This episode is a metaphor to real life, that in real life, you have believers verses athiests battling out whether there's a God or not. I'm personally kind of hanging in the middle on that one because I really don't know. Nobody knows for sure, so we therefore have simply been left to battle out our differences in ideas.
Goldsmith has the believer role, and his God is the Old man in the cave. Major French has the athiest role, and he scoffs at Goldsmith's Old man in the cave idea. French and his 3 other military men have invited themselves into Goldsmith's small run down post-nuclear war town. It's ten years after a nuclear holocaust and Goldsmith's town is one out of only a few other remaining towns sporadically spread over America, apparently all in the same situations. Other than that are apparently military groups traveling from town to town representing themselves (which was really the only way they could've done it now with America no longer having a governing body), and they see who they can take advantage of and leach off of. Goldsmith mentions how there have been a few other such groups who have passed by his town in the past, but the new group with French is even more strong-armed and relentless than the others were. French makes it clear from the start who's now boss, and he even punches Goldsmith to the ground to let him know that he's not gonna let him or anyone else boss him and his partners around.
Major French immediately scoffs at Goldsmith's alleged Old man in the cave, who he claims has been telling Goldsmith what the latest news is, what the weather will be, whether crops are still good, and whether pre-war canned goods are contaminated or not, which Goldsmith announces that the Old man says that they are contaminated. It has not been made clear to us viewers watching the episode who or what this old man is, nor has it been made clear how he displays his messages to Goldsmith, or how the old man gets his information. And that is what helps makes the old man in this episode a metaphor of God. Major French disbelieving the old man's existence due to not having seen him or concrete proof of him is what makes that a metaphor of athiests disbelieving God due to lack of concrete proof. It turns out that Major French and his crew aren't the only ones who haven't seen the old man, the rest of the townsfolk besides Goldsmith haven't seen him either. And, the townsfolk have already been starting to grow doubts about him too, and their doubts are brought out further with French's arrival with his strong armed influence about Goldsmith being delusional.
The townsfolk start to really side with French, and Goldsmith begins to really become the town's outcast, where previously he was at least sort of their leader (even though they started recently becoming tired of his style of leadership). Besides the townsfolk's doubts about the old man's existence, they also have grown tired of being told what to do or not to do, such as scrimping scarcely daily on the last of their edible crops, and then being told not to eat the canned food because of the towns' doubted old man saying it's contaminated. The townsfolk are simply tired of being hungry and told what to do. So, with French's influence, they all, except Goldsmith, dig into the canned food and bottles of liquor, which were also previously not supposed to be touched. French then points out to Goldsmith how everybody is now enjoying their first full meal, intoxication, and fun in years. Stubborn ol' Goldsmith still won't budge, and he reminds everyone yet again how his old man has kept everyone alive. Then Jason, one of the townsfolk tells Goldsmith "yes, we've been kept alive, but we haven't lived!!" That there points out another debated topic of real life, is it better to follow by the book and not bend to every desire for the sake of better principle, or is it better to break the rules of morality and indulge yourselves in any seen pleasures without fear of possible consequences? Like with believing in God or not, it remains a constantly debatable issue with no answers carved in stone.
SPOILERS BELOW
The only slight disappointment of this episode is that the "old man" turned out to be a machine, and that the episode still never made it clear on how the machine presented its information to Goldsmith, and how this machine was gathering its data to tell Goldsmith.
However, the last scene does let us know who was right all along
Goldsmith has the believer role, and his God is the Old man in the cave. Major French has the athiest role, and he scoffs at Goldsmith's Old man in the cave idea. French and his 3 other military men have invited themselves into Goldsmith's small run down post-nuclear war town. It's ten years after a nuclear holocaust and Goldsmith's town is one out of only a few other remaining towns sporadically spread over America, apparently all in the same situations. Other than that are apparently military groups traveling from town to town representing themselves (which was really the only way they could've done it now with America no longer having a governing body), and they see who they can take advantage of and leach off of. Goldsmith mentions how there have been a few other such groups who have passed by his town in the past, but the new group with French is even more strong-armed and relentless than the others were. French makes it clear from the start who's now boss, and he even punches Goldsmith to the ground to let him know that he's not gonna let him or anyone else boss him and his partners around.
Major French immediately scoffs at Goldsmith's alleged Old man in the cave, who he claims has been telling Goldsmith what the latest news is, what the weather will be, whether crops are still good, and whether pre-war canned goods are contaminated or not, which Goldsmith announces that the Old man says that they are contaminated. It has not been made clear to us viewers watching the episode who or what this old man is, nor has it been made clear how he displays his messages to Goldsmith, or how the old man gets his information. And that is what helps makes the old man in this episode a metaphor of God. Major French disbelieving the old man's existence due to not having seen him or concrete proof of him is what makes that a metaphor of athiests disbelieving God due to lack of concrete proof. It turns out that Major French and his crew aren't the only ones who haven't seen the old man, the rest of the townsfolk besides Goldsmith haven't seen him either. And, the townsfolk have already been starting to grow doubts about him too, and their doubts are brought out further with French's arrival with his strong armed influence about Goldsmith being delusional.
The townsfolk start to really side with French, and Goldsmith begins to really become the town's outcast, where previously he was at least sort of their leader (even though they started recently becoming tired of his style of leadership). Besides the townsfolk's doubts about the old man's existence, they also have grown tired of being told what to do or not to do, such as scrimping scarcely daily on the last of their edible crops, and then being told not to eat the canned food because of the towns' doubted old man saying it's contaminated. The townsfolk are simply tired of being hungry and told what to do. So, with French's influence, they all, except Goldsmith, dig into the canned food and bottles of liquor, which were also previously not supposed to be touched. French then points out to Goldsmith how everybody is now enjoying their first full meal, intoxication, and fun in years. Stubborn ol' Goldsmith still won't budge, and he reminds everyone yet again how his old man has kept everyone alive. Then Jason, one of the townsfolk tells Goldsmith "yes, we've been kept alive, but we haven't lived!!" That there points out another debated topic of real life, is it better to follow by the book and not bend to every desire for the sake of better principle, or is it better to break the rules of morality and indulge yourselves in any seen pleasures without fear of possible consequences? Like with believing in God or not, it remains a constantly debatable issue with no answers carved in stone.
SPOILERS BELOW
The only slight disappointment of this episode is that the "old man" turned out to be a machine, and that the episode still never made it clear on how the machine presented its information to Goldsmith, and how this machine was gathering its data to tell Goldsmith.
However, the last scene does let us know who was right all along