Survivors - 2 Genesis

Watched episode 2. There seemed to be some confusion about how much time had passed since ep 1 - looking at Abby and Jenny, it doesn't seem much time at all, perhaps only the 'week' that Jenny tells Talfryn Thomas it's been since she spoke to anyone. But Arthur Wormley talks about martial law being declared in 'the first panic weeks', it might be a month or more.

Talfryn Thomas driving through the post-apocalyptic landscape in a white Rolls-Royce, easy listening tape on the car stereo.

I liked it when Abby gives Arthur Wormley Dr Warlock's exposition, improved and expanded, it was the first time I felt she was getting on top of things, and the first thing I've seen this week that's cheered me up. I also enjoyed the repetition of the 'will Jenny meet up with Abby? not yet' tease from ep 1, which Terry, showman that he is, knows that he has to resolve in Chekhov/Hitchcock style 3rd time round in the climactic scene of ep 2.

Getting back to the dating question. Abby's conveniently weekday-displaying, conveniently battery-powered bedside clock showed that she started being really ill early on Tuesday morning, Monday being the first day of the action which I shall refer to as Monday week 1. Equally it showed her coming round on Saturday afternoon, and presumably it was the same day that she set off for the school. She doesn't take anything with her so perhaps we can assume she gets there the same day. She spends the night in the lab with Dr Warlock and presumably returns home the next day, Sunday. By the time she's had a shower, cut her hair, burned the house down and rolled the closing credits it's night-time, Sunday night.

That estimate also seems to work for Jenny's timeline which we see in parallel.

In ep 2, we see Abby waking up and reacting to the helicopter - something I didn't expect to see btw, I wondered for a moment if I'd got the eps out of order, or otherwise if this was a recycling of the Torrance subplot from Day of the Triffids - and then next stopped by the ford, where she approaches the river to wash her face as if she hasn't done that very often before. (Tyne Brand tinned steak on the fire btw, yum).

(I've just realised btw that we have already seen her asleep in a car, that first afternoon in the station car park in ep 1. Two very different ways to wake up.)

That same day Jenny misses Abby at the ford and meets Tom Price, who she tells she hasn't seen anyone for 'days'. Similarly, that same night (?) Abby says to Wormley she hasn't seen or spoken to anyone for the best part of a week. That suggests that at least 4 days have passed between eps 1 and 2, so the earliest it can be is Friday week 2.

That timeline more or less works for Greg's account of his journey from Rotterdam. He spends Friday night in the quarry with Anne, while Jenny is coughing in the clothes shop and Abby is dealing with Wormley. Anne says btw that 'it's going to be a long, dull winter', suggesting that it's November or early December now.

The next day, Saturday, he leaves the quarry and meets Jenny. She speaks of her loneliness during 'the last week', presumably she isn't counting her second encounter with Tom Price. Meanwhile Abby comes across Tom Price's Rolls abandoned at the roadside, and then spots what we presume to be the church.

That evening Greg, Jenny and Anne run out of petrol and that night Jenny sees Abby's fire. When the trio all meet at the church it's morning - perhaps the next morning? Abby's clothes are already drying on a line outside the church. If it is the next morning then it's Sunday week 2.