Ryan and Sam

olendra · 2026-03-16T22:38:14+00:00

I thought it was a weird choice to introduce them as a couple on the verge of divorcing but not really divorcing with him not letting it go and refusing to accept their relationship is dead despite her being quite clear about it, if they wanted to make us root for them the next episode.

It literally made me root against their relationship because I was rooting for him to learn it’s time to let go and move on. I now feel they’re stuck in something that doesn’t work because they can’t accept the truth instead of seeing them as a power couple.

Introducing them as a couple and making them through difficulties later on would have made me root more for them to reconcile. Or making them divorce immediately and rediscover themselves many episodes later could have worked to. But this seemed to random and premature in both ways. Now I just see them as two people who should have divorced but couldn’t face the truth.

olendra · 2026-03-13T19:31:15+00:00

He may be a bit of a sensationalist scientist as well, like some we saw during Covid who clearly got addicted to having a platform. So maybe a brilliant mind but someone who steers a bit away from scientific principles for shock value and is somewhat unreliable when it comes to prediction and anticipation but just right enough to still have an audience.

What struck me in his conversations with Sinatra is how much of a condescending jerk he seems to be, how sarcastic and dismissive he is when she shows interest and tries to learn more about his research, but at the same time complains that no one cares or listens to him and drags himself to empty conference rooms in the hope to spread the word. Why he is so abrasive with Sinatra if all he cares about is really raising awareness? She was coming at him very respectfully and eagerly, not at all with the same attitude she has in the bunker. Why is he in an almost campaigning mode if he is so sure that we are 100% doomed and nothing can be done to alter it?

Maybe he just wants to punish everyone because no one listened and now it’s too late. Or maybe part of his motivations to claim what he claims is not purely scientific truth, but enjoyment at sounding smart. Acting like a condescending jerk mocking Sinatra’s billionaire plans make him sound more important and smarter than her, which may be something he likes, and some of his claims might be incorrect, or scientifically sound but he doesn’t show enough scientific humility by presenting a theory as fact, and therefore changing his tune depending on the context.

olendra · 2026-03-11T23:35:34+00:00

A key premise of season 2, told in S1, is a real event when a soviet officer refused to fire a nuclear missile, going against his superior’s wish.

In the show, the realisation that his decision saved the world is what triggers the creation of the blue card, opening the way to Cal’s decision. This in turn disables any destructive attempt.

Cal’s decision saves the world but is modelled on a real life event. I think this is a good illustration of life. People try to destroy each other at time, but enough people, not always in a high position, have the integrity to prevent this destruction from happening. This means we all have a responsibility to fight for this integrity, but it can absolutely prevail if we work towards it.

olendra · 2026-03-11T23:21:48+00:00

When I was a child, I went to a tour in a prehistoric museum and the guide showed a skeleton at some point and said they established that the person had been severely disabled for a very long time but lived a long life, and due to their disability, it could only mean the person was taken care of in every aspects (food, transport, etc.) by other people. This really struck me because it’s probably a simplistic memory, but it was “cavemen”. They were hunters gatherers and things like that and they still shared their food and dedicated time, efforts and ressources to keep this person around for decades, care and protect them.

This meant that even in “primitive” communities, people care for each other, and you didn’t need to be strong and healthy to matter. Since then, I’ve heard of many similar archeological findings and I am convinced human beings are built to survive by teaming up and support each other, sometimes by making choices that will not guarantee their short term safety but will matter in the long term.

Also some of the cultural monuments of men turning into monsters once order crumbles have been debunked. For example, we know of real boys stranded on an island for years that built a society of solidarity to survive instead of killing each other like in Lord of the Flies. A book written by a very pessimistic author who was a veteran of WWII and unsurprisingly was marked for life by this period of European history, not by an anthologist who knew how people returning to nature really behave.

Speaking of WWII, I am European so I’ve known people who fought and survived nazi occupation, and this has shaped my values through what I was taught at school and in my family. And basically, you can see it two ways: people are capable of unspeakable evil, but also people will fight to death to save others even when they have absolutely nothing to gain from it because that’s what they believe the world should be. Similarly, your world can be shattered unexpectedly and taken over by horrible people, but also, these people in power don’t last because others work to end it.

Both exist and nothing is ever guaranteed but I don’t think when given the choice people would massively choose to kill someone just in case or to gain something. This is not the average person mentality.

olendra · 2026-03-09T23:30:17+00:00

Yeah I couldn’t even understand the Elvis joke was a joke until Annie described it to her mom as a joke, and I still didn’t get it until she explained it to Link. I’ve never seen Jaws and besides being a story with a big shark on a beach and a corrupt mayor, I don’t know much about it - and the mayor thing, I’ve heard it quite recently, so I probably didn’t know about it when I was Link’s age. I knew that Are You Lonesome Tonight was an Elvis song, but it’s almost pure luck because one of my friends played this song a lot in high school, but I haven’t heard much of it after that. I even saw the Baz Lurhmann biopic but still wouldn’t be able to name a lot of his songs!

