Sci Fi Section: Red Rising Chapters 1-6

Summary

Empty Netters Podcast: Sci Fi Section – Red Rising Chapters 1–6

Host: Almost Friday Media
Episode Date: August 5, 2026
Episode Focus: Detailed recap and analysis of Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Chapters 1–6 (Part One: "Slave")

---

Episode Overview

In this debut "Sci Fi Section" of Empty Netters, brothers Chris and Dan Powers take a deep, passionate dive into Red Rising, examining the emotional weight and narrative brilliance of the first six chapters. They bring their trademark mix of irreverent humor and earnest geekery, breaking down Pierce Brown’s setup of a dystopian Martian society while highlighting echoes of other beloved sci-fi/fantasy franchises. Spoilers abound, so beware if you're new to the series.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Red Rising’s Opening: Impact of the Prologue & Tone Setting

• [01:24] B: Reads the prologue: "I would have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war."
• The prologue is praised for its brevity and power, instantly establishing the world’s harsh hierarchy and the ideological hatred between "Golds" (rulers) and "Reds" (oppressed laborers).
• The hosts compare this to other great fantasy prologues (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, The Magicians), noting how it efficiently sets reader allegiances: "Right away, I, the reader, hate Gold. Correct from page one." (B, [04:40])
• The line "I am no Gold. I am a Red. And I'm going to destroy all of you..." is highlighted as deeply effective in rooting reader empathy.

2. Introducing Darrow: A Relatable, Rootable Protagonist

• [07:01] B/A: The chapter opens: “To be a Helldiver… my hands flicker faster.”
• Hosts delve into Darrow’s character construction—his youth, unique skills, and loyalty to family.
• Notable Quote: “The first thing you should know about me is I am my father’s son.” (A, [07:17]) – sets up ongoing themes of legacy and inherited trauma.
• Darrow’s father's hanging is discussed in depth, including the brutal societal custom on Mars where loved ones must pull the feet due to weak gravity: "On Mars, there is not much gravity, so you have to pull the feet to break the neck... They let the loved ones do it." (B, [10:07])

3. World-Building: Societal Layers & Martian Hardships

• Quick immersion into the mining community of Lykos and its desperate, close-knit families.
• Introduction to distinct social castes via color-coded hierarchy: Golds, Greys, Obsidians, Reds.
• Daily life and dangers in the mines (pit vipers, the elusive laurel reward), as well as invented lingo (burners for cigarettes, slurs such as "ruster" and "tinpot").
• Relatable blue-collar camaraderie and ribbing echoing real-world mining/construction environments.

4. Themes of Rebellion & Oppression: Laurel and the Carrot

• Laurel system explained: meaningless meritocracy that never rewards the deserving.
• [20:46] A: "EO believes they never have a chance. Gamma wins as far as anyone can remember."
• The hosts repeatedly emphasize EO’s role as the voice of unrest, always seeing through the society’s manipulations, while Darrow is more focused on material survival for his loved ones.

5. Character Relationships & Community Dynamics

• Darrow’s relationships with Uncle Nerl (Nero), mother, cousin, and especially EO are intimately explored.
• [21:19] B / 22:23 A: The complexity of Nerl—seen as a drunk at first, but his protective instincts and emotional wisdom are revealed.
• EO and Darrow's marriage at 16 shows both the ancient/traditional and dystopian-futuristic aspects of the society.

6. First Glimpses of Power: Golds, Grays, and Social Stratification

• Introduction of Octavia au Lune—the Sovereign (Gold leader)—on a screen, and the symbolism of her golden sigils and scars.
• The arrival of Ugly Dan (a Grey captain) and Magistrate Timothy Koo Poginess (Copper) reinforce the systemic brutality and bureaucracy.

7. Tradition, Rebellion, and Tragedy: The Dance and the Song

• Dancing and singing seen as both personal expression and political resistance.
• The community’s need for joy amid grinding oppression, as well as the consequences for perceived insubordination—exemplified by Darrow’s father's execution and the swinging skeleton left as a warning.
• The forbidden Reaping Song as a motif of hope and defiance.

8. Pivotal Plot Beats (Chapters 3–6): Descent into Despair and Call to Action

• The Laurel ceremony: Lambda, despite mining more Helium-3, is cheated out of victory in favor of Gamma—everyone but Darrow sees it coming.
  • [48:35] B: "Gamma gets the laurel. Period. It just. It's so good from..." [The text’s abruptness reflects the futility and heartbreak.]
• Darrow’s mother: “Rather a drink be my master than a man. These chains taste sweet.” (A, [49:06])
• EO’s radicalism: She leads Darrow to a secret, forbidden garden (lush, terraformed bubble) as both a gift and a lesson; their passionate scene is both romantic and a narrative linchpin.
• Darrow and EO are caught, brutally flogged; EO declares herself a martyr by singing the Reaping Song during her punishment—a death sentence.

9. Loss, Grief, and the Martyr’s Sacrifice

• EO’s execution by hanging—Darrow must "pull the feet" himself, paralleling his own father's death.
• The hosts are deeply moved by the writing:
  • "She is fire in the face of cold power... The girl who chooses to die for a song of death." (A, [71:05])
• Darrow’s grief, his decision to reclaim EO’s body and bury her in the garden, and his own execution by the end of chapter six.
• Overarching themes: Sacrifice, the cost of rebellion, legacy, and the foreshadowed “greater call.”

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Prologue’s hatred of Golds:
  “I am no Gold. I am a Red. And I'm going to destroy all of you.” (B, [04:40])
• Darrow on his father:
  “The first thing you should know about me is I am my father’s son.” (A, [07:17])
• Martian executions:
  “On Mars, there is not much gravity, so you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it.” (B, [10:07])
• Laurel injustice narrative payoff:
  “It just. It's so good from... Gamma gets the laurel. Period.” (B, [48:35])
• EO’s revolutionary wisdom:
  “Death isn't empty like you say it is. Emptiness is life without freedom, Darrow. Emptiness is living chained by fear. Fear of loss, fear of death. I say we break those chains.” (A, [50:00])
• Darrow’s heartbreak and love:
  “In her eyes, I see my heart. In her breath, I see my soul. She is my land. She is my kin, my love.” (B, [96:32])
• On IO’s execution:
  “Hang the rusty bitch, lest she continue to howl.” (B, [72:30]) – [the hosts' most reviled villain moment]
• On martyrdom:
  “EO believes only Darrow can bring revolution... but while I'm alive, you only care about me. So I have to be gone to free our people.” (B, [74:18])
• Darrow's final love:
  “I place the outer bulb of the Haemathis atop her heart and take the inner and put it near my own. Then I kiss her lips and bury her. But I sob before I can finish. I uncover her face and kiss her again and hold my body to hers till I see a red sun rising through the artificial bubble roof.” (A, [87:33])

---

Noteworthy Timestamps

• [01:03]: Spoilers warning and scope of the read-along
• [10:07]: Execution customs & worldbuilding insight
• [16:04]: Introduction of EO and her significance
• [21:19]: Dynamic with Uncle Nerl/Nero
• [35:41]: First introduction of the Golds, Octavia au Lune
• [48:35]: Laurel ceremony heartbreak; Lambda’s loss
• [50:00]: EO's revolutionary burst and philosophy
• [62:03]: Flogging and the importance of the song
• [67:23]: EO’s public defiance, martyrdom, and the explicit villainy of Nero au Augustus
• [78:32]: Darrow’s grief, burial of EO, and his own capitulation to fate

---

Running Awards ("Sci-Fi Section Honors")

Tyrion Lannister Scrolls – Most Impactful Words

• Darrow: For his ability to find hope and love amidst extreme cruelty and oppression ([88:58])

Dobby the House Elf Honor – Unsung Hero

• Uncle Nerl/Nero: For his behind-the-scenes protection, self-sacrifice, and compassionate stoicism ([91:11])

Way of the Bene Gesserit Honor – Devious/Untrustworthy Character

• Nero au Augustus: Embodiment of heartless Gold brutality; “Hang the rusty bitch, lest she continues to howl.” ([94:10])

Sword, Axe, & Bow Honor – Our Loyalty/Trust

• EO: For her sacrifice and vision, ensuring the plot’s forward motion and spiritual legacy ([96:32])

---

Tone & Style

• The hosts strike a balance between playful banter (“I'm starving already—hummingbird tongues!”) and earnest analysis.
• References to other fantasy works (Harry Potter, Dune, Hunger Games, Thrones) inform much of the analogies but retain focus on Red Rising’s unique voice.
• Emotional engagement is palpable; no shying away from grief, anger, or admiration for the characters.

---

Audience Value

• For new readers: The summary offers a clear breakdown of characters, worldbuilding, and major thematic arcs without assuming prior knowledge.
• For series fans: Deep cuts, foreshadowing, and inside jokes/insights.
• For podcast fans: All the hallmark brotherly ribbing, hockey allusions (minus, for this episode, any actual hockey), and immersive storytelling Empty Netters fans expect.

---

Final Words

“Break the chains.”
The legacy set in these first six chapters propels Darrow’s saga, with heartbreak and rebellion already rooting the heroes and villains. Next week, the hosts promise to continue their journey—and invite you to join.

---

Until next time, “break the chains.”

Transcript

[A]

Explorers, warriors, magi, intergalactic voyagers and helldivers, man your battle stations, draw your swords and prepare for destiny. This is Sci Fi section A journey where we will be taking you through the epic expeditions of our favorite fantasy and sci fi stories. The board is set. Pieces are moving. This adventure will be a deep dive, dive, dive, dive. Rigged for deep submergence into the world of Red Rising.

[B]

I am Chris Powers, a Lambda scab. No rust under my nails. Peeing in my fry suit by my side. A man who would pull my feet, but he might have a little bit too much fun doing it. Dan Powers.

[A]

One does not simply pull the feet of his own brother.

[B]

One's at the ready and it's a swish and flick onto that. Subscribe and like button a swish and flick. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. And those who don't subscribe to this channel will never find these videos. Please, please subscribe.

[A]

Today we will be taking you through chapters 1 through 6 of Red Rising Part 1. However, we have read this entire series, so there will be spoilers galore. If you wish to venture further, do so with the knowledge that you may hear things that you wish you hadn't. And now we begin

[B]

Prologue. I would have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war.

[A]

What a way to start.

[B]

What an opening line.

[A]

Oh my gosh, what a way to start.

[B]

Ah, Dan. The Art of the Fantasy Sci Fi Book Prologue. It's a dangerous game. Because it is often fun to go back and reread a prologue. I find that all the time when you're done and you've completely forgotten about what it said. But they're usually nonsense, right?

[A]

Correct.

[B]

In this one, it's brief, which I like, we have a gold man giving a speech that all men are not in fact created equal.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

The strong should not nurture the gentle. That is in fact what poisoned mankind. Gold is the end of the evolutionary line. Now, I love to pull things from a prologue. And we get students here. He says, you students. And we love an academy.

[A]

We love an academy. Let me tell you what. Any sort of test of will, putting people through mental and physical battles to see who will rise above. The rest is special.

[B]

Harry Potter Will of the many. Hunger Games.

[A]

Hunger Games. Absolutely.

[B]

Even the magicians. I loved the magicians. Send me to school. I hated school in real life. Send me to school in fantasy all day. No question. That's fantastic. We also hear Dan get a tremendous line. You scarless children deserve nothing. You do not know pain. You do not know what your forefathers sacrificed to place you on these heights. But soon you will.

[A]

I love this so much. And what I love about this prologue, we do so many different fantasy and sci fi books. And the beginning chapters are so important to indoctrinate you into the world. Do you understand what's going on here? Who are these people? Where are we? What are the mechanics, rules? We talk about settings, rules all of the time. This is just the prologue. And I feel that this book and this series do such a good job of early. We have no knowledge here. I don't know who any of these people are. I don't know what gold red means, but I get the vibe. I get the vibe. And that next line that we have flagged here, but I am no gold. I am a red. And I'm immediately like this. Yes, you are. We are bottom dwellers. We are bottom dwellers. Because when he says I am a red, I, I immediately say, as am I, Dan. Perfectly put, as am I.

