series Yakamoz S-245 rewatch, blm 6: Survival Brings Out…
…the best in us, as we see with the courage and determination displayed by Yonca when she disobeys Umut’s orders and descends the elevator cables to join the fight down in the mine. Well before that, however, at the very start of this episode, we see the scientists all waiting anxiously for the “boat surfaced” call, as we watch what almost looks like an ’emergency blow’ up on the surface, and I recall Arman warning Umut that they needed to be careful about his patch welds to the outside where the hand grenade punched a hold in the outter hull, but this is extraorindary circumstances, as we know that Cem is dead, but all of the scientists, his close family-like friends, rush out to search for him, finding his body on the grève/rocky beach (why do we not have such a word in English?). Of course. They had to know that this was the case, and yet they all seem to be shocked, all over again, upon seeing his definitively dead body there. Despite knowing that he had decided, refused, not to live under the only apparent circumstances available. A celebration of life, accompanied by a song, Sao Roma, celebrating life, as he chose to live his life on his on terms, even if that meant a very short life. He stood to meet the rising sun on his own terms.
Now, we set course for the NATO bunker in Bulgaria, over the objections of Defne, who wants to follow the message to northern Spain, which is on the way to the famous Seed Vault, also known as The DoomsDay Bunker, because of the radio message we heard last episode, inviting guests to come make a new home there. I have to say that I’d agree with Umut on this one, I’d definitely go to the NATO Bunker rather than a dubious Spanish location promissing food and a new home… Umut and Yonca, responsible for the lives of everyone aboard the Yakamoz, do not know who to trust, given the notebook they found in her father’s cabin, as the Captain was apparently under orders not to share the information that led them to rendevous with the OYA, nor their planned destinaion after that, so they are in the dark, because Defne is also not sharing any information with anyone, either, for some odd reason. Secrets, folks, as I always like to say, are never a good thing. But I love the reference to Piri Reis, the famous Ottoman admiral and map maker during the reign of sultan Süleyman, who also was the patron of the famous architect Mimar Sinan, in this episode. Interestingly, while Arman is taking Cem’s last words of advice to him seriously, and presenting a birthday cake to Defne, Umut sets off the aft torpedo tube alarms, and tells everyone that it’s just to have a bit of action, and then informs everyone that there is no more food at the NATO bunker in Bulgaria, and so, they are going to go up to Svalbard, and grab the seeds from the international Seed Vault, to feed themselves. Hmmm… So, after discussion and argument by the scientists that Gijon, home of this magnanimous invitation, is on the way to Norway, Umut agrees to stop off along the way to stealing the world’s seed bank for themselves, but warns that if anything goes wrong, Arman will answer for it, just before he threatens the poor chief NCO not to tell anyone anything about something, which must apparently have had to do with the torpedo tube incident earlier. They arrive to find the port city of Gijon lit up like a christmas tree, which is never a good sign in a world where no more oil refineries can work during the day, which would seem to imply that not much more fuel for electricity production, will be forthcoming, so you’d think that folks would be trying to save, rather than wasting, electricity, even if they can only be out and about at night time now. Hmmm… Part of the crew goes to investigate the people behind the mysterious welcome message. Meanwhile, back on board the Yakamoz, the lady intel lt has to fight off the idiot misogynist chief NCO who foolishly thinks that he can do whatever he wants to her while no one is there to protect her. Thank you, Hatice, for reminding us that women and girls need to know self-defense in every way, at almost all times.
We also, of course, see how hunger can bring out the worst in us, as we see with the Spanish miners, who argue that they had no other choice but to lure innocent people as food, in a (Galician??) mid-Atlantic version of the mountain boys from Deliverance, where the starving miners are cannibalizing all comers imprudent enough to follow the invitation for that “nuevo hogar” and thus become the new food supply for these men. This is one of the most tragic and difficult to watch episodes in the series, at least for me, as we see the new lows to which many of us can and do descend, as with men at sea shooting and eating their own shipmates, when nothing else is left (although you’d think that at sea one could always catch fish…), with the many cases of cannabalism well and sadly documented over history. With the loss at the end of the episode of one of our scientists, we also lose key information on what actually brought the Yakamoz S-245 together with the mini-sub OYA, now that both the captain and Defne, the only two people, apparently, who knew what was going on, both dead.
And, real food, Project Do Better once agrees, is important, as are the various forms of self-defense practice, and even sometimes knowing history as a tool for breaking the ocassional password, when absolutely necessary, for everyone.
D. AntoNia Jones, for The Project Do Better by ShiraDest Publications Fund for Bright Beg. in DC, via the GWCF…
#cooperation #languagelearning #tools #Turkish #Yakamoz