The Man Who Fell To Earth, Episode 5

(Sorry guys, there won’t be posting a podcast this week, due to major technical difficulties. Our regular podcasting schedule will pick up next week. Thanks for your patience, guys ❤) 

Director: Alex Kurtzman

Writers: Alex Kurtzman & Jenny Lumet (Walter Tevis himself actually writes 3 episodes)

Producers:  Adrian Kelly, Jane Maggs & Bill Wolkoff

*Intro Script*

Janae: What’s Up, Weirdos! I’m Janae

Amanda: I’m Amanda.

Both: We’re Girls Go Books Deep

Janae: We take deep dives into the Fantasy & Science Fiction content you love the most

Amanda: Books, Movies, and TV Shows - oh my!

Janae: Today, we’re talking about 
The Man Who Fell To Earth, Episode 5: Moonage Daydream

Amanda: Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Naomie Harris

Janae: So, don’t forget to hit that like button

Amanda: and let’s take up some space!

*Key Links*

  • Hexagon Shape - a link to bees, mathematics, and more.
  • Bill Nighy’s Health - random thought led to a random factoid found.
  • Faraday Cage - a machine that Faraday builds with the lab workers.
  • Tritium - the expired fuel source.
  • Armillary Sphere - Anthea’s representation.  Think of the “metal” sun in the GOT opening credits. Or like a diagram of an Atom in science class.
  • Watt - another famous scientist a character is named after.
  • Hydrogen Boron - the possible new fuel source to replace Tritium (that’s surprisingly not that new).

*Episode Outline*

  • We finally get to see more of Faraday’s home planet and just like we’ve discussed before - there’s a bee theme.  Everything is hexagonal, or honey comb shaped.
  • It looks like they built their way under ground - which would make sense on a hot planet, similar to mars.  
  • This is the episode where Faraday finds his humanity. He starts off very “space man” like and ends up learning a very valuable lesson.
  • Justin is saying goodbye, she’ll be back in 3 days and is going to help her father pack and move the family to London.
  • Explaining in his very neurotic way that I need you here: “You don’t have permission to go.”  Her face - LOL She’s like I’ll see you in 3 days.

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  • Team dealing with “eccentric genius” is hilarious.  The black rubber lab coats, lmao.
  • He starts looking at the original patent designs – everyone is waiting patiently – there’s tons of anticipation on Hatch’s face – and Faraday is just having a serious “oh shit” moment.

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  • Spencer and Lisa set up their base of operations in order to spy on everyone and keep a close eye on Faraday.
  • We get further confirmation that he was def riding the desk for the last two years because of his big, horrible mistake before - and he basically only kept his job because of Drew.

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  • Faraday is an Exact task master and this just does not work well with the humans.  He’s also pretty stressed trying to figure out the design, and these humans keep talking to him about needing to know *why* they’re doing what they’re doing.  

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  • Meanwhile, back in America, Justin comes home to see the whole house already packed up.  Her father is in high spirits, getting a ton of work done. Her daughter, not so much.
  • They seem to be dropping “relationship” signals more and more now.
  • And they leave their cool little abode. Bye bye.

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  • Faraday should have learned by now to shut up, but I guess not…  He’s seconds away from getting 10 lawsuits and they’re only 1 day in.  Mentioning a woman’s menses, why do you need to pee so much? At your age should you still be getting your menses? He wants them to sleep in 11 min intervals on cots in the warehouse to “stave off psychosis”
  • Hatch’s face when he hears the word “menses”! Lol He springs into action, apologizing and telling Faraday that humans have needs dude! Faraday looks bored, lol.
  • They finish the first of their projects and flip a switch to a cage that will stop electromagnetic frequencies from interfering with the electrical equipment that will be in the ship. It glows bright and pretty.
  • The CIA peeps suddenly lose video feed and can’t spy!! When they realize what it is, funny enough - a Faraday Cage, she looks impressed. 
  • Hatch uses this as a perfect opportunity to let everyone know they can go home, and that’s when he finally asks Faraday - what the hell is up with you man?
  • That’s when we realize that Faraday is totally lost. He doesn’t understand how all of the parts are supposed to come together. Plus! Tritium is the fuel source that Newton did his calculations with - but their source is no good any more.  It’s also rare, and unstable - so that’s going to be a major problem.
  • As he freaks out, we can see more glimpses of him as he sets out on his journey here.  This will come to mean more as the episode progresses.
  • It shows him getting into position with glowing coordinate diagrams showing his path from Anthea to Earth.  You can see how Earth looks, and now we can see how Anthea looks - it’s much smaller with what looks like overlapping concentric rings around the planet - not like Saturn, but more like an Armillary Sphere, or the diagram of an Atom from science class.  And, is it me, or does his personal “ship” look a bit like a chrysalis, or maybe even a type of bee’s nest?

