selenak

In which we get a crossover between a Werner Herzog movie and a Robert Altmann one.

Carok responding to last week’s revelations by deciding to follow Kumba’s example and go on a hedonistic binge (without the sex of questionable consent or, well, the presence of anyone cosplaying) wasn’t something I had anticipated, but you know, I can see it in retrospect. She’s learned that her big discovery was irrelevant to her fellow survivors, that problem these eleven people do want to talk about - the impending starvation of a part of humanity - is not something they’d talk about with her, because they don’t want to talk with her, full stop, and nor, currently, does anyone else. Otoh, there is no impending need to fear assimilation for her personally because as far as she’s just learned, they would need her explicit consent for that. So a month (plus ten days) long spree where she indulges herself in luxuries is one way to say “fuck everyone, I don’t care anymore”.

Carol’s hedonistc binge includes golfing, which unfortunately I can’t see anymore without associating US presidents, fireworks and beer drinking, dressing up to the nines for the first time on this show to go (alone) an a recreation of hers and Helen’s anniversary dinner - and visiting the Georgia O’Keefe museum last sceen on my tv screen in Breaking Bad when Jesse and Jane visited it in season 2. Carol takes one of the pictures with her because why not, in this post apocalyptic world. But by the end of the episode, whatever joy she’s gotten out of this luxury hermit existence (and it’s hard to tell whether she really enjoyed herself or just pretended to) has passed; she’s near suicidal when she allows one of the firework rockets to almost kill her. Stopping the flames of the house that used to belong to her neighbours feels almost perfunctory (though that she still does it means there is a spark in her left that cares). And then she finally gives into the crushing loneliness of being shunned by everyone in the post apocalyptic world and surrenders a key point; she paints “come back” in front of her house (as opposed to using the voicemail to order things) and when Zosia shows up, she literally breaks down sobbing in her arms.
(Zosia, of course, smiles the smile of the Hive.)
I think this is Carol’s lowest point, emotionally, her rock bottom. And I think it’s earned. Let’s not forget complete, lengthy isolation qualifies as torture. If she still had hope and a goal to strive for, it might be different, but as far as she knows, she’s absolutely alone in her wish for the Joining to be reversed, she has no idea how it could be, and there is no one willing to talk and work with her on figuring it out. Still, despite all the bright and cheerful colours used in Carol’s part of the episode, I think that reunion with Zosia/the Hive at the end qualifies as a horror scene, not least because of Zosia’s Hive smile, but also because we know to Carol, the Hive feels like the Conversion Camp of her teenage years writ larage, and now she’s done what she fought against as a girl, given in out of sheer isolation.

Meanwhile, the other plot line has Manousos feel like a Werner Herzog directed hero making his half mad and all determined way through South America. Hardcore Manousos rejects accepting anything from the Hive more than a month in, when it had taken Carol “only” a day or so until she accepted water at least. He refuses all attempts at conversation as well, and the one time he actually says something is when he sets his car on fire before starting the trek through the worst type of jungle and rough terrain imaginable, and then those few lines are so precise and harsh that they’re more than a replacement for an entire Klaus Kinski rant in said hypothetical Herzog movie. “There is nothing here that belongs to you. There is nothing you could give me that you haven’t stolen.”

Throughout his journey - which btw allows for some gorgeous South American landscapes being filmed - we’ve seen Manousos using the gas of other, abandoned cars rather (and leaving money in the cars to pay for it, much as he left a note when taking th dog food for himself in his shelter in Paraguy -, as opposed to do what Carol does in these situations, i.e. telling the Hive she needs gas. He sees the Hive as completely alien as in, non-human, disconnected from humanity, parasites. He’d rather die than accept their help even when it comes to his own life. And by letting him take a realistic long journey instead of arriving, say, two days after Carol comes home from Las Vegas, he when he finally meets her will encounter her not as a fellow resistance fighter but at a point when she’s finally given in. Which should make their encounter even more fascinating.

While Manousos’ hardcoreness has its admirable quality, it’s also so unflexible that by itself, it’s stupid. He’d have eventually starved in his hide-out in Paraguy if Carol hadn’t sent her video. Which wouldn’t have been of use to anyone. He’d never found out that the Joining could be reversed. He’d have died in the jungle, too, if not for the fact that his mumbling Carol’s name while breaking down severely wounded gave the Hive the loophole to rescue him (and presumably bring him to New Mexico). All of which does not a successful resistance make. And it might be even worse. If Manousos finds out, as Carol did, that a full on explosion of fury and hostility sends shockwaves through the Hive that wounds and kills some (a lot) of them, I think that because he doesn’t see the assimilated people as human anymore he might do it intentionally. Basically Manousos still thinks of himself as in a zombie movie or show.

(Or maybe the Hive was economical with the truth when it talked to Carol about what her anger does, and it’s only her anger that does it, for whatever reason, not anger per se? Because Manousos while silent was dripping with loathing at the Hive every time they were near him, and they didn’t seem to suffer any effects?)

I think Carol is about to discover an awful dilemma. On the one hand, she’ll find out her messages weren’t in vain, there is one other survivor who wants the old world back and wants to work with her on it (and who even has some potentially useful information, the one radio frequency with the weird noises). On the other hand, he’ll likely be as disgusted by her accepting the Hive’s creature living comforts (at the very least) as she initially was by Kumba’s Air Force 1 plus sexy women at his disposal stunt, and whatever kind of relationship with Zosia she is now willing to have is likely to appall him, too. And if Manousos hears about ways to harm the Hive? He’ll likely insist on using them, being a Werner Herzog hero.