Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion. S2. EP. 2

The Main Law in Ad Vitam

    Episode 4 starts with Darius driving. We are unsure of where he is going but we will find out later. The scene of Darius in the car slow fades to the road which then fades into the room where Lin/the alien thing is. In this room we see doctors dissecting Lin/alien thing. The doctors say that it is in fact Lin but her cells are different. Her cells either show her being 25 years old or over 100 years old. The doctor goes on to say that aside from the DNA Lin/alien thing was not human. We then see that Christa is in the car with Darius and she is still translating Linus's code. We then see Darius question a bus full of people. After Darius gets back into the car with Christa, they drive off and Darius and Christa begin talking about the translations. Christa says that there is a lot of talk about the great beyond and what comes after death. The words outside world is mentioned the most. Christa then complains about having to translate all of the passages. Darius gets a little angry but talks Christa into continuing the translations. Darius notices that Christa is holding a drawing and asks what it is and Christa gives an answer as a joke but that angers Darius a bit. Darius then shows Christa a picture of Lin. Christa is confused at first but then Darius tells her its Lin. Darius then reveals that they are on the same road that Lin took before she ended up like she did. Christa asks what happened to Lin and Darius says that is what they are trying to find out. Darius continues to question people at bus stops and bus drivers and those on buses that are leading to where they are going. We then hear and watch as Christa continues to translate the photos. 

    Christa is then seen in the restroom talking to Nahel. Then we see Christa and Darius in a store and someone who was eavesdropping on a conversation that Darius was having with the store clerk. She tells them about a place where there has been a lot of activity. This leads them to a farm where legal fights are held at a gentleman's club on the farm. Christa and Darius find a hotel to stay in for the night. Darius is seen on the phone talking to someone from the precinct. Christa and Darius go to have dinner and while at dinner there are some drunk guys who bother Christa and Darius. Christa leaves the restaurant and goes to her room and Darius orders himself a drink. After having some drinks the drunks order Darius a drink, Darius throws the drink at the center of the guys table and tells them to meet him outside. Once they are all outside Darius takes on the 3 drunks, in a fist fight and loses because he is outnumbered. Darius is then seen making his way to his room by Christa. Christa helps him get into bed and then leaves. We then see Darius getting regenerated in the past and we see that he survived the regeneration but his son did not. Darius is then seen waking up after regenerating in the future and he is healed of all his aliments from the night before.

    After Darius and Christa hit the road again, Darius is seen interviewing one final batch of bus riders when the bus leaves Christa recognizes the sign behind the bus to be one of Linus's drawings. Christa and Darius then go to check the place out and it looks like an abandoned restaurant. Christa then spots a man out in the middle of the field. Darius goes to interview him and the man tells Darius that there were a couple of men at the abandoned restaurant and that a white van picked them up and took them to an old sanitarium. Darius and Christa go to investigate this place and find nothing but a bunch of bags, mattresses and blood spots all over. After this discovery Christa is taken back to the city where they live by Lesky. Darius arrives home and then gets a phone call Lesky that he needs help. Lesky let Christa go somewhere by herself and she hasn't returned like they agreed. Darius then finds that Christa took an emergency gun from him and that is where the episode ends. 

    The main law in this show is that you cannot regenerate until you are 30 years of age. The reason that this law exists is because if you regenerate before then the doctors can't control what happens. This can be especially dangerous. The result could be death or a mutation in the cells. We see the example of both death and the cell mutation in this episode because when we see Lin she is the example of the mutation and then Darius's son is the example of death. This is a very valid law because this society doesn't want people to die anymore or have problems like cell mutations. Regeneration makes it so those things aren't around anymore as long as you regenerate at the right age.

