S01.E07: The Day

[SeanBug]

On 2/25/2025 at 11:02 PM, HerkyJerky said:

I know, right? Hard to believe that “Caroline in the City” was 30 years ago!

She was on a few episodes of The Office about 11-12 years ago. I wonder if it's the lighter hair that made her look older than I thought she was. 

[Haleth]

10 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Ryan might as well have been wearing a red star trek uniform. You knew from the start he wasn't making it. 

Unless he’s the one who somehow sneaked in. 🤔

[twoods]

This episode would extremely anxiety inducing, yet I couldn’t look away. It was so frantic and realistic what would actually happen if this happened in real life. I felt so helpless for all of those that were left behind, and could feel Cal’s helplessness as well. How awful. 

[General Days]

 

On 2/26/2025 at 12:42 AM, TiffanyNichelle said:

If that one guy was able to sneak his dog in and hide him for 3 years it's possible someone else got in during that time.

 

This. I feel like the dog subplot was included in order to support the idea that there may be people in the bunker who aren't supposed to be there.

I keep thinking about how chaotic it would have been herding the cows into the abattoir all those panicked people into the mountain bunker. The confusion creates a margin of error with which someone with a plan can work.

 

[twoods]

It’s easier to sneak in a dog than a person, so am curious how that happened unless someone breached security and snuck into the dome after the fact.

Just realized this was only 8 episodes so at least we will have some answers next week. 

Edited Friday at 12:18 AM by twoods

[Bobcatkitten]

I just think the quality of this show is amazing. Writing, directing, acting. Every episode surprises me just a little. 

I was looking forward to seeing how the day unfolded and this episode was even more than I could have imagined. It was incredibly tense and yet had these slower moments like the president talking to the janitor. 

Wow.

[cmfran]

I enjoy most anything set in a dystopian environment, and one of my favorite plot devices is when the writers eventually show us how we got there. This episode nailed that, even though we mainly only saw what was going on in the WH. 

[Paloma]

13 hours ago, twoods said:

It’s easier to sneak in a dog than a person, so am curious how that happened unless someone breached security and snuck into the dome after the fact.

The problem with a person sneaking in either before or after the fact is that everyone was issued wristbands for identification when they got on the planes, or possibly before that when they thought they would have 10 days warning. The wristbands served as both ID for everyday stuff like getting food and for surveilling people in the bunker, as we saw during the rebellion when Xavier and his people cut off their wristbands to avoid detection. 

Maybe someone could have snuck on a plane without detection during the chaos of "The Day," but once they reached the bunker I think they had to show wristbands to enter. I guess someone could have taken another person's wristband during the chaos leading up to getting on the plane, but that would be difficult because (as we saw with Xavier) it had to be cut off with a sharp knife, unless they stole it before the person who was supposed to wear it put it on. But even if an unauthorized person managed to find a wristband and get in, it's hard to believe they wouldn't be discovered at some point since their identity would not match the wristband. And if they got in without a wristband, how would they have survived for 3 years ("present day" in the show period, when the murder of the President takes place) in the bunker without a wristband to get food etc.?

I find it even harder to believe that a survivor from outside could breach security and the President's quarters without detection. I hope the writers can resolve either scenario with some credibility.

[DrSpaceman73]

3 hours ago, cmfran said:

I enjoy most anything set in a dystopian environment, and one of my favorite plot devices is when the writers eventually show us how we got there. This episode nailed that, even though we mainly only saw what was going on in the WH. 

It made me pretty depressed to learn, BTW, if a huge cataclysmic society ending event occurs, world leaders all plan to bomb each other on top of it all. 

 

WTF!!!  WHY!!! ???

It also makes me wonder if this is true. 

[chaifan]

@Paloma Great points mentioned above!  

I love the theory about Marsha being the killer.  But for that to happen, she would have had to be able to get out of DC really really fast.  Maybe there was another helicopter that landed, just to get people more inland.  Maybe she grabbed the ID/bracelet off of the dead guy who had the "football".  But that's a lot of good luck/coincidences.  But there was a lot of emphasis on her in this episode, a good old fashioned Chekov's Marsha. 😁 I'd bet we'll see her again.  But I think if she got her way into the bunker from the beginning she would have killed Cal (and X) way sooner.  (And I agree - it would be very hard to hide for 3 years.)  So maybe she found her way to the bunker and got in somehow.

When X went into the computer room to find out how to get Teri to the AFB, there was a screen that briefly showed a video of someone unpacking a wristband.  I'm guessing that comes back into play - it becomes known among survivors that the wristbands are important, people find them in the crash sites.  Or from people who were on plane #3, with the joint chiefs of staff, who were going to try to land in St. Louis.  Or other people that never made it to the bunker but survived.

Since we now know Colorado wasn't nuked, I think it's weird that the bunker hasn't already been breached by all the contractors who worked on it.  Some may have been given slots, but most likely not all.  They know where it is.  That's the first place I'd head for if I survived everything else.  

There is a good article with SKB in the Washington Post from this week, talking about the show in general and this episode.  Here's a snippet of something SKB said.  I'm going to spoiler tag this because it talks in general about something that will happen in Ep 8, but without giving specific details.

