margo's little smile at the end at everyone working together, as if her master plan of treason and espionage had led to something good. None of this happens without her giving away someone else's designs and ideas multiple times.

I was also glad Danny stopped when he did. Still got off a lot of shots, but at least he kept the nuclear on in the holster.

Nice to see Karen go back to her roots -- she knows what astronaut wives do. I can't remember Deke's wife's name, but it was that same sort of esprit-de-corps that used to be part of the program, back when it all seemed much more dangerous than it does now. I was less glad of the slut shaming Karen has to go through again -- she fucked a young guy at a bar. I don't know why it has to be more than that. Danny came on to her, not the other way around. Was it kind of icky? Sure. Was it life altering, traumatic, defining or abusive? In no way shape or form, unless we're going to start defining every sexual encounter between adults as an apex of existence. More often than not, it's just fucking. 

Kelly's baby brings up a real interesting point. Is it American or Russian? Who gets to claim it? The Soviets can easily say it's a citizen of the Soviet Union, and belongs there. Obviously, America will feel the same way. All we know about it is that it's Martian. It guess it would have been too telling, but it would have been interesting to see one of those news clip things about babies being born in space. With space tourism having been a thing, you would imagine it would have happened by now. And Kelly and Alexi would not have been the first couple to screw in space -- Gordo and Tracy did -- so I would doubt that this is the first baby conceived in space. So it might have been nice to see how that played out. 

[xaxat]

How did the Russians know that Kelly was pregnant before she did?

I could have done with less Ed/Danny drama, but on the whole I agree that it was a good episode. Karen was awesome, Dev came through (These are engineering problems, and we are engineers. Shall we begin?) and the teamwork between mission command and the astronauts on Mars was really well paced.

9 hours ago, whiporee said:

I was less glad of the slut shaming Karen has to go through again

At first I thought it was Jimmy being his asshole self. But then she started he big confession. She doesn't owe him shit.

[marinw]

Dev makes a decision without the performance of a vote!

With a thirty minute time delay getting messages to Mars how useful are instructions?

[jcin617]

2 hours ago, xaxat said:

How did the Russians know that Kelly was pregnant before she did?

She donated blood for Alexei, and the Russian doctor asked if they could run a cross match analysis.   So, they saw something in the test results presumably.

They do need to tell folks ASAP though and get her up to Phoenix; while I’m not sure how she’s a “risk” like they said, the baby certainly could have issues coming to term in low gravity, including being able to return to Earth.

Edited July 30, 2022 by jcin617

[HDJulie]

20 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

What kind of massive dumbass takes aspririn after suffering head trauma or trauma in general? I swear they are writing these smart, highly trained, highly skilled astronauts and cosmonauts like the dumbest morons in the universe. And Kelly not making him throw that shit up after he told her what it was, after taking it? Isn't she a biologist? She should know what acetylsalicylic acid does

Let’s see, Alexi was in a landslide & buried & had to dig himself out & try to find others & found dead people & then had to walk back. I’ll cut him some slack for maybe not being in the frame of mind (along with the massive headache) to think straight.

For Kelly, she’s emotionally exhausted & massively stressed from worrying about her father & trying to find & save him before he dies buried underground on Mars. I’ll cut her some slack, too. 
 

Edited July 30, 2022 by HDJulie
Wording

[chocolatine]

15 hours ago, whiporee said:

I was less glad of the slut shaming Karen has to go through again -- she fucked a young guy at a bar. I don't know why it has to be more than that.

He wasn't just a young guy she met in a bar. She's known him since he was a little boy and was practically raising him while Tracy was going through astronaut training. She was a mother figure to him.

[PurpleTentacle]

2 hours ago, HDJulie said:

Let’s see, Alexi was in a landslide & buried & had to dig himself out & try to find others & found dead people & then had to walk back. I’ll cut him some slack for maybe not being in the frame of mind (along with the massive headache) to think straight.

For Kelly, she’s emotionally exhausted & massively stressed from worrying about her father & trying to find & save him before he dies buried underground on Mars. I’ll cut her some slack, too. 

Yeah sorry, I won't. After you sustained massive trauma in a landslide anybody who isn't a complete moron should know not to take a blood thinner. That isn't rocket science and shouldn't take up much of your mental capacity. If you can still form words, you can remember that using blood thinners, when it's quite possible that you are bleeding internally, is a bad idea, to put it lightly.

