If I remember from the first book, it was explained that it didn’t matter if the hard drive was cut through or not. The clean cuts of the nanowire would allow proper experts to reassemble/reconstruct the data if needed. Whether it got destroyed in another way was up to chance I guess.

I am a science guy, and this is all based on actual theoretical science (specifically M-Theory). Whilst not everyone may have the time to read the books - chapter 33 of the first book goes into minute detail about how the San-Ti created the sophons, and all the implications of their creation and use, including some I never considered. Because of Liu Cixin's writing style, it's completely possible to read only that chapter - if you've watched up to episode 5, it will make sense. Of course, I strongly recommend reading the books. They're a very compelling read. Due to time constraints, and the need to keep non-scientific folks interested, a lot of the theoretical aspects were omitted from the show. Still one of the most compelling and terrifying episodes of TV I've ever watched.

the string cut ship scene instantly reminded me of the movie “Ghost Ship” back in the 2000s.

This episodes introduction to the Sophons is a great introduction to Clarke Tech. Clarke Tech is defined as: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The postulate is named after Arthur C. Clarke, one of the greatest Sci Fi authors from the 1960-70's

Honestly it was your first recap on this show that made me go watch it. Can’t lie one of the best if seen in a while.

Creatures that survived earth's disasters have the biological characteristics of small size, rapid reproduction, a non-selective diet and a body structure highly adaptive for various forms of locomotion. Based on what we know about the creatures on earth, San-Ti are most likely to look like annelids, the most resilient organisms on earth occupying the most ecological niches. If we consider their bodies as train carriages, adding the muscular and fatty carriages ensures survival, while adding gonadal carriages accelerates reproduction. Their snake-like form facilitates burrowing and living in underground bunkers during apocalyptic events. A sea creature named Pyrosoma looks like a giant worm from a distance, but it is acutually a collective of millions of Salpa Maggiores. These salpas can live alone, but when the environment is favorable, they would gather into a massive Pyrosoma, in which their nervous systems would interconnect with each other. This interconnection is likely the only possible way for them to have intelligence. Because intelligence necessitates a sufficiently large enough brain, which small-bodied organisms typically lack. This also explains why they can't lie, since their minds are literally connected. In the unofficial sequel, this was approved by the author of the original book series, it was described that San-Ti were small bugs the size of a grain of rice individually. But it's kinda funny how they call us bugs.

That was one of the scariest episodes of television I've ever seen - for multiple reasons

Best episode yet. The ship was the best scene of the show. Ghost Ship did it but it was still done very uniquely.

The ship cutting scene is metal as fuck

Another good recap. Thanks again!

My first reaction was "wtf why would they force those nano fibers through the ship and risk the servers/data stored"

Some people have been confused regarding Sophon communication and data projection and so forth. The sophons on the Santi world and the sophons on earth don't communicate via light speed. That would take 4 years between send and receive. They don't communicate across distance at all. They are entangled at the quantum level. So they are always instantly transmitting to one another, and they can travel at light speed themselves. So they are everywhere on earth all at once basically, and can instantly transmit every piece of info in real time to the Santi. The illusions, the stars blinking etc. How they made it so Jack Rooney could just be seen through his glass windows when being murdered. The people not on footage. The sophons are a 10 dimensional proton, a sentient computer. It's small. Small as a proton. But if I wrapped into two dimensions, it can be larger than the Earth. They didn't have to make the stars blink. They used an 10 dimensional AI proton to unwrap itself into 2 dimensions and encircle the Earth. It then turned itself from transparent to black, and so on. Mimicking stars Winking, as a code. It was covering jacks window. It's making perfect illusions in cameras to hide people. It's crazy. I've said no spoilers. It's all there in season 1. It's just not so in your face as to how it all works. This author has some pretty unreal ideas. I've read a few of his works and there is so much he thinks of. Things you never think of like he will write a story about a universe where liquid, gas and vacuum does not exist. Nothing replaces them. It's just a solid universe. That's mental.

so glad youve made these to help me watch the show wo having actually seen it. i hope you can get Ep6 up tmrw so i can watch yours before watching the real ep7+8 w wife now that i knoww whats going on

Like the Matrix! Great job my man.

Don't forget that when Mike Evans was trying to explain about lying he says something like "you are all bugs we can squash beneath our shoes". I thought this was likely the source of the "You Are Bugs" approach.

This episode was probably the best like my gods it got wild

I’m loving these reviews! Keep up the good work 🙏🏼👍🏼

I love the all seeing eye symbolism at the end really makes you think it’s like the back of the dollar bill

Great video!

Thank you for your videos! I really appreciate the time and effort to put these together….and so quickly! Just 2 minor EDITS in this video: on one of your “labels” over the screen, it says: “SOPHON = A COMPUTER WITH A CONSCIOUS”. The last word is spelled “CONSCIENCE”. (Your autocorrect on your computer was messing with you! (ominous music swells!😊). After this screen label, you refer to the Rachel Carson book as “SILVER Spring”. The title of that book is “SILENT Spring”.

They trust enough to believe we are being truthful about when we tell them we lie. Perfect sense.

