Review: The Sand Whale and Me “Day Three – Tin Whale”

I don’t hear you hearing this.

Spoilers Below

It’s day three of being marooned on this desert planet and our heroine still has not found shelter, nor a reliable food source. She seems to be running low on water as well. After watching our character wander aimlessly around the desert planet before finding a giant tin can of Sand Whale meat and literally exhausting her inventory while failing to open this giant can of food before giving up completely, I wonder, what is the point of this? Perhaps this is also how our nameless heroine feels as well as even the Sand Whales themselves mock and laugh at her feeble attempts.

At this point in time, fate is dealing the cruelest hand to our heroine. I mean, she came across a literal tin can of Sand Whale meat and nothing in her inventory was able to open it! The key to her survival, her salvation, was sitting in front of her, but still managed to be nothing more than a tease and just out of reach for her. This made me think, what if this giant tin can of Sand Whale meat represents the actual Sand Whales themselves? These Sand Whales have managed to tease and elude our heroine ever since she crashed onto the surface of their planet, kind of saying “Here we are, come get us if you can , loser” as they mock and tease our protagonist. This tin can, while being in plain sight and easily accessible, proves to be an unobtainable treasure. Which is worse? Having your prey continuously escape your grasp, or having the answers to all your questions in your hands, yet slipping through your fingers? This raises another question, if she can’t open a tin can of meat with anything in her inventory, how will she take down one of the behemoths she is hoping to capture and feast upon? There wasn’t a single item in her inventory that made a dent in the tin can. We haven’t seen her inflict any visible damage upon a Sand Whale either. After a day like this, our protagonist must feel pretty hopeless. Those cans of “Green Peace” will run out eventually.

Here’s something I just thought of. The Sand Whale and Me is a 5 episode series. Is each episode, labeled as days, be an extended metaphor for the five stages of grief that people go through before dying? Let’s briefly examine this. Stage one of grief is denial and isolation. On Day One, our heroine was left stranded on an alien world with very little hopes of survival, but she rejected the thought that she might die here and decided to forage for a means of survival and make the best of her situation. The second stage of grief is anger and on Day Two, after nearly dying and being teased by the Sand Whales, we can literally see fire burning in our heroine’s eyes at the end of the episode. Stage three of grief is bargaining. On Day Three, I could get the sense of how she could be bargaining with the environment or maybe even a higher power in order to get some food, and even though no bargain was reached she was still able to eat at the end of the day. Stage four is depression, and at the end of Day Three, we can feel the disappointment and see the sadness written on her face.  I really felt for her here and started asking myself, how much food does she have left? How long before she gives up? What will tomorrow bring? Will she ever taste Sand Whale meat? Will she be rescued, or is she doomed to spend the rest of her days stranded on this planet being tormented by the Sand Whales? Is she going to live, or die? I’m pretty sure our protagonist has had many of these same thoughts run through her mind as well.

I hope she enjoyed that can of Green Peace tonight. The next episode looks interesting, but still, gives no clue as to whether our heroine will conquer the ever-elusive Sand Whales. While still comedic randomness and entertaining, the whole “silent protagonist” trope is starting to wear thin for me personally, but at the same time does allow the view to connect with the character more. The thought of such a much deeper meaning behind this series that revolves around the five stages of grief really has me intrigued and anticipating the next episode already. I want to see her live, but I think that she may die. Hurry up Saturday!

SCORE
7.5/10