People are dying in a plague
Look, I get it, this is a fictional world and we’re
definitely (especially since I know the synopsis of the original show) going to
get some kind of sinister conspiracy at some point. Fine. At some point I fully
expect a big bad dark naughtiness and yes, there’s a really good chance that Simone
is going to be involved because she’s a government agent which always = evil.
But unless everyone is ridiculously genre savvy there’s
no reason for this to be in everyone’s mindset. So all tis “whose side are you
on” “who is responsible” and “you’ll see who the enemy is” is just bizarre. The
enemy is a virus. The side is the side of everyone NOT DYING from it. “Who is
responsible”? Whut? The plague is responsible. The main way governments tend to
be “responsible” with disease outbreaks is being utterly unprepared and
ignoring the whole damn thing until it’s too late and then not dedicating
enough resources – which is the last thing you can say about Containment.
So this leaves me kind of at a loss with Alex’s storyline
this week – while thinking the guy is a hero for tolerating the bullshit all
around. Simone, the terrible-at-pr, has left him with a lot of horrible
speeches to make about how everything is fine and cutting off all social media
and internet is totally justified, honest. Especially since it means he can’t
call Jenna
But in comes Leo the arsehole who just tried to get
someone to break quarantine – a sick person at that – and should be in prison
to shame Alex for trusting someone “with a fancy title” rather than his
girlfriend
What. Is. This. “trusting someone with a fancy title”.
This isn’t someone who is a “lord” or even “mayor” or “republican presidential
candidate”. I can get being suspicious of fancy titles. This is a doctor of the
CDC during a plague. Y’know, during a plague if a delegate from the WHO told me
to start jumping on one leg? I’d hop. If a powerplant was melting down and a
nuclear physicist told me our lives depending on my yodelling? Then you’d hear
me from the alp. This isn’t respect for AUTHORITAY, this is respect for
EXPERTISE. And sure, they can be wrong and have their own agendas and even be
evil but generally in a crisis situation involving specialist knowledge relying
on those people with specialist knowledge is SENSIBLE
Bullshit thinking like this is why irresponsibly terrible
parents don’t vaccinate their kids. Because they’re not letting a “fancy title”
overrule their own ignorant assumptions.
You know what pisses me off so much about all this? He’s
going to be right. The whole stupid conspiracy storyline means Leo, this
clueless, selfish, entitled arsehole is going to be fecking RIGHT. Fine, Containment I’ll make you a deal – Leo can
be right and he can be smug 5 seconds before he coughs his lungs out. Deal?
I give more of a pass for Xander, trying to get to his
pregnant girlfriend. Sure he also treats Alex like shit, but he’s an emotional,
scared teenager wanting to get to his girlfriend rather
Of course Leo helps him do that, breaking quarantine
because Leo is literally the worst. The utter damn worst. You just delivered a
teenager to a plague zone arsehole. “He’s smart, he’ll live”, oh I’m glad we
can all survive plague by being fecking SMART?! Someone kill this man already.
Xander delivers news that his two friends who were
somewhat suggested to be lesbians but are now dead so I’m left with the choice
of saying “this show has no LGBT people” or “MORE DEAD LESBIANS AND I DON’T
EVEN KNOW IF THE HAD NAMES” which just fails representation on every level.
At least Alex gets a nice love message from Jenna, who
continues to reveal she’s brilliant and intelligent and has a great friendship with
Suzy even if she does give herself too much grief for her mental illness.
It’s no wonder Alex doesn’t want to deliver bullshit PR anymore – let Simone deal with Leo and his ilk.
Behind the quarantine we have many many dead and dying
because PLAGUE which horrifies Kate, horror which is especially hard on her
given her mental health issues – and she has run out of medication.
Jake goes to get her more (ostensibly to get Dr. Cannerts
more supplies – we also have a nice moment with Dr. Cannerts explaining why he
can’t just give Kate a replacement drug given the difficulty of balancing
mental health medication) which is all sweet and romantic in theory but also
comes with a dubious amount of poking his nose in. Yes these two are definitely
fastforwarding to a relationship and is passionately not judging her for using
drugs in the past and being mentally ill are both good – but he found out about
her illness by pushing when he really didn’t have to. That’s not ok, someone’s diagnosis
is their own business and love interest does not justify violation of privacy.
I can’t really stress enough how terrible it is just to brush over this.
We are definitely on a love relationship fast track as he
makes it clear he wants to get over his commitment issues with her. Which is a
little sad because I think a mature, interesting look at his issues with
relationships beyond “haven’t met the right woman” would have been better
Teresa and her mother continue to bore me, have a
terrible relationship and now their shop is being targeted by just about
everyone with a gun
