After episode 4 of this season of The Rain focused on relationships and doomed love, episode 5 goes full on scifi horror. We thought the survivors were living in a post-apocalyptic world in season 1, but it turns out that the initial plague was just a little prelude to the main event. This episode, Keep It Together, finally shows just how badly everything is falling apart.
The black goo is not only spreading to wider areas of the quarantine zone, it’s now bubbling and smoking on it’s own. It’s consuming everything in its path, including people, at a rapid pace. We’ve known that it’s sentient, but now it’s battling to control Rasmus’ mind.
Recap
By the time Simone, Fie, Rasmus and Sarah return from their trip to Bakken, the Apollon soldiers who infiltrated the base are dead. Due to over exerting herself, Sarah has developed a fever along with a flare up of her illness, so Fie takes to her bed. She suggests that Rasmus rest as well, since they don’t know what the cure will do to him. Simone is confident that it will make him better.
As Rasmus lies in bed, he hallucinates his child self in bed with him, ordering him not to take the cure. He remembers back to his real childhood, when Frederik and Sten spoke outside of his room after the virus had cured his terminal illness. Frederik asked Sten to keep in mind that Rasmus was still weak from the illness he’d been through. Sten insisted that Rasmus was a miracle who would save the human race.
After Frederik left, Sten went into the room to talk with Rasmus. Rasmus had heard their conversation and was upset that his dad said he was weak. He misunderstood what his dad meant. Sten didn’t correct Rasmus by explaining that Frederik meant Rasmus just needed a little recovery time to get back to full strength. Instead, Sten painted himself as the one who understood Rasmus, and Frederik as the bad guy.
Sten told Rasmus that Frederik was afraid of what he’d created and didn’t understand what Rasmus really is. He predicted that everyday, Rasmus would grow more powerful and eventually he’d realize his full potential.
Lord help us all when that day arrives. It seems to be getting close.
Simone stops by to check on Rasmus and tell him the treatment will be ready soon. Rasmus is determined to go through with it, even though it’s experimental. He’s ready to live a normal life. Simone takes a minute to express her anxieties over the treatment’s potential side effects.
Rasmus is feeling optimistic and is sure it’ll be fine. He’s old enough to take care of himself and doesn’t need Simone to hover over him. Simone asks if he’s feeling independent because of Sarah. They giggle together because Rasmus has a new girlfriend.
After Simone leaves, Rasmus sees his child self again. He tells Rasmus that they don’t need to take the cure. It’ll kill them. Creepy Virus Child Rasmus wants to kill Simone, using powers older Rasmus isn’t even aware of, before she can give them the cure.
Simone’s next stop is Lea’s room. They dicover that both Patrick and Martin are gone, and they’re probably not coming back. Lea assures Simone that it’s not her fault. The people who’ve left the group and let everyone else down made their own choices.
Patrick is busy telling Martin that women suck and screw men over all the time. Simone was messing with Martin’s head, so he had no choice but to leave. He shouldn’t feel bad about it.
Martin tells Patrick to change the subject and asks him to clarify their plan instead. Except Patrick doesn’t really have a plan, and he was pretty clear about that back at the base. Martin just needed an excuse to leave Simone, so he overlooked Patrick’s usual level of barely contained chaos.
Patrick admits that he doesn’t know how they’ll get the capsules out, or even if anyone else has been able to do so. Martin is annoyed, but they keep going. Getting the capsules out and getting out of the quarantine zone is the endgame, whether it’s just the two of them, or the whole group.
Fie examines Simone’s research on the cure. She agrees with Simone’s assessment that there are 2 controller genes, and that’s why the first attempt at a cure failed. She believes the next try should work. But she warns Simone that there are risks, and asks if Rasmus also knows what he’s risking. Simone cuts her off and says they’re both aware.
Other that the possibility of death, we’re never told what the other risks might be. I don’t think they’re fully aware of the range of possibilities. Simone tells Fie that she’s supposed to kill Rasmus if the cure doesn’t work, so she and Rasmus have nothing to lose. Fie feels positive that their treatment will work.
Rasmus visits Sarah, who’s asleep, sits with her until she wakes up. He tells her that he’s taking the cure so they can have more time together. Sarah says that she doesn’t have much time left.
Rasmus tells her about his hallucinations of his child self, who doesn’t want him to be cured. Sarah says that she doesn’t want him to take the cure either. She doesn’t think there’s any point in him being cured so he can be with her, since she’s going to spend the rest of her short life in her bedroom, waiting to get an infection and die. She doesn’t want him to be as trapped as she is.
