S01.E06: He Stilled the Rising Tumult

[formerlyfreedom]

With the sweltering heat hitting the triple digits and life outside the cordon returning to normal, Lex moves full steam ahead in an attempt to uncover the truth behind a potential government cover-up. Meanwhile, when Katie learns that Thomas’ entire family has succumbed to the virus, and Thomas is now missing, she and Jake set out to find him. After discovering that one of their captors may have contracted the virus, Xander and Teresa plan their escape from the grocery mart.

[Muffyn]

Please let Thomas find his dead family, cuddle up with their corpses and put me out of my misery in listening to his character.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Oh great, we've gone from Bible quotes to Casey at the Bat quotes to open the episode. Have any of these intro quotes been at all relevant ?

We're up to Day 9 and everything is surprisingly quiet considering that in 4 more days everything inside the cordon is going to turn to shit.

And there's supposed to be 4000 people inside the cordon -- where is everybody ?

Major Lex and the reporter are supposed to meet some contact at a data center to get security footage from the hospital so they can determine who actually got sick first and prove the CDC is lying.  Only there's not enough going on inside the cordon that Lex gets the call to go deal with some dude holed up in a condemned building scheduled for demolition chained to a radiator on one of the upper floors.  Here's my question -- who discovered this clown in the building and reported him to the cops ?  Because whoever did is no where to be seen the entire episode.

Would they really let large segments of the police force call in sick because it was too hot ?  Really ?  

There is a sick guy in the market coughing -- and no one is wearing masks ?  At least the gang leader solves that problem quickly, but now they have a contaminated body in the store room that no one wants to touch.  Real good planning there -- should have taken the sick guy outside first before killing him.

Why did the cop with the satphone decide to hookup up with the gang that took over the market ?  Is he really a cop ?  And how did he know that a gang had taken over the market ?

Katie the schoolteacher goes looking for one of her students because it's "her responsibility" -- except that when Thomas' father took Thomas away that pretty much relieved her of any responsibility.  And now Thomas' sister is sick and Thomas' father is dead -- I think it's time to cut Thomas loose because the odds are stacked against this kid that he's NOT sick.  But he will probably turn out to the be the wonder child who holds the cure/vaccine/whatever.

And Katie the schoolteacher is so good at her job that she abandons all the kids in the hospital unsupervised such that her son follows her to Thomas' house.  And her son for sure knows where Thomas has gone because his batting helmet is missing. WTF ?

Again with the Braves game.  Does Jake have tickets for this game too ?  Oh, he's going to be pissed since he's going to miss it.

Speaking of Jake he still isn't wearing a mask -- at any time.  Ever.

Dude chained to the radiator in the condemned building uses it to watch his girlfriend/wife/whatever in a building inside the cordon -- and for that reason he pulls a gun on a cop. Turns out he hasn't seen her in two days.  And how long was this dude been chained to the radiator with no access to a bathroom ?

Jake and Katie the schoolteacher and her son Quentin go to the local baseball diamond to find Thomas -- and despite Quentin's claims that he knows where Thomas is he's not there -- and get terrorized by the biker hoodlums that were hanging out in the garage level of Jana's building for over a week. Jake shoots one and the bikers leave but during the melee Katie loses Quentin.  That's some really good schoolteachering/parenting there.

The A/C in Jana's building is off and with the extreme heat it's basically an oven inside the clean rooms -- so Jana and the building maintenance go to the basement to fix the A/C and find a dead body that was stabbed to death by the bikers who have conveniently left the building for the day to go terrorize baseball diamonds.  And this is an excuse for Jana to confess that she doesn't play nice with strangers.  FFS !  Thankfully building maintenance guy gets the A/C working again.

Why is there so much garbage around the baseball diamond ?  Have numerous people been playing baseball while they have been trapped inside the cordon ?  As Jake and Katie search for Quentin they find him staring at a sick guy on a park bench.  Katie completely ignores the no touching 4 to 6 feet rule and hugs Quentin -- seriously, is anyone obeying this rule anymore ? -- and Katie doesn't even put her mask on.  Meanwhile Thomas shows up with a bottle of water and cozies up to the sick guy on the bench to hand it to him as the camera zooms in and shows a drop of sweat drop from the sick guy's hand onto Thomas' hand.  It's ok because Thomas is badass and claims that he doesn't get sick.  Sure he doesn't -- kids are so stupid.

Oh, and apparently the National Guard is finally coming in at some point --- after 9 days -- to take over security on the cordon.  That's an even worse response time than during Hurricane Katrina.  What the hell have they been waiting for ?  Because municipal cops are not meant to deal with this shit.

