S01.E05: First Shot a Winner, Lads

[slothgirl]

7 hours ago, North of Eden said:

Last week I thought man Jarred Harris can act when he was portraying Crozier's exhaustion but he blew me away with his drunk Crozier. This guy is an actor's actor! I would have completely believed Harris got drunk first and filmed his lines. He was that convincing. I hope he get some kind of nomination out of this role if not the actual award.

He'd almost certainly be up against Donald Sutherland (who I think cemented his nomination in his 1st 15 minutes on screen in Trust), but I agree he should at least get a nomination.

[Earlwoode]

19 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

They started canning food in the UK in 1810-1811.  The British Army and Navy were the biggest customers.  Several Arctic expeditions took canned provisions with them during the search for the Northwest Passage, including Sir William Parry's in 1824 and Admiral Sir James Ross' in 1829.

Edited to note that the canning process was invented in France in 1809.

Well that explains it then.  The canning procedure would still be in its infancy.  I shudder to think what type of antiseptic conditions weren’t in use since they knew next to nothing about contamination in those days.  I believe recommendations for doctors and surgeons to wash  even wash their hands only started  somewhere in the (very) late 19th century.

[Tabasco Cat]

On 4/21/2018 at 9:29 AM, Earlwoode said:

Well that explains it then.  The canning procedure would still be in its infancy.

Not really. Canning food became a thing about 35 years before the story's time. After 35 years of experience no industry is still in its infancy.

The problem was the outfit they bought the canned food from had to rush the job and they cut corners left and right, including sloppy soldering that promoted food-lead contact inside the cans. I'd agree that "Quality Control" back then was in its infancy (and probably still is today).

[maystone]

On 4/19/2018 at 3:24 PM, slothgirl said:

Speaking of which.. just how far apart are those 2 ships? We primarily see them from way above and they are small blips.. but I can't get a sense of the distance. In the weather they are currently in at this point, ANY distance could be deadly to travel. But how long did it take to walk from one to the other early on or during what was supposed to be spring?

 

One of the characters said it was half a mile between them.

[Sighed I]

I'm curious about others' interpretation of a couple of scenes:

When Lt. Little went to get Lady Silence to take back to Terror, he saw the men had left a bunch of tokens where she was being held. What was the purpose of these objects? Superstition because having a (clothed) woman on board was considered bad luck, or for protection from Tuunbaq, assuming she has some influence over/controls the creature? Gifts for the only women they'd seen in years, hoping to win her affections? Something else?

When LS rips into Crozier, she says he wants to die, and knows what he has to do but doesn't do it. Was she talking about his alcoholism or all of them abandoning ship and leaving the area? Or maybe both?

I read the first scenario as superstition about women on board. I read the second as telling Crozier he was a mess and that they should have left long ago and should be doing something proactive now instead of hiding in the ships and waiting; his refusal to do either is sealing their fate.

The recaps I've come across have differing takes on these scenes. How did you interpret them?

[Tabasco Cat]

5 hours ago, Sighed I said:

When LS rips into Crozier, she says he wants to die, and knows what he has to do but doesn't do it. Was she talking about his alcoholism or all of them abandoning ship and leaving the area? Or maybe both?

I think she was talking about them (not) leaving. I've seen another review that supposed she was addressing his drinking problem. Could be, I guess, but I don't know how she would be privy to that. I don't think she was seeing him regularly enough to develop an opinion on whether he was drinking too much. I also doubt she, as an Eskimeaux, was aware of the dangers of alcoholism and its ability to destroy lives. The wider dangers of addiction were probably unknown in her culture.

[Sighed I]

1 hour ago, Tabasco Cat said:

I think she was talking about them (not) leaving. I've seen another review that supposed she was addressing his drinking problem. Could be, I guess, but I don't know how she would be privy to that. I don't think she was seeing him regularly enough to develop an opinion on whether he was drinking too much. I also doubt she, as an Eskimeaux, was aware of the dangers of alcoholism and its ability to destroy lives. The wider dangers of addiction were probably unknown in her culture.

That makes a lot of sense. My initial thought when I saw the episode was she was telling him they had to leave if they wanted to live. After reading some comments later on (on other websites) stating otherwise, I started to wonder if I read it wrong, plus it was obvious Crozier was a mess, so I could see it fitting on that level too. But I think you're right. I believe alcohol didn't exist in Inuk culture at that time, and she's been telling them they needed to leave from the beginning.

