Chernobyl Episode 4 Reaction | The Happiness of All Mankind

[@HydrateOrElse]

"Don't let them suffer, or I'll kill you" Bacho understands what has to be done, and he's doing what he can to limit the suffering of the animals. He also knows if they're left out there in the poisoned landscape, they'll suffer a much worse fate. It's a rough job, no doubt.

[@kinokind293]

I agree. Bacho is a decent man doing the best he can under the circumstances. His paternal treatment of Pavel, his kindness in not letting the animals suffer. . .He probably has a wife and kids - and possibly a dog - at home.

[@Sinewmire]

Bacho isn't heartless, he's jaded. It's amazing what people can get used to, and after a while what was once horrifying becomes commonplace, boring, even.

[@amy_grace]

I thought it was pretty apparent - from the protective way he treated the kid and how he insisted on the animals not suffering - that he actually had quite a lot of compassion.

[@Sinewmire]

@amy_grace agreed. He seemed like a good guy who wanted to protect the new kid, but with a healthy streak of traditional Russian fatalism.

[@vercoda9997]

He did what had to be done. Not easy work, but yes, you'd have to get used to it.

[@RocketSurgn_]

I'd also say... I think that yes having killed changes someone, but probably not in the way they might expect. And it was a choice made, as the person they were before that moment. However little "choice" they actually had in the moment, self defense/orders/whatever else, it was still a moment of conscious action that they made before the trauma of it changes them. They have to figure out how to reconcile that to keep going forward.

[@genesfel]

This so much. i feel like many people misinterpret his "that was you all along" as "you have always been a killer" or something like that, but rather that "everyone can kill someone given the right circumstances"

[@Hugh-S]

Paul Ritter, the actor playing Dyatlov sadly passed away in 2021. Absolutely fantastic in this role. If an actor can make you HATE the character they're playing then they've done their job phenomenally.

[@KayoMichiels]

Yeah, i used to hate Joaquin Phoenix because of his role in Gladiator...

[@Braincleaner]

he was best known in the UK for being a great comic actor as well...

[@brandonwilliams957]

I wonder if they used the name “Dyatlov” as a kind of easter egg reference to the “Dyatlov Pass incident”? It could have been the guy’s real name but it would seem like a crazy coincidence.

[@miller-joel]

What if the actor is a complete ahole and is just playing himself? Huh? Huh?

[@johncolt3582]

Art needed "entertain", it's supposed to make you feel something, and maybe you find something true about yourself, like "we can not allow such a government to come to power again"

[@cyberdan42]

The horror of killing is the point Bacho is making. It is the realisation that despite the existential horror of killing a person when you wake up, you realise you are still alive, that you still appreciate your hours of life, despite the knowledge that you took this from another. That is the true horror that you can do such a thing and continue; you are still you, that it was you all along - that you have the capacity to commit the most fundamental of atrocities and survive.

[@FreyaofCerberus]

I like to think that Bacho is genuinely a good man whose been through too much. When Pavel joins he immediately tells other people not to mess with him, gets him protection, tries to ease him into it and spares him from the worst of it. He's a good man he just has seen and done too much and doesn't care anymore.

[@genghisgalahad8465]

@FreyaofCerberus he cares and he isn't callous. He's just hardened.

[@G1NZOU]

I agree, he's abrasive but fair.

[@ciberzombiegaming8207]

5:29 plastic was not to keep stuff from getting out, but to keep stuff from getting in. his immune system was 100% gone, and skin too, so he was open doors for any kind of infection or basically any micro organisms from plant to fungal to virus to bacil. first line of defense (skin) gone, second line (immune system) gone too, even blood vessels are not good to keep blood in so neither to keep anything foreign.

[@jamesharrison2512]

I think we see the story of Pavel to understand the human cost of the clean up effort on all of the hundreds of thousands of people involved. I also think that this show is a great study in different forms of leadership. Bacho is certainly not warm and cuddly, but he protects Pavel from the start - he tells people Pavel can't be messed with, tries to help Pavel understand what he is going through and takes the burden of the hardest job (the puppies).

[@jerodast]

I love Bacho. I wouldn't volunteer to follow him to THAT job, but if I had to do it, he's who I'd want leading...

[@usmcmech96]

The "bio-robots" took the maximum annual dosage in their 90 second roof run. Then they worked in the camps as truck drivers, cooks, ect. They all probably had higher rates of cancer, but they didn't die directly from the radiation. General Tarakanov (who was giving the speech) made multiple trips out onto the roof and took a nearly fatal dose of radiation but he survived.

[@submersivemedia9995]

That's not General Toptonov. It's General Tarakanov. Toptunov was one of the Chernobyl engineers in the control room.

[@NicholasSarsby]

The actual safe exposure with that kind of radiation was more in the region of 9 seconds but obviously that was not workable for the the job the liquidators had to do.

[@richardtaylor1652]

Some of them went up multiple times simply to prevent other men from having to go up there.

[@usmcmech96]

@@submersivemedia9995 you're right I got my Russian names mixed up.

[@kivimik]

"We need a new phone" is as comedic as it gets in this one.

[@nefariousgremlin7554]

I really like how this episode handled the characterization of the soldiers. No gung ho stereotypes or criticisms of someone being weak because they don't want to kill a dog, these are understanding, noble and kind people doing the best they can in an utterly horrible situation. The show does a great job in portraying that there is dignity in any job, even the dirtiest.

[@jerodast]

Bacho is one of the most grimly uplifting characters of the show IMO. Ironclad commitment to his men and to the principle that despite what they have to do, they will do it with humanity and compassion.

