It was finally the end. My heart is going up and down as the story goes. One substory that really poked the soft spot in my heart is the part the young man joined the “clean-up” team of animals. He was so panicked when he first pointed his gun at living things, I can feel all of his struggles, all of his fears, all of his guilt. Yet it was merely experience he lacked. After a while, he became as numb as the others who have seen too much blood and used to death. Another point that really struck my heart was Legasov’s fate. He was courageous, he was truthful, he was honorable, yet corrupted bureaucracy tamed stained all his glory. The price of truth and fact cost Legasov his life. My heart was ice-cold and fell to the rock-bottom by the end of the episode. Is this what it takes? Does evil outwin truth in the end? I felt so hopeless, if that’s the case, then what’s the point of us even trying? Thank god, the trailer in the end gave me hope and saved me from desperation. Legasov’s sacrifice didn’t go down to drain, it finally brought the ugly into the light. And I’m so relieved to see miracles of life happened. I’m so glad to see that the volunteers went to empty the tank, the ones everyone thought would be dead in a week, miraculously survived after treatment. I’m so glad to see the firefighter’s wife, whom the doctor said would never going to bear a child, had a son. There would always be hope, even in the darkest moments.

During this event, I watched the last two episodes of Chernobyl, despite not having watched any other prior episodes. However, it was still easy to follow along. The episodes were very intriguing. It was clear that there were many careless mistakes made that could have prevented the death and impaired health of many individuals. The part that intrigued me the most was the fact that the entire explosion of the power plant was caused by the rushing of a safety check and assigning an inexperienced employee, all in an effort to make money and gain recognition for developing such a device. If certain characters in the film had just done things the textbook way instead of essentially being lazy, the explosion would have never happened. It was also interesting that the radiation had long term effects on people that were in the surrounding area which is sad because they had nothing to do with the explosion and weren’t even aware of the predicament.

The series began with lies and ended with the truth. The first episode was full of lies, people lied both to others and to themselves. I talked more about this in a previous post of mine focusing on the dramatic irony in the episode. It all comes full circle during the final hearing in the finale when Valery Legasov gives his speech. Over the course of the series, he uncovers many truths and is able to piece together the entire story. The series begins with the immediate aftermath of the story that Legasov tells of how the power plant blew up, so by ending with the beginning we come full circle with the plot. However, because of Legasov’s explanation, we are not left right where we began, there is a clear progression, not in plot, but in truth. We don’t start at A and end at B, we start with lies and end with truth. This is one of the reasons that makes the series so compelling, its primary goal isn’t to tell you how Chernobyl happened, but rather why: a network of lies. In his speech, Legasov states, “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth.” The show concludes with the payment of its debt to the audience, not money, but the truth.

This episode remarked on truth and its requirement for supreme objectivity. This scene reached climax of the show, where truth and fearlessness conflict with untruths and self-protection. The show accepts this open door to communicate the general significance of truth and its dispersal, even against the most overwhelming of chances. It is also interesting to see how science and politics blends together, this reminds of the politics and science debate recently regarding covid. With this past experience, I hope communities will unite together and persevere through this pandemic just like how they did in the terrible nuclear accident.

I loved this show about Chernobyl. I never knew about this terrible accident until after this series. It really shows how terrifying nuclear technology is and how out of control it can get. I think that the series relates a lot to covid as it explores how politics and science can become intertwined. Another thing that stood out to me was the perseverance of our communities in the face of tragedies such as this one and how we are able to band together. I feel like watching the series with my peers brought be closer to them, as we shared a lot of the same thoughts.

Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite TV show, my answer is always Chernobyl. It brings to light an event that changed the world as we knew it. It led to the eventual collapse of a major world super power. Chernobyl destroyed the lives of many in the Soviet Union and it changed the way the world approached the energy sector. Like with most shows, I love the last episode the most because of how much is brings to light. Not only are the physics behind nuclear reactors explained with accuracy (wish I love being a STEM major), but the real root causes that have plagued the Soviet Union for decades are explained as well. Know having studying Soviet history, I now understand how the themes of efficiency above all and the need to keep up an image of powerful were so important to the Soviet Union, but also what led to their eventual demise. This show is really able to explain this idea and I applaud it for that.