Rasmus still refuses to believe that’s true. He hasn’t made the connection between their day out and how much sicker she is now. He still thinks she’ll somehow just get better, like he did.
Sarah reaches out to touch his hand, to apologize for sounding harsh. Rasmus jumps up to remind her that she can’t touch him. Sarah starts coughing, while Rasmus insists that he still cares about their relationship, even if she doesn’t, and he’s going to take the cure as soon as it’s ready. As he leaves, his demonic little child self reminds him that he could be powerful, but Simone wants to destroy him.
Jean finds Simone just after she’s gotten out of the shower and asks her advice, as a woman. Since he and Lea have become close, he’s grown afraid of losing her. Something always gets in the way of happiness, like the virus, Apollon, or other people. Just like what happened between her and Martin.
He wants to tell Lea how he feels about her but he doesn’t know how. If she could, would Simone still tell Martin how deeply she feels for him? Simone says that she thought she and Martin were soulmates, but if she saw him now, she’d tell him he’s an idiot. Jean decides to tell Lea something different.
Martin and Patrick hide in a greenhouse when they see two women searching for food. The wild greens the women find are infected with the virus. Apollon soldiers spot the women and take them into custody.
Sten makes a speech to everyone the soldiers have collected, telling them that he’s recruiting them to help him find Rasmus, who is the key to stopping the virus. He tells the crowd that evil forces are keeping Rasmus away from Apollon, but the first one to bring Rasmus in will be the first one to leave the zone. The women promise each other that they’ll find Rasmus and get out.
Martin and Patrick walk through a neighborhood and wistfully look in the windows, where the remains of daily life stand, untouched. Patrick asks Martin what he’ll do first when he gets out of the zone. Martin says he’ll find a clean, working bathroom and use the toilet, then the sink, glorying in the hygiene the entire time.
Always appreciate the benefits of indoor plumbing, kids.
Patrick is ready to go mainstream with a house, wife, job, family- all of the adult trappings that he couldn’t manage before. Martin wonders where the real Patrick went.
When they get to the end of the block, they discover that the virus has consumed that end of town. It looks like black tar has been poured over everything. Patrick asks if Martin considers going back to warn the others that the virus has grown so much they won’t be able to stop it with the cure they’re creating, but he decides to keep moving forward. Or, actually, sideways, as they seek a path that hasn’t been overtaken by the black goo.
Demonic Virus Child Rasmus has taken to whispering in real Rasmus’ ear while he tries to sleep. “You have to trust me. She wants to destroy us. Trust me.”
When Jean searches out Lea to confess his feelings, it turns out she’s feeling the same way. She’s created something special in their chapel for him. Inside one of the small greenhouses, she’s hung up twinkle lights, lit candles, and hung up pictures that she’s drawn of all the meaningful times they’ve spent together. It’s like a little wedding chapel. Lea explains the meaning of each drawing and they remember what happened, together.
They agree to focus on the positive when they get scared. Then she pulls him out into the main room, in front of the painting he made for her, to dance the embarrassed dance of those who can’t dance. After a few minutes, they hold each other. Their little ceremony functions as a spiritual wedding, as they promise to continue to look out for each other and be more than friends.
Simone looks through photos of little Rasmus on her father’s laptop. She’s interrupted by her brother, who’s desperate to take the cure before his hallucinations/the sentient virus talk him out of it. Simone convinces him that it’s not ready yet and sends him back to his room.
Once he’s there, the virus’ whispering becomes intense, telling Rasmus that Simone is just like Frederik, trying to make Rasmus weak, when there’s nothing wrong with him. Without her, he could be powerful. Rasmus reaches his limit and yells for the virus to shut up. His eyes turn red, like they do when the virus is activated.
Until he’s cured, the virus wins, whether he wants it too or not.
Rasmus returns to the lab and gives himself a small dose of the partially finished cure. He has a bad reaction, writhing on the floor in something like a seizure.
Martin and Patrick have nearly hit another dead end in the forest. The virus is spreading so fast they can watch it happen, bubbling and steaming as it goes. They are within site of the Apollon building, so they pick their way around the virus to get to the entrance.
When they get there, it’s clear that something is very wrong.
