Page 1 reveals that River was born at Capital City Hospital.
This is the same hospital on Osiris at which Simon will later
become a trauma surgeon. The drug bottle seen on page 6 and a
sign outside the hospital on page 12 indicate the full name of
the hospital is Capital City Memorial Hospital.
On page 1, River is using the "two by two, hands of blue" phrase
she will later use in "The Train
Job".
On page 3, panel 2, there is a stray quotation mark on the
trespassing sign that isn't there in panel 1.
On page 10, Simon reflects on his mother's desire to see him
join the Medical Elect. This was mentioned in a flashback scene
by her in "Safe".
On page 13, River is excited to steal and eat a few hodgeberries
on the Camberson property. She is also seen to have a fondness
for hodgeberries in "Safe".
As far as I know, hodgeberries are a fictional fruit; they must
be native to one of the worlds humans settled on after the
exodus from Earth-That-Was.
On page 14, panel 4, Simon says
something in Chinese and his dialog there is written in Chinese characters. Any PopApostle
readers know what it says?
On page 16, Simon uses sap from an aloe osiri plant to
reduce the pain of River's skinned knee. River says it is the
smallest species in the aloe family, growing exclusively on
Osiris. Aloe is a real world genus of succulent plants, though
aloe osiri is, of course, fictitious (unless it is a
renamed species already found on Earth). Some types of aloe are
known to have medicinal properties, as seen here.
The Academy doctor seen administering to River throughout this
story seems, from the circumstances, to be the same doctor seen
in the opening flashback sequence of Simon's rescue of River in
"Triggered", but he looks very
different. The doctor is not named here, but is called
Dr. Mathias in
"Triggered".
On page 19, the Academy doctor uses a hypnotically implanted
code phrase to stop River's violent attack and put her to sleep. It
is "Eto kuram na smekh." This is Russian for "even
chickens will laugh at that", which is a Russian idiom meaning
"that's absurd". Simon also uses this code phrase on River in
"Triggered".
Simon's rescue of River from the Academy on pages 37-38 does not
quite match the way it was depicted in
"Triggered".
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Episode Studies
