Second watch through line thoughts:
Sam and Ursula have a series of encounters that evoke (media portrayals of) drug use. Ursula experiences mushroom-induced ego death. Sam’s injection-induced soporific state (complete with an aggressive and unresponsive alternate self) is reversed by a pulpfictiony needle right to the chest; Sam goes on to perish after enduring a stimulant-esque mania (picking at skin, fixations, insomnia).
Levi and Azi, and later Azi and the Miners, have a series of interpersonal difficulties that they explore extensively in discussion, building and breaking trust repeatedly as they travel. To me, this arc invokes themes of love, breakup, and family? This thought is half baked.
Kamin endures a cycle of shame as he shifts from unemployment into new work, allows the work to consume him, and overcorrects to the detriment of both his performance and relationships (half in flashback, half in his journey on Vesta). Hollow and “the company” are his quota-driven, micromanaging bosses whose demands continue the cycle as it winds towards burnout (whether by unstable sun or disgust at the self).
These throughlines all connect to something I’m having trouble naming, but it’s something like “what we do outside of work”, maybe.