[@nefariousgremlin7554]

@@jerodast I know that if I was in that situation I couldn't think of a finer man to serve under

[@G1NZOU]

Honestly some of the most realistic depiction of soldiers doing normal non-combat duties, it's not glamourous, but it's jobs that have to be done.

[@morahSDG]

…I have no conceivable idea why somebody would be telling you literally almost all the epilogue factoids. I’m sure they’re trying to be kind and just inform, but like… we were just two episodes from that, it’s a limited series, people! 😂😂

[@t.c.thompson2359]

Its not kindness, it makes them feel important.

[@Big_Bag_of_Pus]

​@@t.c.thompson2359That's exactly correct. Yeah, sure, they're spoiling things for her, but they don't give a shit about that. They give a shit about feeling important.

[@Kenobeno]

Already said that last episode, these people are just plain stupid and have nothing to say.

[@akyhne]

Yeah, completely ruins the show.

[@zardify_]

Wait did she say someone spoiled it? Just finished the video but my brainfog is already settled. If they did, I agree though and I would probably have been ruder too.

[@kaseybevers5544]

"What if they find one with puppies?" I made a loud noise when you said this.

[@jerodast]

She figured out that this was the one with animals before the episode started, and she figured out there would be puppies before that scene. Good grim thinking - at least there was time to brace...

[@mr-x7689]

I've only followed her stuff for 3 days, and could instantly tell that this episode was gonna be horrible for her.

[@elizabethparker4511]

I did too. It hurt.

[@Markus117d]

What was meant by "You realise it was always you" is that we are all capable of it under the right circumstances, It's a survival instinct. It's a part of us. He's not talking about murderers and such who kill only, because they enjoy it..

[@ElyonDominus]

We're an apex predator species pretending at civilization.

[@caribbeanman3379]

American voters f*cked around on November 5th. Now they will find out the cost of the lies they fell for.

[@G1NZOU]

@@ElyonDominus I wouldn't say pretending, we're constantly trying to better ourselves, despite instinctive aggression we also have instinctive community spirit, we're a social species and civilisation isn't some freak accident, it's how our species evolved from the start.

[@Reblwitoutacause]

​@@ElyonDominusdescendants of hairless murder apes, indeed.

[@DaemonKeido]

@@G1NZOU Something a teacher of mine said resonated with me to this day: "We try to live above the monsters we can be. But we cannot ignore that the monster is always there, waiting to be of use. And as much as we might desire otherwise, the monster DOES have its uses."

[@debjoy9950]

In reality, the animal control was even harder to watch, but maybe, easier to do for the soldiers. Here they showed healthy dogs to limit as much gore as possible but in reality most of the dogs suffered from acute radiation syndrome just like Vasily. Their bodies were rotting off alive. So the soldiers just had to put them out of their misery. Also the seemingly healthy dogs would die of cancer anyway, suffering in immense pain.

[@Dularr]

Except they started running out of ammunition. Not all the animals were dead when they buried them.

[@miniroseyo]

@@Dularr time to play whack-a-mole

[@TheWanderingHunter]

@@miniroseyo 💀

[@duncanmackenzie7795]

22:30 If the attitude seems a little rough (and it is) you have to bear in mind a lot of the guys tasked with this were Afghan War vets. They had been through some truly brutal shit because Afghanistan is where ambition goes to die. There were some absolutely wild screw ups in terms of higher officers during the time, but even when things went to plan, the enemy gets a say. I think this character speaks a lot to that and the frustration. The enemy here isn't the animals or another man, aside from maybe your higher ups- it's something you can't see, or hear, or fight. A nameless, faceless fear you don't understand and can't run from. And you're told to do your job. So you do.

[@ericzingg2952]

What he did to the cow was necessary in the last episode they said they had to „destroy“ all lifestock to prevent spreading. It might have seam like a petty thing to do because she wouldn’t come with but it was a necessity.

[@kevinadams4390]

the one mistake in it being that he was most likely holding a Makarov, which would not 'drop' a cow in one shot. There is a reason cowboys are famous for using oversized 45 calibre handguns.

[@AlexSwanson-rw7cv]

​@@kevinadams4390 Terminal ballistics are pretty unpredictable, though. A lower-powered pistol round like that might not *reliably* drop a cow but I bet it would have a chance of doing so. In the UK I know that some vets use .38spl and from some Googling as small as .32 is listed as acceptable with solid bullets. (And I think we can assume that the round in this case would have been military and so not a hollow-point.)

[@benn454]

@@kevinadams4390 Shot placement is way more important than caliber.

[@kevinadams4390]

@@benn454 yes, my point was more that a moderate power automatic pistol cartridge is unlikely to penetrate a cow skull or ribcage and cause brain or heart shock for an instant death. Other shot placements in artery or airway weak points may kill quickly, but often allow enough time for the animal to panic or get one last jump. None of these is likely to force an animal of that size to fall instantly onto their side away from the shooter and the lady on the stool.

[@kevenpinder7025]

"What is the cost of lies?" That should be the motto of the 21st Century.

[@CyberBeep_kenshi]

yeah, understatement

[@Kleed44]

So true

[@androkguz]

True. In the 21st Century we have much more access to truths than ever in history Yet, the amount of lies to which we have access is so big that it's easy to lose track of what's true

[@potencjalnypracownik2966]

younger generations are more and more horrible, even this motto doesnt help

[@Justanotherconsumer]

The history of Yellow Journalism is well worth understanding. We’ve been here before as humans, though not at the same scale.