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  • Spencer is on the phone with Drew explaining their predicament and finding out that the video footage of Faraday the “hacker” has gone viral.
  • The big guys want her to go out there and asses, but Spencer doesnt want that - because it will bring more and more people around - I think he wants the control (obvs) and the “glory” all for himself.
  • Basically it ends with her warning him to not lose his shit.

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  • Faraday is searching for tritium fallout concentrations in a close-by water source when he first encounters a British woman, who is just there out of nowhere.
  • They start talking about what he’s doing.  She mentions fusion, and he’s like I never said that. And then he basically is just Who are you old lady, and why are you here?
  • She says Fuck you, and calls herself the Institutional Memory.  Says she worked with Newton back in Ky.  
  • She introduces herself as Watt (another famous scientist’s name) and they have a real Abbott and Costello moment with her name.  Iconic.

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  • Molly and Josiah are finally in London with Justin and she is getting a call first thing in the morning - it’s Hatch. HELP!!
  • She walks into the warehouse “Lab” and sees soooo many issues.  She announces herself by projecting careful instructions to every and introduces herself as their Project Manager.

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  • Molly & Josiah are walking around London, talking. She’s homesick :( Too much change going on for baby girl.  
  • She mentions his hair not being gray anymore and that’s when the scene slows and Josiah seems to suddenly get a Spidey Sense.  He grabs Molly out of the way quickly and runs to the curb.  Just then, a car crash happens.  He doesn’t seem to notice, he’s busy yelling at the driver who caused the crash. But Molly noticed…

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  • Back at OriGen, Justin is setting this straight and trying to keep Faraday from killing these poor people.  So he leads her away to talk and reveals that he’s having major doubts, major problems, major anxiety!  Everyone seems to be not so worried - but he is not happy!

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  • Hatch is in his office having a conversation with a journalist from the WaPo that he’s known since college, giving her the tea on his return to the company.  When their screens glitch, she gets angry because she thinks he’s recording their conversation. He immediately gets off the phone with her.
  • He goes right to Edie, to confront her about it because he thinks she obviously still does trust him.  That’s when he realizes that Spencer is in the room and he’s clearly not from the DOE, he’s CIA. 
  • He’s interrupted Spencer telling Edie the truth about Faraday.  
  • Spencer is going to bug and watch him like a hawk because he thinks of him as an “Alien Sympathizer” and can’t be trusted because he knows what “that thing in the warehouse” is and it doesn’t seem to bother him.
  • Spencer starts going on about Newton’s original genocidal plan and how they stopped that from happening.  Hatch doesn’t believe him, and that’s exactly why Daddy gave the company to Edie.
  • Spence tells the plan to Hatch, like he did to Lisa, and Hatch is like well why the hell are you letting him build the damn thing! Basically, it doesn’t matter. Because your sister knows, what your father knew and that you work for us. Period.