Lex and reporter finally make their way to the data center only the video footage is corrupted -- how convenient is it that Lex's girlfriend inside the cordon works for a data recovery company ?  Seriously, corrupted data isn't always recoverable, especially if it's a copy of the original that you are working with, so it's not a given that this video footage even can be recovered but Jana is going to be there to save the day.

And while Jana has been super diligent about keeping people out of the building, the pregnant teen and her boyfriend show up and Jana is the first to say let them in.  Oh, she has so changed her ways -- and all it took was a deadly infectious disease to do it.  She is so moving in with Lex if she ever gets out of this.

Jake thinks that Thomas is source of a cure because he just has to be immune -- as they quarantine Thomas inside the hospital.  And only now does Katie put on a mask and Jake the cop still doesn't get one.

Lex meets Jake for a swap inside the container -- and while Lex slides more bullets over to Jake and tosses him the flash drive with the corrupted video, Jake tosses back another flash drive to Lex.  Lex isn't even wearing gloves.  They quarantined Thomas over a drop of sweat but dirty disgusting Jake tosses over a flash drive with no concern at all.  And why haven't they put up some sort of barrier inside the container tunnel.  

Jake decides to tell Lex that he is in love with Katie.  FFS !  It's an Atlantan version of 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.

Lex gets searched by the Army (since when does the Army take orders from local cops) and they find the flash drive from Jake -- and take it while not wearing gloves.   Arggghhh !!! Do these soldiers know that there is a super deadly disease running amuck inside the cordon.  But they search the flash drive in record time and discover nothing illegal or incriminating -- in seconds.

Katie decides to stand watch outside Thomas' room -- completely ignoring all the other children from her class that she is in charge of.  She is such a shitty teacher -- with the exception of her son, Quentin, and Thomas all of the other kids are already probably dead and I don't think she would even care.

Turns out that the flash drive that Jake gave to Lex has a video of the daughter of the guy chained to the radiator in the condemned building -- even though at not point did they show Jake track down the girl, take a video with a video camera, and transfer it to a flash drive despite his busy day of tracking down Thomas.  Here's a question -- how did Jake even know to go find this girl in the first place ?  They never showed Lex contacting him.

Even though the A/C is back on in the data recovery building, Jana is all nice and cool but everyone inside the clean room portion of the floor is still sweaty for some reason.  And Jana decides to get to know the pregnant teen, and as they fold baby clothes -- seriously, why didn't they pack more food instead of numerous baby clothes -- and teen mom finds the sat phone in her bag, stashed there by her mom.  How did teen mom's mother ever manage to snag the sat phone ?  This makes absolutely no sense.

And the episode finishes with teen mom's mother showing up in the lobby of the data recovery building with a gang member holding a gun to her head.

Rolling back to the first episode when they show the Day 13 riot, Katie is running holding a girl in a white tutu screaming for help -- not Quentin or Thomas -- but some girl we don't even know.  Folks are rioting over MREs, the biker gang is stealing MREs from people, there's no sign of the gang that is now running the market (you would think they would be hijacking all the food), teen mom gets knocked to the ground, the old man who manages the rats gets knocked down and has his MREs stolen, and bodies are being openly burned in the street by the CDC -- beside a food distribution point.  And somehow people have time to make up religious-themed protest signs.  So shit is really going to go downhill fast in the next 4 days.

[xaxat]

6 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Oh great, we've gone from Bible quotes to Casey at the Bat quotes to open the episode. Have any of these intro quotes been at all relevant ?

That doesn't bode well for the people in the quarantine area.

"but there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out."

Edited May 24, 2016 by xaxat

[NorthstarATL]

So what I think I got is that the "conspiracy" was/is to blame the epidemic on a Middle Easterner because, maybe, that would curtail some sort of immigration policy? I think that's the writers' political point, but, in looking at outbreaks of illnesses in the U.S. the populace rarely targets patient zero for recriminations (except for Typhoid Mary) and, if anything, questions Government failures in terms of vetting, etc. It just seems like a "feel good" storyline to give the characters a "moral outrage" purpose while they mismanage the abc's of a health crisis. Lucky for them that they found a magic cure who will hopefully be examined by the guy trying to find the cure, who was conspicuously absent this week. And maybe I was wrong about Katie's meds or her condition being important to the cure, as it seems her purpose was in order for Jake to find twue wuv.

  The bikers connected with the Jakatie story by leaving the parking garage and menacing the couple, who managed to find Cure Kid immediately after. Their absence allowed Jana and RoofGuy to do something with the power and bond over boyfriends, giving us our mandatory gay guy, and also brought pregnant girl and fencejumper guy into that storyline....but unfortunately the gang, the bad cop, and pregnant girl's mother tagged along. Jake will show up, though, as he's supposed to get the thumbdrive to Jana, because her boyfriend figures she's got nothing better to do. And that ties all the storylines together. Unless I'm missing someone.