Spoiler

"I’ll give you something. We will find out in Episode 8 who killed the president."

 

Edited Friday at 03:32 PM by chaifan

[BlackberryJam]

So my guess is:

Spoiler

Cal arranged for someone to kill him as a catalyst to get someone to investigate what is really going on. Either that, or Jeremy, his son did it.

 

[Anela]

I've suspected Jeremy, since I thought Cal revealed that he was named after the Pearl Jam song. I also know that these shows throw out a lot of red herrings, and some have ended up being a character you barely saw. 

Ugh, I accidentally deleted part of this. I also saw someone on another site, suspecting the bartender, because of his wife. 

Edited Friday at 09:48 PM by Anela

[Hanahope]

I noted that Sinatra knew exactly where X was hiding his kids.  And when Presley shows up again and says she was with Jane, X still won’t realize that Jane is working for Sinatra.  He will just think Sinatra found out where she was.  
 

 

[General Days]

On 2/27/2025 at 7:13 PM, twoods said:

It’s easier to sneak in a dog than a person, so am curious how that happened unless someone breached security and snuck into the dome after the fact.

 

23 hours ago, Paloma said:

The problem with a person sneaking in either before or after the fact is that everyone was issued wristbands for identification when they got on the planes, or possibly before that when they thought they would have 10 days warning. The wristbands served as both ID for everyday stuff like getting food and for surveilling people in the bunker, as we saw during the rebellion when Xavier and his people cut off their wristbands to avoid detection. 

 

It is easier to sneak in a dog, especially a teensy one. I don't necessarily think an outsider snuck in, in the same way Carl snuck in the dog. I just think they paid way too much attention to that dog, for its presence not to be significant beyond minor character Carl's storyline. I think it foreshadows the idea that there are people who aren't supposed to be there.

Maybe there are paranoiacs who didn't submit their own samples for reasons (drug use, disease or genetic anomalies, other privacy issues). Maybe there are people in the bunker who assumed other people's identities. Maybe there's a whole little pre-loaded resistance cadre already who got in at the beginning with false credentials. I don't think we've seen enough yet to know.  

I still think the dog is sort of like the cheese fries; the writers have hung lantern on these details for a reason. 

I think the show is excellent, by the way, but it is not shy about hiding "spoilers" in plain sight. 

While watching episode S1.E4, "Agent Billy Pace," who among us did not know Billy was a goner — if not during his threats to Sinatra, at least by the time he trotted out the "I'll tell you this earth-shattering secret tomorrow, Xavier" trope?

 

23 hours ago, Paloma said:

Maybe someone could have snuck on a plane without detection during the chaos of "The Day," but once they reached the bunker I think they had to show wristbands to enter. I guess someone could have taken another person's wristband during the chaos leading up to getting on the plane, but that would be difficult because (as we saw with Xavier) it had to be cut off with a sharp knife, unless they stole it before the person who was supposed to wear it put it on. But even if an unauthorized person managed to find a wristband and get in, it's hard to believe they wouldn't be discovered at some point since their identity would not match the wristband. And if they got in without a wristband, how would they have survived for 3 years ("present day" in the show period, when the murder of the President takes place) in the bunker without a wristband to get food etc.?

 

Xavier did cut off his wristband, but Xavier was well into badass mode by then. I'm not sure the wristbands must be cut off to be removed, though. Didn't someone in the control tower note that a given percentage of people have their wristbands off at any time?

If/since people routinely remove their wristbands when they don't want to be tracked (for whatever reason — affairs? drinking? napping on the job? who knows?), I'm thinking they can be removed in other ways. Xavier just chose a dramatic way to take it off, in front of Dr. Torabi. By the time he does so, he knows Torabi will report back to Sinatra. It's part of his "making a scene."

Edited Saturday at 01:52 PM by General Days
Typo

[astrohip]

On 2/28/2025 at 9:28 AM, chaifan said:

Since we now know Colorado wasn't nuked, I think it's weird that the bunker hasn't already been breached by all the contractors who worked on it.  Some may have been given slots, but most likely not all.  They know where it is.  That's the first place I'd head for if I survived everything else.  

I don't think we know how strong/secure the exterior security of the place is. We've seen people going into the hangar, but that's inside the perimeter. And we've seen people outside Paradise (like the scene where Pace shoots the scientists), but have we seen anyone actually going outside? There may be massive security between the hangar (or whatever is the outermost section of Paradise), and the outside itself.

You raise an interesting point. My curiosity makes me want to know.

[circumvent]

Do I remember correctly that the reason they are given for the need to be in the bunker was a thermonuclear war? 

I came across something that mentions that a thermonuclear catastrophe would end the lives of 4 to 5 billion people in short period, and make life in the planet impossible. 

Now, if the writers are going with real science or pure fiction remains to be seen. If it is the former, then it is possible that what happened wasn't the worst case scenario. But then I want to know why they showed in the middle of the season the tip of the Washington Monument in DC, surrounded by water and dirty. 