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  • The “Family” all sits down to dinner and Faraday starts rambling about work.  They’re about to eat when he sees what Molly is working on and that she’s not using the instructions - just playing and winging it. His “Drone-ness” just cannot let him understand why a person would do something and not follow exact instruction!! You will fail!
  • You can’t fail at Playing.  Wise child. But he just does not compute
  • That’s when Mr starts having a temper tantrum. “You cannot impose your vision.  You cannot decide for yourself. It’s chaotic!” - exactly what he needs a little of, but that’s why he’s getting so upset. 
  • He’s yelling so much at the child, everyone gets upset with him and Justin tells him to get out. 
  • That’s when we see him lifting off and a little bit more of his planet.
    • We see a desert planet with thick, dusty air.
    • Another planet that seems amazingly close.
    • What seems like more of those machines that we saw before in the air, they’re not connected to the ground.
    • As his ship ascends we get an even closer look at them, and they seem to be rusted and decayed cities.  They used to live in a prosperous society with glittering cities in the sky.  But now they hide from their own atmosphere underground in tube like structures with hexagonal shapes everywhere - much like some species of bees.
  • He then runs into Watt again, this time with a flask and she takes him on a little “stroll”
  • They start walking and she’s drinking the whole time.  “You’re a drone arent you?” He’s like whaaaaaat??  “You can’t be a drone and do what you need to do.” But I am….
  • She starts giving him advice, like get out fo your head with this existential crisis crap. 
  • She also now has a 5th of Gin, and grabs a fedora off of a sleeping homeless man…. Newton? Newton’s influence? What do you think is going on in the show - we’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet us @gg_booksdeep or leave a comment below if you’re watching this on our YouTube channel - Girls Go Books Deep.
  • Back at the house we see Justin and Josiah talking after Molly goes to bed.  She’s describing her day at the Lab, it was hard (because of Danny) and chaotic, but she loved it.  He brings her all of her research from her original fusion experiment, which could maybe help with their Tritium problem.
  • Faraday and Watt go out to a bar and talk over drinks. And we get a history lesson on Anthea!
  • She lets him in on the info.  It wasn’t always this very binary cast system. Earth & Anthea collided billions of years ago, she calls it a love story, describing the glancing blow as a first kiss. (all while Earth Angel by Marvin Berry & the Starlights plays in the background)
  • Earth picked up some of Anthea - which is why our core is super large and hot.  “Anthea spun away pregnant with a piece of Earth. Slutty Planet.” 
  • Each planet got a little of each other and that’s why we have life. (This coincides with a theory called Panspermia)
  • Some Antheans cultivated the Earthly part of themselves - and that’s how we get Adepts. And everyone else is just a drone.  Adepts are demi-gods because they’ve unleashed their inner human.
  • They both go back to the Lab and he has a hallucination of smoke coming in the doors. She points it out to him.  It’s like their screaming at us that this chick is not real, but still they take their time revealing it - because he’s taking so long to finally see it.
  • Through her drunk rambling and him getting angrier - they start to fight. Like really go at it. And that’s when he finally admits that he’s angry about the mission, but she reveals to him that he’s having more emotions than just anger. That he’s finally realizing and feeling that he’s left his wift and children on another planet and he’s failing at this.  He’s condemned them to death if they haven’t already died and that’s what gets him fighting even more with her. 
  • In their fight, she pulls the power to the Faraday Cage and that’s when Lisa sees the screens come back on. When she looks, you don’t see either of them on the screen. 
  • Their fight continues with her moving those clear panels covered in math around and he finally gets her pinned about to hit her when he catches a glimpse of himself in the panel and he’s the one covered in blood on his face. 
  • We finally see that he has been hallucinating Watt this entire time and he was the one drinking and walking around town singing classic ODB. (If she doesn’t know this song, she’s too young.)
  • By her just talking to him now, and reminding him of what he saw at 30,000 ft on his way here. 
  • Then suddenly he remembers and sees it!  He starts stacking up the diagram panels and they line uyp to create a picture of what looks like an apparatus that was hovering over their planet.  *That* is what they’re going to be creating and installing in order to run their planet!
  • He finally sees and is practically crying.
  • Spencer comes back to find the screens back on and she explains how it happened. She tells him that she thinks he’s losing his mind. 

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  • Back at the apt the next morning, he looks like hell and Justin starts taking care of him again. 
  • It becomes clear in this scene that *She* is the deciding factor on whether he ends up like Newton or not. That’s why Newton failed (in part) he fell in with the wrong woman who distracted him more than helped (according to the movie and tv show.)
  • He knows himself less, but he understands his mission much better now and he’s feeling better. She brings up the fuel problem and he says “perhaps I can conjur another delusion.” - bringin back their conversation from before. 
  • Justin then shows him some of her past work and says this is the reason you were sent to find me.  She came up with an equation to possibly replace tritium with Hydrogen Boron, but she’s going to need help with it. “The one thing I could never solve is our only hope.”
  • He responds with “You imagined all of this, from nothing?” “Yeah.” At this moment he seems to sorta fall in love with her. He’s impressed with her mind and capabilities that exceed of his own in a different way; calls her “Extraordinary” and is kind of seeing her for the first time as a person - not just an asset to the mission, and immediately thinks of her child. 
  • The exchange between Larva and Pupa is adorable and he realizes that even children of human have this wonderful capacity for imagination, an instruction manual is not always needed for us.  We just … figure it out along the way sometimes. He apologizes to her, and seems to finally be ok with this aspect of humanity.
  • Josiah quietly lays a not-so-small predication about Ms Molly on Justin.

*Final Thoughts* 

This episode is showing us what the best parts of what being a human are. 
It’s a lovely artistic mirror.

  *Questions & Answers*

  • 3 Main Mysteries (so far):
    • Does Newton actually want to help Antheans, or is this all a play for something much pettier?
    • What’s up with Spencer’s childhood?? Is he another Dexter? Did aliens abduct him?
      • New Mystery
    • Is Faraday actually starting to lose his mind, or has he finally found the right amount of humanity?

*Outro Script*

Janae: That’s all we have for today, everyone.

Amanda: As always, thank you for listening and subscribing to our weekly deep dives into the geeky culture we all love.

Janae: Talking with you guys is the best part of our week, so please stop by our Instagram and say Hi :) We always say hi back. 

Amanda: With that, we bid you wake up

Janae: take up all the space

Both: and we’ll see you next week.

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