The elevator is still working, but the building is unguarded. They ride down to the basement, where the rebel videos suggested they could get the nanocapsules removed. The elevator menu says that the basement has restricted access and is contaminated. They discover that the basement is huge, with dozens of labs, all housing research on the virus. The labs are deserted, but the experiments and virus are still active.
Rasmus eventually passed out from the microdose of the cure. When he wakes up, he tells Simone that he took the medication early because he was hallucinating, but now he doesn’t think they can remove the virus. It’s too much a part of him.
Fie understands what he’s saying, and says, “That’s how it feels, right? The virus needs a host to survive, so it makes sense that it makes you feel that way. But it’s not real. It’s just a feeling.” Rasmus still thinks it feels real, but Fie reminds him that feelings work that way.
Fie is right, but these feelings are extremely enhanced by a hostile, sentient virus that’s willing to do anything to survive. Rasmus’ feelings on the situation are a little more nuanced than most.
Martin and Patrick wander through the basement hallways, finding one horrific experiment after another. There are animal experiments, experiments where the virus has taken over the lab, and experiments where it’s grown out of the lab, like a vine or web. There vats full of viral slime, which bubble, and occasionally explode, on their own.
It’s clear that what’s happening in the forests started here and was probably initially spread by Apollon actions, whether accidental or on purpose. Rasmus became toxic after Thomas injected him with the updated version of the virus, and now the mutated version leaves a black trail behind him when he walks through living things. All it would take is one accident with the disposal of a body or a worker not cleaning their shoes properly to set off this chain reaction.
Martin and Patrick finally realize that they aren’t going to be getting their nanites out. They’re about to leave, when they hear a strange noise.
Fie finds Simone on the roof, worrying about Rasmus. She tries to convince Simone that Rasmus will come through the treatment just fine. Simone isn’t sure that Rasmus still wants to take it. Fie thinks Rasmus is just scared.
That’s what Jakob thought, too.
Rasmus is pacing in his room, remembering Sten calling him a miracle and a masterpiece. Sarah visits and asks about the dose of the cure he gave himself. He says that he wanted to give himself the entire dose, but he couldn’t. It felt wrong, like he was being torn apart.
Sarah says that maybe it felt wrong because it is wrong. She tells him that both of their illnesses are part of them. If he doesn’t feel right about removing the virus, then maybe he shouldn’t. Maybe his opinion is more relevant than Simone’s.
She almost touches his chest, making him nervous, but then she pulls her hand away.
Martin and Patrick follow the noise to a lab at the end of the hall, where they find a man with the rebels’ tattoo who’s been infected with the virus. It’s eaten the lower part of his body away. A scientist enters the lab and locks them all in. The scientist takes some medication and gives the infected man an injection. He tells Martin and Patrick that the victim will explode in 2 minutes if his treatment isn’t successful.
Martin and Patrick try to break out, but the door is reinforced. The scientist won’t release them, because he wants to experiment on them. Apollon spread a rumor that they could remove the nanites at this facility in order to attract victims to use in their human experimentation.
Martin notices that the door has a biometric lock and holds the scientist’s hand up to it. They get out of the lab with seconds to spare. The victim’s body explodes. The scientist explains that they were trying to cure the virus here, but everything they’ve done has just made the virus more aggressive.
He believes trying to stop it is pointless. It will destroy everything. He asks them to kill him. They run instead.
Once they’re outside, Martin tells Patrick that they have to go back to the base and stop the others from trying to cure Rasmus.
Simone makes some porridge for Rasmus and spikes it with a sedative. Lea joins her and asks if Rasmus still wants to do the cure. Simone says that he does. Another lie to Lea. Lea gives Simone a pep talk, telling her that she’s strong enough to do what she needs to do, she just has to believe.
While he’s eating the porridge, Rasmus tells Simone that he doesn’t want to take the cure. Simone is worried that Apollon will be there any time. Rasmus is worried that he won’t be able to control his reaction to the medication. He says flat out that he’s not doing it.
Between what we just saw in the labs and the way he described his reaction to the dose he took, Rasmus is right. I think he could feel the virus fighting and evolving into something more toxic.
Simone doesn’t say anything. Rasmus passes out from the sedative. They bring him to the lab, strap him down and prep him for the dose. Rasmus wakes up before they can give him the injection. He quickly becomes agitated. Lea and Jean watch from the observation room.
