Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.

Hello, this is Peter Segal, hosting the fifth and final episode of the Chernobyl podcast.

We have been following along with the broadcast of the Chernobyl mini-series on HBO and on Sky.

And after every episode we have been talking with Craig Mason, the creator of the show, the executive producer and the sole writer.

And it's been a privilege to do so, Craig. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Peter. You've been an excellent interlocutor.

Thank you.

Yes. We'd like to use big words with each other.

In the basis of our relationship. At any rate, let's dig into this episode.

The episode opens with life before the explosion, the day of the explosion.

And I have to say, I've seen this trick before to go back in time before some disaster.

But for some reason, it seemed extraordinarily resonant and emotional this time.

Obviously, because we've spent four hours seeing what happened next, knowing what is in front of these people is quite terrifying.

Because of that scene, it led to a number of moments for me watching it, or I kept thinking that somebody could stop it.

That's exactly right. And somebody could have stopped it.

Right. And in fact, this opening little montage around Pripyat eventually turns into a scene where three men are sitting in an office,

Sprukanov, Femin and Diatlov. And they're discussing something that later on we will find out was the first moment it could have been stopped.

Right.

And they failed to, in no small part, because we find out here, and this is true, that there was an expectation, a general expectation of promotion.

The idea being that if this gets solved, perhaps Sprukanov gets bumped upstairs, Femin takes his job.

Diatlov in particular, from what I read, was motivated to get off the work floor, as they say.

He wanted to get out of the control room, get out of the work floor, and get into an office and become more of a boss.

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