[@phonmunky]

That was just Soviet block housing, they didn’t let them comeback to their original homes

[@neptunusrex5195]

NO SPOILERS !!! 🤬 Sorry just wanted to get that out there before everybody starts revealing everything from next episode. 😅😉

[@nicholasdubendorf6824]

@@neptunusrex5195 Yeah a little too late for that. She already knows everything because people are annoying and reactors cant just wait until the end of the show to read comments..

[@nicholasdubendorf6824]

@@neptunusrex5195 Wayyyyyy too late for that sadly 😂

[@Alvaro89Rus]

Jesus dies in Bible

[@fakecubed]

@@Alvaro89Rus He got better.

[@Alvaro89Rus]

@@fakecubed ah, spoiler!

[@Glisern]

Yes it's true, cause he's not saying you wake up realizing you're a murderer and always have been one. He's saying you realize you were always capable of it, you just never had to find that out before now. Still mentally difficult, for most, and will require a lot of thinking. But you are still you. Pavel isn't a monster is what he's saying, he just needs time.

[@Fio583]

Bacho said "it's not hard" as in it's not like the usual difficulty of hunting. They ran right up to them, so they didn't have to put in a lot of effort to track/find the animals like you usually do when hunting. He is not saying it's not an emotionally or morally difficult decision.

[@philipturner9087]

Paul Ritter was outstanding as Anatoly Dyatlov he was considered a comic actor and just wore the part truly a breathtaking performs. He died in 2021 of a brain tumour and will be sorely missed.

[@MeatballCereal]

Even pretending to be at Chernobyl causes cancer

[@theaikidoka]

Paul Ritter was the corporate scumbag 'Burke' in 'Aliens' and Axel Foley's lovable friend in Beverley Hills Cop. He was a versatile actor.

[@imthestein]

The story about the baby dying was the one glaring inaccuracy in this show because it was well documented that the baby died due to other complications and medical doctors have come out to say that a baby cannot "absorb all the radiation". The problem was they based that part on a book written at the time that made that assumption

[@RocketSurgn_]

Well, there are others. Overall it's great/accurate but there are some frustrating things they really sensationalized. There was never a risk of a "nuclear explosion" and noone seriously thought so at the time (there was one passing mention by one scientist of something like that but even for them the math/physics doesnt work out even in their understanding). Steam explosion yes, that would have spread more contamination, but nothing like they describe. The reason for Ludmilla not to touch her husband wasn't to protect her, it was to protect him because the radiation kills the bone marrow and with it his immune system (and they did know that at the time). So the plastic wouldn't protect anyone from radiation (that he wasn't giving off anyway) but would help avoid infection for him. The whole bridge thing is also apocryphal with no evidence it happened.

[@AlexSwanson-rw7cv]

The show doesn't say the baby absorbed the radiation, though, just that a medic said so. I've heard some old wives' tales from medics here in the West in modern times so I have no trouble believing a medic in 1980s USSR might have said something like that.

[@RocketSurgn_]

@ That's true, and it's valid to present things that were said due to then misunderstandings... But in something that is presented as largely historical (and overall it is!) on a subject most people don't know in detail either, I really think they should have been more careful about some of that where it will be taken as factual by watchers if the show doesn't specifically acknowledge it's untrue. I don't know how you show the in context misconceptions while correcting them without ruining the very effective narrative flow, but there is already far too much misinformed fear of nuclear power without adding to it.

[@imthestein]

@@RocketSurgn_ yeah, and to be clear I love this show, I love watching this show, and I want more people to watch this show. My concern is she's watching this long after it aired so missed the scientific discussions that were happening at the time and I just wanted that cleared up

[@RocketSurgn_]

To be clear, I actually really like including the voice/subjective experience of the people going through the event, even where their experiences were factually wrong/based on misunderstandings at the time/of general public they are a very real part of understanding the whole of the event. Some of the most sensationalized bits do come from a VERY good work of interviews focused on those subjective experiences "Voices of Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster". Those voices matter, and judging some of their decisions based on information they couldn't have at the time would be wrong. However, they need to acknowledge where we know things were wrong or they add more misinformation and solidify existing misunderstandings in general public. Taken in a vacuum of a story about the danger of lies and choosing the "more convenient" narrative over the facts, I think their choices are pretty brilliantly effective. But since the audience doesn't magically kmow what was "understanding of the time" but not true, it starts to undercut its own theme with the irony of adding more misunderstanding that has its own cost.

[@Markus117d]

The plastic was more for the patient, Radiation wipes out the immune system. It's an infection control measure.

[@jeremybr2020]

In defense for the soldier at the beginning of the episode, he was there to save the woman's life. While it might seem understandable for the old lady to want to die there, what she doesn't know, that the soldier likely does know at this point, is just what kind of horrific death the old lady will be facing if she's in an area with really high levels of radiation. Unfortunately, as you would soon learn, the cow had to die anyways. And the old lady gave the soldier little choice but to use those seemingly brutal tactics. And sure, soldiers in other countries might've done it differently, with more understanding, but that wasn't the personalities of the Russian military at that time.

[@jerodast]

Yeah, and blaming it on Russia was also a bit unfair. I wouldn't think American national guardsmen would threaten civilians lives to comply, but I bet the government and the troops would be willing to execute animals if they had to. Police kill dogs all the time.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

It's not at all clear that the radiation would have killed this old woman. At that age, your life expectancy would be short enough that getting cancer would probably not be a big concern. And the radiation, out beyond the outskirts of the town, would most likely not cause immediate sickness (ARS). There are a few people who either never left, or slipped back in on the sly later, and I think probably most of them are elderly. Decades after the accident, the radiation is not going to be enough to cause them serious problems.