Crozier has resisted leaving, I suspect, at least in part, because he knows a great many men will die from exhaustion and exposure if they leave, even if they had more provisions for the journey. He's in denial that they have any other choice, and she gave him a wake up call. Yes, people will die, but it's guaranteed they all will if they just sit there doing nothing until the food runs out and/or they freeze to death.

[Earlwoode]

On 4/23/2018 at 5:41 PM, Sighed I said:

When LS rips into Crozier, she says he wants to die, and knows what he has to do but doesn't do it. Was she talking about his alcoholism or all of them abandoning ship and leaving the area? Or maybe both?

Hmm, I interpreted it as her having some sort of magic powers (if we’re going to believe in a magic polar bear why not this?) of the sort “seeing into his soul” type of thing.  I think he drinks because he feels a failure for being Irish in the British Navy and encountering the glass ceiling which then led to him being rejected by the woman he was wooing.  He may very well have a death wish and be trying to drink himself to death.

As to the things they left Lady Silence, I think they were trying to placate her because they believed she had some sort of magic powers over the magic bear.  Sailors have always been known to be extremely superstitious.

[Sighed I]

On 4/24/2018 at 3:51 PM, Earlwoode said:

Hmm, I interpreted it as her having some sort of magic powers (if we’re going to believe in a magic polar bear why not this?) of the sort “seeing into his soul” type of thing.  I think he drinks because he feels a failure for being Irish in the British Navy and encountering the glass ceiling which then led to him being rejected by the woman he was wooing.  He may very well have a death wish and be trying to drink himself to death.

As to the things they left Lady Silence, I think they were trying to placate her because they believed she had some sort of magic powers over the magic bear.  Sailors have always been known to be extremely superstitious.

Thanks for your thoughts. Your interpretations fit too. Overall, I appreciate that the writers have chosen to "underexplain", allowing the viewer to come to their own conclusions; I tend to see such choices as respect for the audience's intelligence. Sometimes, though, I wish they were a little more explicit and left a tad less to the imagination. Perhaps this is on purpose and we'll find out the significance of these events, exchanges, etc., later. So far, everything that's happened and everything we've seen has come into play somewhere down the road. That said, maybe in the end, the exact reasons don't matter in the grand scheme of things and I'm way overthinking it. ;)

[Earlwoode]

16 hours ago, Sighed I said:

Thanks for your thoughts. Your interpretations fit too. Overall, I appreciate that the writers have chosen to "underexplain", allowing the viewer to come to their own conclusions; I tend to see such choices as respect for the audience's intelligence. Sometimes, though, I wish they were a little more explicit and left a tad less to the imagination. Perhaps this is on purpose and we'll find out the significance of these events, exchanges, etc., later. So far, everything that's happened and everything we've seen has come into play somewhere down the road. That said, maybe in the end, the exact reasons don't matter in the grand scheme of things and I'm way overthinking it. ;)

There’s a lot in this series that is obscure starting with the characters. It’s really difficult to identify them except for two or three of the main ones.  They don’t focus much on the non principal ones and then I have no idea who they are or what significance they have. I really dread to think what it will be like when they leave the ship.  I can see it now: muffled up to the eyebrows, howling winds, white background and dark sets where you can’t see a thing.  I don’t have subtitles so that will be a problem.

[nodorothyparker]

Jared Harris is absolutely killing it in this role.  I've always thought he was a really solid if not flashy actor, but he's doing really amazing work here.  Although like the saying goes, Crozier picked a hell of a time to quit drinking.  Loved that Nive Neilsen finally got more to do than look stoic or side eye these men as her Silence laid a few hard truths on them that they don't belong there and are just using the wind and water without any respect for them and now they're probably all going to die.  

I'm actually a little disappointed we got to see as much of the tuunbaq as we did.  I didn't think it was terribly rendered but I've liked how up until now we've only gotten brief glimpses of it, leaving our imaginations to fill in the rest like in old school horror-thrillers.  That said, Blanky is hardcore and I was as surprised as anyone that he survived that encounter to only unfortunately still have to go under the bonesaw.  Once again, I'm reminded that I'm apparently not nearly as hardy as these people were and almost certainly would have died in conditions that saw toes or limbs snipped off with nothing more than a good belt of whiskey for anesthetic.