[Margherita Erdman]

On 5/24/2016 at 6:06 AM, ottoDbusdriver said:

 Would they really let large segments of the police force call in sick because it was too hot ?  Really ? 

 

The implication was that it was the "blue flu," cops refusing to come in because they resented what Lex did by quarantining the officer who cut his arm (on purpose, secretly, in cahoots with the police chief for some obscure reason I do not trust we will ever fully understand) inside the cordon.

So much happened in this episode, and with so little sense or purpose. OttoD summarized most of the stupid. I thought I'd at least be in for the duration, but I'm not sure I can make it.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Margherita Erdman

[SonofaBiscuit]

Whoa, Jake, pump the brakes.  You LOVE Katie?  It's only been nine days!  I think the heat (and possibly the dire situation in the cordon) is getting to you, buddy.

Loved Lex claiming he needed to meet with Jake to provide him with more ammo and then taking a single box of bullets with him.  Wow, one whole box?  That's what, like fifty bullets?  I know it was just a cover story, but he could have tried a little bit harder there.

Why does Jana insist on wearing her clean room suit at all times?  It makes sense when she's out interacting with the public, but when she's quarantined in a little box with no air conditioning?  Not so much.

Edited May 25, 2016 by SonofaBiscuit

[MDKNIGHT]

Still don't get the point of the gang in the store.  I can understand hoarding for your own survival but not to make a profit in side a plague cordon.  How will you ever get away with it?  Don't get why the cop agreed to be stranded inside the cordon.  I have trouble making sense of people's motivations on this show.  I hope it makes sense in the end.

Do people think they'd be having baseball games that close to a plague zone?  Would people go?  I think there is going to be a lot of people avoiding the Zica virus in the Brazilian Olympics and that is bigger than a baseball game. 

Edited May 25, 2016 by MDKNIGHT

[xaxat]

Did they run out of money while they were filming this?

That's the only reason I can think of for consecutive episodes without Claudia Black's character. Her checks weren't clearing and she took a walk.

Is the show going to end where it began? With all hell breaking loose as the National Guard (finally) enters the hot zone?

[Netfoot]

14 hours ago, SonofaBiscuit said:

Loved Lex claiming he needed to meet with Jake to provide him with more ammo and then taking a single box of bullets with him.  Wow, one whole box?  That's what, like fifty bullets?  I know it was just a cover story, but he could have tried a little bit harder there.

Why does Jana insist on wearing her clean room suit at all times?  It makes sense when she's out interacting with the public, but when she's quarantined in a little box with no air conditioning?  Not so much.

I literally laughed out loud at that.  It's not even four clips for the average nine!

13 hours ago, MDKNIGHT said:

I think there is going to be a lot of people avoiding the Zica virus in the Brazilian Olympics and that is bigger than a baseball game. 

Spoke to my doctor only this morning about that.  Apparently, the general consensus amongst medics is that Zica doesn't cause birth defects.  Tdap vaccinations, given to pregnant women in Brazil is believed to be a more likely cause, since Zica has been known for nearly 100 years, and never connected with microcephaly before.

14 hours ago, SonofaBiscuit said:

[Texasmom1970]

17 hours ago, SonofaBiscuit said:

Whoa, Jake, pump the brakes.  You LOVE Katie?  It's only been nine days!  I think the heat (and possibly the dire situation in the cordon) is getting to you, buddy.

Why does Jana insist on wearing her clean room suit at all times?  It makes sense when she's out interacting with the public, but when she's quarantined in a little box with no air conditioning?  Not so much.

I know I was like WTH Jake, they have known each other like a week, does he even know her last name, doesn't matter he loves her, and his delivery of that revelation was so convincing, not!

And obviously Katie went to the Lori Grimes school of parenting. How did this woman get a job supervising children?

The clean suit really bugs me too reminds me of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" the original where they are in the room with the kid stuck like in the tv I think it was.

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

And obviously Katie went to the Lori Grimes school of parenting.

Funny!  I've been thinking of her as "Feckin' Katie" for a couple of weeks, now!

[Muffyn]

Clearly I care so little  about this show I cannot remember/learn the characters names.   It's not Thomas I wanted gone; it's Quintin.  Damn, that kid bugs! 

You have all covered the stupid so well.  what hit me most this episode was the amount of time spent on abandoned building dude.  So deep, so heart-wrenching,, so who cares random guy!  With 4,000 people in the cordon, we've seen 20?  30?  Not counting the few crowd scenes. 