The Moral Problems of Ad Vitam

Episode 3 of Ad Vitam begins with Christa's last night at Darius's home. Christa is going back to the psychiatric center that we first met her in. Darius's wife is not to happy about it and tells Darius that the psychiatric center is basically a prison. Darius's wife is revealed to have had a career as a lawyer 20 years ago and tells Darius that Christa has rights and that Darius can't keep using her the way he is. Christa walks in on the conversation and seems to have heard everything and Darius wife wants Christa to take a stand. Christa simply tells Darius's wife not to worry about her and that she will be fine. That doesn't seem to relieve Darius's wife at all. We are then at the police station with Darius, Christa, and Lesky. They are discussing the case with another police officer. According to this police officer more then 277 of minors who were dropout, radicals, drug users, and/or did other things against the law have gone missing over the last 6 months. This information matches Linus's statement from the last episode. While they are talking the mother from episode one is seen rushing up to Darius asking if they can talk. Darius rubs her off by saying she couldn't be up in the squad room. Darius then continues talking to the other police man while Lesky takes care of the mother. Lesky comes back to Darius with a message saying that they located an uncle for one of the many suicide victims. Before going to see this uncle they take Christa to Barbeau. Barbeau has been copying evidence found where Linus took Christa in episode 2. The evidence is a bunch of paper and hard drives written in code and Christa is the only one who can decode it. Darius and Lesky then leave to find this uncle at Stern Museum. 

    Stern Museum is a museum dedicated to teaching people about the regeneration process, how it was discovered, and who discovered the power of regeneration. They are taken to a room with a singular jellyfish to wait to talk with the uncle. This jellyfish is massive compared to a human male. This is also the same jellyfish Stern used to discover regeneration, its name is Eva. After waiting a few moments the uncle comes in and they begin to talk. Darius gives his condolences and says that psychological support was on its way. Lesky asks how the uncle knew about the death of his niece and he says he saw it on the news. Darius asks why he didn't come to the police and the uncle says he was to busy with the Stern Museum. He then begins to say he hasn't seen his niece in two years. He then acts as if his niece was just a nuisance because he never wanted to be her guardian after her parents died. Darius then shows the uncle a picture of Linus and asks if he looks familiar. The uncle shakes his head no and says again he hasn't seen his niece in two years. Darius then gets a call from the precinct and stops the interview. While Darius is on the phone Lesky and the uncle talk. The uncle says something that seems to rub Lesky the wrong way. The uncle says we don't really need kids anymore. I mean we are having an over population issue so who cares if some minors off themselves. Darius interrupts this conversation and tells Lesky that they have a lead. 

    This lead, takes Darius and Lesky to a hospital morgue. In this hospital morgue is Linus. Linus isn't dead but he is with the dead niece from before and he is trying to take the body. Luckily for Darius and Lesky, the hospital security caught Linus before he could leave. The hospital security guard then plays the video of Linus getting the body out of the freezer and talking to it. Telling the corpse to not be afraid that everything would be ok. After showing Linus still beating on the door of the hospital morgue we start to hear Christa's voice. She is decoding the coded evidence from Linus's old hideout. Most of it is about death and what its like after you die. We then see Christa and Barbeau talking and Barbeau tells Christa she has internet and the computer she was given to write down everything she decoded. Immediately she looks up the address for Virgil Berti. Virgil Berti is the guy who owned that party center for minors. Then Christa asks to use the restroom to while stealing some evidence. 

    Once Darius and Lesky bring Linus in for questioning they bring Christa up to watch some of the interrogation and then Darius orders Lesky to take Christa back to the psychiatric center. We then see Linus in his holding cell with Darius. Darius tells the story about before regeneration was a thing and that makes Linus freak out a bit but Linus doesn't give anything away about the suicide cult he is apart of. We then see Darius's wife get a call from Darius saying he is going to spend the night at the precinct doing interrogations. Darius's wife seems upset about this because it looked like she was planning on telling Darius she was pregnant with his baby but instead she just tells him over the phone. After hearing this news Darius doesn't say anything and they end the call. 

    Back with Christa we see her talking with a fellow psych center patient and they get to talking about a contact to get Christa a weapon. The other girl thinks Christa is joking but changes her mind when Christa offers up the stole evidence which is the drug Christa was given by Linus. Then a psych nurse comes and tells Christa her lawyer is at the center and it turns out to be Darius's wife. They sit and talk for a bit.