[B]

And that is one of the beauty of this prologue. Okay, so listen to this. You have here a little bit. And all good prologues do this, but you have a little bit here of a Are you watching closely?

[A]

Situation. Oh, yes.

[B]

The prestige.

[A]

Oh, yes.

[B]

Who are unfamiliar here. Christopher Nolan shows you the hats at the beginning of the movie, asks you, are you watching closely? Are you watching closely here? Because it doesn't actually say, I'm undercover here. No, it just says I'm red. I could be watching this from the hillside. It doesn't matter. You'll find that out later. Again, spoilers galore. But it is a beautiful prologue because it is brief but powerful because sometimes they can be truly insane. Right? You have no idea what's going on. But right away, whoever this other I is, whoever our first person narrator is our nameless first person narrator, we see his true hatred of gold in this one page prologue. I am no gold. I am a Red. And I'm going to destroy all of you. It sets our expectations and our allegiances in this book. Just like you just said right away, I, the reader, hate gold. Correct from page one. Prologue. Right away, even before we get to chapter one, I know whose side I'm on.

[A]

We know immediately who our adversaries are and who we are siding with and the journey that we're about to go on. And this is just the prologue.

[B]

And what a journey it's about. To be my man.

[A]

It is.

[B]

Truly. So I'll say this to leave you with my thoughts on the prologue. I love. I'll flag this. I'll flag this all book. I'll flag this all series. I'll flag this every book we ever review on sci Fi section. I love when fantasy books do stuff like this. Quote Darrow's. Well, we don't even know who it is yet, but Darrow's talking about the things he. All these gold kids did that he didn't have.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

One of the lines is, I did not ride horses through meadows and eat meal of hummingbird tongues. Simple things like that immediately set the stage because when you jump into a fantasy book, you said, I have no idea what's going on. These people eat hummingbird tongues. And that is a. That is a delicacy. It's a delicacy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's like, amazing.

[A]

It's like escargot.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Foie gras.

[A]

I just. I love. So the series does such a good job of, as we'll see in these chapters, talking about things that we have here on earth today that you're like, oh, I could see how that could become a delicacy. And then also taking a stretch further of like, they eventually started eating hummingbird tongues.

[B]

I also thought, incredible. How is it? Is it a basket of a bucket of them? A bowl? Am I scooping them like M and ms? A hummingbird tongue.

[A]

I know I picture it like a fancy tin. Almost like sardines.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

But it's like. It's like a silk blanket that you pull off. And then they're just like the hummingbird tongues in a row on, like a bed of some beautiful flower.

[B]

Do you fork them like it's chopsticks, baby, you're right.

[A]

Or on the rim, they're chopsticking a teeny metal toothpick. Oh, toothpick.

[B]

Hummingbird tongue. Meals, though, is an interesting choice. I feel like you have to eat a lot of hummingbird tongues. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm starving already.

[A]

Me too.

[B]

It's gonna be unbelievable.

[A]

And this will take us into the beginning of the story. Part one, Slave. Chapter one, Helldiver. To be a helldiver, they say, your fingers must flicker fast as tongues of fire mine. Flicker faster. Electric.

[B]

Electric. Dude.

[A]

We meet Darrow. We meet Darrow in the mines. And he's the youngest helldiver anyone can remember. And you flagged something really cool here. We get that awesome prologue of setting us up, who we are. But there's this great quote in the beginning that says, the first thing you should know about me is I am my father's son. And us having Read the book. Looking back on this line being in the very beginning, this is a character we never meet. We only hear about. And hearing this line as we go through this book. It is so insanely powerful how true that is.

[B]

It's incredible. Dan. There's a line in Harry Potter Sorcerer's stone on the second page of the first book that says, When Mr. And Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull gray Tuesday, our story starts. Our story. It is really the only time in the entire series that JK breaks the fourth wall, if you will.

[A]

And of Harry's inner monologue.

[B]

Yes. And invites the reader into this little secret. Something very cool happened. Come on this ride with me as I tell you our story. When I think about Red Rising, everybody says that opening line that we read in the prologue.

[A]

Correct?

[B]

I would have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war. But man, the first line of this chapter is just as cool. The first thing you should know about me. And it's cool for two reasons. One, the father. Right.

[A]

Like you said.

[B]

And two, it's the first time your readers have an instant connection with this nameless character. Because you go, first thing you should know about me. And I go, amazing. I'm in.

[A]

Tell me, C.P. i need people to understand here that sci fi section for this series alone is about to last an entire year. Because we were going to do this every week until we get. There are six books here, folks, with the seventh coming out. So when I think about the whole series that we have immersed ourselves in, I always go back to part one of this book. Because this, this chapter, specifically the next two, is who Darrow is and remains throughout the series. So it's unbelievable. Here we learn that his father was tried and executed by the goals we heard about the Golds. Those are our enemy. And they killed Darrow's father right off the bat. It's like, holy shit. And there's a hierarchy here in the galaxy. We're on Mars. Golds are all the way at the top. And they go down through colors, all the way down to reds. Who we are here with. This is our clan. This is the Lambda Clan on Mars that Darrow is a part of. And he's working in these mines with his uncle Nero and his cousin and his brother. And you just immediately get this sense of community, this small group, this clan that they have. It's unbelievable.

[B]

It's incredible. And it is so relatable to. We grew up in a small town. It's so relatable to anybody who knows your neighbor and runs around with the neighborhood kids, knows everyone's parents. That type of vibe is what they're creating here. A couple amazing things from that, Dan. That section early when Darrow's dad was hanged, Darrow didn't cry, which surprises him. And this.

[A]

But that's a key part that he says it surprised him. It's not a. I'm gonna touch on this towards the end. But it's such a typical thing that we see. And I don't mean typical in a bad way. With our hero's journey in stories like this, where the hero is ice cold, he's stone. He has no emotions. This.

[B]

That.

[A]

I love that Darrow says here it surprised him. He's like that. I. He does have emotions. That is something that would move him. So that was huge.

[B]

Yes. And this line I just. On his dad being hanged. I just watched and thought it a shame that he died dancing, but without his dancing shoes on. I immediately thought of Jojo Rabbit. That shot of Scarjo when she bring that up, because it's just such a beautiful shot. But the.

[A]

No, I'm saying, like, yes. Just kills me.

[B]

The hanging. He died dancing. We all can picture that without his dancing shoes on. And in this very section, we will come to know how much dancing matters. To the reds.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What a beautiful line. And then this line, which is cool for two reasons, a number of reasons, is just an absolute hammer to me. On Mars, there is not much gravity, so you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it. Unbelievable hammer. Okay. But I love entering a fantasy world. I don't really. I get wrecks. I don't know what you do too. We get wrecks from friends and I just. If someone says it's cool, I read the book. I don't really do the. Read the flap, read the back. Go on. Goodreads. Yeah, I'm just. I'm in. Okay. Tell me the briefest thing possible. It's like with movies, you know, I don't even watch trailers anymore. I just want to see the movie. So this is awesome because in every new fantasy series, it takes you a while to get your bearings. Where are we? What's happening? Even Potter. People complain about Potter for the first 40 pages, right? We've heard Pierce Brown, the author, say gold. We've seen him spell democracy weird early. And you are, if you're paying attention. And I actually admit I don't do this enough. If there's ever quotes and stuff under chapter headings, I kind of just blow by Them inbox. Which is so mean. I think they were like, read the thing.

[A]

You gotta look at him here.

[B]

If you look at the quote below, part one, it says, there's a flower that grows on Mars. But if you didn't read that or if you're barely paying attention, you can really not know what you're getting into.

[A]

And that even. That we're on Mars. Yeah. Like, that's fair.

[B]

Right? This is a flower that grows on Mars. So to hear right here, this line is really the first establishment that they go. These people are on Mars.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And there is no gravity. So they have to break the neck of their own family members when they hang them.

[A]

Unbelievable. Hell. But it takes us into the world.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And we're thrown into the mines here. We get the fry suits that they're wearing while they're down in the mines. We get the claw drill that they're working. And we find that they are trying to get helium 3, which is so important to this world and to the galaxy. As we will learn. And we learn here that they are trying to get the laurel amongst all the other clans. Gamma Clan being the one that always seems to win. If you win the laurel by mining the most helium 3 for the hierarchy, you get more rations, more food, more cigarettes. Which they call burners.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is so awesome. That's like. If you listen.

[B]

I don't.

[A]

I don't smoke. But you bet your ass if I did, I'd call burners. This is something that they work for. And down in the mine, we learn about pit vipers. Another huge thing. Pit vipers are these snake like creatures that they say came from Earth. They're now here. They're in these deep mines on Mars. The huge ones can get as big as a truck.

[B]

But the babies.

[A]

The babies are what we fear. Because the babies can get into your fry suit. Bite you, kill you, and the venom is destroyed.

[B]

They can't control how much venom they release exactly.

[A]

They don't know how to release it. So they release too much and they kill you. Darrow, our hero has been bit before. Survived and no one knows how. So we're already getting that taste of. This is our guy. This is the prince who has promised. This is our chosen one. He's talking about how good he is. He's been in the mines since he was 13 years old. It's been three years and he's the youngest helldiver that anyone can remember. And that is where we get that line that we said at the top. Mine flicker faster. He is the best Helldiver anyone's ever seen.

[B]

It's perfectly put, Dan. There's a few bullet points here where they hammer home what makes Darrow special. And we're gonna get a few more in a second. Like you said that quote, mind flicker faster. Incredible. Also, he's been doing this for three years. Started at 13.

[A]

Youngest ever.

[B]

Youngest anyone can remember. He survived a pit viper bite. A bad one. This. I get off to shit like this in books. You just said prince who is promised this. And I love that. This isn't exactly the prince who was promised chosen one, boy who lived. Prophecy stuff. But it is more Thrones kind of like this.

[A]

It's. I think it's Dune. It is the line where Leto is talking to Paul and he says, your grandfather says a hero doesn't seek to lead. He's called to it.

[B]

That line. Yeah. Yep. And I wrote Thrones. I love stuff like this. We haven't seen a direwolf in a hundred years and now here we go.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's like, no one's seen a 13 year old Helldiver in 20 centuries. And he's like, yes, well, I am.

[A]

Yeah. And so you know, this one's special.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And. And I said to you before we were recording, for the Kingkiller fans out there, you have a bit. You can run into a bit of a Kvothe problem, which is the main character in that series where he's good at everything. Sometimes the fantasy characters, they're so good at literally everything. It's Quoth's good at everything except spending his money. But everything else, they're the best at the loot, they're the best at spells, they're the best at sports, blah, blah, blah. You don't want that. Harry's not the smartest. Yeah, he's the bravest. Right. You need things, but you do need something. Harry being unbelievable at a Patronus charm is awesome. This is our first taste of why Darrow is worthy of a great story.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Because he's the youngest helldiver we've ever seen. His hands move faster than fire. He can survive a pit, bite for bite. Things like that make this really cool.

[A]

And it's subtle.

[B]

It's like.

[A]

It's well done. It's so cool. And here we also, through Darrow's monologue, inner monologue, we hear of IO, his wife. And again, remember, he's 16 and IO is described as like little IO who put the haymathis flower in Darrow's dad's boot. Supposed to be wed at 14 years old. But she waited, took less rations because she knew she was going to marry Daryl.

[B]

So sick.

[A]

And I love this idea of, like, we're so far in the future in this intergalactic story, but we've gone all the way back to ancient times where we're, like, marrying people at 14. Like, 14 is the wedd age for women in this clan. But she was like, no, I am waiting because I am going to marry Darrow. And this is also when we hear of her spirit. IO thinks that they are slaves and they're working for the man, and she wants things to change. But Darrow can think of nothing but her. He's like, I just want to put food in her belly. I just want to be a good husband. And it's early that we get the sense that IO is Darrow's entire world, which is unbelievable.