Just a few corrections from a huge book fan who loves your videos. The San Ti were never coming to help. Their original goal may have been to keep a few humans around only. Nothing happens at a zero countdown. It was the nihilism from physics breaking that caused most suicides. Stopping nanofiber tech had nothing to do with the ship being attacked, they just want all useful science development stopped.

Interesting how Mikes hard drive is the same size and color as the book of Mao

There is a huge difference between reading what they did with the ship and seeing it. It was intense. Plus for all, who didn't have read the books, they build some extra tension when Raj said "It isn't working". You know that Auggie would never have done this, if she would have known, that there were so many civilians on board. And with the scene before, when she asked him about it and he obviously lied to here, it wasn't that clear, that she will go through wit that plan. Also, Evans phone case is red like a Mao bible. Nice connection.

"...a two piece combo" Your posts are excellent. Subscribed. Keep up the good work.

The first few episodes I thought the countdown was to stop humans from making technological advances that would bring the end of the world or civilization, but now I guess it was to prevent us from developing technologies that could threaten them. Like how the nano fibers were used. I would like for them to revisit the works of the diseased scientists and continue their work. Also yes, they have the headsets so I would like to see them breaking them apart and trying to understand their tech.

Good video!

5:35 😭😭😭

The bug thing also release to the conversation had by Evan and the Lord, where he said bugs are pest. Humans have become pest to them hence you are all bugs.

(Possible spoilers) The book trilogy never goes into what they look like but I really hope they show them as well. I always got the idea they were tiny beings. I hear the 4th book by another author does go into the appearance though I imagine they would use that as a basis.

3:31 if you clearly understand their convo before that scene is physical disks can easily repaired if sliced rather than getting burnt.. their worst case scenario is if it’s burned then the data will be hard to recover.. unfortunately that didn’t happen.

Big Sophon is watching you.

Re the smooth cuts to the hardrive... balderdash. They could have boarded the ship in the middle of the night and gotten the hard drive. Quiet like.

War of the worlds has taught us that alien species will be destroyed by microorganisms.

8:20 The (Chinese) person who recommended the books to me said that to a Chinese reader, the San-Ti are clearly Japan in WWII: A society clinging to some mountainous, earthquake-prone rocks in the ocean who came to China to take its resources with superior technology. The fact that their representative carries a katana is a clue. In the books, she also wears a kimono and performs a Japanese tea ceremony.

This is an excellent, straight to the point explanation. Thank you for doing this! My opinion on all of this so far: I am really not being surprised by anything at the moment, I find most of the cast extremely unsuitable for their roles, and as a hardcore sci fi fan I don't have problems 'understanding" the plot (if you think this is a mindfuck, try Constellation on Apple+). Also I think some of the CGI look cheap, but yeah, better than your average show. However I see a lot of people questioning the science behind this show - I have a big friend who works at the Particle Accelerator in Brussels and he says the Physics in this show is actually quite... possible? I don't know if it's the most appropriate word. I thought this would be an interesting information seeing so many divergent opinions.

The 2 that started all this are like the nwo

5:38 what I don't understand is how the Santi decelerated the sophon from near light speed?

3:32 if the he’d got cut or burned they could have still accessed the data that’s why they did the fibers. They were worried about Mike Evan’s having the chance erase the drive.

Folding space and dimensions should be a bigger concept explored later in the story

The Santi were always going to invade.. They made it very clear from minute 1

The use of quantum entanglement as an instantaneous communication medium is one of the few plot devices in the show/story that is scientifically impossible.

I’m sure others have said this, but I just noticed that Evans holds his red hard drive just like the Maoists hold up their little red books.

You said something that struck a chord with me. Here is why: I’m a Christian who likes to debate with atheists, and there are some arguments of theirs that I’ve heard many times over. One of their stock arguments goes something like this: “Religion has caused way more bloodshed throughout history than anything else.” That’s a very common argument atheists use, because that gives them the moral high ground. Amen? No! It doesn’t, and what you said about Columbus is what I try to get them to admit to every time they use that familiar argument. You see, from the atheistic worldview, atheists CANNOT blame Christians for all the atrocities that were committed in the name of religion, because, as you so clearly put it, it was those greedy terrible people like Columbus who, as you also stated, came from Europe (where they were more advanced scientifically), who exploited vulnerable people by telling them that God would destroy them if they didn’t give him what he wanted. Now in the atheistic view, atheists are ultimately to blame for all the atrocities committed in the name of religion, because atheists invented the concept of God in the first place in order to control people. -- That’s what you must really believe, based on what you said. And I have even heard them say that religion was created by smart people in order to control people in a mind over matter style. And apparently they don’t realize that they are condemning atheism when they say that. Do you agree with that, or am I missing something here?

They said if we send soilders someone can reach the data and destroy it thn whats the point of this scene ? Whats was all the killing for ? He reached it but dont know what was he doing with it ?

And in one fowl swoop, Dead Meat can no longer review this show :(

🤯

Oh man the nanofibers cutting the ship. They’d have just sent in an assault team to properly retrieve the data. The ship could exploded thus destroying the data. But it was an interesting and diabolical application of nano fibers.

