#anyways i am putting these three pyrites in the microwave to analyse their thermal decomposition as we speak

[fancygremlin]

I love how Warren, Gordon AND Clive are character foils of one another. Interestingly, all three of them is assigned the colour gold. The colour implies relevance… which contrasts pretty well how they are viewed or treated by the other characters.

Warren is the “golden egg”.

He is the most important asset Overhead ever obtained and YET— despite all that, he is not treated like a person... he barely classifies as human by the people working at Overhead. In most instances, people talk for him, over him, and as if he’s not even in the room... and no one (except Gordon) seem to find that bothersome. At the start of the podcast he is set to follow a trail of breadcrumbs to return to the Red Valley Research Facility, which led him to discover that everything he thought he knew (his wife, his co-workers, his job, EVERYTHING) was fake. Overnight, his life was ruined and everyone was treating this event as if they managed to pull off a surprise birthday party for him (there was even cake! Oh, how lucky!). He later drives a scalpel through his own hand and people are worried for maybe a minute about him before they decide to use the self inflicted injury as a fantastic opportunity to test the pod’s potential benefits for medical urgencies. Warren is dehumanised and reduced to nothing at every turn, even before taking part to the project.

Warren is seen as nothing more than just a "fun" science project. Comparing him to a lab rat would be too kind, because that would imply that the people carrying out the experiments care about his wellbeing and are tracking his health (mental and physical) and ensuring his safety at each and every step of the way. Instead, he is simply viewed as nothing more than a test tube, a petri dish, a limited stock of valuable cells to routinely freeze over and thaw.

Gordon has a car that he lovingly calls the “golden bullet”.

He is always shoved in the background, belittled and treated poorly by his colleagues. He receives the most hostile comments from the people around him... quite routinely, too. When he worked at Overhead, he was considered as nothing but a corporate drone. Clive calls him "stillwater" to demonstrate how inconsequential and invisible he was to the company. Later, when he becomes the archivist at Red Valley, he is described as a man-child and treated like he has zero brain functions (he even gets called Igor, in reference to the character of the Frankenstein movie), he is made fun of constantly. No one expects anything of him... and Gordon internalised this, too. No one sees his importance, and as a result Gordon doesn't either. In reality he IS the one at the heart of the story: he was researching the seed vault way before anyone else, he is the one that records everything and subsequently provids the material that sacks Bryony, he is the one that explores the secret tunnel to aid Aubrey's plan and he is Warren's lifeline and only safe space while he continues to go in and out of hypersleep. He is the ONE person that helps Warren realise he doesn't deserve the harsh treatment he had to endure.

How fitting that Gordon, a character that struggles to find their purpose and their usefulness, is not even directly tied to the motif himself... his car is. And how interesting that the car is only lovingly referred to as golden, when in reality it is just coppery in colour.

Clive is the "golden boy".

He is at the front of the Kontinue project, and yet, no one really takes him seriously. He hires assistants for the project putting more importance on their appearance, rather than their qualifications. He dresses up in expensive clothes and suits to show how important he is to the company, only for the actual relevant people to not care what he thinks. During the meeting with Malcolm and Hester he was talked over, ordered around, treated more like a waiter than the important R&D person he is supposed to be... and I can't tell if he actually doesn't see this, or if he is refusing to face this reality. Bryony was fired because she was too smart for her own good and too dangerous, Clive was kept on the Kontinue project because he is being promised status and relevance, if he keeps doing what he is being told. He routinely threatens people, and still he never commits to the extremely graphic (and creative) threats he throws around: he is not the one that used the gun that one time, it was Bryony. After he is shot in the knee, his “get well soon” card is bland, generic and unsympathetic. No affection or warmth was being conveyed from his co-workers, despite the fact that he has been referred to as “the man of the hour” on multiple occasions before. And most importantly… he is recovering (seemingly) all on his lonesome. Just a Blue Sky to keep him company, while eating sad ready-meals and microwave lasagna. Where are his beloved wife and kid?

Clive is all appearance and no substance, all bark and no bite.

These characters seem to not be quite enough to classify as gold, they may be pyrite, or fool's gold instead:

Warren is the pyrite from which a lot of gold can be extracted. However, once all the gold is gone, he is going to be tossed aside, as his value is limited to and tied solely to its gold contents.

Gordon is the pyrite that was found by people who only see value in gold. No matter what, the people at Overhead will never appreciate the properties and qualities and uses of pyrite when they are so hellbent in digging and mining for gold.

Clive is the pyrite that is trying so hard to pass as real gold and wants to be treated as just as worthy. He is able to fool people for a bit, but pyrite might shine as brightly as gold and share some qualities and properties... but he'll never be the real deal... and some people might have started to notice.