Let me start by asking you, the readers, if you can help me out with the “H2IK” reference mentioned in this episode (which so happens to be the episode’s title as well). Ajay said that H2IK means “hell if I know.” So, tell me, how does the number two mean “if?” I can only assume it’s mathematical or scientific in nature, but after searching around for a while, I’m still stumped. The closest I came was the x86 Interrupt Flag. Anyone have any insight? God, I hope you don’t make me look foolish.
Something noted in this episode was how items like hair don’t float around the sections of the ship where artificial gravity isn’t present. I really like that the writers are filling in the holes, and putting in details that a nitpick like me appreciates. The problem is that the holes existed in the first place, so other nitpicks saw the lack of details and hightailed it out of there … and now the ratings for the show suck.
Alright, so it’s probably not the lack of details that’s turning people off. So what is it? I’d say it’s the following:
– It has the Grey’s Anatomy stigma. I hate Grey’s now, and there are elements of this show that make me cringe when I’m reminded of Grey’s. The plucky music. The sexual tension. Any self respecting sci-fi geek doesn’t want to see that bullshit.
– It’s slow. A multi-year mission’s going to be a bit slow, and that’s what’s going to hurt the show. I want to see Venus, dammit! The only time there’s tension is when someone leaves the ship. Stop leaving the ship! And I want to know more about this Beta, too!
– It’s up against Mad Men. That’s going to hurt it going forward.
Despite all of that, I’m still liking the show. What’s sad is that the ratings pretty much spell out that it’s unlikely we’re going to see the end of the Antares’s mission. Is it possible for ABC to give a stay of execution, and at least let us see how the season finishes up and what this Beta thing is? H2IK.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Aug 17, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
In this context 2I means quite literally two successive “I’s”. So the 2 doesn’t stand for if, but the phrase “if I” translates to “2I”.
Yep! That’s what I was going to day. Another favorite of mine is the ID 10T form. I have a lot of uses for both, and I like the addition of the H2IK process to my vocabulary. Love TV!
“The sexual tension. Any self respecting sci-fi geek doesn’t want to see that bullshit.” – There was sexual tension a go-go on BGSC, but any self-respecting Sci-Fi fan took it all in to promote the bigger picture. The bigger picture in this show is that these people have been specifically chosen. We just don’t know for what.
It’s not up against Mad Men for me. Sometimes being in the Mountain time zone is all the rage. A perfect Sunday with TB, MM and DG.
Yes, H-I-I-I-K (the 2L’s look like i’s), is the way I saw it in my minds eye last night. Although, if I’m wrong, I reserve the right to blame my children for taking my brain cells.
And, I’ll give Sebastion a little by saying I don’t like the scenes where someone just pensively stares at the airlock door.
H2IK
Hell….if….I…Know
H…..2i (if and I) K (know)
What’s the mystery?
I nominate Bill to be our resident astronaut!
was the ghost astronaut saying “I Love You” ?
*POST AUTHOR*
I guess saying “HIIK” wasn’t cool enough. So much for my not looking foolish.
To Gordon Werner: If my leet lip reading skillz are in top form, I’d say the ghost was saying “Olive Juice.”
“I guess saying “HIIK” wasn’t cool enough.”
No, it’s just that HIIK is easy for someone like “moron-with-power” Goss to figure out.
The “ghost” of his girlfriend Sharon who he left on Mars to die is
saying;
“I miss you” the first CU.
and
“I love you” 2 CUs
Yeah I mean Sharma explained it in the training room about 17 minutes into the episode. He said “H2IK… Hell… if… I… know”
What’s not to get?
*POST AUTHOR*
I heard that. What I didn’t get was how “if” translated to “2” in it. I see now it was meant as 2xi.
Funny thing is when you asked about it “how does it translate into “if”” I, thought about Ternary Logic at first as a possible explanation for 2i = if or better when you combine two possibilities and the result is not “yes” or “no” :-)
I didn’t get it either! Thanks for the explanations people!
“Something noted in this episode was how items like hair don’t float around the sections of the ship where artificial gravity isn’t present. I really like that the writers are filling in the holes, and putting in details that a nitpick like me appreciates. ”
Speaking of holes… In this episode they mention that the ship is currently 6,000,000 km away from Earth. If they’re using conventional radio communication (or any other form of communication that we are currently aware of), they have to deal with a light-speed delay. At a distance of 6,000,000 km, that delay would amount to 20 seconds. Yet here they are carrying on normal conversations.