A lot of shows would have gone the route of a redemption arc for Hickey after the terrible public ass beating he took or at the least drawn him as a much more sympathetic character afterward.  But no, Hickey's still a shit stirrer who's going to shit stir who just happens to be gifting dead men's jewelry for reasons that may or may not have anything to do with setting up the former lover who cut him off.  I can appreciate that.  

[Kel Varnsen]

On 4/16/2018 at 11:21 PM, SimoneS said:

So it is a mutant bear. I changed the channel during the amputation.

The amputations were bad but the hardest scene for me to watch was the guy grabbing the metal cannon and losing several layers of skin for his trouble. 

On 4/20/2018 at 10:07 AM, Ohwell said:

Yes, I was surprised that canned food existed back then.

I knew they had canning back then but what I am confused about is the cannon experiments to determine the temperature. Did they not have thermometers capable of reading down to -52 or whatever it was. What freaks me out though is the wind chill. The sound of the wind was whipping pretty loud in that opening scene.

[paramitch]

On 4/16/2018 at 8:21 PM, SimoneS said:

The Inuit woman thinks that Crozier wants to die. Is she right? If she is, I am disappointed. I thought that he would fight to the end.

It was more an accusation than anything. She is basically telling him, "You are doing everything wrong -- you are doing NOTHING to save yourselves, you're sitting here drinking yourself to death, DO something while you still can."

And so he stops drinking. It's one of the next immediate scenes. He knows now is the time he has to step up if he's going to save them.

On 4/16/2018 at 9:19 PM, slothgirl said:

I have so much more respect now for Crozier. I already liked him as a character, but now that he's turned over command to someone he doesn't like or respect because it's the right thing to do while he goes through withdrawal.. plus thinking through so many possibilities to cover (like making sure to give his sidearm to someone else)... yeah.. Crozier's the man. He's set it up that his crew doesn't have to mutiny to take control from him.

I loved that entire scene with Crozier doing the hard thing and choosing to sober up. I also loved his openly putting his trust in Fitzjames and the other officers, even though they've had disagreements before now.

On 4/17/2018 at 6:42 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

I lost what little sympathy I had for Hickey (whipping boy) when he gave the ring he apparently took from the dead boy to his former tryst partner. Hickey is a real schemer.  I'm guessing the ring will get recognized by Goodsir (who regretted forgetting to collect it to give to the boy's sister) - - and the guy wearing it will not know he was set up by the vengeful Hickey.

Oh, that upset me so much -- realizing that Hickey had stolen the ring off that boy's body. Aghghg. And it was the only thing he had to leave behind him for his family.

On 4/17/2018 at 8:57 PM, LittleIggy said:

Someone get Jacko a coat! That poor little monkey would be frozen by now. ☹️ BTW, she was Sir John’s pet so why was she on the Terror. Was she exiled there, too? What was Mr. Goodsir doing? He seems too kind to use her as a test subject. Well, at least the poor thing might die an easier death...?

I thought she was on the Terror because Goodsir brought her there. We'd already seen that he had been taking care of her. I hate that he's experimenting on her with the food, although I get why he would do it. He does obviously care about her. Sniffle.

On 4/19/2018 at 9:22 AM, MaryMatts said:

Yes.  Check out a movie from 2010 called Forget Me Not.  It's on Youtube.  Kind of heartbreaking though.  He also plays Frank Randall in Outlander who is a thoroughly nice guy as opposed to his villainous ancestor Black Jack Randall.  Claire treats him abominably.

Menzies has kind of made a career out of turning villains into sympathetic characters. He was amazing as Brutus on "Rome" (as was an equally splendid Ciaran Hinds as Caesar) for this reason. (And oh, don't get me started on Claire's treatment of poor Frank.)

I love seeing Menzies here as Fitzjames. He's one of my favorite actors of all time.

On 4/19/2018 at 5:33 PM, AZChristian said:

As one of the world's biggest Harry Potter fans, I had to look up Ian Hart in his role in "The Terror."  He sure doesn't like anything like Professor Quirrell!!!

Ian was also a terrific John Lennon in "Backbeat." He's so versatile, and I love seeing him here along with so many other incredible actors.