[@jeremybr2020]

@@ronaldgarrison8478 While what you stated is all factual, the problem was at that time they didn't know for sure what the effects would be or how bad it would be. They were figuring, at the very least, the woman would likely get cancer within 5 years. Then she would be in the exclusion zone, suffering from totally untreated cancer. Which is no doubt a very unpleasant way to go.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

It's a good point that, at that early time, no one could know the effect on various groups of people. Still, by over-reacting, it's very easy to make a bad thing worse. One thing that can be estimated, with a reasonable amount of confidence, is the likelihood of ARS, and for those in the surrounding area, it was likely very low. And the likelihood of cancer from even a very high dose of radiation is not as elevated as many might suppose, and far from certain, and less for someone at an advanced age. The more I think about these situations, the more I lean toward not evacuating people, and doing things like killing their livestock, unless things get so extreme that it's clearly justified. Evacuation causes so much hardship that I'd use it as a last result. Instead, use what precautions you can while you shelter in place. Don't send kids to school, don't have May Day parades, don't eat locally produced foods, and so on. But evacuation is such a horrible thing that it should be the very last option. At least delay evacuation enough to decide how long the evacuation is going to be for.

[@sandpiperr]

@@jeremybr2020 There's actually some people, mostly older people, who went back and to this day live in the exclusion zone.

[@MarcoMM1]

1. The generals (Tarakanov) speech to the soldiers about to go up the roof, is the very speech the original general gave ...EACH of the 4 man groups, he did this day after day, hour for hour, again and again. 2. The footage seen on the tv screen during tarakanovs speech, is actual real footage from the roof, this short part is taken from footage made during the "unstuck" operation, wich leads to 3. Joker, the german robot did actually work in RL, the operators did move some graphite from the roof with it. Sadly, joker got stuck with its tracks on a piece of graphite, and as mentioned before, men had to build a winch system to unstuck him. When this was finally done, joker spend so much time in the high radiation that he soon ceased to work. 4. Officially every of the 3828 men had to go only once, this meant that their suits had to be produced for "one time use only" , yet ...it is said that some liquidators choosed to go up several times, arguing that they "already did so (and thus have to live with the consequence) and by going again, somone else would not have to waste their lives" Lastly, with each team removing some graphite, the radiation on the roof became less and less. So later cleanup teams could stay longer on the roof for their cleanup cycle. Keep up the good work

[@elizabethparker4511]

Thank you for that information.

[@matthewungar2138]

They didn’t let anyone back into the exclusion zone. The shots of the pregnant widow were from another city she moved to.

[@BPhillips2000]

Yup. They set up & built the city of Slavutych specifically for the displaced residents of Pripyat (not a spoiler; actually I don't think Slavutych is even mentioned in this series). I don't know if that's the city portrayed here, but... EDIT: ...except it literally says at the beginning of her first scene that she's in Kiev...lol

[@RaXXha]

Not entirely true, the Chornobyl power plant is still operated to this day, and people obviously work on site to make that happen. as far as i know they don't live within the exclusion zone though.

[@BPhillips2000]

@@RaXXha There are people that work in the plant, but not to keep it operational. Chornobyl hasn't been operational since 2000 when Unit 3 was shut down permanently (preceded by Unit 1 in 1996 & Unit 2 in 1991; we already know what happened to Unit 4 in 1986). The people that work there now are working to decommission the plant (expected to be completed in 2065), security, & maintenance while the plant's being decommissioned. As you said: None of them live in Pripyat; they live in Slavutych, which is outside the controlled-access Exclusion Zone...

[@ThisIsMyFullName]

They still haven't let anyone back in. The few people that have chosen to move back there did so on their own accord, and they had to sneak back into Chornobyl.

[@efricha]

Don't worry about your reactions -- they are top-notch! I think the themes here to watch are Pavel being taken from relative innocence to prematurely old hardened drinker -- look at how his face aged in that last scene. Likewise, Lyudmilla having everything and everyone stripped away from her as time progresses. (While the explanation of what happened with her baby was best information in the USSR at the time, the real reason is that DNA damage becomes more extreme in the faster development of cells, like a baby has.) The next episode is tense, but conclusive. The epilogue is satisfying.

[@tubekulose]

The oppressive music is by Icelandic cellist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, who has created quite a lot of film and TV scores so far. Her music is notorious for its eery vibes.

[@chrism7395]

The soundtrack used recordings from the Lithuanian Nuclear Reactor where the show was filmed

[@tubekulose]

@@chrism7395 That's interesting. Good idea! Thank you for the info! 🙂

[@ms-literary6320]

29:50 I always think about the supervisor standing just inside the door. The others leave after their 90 seconds, but he stands there to instruct the next batch. For how long? The soldiers are drinking vodka for the PTSD (and also because, soldiers). But it was also a folk belief that vodka helped block radiation. I guess try everything and cross your fingers.

[@Bog_Dog]

21:35 well, if they don’t take the corpses of the animals that are potentially contaminated what would happen next? They sit there, carrion birds and other scavengers come along, eat contaminated flesh, and off they go continuing the vector for radiation contamination. Same logic why wild animals had to be controlled as well, they’re not about to stay in the exclusion zone and could end up in the food chain one way or another

[@gpeddino]

"To hell with your deal. To hell with our lives. Someone has to start telling the truth." Such a simple but powerful statement.

