This Monday, "Counterpart" (Counterpart) was officially broadcast, but the first episode (the pilot episode) was released more than a month ago, and I also wrote a special drama review ( New Drama Review! "Comparative" Cosmos S1E1: A Zero-Sum Game of Lies ).
Afterwards, I found that although I had written it in great detail, I still made some omissions and even made some mistakes... Therefore, this article is still the comment of the first episode. Filling gaps after insights.
As a sci-fi spy war drama, "Relative Universe" is definitely worth looking forward to. After all, there are already so many materials in the first episode. What will be exciting after that?
The background after the partition of Germany
Many people have discovered this. No matter which side of the world in the play, the background environment and passers-by speak German .
From the detective hunting down Baldwin to the little nurse at the hospital, only the main characters speak English, and that's probably to accommodate audience habits.
The two worlds in the play have been divided and developed independently since the "Cold War period 30 years ago", and they are in the same city, which is easy to think of the history of Germany being "divided into two" during the Cold War. The story The main stage should be Berlin, Germany, which is governed by East and West.
Now that you have opened your mind, it is possible to play even bigger - the pub where Howard went to drink in the B world has the words Moskau and Mockba on it, plus a heavy "Iron Curtain" style, maybe the Soviet Union A victorious country in the Cold War.
——To exaggerate, looking at the ubiquitous German language, the object of the Soviet Union’s Cold War was not necessarily the United States, but Germany…
Not so big a technology gap
In the last article, I said that the technological level of world B is much higher than that of world A. Some people have raised different opinions. I carefully returned the pot and found that I was really confused by the "illusion" of the office environment of the headquarters of world A.
In fact, the office area of the building is the only place that shows the technological backwardness of World A. To give a simple example, the computers in the building are all outdated models, and even the boss in front of Quill is a CRT monitor, not to mention the system ...
And look at the computers used in the hospital's nurse station, from the LCD monitor to the operating system, it is obviously much more advanced and convenient than the ones in the building.
Think of Howard's personal belongings (including smartphones) must be turned in before he goes to work, and the Audi car (16 Audi Q7?) that Quill drives... The technological level of the A world is at least not lower than that of today's world .
There are two conjectures here: one is that World A's headquarters deliberately concealed it. Since there is less communication between the two worlds, most of them are only concentrated on both sides of the "door" under the building, so this arrangement can avoid revealing to World B's own technology level , and some other unwilling to disclose information;
But this kind of thing is hard to hide, so another scenario is more likely, that is, the tools in the building can not be changed without changing - in addition to embodying "bureaucracy", it is necessary to consider that the building is a place that connects two worlds , in order to ensure the stability of the "channel", any unnecessary environmental changes should be avoided as much as possible.
Besides, there are still many old houses in use in Germany and even Europe... After the building of World A, although the surrounding buildings are all buildings with architectural styles of the last century, it is not difficult to see from night view that there is still a new era in the distance. of lights.
In contrast, the environment after walking out of the B world building is indeed more modern, but the tower in the distance is exactly the same as the A world .
From the context to the plot, there is also a very clever metaphor here: even if the "Cold War" in history has ended, the relationship between the two worlds A and B is still a Cold War situation, and the two sides cannot avoid the Cold War mentality. Now, this This "balance" is about to be broken.
Two winners from different positions
This should be the biggest mistake I made in the previous article - I said that Howard of World A (hereinafter referred to as "Howard") and his wife Emily spent nearly 30 years of marriage, and Howard of World B (hereinafter referred to as "Howard") B") was eloping with Emily - so far, that's a big deviation.
Out of the habit of watching the show and habitual thinking, I thought the relationship between Howard and Emily was too simplistic. The fact should be that Huo A eloped with each other and got married, while Huo B was not with each other at all (or divorced for many years) ).
Apart from Huo B's obvious lie , there are many details to prove this, such as the "holding hands" of the two .
Huo A and Emily have been together for nearly 30 years. They can be described as an old husband and wife . The two have a very good relationship. Their unsatisfactory career will not affect Huo A's insistence on visiting his wife in the hospital every day. After the crisis is over, the first thing he does is The thing is to accompany the wife immediately .
On the other hand, Huo B and Emily in his world are obviously colleagues, but they have to play dumb when they talk (--what are you doing--you don't know for the better), Huo B just finished playing the role Huo A was a little emotional when he came back, but Emily avoided him when he wanted to touch his hand.
