As Chernobyl returns this week for its penultimate episode, leading up to the finale next week, we are taken on a humbling and harrowing journey into the human cost of the disaster. We revisit Ukraine four months after the explosion, where the core remains exposed and radiation continues to loom as a perilous threat to all those in the vicinity.
The clean-up operation is underway, with trees bulldozed to the ground and pets rounded up and euthanized. At the heart of it all, a teenager arrives to lend a hand, while Legasov deliberates on the best approach to tackle the core. Meanwhile, Ulena embarks on a quest for answers, driven by an urgent need to uncover what transpired when the core exploded.
The episode then splits its focus, weaving together separate storylines following our main cast and Pavel, the teenager from earlier. The devastating impact of the explosion is felt in every scene, as Pavel is tasked with door-to-door shooting of irradiated pets. After shooting a dog, he pauses to gather his thoughts before continuing with his mission.
The episode reaches its emotional climax when Pavel encounters a litter of puppies. After some deliberation, he refuses to kill them and leaves the house while his comrade takes over. The sound of gunshots echoes across the barren landscape as Pavel struggles to comprehend the gravity of his situation.
We then flashback to September 1986, where Legasov and his team discuss their best strategy for dealing with the core - ultimately settling on using robots to try and clear the graphite from the roof. Unfortunately, their efforts fail, leading Boris to vent his frustration on a phone.
As things look bleak, they call upon a team of people to clear the graphite instead. With minimal time and forced to move quickly, this incredibly tense segment sees the men taking it in shifts to clear the graphite with shovels, scrambling across the debris and working together to complete their mission under imminent danger.
As our breaths returned to normal, we seamlessly transitioned to December 1986 in Pripyat, where Ignatenko began to feel the chilling effects of radiation. Her stomach clutched in agony, she doubled over in the snow, her body rushed to the hospital. It emerged that the radiation had been absorbed by the unborn child, not her, resulting in the tragic loss of the baby. The final shot of her in this episode saw her staring blankly into the distance.
The episode concluded with Legasov, Boris, and Ulana joining forces and determined to tell the truth at a commission in Vienna. Once again, Chernobyl delivered a masterfully crafted and tense episode. To be honest, this one was just as difficult to watch as the first. Seeing Pavel and the others going door to door and killing animals was an incredibly harrowing sight, contrasting beautifully with the heart-pounding segment on the roof.
The abundance of long shots and the ominous musical score truly underscored the seriousness and bleak reality of the situation. With recent news that Chernobyl is currently the highest-rated show on IMDB, this HBO mini-series rightly reacts with a harrowing and bleak episode. One that is certainly a contender for best episode of the year and a poignant reminder of the very real human cost of this crisis.
