Comfort In Combat

Published June 26, 2022 · Updated July 6, 2022

Folks,

After binging Season 3 this weekend and just finishing the first episode of Season 4, all I can say is that I am hooked and eager for next week. Some quick hot takes: the flies thing scares the hell out of me, but I want to learn more; I wanted to see Bernard and zombie Stubs; and I am glad to see Caleb with a better wig (or his real hair) this season.

With all that said, I wanted to just add my insight and big takeaway from this episode, and that is how much Soldiers miss war. Big D might be able to attest to this, but from my time down range I can tell you there is a comfort in having an enemy that is trying to kill you and your daily task is to make that not happen through any means possible. To the uninitiated, this might sound terrifying, but to those of us who lived through it, there is a warm comfort from being in an active war zone and having a purpose carry you through every moment of the day. The complications of daily life melt away and your sole task becomes the mission at hand.

This episode highlights a lot of characters that have lost their way as they are no longer on their mission/narrative. Caleb is back to being an invisible service worker instead of being the leader of the revolution, Dolores is living as an NPC crafting stories about NPC’s, and Maeve is pulling a Flinn from Tron 2 by removing herself from the fight. The three leaders of the revolution are not on the path that they were destined to be on, and we can see that this might have created an emptyness inside each of them.

I don’t have any grand predictions as to what will happen, but I can sympathize with each of them, especially Caleb, in that it is hard to go back to “normal” life after you have lived through going to war. We are grateful for the simplicity of being home and safe, but there is a hole in each of us (some are bigger than others) that misses that sense of purpose. I wonder if filling that hole is something that is going to drive Caleb or any other characters this season.

Regardless, it is great to have the show back and I look forward to hearing you all dig into each episode this season!

Long time listener,

Nick B

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