[B]

And talk about their wedding. Dan, this is another. I said I'd flag these with hummingbird tongues. This is so good. When Darrow's talking about being the youngest helldiver and doing it at 13, he. He quotes an idiom which is old enough to screw, old enough to crew.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I.

[A]

Which is so electric.

[B]

Love when books do this. Thrones has one of my favorite ones ever about they send ravens to send the letters, and they say, dark, dark wings, dark tidings. Meaning if a raven comes in the middle of the night, something bad happens. Because why would someone send a Raven at 2 in the morning?

[A]

Correct.

[B]

I love when fantasy book up with their own idioms. And then he'll. And they also do. I think scale of the scale of

[A]

the dragon that bit you or that burned you is phenomenal.

[B]

And then I love how he goes. He. When he. When I first read that, I go, old enough to screw, old enough to crew. And I go, that's so sick. And then Daryl goes, at least that's what Uncle Nero says. I don't. I don't even know why I didn't get married till six months back, but I don't know why he said it. And I'm like, wait, is that an expression or is that just Uncle Nero being an idiot?

[A]

I think it's an expression that Uncle Nero made up. But it is funny. He's like, I didn't even get married until so good. But we also meet, like you said, Uncle Nero. We meet his brother, his cousin. And this is the crew down in the mines. It's like colwill in October sky. Like every colwood, everyone is down here in the mines working and Darrow, early is a bit of a hothead. Like, we see that he's kind of cocky. He knows what he's doing. They think they see a pocket of gas. Darrow's like, I can get there. I'm gonna get out and I'm gonna scan it by hand. Everyone's telling him to wa. And we hear him early ball busting with his uncle. We see the relationship between them. Right off the bat he says, you're being a coward, Nerl. And right after that he goes, calling a man a coward. Not a good way to get his cooperation. Shouldn't have said that. And you wrote, this is Darrow's fastball. And it is true. Like, we will come to see this from Darrell a lot.

[B]

He cannot hold his tongue. They establish it so early. And I love it because I actually prefer third person stories usually, which this series becomes eventually. Or no, it's always first. But multiple pov, I think. But anyway, we're first person through the first three. And then I love here where we get his thoughts. Immediately he says it, you are a coward. You're being a coward. And Errol. And then immediately, whoops, that was a terrible idea. Not going to get his cooperation. Shouldn't have done that. And it's like, God, because it's because he thinks he's so smart, he's so strategic. But his brain is one second behind his hair trigger temper, which he snaps off too often and then goes, fuck, I should have waited. So that is so good. And that is exactly. That is who Darrow is in a line right there. And Dan, I love how we don't even get Darrow's name till this scene right here. Oh, yeah, they don't say it. Hold, boy, Hold.

[A]

Yeah, awesome. So that also quick trigger is that we see there's the pocket of gas and Daryl wants it. And we learn that Daryl wants it because of The Laurel. There's 24 clans in Lycos. There's a Laurel every quarter. Whoever brings in the most helium 3 gets those more rations, the burners, the food, the spices, things that they don't even hear of. He talks about sugar and cinnamon. And he's like, I don't even know what that stuff is like. That is so cool to learn about in this world. But we also see and hear that EO believes that they never have a chance. Gamma wins. And they've won as long as they can remember. And EO is like, it's not possible. It doesn't matter what you do in the minds. It's the carrot that the society dangles in front of us to keep us working, to keep us in line and to keep us cooperating and hoping for something. So this is another moment where we see IO is kind of ahead of Darrow and frankly everyone else. She's like, we are slaves. Wake up to what is going on.

[B]

It's funny to me that the crew, cuz Darrow's the. The hell diver, the de facto boss.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Uncle Nero's the head talk. So he, he is the boss. It's funny to me that these other guys. Daryl goes, I'm going to go, I'll scan it myself. I can get down there. And they're like, yeah, widow make widow, widow so I can bang her. And I'm like, all right, dude. Jesus Christ. Like I'm trying to help, you know? Like they bust his ass so hard.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You'd think if you had fucking Babe Ruth as your helldiver and you have a chance to win the laurel, you'd be like, hell yeah, Dara. But they're like, I'm a fuck your wife.

[A]

But what's great about that is it establishes the construction site vibe.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's like this, dude, they're reds, man. They are rusters.

[B]

Oh, dude, that's so good.

[A]

Like they're rusters. They know what they are. These are guys drinking swill, chewing cha. And they're like, they're obviously gonna bust balls. Especially a 16 year old hotshot pig, right? They're like, you, dude. Yeah. Like, you want to go get yourself killed, be my guest. I'll take care of your wife for you. That vibe is so great. That's what makes him a good helldiver. So we also get the relationship with Nero here, which is crucial because Darrow talks about how he's like, neyrel is a drunk. He, you know, I can smell the swill on his breath all the time. He's grown fat and lazy since my father died.

[B]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[A]

But what's huge about this is also here we learn this is the one man who cared for him. And I like too. It's like Neyrel's brother died and here is Darrow. And Darrow has nothing but sort of not disdain for him, but he's almost embarrassed by him. And we see early like there is that element of like, well, that's your uncle, dude. And like he's right down here in the mines watching for you. And he is the one saying, hold, don't go do that. Yeah. So like he is kind of Always

[B]

watching out for him.

[A]

But at the end of the day, for Daryl, right now, it is about the Laurel, because he's talking about. He can see Eo's ribs poking out too often. She's getting too skinny. And this is a chance for him to put more food on her plate and their entire clan. So he's not stopping at anything.

[B]

And, man, there's one of his internal thoughts there when he goes, sometimes the lambda girls sell themselves to grace the tin pots for supplies. I would net. He goes, I would. She wouldn't do that.

[A]

Right? Well, he's like, I don't think she would ever do that. But then again, I would do anything to feed her.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So he's like. It's like, dude, maybe she would, because

[B]

I can't have that.

[A]

Yeah. It's unbelievable.

[B]

So Darrow decides I'm gonna go down there myself. Yes.

[A]

We already mentioned a couple. The quote at the top. And then. Old enough to screw, old enough to crew. Any other big quotes for you?

[B]

Just for me.

[A]

The.

[B]

The. On Mars, there's. There is not much gravity, so you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it. That I go back to that line so often. It's just an incredible description of both the world we're in, the stakes that we have.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

And the creativity from the writer. Pierce to go. You have to. You have to. Technically, they'll hang them, but you have to technically kill your.

[A]

It's what makes stories like this so great. It's like, we're set on Mars. That's already cool. But to have the. The. The idea to be like, well, gravity isn't as intense there. Hangings don't work normally. What an unbelievable element. I mean, it's heartbreaking. That line is very much an embodiment of what the reds are going through. It's unbelievable. And that will take us to chapter two.

[B]

Chapter two, the township. I remember when I met my first helldiver. I thought he was a God. He's dead now. Dude.

[A]

I love that quote.

[B]

So sick.

[A]

Supernova. Burn bright, die young.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, it is, like, so cool. I thought he was a God. He's dead now. Is like, that's. And you're like. And that's what I've signed up.

[B]

Yes. Yes. And I'm in that line of work that's going to happen. So I'm the youngest ever, but I certainly won't be the oldest. Yeah. Darrow goes down to check the gas pocket himself. And it's small Just like he predicted. Keep drilling Laurel insights. But on his way back up, he's climbing down.

[A]

He's basically.

[B]

It's. It's one of. I one thing I will say about this series for everyone that's read it with us. In Harry Potter, for example, I have a very good sense of what the spells do, what the castle looks like, what floo powder looks like when you use it. All the things that they bring up, I grow to be very familiar with in this series. Many times I'm kind of just rolling with it. And that's not even a criticism, but there's so much space tech things being described. I just go. I just go, yes. Yeah, that sounds sick. So this drill that they're cruising through the mines as Darrow's climbing down at double digit meters. I forget how far he says. And it's so hot. It's kind of hard for me to even picture what he's doing. But he's gymnasing himself down to check this game.

[A]

Oh yeah. I mean it's a combination of project Hail Mary, the Martian being in a space suit. But you're also. It's like Armageddon where you're in the fry suit because it's so hot you would literally burn up without it. It's just. You do see it. It's hard in these books. But again in this part one, it's like I feel I am in the world. I already see it. I know where we are. I know what the cladrow looks like. It's. You're in these mines with fucking vipers ripping around. It's unbelievable.

[B]

So he's on. He checks. We're good. He's on the way back up. And as he comes. Foot stuck, boot stuck.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's burning through the layers of his suit. And the next layer is skin.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And we could lose.

[A]

Like the nanoplastic has melted into the sides of the mines. That's how hot it is in there.

[B]

So he reaches back, what does he grab? And pulls out his sling blade.

[A]

Get familiar with the sling.

[B]

Now we go, Dan. Now we go, Dan. Yeah, dude. This is an iconic moment. He cuts himself free expertly. And he thinks to himself, this was wrong.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I should not have come down here. I was running my mouth to my uncle, to the whole crew and look at me now. I nearly amputated my foot just to find out there was a tiny gas pocket just so we could try to get a little bit more helium. Quick pause. I was going to say. I was going to. I have this Part about, like, how cool a razor is. Do you not want me to spoil that a razor is coming?

[A]

No, you just be like this. I just said, like, get familiar with the razor.

[B]

That's what. Or don't.

[A]

Don't talk about a razor.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I would just say get familiar with the sling blade.

[B]

Okay, so I'm gonna kick that daily

[A]

Friday thing a little bit further back.

[B]

This.

[A]

Yeah, just kick it back or throw it. Yeah, it's gonna be covered up, I think anyways, but that's right. Yeah, I like it.

[B]

Good. We will get into what a sling blade means to this character and this series more. But all I'll say is the tease now is having the sling blade be part of red lore.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

Is Chef's makes it all the better. Is Chef's kiss Darrow. Says here, Dan, the sling blade is a nasty half moon weapon meant to be used by clumsy hands. Even filled with terror. My hands are not clumsy. How true those words will become, brother, with this weapon, Brother. Unbelievable. He comes back up. They keep drilling. They do fantastically. They pull an all time quantity of helium and they come back up on the way up. Here's another just great thing from the book. You have to hook your toes under the railings of the grav lift on the way up.

[A]

Yeah. It's like an elevator shaft that we're ripping up from the mines. Like, think about, you know, you're down in the mines now. You're coming up.

[B]

Some gamma scab with less than a week's worth of rust under his nails forgets to put his toes under the railing. So he hangs suspended as the lift shoots up 6 vertical kilometers.

[A]

So that's another thing that I think is so cool about this. He says a gamma scab, meaning that's one of the other clan members. So they're all coming back into the gravel. All of these different clans are mining the same areas, trying to get this helium 3. So it's, they see each other, they're. They're talking about, what did you, what was your haul? What did you get? That's another element that's so cool of this. It's like you really do feel the, the subject element of these people working for the man, competing with each other, being pitted against each other. It's really well done.

[B]

It's amazing. So they get back up top, they get to get cleaned off. He's, you know, they spray looks like car wash. He describes it and he's like, it hurts.

[A]

And they talk about, you mentioned it in your opening, but it's like they're pissing in these fry suits. They're sweating buckets. Like, this shit's gnarly.

[B]

That reminded me of Dune a lot too, where they're like, yeah, we piss in the suit, but we can't. What does the say? What is the water?

[A]

Just don't. You don't give up the water.

[B]

Yeah. We cannot afford the moisture.

[A]

Don't let it out. Yeah. Can't let it out.

[B]

Oh, my God, that's so good. So now we meet the gray captain. And don't forget, greys are the golds. Minions, the tin pots.

[A]

Tin pots.

[B]

Ugly Dan. Yeah, he has a. He has a mech arm. So it's very. You know, we're a little Luke Skywalker y already. But it's a replacement model.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Because he's not getting the nice stuff here.

[A]

But also really cool exposition here. Like, here is a gray. He has a tech arm that works totally normally. So now immediately we're like this. Oh, shit. Okay. Like, you lose limbs if you're high up enough. Like, we can get things replaced here. Cool.

[B]

He's an absolute dick to Darrow.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I like talking shit.