Edited Yest. at 01:53 PM by circumvent

[Paloma]

2 hours ago, circumvent said:

But then I want to know why they showed in the early episodes, maybe the first one, a scene of what looked like a submarine neat the top of something that looked like the tip of the Washington Monument in DC.

I'm assuming that the Washington Monument (and the rest of DC) was underwater because of the tsunami caused by the climate catastrophe (I think it was a volcano in the Antarctic or Arctic that set it off). I didn't notice a submarine in that scene, but it may have been there because the tsunami would have pulled in all kinds of vessels from the ocean. I don't know anything about US military defenses, but there may have been a US sub patrolling the ocean before the tsunami.

[circumvent]

37 minutes ago, Paloma said:

I'm assuming that the Washington Monument (and the rest of DC) was underwater because of the tsunami caused by the climate catastrophe (I think it was a volcano in the Antarctic or Arctic that set it off). I didn't notice a submarine in that scene, but it may have been there because the tsunami would have pulled in all kinds of vessels from the ocean. I don't know anything about US military defenses, but there may have been a US sub patrolling the ocean before the tsunami.

There was no submarine, that was my mistake. I thought I had edited the post but I guess I didn't. My question is, if there was not a worst case scenario catastrophe, and there are survivors in Atlanta, the thing does not make sense. If DC in underwater, so is Atlanta. 

[Broderbits]

3 hours ago, circumvent said:

Do I remember correctly that the reason they are given for the need to be in the bunker was a thermonuclear war? 

The first threat was the massive global tsunami caused by that Antarctic super-volcano, and its accompanying pressure shockwave. Then you have various governments going ape-shit and nuclear bombing willy-nilly. Insanity can be so contagious.

 

40 minutes ago, Paloma said:

I don't know anything about US military defenses, but there may have been a US sub patrolling the ocean before the tsunami.

Many countries have subs patrolling at any given time.

[chaifan]

3 hours ago, circumvent said:

Do I remember correctly that the reason they are given for the need to be in the bunker was a thermonuclear war? 

I think the original reason for the bunker was the "natural" impending disaster, which we now know was the underground/water volcano in Antartica, which the scientist predicted would lead to massive tsunamis.  And that the volcano would create so much ash that there would be a "nuclear winter" effect.  So areas outside of the tsunami range would still be uninhabitable.  Sinatra said that every scenario played out the same in the end - that countries would resort to nuclear weapons.  And that might be the reason they knew they'd have to stay underground for 100 years. 

But, now that I think about it, Cal knew he disabled (most) of the nukes with the EM blast.  So if it were only the nukes keeping them underground, it would no longer be necessary.  Did Cal tell others (other than Sinatra) that he stopped the nukes?  Does everyone else assume it's a nuclear wasteland up above?  Another lie to keep people from trying to leave the bunker?  Or, would the volcanic ash still make the rest of the US uninhabitable for the full 100 years?

And, now that I think about even more...  if the US has EM blast technology, wouldn't all the other world superpowers?  Wouldn't that be more of a deterrent to nuclear war than bombing back?  Hey, if you launch nukes, we'll set off our EM blasts to not only disable the nukes but leave your country in the dark?  (I have to assume that if these exist, you'd have the option to use one, some or all, not just an "all or nothing" situation.)  

 

13 minutes ago, circumvent said:

If DC in underwater, so is Atlanta. 

OK, so I'm a geek, and after this episode I looked at topographical maps.  The show said that anything under 300 feet above sea level would be covered.  Atlanta is closer to 1000 feet.  So it could have survived the flooding.  The Washington Monument is 550 feet (yep, looked that up, too), so showing the tip of it above water would be accurate within the show.  

[Broderbits]

12 minutes ago, chaifan said:

Hey, if you launch nukes, we'll set off our EM blasts to not only disable the nukes but leave your country in the dark?  (I have to assume that if these exist, you'd have the option to use one, some or all, not just an "all or nothing" situation.)  

That presupposes people in charge acting logically, and maybe with a little compassion towards their fellow humans. Personally, I wouldn't bet money on it. Cal has been shown as conflicted about the position his father pushed him into and the tough decisions he has to make; but even in a world-ending crisis he took time to reach out. On the plane, Sinatra showed the reaction most "people in charge" would have: she was horrified that Cal disabled the nukes.

[circumvent]

Another question related to the time they have been in the hole.

How long was Cal the president until they had to go under? I think I will have to just accept that they could have stocked up the bunker in a few years, this assuming that the place was already being built long before and was ready or almost ready. Too many logistics to happen in a short time. I wonder how the main bunker functions in the US. They have the technology, which could become useless, but how much food and how much preparation is actually happening?

If they are preparing for a hundred years, how will the leaders be chosen? I would prefer to see a rebellion*, it would be more realistic but if the show is going the peaceful, satisfied people, they should have a plan for succession. This should also have ben part of the information we get. Waiting until the middle of next season to reveal that, if they ever do, is too long and then more questions will pile up.

*there is a movie, I think it is also a TV show, that depicts what happens with people that are being controlled in a caste system - Snowpiercer. The movie is really good, don't know about the TV show.