#boris' grandson deleted scene

[elenatria]

In reply to @fuerst-von-argot 's question.

There's a deleted scene in the Chernobyl script where Valery meets Boris in his apartment after talking to Charkov in his car.

As a matter of fact, it is Charkov himself who prompts Valery to pay Boris a visit.

I'm not so sure why Charkov had to say "Talk to Shcherbina" instead of... simply telling Valery himself why the trial had to be delayed. 🤷‍♀️

Was it just the transition Mazin needed from one scene to the next, was it to show how Charkov is sadistically enjoying showing off how he knows everyone's whereabouts? Orrrrr does he ship Valoris and wants to see them reunited?? "You idiot, don't you know Shcherbina is not in Kiev anymore, that he's in MOSCOW?? Run to him, you dumb motherfucker, ruuuuuunnnn." *kicks him out of the limousine*

Anyways, here is the Boris' grandson scene that comes next.

It is a sad sad scene really, it was probably put there to foreshadow Valery's ending. When Boris' describes how Fomin tried to kill himself "to make a statement", and when we see Valery removing his own glasses, we can tell that he's contemplating suicide. ☹

We got one glimpse of that scene when Johan Renck posted a pic he took of Stellan during filming. The wallpaper, the painting, the sofa and Boris' cardigan are not shown in any other scene so we presume this still is from the "grandson deleted scene" - and the only visual we have of it so far.

[gwinforth]

do we take the deleted scene wherein Boris has the daughter and grandson as canon

[elenatria]

What was the grandson deleted scene??????

I’m just putting this here for future reference, wondering what Boris is wearing in that scene. 

[elenatria]

I’ve been looking at the grandson scene for so long that I couldn’t see anything past it. It seems there’s another deleted scene I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere, and that’s Fomin’s suicide attempt. I never imagined it would be in the script and not just mentioned by Boris.

As for the grandson scene itself, maybe it doesn’t seem so necessary now but it’s not there only for exposition. It’s clear foreshadowing of Valery’s suicide and we see the reasons behind it, his deteriorating health (as Boris suggests) and his need to make a statement. It’s as if Valery is already contemplating suicide after getting the idea from Fomin. Because, contrary to  Fomin who was scared out of his wits, Valery DID want to make a statement. 

[elenatria]

Thank you for sharing the scene with the nurse. Honestly i think they could have showed what happened to ber, just a few seconds to show the sacrifices of the health Workers too. In the second episode we just see her being forced by a soldier to get into the ambulance while she tells him that she must go back inside: people might think that she is "fine" but touching the firefighters and people on the bridge means be dead like them. This story will always be a punch in the stomach.

Oh yes, that was @litttlesilkworm ‘s find and reblog, an unexpected addition to my list of deleted scenes. 

Interesting thing is that she’s not even a nurse, she’s a doctor as it is mentioned here, a fact that I was told by another fan. 

Talking of health workers, and thinking how horribly relevant that scene is today.. yeah, they could have shown us Svetlana’s fate. She deserved as much and it would add more to the tragedy, the mere spectrum of it, as we see it happening right now. She really was a brilliant, likable character and it took her only a couple of scenes to make us feel for her. 

The words that come to mind are “cherubic” and “renaissance”. 

During the Q&A Mazin said he was “accused” of not giving the liquidators enough credit, not making them the heroes. He said he did. The problem is that, after watching the first episode, I thought the series was going to be about the disaster as a whole, without focusing on 2-3 characters and their arc. Surely we saw many side stories, the firefighters through Lyudmila’s eyes, the liquidators through Pavel’s eyes, the plant workers through Akimov and Toptunov’s eyes, and yes, Svetlana was supposed to be our “eyes” into the health care workers’ world. But there was not enough time to lay out all those stories for us in as much detail as they deserved.

From what Mazin has been saying, the subject matter was difficult to begin with, and HBO probably didn’t want to invest that much money on an obscure little mini series whose leading actor wasn’t that well known after all (early articles reporting the beginning of the filming were billing Stellan first, Jared was just a mention among the rest of the cast). 

Mazin said he would have done so much more with the money “Chernobyl” would have been given now, after its success.  So yes, we would have seen at least one more episode (as Mazin said) had HBO trusted him and Johan. We would have seen the May day parade, Svetlana’s arc, Pavel coming full circle, Garanin changing his mind and no longer being a dick, Dyatlov mourning his son (now how devastating would that be?), Valery meeting Boris and his grandson -  contemplating his own imminent suicide as he learns the news of Fomin’s attempt, guilt-ridden Ulana feeling helpless as she goes through the names of victims and realizes she cannot do what must be done, but has to have Valery do it instead.  Those characters would have had so much more depth. But no. HBO decided we would only witness Valery’s gut-wrenching arc in its entirety. 

See what the problem with mini series is? They’re considered to be huge risks and are not given enough seasons to let them flourish, to see where popularity (and money) can take them.