[A]

I like here is we also get rusters.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So we meet Ugly Dan and immediately he's given. He's just such a vile scumbag rat. And he's talking to Darrow and the other reds and he calls them rusters. And that's our. That's our first slur of the story.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's like we get cool moments in the beginning where they're talking. We hear that first bloody damn. Like you mentioned. Like, we're getting some of the lingo in the lexicon of the. The reds. But here you hear a ruster. And it's cool that they call them tin pots. Like, it's like you're like, yeah, they're grays.

[B]

We hate each other.

[A]

Them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm not gonna call them Grace. I'm gonna call them tinpots. But they do it right back. Doesn't matter how hard, how high you are, a slur will be used. And it's like, these fucking rusters.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Pigs.

[B]

It's also sick meeting. I like meeting bad guys early in fantasy sci fi because you can never tell. Are these actually big time bad guys or is this the. Our world is this big right now, and we're going to get so much bigger, which is, of course, the case in this one. To think Ugly Dan is a bad guy is so funny in this early section. But he is in Darrow's world right now. Yep. Ugly Dan is the bane of their existence. He's the captain of the tin pots and he makes their lives miserable. And Darrow has to bend the knee at every chance he gets. We also get to meet Doggo here, which I think is how you say it. I haven't listened to the audiobook.

[A]

I believe it's Doggo who is the

[B]

Gamma hell diver and he is a legend.

[A]

Might be Dago.

[B]

Yeah, I can't remember if it's doggo or dago.

[A]

I kind of like Dago.

[B]

Let's go, Dago. Let's go, Dago. We go. Dago, who is an absolute legend. And I. I love that Gamma's just in there, cuz they win every quarter, so who cares? They're ripping it up, ripping burgers. And Dago's just there, like smoking it to the filter.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

Because he's like, what, dude, I win every time. Leave me alone. And he knows, dude, we get this amazing moment because they say what they pulled, he won't even say. They ask him and he goes, fuck off. And then the other Gammas are bragging about how much they got. And Darrow knows they pulled more. The other Lambdas know they pulled more helium. And Darrow is already daydreaming what I'm gonna do, how I'm gonna tell IO what she's gonna do with sugar, all kinds of things, like that fruit. It's gonna be amazing. And Dago says, still won't win. Darrow's a young pup, but he is smart enough to know that ain't you, Darrell.

[A]

I love this from Dago so much because it's not cocky. It's almost like Dago, he know. He knows something's up. And he's also not hiding it. He's being like, dude, wake up. You know, I see what you're doing. You're literally getting out of your fry suit to get this scan. You're gonna kill yourself for a laurel that you'll never get.

[B]

What?

[A]

It's. It's. It's almost a warning from Dago. So rather than being boisterous, he's just being like, dude, you're smart enough to know that ain't you, Daryl. And it's almost like a right.

[B]

Yeah, like, dude, I love that. Take winning, pal.

[A]

He stop fucking sacrificing yourself. Yeah.

[B]

Yep. No, it's so real. And listen, we're going to learn more about this in a second. But he knows. He understand. He has a better grasp on how the hierarchy works here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Then Darrow does. Yet Dago and IO are actually more aligned on their appreciation of how the society is treating this. This clan. They go on to say, because we're almost at the Laurel celebration.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The people of Lycos love to dance and sing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Very cool.

[A]

This is when we hear of Lycos. Like, this is where Daryl lives on Mars, and it's that colony that he's a part of. And yeah, dancing and singing is huge. And what they say about the. The God of Mars is the foe to dance and loot, but the people of Lycos dance and sing in protest. Yeah. And that's why that line, he died without his dancing shoes. So good.

[B]

Amazing. You also hear in this section that all their homes are carved into rock. They're all sharing space. They're all connected. The Gammas are the only ones that live a level above. And the Grays a level above that. Where the ports are, where the food stuff comes from. Earth.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because don't forget we are here to colonize Mars. That is the mission. Supplies are sent from the Earth and from Luna and we are eventually going to take over the solar system also.

[A]

Or yes, as they're going back here. What I really love is we're talking about Lycos. We're talking about the colony and the people where they live. But IO comes back into Darrow's mind and voice. And he talks about her like she is the only reason he asked for living. I mentioned that earlier. Darrow lives for IO, but he also here says everything he does is for her. And he calls her the spirit of their people. So it's like. Like I said, Chapter two. We have this fucking badass, best helldiver we've ever seen. But Darrow is so ruled by his compassion for her. And it's amazing that he's doing what he's doing. And people are. When he comes up, they're hooting and hollering. They're slapping him on the back. They're being, you know, some of the young ones, especially in the mines. And that cockiness could take him over. And he could go to someone like Dago and be like, you like that? See that? Suck me, bitch. But inst. He's just like this. I'm doing this to feed you. Yeah. Like, it's so powerful.

[B]

And, dude, since we're talking about Lykos and dancing and singing, we hear too, that one song is punishable by death. And this was Darrow's father's last dance. We don't quite know why yet, but I also love that in when he talks about falling in love with IO he remember it was like she waited for me. She always knew it was me. Darrow says I didn't. I didn't always know it was gonna be IO I didn't know why she was waiting. He fell in love with her watching her dance in a tavern one night. The theme of dance throughout this whole series. And we'll get into fighting, you know. Yeah. But this. This theme of dance is amazing. And I will say the origin story of Darrow and IO being him watching her dance.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Makes me very happy. As I said, you. We figure out that they're on Mars. They're digging. They're trying to make it colonized for people in the future.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And then we meet Octavia Alune. I love it.

[A]

Chapter two. And we get our first gold. So there's monitors in Lykos that are showing all of these different messages for the people there. And here we see Octavia Alune, the sovereign.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She is on this screen giving this message. Her hands and forearms marked with golden sigils. And she's got that half crescent moon scar on the side of her face. And everything else is perfect.

[B]

And recall you scarless children from the prologue.

[A]

Yes, yes, yes. And I love Chris. They see here that helium 3, the helldivers mind is crucial for the terraforming of the galaxy. This will make Mars inhabitable for the softer colors.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Love that.

[B]

So good. And we now know for sure we are living on the earth and the moon. We're going to figure it out for everybody else. They'll join the reds on Mars and the reds will be celebrated.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Make this sacrifice now and soon you will find your place among us. And we appreciate you.

[A]

Yeah. The.

[B]

This is hard to swallow for some, especially EO. Oh, I also love Dan, how their. Their wedding rings are each other's hair woven with.

[A]

Yeah. Woven with silk wrapped and turned into a ring. Cool touch.

[B]

Such a great touch.

[A]

Really cool touch. Because of course, dude, like you're not having precious metals in Mars.

[B]

Darrow gets all the way home to talk to IO. Yep. Because he's got.

[A]

What's his name? I got a surprise for you.

[B]

Peter Breder. Peter Bretter. Darrell comes home with Peter Bretter like this. Hey, IO. Yeah. I got a surprise for you. He's wagging dong and she's like, pull your pants up, please. Also, I have a surprise for you. Actually, I have two surprises for you. One of them is later. The other one is in there. Don't Go in that room. And Darrow goes, why? And she goes, no, you cannot. Darrow, of course is talking about the Laurel he is about to award to Lambda. It is a dagger. What? Eos surprises.

[A]

Yes. As we go through this journey, we

[B]

will learn of said surprise.

[A]

And it is truly.

[B]

It is in fact hard to even process. Bentley. It is an absolute dagger.

[A]

My only quote from this chapter that we hadn't mentioned yet. We talked about Octavia alone. This was very Hunger Games for me. This is the. May the odds be ever in your favor. Brave pioneers always remember that obedience is the highest virtue above all. Obedience, respect, sacrifice, hierarchy. It's just those lines are why I love sci fi and fantasy. It's this like dystopian future of these just bullshit shackles of a manufactured society and a hierarchy. And ending that with saying obedience and then ending with hierarchy is just the perfect. Like this is what it's all about for the Golds.

[B]

God, I hope. I hope we do. Will of the many next and for the will of the many readers out there. It's very similar to this, especially book one, but Will of the many. Pyramid and everyone going stronger together. Yeah. Is just. Oh, perfect. And then for me, the only one I wanted to highlight again is the some of the most foreshadowing quote in any book ever was about the sling. The sling blade is a nasty half moon weapon meant to be used by clumsy hands. Even filled with terror, my hands are not clumsy.

[A]

Unbelievable. Chapter three. The Laurel. The Golds dance in pairs. Obsidians in threes. Greys in dozens. We dance alone because only alone do helldivers drill. Only alone can a boy become a man.

[B]

Electric helldiver is the sickest job on it. It is?

[A]

Well, it's pretty dangerous.

[B]

Yeah, but I live. Danger's my middle name, pal.

[A]

So Darrow and EO walk with the rest of the townsfolk to the common for the Laurel presentation. This is what it's all been about for Daryl. Like he's. He. This is his surprise for IO. He's so confident that they got it. There's no way that Gamma couldn't compete with what he just did. Specifically, as they're walking through, we see the HC and drones above projecting images of this terroristic bombing of a red mining crew from the Sons of Aries. And this is the first time we learned of the Sons of Aries.

[B]

It's a red terrorist group. They say there are no Sons in Lycos because the war hasn't touched this area yet. Darrow. This is an interesting look into Darrow's brain here because as we'll come to see in this part one, I.O. hates their situation, and she believes their slaves hates it. Darrow can see where she's coming from, but he's more of a just put your head down. Live for each other, Live for our family, and leave it alone. Make no wake. This reaction, though, is kind of the most on the other side he ever gets, where he says specifically he thinks the sons of Ares are a pointless temper tantrum.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Delaying progress. This is the most society I will ever hear Darrow sound. Because in my mind, Dan Darrow should be going. I don't want to do that, because they might catch me and kill my family. But God damn it, do I love them.

[A]

I'm glad someone's doing it.

[B]

I'm kind of surprised. Darrow here is like, they're pointless. We need to develop Mars. And I'm like, Darrow.

[A]

And this is why we learn so much of IO's passion for waking him up, because IO obviously is in great support of that type of thing. So as everyone's going down, the townsfolk are going in. We see so much of the community here. Uncle Nerel is playing his zither. He's unbelievable. He plays so well. All the little kids are dancing. And here Darrow is reminded of when Nero taught him to dance and even taught him the forbidden dance. And these are just kind of the flashbacks we get of Nero helping raise Darrow because Daryl's father obviously was executed. And we meet Daryl's brother Kieran, his kids. We see Daryl's mother as well. And we have this whole family experience here, which is so amazing. But as they approach the common, Darrow sees a swinging skeleton that reminds him of his father. We talked about the hangings when people misbehave here. And we learned that Darrow's father did the reaping dance with nine other men in protest of their lack of rations. They removed bits of machinery from the clad drills so that they wouldn't work. But their protest failed, and they were all hanged for it. The Reds are not allowed to move the bodies after the hangings. They're left there as a reminder that these protests will not work.

[B]

It's like Pirates of the Caribbean absolutely. Comes in. Yeah, I've been waving my hat a lot lately.

[A]

Yes, you have. They hang there for months as a reminder for all of the others that this behavior will not be tolerated. That is another one of these reminders where it's like you have this. We're in the mind Of Darrow. Right. We're hearing about this world from Darrow. And then as we meet IO here and hear more things that she says, you see, while you're in Darrow's mind, you see us as the readers being like, dude, how are you okay with all of this? Like, your dad was up there for months, and you're sitting here being like, yeah, let's just keep doing our jobs.

[B]

Oh, man, it's so gnarly. And it's a reminder of how hard life is as a red and why they need stuff like these celebrations to be.

[A]

Be distracted.

[B]

He talks about winning the laurel, and he's excited about the stuff they. You can add flavors to your alcohol. Little wins like that. Here's another one that he says, like, berry and something called cinnamon, you know? So good. You mentioned that earlier.

[A]

I love that one, though, like, because that is, like. That takes us into the world where you're like, oh, shit, yeah. Never even heard cinnamon. Like, I get it.

