Chapter 37-2- Balance of Power

[Hoff4D]

Alright, I was on vacation and had to sift through all this to try and coherently formulate some thoughts.....here we go, pardon the length please:

Watch out now....Victor and Pegs characters are taking the turn into gaining depth. That means these loveable characters are going to gain a nastier edge we may not like as listeners. Especially Victor.

I thought the same thing when I listened "Oh hey...Pegs and Victor are about to get interesting". Now that I think about the tape finding, and the revenge towards Pegs, I feel like we're being built up to push us away from pegs as she pulls a martyr move in the Scratch storyline. Pegs will grow thicker skin, and do more 'greater good' moves, but so cold that we like her for what she does, but hate her attitude. Thus we are hurt when she falls on scratches blade, but can understand her motives. I could be way off, but it just felt that way to me.

I went back to listen to when Michael finally finds pegs/kelly to see if she seemed distant there as well, because this scene in 37-2 seemed so out of the blue, I didnt recall any cold shoulder from her when he found her/kelly at Irwin. Looking back through Ch 36, pegs seemed infatuated once again at first "oh my gosh, you're good.....you're good". I heard that as "oh michael I've missed you so much! but.....oh yea....i committed to moving on...so yea, you're good". We have some banter from Michael stating how many times he looked for her in the incoming people, and she sounds heartwarmed about it saying "Really??". Fast forward a few minutes and you hear pegs say "at least I'm not flying"...but once we get on the helicopter, as soon as Michael says "hey pegs!", she walked up to the controls to give a hand flying, and didnt even acknowledge Michael addressing her. She admits she didnt want to fly, but as soon as Michael wants to talk, she bails. Unless I'm hearing it wrong and Michael was calling out FOR her to co-pilot, this is a great testament to Kc's writing.

I think these are the emotions one would honestly go thru. She HAD feelings for him, and was excited to see him alive, but immediately remembered that it's just not right for them to continue on like nothing changed. Just a tip of the hat

I am having a hard time imagining what kind of objections the colonists could have against Michael. I mean, how are they going to phrase it? "You should have let us kill you, instead you fought your way out to survive!!! You're a HORRIBLE PERSON!!1!11".....

I'm wondering why all we are hearing is Victors warning of the Colonists, yet no actual grumblings from colonists. I see several people think Victor is setting up his own leadership, but I doubt that. I THINK it just might be for the sake of time and to not give more characterization that we just hear the colonists complaints through Victor. Although, it wouldn't hurt to give John Smith and Jane Doe a couple "What about how he screwed us!" "Yea, he's the reason we're in this mess!" lines....but that just might be held off for when Michael calls some sort of town-hall meeting in 37-3 or later. I think we're all just running too far with the Victor divide against 'michaels men'. Unless Saul bails on Michaels comman, I don't think Victor will.

You can see how the average Colonist that's been there the whole time could easily be convinced by someone (like Victor maybe) that Michael doesn't have their best interests at heart. Is it a powerplay by Victor to take a spot at the Colony? Sure he says that he wasn't well liked around there but we don't really know that....

To add to my above comments about Vic(ky), I think we have plenty to go on that he wasn't "well liked" in the colony. He was sitting alone at the bar amongst other relatively high ranking colonist men, his claims to kelly (albeit they were his own) about "i never really picked a side" in the colony when the overthrow was about to happen. He made the comment so quickly in the heat of the moment I find it hard to make that lie up since he fully intended to free Michael from that point, also the little safe house him and Fernando made? They set it up to play soccer, together, alone. All these points add up to a loner type. Not necessarily hated, just not in the favor of all. He says at the bar how he worked to just get a job outside the walls. He was neither here nor there with chain of command, he just wanted to live and others to live.....no leadership aspiration (in my eyes), so I think this too adds that he doesn't have political motives along with not being in the good graces of the people of the colony

As long as I am defending Michael, I am not sure if he was actually using the chloroform. Since Saul was so clueless, my guess is Michael may have been doing it in his first tour when he was hard charging. They may have been using it in abductions and interrogations.

If you listen to Michael's first response to Saul, he almost sounds proud of his 'old days'. the way he said "Two guys I shared a tend with" he sounds like he's bragging of how much they used to party. But when saul gets apprehensive like "They were getting HIGH?!", Michael begins to back down and plays the 'it was fun to make" and "It's a good thing I did those things!" role. I honestly think Michael was just partying, not interrogating.


Alright, away from the replies I wanted to give, I also wanted to note that we addressed the safe house theory. Saul brings up to CJ before the surgery all her safe houses and her preparedness. I think this lends itself to the spread out to attack theory...then once CJ comes too we will start using her setup to gain intel/attack Ink et al. Will it be because the Colony has a falling out with Michael and we need to split up? Who knows, but it's possible given the foreshadowing. Perhaps it's CJ's idea once she can think things through again and the colony falls in line behind her. She recognizes Michael's usefulness and agrees to let him head up a certain faction. She plays the 'michael is stupid' role to the colony, but behind the scenes works in perfect synchronicity with him. This is contrary to my above comments on Pegs, but if she's not the martyr type, maybe the CJ chemistry makes her jealous enough to start seeking out Michael again?

About the video of Angel's death, SOMEONE has to make an effort to tell Riley, because it's still just a tape. If we DONT want her to see it, destroy the tape, there is NO reason to keep it around otherwise. If we want her to see it, we show her. Although it's possible a month after the tape is destroyed someone slips and mentions the death, but still....that potential BOMB of a tape sitting around is just plain NOT a good idea, there is absolutely no good outcome to keeping it in tact.

To add to this, I think we find more things searching through mallers stuff. Perhaps the mallers had an offensive plan for attacking the zeds? Perhaps it wasn't the worst plan and we adopt it? Or we need Tardusts bomb specialties and seek him out to help us attack the zeds? Our hands, his brains....all for a trade of peace? Being that only a few mallers are left they'd have to agree. Of course, this would give scratch a perfect opportunity to get close to pegs and kill her.


........This would also set us up (within the given narrative of storytelling) for a perfect scene of someone witnessing Scratch go mentally insane when she comes face to face with Ink only to realize he's the guy who raped her, and she saves humanity in a fit of rage