Station Eleven takes a closer look at apocalyptic cults in two very different episodes
Two very different episodes recall the detailed layers of the original novel
TV Reviews Station Eleven
We get a twofer this week, with each episode on opposite ends of the spectrum. I loved the first one, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Aren’t Dead,” particularly for its production design, its complex character dynamics, and—most of all—deviating from the book in a way that feels suspenseful yet familiar.
It also solves my main problem before, a little clumsily: The way Kirsten’s trauma was considered special among the theater troupe was odd, considering everyone, as she says, lost everything 20 years ago. But here, the true contrast comes from her and Alex, the puckish Philippine Velge. Alex doesn’t remember life from before, and at 20, she’s sick of being stuck with the people who raised her, and sick of being treated like a child. She remains stubborn even after Kirsten, former director Gil (David Cross), his new partner Katrina, and other members of the theater troupe point out the layered lies the cult leader told. Alex is irritated by everyone around her telling her to stay away from danger and that she has no sense, when they are in fact completely correct.
Above all, the fourth episode of Station Eleven succeeds the most so far because it shows people acting just like people usually do. Sure, capitalism may be gone along with anything that records (whether it’s a phone or a camcorder), but a 20-year-old is going to feel restless and long to rebel and leave her family, and a woman is going to be jealous and hurt when her husband remarries. Alex also points out how much trauma live in the minds of the pandemic survivors, who don’t trust and stick fervently to the same paths they always do out of safety, which certainly makes sense to me. To be without Google Maps is to be lost, in my geographically-challenged opinion. But for the theater group, and the other pre-pandemic people, a familiar path that is never veered from is like a defense mechanism. But to Alex, it looks like a painful groove they’re walking, a canyon that has been left even after the glacier has moved on.
The one problem is that, without technology or enough in the way of peers, Alex doesn’t know how natural her feelings and reactions are. The way she leaves for the cult and fights with Kirsten is almost like the plot-line in The Americans, when Elizabeth and Philip were shocked that Paige became involved in the church. Paige’s speech about how strange and untrusting things were was par for the course for an American kid telling her (unknown to her) immigrant parents how irritating their constant vigilance is. That’s basically Alex’s frustration.
Even the fight Kirsten has with Alex is mirrored in her fight with Jeevan, when (it’s implied) they last saw each other, at the cabin in the snow in year one. It’s the same fight about feeling responsible for a child that isn’t yours but which your basic instincts say you need to keep alive. The implication here is Jeevan left Kirsten in the same way that they left Frank, which is the same way she lost her parents.
Watching the shifting dynamics of the theater troupe is also delightful. This episode was funny, even using the classic sitcom staple, an actual minefield. Hey, it was a classic in M*A*S*H, right? I found the conductor Sarah troublesome—the idea of her sleeping with Kirsten is kind of creepy, considering Sarah found her and took her in as a child. But Lori Petty is just too charismatic, turning Sarah’s pettiness at Gil’s new wife into a real vibrancy and vulnerability. All this makes the child suicide bombers even more upsetting beyond just being child suicide bombers.
The fifth episode, “The Severn City Airport,” is almost the complete opposite. It leaves the warm, naturalistic style of the theater troupe for the cold tundra of a small town airport in Michigan. Of course the theater troupe is going to be tight-knit. As anyone who has even met a theater kid in high school will tell you, they may love drama but they love each other more! But the airport is truly where the worst people in the world are, because who isn’t the worst when they’re miserable and stressed out and smelly and uncomfortable and cramped, even when they aren’t even in the goddamn plane? I have been on a plane only a few times since the pandemic, but I am never more stressed than in an airport.
The people at the airport that become a begrudging community were dropped there on day one of the pandemic. They are confused and prickly, and snap at one another constantly. Unlike the theater group, which has the advantage of being 20 years in the future, the people at the airport are naïve, entitled, and riddled with anxiety. They seem, overall, a lot stupider and more malleable than the theater group, demonstrating what a difference a pandemic makes on a psyche. (HA HA HA.) This is Clark’s episode, but it’s also where we find the origin of the dangerous prophet. Tyler is around Kirsten’s age at the beginning of the pandemic, who also gets the Station Eleven comic book by way of his father, Arthur Leander. Here’s another way that Gael García Bernal was so miscast—the Arthur who Clark, Elizabeth, and Tyler talk about and around bears very little resemblance to the warm, open man we saw earlier.
In the book, I believe Tyler and his mother Elizabeth get caught up with the janitor who sweeps a bunch of others away in a creepy, cultish way, taking a bunch of young women with him. Remember how I said this show and the original book reminds me of zombie apocalypse novels? The many cults, and the discussions around leadership and cult, remind me of Severance by Ling Ma, where the main character gets caught up in a cult. The cults that pop up in apocalyptic media are often founded by manipulative men who often peddle a kind of creepy gender essentialism, a predatory protection, in their cults. Or perhaps that is just all cults, anywhere.
