S01.E04: Our Lord

[AnimeMania]

Jin seeks justice after a death rattles the group. Investigators learn of an extremist group devoted to an otherworldly entity ahead of a major summit.

Premiere Date: March 21, 2024    Netflix    

[PurpleTentacle]

So the Santi have FTL communication and can somehow surveil the earth in real time even though they are light years away? "hard scifi" -.-

Unless this is an elaborate lie and they are already here, I'm going to be very annoyed.

But that supposedly smart people don't see anything wrong with that is annoying either way...

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I figured chinese mom would be the leader, a bit before she appeared on stage. Does that mean she had her daughter killed?

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"And when they [the Santi] arrive. You'll be so greatfull."

I thought they'd take 400 years. So he won't be gratefull, he'll be dead. Unless this is another elaborate lie.

Related: Did the Santi lie about not knowing what lies are?

Or is all of this just complete nonsense and I'm making a fool out of myself trying to make sense of it?

[Anela]

So, she leads an alien cult, and they really believe that they’re good, after she was specifically told that they aren’t. Stupid! 

[marinw]

This is like Arthur C Clark’s Childhood’s End, only more messed up.

[shrewd.buddha]

On a more common sense level, why would the alien helper cult think that Jin would be okay with the murder of her friend Jack? They were not even subtle or mysterious about it.  

Yen Wenjie (Chinese Mom) is a lot less of a sympathetic character now .. but she also seems a lot more naive (dumb) about trusting an unknown alien intelligence she knows nothing about.

[marinw]

12 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

Yen Wenjie (Chinese Mom) is a lot less of a sympathetic character now .. but she also seems a lot more naive (dumb) about trusting an unknown alien intelligence she knows nothing about.

The Irony is painful. Ye goes from watching her father be killed stating that the existence of God can neither be proven or disproven to leading a cult.

Edited March 24 by marinw

[aghst]

On 3/23/2024 at 6:37 PM, shrewd.buddha said:

On a more common sense level, why would the alien helper cult think that Jin would be okay with the murder of her friend Jack? They were not even subtle or mysterious about it.  

Yen Wenjie (Chinese Mom) is a lot less of a sympathetic character now .. but she also seems a lot more naive (dumb) about trusting an unknown alien intelligence she knows nothing about.

 

On 3/24/2024 at 5:53 AM, marinw said:

The Irony is painful. Ye goes from watching her father be killed stating that the existence of God can neither be proven or disproven to leading a cult.

Traitor to the human species.

in the first episode she was sneaking kisses with the guy in the labor camp, maybe you hoped she could build a life after the way her parents were killed and she was sent to do hard labor.

But then she welcomes the alien overlords, leans into betraying the human race.

She finds a partner but unfortunately the partner also wants to help aliens exterminate the human race.  Presumably as long as they subjugate and kill all humans except the cult members.

She has a child, who grows into a brilliant scientist in her own right but the daughter must not have gotten with the program so she had to go?

The motivation of Chinese Mom — Tiger Mom from Hell — and other cult members don’t make sense either.  Sure people believe In a cause greater than themselves.  They’re usually religious fanatics but at least they are being enticed by the carrot of eternal life or rewards in the afterlife.

These cultists OTOH are smug and think aliens will improve life on earth, though they themselves will be long gone.  For all they know, the aliens are not humanoid as represented in the game but some kind of reptilian predators which are coming to feed on humans.

Plus Ye Wenjie represents all humans, inviting them?

They’d be easy to ignore and bat away like flies except they have alien technology as well as belief that the lord will protect them.  Though Tatiana uses a gun and survives being shot, maybe the aliens didn’t tell them how to make weapons.

Real time communications with the lord shouldn’t be possible, unless again they sent some blueprints for alien communicator but it looked like Jonathan Pryce was using an old-school analog microphone.

But the aliens don’t believe in subterfuge or deception and they think ultimately they can’t trust or coexist with humans who are capable of deception.  The aliens don’t hide that they’re sending an invasion force, intent on conquest.

[shrewd.buddha]

6 hours ago, aghst said:

Traitor to the human species.

   Over the years I have gotten tired of the standard sci-fi narcissistic notion that "only humans matter" - as if it would be perfectly fine if all life on Earth was destroyed but a small group of humans managed to survive. Personally, I don't think life would be worth living without all the other life on Earth.
   But there are so many issues with (Chinese Mom) Yen Wenjie's way of thinking: 

• Turning "Silent Spring" into a anti-human manifesto is messed up. "All life is connected.": agreed - but that includes human life. 
• Yen has been betrayed, beaten, helped deforest acres of land and has lost faith in humanity .. but her own brutality is making her seem like an evil crazy genius scorned woman.
• Yen received only one message from the aliens before she invited them to conquer Earth. Why would she assume the aliens were only interested in subjugating humans? They could have plans to terraform the entire planet.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Kinda getting Scientology vibes . . . 

[iMonrey]

On 3/22/2024 at 4:19 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

I thought they'd take 400 years. So he won't be gratefull, he'll be dead. Unless this is another elaborate lie.

That line made zero sense. I also didn't understand - at this point - why Wade was so obsessed with stopping these aliens if they're not going to get here for another 400 years. At the rate we're going we'll probably destroy the planet ourselves long before the aliens ever get here. BUT, having seen the next episode, this played out like Wade read ahead. So it seems like the writing isn't very good. 

[aghst]

Well they were killing people or their lackeys on earth were killing people, killing scientists to prevent them from doing certain research, etc.

But considering how we're dealing with climate change, you wouldn't expect such urgency as depicted on the show.  They would spend some money to try to organize a defense, to research the aliens more.

Wade though seems to be getting a blank check -- not just money but powers -- to deploy whatever military assets he needs.  Would all the global powers give one man all that power though?

They don't explain his background either.  You get some inkling of Benedict Wong's life but nothing on Wade, why he's so committed to the cause, even at personal sacrifice to himself -- I forget in which episode he announces his plans to be leading this planetary defense effort for a long time.

[PurpleTentacle]

21 hours ago, aghst said:

Wade though seems to be getting a blank check -- not just money but powers -- to deploy whatever military assets he needs.  Would all the global powers give one man all that power though?

No. Of course not. That seems to be a very chinese mindset. Where virtually unchecked power is given to a few individuals.

[Ottis]

On 3/23/2024 at 9:37 PM, shrewd.buddha said:

On a more common sense level, why would the alien helper cult think that Jin would be okay with the murder of her friend Jack? They were not even subtle or mysterious about it.  

Yen Wenjie (Chinese Mom) is a lot less of a sympathetic character now .. but she also seems a lot more naive (dumb) about trusting an unknown alien intelligence she knows nothing about.

This is all sounding like an allegory to politics in the US, where the blinded fanatics are steering us toward catastrophe. They aren’t able to see the crash coming because they are too focused on their personal beliefs. We will all pay the price.

Still, I’m not sure, yet, who to root for on the show. They all kind of suck. The Santi-fans don’t seem to have a problem with calling aliens a deity, which is incongruous with what they say about the role of science.

At least they seem to have time to fight. Unless that was a lie. Ha, maybe the Santi do lie, and they ate almost at Earth. If there is a Santi.