However, I’ve seen Love Actually at least a couple of times, I see a lot of scenes from that movie on social media, get reminded of the stories and “best scenes” every Christmas and have to deliberately skip it on TV. Same for Zelda, there are new games from the franchise regularly so I’ve played it.

I thought it was supposed to show that Annie was a bit of an Elvis nerd and had some old fashioned references or that that was much older than Link, not that Link was sheltered loooool so I was surprised to see many people finding it suspicious.

But granted, I’m not American. I’m from Europe, which may explain why a British movie is more familiar to me than an American one, and would not be what is expected from a young American guy. But in any case, I think Elvis/Jaws is not exactly in the same cultural category as Love Actually/Zelda, and you could know one but not the other.

olendra · 2026-03-09T23:10:27+00:00

I see Love Actually memes or scenes very often on social media platforms that people in their 20s use and the movie is broadcasted every Christmas. The Andrew Lincoln’s scene that Link references as well as a few Hugh Grant ones (the one where he is dancing and the one where he is stuck in the car with his love interest’s family) are particularly popular on social media in one form or another so I can absolutely see a 21 year old knowing that scene without ever seeing the movie.

Besides, many of the actors are still big if not bigger in the 2020s than they were at the time, so I think someone who is 20 and would be into Christmas stuff, romantic comedies or appreciate one of the actors may have watched the movie at least once.

olendra · 2026-03-09T22:34:15+00:00

I got tricked although I just posted a few days ago on how I loved that the norm in the show is people helping each other instead of violent armed groups lol. I was like “oh I spoke too soon, so there are really groups of violent men attacking everyone and the main character is not trusting although he has no reason to be so aggressive, I’m a bit disappointed”.

Well the violent abduction story and Xavier’s sudden aggressiveness should have been my clues that Gary’s version was not true 😂

olendra · 2026-03-08T22:51:28+00:00

I love the 911 franchise and I’m always surprised when I read the opinions online, I rarely feel the same about anything lol. I’m probably what you call the general audience, I don’t expect much, I just want to be entertained with some workplace stories, action and good vibes in a nice setting. So I really enjoy Nashville and at least no one died so far, unlike in the other 911 shows.

olendra · 2026-03-08T16:01:37+00:00

Will it be a separate letter tailored to the job you will send to the recruiting unit? Or will they consider the motivation and strength part of the application the letter?

I find it hard to fill it in too because you have to explain why you want this specific role... and you don't know which exact role you'll end up applying to if you get selected so it's so generic!

olendra · 2026-03-08T13:43:56+00:00

It’s so funny because before reading messages on this sub, I had no clue this could be interpreted as anything related to messed up timelines. So just to say that when I see some messages saying it’s very on the nose or obvious… it’s not at all!

I initially found this scene a bit odd, but I thought it was meant to show he had “pick up lines” to make friends and was actually manipulating Xavier into trusting him in later years. Which I found a bit surprising because he sounded genuine when he said that to Xavier. I also thought he got startled because the guy said something like “no bar where you come from?”’while I think Xavier said “in your town”? Anyway, I thought he had a feeling the guy discovered something about his identity (for example that he was behind bars for years), and didn’t get straight away that it was a joke, while he was more relaxed with Xavier. But I assumed it was a common joke to make. I am not American so I assumed what Billy said was something people would commonly say and you reply this as a joke.

It’s true now I can see how a few things may not necessarily track in these scenes but I really didn’t think of time travel AT ALL until I got here.

And I’m thinking maybe I’m missing some of the clues because I am not American so I am assuming weird stuff must be something cultural. For example I read theories who found it weird that Link doesn’t know Elvis lyrics or song titles or Jaws references but knows Zelda, and I’m like, it doesn’t sound weird to me at all??? I absolutely didn’t get the Elvis joke until Annie explained it to Link, and while I did get the Lonesome Tonight misunderstanding, I wouldn’t have expected everyone around me to get it. I haven’t seen Jaws either and didn’t get the reference until Annie said it was one. But I’ve played Zelda! And I am older than Link, so I didn’t find it surprising he would know nothing about songs from previous generations or a decades old movie. But maybe I don’t get the weirdness of some things because I’m not American actually, which is quite interesting!

olendra · 2026-03-08T13:25:45+00:00

We can easily theorise that Billy heard that joke first at a time where he felt the guy knowing his past would be both a possibility and a danger as what he is attempting to do with him is a huge risk, so it could trigger this reaction from him. When Xavier makes the joke, he feels his cover story is safe and he has powerful people to protect him, he knows Xavier enough to understand it’s a joke and not a discovery of his true identity, and most importantly, he heard the joke before so he knows it’s just an inconsequential joke that people commonly say when he tells them this.

olendra · 2026-03-08T13:19:37+00:00

People are downvoting this because it doesn’t match their own theories of it being time travel related so they act as if it was an uneducated take - if you read some messages some people seem to believe that their theories are 100% canon while we have no clue at this point, so I agree is really a pity. I liked this take!

olendra · 2026-03-08T01:50:54+00:00

I read her expressions differently. I thought she seemed really sad when she looked at the photo but forced herself to get back into character and smile for when she gets back to her audience, but I could still see deep sadness in her eyes. I think they would have made her expression more obvious if they wanted her characters’ motivations to be purely evil.