I like how quickly some people have decided this is the zombie apocalypse and there will be no ramifications for their actions later on.  Sure, take over a store.  Shoot someone for coughing.  Hold hostages.  It's all good. 

So maybe Thomas really won't get sick and is somehow the link to immunity.  It's that or he's just another casualty of Katie's tremendously bad caretaking.  She shouldn't be trusted with a potted plant, let alone children.  I guess Jake loves her inability to keep track of kids and her willingness to abandon them.  Love among the idiocy.   

[Shannon L.]

9 hours ago, Muffyn said:

I guess Jake loves her inability to keep track of kids and her willingness to abandon them.  Love among the idiocy.   

Don't forget how unselfish she is that she's willing to put her issues aside for a moment when he's had a really bad day and needs comfort and understanding, like, for example, if he ever has to watch a fellow cop commit suicide or burn a little girl's body.....oh wait.....

I'm muddling through this show but haven't posted because you all have covered about everything by the time I've had a chance to watch it.  Jake's the only one I care even a little about (whose performances I think have  been the best ones in the show so far), but the "I love her" line was just too much.  Besides, doesn't he know that relationships that start under extreme circumstances rarely work out (points to anyone who understands that reference :) ?

[laserlady]

As always, there was a fierce competition for Most Idiotic Moment of the Week, but my vote goes to Katie for telling her son to run away from the speeding motorcycle hecklers across an open, exposed field, instead of keeping him between her and an armed policeman who could have actually done something to protect him.

Also, why did the reporter need the cop to go to the data center with him in order for his contact to give him a copy of the data?  When the cop got held up by the guy in the abandoned building, couldn't the reporter have just grabbed a cab and gone to the data center himself?  If I were an inside contact who was illegally giving state secrets to a reporter, I'd actually prefer not to have an unknown cop on the scene with us.

Have the scriptwriters actually met people before?  They don't seem to have a very good grasp on the ways that real human beings would be likely to act under these circumstances.

[For Cereals]

This show has become a drinking game for me to guess the bad, cliched dialogue that will be said next.

[Jordan27]

Most of you accurately portrayed the dumb in this ep and show.

I had to laugh at the Dr. Phil type counseling of man in abandoned building that went on way too long.

We have a virus affecting thousands that has killed already and we're spending manpower and time on some mopey guy chained in a building. 

This show is now only for snarking and that's the way I will watch it. 

I can hardly "contain" myself.

[slf]

On 5/26/2016 at 8:39 AM, Shannon L. said:

Don't forget how unselfish she is that she's willing to put her issues aside for a moment when he's had a really bad day and needs comfort and understanding, like, for example, if he ever has to watch a fellow cop commit suicide or burn a little girl's body.....oh wait.....

I'm muddling through this show but haven't posted because you all have covered about everything by the time I've had a chance to watch it.  Jake's the only one I care even a little about (whose performances I think have  been the best ones in the show so far), but the "I love her" line was just too much.  Besides, doesn't he know that relationships that start under extreme circumstances rarely work out (points to anyone who understands that reference :) ?

Speed!

Katie was given the perfect opportunity to redeem herself for stupidly standing back and watching an obviously infected man touch poor Thomas in the stairwell and she...did the exact same thing. Like, goddamn girl, you could've easily rushed over and snatched that kid off the bench. She has the worst instincts of any character on this show (and there's not an intelligent one in the bunch so that's saying something).

[Muffyn]

On ‎5‎/‎26‎/‎2016 at 2:34 PM, laserlady said:

As always, there was a fierce competition for Most Idiotic Moment of the Week, but my vote goes to Katie for telling her son to run away from the speeding motorcycle hecklers across an open, exposed field, instead of keeping him between her and an armed policeman who could have actually done something to protect him.

Sweet baby Jesus on a cracker, Katie!  Run, Quintin, run!  Oh my God, where did Quintin go?  Well, you twit, you told him to run.  If that child is half as stupid as you are he's going to keep running until he hits a wall.  Hell, he'll keep running into the wall until he passes out.  Nobody told him to stop. 

7 hours ago, Jordan27 said:

I can hardly "contain" myself.

I love you so much for this. 

[thuganomics85]

Seriously, he might not be infected, but Jake clearly has gotten his brain fried or something, if he truly thinks he's in love with Katie.  This isn't healthy, Jake!  She's been nothing but a jerk to you 75% of the time, but you actually like it?!  I get you probably haven't seen many women lately, but that doesn't mean to latch on the closet one; especially one who seems to have the worst parenting skills since Rick and Lori on The Walking Dead.