[B]

I love cinnamon. Imagine if I didn't have cinnamon.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But, like, fuming mad.

[A]

It's one of the spices that I'm like, yeah, I get how that could become sparse.

[B]

Cinnamon doesn't grow on Mars. What? Are you insane? I don't even know what cinnamon looks like. Here's some great tidbits here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Uncle Nerl teaching him how to dance hit me so hard. We've already talked about dance being a theme in this whole series, but certainly this section. Darrow's dad did the dance, died. Nothing worked. The protest was meaningless. He has been killed, and it was. All we've seen so far is Darrow talking shit about Uncle Nero. And now you get him going. But he did. He did teach me to dance. He did. And now I move better than anyone, by the way. So he has been there for him. And then incredibly, incredibly, there's a line that says, he's a mad one. You'll see someday. Mad and brilliant and noble. Nero's the best of my brothers. My father once said, this is great because of what this means later.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. It is unbelievable. We also see a little fight between Darrow and Nero here, which is another one of these things that's like, they're all sitting at these tables. They're eating and drinking what they have, and then they just, like, bust out into a family fist fight. And it's like Darrow has burned his hand down in the mines, like, it's bleeding. And his mom and IO, like, help bandage it up in this moment, too. And they're just like, what are you doing, dude?

[B]

It's so funny that, like, knowing what we know, and I want to spoil too much. I know we said spoilers, but knowing what we know. Nero's sitting there pissed drunk.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

At the Laurel celebration, knowing full well that his shithead nephew, because he's so dope.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Essentially won the Laurel. They won't even get it. And he's mad that Darrow's cocky and happy, but he should just be happy that Daryl's so good, but he's bummed that everyone thinks they're celebrating a Laurel win, which they're not gonna get. And maybe he can see into the future, but probably not, because he actually is so drunk that he just goes, we should. I'm gonna punch you in the face.

[A]

Oh. It's just like. It's. It's this awesome dynamic of. I think both of them see so much of Daryl's dad in each other.

[B]

Yeah, that's great.

[A]

And it drives them both insane because it's the dad and it's the brother that they don't have anymore, and they see the sort of frustrating sides of him in each other, and it just makes them go at it. It's an unbelievable dynamic.

[B]

Also, hilariously, in this section, they say Lauren, Neryl's son is married to DIO, EO's system. Lauren proposed to IO when she was 14, but she said no because she was waiting for.

[A]

Waiting for Darrow.

[B]

It is hilarious to me. And this is what. I buy it. I totally buy it in this tiny little, you know, village of Lycos. But it's so funny to me that Darrow's cousin is like, I tried to marry her wife. She said, no, married you. And then I married her sister. And I'm like, are we cool?

[A]

Do you think Dio is cool with that? Or is she kind of like, yeah,

[B]

like, from Darrow and Dio's pov, you're like, what the is going on?

[A]

Damn, dude.

[B]

I love it, though. Shoot your shot, baby. Shoot.

[A]

So here we also meet a copper by the name of Magistrate Timothy Koo Poginess. Bitch.

[B]

Bitch ass, bitch.

[A]

He comes in, flying in his grav boots to deliver all of this news of the Laurel. And that's a key moment here, seeing the grav boots for the first time. And we also hear that they're shitty grav boots. He's kind of wobbling. Yeah, but this is another one, like, we talk about with these sci fi books when we have all this crazy tech. You see it in Dune. You see it in some of these other stories, the grab boots are also kind of understandable. It's like you're wearing boots that make you hover. I get it. And it's just another one of these things showing the class system of like, here's a copper who has grabbed a red. Could never imagine. Never, never imagine having that in his speech. In this speech, we hear that Mu and Chi clans did not hit their quota. They're receiving zero rations, but they did not hit their quota. There was a gas explosion that killed 10 of their drilling crew. So this is another reminder of how fucking brutal these motherfuckers are. These people had a disaster where they've lost 10 people. They now have to bury 10 people. And they're going, well, you didn't hit your quota, so zero food for the next quarter.

[B]

And Pod goes. Specifically, he goes, maybe next month, maybe next quarter, perhaps you will dally less. Darrow goes, they hit a gas explosion. They didn't dally. They died.

[A]

Fucking brutal.

[B]

Unreal, dude.

[A]

So Pojinus is giving his little speech here, and he makes this nice little announcement and he says, it has becomes my distinct honor to. On behalf of the arch governor of Mars, Nero a Augustus, to award the laurel of productivity and monthly excellence and triumphant fortitude and obedience, sacrifice. And Gamma gets the laurel as we fucking knew it, as IO knew it, as his mother knew it, as Neryl knew it. They do not get it.

[B]

It's one of my favorite literal visual lines in the book. I'm not saying the line is so credible, but just the way it is structured in the text. And most probably weathered sci fi readers were expecting Lambda to not get the laurel. I'm kind of a simp often reading these, and I'm like, they're probably gonna win and they just never do. But just the way it's a running quote from Pod and it becomes my distinct honor and triumph and obedience and sacrifice. And the text literally reads, end, dot, dot, dot, end quote. Return. Gamma gets the laurel. Period. Return. And we don't return. It just. It's so good from.

[A]

Because it's what you feel.

[B]

You're like, cool. Yeah.

[A]

It's like, I don't give a fuck with the rest of his speeches. We didn't win.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And. And the first thing you think is, they got it and we fucking did it.

[B]

Awful.

[A]

Dagger.

[B]

So insane.

[A]

My only quote that I loved in here that we haven't mentioned already is Darrow's mother. Darrow's mother is at this party. She's drinking, and Darrow Kind of says he and IO like, wish she didn't drink as much. And she has a quote where she says, rather a drink be my master than a man. These chains taste sweet. Gas.

[B]

Gas, dude. And I wish we could have put some cinnamon in that alcohol for you, baby. You would have loved it.

[A]

These chains taste sweet. Is a dark.

[B]

Yeah, dark.

[A]

Look at, you know, being a victim to the swill. Yeah, but at the same time, it's

[B]

like, yeah, girl, you get it, dude. You need some happiness, some distraction, some. Some escape. And if it's. If it's the booze, if you're hitting the bottle, then so be it.

[A]

So be it, brother.

[B]

It's so Friday night. Daryl, relax. It's Friday night. It's the Laurel. It's the Laurel Tide celebration. You do a shot. Okay. Chapter four, the gift. Death isn't empty like you say it is. Emptiness is life without freedom, Daryl. Emptiness is living chained by fear. Fear of loss, fear of death. I say we break those chains. Preach. Preach. EO.

[A]

This is EO's bag.

[B]

This is chapter. You want to talk about fastballs, dude? Bag work. You want to talk about fucking heat? You want to talk about high heat? Chin music, dude.

[A]

Dude, you ready to completely fall head over heels for someone? Prepare for this chapter.

[B]

I have something to say to you here. When they lose the Laurel, Darrow says, I think about how clever it really is. They won't let us win then. A game of merit won by birth. It keeps the hierarchy in place. It keeps us striving, but never conspiring. I kind of disagree with that from him here.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

Maybe it's coping. But I would say the fact that per him in the. In that section, they say the Lambdas can prove. Prove the math doesn't work. Can prove we mined more helium. To me then giving it to Gamma actually is cost for conspiring. Because I'd be like, yo, we are on protest, considering we factually just won. It'd be one thing if you couldn't ever prove it. And they went, here are Gamma's totals higher than yours? Then I would go, oh, I see how the hierarchy is working. Because they're just making Lambda work harder and harder and harder and harder, and there's no end to this tunnel. But being like Gamma goes, we. We mind this much. And Lambda goes, oh, we mind more. And then losing that, actually I'm like, I think the hierarchy is fucking this up.

[A]

Well, the thing that's difficult is we see what happens when you protest.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And the. The beauty of it is that they mentioned here so brilliantly is they don't even get mad at the hierarchy. Ugly Dan is right there to motherfuck to high heaven if you want. Podynas is right there to motherfuck to high heaven if you want. But instead they turn to Gamma and they're like, you fucking rats, give it to us. Say that we did better than you. But they don't. Because Gamma also knows what would happen if they did that. And that's what causes the infighting. And that's what's beautiful that we've seen from every, every empire throughout history. This is what the top does. They make you turn to your neighbor when in times of turmoil and fight amongst each other. And that's what they're doing here.

[B]

And Dan, it's beautiful. You're so right. They don't blame the society, they blame Gamma. This is one of my favorite parts of the second trilogy, which we'll get to. But that red relationship with Gamma is a really interesting thread to pull. Very cool, very cool. And as you said, I don't blame Darrow here, right? He's mad. The rest of them are fuming, but the society Golds, they are so out of reach for him. It's a waste of my time, a waste of my breath, a waste of my mental capacity to be mad at Gold. But to be mad at Gamma, that is something I can do. Because they are sitting right there and they have all the food.

[A]

Yeah. Like they're literally grabbing all that food, that sugar, that cinnamon that he earned. And it's like that is an attainable anger. You can't even think about how to be angry at the next level.

[B]

Level.

[A]

It's fucking unbelievable.

[B]

The only person who is not fuming mad is the little redheaded girl, Iyo. She immediately stands them up and says, let's dance.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

God. There's a great line. I feel like that happens in a movie where someone's like, dance with me. And it's when something really bad happens. I can't remember what it is right now, but that's what's happening right here. EO goes, dance with me. And they leave and they all start dancing and everybody gets to popping and the zither gets going.

[A]

It's like the. It's like the basement deck of the Titanic.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

They're just fucking rocking down there.

[B]

God. And Rose has red hair. That's probably IO IO was doing that. And it reminds me of Lord of the Rings parties at the Shire before Gandalf sets off the fireworks. Everyone's having a blast.

[A]

The Green Dragon, right?

[B]

Yeah. And IO leads Darrow away through the mask, through the dancing, down, down the path. No one even notices him. He takes him all the way to the webbery where the women toil away during their days while the men are in the mines. And some mortar gave way.

[A]

Cool vibe there, right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

There's a bunch of these like spiders. And like the Webery is like women are like spinning silk from the spider.

[B]

And you get a little mention here, Dan, of the Carvers. Daryl goes pit vipers. I understand they are from Earth. Yeah. These things are created by Carvers. These creatures, these monsters are created by Carvers legs that make no sense for the size of their abdomen.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And now we get a little taste of what's.

[A]

What's capable. There's manufactured creatures and things here. Very, very cool.

[B]

So Mortar gave away and she found a ventilation duck. And she says we can go through this.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[B]

Darrow immediately says we will be lashed for this. It is not worth it. And she says I will not have them ruin another surprise. Because she knows that his surprise was supposed to be the laurel. Yeah. And he fucking lost. And he a bitch. And she's like, it's okay.

[A]

You're a fool.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. So they walk all the way through the ventilation ducts and they end up in this bubble which is a real forest. And dude, trees, grass, animals for people.

[A]

Things Darrow says he's never seen other than on the hcs like that stories. And inside that is such a cool moment for us. It's you. We different. Almost not so much. Seeing what they see out here in this forest, you start to visualize more of Mars. You're like. When he gets out there and has that reaction, you're like, oh. They're literally walking around fucking dirt and stone all day. It's just red dust everywhere.

[B]

And it's incredible.

[A]

And he's.

[B]

Tears are coming to his eyes. He's never felt grass under his feet. He's never seen these animals. It's taking his breath away. And then immediately they bang.

[A]

Bangin in, brother. Banging in the grass under the stars.

[B]

Oh, bro, dude, he gets up in that bubble and he's like zip.

[A]

No, no, no, no, no. First of all, you are. You are a fool, sir. You know. You know nothing, nothing about romance and compassion. He doesn't do shit. Iyo brought his bitch ass. Yeah, he's fucking sitting and moping.

[B]

She.

[A]

She is.

[B]

She's already naked.

[A]

She's doing all the work.