As far as the ratings are concerned, this seems to be the fate of all good science fiction TV shows. And now that there isn’t even a network dedicated to Sci Fi, I wonder if we’ll fall back into the near total lack of decent content that we seemed to be lifting out of in recent years…
*POST AUTHOR*
The fact that the show takes place in the far (but not too far) future allows them to use technologies that we haven’t thought of yet. I’ll give them that … at least until they start traveling out past Mars.
I think it would just be annoying. You have to compromise realism to fit the story into a 45 minute window. If you add the delays you’d need an additional 5 minutes just for what’s basically pauses. Who cares about those?
Besides they always did this on Star Trek with their subspace transmissions explaining the lack of delays. Just because they are wearing jeans we shouldn’t not be able to suspend our disbelief. It’s just 30 years into the future but if you think like that you’d have a horrible time watching “Contact” (which I quite like by the way)
I’m afraid that I can’t quite buy into that argument. Sure, for the 20 second delay I could accept it, but this week’s episode had them at 30,000,000 km, which is almost a 2 minute delay. If they are using some kind of fancy new technology, then they should make some kind of passing mention of it, perhaps during their flashbacks to the mission prep training? Or perhaps in one of the videos that Paula is constantly recording and sending back to schools on Earth?
No, to me this is sloppy. If they wanted to make the show include a new communication technology, they should have mentioned it by now. Especially given the fact that they’re going to great lengths to talk about the other technologies onboard the Antaries. Something like ignoring the lightspeed delay is just too big a flaw.
Now, that’s not to say that I’m not going to enjoy the show because of this. Quite the contrary. It’s just to say that, for a show that seems to be making every effort at being a near future hard science fiction show, their choice to ignore a fundamental law of the universe without explanation is a poor one, to say the least.
But didn’t the title say H21K…meaning the number 1?
Or was that just my Tivo?
Sorry for the spam…but look at this link.
https://beta.abc.go.com/shows/defying-gravity/episode-guide
It does show H21K.
*POST AUTHOR*
Huh! See, even ABC is confused! :)
Seriously, though, judging by how many people I’ve seen coming to this link via searching for “H2IK,” I’m not the only idiot who didn’t get the 2xi thing. So :P
Actually I think you guys might be wrong about the 2I thing. A lot of times putting a number between two letters is an abbreviation (although in this case not much of one) also known as a .
For example programmers often write for Internationalization – we’re kind of weird and lazy that way. We also link to Wikipedia a lot…
Another example: The blog-software “Serendipity” (which I use on my page) is called “S9N” by its developers – there are nine letters between S and N.
I really like the way the show uses flashbacks. HIMYM uses a similar style (though obviously not as much), in that they make reference to something we don’t know, then show what we didn’t know, and then makes a further, expanded reference with other relevance.
Like I said, I think its an interesting way of peeling back minor layers of the story.
Wow – I guess great minds think alike (I’m joking) but I thought the same thing about the flashbacks. I thought they do this on HIMYM in a similar way, without the past looking different and being recognizable only by their different hairdos :-) (remember Alyson changing her hair during hiatus between seasons two and three?)
Hi everyone! This was very easy. It made sense to me right away but I understand why
it was a bit confusing. For anyone who is still doesn’t get it:
The upper case letter “H” stands for “HELL”
The number “2” and the upper case letter “I” simply means that there are two words that start with the letter “I” and those two words are “IF” and “I”
The upper case letter “K” stands for “KNOW”
HELL IF I KNOW
Don’t you just love how DONNER commended AJAY for figuring out the problem … to check the H2IK sequence? And now AJAY is on the floor again! YAY!!
My take on this was:
H2 => HOW the HELL I => do I K => KNOW
Perhaps I mis-heard the dialog.
-RRLedford
I am not going to comment on your intelligence if you can’t figure this out, but 2i means two “i”‘s: Hell If I know : 2i, two i’s in the phrase, I do not know how much more I can dumb this down… Do i need to draw a picture?
Actually I think that the Acronym should be HI2K.
E.g., H2O means 2 atoms of hydrogen and 1 atom of oxygen – not 2 atoms of oxygen. The 2 should follow the I indicating I is used twice, no the H.
Just a thought