[CarpeFelis]

1 hour ago, chocolatine said:

He wasn't just a young guy she met in a bar. She's known him since he was a little boy and was practically raising him while Tracy was going through astronaut training. She was a mother figure to him.

And on top of all that, he was also her employee at the time.

[coconspirator]

1 hour ago, chocolatine said:

He wasn't just a young guy she met in a bar. She's known him since he was a little boy and was practically raising him while Tracy was going through astronaut training. She was a mother figure to him.

Exactly. The age difference is not a problem legally, but the prior relationship between the two (he was childhood best friends with HER SON) makes it icky and morally suspect. I am close to the now adult children of a long time friend. If I ever started to see those young men as anything other than nephews, people would be right to accuse me of having a screw loose. I don’t see the reaction to Karen as slut shaming but she certainly should feel ashamed.

[marinw]

Six dead so far! Out of hpw many? Space (or Mars) is dangerous and trying to kill us!

[watch2much]

do any of the remaining people know it was Danny's fault for the landslide?  

[jcin617]

29 minutes ago, watch2much said:

do any of the remaining people know it was Danny's fault for the landslide?  

I don’t think so, but I’m sure there will be an investigation and if Hab 2 has logs they should see that not only was nothing done to attempt to stabilize the pressure, but also communication was disabled.  Given it was just Nick and Danny on controls, Ed should be able to put it together.

[xaxat]

I'm with the camp that finds Alexi's actions plausible. History is full of people who have ignored their own health and safety in order to save the lives of others. He was functional, self diagnosed as having a headache, so he took aspirin.

[Dobian]

On 7/29/2022 at 6:29 AM, whiporee said:

Kelly's baby brings up a real interesting point. Is it American or Russian? Who gets to claim it? The Soviets can easily say it's a citizen of the Soviet Union, and belongs there. Obviously, America will feel the same way. All we know about it is that it's Martian. It guess it would have been too telling, but it would have been interesting to see one of those news clip things about babies being born in space. With space tourism having been a thing, you would imagine it would have happened by now. And Kelly and Alexi would not have been the first couple to screw in space -- Gordo and Tracy did -- so I would doubt that this is the first baby conceived in space. So it might have been nice to see how that played out. 

Well Kelly is the mother, it's her baby, and she is American.  The only one who claims the baby is her.  So the baby will live in America with his mom.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Is it really possible for POTUS to go off the radar like that? Unless it was a national security issue to keep the POTUS' current location a secret, I don't see how Ellen could get away with what she did. If word does get out, she'll have to wonder whether it was Larry or the Secret Service who leaked it. (Could be one of Pam's neighbors too if they noticed the presidential limo in front of her house.)

For what purpose would someone take anabolic steroids? Was Ed just trying to counter the effects of aging?

Not sure they should've let Kelly go with the search party. If something else went wrong it'd have been hard for Karen to lose both her daughter and her ex-husband. And Danny. And her Martian grandbaby.

Karen comforting Danny's wife was a little weird to watch though it did harken back to when she was an astronaut wife waiting for news. Sure hope Amber never finds out about Danny and Karen. She's the only decent person in that messy bunch.

Dev roused the geniuses!

Danny provoking Ed with bad memories of his son was not the way I expected that moment to go. I guess he was trying to keep Ed awake for as long as possible.

Was anyone thinking a baby xenomorph might bust out of Alexei's chest? No?Just me then. 😉

Danny turned into a confessing fool once he was looking death in face. He was saved by the bomb in more ways than one. I wonder if Ed would've found the strength to kill Danny before their air ran out, lol.

[marinw]

10 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Danny turned into a confessing fool once he was looking death in face. He was saved by the bomb in more ways than one. I wonder if Ed would've found the strength to kill Danny before their air ran out, lol.

I actually felt sorry for Ed. Which is worse: Suffocating and bleeding out while burried under ground or having to listen to Danny's whining? I give Ed credit for surviving both.

Edited August 1, 2022 by marinw

[Hanahope]

On 7/30/2022 at 6:59 AM, marinw said:

Six dead so far! Out of hpw many? Space (or Mars) is dangerous and trying to kill us!

Well only because they let idiots and addicts up there.  
 

I can’t believe Kelly was so stupid to risk pregnancy in this situation.  This is why you have to train people better for space travel.

Dani has shown herself to be quite capable.