[@sirpurrsalot6588]

It was planed that all Liquidators only should go out on the roof once but in reality a lot of the older ones volunteered or switched places with younger ones to spare them.

[@ravenhull]

Reminds me of the Fukushima volunteers. They figured that they only had a limited time left.

[@SpearM3064]

True. And I have much respect for them. The same happened at Fukushima; older people volunteered for the duty of cleanup, because they knew they would probably die of old age long before cancer would.

[@ElyonDominus]

FYI "alot" isn't a word. It's "a lot".

[@matthewtyler-jones8317]

Paul Ritter was not a purely comedy actor. He played a lot a Shakespeare and stuff. But his most famous role was the dad in hilarious comedy series, Friday Night Dinner

[@okabayashijoe]

No apologies necessary. Your empathy and emotions make this journey that much more special, especially to someone who has watched this series before and who lived in Europe during this moment in time.

[@Lannisen]

Another great Swedish actor in this episode, Fares Fares as Bacho.

[@jerodast]

Thanks, I was just going to look him up. I've seen this like 5 times now one way or another, and his character is always one of my favorites. Partly the writing but he plays him well!

[@tyranid05]

"this will be the episode they inject some humor in" oh no

[@David_randomnumber]

"If you think this has a happy ending you haven't been paying attention "

[@jerodast]

To be fair, this is the one with Boris destroying the phone, which is probably the funniest scene IMO! And obviously pretty sharp of her to realize yeah, this is gonna be the one with the animals, like 1 sentence after she said that.

[@d112cons]

As detestable a person as Dyatlov seems, he truly believed the reactor could not explode. Thus, as he stated, he was the designated scapegoat - and saw everything as part of the setup. In rhat culture, he had good reason to feel that way.

[@G1NZOU]

That's one major criticism I have of the show, although I think the part was acted brilliantly and it makes sense from a dramatic series standpoint, the real Dyatlov doesn't seem nearly as unlikable as portrayed, and some of the denial was actually Akimov in reality, in real life he did do some walkarounds of the perimeter which is what caused his radiation sickness, and he did his best after the accident. The real culprit is the USSR culture of hiding information, and complacency in regards of safety, which as history shows can happen regardless of political leanings, Deepwater Horizon could be another example and that was the US and UK having lax safety standards and companies which bent the already lax rules.

[@joshdv4977]

"Exhausting" is a great way to describe things such as this. As always, thanks for taking us along with you.

[@MrHws5mp]

This is a great reaction series Angela: the fact that it upsets you instead of making you cheerful just means that you're a normal human being. It's not supposed to cheer you up. One more to go, with answers.

[@ruudkeijzer9106]

Yeah, this one always gets me. I may be a big strong man, but when they show the puppies and the shot of them 'dumping' the animals in the ditch, I'm a sobbing mess. Thank you for your reaction ❤

[@Touton701]

Whoever spoiled the ending of the show, I hope the next show you start watching gets spoiled. Would’ve been better to see a genuine reaction at the end of this show to the realization of what happened

[@Glisern]

These comments are always spammed by spoilers. Either full on spoilers or "ooooo just wait until next week hehehe"...

[@comehonorface3259]

How do you spoil the ending of a show about a real world event?

[@jerodast]

What are you referring to?

[@Touton701]

@ don’t play dumb now you heard her at the beginning of the reaction. Explain something that she would’ve only known if she seen the ending of the show not my fault. Don’t blame me. I just paid attention to what she said.

[@Touton701]

@@jerodast the beginning of the episode, she mentioned the divers or some people were still alive, which would’ve only been revealed at the end of the show it’s common sense I’ve seen the show. I knew exactly what she was talking about before she had even seen the scene mentioning it. Curious how that works

[@stsamurai_]

That roof scene is honestly the scariest part of this entire series. We keep hearing about this radioactive graphite (it being remotely near you would kill you in literally minutes) that is one of the main issues in the radiation leakage on site, just for them to finally reach the roof, get out there, and see that it is literally EVERYWHERE in thousands of pieces. That’s like the equivalent of tip-toeing around the largest grizzly bear to have ever existed while it’s lightly sleeping.

[@1GuyWith6Guns]

Watching the solders throwing the graphite off the roof was the most anxiety inducing scene I've ever watched. They had 90 seconds on the roof. The scene was 90 seconds.

[@clarkmichaels822]

I also love how it's never clear who the guy was that we followed during that scene. Just another guy doing what he had to on that roof.

[@zebrion5793]

The worst part about Chernobyl is that it all could've been prevented. We as a species have condemned a huge chunk of land to be utterly uninhabitable by human life for probably as long as our species will exist because a handful of people wanted to cut corners and another handful of people were more concerned with not relaying the bad news than actually handling the situation properly. It's an absolute miracle that even more didn't die. There are so many ways that the response could have had worse outcomes. A full meltdown would have poisoned the water supply of several countries literally forever.

[@larrybremer4930]

That is not just a nuclear problem. Nuclear is still safer for the environment and has polluted less land than any of the alternatives. Just look at how many people die from the burning off fossil fuels every year, its staggering.

[@zebrion5793]

@@larrybremer4930 No, this wasn't a nuclear problem. It was a corner-cutting and cost-saving problem. The USSR leadership wanted to do things cheap instead of right. The Chernobyl guys just happened to be the ones that had the bad luck first.

[@incredulousdisbelief9841]

Ang: "I'm gonna guess this is where they start throwing in a little bit of comedy..." Me: *blinks wide* Oh noo......

[@Nay-kp6uu]

"Throw in a little bit of comedy..." Ok, now that is funny.

