Pantheon Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Zero Daze
Please note this review contains spoilers for Pantheon Season 1 Episode 5, “Zero Daze.”
Major truths are revealed on Pantheon Season 1 Episode 5, “Zero Daze.” After a lackluster outing on Pantheon Season 1 Episode 4, “The Gods Will Not be Chained,” Pantheon is back in top form, delivering its best episode of the season so far.
As is the case with the preceding two episodes, Pantheon Season 1 Episode 3, “Reign of Winter,” and “The Gods Will Not be Chained,” “Zero Days” starts with an update on Chanda.
We see that Chanda is still reaping his revenge. After taking out his boss and his boss’s family, Chanda has set his sights on taking down Alliance completely.
Since we don’t see any of the plotting that happens behind the scenes, it’s hard to say whether this is all still personal revenge or if he is also motivated by the greater good. Whatever it is, I would imagine part of his drive is having some kind of purpose.
David has his family and Lori, her husband. Chanda’s only connection seems to be his mom, who doesn’t know what happened to him. That is a lonely and dehumanizing existence.
It’s something Chanda expresses during the heartwrenching scene where he calls his mother.
It’s an emotionally devastating scene, and a reminder of everything Alliance casually and callously took from him. It doesn’t justify Chanda killing his boss’s family, who seemed innocent in all this, but it certainly makes his rage understandable.
Plus, he will be left with his thoughts and the inevitable existential crisis of figuring out what he is now without a task to focus on.
Given what it means for him to stop or have nothing to focus on it makes sense that he would hold on to his rage and revenge even when there is no one left to inflict it on.
The other exciting development concerning Chanda is that he is finally on the radar of the other characters. He is slowly making his way into the larger fold with Lori, David, Ellen, Maddie, and — soon — Caspian.
As interesting as everything with Chanda is, there is no denying that the big moment of the episode is Caspain learning — with viewers — who he is.
Caspian is a clone of the Logorhythms founder Stephen Holstrom, who died before he could perfect uploaded intelligence.
Following Holstrom’s plan, Logorhythms cloned their founder. They then gave him a childhood as close to the original Holstrom’s as possible in an effort to align nature and nurture and reproduce Holstrom’s genius precisely as it was.
Of course, things aren’t that simple. While Caspian might be Stephen Holstrom, as Carey says, he is also something else. He is his unique person, and now that he knows the truth, all bets are off.
I actually predicted this twist early on, but that didn’t make the actual reveal any less effective. It is still one of those omg moments that keeps you riveted. It’s also a moment that feels like a game changer.
I have no idea where Caspian’s story goes from here or how it will impact the other characters, who also now know the truth. I guessed the big twist, but I have no theories about the fallout from that twist. That is what makes it so thrilling.
“Zero Daze” delivers on all the promises of “The Gods will Not Be Chained” and more than makes up for anything lacking on that episode.
Everything comes together. The emotional beats, the twists, the intrigue, and the cat and mouse infiltration of Logorhythms’s labs all work superbly. If what we get on “Zero Daze” is even a taste of what’s to come, buckle up because it will be quite the ride.
Stray Thoughts
- Can we acknowledge how creepy it is that Renee, Stephen Holstrom’s former lover, played Caspian’s mother for 18 years? If she didn’t seem deranged before, she does after that reveal.
- I’m curious how much Stephen Holstrom knew about the less savory aspects of how his company went about developing uploaded intelligence.
- I’d like to see more of Chanda’s existence in the cloud outside of when he is taking revenge.
- Similarly, what is the status of the other Alliance victim that helped him escape?
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Sarah Fields
Sarah is an obsessive geek who likes to get into the weeds and over think things. She is passionate about Sci-Fi and comics and is a giant classic film nerd. Sarah cares deeply about media representation and the power of telling diverse stories. When she's not writing or watching her favorite shows she spends her days working in the non-profit world trying to make life a little better for those that need some extra help.