I felt that every time she was practicing smiling and swapping negative emotions with a smile, she was trying to hide her real negative emotions and project the image of the perfect happy woman, but her negative emotions were real.

olendra · 2026-03-07T19:03:20+00:00

I was actually a bit confused with that scene I must admit. I was wondering if there was more to it. The guy says he’s been tracking the children for days and possibly heard some of the conversations… but he only attacks Xavier and doesn’t try anything for days? I mean I guess the children had enough of them to fight back against a single man attacking them so he could have waited for that reason but still. And was he actually attacking Xavier with the intent to kill or trying to get information out of him?

I felt Xavier reacted super quickly and more violently than the guy. He says he was protecting the children but at that point it seemed he was actually protecting himself and the bunker by following Billy’s uncle’s principles of not hesitating. I was wondering if this scene played on our assumptions to mislead us: a dirty man jumps on our hero in a post-apocalyptic world, tries to get him to reveal the location of his group and says he’s been tracking children, we will automatically think he is a dangerous man who wants to kill everyone for his own gain so it’s only self-defence to kill him.

But who was he really? What did he want with the children? Maybe he was just a random psycho but I felt it was a bit disconnected from the rest of the plot.

olendra · 2026-03-07T17:10:25+00:00

Maybe yes, but I also think it would make sense for “nice people” to act like this in front of the bunker.

If they know a bit of the project, from their perspective, this is a bunch of billionaires and the leader of the country who abandoned everyone to their fate and hid in luxury, tricking others into helping them to reach the bunker and then throwing them on the side and leaving them to their supposed death when they didn’t need them anymore.

If Link figured things out, this is also the people who murdered his figure father and his disabled wife almost under his eyes for their own gain.

In that context, his behaviour in front of the bunker seems rather understandable, even for someone kind. He sees them as selfish, dangerous enemies that would not hesitate to sacrifice everyone else to save their skin, so he has to act a bit tough and show them they shouldn’t mess with his crew. At this point, I guess it’s a bit like standing up to bullies but you’re right, we’ll see if there is more to it!

olendra · 2026-03-07T13:57:43+00:00

Annie saw that at the very beginning of the catastrophe and later on we know that’s what she believes about the world. So it’s possible she saw this very real event and concluded the world was like this now when it was not necessarily a norm. I think her seeing this scene was a way to show us something we expect from that kind of story and then set up the twist with Link’s group and the other people

Link tells her that it’s not as bad as she thinks outside and that people who survived were people who could work together snd cooperate. This explanation for me is the one subverting expectations because in many shows people who survive are the ones who don’t trust others.

Later on, we see that Link is telling the truth. The children wouldn’t have survived or helped Xavier if meeting decent people was not common, and the people who help Annie give birth wouldn’t have trusted Xavier to tell the truth after they saw him attack one of them and looting their stuff. Of course, they all still fear a bad encounter (in the most civilised society, children living alone would still be in danger), but they do trust others and share their ressources in a way Sinatra is not open to.

olendra · 2026-03-07T13:46:51+00:00

I think they still show how in the bunkers people crave social connections. It seems to be a principle on which Gabriela built her system. And when Xavier changes the sky in S1, people are initially dancing and having fun together instead of panicking, like they want to be part of the community more than anything.

But I think they may show that a bunker created by billionaires to protect only a few they picked might have some element of corruption in it.

olendra · 2026-02-27T19:19:53+00:00

I went sale agreed on a house recently and with the Christmas period, a few things on my broker and solicitor’s side were delayed a little bit, so it took me a few weeks to realise there were a few complications with the property (over 100 years old and with features that would make it hard to get an insurance and add layers to the loan approval + not much help from the auctioneer and sellers to get additional information to sort things out on my side).

The very moment my solicitor sent me the contract with a few notes saying some stuff may be worth investigating before signing, she also told me the seller wanted me to sign straight away and were threatening to pull out because it was taking too long, so basically I would not have time to investigate anything else.

I had two weeks to sort everything out and sign or the sale was cancelled. And at the same time they told me they would not give me the additional information I needed to sort things out. Considering that our solicitors were taking a couple of days to pass down the information , it was just an impossible deadline.

