#cateotw

we are immediately thrust into the knowledge that the world is ending. we know its going to happen in 7 months and a few days, and the main question on everyones mind is: “how are YOU going to live your life to the fullest?”. there is a general obsession, at least across the united states, of quitting the mundane to go do the things youve always wanted to do, to go see the places youve always wanted to see. as soon as youre outside, you see four people on one paraglider sailing over a neighborhood while several people on the ground are partying together. high risk stunts everywhere.

then theres carol. her juxtaposition is mundanity, she wakes up, turns on the television, goes and makes toast, and tries to set up a dental cleaning with a doctor whos clearly never coming back to office. you very quickly see that she has no plans for herself, for all intents and purposes, shes living a very normal life.

when you meet her parents, theyre embracing the culture of “live freely”, and so is her sister, to quite the extreme. her sister seems to be the complete opposite of carol in every way. where carol is safe, her sister seeks risks. where carol is monotonous, her sister is highly expressive. at some point in the show, you actually get a peek into their childhood bedroom and you see how opposite they are in a stark visual. carols side of the room is sparsely decorated and very neat, with books on practical subjects, without much personal meaning. her sisters side, however, is filled floor to ceiling with things. the walls are covered with pictures of her and her friends as well as posters of things she loves, she has fairy lights draped over the ceiling, a messy bed with large stuffed animals.

when youre shown more of carols sister, however, you see less of this proud woman who wants to explore every corner of the world and skydive into the ocean and all this and that, and more of the insecurities and why shes doing what shes doing. she seems to almost live her life behind a camcorder. while shes doing all of these stunts and exploring all of these places, shes putting a physical barrier between herself and it all. she says its because she wants to share with the people she cares about, but carol immediately calls it out for being a constant thing.

they get into a fight where her sister feels like she knows nothing about carol, and shes actually scared of dying without knowing her. she wants to remember carol forever. through this fight, and the actions leading up to it, you find that shes worried about so much more than that. she says that shes worried that carol isnt living her life to the fullest, that carol will have regrets when it comes down to it, but its projection on her part. shes seeking the perfect experience to round out her life, to make it have been worth living, and she cant fathom that someone else is doing less and feeling like theyve already won

she asks carol “what is your biggest regret in life” and carol responds after a beat with “i wish i said no to people more”. her sister is immediately disappointed in her, thinking that carol was wishing away what few ‘worthwhile experiences’ she has been able to go through only because carol was forced to do them at another persons wishes. carol, instead, was wishing she had expressed more agency in her life and pursued the things that made her happy, routine and normalcy, instead of sacrificing her comfort for the views of others.

carol, through her wanderings of the town, happens upon an office building that is still running, functioning inside as if the world outside werent about to end in less than a year. a small accounting firm, where no one knows each others names, and no one cares to learn, because theyre all here for one reason: so they dont have to pay attention to their life

so, the distraction is born. however, carol isnt seeking out the distraction As a distraction, shes seeking it out because this is how she lives her life to the fullest. she seeks routine, she seeks normalcy. she fantasizes about having friends who are understanding of her and wouldnt do things to her behind her back. shes seeking community, still, in her own ways. shes the anomaly in this distraction

at first, she is ignored, which is the status quo for the distraction. come do your work and nothing else. she doesnt let herself get discouraged by this, though. first she finds a way to befriend one coworker, donna, and quickly befriends a second, luis.

she then takes it upon herself to learn the names of everyone in the office, startling them out of their distracted autopilot when she uses their names, something none of them are accustomed to. this breaking of their autopilot helps humanize not only her to them, but them to each other. no one needs to be humanized to carol, here. she sees the inherent humanity in everyone, and its her personal goal to call out to it

no one wants to think about the end of the world. we have five months left. no one wants to think about dying and about loss. we see different snippets for people and the personal reasons that lead them to seeking out the distraction.

for donna, she is a single monther of five adult children. she had her first when she was too young and too inexperienced, but she still wanted to do the best for her kid and the rest to follow. she worked herself to the bone to support her kids, taking several jobs where she could and starting her own businesses at times, too. she would often have to come home late and leave for work early. you see the deep amounts of regret she has for this lost time, how disconnected she feels from her family, which leads her to feel disconnected from everyone at large. shes shut out her emotions to the point where a dead man has no effect on her. in her journey, you do meet her children, and they love her fiercely. they dont blame her for the lack of time she had, when she could give them time they felt the love tenfold and she made sure they always had each other. there were parentified children as well as neglect, but at the end of the day, as adults, they understand she was playing with the cards she was dealt and she did her best. still, theyre so disconnected from each other. each of her childrens families are leaving the next day for another adventure, and donna is staying where shes at, alone. she needs the distraction

luis is interesting. before the end of the world ever happened, he had already travelled it. he had done what people were seeking to do with limited time now. he came out as gay to his parents at 17 and immediately left to go backpacking across south america. he went on so many adventures, met so many people, fell in love with a man, and went on more adventures. in fact, the distraction is the very first real job he has ever had. when he recounts his adventures and hears the jealousy from his friends, he says its not all its cracked up to be. yes, you see so much, but its all a blur, everything melds together, and he has no lasting friends. he made plenty of friends, but they all come and go as you come and go. you see him at home one day, a small apartment shared only by him. as he opens a box he had brought with him home, you see its a birthday cake. hes very obviously celebrating alone, who knows if anyone even knows it. he gets a call, and youre hopeful. its his mom, he tells her hes got a few friends over for his birthday, nothing too big, hes having fun. she asks if hes still gay, he says he is and its still not going to change. his voice is tired, its obvious hes had this conversation too many times to count. when he hangs up the phone, he blows out the candles alone. he also needs the distraction.

