Chapter Forty-Four

For anyone who had any doubt, the Goddess is the one waking Michael up in time to escape.  Hopefully most of us have never had the experience of trying to escape a locked building before it blows up, but despite what action movies like to show, the average person will have trouble with even simply motor skills under great stress.  Military and police recruits practice their skills over and over again so that they become ingrained, below the level of conscious control.

I relied on a number of articles and a Mythbusters experiment to determine the minimum safe distance from an explosion.  Michael escapes significantly less scathed than one could expect in real life but he’s a hero in a story, so he gets some slack.  Joe, being unconscious, would likely sustain few injuries since he would be flat to the ground and unresisting.

The escape and pursuit scene is Joe’s own awakening.  From here, he’s never going to be able to comfortably retreat to denial again.  He’s been hitting the snooze button to avoid having to realize what kind of world he actually lives in, but now he can’t go back to sleep.

When Dalhard brings everyone to the airport, he thinks he’s won and no one is in pursuit.  Dani is struggling with her despair and then Bernie drops the conversational bomb about Gwen.  When I originally wrote this, I had Vincent tell Dalhard about his sister but it bothered me why he would wait so long.  Then I realized Bernie was the perfect character for this revelation, because her mixture of childish optimism and complete faith made it even more horrible.  Like a five year old telling the secret police about the hiding place under the kitchen floor and the people who live there.  And for the record, if I could speak to the dead, finding out what is going on/was going on in Area 51 would be my first question.

I’m a fan of superhero ensemble movies and when they’re done right, everyone plays their part in the finale.  Nada may not have been the most powerful lalassu, she couldn’t singlehandedly toss Dalhard and Karan out of the plane or hypnotize them into letting everyone go.  She could release a single EMP and destroy the electronics, but she knew she’d only have one chance to do so.  She waited and chose the perfect moment, having been told by Chuck via Bernie that Michael is alive and on his way.

Karan kills Nada because he realizes she is too dangerous to transport or keep.  She could conceivably continue to destroy any electrical field in range.  He doesn’t hesitate, taking the action he deems is necessary.