Tyler’s character is harder for me to follow in the show. Elizabeth’s immature mothering can perhaps answer for some of it, but Tyler is just so aware. He is aware of her betrayal, and the betrayal of people around him. While Kirsten had to fend for herself physically more than emotionally, Tyler takes for granted his protection, but finds himself in emotional situations that are above and beyond his abilities to understand them. So I don’t think it’s fair for Clark to act like Tyler is just a fucking weirdo kid. The strangest part is when Tyler brings a man, who was stuck on the plane that was abandoned wholesale when the pandemic began, into the airport with seeming no understanding of why that would be upsetting to everyone. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for him to go get Clark? After his mom and his quarantine, he also starts to hang out with the corpses on the plane???
Perhaps that’s what Clark means when he says Tyler has a penchant for destruction—especially since the episode ends with Tyler burning all his corpse friends on the plane and running away. A mighty cliffhanger.
Stray Observations
- That comic must be made with archival paper to last that long. Even a ziplock bag and a dark cabinet wouldn’t stop it from fading. Miranda’s watercolor skills remind me of Lucy Knisley’s work, with Pia Guerra style pencils…which makes sense, considering Guerra was the main penciller and the co-creator of Y: The Last Man.
- Tyler says the last thing he downloaded off the internet ever was the Wikipedia article on capitalism. “What if I delete it?” “We’ll just invent it again,” says Elizabeth.
- The clutter of the country club Gil and Katrina live on reminds me of the beginning sequence of the pilot of The Last Man On Earth, where he’s getting all these random things from around the world, including the eagle rug from the oval office.
- The humor was so much better this episode, thanks to the theater troupe: “Hi!” “Don’t talk to him.” and “We’re doing Hamlet set in Poland.” “Portland.” “Whatever.” “Huh?” were my favorite exchanges.
- Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars’ dad!) plays the bike messenger who keeps trying to get the theater to come to the prophet, was previously Elizabeth’s boyfriend in the beforetimes. God, how did he end up there?
- Tyler, the kid, who grows up to be the prophet, is so completely different in looks from the adult actor, it’s surreal. At least Kirsten’s child self and her adult self have the same strong brows. Tyler’s whole face is closed as a child, and strangely open (but MORE creepy) as an adult. It’s… weird.
31 Comments
I love the weekly review and am glad you’re doing it. The gist of your review, to me, doesn’t reflect an “A” grade. I love and am confused by this show; I imagine if you’ve read and loved the source material, your fondness for the filmed product harbors even more confusion…
Thanks for saying that! I gave it an A because it felt like an A — I was really absorbed by the dynamics in a way that felt as rich and complex as the book. I was also surprised at how much more I liked these episodes after last week. If the rest of the show is as good as these episodes, I would be happy.
You’re right on the confusion, and the big changes the TV show has made hasn’t felt like they worked until this episode. In particular I think we’re getting a lot more from the theater troupe, which were my favorite parts of the book.
For me it wasn’t the story of the book that grabbed me so much as the general vibe of the book. I don’t actually remember much of the story, even though I’ve read it twice.The best way I can describe it is that it is the last book my mother read as she was slipping deep into dementia. I doubt she could remember what happened the chapter before, but the vibe of the book kept her reading. The book holds a special place in my heart for that reason.
For me it wasn’t the story of the book that grabbed me so much as the general vibe of the book. I don’t actually remember much of the story, even though I’ve read it twice. This is exactly what I said to my wife last night. I loved the book, and not for the rich or satisfying story. To the contrary, the story in the book is in my opinion thinly sketched and maybe even inconsequential(?). But the vibe is so great. She creates such a rich, vivid world. Like you, I frankly barely remember the narrative.
I’m just frustrated by all the poor decisions, drives me nuts with TV shows. Don’t stab someone if you are not going to make sure you finished the job!
Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars’ dad!) plays the bike messenger who keeps trying to get the theater to come to the prophet, was previously Elizabeth’s boyfriend in the beforetimes. God, how did he end up there?It’s not the prophet he’s trying to get them to, if I remember correctly?
I don’t remember any suggestion Kirsten slept with Sarah either…?
Yes, that seemed strange too.
She was shown waking up shirtless next to Sarah in the second or third episode and then Sayid in one of these episodes. I’m not sure why because I’m not sure what else to infer but it’s such a random moment….
In the second episode she woke up with the character “S” played by the non-binary actor Ess Hodlmoser. They have a shaved head so I think that confused you.
You’re right, I realized that later. Thank you!
They? Lol 😆
Enrico’s character at the airport was Elizabeth’s agent, not boyfriend.
Enrico’s character wants to take them to Clark’s museum at the airport from everything we’ve been shown (I’m not burdened with the novel’s plotline, so I’m drawing only from the show).
I don’t think that character is in the novel, anyway. But I agree that he wants them to come to the airport/museum and while his motivation is unclear, it doesn’t seem connected to the prophet.
That’s how I read it too. I’m curious how he ended up back in the airport community after leaving it previously.
