‘That Which Survives’ is weird, guys. It actually sent me on an hour-long google-quest to find Parasite Eve, a 1997 horror film from Japan that I found more thoughtful than frightening when I stumbled across it years ago when it was going by a Different Name on IFC.
The two really don’t have all that much in common, but it still got me thinking. This mysterious & beautiful woman shows up not wanting anyone on her synthetic planet but insists she’s “for” whoever she has her sights on, telepathically parroting life facts to them as she goes in for the kill — literally, just a touch and every cell in their body is disrupted. This reminded me of the protagonist’s late wife’s diary — in the Japanese movie — where she explains how frightened she is of the excitement she feels whenever her husband mentions anything about mitochondria (her own mitochondria convinced her to kill herself, corporealised into her form to sleep with her husband, and caused several people to spontaneously combust).
On the show, it’s an automated self-defense protocol. In the film, it’s a primordial life-form attempting a violent leap of evolution.
On the show, beauty survives. In the film (different from the book it’s based on), love survives.
This is not something I would make into a sonnet, though it is on my list for story inspiration.