Rasmus panics and breaks the straps, activating the virus in his body. Fie gets out, but the syringe with the cure ends up on the floor. Simone stops to pick it up, and then Rasmus and the airborne virus are between her and the door. Rasmus shouts that he can’t control the virus. It heads for Simone and the cure.
Lea decides to sacrifice herself to save Simone. She takes a long look at Jean, who tells her no. She says yes, then enters the lab, still in only her regular clothes. She takes a deep breathe before she walks into the middle of the viral cloud. Everyone is screaming for her to stop.
While Rasmus and the virus are distracted by Lea, Simone runs behind him and injects the cure. Lea dies.
Looks like the creation of a monster to me.
Commentary
Geez, I hate demonic children. But, spreading goo, along the lines of The Blob, I’m totally here for. The Blob is the first horror film I remember seeing, and having nightmares about, as a kid. I still love it.
Fie is a treasure and the new voice of reason on the show. I 💜 her. But she’s not without flaws.
If Simone hadn’t stopped to grab the cure, she could have gotten out of the lab. They could have continued trying to work out a solution and would have gotten Martin and Patrick’s warning. Most importantly, Lea wouldn’t have died. Fie, and especially Simone, forced this cure on Rasmus for their own purposes, and it cost Lea her life. They did exactly what Jakob did.
Last season, Frederik was able to quickly recognize that Rasmus’ virus had morphed into a more deadly version because he’d seen it happen many times in the Apollon labs. His reaction to Rasmus always seemed a little strange to me, but now it makes sense.
The Apollon scientist had gone insane from working in the lab. But why did he lock himself in with the infected rebel? Was he trying to die by exposing himself to the virus? What was the medication that he took before he gave the infected rebel the injection? What was the injection?
If the medication he took was supposed to make him immune to the virus, they need to go back and find him, or the lab notes on it. Or maybe they can use Frederik’s computer to tap into Apollon’s research notes. They ought to be able to get Sten’s covert connection to go both ways.
Lea’s Death and Misogyny in the Writing of Female Characters
I wish Lea didn’t have to be pushed out in order for us to have Fie, and Beatrice didn’t have to die in season 1 for Sarah to have a place this season. All four are amazing characters and there’s no reason we had to lose any of them.
We haven’t lost any of the original male characters, other than the very recurring Frederik and Thomas. There were fewer female regulars to begin with, so there was room to add a couple.
As it is, the loss of Lea ensures that the show continues to have fewer female regulars than males, after it was briefly equal for a few episodes this season. The females appear to be disposable, since at least one dies each season, while the men all survive.
It would have made much more sense to kill Patrick or Jean this season. Patrick is so reckless that an accident would be believable, and Jean is nice, but useless, with no storyline or personality, outside of Lea. If he were a woman, he would have been the first to go. They even pulled a bait and switch with him last year. Instead, his girlfriend is primed for the cliché and very trendy Great Big Noble Female Suicidal Self Sacrifice™ for two seasons, and he finally gets a storyline out of his manpain.
Funny how the men talk about dying for each other, but the woman does it. And for what? Simone was in a suit. The virus shouldn’t have killed her, if it was properly sealed. There was time for someone else to quickly get into a suit and then go help. Especially since the other person in the observation room could help with getting the hazmat suit on.
All Lea wanted in life was a cohesive group and the chance to take care of them. She was a caretaker at heart, who was willing to sacrifice her own needs for others, something that can be accomplished in healthy ways by parents, teachers, health care providers and other situations that don’t require the caregiver to sacrifice their life.
But this is a dark, dark fairytale, similar to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid or The Little Match Girl, in which hope and delusion war with each other to lead a “girl” into foolish decisions which cause her doom. Note the “little” in both titles. Belittling the intellectual capacity of females was an important part of the story for Andersen.
In The Rain, there is a surprising mix of personalities represented among the women and they are certainly intelligent. The problem here is their disposable, interchangeable nature.
Lea was doomed to find one potential home and family after another, but to have them all turn out to be lies and illusions. Simone is a genuine person, but she was too distracted by the family she already has to be able to give Lea what she needed. So Lea decided to make the grand sacrificial gesture that Karen had made for her in season 1, episode 5.
Lea considered leaving and choosing a life with Jean, but she couldn’t quite do it. Twice within a few episodes, she chose to sacrifice her happiness in order to help Simone. In the end, she was only with Jean because it made him happy, not her. She chose to become a tragic heroine, a martyr to her cause, like so many female characters do these days.