[@StarManta]

Yeah, to say that on THIS episode especially....woof.

[@Nay-kp6uu]

​@StarManta I stopped watching after this episode, it was ruff. It's a great show and need to watch the finale still, I heard it's the best one, idk.

[@StarManta]

@ You should go ahead and watch the last one - in terms of suffering it’s by far the easiest of the five to get through. It’s about 70% just an explanation of what went wrong in the first place, and the other 30% is pretty mild compared to 1-4.

[@jerodast]

@@Nay-kp6uu Yeah I would definitely watch the finale before you get it on this channel. It's much more technical, has some great positive character moments, and will give you closure. Episode 4 is peak grimness, 5 is a relief.

[@DavidMacDowellBlue]

16:26 They are spraying a gel that prevents radioactive dust from being blown away by the wind. Ninety seconds would be (in theory) the safe exposure for one human being for his entire lifetime. Some volunteered to do more than one, taking the place of young men who did not yet have families. Yeah, heroes. 30:12 No, she's not in Pripyet. She's in another Soviet City, which sometimes looked a lot alike. 32:09 For the record, that bit about the fetus absorbing radiation is nonsense. Baby and mother suffered from radiation exposure from living in Pripyet after teh explosion.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

The thing is that Dyatlov is right - the truth doesn’t matter, he’s the scapegoat. The story paints him as the villain, but is that just one of the lies? If nothing else the story invites you to question itself.

[@Yggdrasil42]

Yeah he definitely wasn't as black and white as he's portrayed in the series. But he was never gonna get away without blame.

[@richardtaylor1652]

Well there is no way the Soviet Union is going to turn around and admit that one of their greatest achievements turned out to be a flawed timebomb. Easier to suppress and blame people, like what was always done in the State.

[@TheXephyr33]

It's important to state, IRL, Legasov had family and children. He wasn't a lonely old man with nothing to live for.

[@thethesaxman23]

Really appreciate your reactions! No spoilers but just a word of reassurance, this episode is by far the hardest watch.

[@TheFalconerNZ]

I just recently watched a video about the wild Boars in the area of Chernobyl are still as radioactive today as they were shortly after the accident while the plant life & other animals are slowly becoming less radioactive closely matching predicted fall off rates. The reason they found was that they like to eat mushrooms that have very deep root systems that are drawing radioactive water from deep underground where the radioactive levels are still very high. FLG you did very well with this episode, we knew this was going to be a hard one for you but you handled it far better than I thought you would.

[@Yevgeniy-UA]

Don't forget to watch a short epilogue after episode 5. You will see some real footage. They are going to tell what happened to Ludmila and all other people

[@callumjohnston858]

The issue of the wild animals is partly the food chain. If they're contaminated, and they get into the food chain in sufficient numbers, that can have a knock-on effect, and get into the larger environment. Including food, water, and so on. So you have to reduce their numbers as much as possible to limit that, and contain them as much as possible. There's also the problem of diseases and attacks, especially in feral animals dependent on and desensitised to humans. Feral dogs can be extremely dangerous when hungry, often because they don't fear humans like most wild animals and are pretty aggressive.

[@aryblack]

all these scenes with the animal control, I looked away while I sobbed. This was the hardest one for me.

[@neptunusrex5195]

Hey Angela, loved going on this journey with you (and Farscape 🚀😎). Chernobyl is a hard series to watch, but an important one. I got just as emotional as you did the first time I watched it. I’m very empathic and I just wanted to hug and cry along with you watching this series again 🥺 It’s a hard watch but you’ve weathered it well. Can’t wait for the finale. 😎🙏 KZbin should send reactors free shipments of tissues. I’ve always wondered what reactors’ tissue budget is 😅

[@MS831985]

@16:12 They've been spreading a sticky polymere-based substance nicknamed "Burda" (thin soup/broth) to bind radioactive dust to the ground.

[@MichaelSizer]

"I'm gonna guess this is where they start throwing in a little bit of comedy, to relieve us of the pain." Oh my poor good woman, yeeeaahhh :(

[@mauz4588]

I watched someone else's reaction to the show and I recall them expressing something similar to this going into episode 4, expecting it to get less sad.

[@hyliandweeb]

I heard that was was immediately like, "Ohhhhhhhhh......nooooooooo....."

[@midnightbacongaming7039]

People upset about a radioactive cow getting shot. Same people proceeds to eat stake sandwiches

[@vanillabuzz]

Ewww, who eats a stake sandwich? Anyway, vegan here. So true.

[@midnightbacongaming7039]

@vanillabuzz yeah I just find the disconnect mind-blowing

[@SnarkKnight1]

per midnight in Chernobyl, the test guy was an army radiologist who went onto the roof first wore the gear you see in the show and ten different dosimeters. He "tossed five shovefuls of graphite over into the ruin of unit 4. In one minute, thirteen seconds he absorbed a dose of 15 rem and won the Order of the Red Star." 25 rem was the lifetime dose they figured most people would get in their own trips.

[@crss29]

I... don't expect anyone watching the reaction to "Chernobyl", even more so by episode 4, doesn't know what they are in for. It's profoundly human, and it rattles your humanity to its core. That's the point. To experience the gut wrenching horror of it all, without having to be part of an actual tragedy of these proportions.

[@CrazyChemistPL]

At the beginning of the episode, it is said Ludmilla moved to Kiev. Bacho really is a good guy in a terrible place.

[@erikhanson1162]

Always grateful for your reaction videos and thoughtful commentary. It's a comfort to find shared humanity in our feelings.

