Thursday, July 14, 2016

Containment, Season 1, Episode 12: Yes is The Only Living Thing



Thankfully, except for one incident I’ll get to, this episode did not annoy me sufficiently to reach for the drinking gifs. Which is helpful because it’s rapidly making me confront how many of our shows are wall to wall alcohol.

Firstly, let’s look at the fallout from Sabine Lomas basically blaming everything on poor Dr. Victor Cannerts - who is having a break through and may have finally found a cure. This cure happened at just the right time as Trey and his gang decide to deal with the inventing of plagues by killing him – only to be convinced by Jake to act as bodyguards for him instead in exchange for a first hit at the cure. Jake and Trey previously bonded when Trey had some kindly advice and support for Jake over his grief and trying to drink it away

But Victor will need this cure super fast as another plagued guy tried to get revenge, was shot – and spattered Trey’s brother Cinco with infected blood. Cure or bullet is now the motivation.

The chance of a cure and Jake’s ongoing, admittedly well portrayed grief, over Kate also encourages Jake to stay behind and not leave with Meese. If there’s a chance of a cure then he needs to stay to protect Victor before it happens. Of course he also has Quentin, the most annoying child ever, who he gives to Jenna to get out of the city as he promised Kate

Personally I entertain the idea that he’s actually deciding to stay to put a big fence between him and the kid.

Everyone else is taking Meese up on his idea. Teresa and Xander go to see Teresa’s grandparents – Bert and Micheline and they’re so sweet and endearing and I really really like Micheline and Bert. But they clearly don’t have enough food to actually support Their grief over Micheline’s dead daughter is poignant – and Micheline has a terrible life lesson of her experience with her and Bert and her then schoolage daughter in racist town: her lesson, leave to keep your family safe. She urges Xander and Teresa to do the same – and gives her her pearls to help pay her way.


Micheline and Bert are the best on this show.

Jenna, Sam and Suzy look for money to add to the amount that they’ve raised and manage to break into their bosses safe (the man Suzy was having an affair with). Points to a very touching scene with them finding a beautiful bracelet that may be a gift for Suzy… or his wife. But more money

Jake adds to the stash by raiding the remaining possessions of the many many bodies he had to burn.

They all gather to leave and Meese decides to randomly be an arsehole resulting in Sam deciding to stay behind and sacrifice himself so Meese will take everyone else

Yup, this show’s single LGBTQ character, after weeks of no characterisation, just sacrificed himself and his family life for a bunch of straight people he barely knows. Rub some salt into that wound – a huge chunk of the money paying for their escape is his.

 
Not enough booze in the world

  
Fleeing from this terrible scene, Alex continues to follow the trail of clues outside the Cordon (well, trail of big assumptions and damn leaps of logics) to finally track down Sabine and confront her so she can give some actual motivation for this ridiculous show

It’s actually not bad

She points out how little money the country spends to protect against bioterrorism despite it being a much more immediate threat which takes far less effort than the much more funded nuclear defence. She speaks about how she has defended against bioterrorism which earns no recognition or funding at all.

Yes, she’s doing this, risking the lives of so many, to encourage the government to take the threat seriously and to see if they legitimately could defend against a bioterrorism threat

One wonders what her plan would have been if the answer to this question is “no”? But at least she has a motive beyond MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH EVIL!?!


She also appeals to Alex – whatever else they disagree on (like creating plagues and then engaging in utter racism and fearmongering by blaming Syria) but they’re united in stopping the plague from escaping.