[B]

She's already naked. It Is funny to me to think that. And. And Listen, Harry Potter's 11 in the first book, you know, talking to Dumbledore, like it's, it's. You kind of roll with it in kids in. In Ender's Game. He's like eight.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Five or something. It's ridiculous. It's absurd. But. But it's funny to me to think that this scene is so beautiful. And not the consequences though, just the weight of what this area that they found.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What it means and all the work and the sacrifice the Reds have put in. This is really just two 16 year olds banging behind the bleachers at the school dance. Like everyone is at the dance and they're like, dude, should we go lie on the grass and do a tumble? And then. And they do just forget about all the bullshit. And it's incredible.

[A]

It's great.

[B]

And dude, I think that this would have. I would have reviewed this book and said this was a wasted bang. And there are wasted bangs coming in this series. And by that I mean times when you should have banged and you didn't.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

This. If they had left here without banging, I would have said, missed bang.

[A]

What have you done?

[B]

Missed bang.

[A]

Yeah, that's why. That's why EW gets down to business immediately.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because there's bigger things.

[B]

That's what I'm saying. I legitimately think he's going like this. Wow, look at that. Look at the stars. And he turns around and she's ass naked.

[A]

Yes. Because she's like this. We're gonna do this because I have some shit to talk to you about. And that's what she gets into.

[B]

Dude, you're right. She. She actually. She actually little one two'd him there. She dangled to the bang. And then. And then now here comes the fight.

[A]

Because now he's in post, not clarity.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And then she gets to go like this. Let's talk about the Laurel.

[B]

Don't you think perhaps they should have fought and then make up sex?

[A]

No, idiot. Cause they're not fighting.

[B]

This is a fight, Dan.

[A]

No, this is a lesson, pal.

[B]

It's a lecture.

[A]

It's not a fight.

[B]

It's a lecture.

[A]

That is also a lesson.

[B]

Well, that's true, actually. Yeah, but I still would. I would still would like post lesson bang, then bang, then lesson. This is. He got dessert, then the veggies. No, give me the veggies, then the dessert.

[A]

No, because this is. Now he's in post not clarity. He is clear minded. He know he can now take this in. He might get hot headed at some of the things, but he knows she's right. He wouldn't have before. He would have been distracted. But all the.

[B]

All the poison is out of him. All the testosterone is gone. He has no fight left.

[A]

You gotta stop with horny CP for a second to keep going with the story.

[B]

If you think this is the least Dan, this. These six chapters are the least horny I will be in this entire series. So if you have a problem with me today, you better strap the fuck in and put on a strap on. I'm ready. This is going to get.

[A]

I'm always prepared for horny CP to show up when we're talking about story, but this is an important one. So here she talks about the Laurel. They won it and the Grays didn't let them keep it. So she goes on to tell Darrow that they are slaves made to beg for scraps. And this is like a big. She is like, dude, wake up. As I keep saying, she says that Daryl's father saw the light. He knew that there are people were being mistreated, but he didn't have the strength to do anything about it. And that pisses Daryl off.

[B]

Understandably. She goes at him here in a.

[A]

In a.

[B]

A little much because things.

[A]

You should be able to relate to this because you are a stubborn mule. Sometimes you need to go hard. Sometimes you need to say something hurtful to make someone go. Is that true? In this case, it's correct.

[B]

She has. This doesn't feel like she's had this conversation with him many times.

[A]

I disagree.

[B]

And this feels like the first out the gate.

[A]

Disagree. Bang.

[B]

Dude on the bridge of the nose.

[A]

We haven't even met IO yet. And we hear from Darrow's mind and thoughts that IO feels this way. He wouldn't know that unless they've had this talk. Now he's risked his life for the Laurel. They don't get it. And he's. She is now going, hey. Time to understand what is going on.

[B]

Okay. So she goes at him here. His dad's too weak to. To fight for the dream. And she really hammers home the point that the Reds built this plant, this grass, this land that we're saying she rips the grass up. Actually.

[A]

Yeah. He's like, duh, we're gonna.

[B]

Suburban dads.

[A]

That's another lash.

[B]

Suburban dads across earth, everywhere. Shutter. Jesus. The grass.

[A]

Bermuda.

[B]

Yeah. But she says, look at this.

[A]

This.

[B]

No. The. The Grays have access to this garden. No one is sharing our blood, our sweat, our Tears go into terraforming this planet to turn to make this garden possible. And the society uses it for themselves. At the very least, we need to get access to this. I want way more. And she does. But at the. You know, you'd think, right. And she insists Darrow is different. People would follow you. Your dad had the right dream. He did not have the strength to do it. You have the strength. You just don't have the dream yet. And I am trying to give that to you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That is what is an intense part of this scene. And there's also Darrow. It's really interesting because Darrow admits to himself here things that you have said already. But it's. I love IO more than she loves me. IO loves me, absolutely. But IO loves the idea that her children could be born free and could run around on land on this planet. Inherited to them. Inherited by them. Given to them by their father who toiled away. Darrow just goes, I'm good, dude. I just like laying next to you. And hopefully you have a bunch of kids and it's fine. And that is a hard thing for anyone to stomach. Certainly, I think gender roles, a man where he just goes, man, I'm so happy. And my wife. I'm not enough for my wife. Yeah, that's a lot. And it's tough talk. You were right. This is some heavy shit.

[A]

She goes on to talk about how she believes Darrow should be a voice for the people, a leader. And he can do what no one else can. But Darrow disagrees in this moment. He's like, no, it's not what I'm meant to do. It's not what I'm supposed to be. And he doesn't see the point in his father's death, which is the bigger thing. Like, that is the thing that haunts IO the most about Darrow's mind is that she can't see what his own father sacrificed for. And that's what she's trying to wake him up to. But she wants him to see the light. And quote, to quote her, break those chains. And as they leave this garden after this deep conversation, Bang. Ugly Dan. Oh, dude, what's that line? He's like, well, well, well.

[B]

Reds in our gardens. Ain't that a thing?

[A]

Ain't that a thing?

[B]

Savage. Unbelievable.

[A]

Savage. Now we head to chapter five, the first song. I beg. Because in my wife's eyes, I see something that terrifies me. I see fight in her eyes as they streak her back bloody. I see anger building inside her. There is a reason she is not afraid. I fucking hate that one.

[B]

Yeah, this chapter sucks. This is the worst chapter in the book. Actually, no, that's not even fucking close to true. But this is the worst chapter in part one. It's awful.

[A]

So Ugly Dan and the other tinpots find Darrow and IO leaving the garden and they bait Darrow. They try to get him into a fight and IO's being like, do it. Hit him. Fight him.

[B]

Which is like, IO, calm down. Jesus. This one. You want to defend her up in the garden, Fine, I will kind of hear you going. She's just trying to rile up her husband in the privacy of the garden.

[A]

This is crazy.

[B]

This one. IO you just preached that Darrow could really inspire the people and be a difference maker. You want him to punch Ugly Dan? Literally. What fucking world? A little fight. A little fight.

[A]

She wants to see a little fight from him.

[B]

I still think that would have been stupid.

[A]

No, it is reckless.

[B]

It's insane.

[A]

It is reckless. It's. It's a funny balance of. We always. We. We've seen. We foreshadowed it. We've talked about it. Darrow's tongue gets him in trouble. He's a little too hot headed sometimes. Iyo is a little too reckless.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

She. She is. She's like.

[B]

It's.

[A]

There is a scene that I'm thinking of where someone's like, fucking do it. Hit him. And it's like, probably not a good idea.

[B]

They're. Honestly, they. Their love is so pure in this. In this section and throughout. Dara will feel this forever, but their love is so pure. But they are a bad match in a lot of ways. They. They are so bombastic. They're. They're too supernova. Yeah, it was hard. They were. I don't know that they ever would have lasted.

[A]

Yeah, they are hot.

[B]

They are hot.

[A]

But Dara doesn't fight. And they are put in three days of isolation before they can see each other. And when they're reunited, they are brought to the gallows for their flogging, which is just absolutely savage. IO, as they are separated, looks at Darrow and says, break the chains again. Like, this is. This is now becoming a thing which is like you. You are now starting to see this in Darrow's eyes with IO when she keeps saying this. It's this mantra she has. It's this new spirit she has. And this is. Starts being like, what is happening? I'm afraid of what's going on with you.

[B]

And he's so observant, especially with her, which makes sense because they're so close. But just the way he. As soon as she talks to him, he says the way she's talking feels so final. It feels like a goodbye more than a. Okay, let's just. Good to see you. I'm glad you're okay. After three days and let's get through this. He's really clocking that his sensing something is wrong right away. Yeah. Then he pods back, given his bullshit speech about his pig. Yeah. And he's like, we got a podgy pig, podgy piglet. He's doing his speech, but we got to make an example of Dara. They even shove him in the fry suit just to say this is a helldiver. We'll do this. It's. It's like Belichick giving it to Brady.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

A cornerback at Foxborough High could make that throw.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He's doing that. Putting him in the face.

[A]

Making an example to show that everyone. That no one in your clan, no one in this world is a of bunch this type of punishment.

[B]

And then Darrow on the way out looks up and sees something he thought he would never see his whole life. A gold in the flesh.

[A]

In the flesh. Nero Awe Augustus standing there and this is for us, holy shit moment. There is a gold here which is also a like yo, this is not good.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

We've heard of brutalities going on here with their clan, with their people. We've heard of Darrow's fathers murder, his execution, his hanging. Now we see it as the reader for the first time. Darrow is put on the stocks and receives 48 lashes to his bare back, including one for his uncle who didn't hold back because you can't. They literally make every one of their clan step up and lash them in the back. Daryl passes out twice. Absolutely horrible. I think this is just, just devastating to see. But once he's finished, it's now time for I.O. to get her lashes which even just reading it, you're thinking about this frail. We've heard about her ribs sticking out because she's not eating enough. This frail, beautiful girl is now about to get lashed in the back by everyone in their clan. It is insane. But that is the moment that Daryl sees something in her eyes. She's not afraid. And he is like, what the fuck is going on? Darrow begs to take the rest of her lashes. She's up there getting lashed and he is looking at ugly Dan, he's looking at Nero, he's looking at Podgy Pig.

[B]

Oink, oink. You Bitch.

[A]

And he's begging, let me take the rest of her lashes. And they gag him, stuff a rag in his mouth. Shut this fucking ruster up, dude. He's begging because he knows what she is about to do. And then EO begins to sing, sings the Reaping song. And the most unbelievable moving point of this is the lashes stop. Yeah, there's no.

[B]

Shut her up.

[A]

There's no. None of that. The lashes stop and IO just sings. And Nero tells Ugly Dan and the grace to let her sing. He's like, don't say it. He's like, fine, go. And it's. We feel in this moment what everyone in Lycos feels. What everyone on all the reds on Mars feel. And know there's no going back here. The song has been sung, and that is a death sentence.

[B]

When there's. There's a commentary of. I think it's. Even the grays shake their heads. Yeah. Because even in this moment, you don't want to see something so beautiful burn. And it's not worth it. Everyone feels that in this moment, everyone collectively, except for IO, feels like that was not worth it. And there's so much psychology going on in this scene. Ugly Dan is jumping in after the 48th flash. He jumps in to stop them. And Darrow's hearing Ugly Dan go, enough, enough. As if he's saving them. And in that moment, Darrow's like, thank you, Ugly. I love you. I love you. They're messing with their minds so deeply that you could almost think IO is acting not of her own. Not of her own free will, but not of her sound mind. But she has never been more clear. You talk about post, not clarity, pal. This is her. She is doing exactly what she set out to do. And she knows the consequences. There is no and. What's going on?

[A]

What's crazy, man? She knows them and she wants them. Yeah, she wants the consequences because she knows what it'll do. There are so many quotes in this chapter that absolutely broke me first. This is Darrow watching the lashings. He says again in his mind, soon this will be over, my love. Soon we will go back to life. Just last the lash and we get everything back. Imagine living that world, dude. Last the lash. It's like. That alone is insane. And then on the singing, it is a quiet sound, a mournful sound, like the song. The deep minds whisper as wind moves in the abandoned shafts. It is the song of death and lamentation. The song that is forbidden. The song. The song I have only heard once before. That relation to his dad. Like, the only time he's heard it is when his dad did it and died for it. And, like, now he's looking at his wife singing it. It's like we. Dude, we're five chapters in.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And, like, the weight of the world

[B]

you feel with these people, it's incredible, Dan, because I guess what hasn't exactly happened yet, but I'll just say it now. This is paralyzing Jason street in the pilot. This is I meet IO, I hear her rant and rave about Darrow and the way they can make a difference. And I hear him talk about all he lives for is her. And then they kill her in part one. It's a staggering plot point. Yeah.