[@rnkelly36]

Seeing this I have to make sure this is out there but a human body does not become radioactive. Being exposed to very high dangerous doses does not necessarily make the person exposed radioactive. Only indigestion or inhalation can make a living creature slightly radioactive. Exposure does its damage and the radioactive particles pass through living tissue damaging along the way. The reason clothing and objects are said to be radioactive is because they pick up radioactive particles in the air or by touch. That is why one of the first treatments to a person exposed is a shower. To get any particles off the skin. So touching a patient dying of exposure is really not an issue if the person has been cleaned.

[@usuallyadam]

Everyone is bold enough to take it when its not theirs to take... but when it is, its a whole other story.

[@harbs_cantina]

That guy with the deep voice does so much now. Voice acting....everything. And the comedy actor you mentioned - that's correct. he was. Sadly he passed away sometime in the past couple of years.

[@kevenpinder7025]

Ralph Ineson.

[@BiggySn1p3r]

Ralph Ineson. She'd know him as Grog's uncle Kevdak in 'The Legend of Vox Machina'.

[@harbs_cantina]

@@BiggySn1p3r Yep - that's him. I think he was also in the 'Willow' series on Disney Plus.

[@vercoda9997]

He's had a TON of character roles down the years, thanks to his distinctive voice - he's been in a lot of TV series and films as a supporting actor. Being a busy, working character actor is a valuable, respected gig - from TV comedies and soaps to plenty of games and cinema roles, he's worked on a range of work, and with all kinds of top directors, that most actors would be very jealous of.

[@jerodast]

@@kevenpinder7025 Thanks, I was wondering why he seemed so familiar, it turns out probably because I was recently rewatching Game of Thrones :)

[@Chris-Lynch]

Can I just add that the one thing in that environment (really there are very few things you could do to make it significantly worse) but that would be to get naked! X-Rays and gamma rays are the real problem in their situation so close to the reactor. The only thing that attenuates EM radiation at such short wavelengths is the number of electrons they encounter in their path and can therefore scatter or absorb their energy. So that translates for practical purposes to getting as much material between you and the source as possible and the gamma ray concentration also behaves according to the inverse square law (which is why being further underground the closer they get to the reactor actually is important). They also should be wearing the masks, particularly the miners - but it makes a good story. It wouldn’t really matter inside the still air of a cabin. The reason why getting naked is actually really bad is because all the other forms of radiation will be stopped by your clothing. Radionuclides that you get on you might emit radiation in the form of alpha, beta and positron radiation, and alpha will only get about an inch in air (then become helium!) and electrons & positrons make it at most a few feet in air before hitting something so nothing will get through your clothing that way. After that don’t inhale radionuclides! Hence the masks and stay as far away from the main source of gamma (the reactor or reactor contents). It stretches credulity a bit that there was kind on an implication that standing outside the roof is ok but it’s only serious when you get out there but actually the concrete wall makes a significant difference as does simply being further away (inverse square law) so that’s probably not that far off how it was done! Btw, this show just gives a good but not strictly accurate explanation because you would need a crash course in how RBMK reactors work to properly understand what happened. I thought what they will do was about right for the show! (I hope nobody considers that a spoiler because I haven’t actually explained anything yet). I might give a full explanation as to what happened and why next week but you really need diagrams etc to do a good job!

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

What needs to be kept in mind about the control rods: They are normally supposed to be pushed and pulled a few at a time, and probably never multiple ones together at one. You have a rod pulled all the way out, and start pushing it in, and the neutron flux goes up. But in anything like a normal case, while you're inserting graphite, at the same time, you're pushing in more boron in other rods, so the net amount of neutron flux is always going down for the whole assembly. One more caution, though: The whole core is so huge that conditions can vary a lot from one side of it to the other, so you have to consider groups of rods in roughly the same part of the core.

[@WaywardVet]

It ain't just Russia. I was on an animal control detail in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army. And yes. Finish what you started. We had to bring what we shot to our burn pit. It was at a bombed out nuclear site, but the diseases of the fleas was our primary concern. One guy froze after 1 shot, so points to HBO for accuracy there.

[@lizgreer6888]

My Dad was in the Navy during the Korean War. He said you don't let yourself think about the fact your killing other people. When your in it and battling every day, your making sure you and your friends live as long as possible. Its not about killing, its about keeping you and your friends for as alive as possible. It's not until the War is over, your home and safe that you begin thinking about all the killing you did. When that happens, your either going to drown in it or make yourself stop thinking about it. You just keep living and do good things in hope God forgives.

[@Nebulorum]

Couple of comments: apparently a small percentage of people can kill without too much pain. Not psychopaths, but the "right" kind of people. The rest has to be desensitized to it. Also year afterwards an american bot went into the sarcophagus and did not last very long. Radiation is really hard on electronics.

[@jared1750]

It is true. That is you. It's in everyone. We all just don't get the unfortunate chance to see it.

[@brachypelmasmith]

there are actual videos of liquidators working on the roof clearing the rubble.It's pretty much as shown in the series. And the scene in the series is practically 1to1. The roof scene lasts for 90s.

[@DamonCzanik]

I thought the episodes couldn't get worse, then I saw this one. As someone who loves dogs this was the hardest to watch. Even if it needed to be done, I couldn't do it.