Female death by suicide, disguised as a heroic act, is a popular choice among entertainment writers today. The most egregious example would be the Divergent series, which existed only to give the main character an acceptable reason to die a self-sacrificial death. But Divergent isn’t the only one. Black Widow dreamed of suicide and death for years before she found the right time and reason in Avengers: Endgame. It’s worth noting that in both series, their male counterparts live on. (Natasha’s usual screen partners were Bruce, Steve and Clint.)
As long as the female character’s death/suicide is foreshadowed, we’re told it’s in character, and thus we shouldn’t complain. This is ridiculous. The point isn’t that a woman died. It’s the misogyny and lack of imagination on the part of writers that leads to them recycling the same sexist ideas and finding these depressing solutions acceptable.
It’s that, as girls and women, there is no one we can watch and identify with who stays good, strong, moral, heroic, healthy, powerful, or whatever, until the end. The female character always has to die, become subservient to the man, become evil, or lose her power. Figuring out subtle ways to strip a woman of her power, such as making her actions appear heroic on the surface when they actually serve to work against her best interests, is a classic film and TV maneuver.
When a woman is done with her journey, as defined by the end of the period in which men find her useful, she typically dies. Occasionally, it’s a symbolic death, but usually it’s a real death. When a man is done, he lives to begin the next phase of his life.
Since women are still objectified into plot devices a great deal of the time, they aren’t written as fully realized humans who go through their entire life cycle. The writers don’t bother to imagine them that way, like they do with the male characters.
They are frequently written as tools, who come into the story for a specific purpose, and need to be disposed of once they’ve accomplished that purpose. One of our misogynistic cultural biases is to expect that women will sacrifice themselves for others without complaint, so this seems normal and natural to us.
We expect women to do what’s necessary in a given situation, then fade into the background.
As women, we learn to do this from a very young age, and much of the time, don’t even realize we’re doing it.
Society, both male and female, harshly judges women who don’t adhere to this unwritten rule.
Entertainment media use dramatic devices, such as insanity and death, to heighten the circumstances and punishments surrounding women’s sacrifices and the punishments for women who don’t go quietly. This serves to reflect and reinforce the cultural bias that already exists.
Lea wasn’t being punished by others, though. Despite her devout, saintly nature, she was punishing herself. She still felt she was irreparably damaged by her sexual assault and that she had brought it on herself. She already felt guilty for her mother’s death, then Karen sacrificed herself for her. Beatrice, who had been the leader and protector when their group was just Lea, Jean and her, died while cozying up to Rasmus. Her death could also be construed as a sacrifice for the sake of the group.
At the very least, Beatrice, Karen and her mother were three women who Lea admired, and who died while taking care of others. As far of the group knew, Beatrice stayed with Rasmus to tend to his infected wound, and died in the process. Simone has risked her life repeatedly for others. Lea took all of these examples to heart and modeled herself after them.
Lea has desperately tried to find a group of people to accept and care about her, starting even before the Rain came.
She was happy with Martin and Beatrice’s group before Simone and Rasmus joined, but they changed the group dynamics. Lea lost her protector, Beatrice. It’s become clear that no matter how much she cares about and tries to help Simone, or how good a person she is, she will always be an outsider. Fie instantly became an insider, highlighting for Lea how distant her relationships with the others have become.
Jean reacted to this same situation by trying to get closer to Lea and convincing her to leave with him, while Patrick tried to make himself more useful to the group to gain more acceptance. Neither decided they were worthless and could only show their worth to their “guiding star” by dying for them. Neither tried to prove they really were saints. Both tried to find other ways to keep going.
Lea was indicative of our culture’s belief that women should blame themselves for whatever goes wrong around them. She was part of a wave of suicidal women, both on and off screen, who believe they don’t deserve to live or have power/control in their lives. These women even make TV and Broadway shows and call them feminist, because they’ve been so indoctrinated by misogynist attitudes for their entire lives that they can’t see the difference. Until we recognize these patterns, the misogynist cycle can’t be broken.
Metawitches Guidelines for Spotting Misogyny in Media
Foreshadowing That Lea Would Die:
Lea felt that her sexual assault was her fault and that it made her worthless. She needed validation from others that her existence was acceptable and worthwhile, and she spent her entire time on the series trying to find that validation in the hope that it would cure her despair. But other people can’t give you a permanent sense of self-worth, so she failed, and her depression spiraled. (Lea wasn’t alone in her struggle with self-worth. This is society’s biggest failure with modern girls. Girls and women who believe in themselves also believe in their rights and their ability to fight for those rights, whether they fight for the right to equal pay, protection from crime or decent health care. Suicide and depression are difficult issues, but they can’t be solved without addressing their underlying causes.)