theres a third man you get a more in depth look of into his life, right after he dies. his name was david. carol finds him at his desk, and despite her not knowing him, finds deep humanity within him and is deeply distraught at finding him. she becomes even more distraught when luis and donna dont have any idea of who he is. when theyre able to find a file with his wife in it, we see that his wife is simply collecting men like pokemon so long as theyve got a thick black handlebar mustache. she hadnt even realized david hadnt been home in weeks, let alone wasnt currently in her house because he was dead. carol didnt feel right giving him to her, and so she found out he had one relative still, an uncle. however, when she and the others try to go find this uncle, they find his funeral instead. david is listed as his only surviving family as well. at this point, they get him cremated, and when carol receives his personal affects, she finds a hotel key. this hotel room mirrors her own space, sparsely decorated snd very practical, with a straightline view of the distraction building. this man was completely disconnected from his wife and his life, he had no friends and no family, all he had was the distraction. he, too, needed the distraction.

the common chord struck by everyone who needs the distraction is their sheer loneliness, except for carol, at least in parts. however, instead of using this place to simply distract from her loneliness and her life, she wants this place to be Part of her life, as well as the people in it. she starts forcing connection with people where there had been nothing but stagnant waters before, causing not just ripples but tidal waves in how they interact with each other.

suddenly, people know each others names, theyre chatting next to the water cooler, theyre hanging out at lunch, theyre swapping food and laughter. eventually, carol gets the bright idea of congregating after work, seeing that people, namely her friends, still need the distraction, but clocking it as her friends needing connection. so she suggests they go to an abandoned applebees

this starts with just the three of them and a random coworker that tagged along, but quickly snowballed into the entire office routinely attending these “happy hours” after work. they build friendships and camaraderie even more than they were before, able to collect in a casual setting and treat each other more as friends than faceless coworkers. the idea of the applebees happy hour is spread in almost speakeasy like ways, and eventually the hr manager catches wind, and she makes it her personal goal to stop this. she knows what the distraction is for

she knows the distraction is there to keep peoples minds off of the end of the world, off of their loneliness, off of their emotions, off of attachments. carol is coming in and highlighting it all, and its threatening to take apart the distraction. the hr manager tries to infiltrate the applebees happy hour, but finds that its impossible. unlike at the office where everyone is a cog in the machine, at the happy hour, everyone has a name and a face and everyone is valued deeply and celebrated. they take care of each other, they hold each other, they laugh with each other, they sing with each other. they found community

and its true, this is the thing to kill the distraction. however, before we get to that, id like to talk about the second to last episode.

in the second to last episode, we are in almost an alternate universe. carol, at the beginning of the show, in order to assuage fears that shes not “utilizing what time she has left” lied to her family about how she is learning to surf. this puts her family at ease and lets her off the hook, kind of, but its a recurring thing that crops up throughout the show to remind us of her lie, but also explain why she lied. in this episode, however, she is this person shes made herself out to be and more. shes a renowned surfer, and shes adventurous.

she has this vision in a dream, one night, of this old man and this foggy sea and the perfect wave. when she wakes up, she cant shake it from her mind. it just haunts her.

she goes traveling all the corners of the world for “the perfect wave”. the wave to end all waves, the wave that will make her feel complete. she goes across every continent and every climate, from frozen waves of great lakes to hidden fogged waves in the uk to beach tropical waves all over. she helps a friend find their perfect wave, but it wasnt hers.

when she makes it to her last beach, she finds that she doesnt have it in her anymore. she feels she will never find the perfect wave, it doesnt exist. as shes looking out over the ocean, a man sits next to her, and she realizes its the man from her dream. they get to talking and she explains her dilemma and he says he knows where the perfect waves are, and he can take her there. they leave into the rainforest behind them, hiking through the trees and vines and brush for what felt like days. eventually, however, carol sees the edge of the forest parting way to the most beautiful beach she had ever seen, with her perfect waves.

it was golden and shining, the waves were cresting perfectly and the water was so inviting. she rushed towards the beach and the water, only to find once breaking through the trees, that her surfboard was already there. she was back where she started. it was then that she was shocked back through all of the beaches she had went to, all of the waves she had surfed, and realized that they had all been perfect, because she was there to experience it. it wasnt ever supposed to be about this grand end goal, it was supposed to be about finding the perfection in the different ways it materialized every time, because the idea we all hold of perfection is a myth, and youll never find it until you realize its been there all along.

the show ends with the destruction of the distraction. it doesnt end with the destruction of the world, we never get to see the world end. it ends when carol has reached her perfect wave, and realizes it was being cultivated around her all along. the last episode, though, doesnt revolve around her. it revolves around the hr manager, kathleen.

she recounts the slow building of the community within the workspace as a virus, threatening to kill the distraction. when she goes to the applebees and is immediately met with love and care and inclusion, she remarks that she herself succumbed to the virus.

we see the people in the distraction slowly start to break down in tears, one by one, starting with kathleen. they all came here to distract themselves from their lives, their loneliness, their attachments, and the end of the world. now, theyve all realized, theyve become each others lives, theyve cured each others loneliness, theyve become each others attachments, and the world is still going to end. they still chose to care for each other, despite knowing the immense amounts of pain this would bring them. they have grown to love each other, theyve grown to be a community, to be a family. now, theyve realized that theyre going to lose their family, and the distraction implodes. theres less than three months left.

the human condition demands connection, despite and in spite of everything. to be human is to love, and to be human is to lose. a distraction only works if you remain completely disconnected, but the human condition demands connection.