I can’t remember if it’s the same character in the book, but there’s a big element of the people at the museum trying to get people to visit, including the troop. I don’t remember the reasons being sinister. The lack of inane Walking Dead-style motivations was one of the refreshing aspects of the book, iirc.
The humor was so much better this episode, thanks to the theater troupe: “Hi!” “Don’t talk to him.” and “We’re doing Hamlet set in Poland.” “Portland.” “Whatever.” “Huh?” were my favorite exchanges.I liked the goalie’s bellowed “That’s right!” in response to Clark’s pandering. As well as Clark’s rousing effort to uncover the truth about the janitor immediately becoming its own work of fiction as the security guy and Elizabeth got involved in real time.The missed calls in between him and his boyfriend were brutal, though.
Episode five really seems to be the weakest of the bunch. The people do not act like real human beings and they do a lot of telling us the kid Tyler is weird while not really showing anything. Yeah, he brings the person from the plane in, but that was just to me being naïve, like a kid would be, and assuming (probably correctly) that the guy was immune. Clark calling him a “monster” with this set up just did not jibe at all. They tried to do way too much with this episode (reminds me of the terrible “The Stand” remake from this year) and even Tyler leaving felt like a payoff of something they just did not set up enough at all.The previous episode was better and the emotional beats hit because we have been with these people and they did not just dump a whole new set of characters on us like above. I do not remember Kristen sleeping with Sarah though, and I think the prophet moved on from the airplane when the guy is bothering them to visit, as shown by the kid leaving. I guess Jeevan is not the big hero he seemed in episode one, because leaving the kid is a little cruel. I think it meant to parallel Alex leaving, but unlike the “child” Alex leaving, it was the adult. The suicide kids were creepy but to me really made little sense, given the prophet seems all about the new generation and leaving the pre-pandemic one behind. . I feel this show is really struggling with how to visualize the comic and this material
I agree that Clark’s immediate animosity towards Tyler seemed too much, even if you buy that the boy reminded him of his frenemy Arthur. (Even though Tyler was silent and distant, playing his computer games with his headphones on, not engaging with Clark at all.) To me, the episode felt rushed. I liked the parallel section in the novel – almost a self-contained short story- and see where they tried to do that with this episode, but I think it went too fast.
Yes, and as the review said, the other weird thing was Arthur (in this show) was not presented as some a**hole and actually seemed at all times kind of an okay guy (unless you count cheating as a stand in for all bad behavior), so him ignoring his son and being a jerk to his second wife really does not jibe either with what was established earlier.
As a huge fan of the book I’m finding the show about half perfect, half maddening. I greatly enjoyed the airport episode for it’s visually appealing match to the books description but some of the casting is strange and some of the choices are interesting but not necessarily good. But a noble and definitely passionate adaptation for the fans.
Clark got so caught up in being the center of attention — something he lacked his entire life — that it’s obvious why Tyler grew disillusioned. The killing of the survivor showed Tyler first hand that the adults were less interested in healing and renewal than they were fear and control. No wonder he began to identify with the dead. I think discussions of cults are too distracted by the leaders. The New Yorker had one of the best eye openers regarding the true nature of followers: Even the historian and psychiatrist Robert Lifton, whose book “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism” (1961) provided one of the earliest and most influential accounts of coercive persuasion, has been careful to point out that brainwashing is neither “all-powerful” nor “irresistible.” In a recent volume of essays, “Losing Reality” (2019), he writes that cultic conversion generally involves an element of “voluntary self-surrender.”Source: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/12/what-makes-a-cult-a-cult
I like how this story is more apocalyptic fantasy than dark post-apocalyptic. It reads like a video game RPG more than survival horror.
Enrico Colantoni will always be Elias to me…..
He’ll always be Bruno Mars to me, because my brain is dumb.
Here’s another way that Gael García Bernal was so miscast—the Arthur who Clark, Elizabeth, and Tyler talk about and around bears very little resemblance to the warm, open man we saw earlierI agree with you that Arthur and Miranda were miscast for each other, but I don’t think the Arthur we saw is at odds with the Arthur we hear about later. He was warm and charismatic and people liked him! Elizabeth says as much. But he was a terrible husband (see: Miranda, Elizabeth) and father (see: Tyler) because he couldn’t shake the feeling he was going to “live the wrong life, and then die”. He was unsatisfied. He was a B-list actor desperate for legitimacy and fulfillment in his work, which made him surround himself mostly with sycophants (see: that dreadful dinner party) to boost his ego, and he didn’t give of himself to people who no longer made a point to adore him (see: his fight w/ Miranda about her locking herself up in the pool house).
See, I totally get what you mean but I feel like the emotional beats weren’t there, just the plot.
That’s fair. I’m six episodes in and I haven’t felt that any of the emotional beats were earned so far, except the relationship between Kirsten and Jeevan. I’ve been thoroughly disappointed, and surprised, given its general acclaim.
This is the second time you’ve mentioned an actor having an “open” face. I have no idea what you’re talking about!
You keep talking about “closed faces” and “open faces” and I have no clue what it means.