Her mother’s death and her guilt over it, because her mother died when she went out in the rain to pick Lea up after she was assaulted. Lea felt it should have been her instead.
Karen’s sacrifice of her own life in place of Lea for the cannibal’s monthly ritual in S1Ep5 inspired her.
The greenhouse of dying plants and Lea’s wish to live there, even though they couldn’t be saved. She didn’t want to be saved either. She was just looking for the right reason to die.
Lea actually murdered the plants, with whom she identified, when she found out Simone lied to her. Simone lied to Lea a second time, just before Lea died for her. This time, she murdered herself for Simone’s lie, instead of the plants. She’s self-loathing, so she punishes herself for the way other people treat her.
Martin said he would die for Simone- so would Lea.
(I think there’s a strong possibility that Lea is either lesbian or asexual and in love with Simone, but won’t admit it to herself, because it goes against her religious beliefs and upbringing. She shows zero sexual interest in Jean, or any man, and is much more drawn to women. This also could be solely the result of her assault.)
The candles, pictures, and dance outside the chapel could be seen as a funeral with memories of the deceased’s life instead of a wedding
She tried normal life with Jean by playing house, but as soon as she started identifying with Simone again, it was all over. She was sidelined this season, other than the build up to her suicide. Death through a glorious, noble sacrifice to save someone else masks both a suicide by the character and a fridging by the writers.
Yes, she was fridged. I’ve seen the end of the season. She died so that Jean and Rasmus could react. It’s splitting hairs to say otherwise. The producers figure they’ve added new female characters, so it won’t matter that they killed this one. We’re all interchangeable, right?
In S2Ep4, Jean tries again to get Lea to leave the base, but she wonders if it’s the same/just as bad everywhere. She thinks maybe they just aren’t supposed to be “there” anymore. “There” as in, alive, it now seems.
In S1Ep7, she stands in the rain and in front of Martin’s gun to stop him from executing Simone after Patrick pushed Simone into the rain, back when they still thought the rain was poisonous. She was willing to sacrifice herself for Simone on a whim, without a second thought.
In S2Ep4, she tells Jean that the base is no paradise. While looking at the section of infected plants in the greenhouse, she says that if they stay there, they’ll die. She refuses to leave with Jean, and before long, she dies.
The Virus as Metaphor
The virus is fully revealed as the metaphorical evil that it is, with Sten and Rasmus as the perpetrators of that evil. Sten has full knowledge of what he’s doing, while Rasmus combines his initial innocence with working his way through various stages of ignorance and denial. They are the representation of the human belief that we can do anything, with no consequences, and the tendency to turn a blind eye when confronted with those consequences.
The virus is representative of our devastating mistakes. Choose your poison: Is it the literal poison and trash that humans have spread out over the planet, which is bringing on a mass extinction? Is it a more metaphorical evil, caused by people like Sten and Frederik, who get carried away with scientific curiosity and/or greed, and take their “progress” too far? Nuclear experimentation, weapons and energy, for example? Or is it something purely in the minds of humans, which could cause the end anyway, such as the misogyny, racism, classism, etc which lead to socioeconomic inequality, and eventually to revolution?
Whatever it is, it’s coming for your children.
In the show, Denmark is now a fiefdom, run by one man, Sten, and his corporation, Apollon, with the approval of the governments of the EU. His employees are enslaved, since they all have the nanocapsules inside them and can’t leave the quarantine zone. Apollon created and dispersed the virus and has continued to experiment on it out of greed. The virulent forms of the virus came from Sten’s continued experiments, not from Rasmus. Sten and Frederik caused this and they’re responsible for everything that’s happened since it was released. That’s not a metaphor.
Sten created the apocalypse, but he also rules over it. He and Apollon touch on every type of metaphorical poison I’ve mentioned.
Sten has placed Rasmus in the role of viral savior. He thinks that if we can all live with the virus, like Rasmus, we’ll survive. Lea’s death is, in part, symbolic of the death of the old religion, the old ways of doing things, and of this version of humanity. The virus killed the moral compass, setting the group adrift. There will soon be a new message to replace the lost religion, and a new form of human to practice it.
Images courtesy of Netflix.
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