The final two episodes of the Chernobyl HBO series pointedly addressed ideas of humanity and truth, culminating into an impactful conclusion for the series. Episode 4 carried with it the theme of humanity, highlighting this concept in the subplot of the men tasked with putting down the irradiated stray animals of the exclusion zone. While the subplot was inconsequential to the story as a whole, it added a new dimension or realism through the lens of ordinary people. I was moved by the compassion the three characters had for one another’s shared struggle, which beautifully encapsulated the essence of humanity and the shared struggles we all face.

Alternatively, Episode 5 commented on truth and its need for absolute objectivity. This episode is the ultimate climax of the show, where truth and courage clash with lies and self-preservation.  The show takes this opportunity to express the overarching importance of truth and its dissemination, even against the most daunting of odds. Seeing this idea come to fruition was inspiring, and it further embroiled within me a passion for objectivity and truth.

Overall, Chernobyl elegantly told the story of one of modern history’s greatest tragedies, connecting me to the event in a way that allowed me to fully grasp its severity and impact.

I really enjoyed this last viewing session of the Chernobyl series even if it was on a Friday night again… A good portion of part 4 was offscreen getting rid of the animals in the exclusion zone which was really sad. It also brought back into mind the Our Planet section about how ultimately it was animals that still managed to survive and live there. Having that in the back of my mind and then watching part 4 was a little upsetting.

Part 5 was a super riveting finale though! I liked how the will-he-won’t-he-spill-out-the-truth got stretched out and then ultimately paid off. I thought it was really cool how they spliced the explanation in the courtroom with the reenactment of what was happening real-time. I also spent a lot of time super disliking all the higher officials who were all just, “science doesn’t matter” and “I did no wrong” etc etc. I think it was interesting that they chose to end the acted-portion of the episode at the end of the trial and spend the final minutes using real footage as an epilogue of sorts.

Overall the series (I caught 3/5 of the episodes) was scary at parts, consistently sad, and very enjoyable.

I definitely liked these episodes. They really stood out to me as one of the peaks of the situation with Chernobyl, with Russia saying “look this power core isn’t a big deal, it’s only 2K roentgen (what one officer referred to a sthe propaganda number)” when in actuality the radiation was way above that.

However, one thing that really stood out to me was when the animal control people were trying to kill all of the radioactive animals, and the new person didn’t want to kill any pets at first because he thought it was wrong, but eventually got used to doing it so much that he eventually numbed himself to it. Numbing oneself to such grueling and emotioning taxing challenges in that way is quite astonishing. I would not be able to get a hold of myself after killing an animal, much less a pet that someone used to own and love.

In the last episode of Chernobyl, Valery made the shocking decision to tell the court what really happened in the nuclear reactor, even though it would ruin his reputation and leave him having no friends or family left. Later on, once he realized that what he did in the court would ultimately be censored by the Soviet Union, he killed himself, hoping that his death would maybe bring to light the flaws in the Soviet Union’s nuclear reactors. I was stunned by the decision that Valery made. It would be extremely difficult to make the decisions he made for most people, never mind that it could have likely been in vain. It reminds me of a talk I had with my father awhile ago. My father, being an honest person, would never cheat on anything, no matter how minor the assignment was back when he was a student. I did not believe him and asked whether he cheated on assignments that anyone could get away with, such as homework. He replied no, saying that it would cost him by doing so. Valery understood this concept. He could have easily lied in court and gotten the highest Soviet Union awards and been remembered in history as a hero. Instead, he told the truth and ultimately costed him his life. Why? He knew that if he did lie in court, the cost of it would be much more severe, sooner or later.

I was really happy to see that for this week’s Friday’s Film, the last two episodes of Chernobyl were going to play. Having seen episodes 2 and 3, I was really looking forward to finishing the miniseries. Although episodes 4 and 5 were less action filled compared to the previous episodes, I think the last two episodes really highlighted important themes of this tragic event. For example, when Legasov admitted to lying in his first testimony in Vienna when detained by the KBG, he is informed that all of his efforts in helping with the aftermath of Chernobyl will not be acknowledge by the state, no longer allowed to speak about Chernobyl, and be nameless. This conversation really reflects the whole Soviet Union’s attitude towards this tragic event: to downplay the severity event to prevent the world from thinking the country is weak. Another point in our group conversation that I found interesting was the relationship of mixing politics (subjective topic) and science (objective topic). In fact, seeing how the scientists were constantly struggling to report the whole truth on the state of the disaster or to sugar-coat the truth to please politicians as well as Legasov’s words at the end of episode 5 brought attention this straining relationship.