[A]

And I talked so much about Darrow's love for IO and how it is so rare that we get a story like this, that it's rare that you have a story where your hero already has his match. We usually meet that person. And in this moment, this quote, too. In the face of cold power, she is fire. This is the girl who danced through the smoky tab with a mane of red. The girl who wove me a wedding band of her own hair. This is the girl who chooses to die for a song of death. And you're just like we can feel in this moment. This is the Breaking Bad moment. Right? This is the hero's journey. What launches you? What. What is. It would have never worked if they didn't have anything to avenge.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's this moment. And we are left with this fucking chapter. With narrow awe. Augustus the Devil himself.

[B]

Let me give the other line first.

[A]

I was gonna say this. Or is it ugly Dan?

[B]

No, it's Pod.

[A]

It's Pod.

[B]

This one is also mean. He goes. Pod goes. He's talking about. And he goes. Anyone else want to sing? And he goes, mayhaps we should proceed.

[A]

And.

[B]

Oh, no, sorry, that's. That's the one you want to do. I want to do this one. Nero goes, do any of you wish to join her in song? I implore you. Bold reds of. He looks to his assistant who mouths the name Lykos. Join her if you wish.

[A]

Like, he doesn't know where he is.

[B]

That is.

[A]

He cares so little about these people.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That he. He's. Bold reds of. Where am I?

[B]

Where am I? Like, that is so what slum is this man? Insane.

[A]

I cannot believe it.

[B]

And then when no one joins. Yep. You get this.

[A]

Podgy pig goes, maybe we should proceed. Mayhaps we should proceed. And this fucker, man. Narrow says, yes. The Arch Governor says idly. I have an appointment with Arcos. Hang the rusty bitch, lest she continues to howl. Are you fucking kidding?

[B]

Oh my God, dude.

[A]

Hang the rusty bitch lest she continue to howl.

[B]

Dude, it's. It's goosebumps.

[A]

If you want to feel hate tingle at my spine that moment. Like I. Every time I read that, I'm like, are you? I would rip his throat out of his body if I could.

[B]

Incredible.

[A]

Also unbelievable.

[B]

Lauren sighting. Shout out, Lauren. Shout out. Lorne.

[A]

Remember that name. Arcos.

[B]

Very cool, Dan. Before we go to the next chapter, I just wanted to highlight this to me. Iyo sings that song. It's her choice. She believes that Darrow can't live for more while she lives. Does that make sense? She can't. She can make herself a martyr. Yes, but it's not even about that. Her dying isn't her going, I'm trying to become a martyr. Darrow is actually in fact right about that. What Darrow's did, What Darrow's dad did. Dying to make himself a martyr. Dying for them. It didn't bring them more food. It didn't bring revolution. All it did was cost Darrow's family a husband and a father. EO believes only Darrow can bring revolution. Yeah. Right or wrong, that is her belief. But while she lives, he won't act. So was this an overreaction by her? Especially considering what we know about her, what we'll learn. I think so. But in her train of thought, I want revolution. Becoming a martyr does not bring that. Only a leader can bring revolution. Only you are that leader. But while I'm alive, you only care about me. Me. Yep. So I have to be gone for to free our people.

[A]

I know.

[B]

It is also hilarious to me.

[A]

Should we hear the Reaping Song?

[B]

Oh, yes. Maybe.

[A]

Well, I mean, like, I'm not going to play it. I'm going to read it.

[B]

Oh. Oh, yeah, sure.

[A]

Like the Reaping song is.

[B]

My love.

[A]

My love. Remember the cries when winter died for spring skies they roared and roared but we grabbed our seed and sewed a song against their greed and down in the veil hear the reaper swish Swing the reaper Swing the reaper swing down in the vale hear the reaper sing a tale of winter. John, my son. My son. Remember the chains when gold ruled with iron reins we roared and roared and twisted and screamed for hours A veil of better dreams.

[B]

Now you're dead.

[A]

Now you're dead. Yeah, I'm dead.

[B]

Yeah, you have to die Now I'm toast. It's Also hilarious to me, Dan. That EO goes, oh my God. Only Darrow can free us. Darrow needs to start a revolution. Darrow will only start a revolution if I'm dead. So I have to kill myself for Darrow to act. And then she kills herself. And then it totally doesn't work. And he goes, Romeo and Juliet. And kills himself. And she's like, fuck. Like, that's such a nightmare, dude. I wish she could be resurrected just so. He's like. She's like, did you kill yourself after that? You fucking pussy. You clown. And he's like, I sure did. I sure did.

[A]

It's so true, man.

[B]

Like, her last act on earth was to end her own life just to motivate him enough to do something. And all he did was was get himself hanged. It's so unbelievable performance from our. From our guy Darrow. Unbelievable. Which brings us to chapter six. Chapter six. The Martyr Live for more. She mouths to me. She reaches into her pocket and pulls the haus icon gave her. It is smashed and flat. Then loudly she screams to all those gathered. Break the chains. IO is now being hanged for her song.

[A]

Chapter opens and IO is hanged. Like there. There's no someone going to stop this. Is this going to be saved? IO is hanged.

[B]

They paralyzed Jason Street. See you later. She gets to choose per custom him who she gives her last words to. Darrow is ready for her to say his name. But she says Dio, her sister. It kills him. But he loves her and he won't let this tarnish that. We will find out why she chose Dio. What she says to Dio. But it's not for Darrow to know yet. It's not for we don't. I don't want to spoil this for the people that may be reading along with us. If you've read, you of course know. And it is so sad that. But I have a line here. I. I was going to say it for the quotes, but I'll just say it now because I just thought it was so beautiful. It says quote from the book. I am ready for her to say my name. But she does not. Her eyes never leave mine. But she calls her sister out. Dio. The word trembles in the air. She is frightened now. I do not react as Dio climbs the scaffold stairs. I do not understand. But I will not be jealous. This is not about me. I love her and her choice is made. I do not understand. But I will not let her die knowing anything but my love. Yeah.

[A]

Oh my God. I'm Gonna cry during this chapter, just so everyone knows.

[B]

That is incredible.

[A]

Yeah, it's this like this chapter is so heartbreaking.

[B]

It's unthinkable that you could be watching your 16 year old wife die, hang, hang. And you are sitting there doing nothing but going, well, it was her choice by the way. She chose to give up her own life. And you sit there having so many questions, so much anger, so much frustration, but you go. That we will deal with later. For now you get just my heart.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Again we get the call back to one of my favorite lines that I think about often. On Mars there is not much grief, gravity. So you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it. Darrow will not let her suffer. He steps forward to do it. Insane, Dan. Insane that at the top of chapter six, 16 year old Darrow just broke the neck of his 16 year old wife who. Who sacrificed her own life.

[A]

We literally start this book hearing that Nero had to do that for Darrow's father. And you think as the reader, this is this savage thing that we know about in Lykos and on Mars. But we're not gonna see this anytime soon, right?

[B]

Wrong.

[A]

In part one we're gonna see our hero do this to his wife.

[B]

Insane.

[A]

Brutal. Absolutely brutal.

[B]

Daryl goes home, the family's taking care of him.

[A]

Dresses, wounds.

[B]

Yep, yep. And Darrow says, they're all here to make sure I'm okay. But they're actually here to make sure he knows. They're actually gonna make sure he doesn't do anything. AKA do something stupid. AKA get himself killed. Obviously he has built a tunnel to sneak out when he was a child, which he accesses now. And he immediately sneaks out. Luckily Uncle Nero is waiting for him on Darrow's mother's orders. Kind of right. Like she's like, he's going to sneak out. But someone, someone be back there. Yes. They have a nice conversation here. It's interesting because they disagree passionately. But Narrow puts some respect on him. He says, I tried to stop your father from killing himself. But I can tell when a man's mind is made up.

[A]

I love this moment so much, Chris. Obviously this moment is much deeper. But we also see as he's walking through the commons, we see the HC playing the video of the execution of her hanging him, pulling her feet. We hear the song and it's altered, right? Like we see something glitching and he's kind of noticing it. He's like, what's going on here? Like it looks Almost like. Like it's been altered to show her sacrifice. Because we see and hear the song and he's kind of like, what is going on? But to in this moment see Nero there expecting Darrow but not stopping him is. It's the understanding and the love between the two of them that we've known is there and want to see. And now we are seeing it. In his darkest moment, Nero will not do anything but literally just walk next to him.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And importantly, give him a drink. Yep. He's drinking out of his flask. Dara takes it, says it tastes strange, but we move on.

[A]

Darryl's got weird swill, brother.

[B]

He's. He's a booze bag, dude. It's probably some new cocktail.

[A]

And he's making out gold slick vodka, dude. Yeah, Little flakes of golden.

[B]

Yeah, dude. There's helium. It's got pure helium in it. My man.

[A]

Yeah. Give me your booze.

[B]

Oh, my God. He can tell when a man's mind's ate up. He asks if Darrow's mind is made up too. It is. And Darrow is really here because he. He saw his dad hang and rot away into a skeleton in the gallows. And he will not let his gorgeous, beautiful, sweet little iyo wife. He will not let that happen to her. So he's going to take her body down, which will mean death. Uncle Meryl says, tell them hello from me in the vale. Give my brothers a toast and my wife a kiss. Especially Dancer. Darrow says, Dancer her. Nero says, you'll know him. Then break the chains.

[A]

Break the chains. And that. That huge moment, there is another like, IO knew what she was doing and what this would result in. Darrow knows what he's doing and what this will result in. So these messages that he's receiving, it's the say hi to Dancer. And he's like, who? And he's like, you'll know him. And it's. He's like, okay, he's talking about the veil. But then break the chains is like a. I know what I'm doing here. It's like nerl knows something.

[B]

I'll go back to this quote. He's a mad one. You'll see someday.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Mad and brilliant and noble. Narrows the best of my brothers. My father once said. Very interesting. Very interesting. There. Nero lets him go.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And Darrow cuts IO down with his sling blade. With his sling blade. And he brings her body back to the garden through the webbery. The women there weep and say nothing because they understand what's happened.

[A]

Here. And it's these rules that the hierarchy has. When IO starts singing, no one tries to stop her because it's done. The second Darrow cut her down, it's done. And that's why there's no point in trying to interfere. That's why there's no point in trying to stop it. Oh, go put her back. You can't do it. So the women in the Webbery, just showing their respects, is paying their homage to IO, but also showing their respect to Darrow, being like, you've made a choice, and we are going to honor that choice. Do what you're doing.

[B]

He buries her under a tree in the space that she found that she loved. Because it was proof. It was proof of what their sacrifice meant. It was turning into something real. And she wanted to touch that.

[A]

That.

[B]

And it's essentially what got her killed. And it's an amazing resting place for her. Do you want to say this quote now?

[A]

No.

[B]

Okay. Daryl goes back and he's having breakfast. It's actually a lovely described scene where his mom's holding his hand. Everyone, they're eating, and everyone knows. Everyone's well aware.

[A]

And they're furious.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, Kieran is furious with him. He's like, what the have you done?

[B]

Because he's like, you're dead now.

[A]

Like, you are dead now. Like, we've lost dad. We just lost IO, and now you are gone.

[B]

But they won't say it because we're gonna sit here in the same way. Dara said she will know nothing but my love.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They will sit there and be with you for as long as they have you, because that is imminent. Yeah. And Darrow says he feels dizzy. His heart feels funny, slow. And then they show up. The Grays show up to take him away.

