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"Live Free or Die"

Development

• Boone to Da’an: “You are a part of us…you are the bridge between our worlds.” Boone says this in front of Sandoval of course, but his demeanor indicates that he is beginning to see the Taelons, or at least Da’an, in a less menacing light.
• Sandoval’s ear bleeds, and he exhibits agitation not unlike James Pike in "Avatar."
• Lucas Johnson survives, but only on a life support system and in an apparent coma.

Backstory

The Taelons

• Da’an states that the planet Taelon “resides near the core of a star system we call Q[e]u[r]uva. The four moons of our world have been made inhabitable and have been home to most of my fellows for almost a millennium.”
• Agenda on Earth
  
  • The Taelons have asked for volunteers for an inter-dimensional spaceflight program. The Untied States government has apparently been performing experiments on these volunteers involving the grafting of non-human anatomy into human bodies—with or without the Taelons’ knowledge. Some of the volunteers were held at Futurity Farm, which Jonathan Doors describes as a “holding tank” for failed experiments.
• Attitudes and Beliefs
  
  • Quo’on says that the Taelons “do not fear death as [humans] do,” although Da’an admits that “we have been taught not to dread this passage. But fear has a presence.” This seems to suggest that the Taelons have attempted to cultivate a less apprehensive attitude toward physical death. Da’an’s statement about the “constraints of matter” suggests that they may not necessarily believe it to be the end of consciousness.
  • Quo’on states that “the passage of a single consciousness offers no cause for sorrow.” This and the Taelons’ refusal to negotiate for Da’an’s life suggest that the Taelons have little regard for the individual.
  • Da’an says “I have known the Void.” Could this refer to the void mentioned in the passage from the sacred texts in "Avatar"?
• Physiology
  
  • According to Johnson, Da’an has “no brain…every cell in its body could be intelligent.”
  • Da’an says that his death will allow him to “evolve beyond the constraints of matter,” indicating that Taelon physiology is at least partially material.
• Psychology
  
  • Quo’on refers to the Taelons’ “collective sentience” and says that the other Taelons “experience a transformation in the life-force of Da’an.”