[Hanahope]

Hopefully i'll get to the next two episodes tonight.  but until then, i have to wonder how this is going to get resolved.  the one lam is destroyed, incredible that Phoenix didn't have a backup.  so no one can travel between the Phoenix and the surface.  its a year before supplies can even be delivered to the surface from earth/moon, and people can't come for 2 years.  so even if a lam can be delivered in a year, the people on the surface have to survive with whatever provisions they have and there's going to be a baby (well maybe).  

all this because people and their egos had to "land first" instead of being safe (yes you Danielle).

[ahisma]

4 hours ago, Hanahope said:

all this because people and their egos had to "land first" instead of being safe (yes you Danielle).

Well, everybody, really. Dev had to get there before the government agencies (too fast to build a second lander). NASA and the Russians had to shortcut their development processes to beat Dev. Kudos to the individuals who were willing to sacrifice when necessary to save lives, but everyone has been slipshod in the race for first.

[tkc]

Lovely to have Dani sitting by her old friend as he woke up, but no “Hi, Bob?” 😀

[PurpleTentacle]

On 7/30/2022 at 6:36 PM, xaxat said:

I'm with the camp that finds Alexi's actions plausible. History is full of people who have ignored their own health and safety in order to save the lives of others. He was functional, self diagnosed as having a headache, so he took aspirin.

You can save the lives of others with a headache. Even if he thought this was just a headache (which would have been way too stupid for an astronaut, but okay) he should have known that there was a risk of him having internal bleeding after the massive trauma he sustained and that taking a blood thinner was stupid.

So I don't get the argument here. Was his headache so debilitating that he couldn't function? If so Aspirin wouldn't do much, which he should have known and it should really have given him pause that he had a splitting headache, shortly after he was knocked around by a landslide. Or was the headache not that bad and he could have functioned perfectly fine without painkillers and so he should have done without, after just sustaining injuries in a landslide?

Also still doesn't explain why Kelly didn't freak out after he told her what he just took. I freaked out the second he said it and I'm just a dumbass, not a highly trained biologist and astronaut.

It has been a year and a half and time has not changed my mind on this (just got back to this thread through a notification). If anything it seems even more stupid now,

Spoiler

with the show recently having the characters be extra stupid.

On 8/1/2022 at 3:14 AM, Joimiaroxeu said:

For what purpose would someone take anabolic steroids? Was Ed just trying to counter the effects of aging?

Those were testosterone injections, not anabolic steroids. Just like a lot of women take estrogen when they enter menopause, men might elect to supplement testosterone.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Those were testosterone injections, not anabolic steroids.

May I ask a) what's the difference?, and b) how the show indicated it was one versus the other? I vaguely recall that I figured it was steroids because of Ed's anger issues.

[PurpleTentacle]

15 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

May I ask a) what's the difference?, and b) how the show indicated it was one versus the other? I vaguely recall that I figured it was steroids because of Ed's anger issues.

a) Anabolic steroids boost testosterone levels far beyond simple testosterone injections, far beyond natural levels and have a bunch of nasty side effects. With simple testosterone injections you can't get much higher than natural levels and most people just use it to top off what they lost due to age. As I said, I don't think there is anything wrong with it and it seems a bit sexist that nobody questions when women go on hormone replacement therapy due to their age, but with men it's somehow something bad.

b) We saw the label on the bottle and I think it was also mentioned.

c) Yes this show suggested some anger issues from the injections, but the "science" has been a trashfire from the beginning of season 3 onwards, so I wouldn't expect anything else.

[ahpny]

On 7/30/2022 at 2:41 AM, coconspirator said:

The age difference is not a problem legally, but the prior relationship between the two (he was childhood best friends with HER SON) makes it icky and morally suspect.

Had, for example, Ed had a reciprocal relationship with someone that was almost indistinguishable from his own daughter, the ick and moral suspect would have triggered even more outrage. 

On 7/31/2022 at 9:14 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Danny turned into a confessing fool once he was looking death in face. He was saved by the bomb in more ways than one.

Not a fan of either Danny or his brother's unhinged mental states, but Danny's confession to Ed did provide some context, at least in part, for why Danny was so duranged. While Danny was of course wrong to blame himself for his friend's death, he was not wrong to admit that he used him, framed him repeatly and generally treated him poorly. And he has to live with never being able to make that right. That would trouble even a pretty stable person, and Danny isn't starting from stability. I'm not sure what to make of Danny's brother. He's just offputting in every way.