[@ljman100]

Always wondered, whenever you do your makeup for the day, do you ever think "This is all just going to run down my face when I do that reaction?" lmao. Great reaction as always as well :D

[@CyberBeep_kenshi]

One positive thing: the actress playing the wife (with the curls) is a singer, Jessie Buckley. And very talented. She has some good songs and covers from Sinead o conner, is exceptional)

[@wilgarcia1]

I promise you, no one will ever complain about a happy puppy bouncing around in the background 😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻

[@ciberzombiegaming8207]

30:04 no, i don't think they are allowed to central areas till this day, only with supervision and dosimeters for limited time can people visit Pripiat (thats name of town near powerplant). she is supposedly in some other town or city.

[@newrev9er]

Please don't apologize. This is a moving and important reaction series. It's nice to be able to share these sorts of moments with other people.

[@andreraymond6860]

This series is definetely a Pandora's box of emotions for the viewer.

[@gfimadcat]

I can swear there's something different about the audio; when the guys are on the roof in the TV broadcast you heard a geiger counter ticking and then eventually screeching, which really made the entire scene way more unsettling, not sure why that's not there...

[@Markus117d]

Copyright alterations. To get it passed the powers that be probably..

[@Lngbrdninjamasta]

18:43 "Not to b funny.... but he KILLED it" 😂😂😂😂💀😭😭😭

[@matt_canon]

43:24 There is no apology needed, every single authentic reaction to Chernobyl was very similar to yours. The scenes with pain, suffering and loss are heartbreaking to watch.

[@icanintospace]

The song the soldier Bacho sings, an old Russian folk song, Chyorniy Voron (Black Raven), just adds a haunting layer and tells you just how much pain Bacho feels doing this. The lyrics convey a dying soldier's dialogue with a black raven, symbolizing death, as he denies being the bird's prey, yet ultimately acknowledges his fate He's calling himself the Raven, and he's trying to come to terms with the job he must do, even if he doesn't want to. This show is insanely good.

[@tehdipstick]

Ljudmila didn't move back to Pripyat, which is the name of the town closest to the Chernobyl power plant, where she used to live. She moved to Kyiv/Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

[@juicy_pineapple]

"Moving" is definitely a word to describe this. "Harrowing" is another that immediately comes to mind. Yeah, it's not a documentary, and it's dramatized, but I'd recommend to anyone that they should watch this show. Powerful stuff.

[@lunagal]

The city where Ludmila was living is a city they built for all the people displaced from Pripyat. It’s actually not very far away from Chernobyl and looks similar to Pripyat, called Slavutich.

[@highlightshadow]

The way in which the makers of this show use time is brilliant. If you measure the scene in which the 4 guys went to the roof --- it was real-time. It was 90 seconds --- they mute the sound to make it feel isolation and other worldly because it was. The show makes a little artistic licence with the truth at times but in terms of the human tragedy, the normal everyday people who had to put their lives on the line to prevent an even worse disaster is that makes this show tragic. It's the little people that suffered because of the lies.

[@artembentsionov]

Lyudmila wasn’t back in Pripyat. She was in Kyiv. Everyone was relocated, and no one was (or is) allowed back into the exclusion zone

[@gallendugall8913]

You've made it through the hardest episode. There aren't a lot of upbeat movies set in the USSR. Prior to Chernobyl there was the Lake Karachay incident in '68 which was very effectively covered up to the point where we still aren't sure how bad it was.

[@erosson27]

I don't even like dogs and this episode made me sad. But thankfully a lot of animals did survive and they are thriving to this day.

[@seanmcmurphy4744]

FYI, in the obsolete units used in this movie, the NRC website says a full body exposure of 400 - 450 roentgens is lethal (LD50)

[@G1NZOU]

Some of these old ladies did end up returning, I remember watching a video in the 2000's about one lady who'd returned, she was happy enough, the people making the documentary showed a geiger counter reading against some spinach or other green veg growing in her garden which was above the recommended limit, and she ate it anyway. Nowadays much of the area is relatively safe, but there are certain areas that are still dangerous, like in the Russo-Ukraine War where Russian troops decided to dig defensive trenches near the power plant, in one of the most contaminated places where the USSR had buried contaminated topsoil, many of the troops ended up back in Belarus and Ukraine with acute radiation sickness, it's relatively safe to visit the plant vicinity now though as long as you're not disturbing the contaminated areas, and many more remote areas are fairly safe to live in again.

[@danawilkinson4362]

Thank you for the gift of who you are Beautiful Lady Love, Hugs, Prayers & Blessings

[@sail3695]

By now you've probably heard that Kyle Hill is involved with efforts to protect the Chernobyl dogs. He's released a couple things on his channel about it. One other thing you mentioned ...the firefighters' clothing in the hospital basement in Pripyat. For the longest time it did lie just where it was discarded, highly radioactive. I've read over the past couple years that the prewar tourism of Pripyat and Chernobyl resulted in some souvenir hunters stealing some of the garments. Not sure how true that might be, but people have done some pretty stupid things in the past.

[@therickman1990]

This reaction series is great because I watch one or two episodes each weekend and then on monday we get your reaction. Just finished this episode and episode 5 yesterday!

[@viktorvik255]

The saddest thing is that goverment used conscripted soldiers, not contract soldiers. They didn't even have the choice to refuse.

[@pallenda]

Edit: OMG your dog! 🤗 One of my favorite things about this show is the building respect between Legasov and Boris. Don't worry it is a great reaction, looking forward to the last episode.

[@johnnyringo80]

The scene with the cement truck in the previous episode really hit me in the gut, because it is a great symbol of how much we screwed this one up; that we can't even bury the dead with dignity.

[@marcquestenberg8385]

The problems would have been better solved if the true extent of the disaster had been communicated abroad. The West and Europe in particular were interested in containing the radiation disaster. They would also have helped to modernize and improve the nuclear power plants.