So, did Teresa's mom actually betray her or did the gang know all along that they were trying something?  I get that the phone being there meant it was placed, but I couldn't tell if the mom was in all it, or the gang leader just knew they would make an attempt.  Whatever; the whole thing dumb. Maybe the gang could at least clear a few of the obnoxious characters, like Jana's two male coworkers, whose sole purposes seem to be whining.

Why did I have to watch an episode devoted to Lex trying to talk down a guy who has a daughter in the Corden?  That's not what I signed up for!

Another Claudia Black-less episode.  Boo!

[AudienceofOne]

On 5/26/2016 at 7:40 AM, Netfoot said:

Spoke to my doctor only this morning about that.  Apparently, the general consensus amongst medics is that Zica doesn't cause birth defects.  Tdap vaccinations, given to pregnant women in Brazil is believed to be a more likely cause, since Zica has been known for nearly 100 years, and never connected with microcephaly before.

Then you need a new doctor. Zika causes birth defects in non-human animals for a start and the rise of microcephaly in Brazil correlates with the disease. Your argument is akin to saying that rubella can't cause birth defects because it had been around for centuries and nobody had made the birth defect link before the 1940s. Well clearly it can't be rubella then or we would have noticed sooner! Except it was rubella causing congenital birth defects and now we ensure pregnant woman aren't exposed.

The proportion of zika cases resulting in microcephaly is small and so the reason the link is being made now is because of the sharp rise in infections due to climate change. More mosquitos, more infections, more microcephaly and a reason for researchers to look for a link. Is that link completely established? No. Is making up random other causes for the disease warranted? Never.

And to blame it on vaccines - wow, that steams me. More anti-vaccine fear-mongering bullshit. But if we're making up causes for an outbreak, I vote... the  Supermoons. It's clearly the Supermoons. Or a vaccine used by millions of pregnant women worldwide that for some reason only causes problems in parts of the world with Zika. That vaccine is cunning.

Also, I just had Boostrix a fortnight ago. Because pertussis and diphtheria are no laughing matter. Neither is tetanus.

On 5/30/2016 at 8:03 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Seriously, he might not be infected, but Jake clearly has gotten his brain fried or something, if he truly thinks he's in love with Katie.  

Oh yeah, this is a relationship that will last post-cordon. His 'running' days are finally over!

[Netfoot]

29 minutes ago, AudienceofOne said:

Zika causes birth defects in non-human animals for a start and the rise of microcephaly in Brazil correlates with the disease. Your argument is akin to saying that rubella can't cause birth defects because it had been around for centuries and nobody had made the birth defect link before the 1940s. Well clearly it can't be rubella then or we would have noticed sooner! Except it was rubella causing congenital birth defects and now we ensure pregnant woman aren't exposed.

Oh.  

Massive Study Casts Doubt on Zika As Cause of Microcephaly

BRAZIL HEALTH OFFICIALS: ZIKA VIRUS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR RISE IN BIRTH DEFECTS, IT’S SOMETHING ELSE

Huge New Doubts that Zika Causes Microcephaly

[AudienceofOne]

I'm waiting with bated breath for a moderator to shut me down for being off topic... But here I go.

Firstly, like I said, the link is not yet completely established. I literally said that. My post is only one up from yours. Secondly, the paper those terrible articles are based on says nothing about vaccines. It does posit an alternative cause but provides no evidence for that cause. It is an alternative hypothesis. And if you'd actually read the paper instead of the crap websites you linked to, you'd know that a flaw in the Colombia study is that of time. The data was preliminary, the study was still ongoing, Zika does not cause microcephaly in every pregnant woman. But a recent study showed that children born with microcephaly were 55 times more likely to have had exposure to Zika in utero. 

Also, and this is really important, none of these studies say that Zika does not cause microcephaly. What the data is saying is that the Brazilian spike may not be JUST caused by Zika. What the Brazilian Health Authorities actually said was that they were wondering if Zika was the ONLY cause of microcephaly.

And putting aside the Colombian study for a moment, you're ignoring the spikes in other countries - including the US - where new Zika cases have resulted in a spike of microcephaly as well.

This has quite a good overview of the evidence for a casual link so far http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr1604338#t=article

Does this mean the link is now confirmed? Not yet. We're still waiting on more data. But the case for Zika is strengthening every day and at this stage, it's considered to be almost certain. It is possible the Brazilian case is multifactorial so some other factor is at play. That factor is not - and is never mentioned anywhere in any research as even being a probable cause - vaccines. No evidence for that at all.

But hey, don't let an actual scientific process interfere with articles from Wellness websites. FFS.