    Darius is then seen talking to a minor, Maxi about some other minor named Lin. Lin told this Maxi that she wanted to leave and that there was somewhere where they could be free. Maxi seems very worried about Lin. We then see Darius researching the decoded stuff using a key word. He gets a lead but needs to talk to Linus some more but according to the law they can't hold Linus anymore so he is on his way to see a judge. Darius catches up to Linus and the officer from before and then the officer and Linus are shot by the mother from earlier this episode. Lesky and Christa also witnessed this happen. After that happens we see Darius at the hospital checking up on the officer because the officer lived but Linus did not. 

    We come back to the station in Lesky's office. Lesky is upset because he had never seen death first hand. Christa and Lesky then talk a little and they end up having sex. After this Christa asks Lesky to give her three hours to herself. During these three hours she goes to a store to purchase a weapon to kill someone with. We found out that she wants to kill Virgil Berti. She gets so close to doing it when someone rings the doorbell to Virgil's home and he is taken to see someone. The episode ends with Darius getting a phone call from someone at the precinct, they found Lin! When Darius arrives Lin ends up being some weird alien looking thing that was pulled out of the ocean a day ago.

   The moral issues that come up in this show are suicide and whether or not they can keep people from having children. Suicide is the main issue we see because in both episode 1 and 2 people committed suicide. Suicide is a problem because people don't understand death. Death is something they can't comprehend anymore because it doesn't happen anymore. Regeneration is the cure for death in this show. Minors in this show are the ones committing suicide before they are able to regenerate. This is a problem because it isn't just one suicide usually its usually a mass suicide that happens. The reason this is a problem is because people don't understand the concept of death and they get frustrated and even violent when someone dies. The reason keeping people from having kids is a problem is because they are having an over population problem and the government wants to stop people from having kids so that way the over population problem doesn't become an even bigger problem. When Lesky is talking with the uncle, the uncle says something that is way out there to Lesky. He says who cares if minors off themselves. We have an over population problem, so what does it matter if minors off themselves. This is mind boggling because in our world no one doesn't care when someone dies, there are at least a couple of people who care.

Ideology Behind Ad Vitam

Episode 2 of Ad Vitam starts where episode 1 left us. One of our main characters Christa was beaten up at the end of episode 1 and was rushed to the hospital and the plan to get the suicide cult that Christa was apart of was a success. Episode 2 starts with Christa in the hospital, she is talking with a boy named Nahel. They talk about what happened at the ceremony that Christa was at. Christa says she saw the leader of the suicide cult she was apart of. Nahel says that is impossible because he is dead. Then Nahel leans in to kiss Christa as if they are lovers and he disappears when a nurse opens the door. This makes us think that Christa imagined that entire encounter. After we see that, Darius our other main character walks into Christa's room in the morning or day time and finds out Christa is still going to part take in finding the suicide cult. Lesky interrupts the private moment that Darius was having with Christa by telling Darius that they found the where the call came from. Darius and Lesky go to investigate the place and find out they aren't going to be able to figure out who made the call because the owner of the place doesn't keep track of who is entering their place of business. We then see Christa at her parents home and she gets a visitor so to say. The boy then says lets go if you want me to help now is your chance. They proceed to leave Christa's parent's home and Christa cannot see where they are going. Once they arrive at their destination the boy is revealed to be someone from the same cult Christa was a part of. His name is Linus, and he is a survivor of the last mass suicide. He gives Christa food and then while they are eating Linus is interrupted by a girl who takes him away to talk with someone. While Linus is away Christa looks around and finds a tape with Nahel's name on it. She takes it and returns to her seat. After they finish eating, Linus takes her to a place where minors are allowed to "let loose" and be "carefree". He then starts talking about how there will be more mass suicide occurrences. He then takes out a Rubik's Cube that is all black. He fiddles with it and it opens and contains drugs. He urges Christa to take one and she eventually does. After taking the drug she has visions or what we later find out to be a simulated close to death experience. She finally wake up on a train and then she is in the police precinct. This is when we find out that the drug Christa took was a type of meth. This also when Darius finds out what happens after Christa left her home. Once Christa is home she watches the tape and it is Nahel. He is getting reprimanded for not being somewhere when he needed to be. They repeat this line multiple times: "Actions speak, actions don't lie". After watching the video Christa goes out to the garden where there is a tree which she hid a gun in and carved Nahel's name on. She takes the gun and checks to see if its loaded because she is about to commit suicide. Luckily her mother catches her and stops Christa from doing so. Christa then spends gets sent out of her parents house and gets picked up by Darius and spends the rest of the episode at his house. Darius and Lesky are then at the place where the phone call came from and they spot the girl that was with Linus when Christa was with him. Darius goes in and chases her for a long time until she reaches a dead end and kills her self by jumping over a wall and falling to her death. This causes the owner of the party business to lash out in anger and he then repeats the line that Nahel was saying on the news.