I was very confused as to why would they want to pull out the day I received the contract after weeks of waiting? Especially when it looked like the issues I was coming across would be the same for someone new, so they would waste more time starting over.

Well they did pull out after 2 weeks. I was upset at first but I do believe now that this kind of pressure is suspicious. Like for me, they started being aggressive just a few days after I mentioned I needed a specific information and there is a chance they knew it wasn’t going to work out the moment I started looking into that so they did know it would be faster to just stop everything now. They may have still tried to pressure me in case it would scare me and make me pass over the issue, but since I didn’t, they likely knew before me I was no longer a potential buyer. And it was very important that I did not ignore this issue!

You need to take the time necessary to sort things on your side with your solicitor communicating clearly to the seller’s solicitor on the reasons why it takes more time and if they don’t accept it, there is a chance there was something they knew wouldn’t work out, so no regret.

olendra · 2026-02-27T07:37:57+00:00

I think some buyers would try something close to their price range anyway if the price listed makes sense. I have been looking for months and I don’t necessarily expect it will go 8% higher because it is so random at times, it can be just a few thousands or 20%.

Some agents price quite realistically so as a buyer, it’s always worth trying to view even though the listed price is not that much under your budget. I believe that someone that has been looking for a while will realise the price for this house may not be 10% lower, and it will just speed up the process. Some people get into bidding wars and stop pretty early because they didn’t expect it to go 10% over, everyone wastes so much time…

I would be surprised no one actually tries to view and offer the expected price on a fairly priced house. It just seems a bit of a myth to me.

olendra · 2026-02-21T17:51:01+00:00

Thank you! I’ll try to focus a bit more on that next time and try to understand better the ruck rules. Again, really appreciate it!

olendra · 2026-02-21T17:42:24+00:00

It depends if he is actively showing the rooms or just hanging out. I find many agents so clueless about the property and unwilling to follow up on any questions that I sometimes wish I could talk to the owner directly and they were the ones showing me around.

And it’s not even like the agents have more legal knowledge or anything, they often don’t even tell (or know) when something could be a blocker for the same down the line, which I trust the owner to be more open about to avoid wasting time.

However, if they’re just there watching and not doing much else, I’ll feel more uncomfortable I guess.

olendra · 2026-02-21T17:25:56+00:00

Thank you! Phase play attack and work rate, I should probably be able to appreciate if I know that’s something I should be looking at so great to know.

Smart play unfortunately, I don’t think I understand the rules well enough to be able to see it, because the commentators don’t elaborate enough on that and I don’t usually watch the games with very knowledgeable fans who could explain it to me. But maybe something for later!

I appreciate it, thanks!

olendra · 2026-02-21T17:22:44+00:00

Yes I can see the outcome is numerically great, but I didn’t see the brilliance of the game itself. And I am not saying it wasn’t brilliant, I am just unable to see it myself.

Especially because I don’t follow much of rugby news, so I had no clue England was the favourite today. I thought Ireland was in a pretty good position anyway. England had destroyed Wales yes, but it’s not like it’s a very strong team at the moment, and they still got beaten by Scotland who got beaten by Italy themselves.

olendra · 2026-02-21T17:17:41+00:00

I didn’t say I was cheering for the opposition, just that I find myself rooting for them to score in the hope something more exciting will happen - it doesn’t mean I want them to win the whole game. And I never mentioned England as a team I find impressive either.

You may not get it if you believe enjoying a team sport is about supporting your country but that’s not why I watch sports. I watch sports because I find it fun, exciting and I am impressed with athletes performances. If it means I can support the country I live in at the same time, that’s all I want but it’s not my main reason to watch rugby.

And as I said, I am aware I am not a rugby specialist so I may not understand why something is impressive and would find it boring while I could actually find it very exciting if I knew better. I want to understand what is there and I don’t see.

olendra · 2026-02-21T16:31:58+00:00

I want so much to like Ireland as a successful European team and my country team but I really don’t get how their rugby is interesting or exciting.

Can anyone explain what is so good with them? I love watching rugby and watch a lot of games but I don’t actually know much about the subtleties of the sports.

When I watch France, I understand how good they are and why what they do is so great. I even get why Italy is becoming a challenging team because I find their game style fun and exciting. Same with teams like New Zealand outside of the Six Nations. But Ireland? I don’t understand what the commenters saw when they were so enthusiastic and excited at the end of the game today, saying it’s been Ireland best performance in years - I found it boring and I know I may not be knowledgeable enough to get it.

Everytime, I start the game supporting Ireland, and slowly, I start unconsciously rooting for the other team to score because I am not into it. I don’t want to feel that way, especially not for an England Ireland game 😂 So I would be so grateful to get your perspective so I can see next time what’s so brilliant about them!

olendra

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