[A]

Yeah. And what I love about this moment is Ugly Dan, Rat Pig shows up with the other 10 pots to take him. But they don't do anything here. This is one of the interesting moments with the hierarchy early on in the book, where we see Ugly Dan comes, and he's been such a prick throughout, goading him into fights, calling him Ruster. All this in this moment, he kind of is just like, let's go. And it's not compassion, but it is a sense of humanity. I feel like we see here that we don't see with others.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And it's like it to me, it's a big moment where Ugly Dan could try to goad him here, he could be a prick, but he's not really.

[B]

Call him a Ruster make fun of him.

[A]

He's just kind of like, let's go.

[B]

Yep. And Darrow goes, yeah, of course.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They go. He gets brought to the gallows. They say, who would you like to give your last words to? Per custom, he also chooses Dio. He asks, of course. What did IO say? Yeah. She shakes her head. She looks back to the mother, shakes her head. There's something they're not telling him.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Dio says, iyo said she loved you. Darrow doesn't push it. He knows it's a lie, but he can't. In this moment, he doesn't push it. The trapdoor drops. His feet dangle. Kieran steps forward to try to pull Darrow's feet. They let the loved ones do it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Uncle Nero shoves him away. Quote, with a wink, he touches my feet and pulls in Darrow's thoughts. I hope they do not bury.

[A]

Oh, dude. I hope they do not bury me. Is so.

[B]

It's like he let it end here.

[A]

Yep. And it's not like, they better not bury me. He's like, I get it.

[B]

I just did it. Yep.

[A]

I hope they don't. It's like the. It's the. The repetition of the trap they're in, of being slaves to this hierarchy. It's so, so devastating. And this whole chapter, like I said, I'm going to cry. But there were just parts that broke me in this part with him having to watch IO be hanged and go through what he went through. And in that moment, there's a quote. I leave him and stumble numbly to the scaffold so IO can see me as she dies. This is her choice. I want to be with her to the end is just, like, incredible. Holy man. It's like, this book is so good. Yeah. And it's like I said, we're in part one, and we feel all of this, but the part that truly broke me, when Darrow takes her to the garden and buries her. We're in this moment with this character who is 16, going on 50. A helldiver of Mars. Helldiver of Lykos. Working in these mines day and day out, knowing that they're never going to get the rewards they get. But he does it all to feed this woman that he loves. At the young age of 16, he knows nothing but the love he has for IO and he buries her. And in this part, he says, I place the outer bulb of the Haemathis atop her heart and take the inner and put it near my own. Then I kiss her lips and bury her. But I sob before I can finish. I uncover her face and kiss her again and hold my body to hers till I see a red sun rising through the artificial bubble roof. The image of Darrow burying her and uncovering her face one more time to kiss her is like, again, it broke me.

[B]

Can't be done.

[A]

Because it's like, how do you say goodbye to that? How do you move on? And it's like, it makes you think about, could you imagine living through something like that? And it's just like, I can't describe how much I love a story. When we're so early and you already go, I'll do anything for you. I'll do anything for this character.

[B]

The turmoil that Darrow has already been through. We're all Kindle people now, so I don't know how many pages it's been, but through a few dozens of pages, the turmoil that he's been through. After establishing at the very beginning in the prologue, we have our allegiance as the reader. Yeah. And then watching a gold come into Lykos and hang his wife. If I ever needed more and any more ammunition, I have it.

[A]

My God.

[B]

To launch into the rest of the series. And that concludes part one, part one of Red Rising.

[A]

And now, as we come to the end of this episode, as we will do every episode, it is time for Sci Fi section honors. We will start with all of these awards that we give out that are an homage to some of our favorite sci fi and fantasy stories. We will start with from the scrolls of Tyrion Lannister. This is given to the character who provided the most impactful words of this episode. And we have chosen Darrow. Now, sometimes we will give this award to Pierce.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Pierce Brown, our author. Sometimes it is the sort of internal monologue, the things that he's thinking. This one, though, does go to Daryl and his own words. It just felt like in a world of cruelty that is cruel, unfair, without hope, Darrow finds it in his love for you. I just think in this section, in part one of this book, we see all of the ways that they are slaves. They are enslaved by this world. But his ability to not let the reality of his situation in his life darken his heart is truly breathtaking. And it's like. It's what I just said, head. It's why we're like, I'm willing to claw with my fingernails for Darrow because you were just like. You see love in the darkest of worlds. It's unbelievable. And it's like, this is Our hero story. And so often these characters are devoid of compassion. They find their North Star purpose too strong to have these types of feelings. We always have that guy, right? The guy who's like, no, no. Like, I'm too focused on this. But Darrow embraces his compassion. It's a strength. It's not a weakness. And I think that's such a unique thing in this character. And he has seen death and tyranny all his life, but none of that compares to his love for his wife. I think that that is unbelievable.

[B]

And this, I would say, is one of the unique sections in the whole series where we see both sides of the spectrum with Darrow. Oftentimes, he will be cocky and witty and snappy and have incredible banter with either his friends or his enemies. Which we saw a little bit of in the snappiness to Gamma and to Ugly Dan. But we don't usually get to see how much love is in his heart. We do at times. Yeah, yeah. Throughout. But it's very spread out. This section, you really get to the Jekyll and Hyde of Darrow more than maybe any other six chapters in the whole series. Totally great quotes from Darrow. The next award is the Dobby.

[A]

Do that again. Say, this is a lame thing by me. Just say honor. I like.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[A]

I think it better than award.

[B]

The next honor is Dobby the house elf given to the character who is the unsung hero providing aid behind the scenes.

[A]

This is a great honor.

[B]

This is a great honor compared to Dobby. Yeah. May we be so lucky, dude.

[A]

Maybe be so lucky this week.

[B]

It is going to Uncle Nerl. Yep. When we meet him, we see him through Darrow's eyes. And Darrow couldn't be meaner, to be honest. From the book shows Darrow's age.

[A]

Fair, you know, but brilliantly. I think it's great job by Pierce from the book.

[B]

He's slurring. I can practically smell the drink through the comm. He wants to call a sensor team to cover his own ass. Or he's scared. The drunk. The drunk was born pissing himself out of fear. Then my uncle is weak. He is cautious. And I and immoderate in his drink, a pale shadow of my father. His blinks are long and hard, as though it pains him to open his eyes each time and see the world again. I don't trust him down here in the mines or anywhere, for that matter. I mean, that is our first impression of Uncle Nerl from our narrator, who we trust.

[A]

Yeah, man. He's so hard on him.

[B]

It's unbelievable to think that I would ever like that character or like anything about that character. But then Nero taught Daryl to dance, training him in ways that we'll see when his father wasn't there to do it, after Nero said, don't kill yourself, Mr. Darrow. Nero is trying to keep him safe in the mines because he knows the risk taking isn't worth it. He understands they can't win the laurel anyway. Darrow thinks, oh, here's this old drunk asshole who doesn't want me to win the laurel. What he's actually doing is going, we can't win the laurel. So you climbing down there and getting your foot amputated for no reason, it's not worth my time. Darrow is too naive to realize that in this moment, Nero is there when he knows Daryl will sneak out. And of course, as we'll find out, Nerl is taking care of him in more ways than one. With the drinks that they provide.

[A]

And it's any stepfather's journey, right? It's any. Any non traditional father figure. You're never going to be dad. His father. You're never going to be dad. And you put up with it. You put up with the lashing out, you put up with the name calling. You put up with the attitude because it's what's best for him. And that is such a beautiful element of Neral's character. He's drinking because he also hates this world that they live in. He lost a brother, we learn. He lost a wife. This fucking poor guy is sitting here watching his nephew, who he's been charged with raising with Darrow's mother, just almost kill himself time and time again for this dream that he knows isn't real. For this, this. This hope that doesn't exist. And he doesn't fucking fight back. I mean, he literally fist fights back, but as far but in that he's letting Daryl, he's like, sure, you want to punch me? Punch me, dude. I'll fucking punch you back. It's characters like this we don't deserve. We don't deserve Dobby.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

We don't deserve Nero. It's unbelievable. Our next honor is the way of the Bene Gesserit, given to the character who cannot be trusted or shows outright devious nature. And this week it had to go to no one but narrow Augustus. We will repeat the quote. Yes, the arch governor says idly, I have an appointment with Arcos. Hang the rusty bitch, lest she continues to howl. That quote was enough to do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This man is the devil incarnate in the story. He is the only living in the flesh representation of the Golds that we see in this section. And he is everything we know to hate about them. There is no compassion. There is no nothing in this man where others of higher status, like the tin pots like we mentioned, will occasionally feign sympathy or show maybe some outright signs of humanity, maybe some pomp and circumstance. Nero is cold. He is disgusted by the Reds. And that disgust is abhorrent. You were like this fucking piece of shit to feel this much hatred for not just a character, but everything that he represents. All of the others in his hierarchy, we hate immediately through just one section of this book because of how awful he is. He doesn't hide how much he thinks and knows he's better than the rest of them. Like, this man is truly, truly evil. And to see the torment in Darrow's eyes and make this order like. Dude, he makes this order like, IO is a rat that has gotten into his home is a level of heartlessness that cannot be measured. This fucking guy sucks. He's the living embodiment of the worst of the Golds for Daryl.

[B]

And it's incredible to think that at the beginning, you get the POV of the Golds, right? That we are not here to coddle the weak. That is the end of the evolutionary line. We must behave this way. And then we see what those words mean through the eyes of the Reds over the next five chapters, culminating in the end of part one. Here. Here. It is absolutely backbreaking. And there is. There are greater villains coming. But in this moment, it is unthinkable to hate anyone more.

[A]

100%.

[B]

Our final honor. The sword, axe and bow given to the character deemed to have earned our loyalty, belief and trust above all. After this section, it's going to IO. I, personally, I'm not putting words in your mouth, have some harsh things to say about EO eventually. Which will come as we review this book. Mustang, in fact, might be my biggest book crush of any series I've ever read. Strap in. Eventually. Darrow's obsessive love for IO grates on me. Admittedly, these are my words. But not here. Not in this section. Yeah, here. That obsession is too pure and too genuine. Even if some of the lines border on cheesy, which this series can do at times. But if some of the lines border on cheesy, it does establish. Yeah, it does establish how tunnel vision Darrow is for whatever his passion is. And again from the book in her eyes, I see my heart. In her breath, I see my. I hear my soul. She is my land. She is my kin, my love. Right now, it's IO soon this will become the war effort. Yeah. And several. And Mustang. These things will happen. But you can see here, established early, Darrow is ride or die. For what has his attention. And in this section, IO has his attention. He loves and he loves Harry. And IO, sweet little IO who put the Haemathis flower in Darrow's dad's boot. She will always be his first love, no matter what happens and no matter where he goes. So though her actions were so rash, and though Darrow immediately tried to kill himself, history will eventually prove her right. Darrow could never have done what he will do or become what he became without IO sacrificing her literal life and more. And. And. And the one she wished such great things for. To push Darrow to save their people. She is the spirit.

[A]

Correct. Let me quote Nick Fury. They needed the push.

[B]

They needed the push.

[A]

And it is. We hear all of her. Break the chains. Her visions, her dreams of what could become. And you kind of look back and realize that she's never talking about herself or the world that she is going to live. But she is like Darrow. You can do this. And it's almost like she knows as long as she lives, he won't do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because he's always going to do anything for her. But she sees that he needs to do anything for their people. The ultimate sacrifice.

[B]

It's unbelievable, Dan. She becomes a symbol in many ways, just as much as he will ever be. And I wonder. Darrell brings this up in later books. But I wonder if she, in this moment, could ever have imagined what she's asking of him. How long this battle will take. How much there is to be done still. And I wonder if she would have still acted and would have still asked this of him. But unfortunately, she is not allowed to take back that choice. And she has set things in motion. As you said at the beginning, the board is set. The pieces are moving. Things have been set in motion that cannot be undone. Yes.

[A]

And that is going to wrap up part one of Red Rising and Sci Fi section. This is a journey that will continue next week as we go through this epic, epic, epic story of Red Rising. Don't sing the reaping song, lest you are ready to pay the price. And until next week, break the chains.