I find it unlikely that it took so long for the Santi to understand that people are liars given their level of interaction with the world already. Also, the Chinese scientist (wenji?) looks surprised that the Santi finally decided people are not to be trusted when she already at initial contact was told by the Shanti that they would destroy people. Did she feel that she was all that different and special to be spared?

i read the book long ago...these trisolarans....their like little glowing bugs about the size of a grain of rice

If the aliens were gathering a group of followers, what did they think all these people were saying about their work? Hmmm. I’m guessing they knew they were lying.

Correct me if I'm wrong , but my understanding is the SanTi is all knowing because the Sophons allow them to observe everything almost instantly. However, that wouldn't give them the power to see the future. So that wouldn't explain how they viewed Auggie as a threat

2:53 No the SanTi are not all knowing or magical, They can't see the future 😅. They only knew her nano tech are some tremendous piece of tech and will for sure help humans technological advancement at some point. So they want it stopped.

9:22 can anyone Explain Me How this Girl Maybe the only One from Aliens Is on earth Already When At the same they can't reach us This early means This creeping me up Please Explain if anyone knows this

We are truely bugs,starship troopers enters the chat hahahahaa

I have two things. First, if the San-ti had to keep starting over and over with their civilization’s advancement, how in the hell did they eventually get so technologically advanced? Why aren’t they still primitive?? How were they ever able to build on top of what they built if what they built kept getting wiped out? And second thing, if in 400 years, earth will outpace the San-ti in tech advancement and be superior by the time they arrived, wouldn’t the San-ti have also advanced further along than they have now by then too and STILL be more technologically advanced than humans by then?? Is it because humans’ pace is just far more faster than theirs? You would think the astronomically huge tech gap between the two species would not be able to be filled AND overtaken by humans in just 400 years if their species was still advancing too. Or since they are traveling, are they in a static mode because all they can do is travel? The San-ti AI didn’t mention their current traveling status so it’s not explained yet either way.

If they broke science and obviously had the Sophon in effect before, they became aware of humanities mastery of mendacity, then humanities destruction is permeated and reveals their deceitful laying ashes. Unless I missed something?

So the Eye in The Sky is going to be up there for the next 400 years?

Why does the ship keep changing models when it was in the canal? 😂 And when the boss guy and the detective guy was discussing which strategy was best to retrieve the hard drive or whatever, the detective had the information where the ship was going to dock out of nowhere. And they didn't want to risk damaging the hard drive so they decided to sliced the ship into a million pieces. Now they had to find a needle in hay stack on a river. But the needle might be burned, or drowned. 😂

The ship was an arc before God abandoned them. Now we are at Babel

Unpopular opinion: this episode bothered me. The “good guys” rejected other courses of action based on them resulting in a bloodbath, yet the y settled on cutting everyone onboard to ribbons? Ships may not travel the Panama Canal without a pilot. Surely the pilot would have recognized the nanowire masts that did not belong there? Why did Evans retreat below decks where there was surely no escape instead of running up and trying to escape overboard? Lastly how did Evans know who was attacking and thus what they were after?

How do the aliens know they won't die upon arrival ah la war of the worlds?

The Sophon exposition was necessary for the plot but stupid. Why would they tell Jin and Wade what their plan was?

Am I the only one who agrees with the Santi, that humans actually don't deserve this planet anymore. The Santi deserve it more but I know this shitty series will end with humans winning as usual. I want to see Sci fi where humans Lose!!!

Wtf happens to the be game, I quit the show and I’m just gonna let yiu explain because it’s so terrible

best brutal climatic episode hands down. but one major issue I can't reconcile. Mike Evans and Ye Wenjie have been communicating with the SanTi for like what...decades? ur telling me in all that time they never once broached the concept of lies? surely little red riding hood wasn't the first fairytale to involve lies if Mike had been reading Brothers Grimm collection. and the Sophons have been on earth for months when that scene took place. these are sentient subatomic AGIs that can observe EVERYTHING. probably digested the entirety of humanity's knowledge, both digital and paper. (why they could accurately simulate the dynasties costumes, historical settings, Genghis Khan, Pope, Turing etc. even a quick glance at SunTsu's Art of War will quickly reveal the concept of lying and the Sophons didn't catch it? or the millions of fictions written over the centuries, or movies, youtube, fox news lol I didn't read the books so I don't know how the author explained the SanTi's sudden 180 in attitude. from Netflix's episodic standpoint it makes for good narrative and tension building but I don't fault Mike Evans for being honest about lying. it's bound to pop up sooner or later. Red Wedding vs Judgement Day, who wins!? 🤔

This still doesn't make sense. Guess I'm just not a sci-fi fan.

8:30 Columbus didn’t land in America and he wasn’t an evil person. You should really read unbiased and non marxist histories about Columbus. He changed the world as it was known at the time and all simple minded people can do is say he was mean to the indians.”

I appreciate the variety in your content.

Silver Spring is an absolutely fantastic comic series❤