    The ideology in this show is suicide is a weird thing because death has been cured and many people believe that those who commit suicide are dumb for taking their lives. Those who commit suicide believe that living forever is wrong. These ideologies slam heads all the time because they oppose each other. This is shown by the fact that Darius and Lesky are trying to prevent something, like the mass suicide that happened 10 years ago, from happening again. And characters like Linus are trying to make people commit suicide more because people try to force regeneration down their kids throats.

The Culture Around Regeneration Technology

    Ad Vitam, is a Netflix Original series set in the future. Episode 1 starts out on the birthday of the "elder", the "elder" is the oldest living person. Its her 169th birthday and the whole world celebrates this day. The reason this woman is 169 is because in this futuristic world people don't die because of old age, in fact, death has been cured. And because death is cured, suicide is the main problem in this society. After the celebration for the elder has died down a bit we are taken to a beach where there are many bodies of teenagers floating in the water. This is when we meet one of our main characters Darius. Darius is a 119 year old man who is a criminal investigator. He investigates the scene the next morning and sees a tattoo on one of the bodies that links the body to a suicide cult. This suicide cult had done something similar to the scene that Darius is investigating. 10 years ago there was a mass suicide at a stadium. After going to the victims home and searching his room Darius and his partner, Lesky, find pills. The pills lead Darius to find Kenji a dealer of sorts, Kenji simply says that the reason he gave the victim the pills was because the victim wanted to forget. Darius then remembers that there was a survivor from 10 years ago. We now might our second main character Christa. Christa has been at a Psychiatric Center for those 10 years. Darius talks with Christa and they come to an agreement that Christa will try and make contact with the suicide cult she was apart of. This process leads Christa to a cult that doesn't believe they should regenerate. Christa is invited by the cult leader to watch a member of that cult "reach enlightenment", which is the nice way of saying die. After the member "reaches enlightenment" it seems to me that it is customary for everyone to hug each other. When this happens Christa is pulled into a hug and her tattoo that ties her to the suicide cult is revealed to the cult leader. The cult leader then has Christa beat up outside where they met. Darius being able to see and hear everything that's happening to Christa rushes to her aid. He gets there after the beating is finished and rushes Christa to the hospital. The episode ends with Christa receiving a text from the suicide cult that she was trying to make contact with. 

    As I explained before the technology in this world is very advanced. Genetic engineering is the focus of the show because as stated before these people of the future have cured death. This affects the culture of this world in a very interesting way. The way this is represented is at the beginning. While Darius and Lesky search the victims room, Angus Singh, a counselor of death talks with the victims mother to try and get her to understand that her son is gone and is never coming back. It is hard for her to grasp that her son is really dead and isn't coming back because she isn't accustomed to people dying, because death has been "cured".  

    The way that these people of the future have cured death was through "regeneration". The way the show makes "regeneration" possible is through a bath of sorts. If you lived in this world and wished to "regenerate", you would get into a casket like chamber that is filled with water. Before you submerge in the water, you take off all of your clothes and you put a mouth piece that looks similar to a scuba divers mouth piece in your mouth and then you completely submerge your whole body into the casket. While you are submerged, a bright white light will flash and the chamber will hum. This "regeneration bath" cures diseases, and old age essentially making you immortal. The only thing that can kill you is, severe accidents, and you committing suicide.