So, the truth is that Howard in both worlds loves Emily in his heart, but Huo A, a good-natured man, is emotionally tough and spends his life with his lover, while Huo B retreats due to other factors. Yes, he made great strides in his work and became a powerful figure.
Because of this, Huo B, who had always disliked Huo A's poor mix, became uncharacteristically when he heard Huo A asking about the details of his relationship, showing a caring side (of course he also lied).
One chose life and the other chose career. From this point of view, both Howards are actually "winners".
Now both of them have a chance to "do it all over again", which means that with the addition of "emotional drama", the spy battle scene of "Relative Universe" will have higher achievements.
"Leaked details" uphold the original judgment
In the previous article, I have focused on the analysis of the reasons for the failure of the hospital ambush. Huo A's omission of the details of inserting a flower was intentional, but some readers still put forward the opposite opinion.
Maybe Huo A really cares about it, and accidentally forgets it... Of course, this possibility cannot be ruled out.
As for several other doubts, such as how the killer Baldwin knew the details of the flower arrangement, Huo B has already introduced that the other party will lurking to study the target's habit first, so it is not surprising to find an abnormality.
The most crucial question is: if Baldwin fails to assassinate and escape, it means that Emily, who represents World A, is still in danger of being assassinated, which is an unacceptable threat to Huo A, which is unreasonable .
But think about it again, since Baldwin already knew that Huo B was involved in World A, then she should understand that the hope of successful assassination was not high. To take a step back, even if Huo B was not there, the World Headquarters of A knew that Huo B was not alarmist. The garrison will be strengthened, and Emily is still safe.
The point is that Huo A can take this opportunity to get the position and authority he wants, and the safety of his wife's safety is in his own hands.
So I still prefer Huo A to deliberately cause the ambush to fail.
You give me wine, I give you tie
As a spy drama with sci-fi elements, it is almost certain that things will not be as simple as Huo B said. People in the A world think so too. Considering the different characters of the two Howards, the story will be very interesting.
Huo B "traveled" over to meet Huo A by name, nominally to borrow the identity of the other party, but I think the more important purpose is to establish a connection with the other self.
For the superiors, to judge whether a person or a thing is a threat, it is often not whether they want to or not, but whether they can.
Therefore, in addition to guarding against Huo B, although Quill always habitually ignores Huo A, Aldridge, who looks more mature and prudent (should have higher authority than Quill) , is always on guard Huo A.
When the shooting in the hospital, Huo A wanted to rush into the hospital with Quill, but Aldridge's first reaction was to torture Huo A first. It can't be said that this is for his safety, right?
Whether the two Howards are willing or not, they really have the innate conditions for "close cooperation". And, they already have such signs...
Huo B found his favorite tie at Huo A's house, and Huo A, who has "different taste", has not worn it for many years.
So Huo A was so happy that he made a generous favor and gave the tie to Huo B, who also successfully brought it back to the world of B - just like Huo A drinking the wine from Huo B afterwards.
According to common sense, killing people across borders will affect people in another world. Baldwin from world B came to kill Emily from world A. The goal was actually Emily, who was inaccessible in world B.
The normal communication between the two worlds can only be done through the passage door under the building. If you want to go to the other side, you need to get a visa. Either Baldwin is well prepared enough to cross the sea, or she has other "smuggling" methods to cross the border.
In fact, the conditions for obtaining a "traversing visa" are very harsh, not to mention that not many people know that there are two worlds, even the high-weight Huo B, every time he comes to World A, he is strangled to death... …
Looking at the current objective reality, from (suspected) 1 hour to 12 hours to the next 24 hours or even longer, Huo B's stay in World A is getting longer and longer.
Whether Huo B intentionally or unintentionally, if he wants to find a perfect substitute for himself, there are a lot of opportunities right now.
I still say the same thing. The two Howards are not only the same physically, but also psychologically. Huo A has been honest for 30 years, which does not mean that he will not show his fangs if given another chance. In the plot, there is a high probability that the two people will reverse the plot. A simple "good guy" can't get out of the invisible war.
It's still too far to say this, but the "complex relationship" between Howard and Howard is already obvious. The plot I'm most looking forward to is probably the two joining forces to dominate the arena . In other words, like a normal Go game, only one person can have the last laugh .
That's all for the first episode. "Relative Universe" is the first American drama that I followed up and wrote about in 2018. We will talk about it after the S1E2 update next week. Welcome to pay attention to my official account "You Love Comment Area"~
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