How Will Culber Come Back?

[Cyrus]

The green spore is either Culber or MU Lorca.

 

[The Wormhole]

That's not enough for main cast billing though. That's a cameo.

There was an actress in the second season of The Expanse who only appeared in one scene each in the first five episodes, and only had dialogue in one of those episodes that got listed with the main cast for the entire season.

 

[Mudd]

I'm talking about how he appears, I'm talking about how long he appears. He got less screen time than Connelly or Nahn.

Doesn't strictly matter. Billing is determined by contract, not screen time.

Obviously if you don't plan to use someone much or often you probably don't offer them a season contract. Usually.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

IMO, I hope it's only in recorded messages or things like that, not resurrected somehow. That's been done quite a bit in Trek, and I'd rather this series deal with someone dying and staying dead.

I’m ok with it for a Star Trek show. After all, it is a Star Trekky thing to have happen.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Culber walks out of the shower in his and Stamets' quarters and the death is never mentioned again

 

[Lord Garth]

I think the green spore definitely has something to do with Culber's return. I prefer that Culber exist as an entity in the Mycelial Network but, if not, maybe Culber in physical form becomes a representation of his essence in the network.

I don't know how he comes back (not necessarily to "life" but back in general) but it makes sense to have a spirit and to cover life after death when the main thrust of the season is science versus faith.

 

[mdtauk]

I'm guessing Stammets will fall into a depression, and find a way to peer into the Mycelium network to have conversations with Culber - but he wont be back proper.

 

[eschaton]

A random aside which is somewhat related.

If Tilly's new "imaginary friend" is somehow due to her also being influenced by the mycelial network via the green spore, then it can only mean one of two things.

1. Neither her friend, not spore-Culber in Season 1, were actually real people, but were instead aspects of some superhuman intelligence taking on familiar forms, or...
2. All souls of the dead reside in the spore network.

The latter because Tilly's childhood friend presumably had no contact with the mycelial network whatsoever. She died far, far away from Discovery.

I suppose it's possible that Tilly's visions of her dead childhood friend and Stamets' visions of Culber are from different phenomena entirely, but this would be exceedingly unlikely, and a poor narrative choice.

 

[SolarisOne]

The green spore is going to cause a two-way metacrisis, from which a half-Tilly/ half-Culber fusion will result.
The Doctor!Tilly is coming.

 

[DonIago]

What a Cilly idea.

 

[Midquest]

I'm not sure if anyone else has come to this realization, but it's becoming pretty clear that whatever their plan is for Culber's return is actually something they've had in mind since the events of Despite Yourself.

Oh, absolutely. It's clear that they thought this out way ahead of time. Which I'm glad for.

If Tilly's new "imaginary friend" is somehow due to her also being influenced by the mycelial network via the green spore, then it can only mean one of two things.

1. Neither her friend, not spore-Culber in Season 1, were actually real people, but were instead aspects of some superhuman intelligence taking on familiar forms, or...
2. All souls of the dead reside in the spore network.

I think there's a third option in there somewhere, though. I don't have an answer, but here are some pieces to play with:

First, the producers and cast have described Culber's return as rooted in the real-life Paul Stamets's concepts of mycelium:

Harberts: Get Paul Stamets' book Mycelium Running. Give it a read because Paul Stamets' view on the mycelial network, and the building blocks of life and how life and death are interwoven, will give you very, very good hints as to what's going to happen [with Culber].

Real-life Stamets stresses that mycelium is the interface between life and death, capable of powerful regeneration of diseased or dying organic matter--even facilitating neurogenesis. He describes mycelium as a sentient, intelligent neurological network with which we could learn to communicate.

Let's add to that a couple quotes from the first season. Here's Tilly, shortly after Culber's death:

Tilly: This is not Paul Stamets. I've analyzed scans of his neurological function. Hyperactivity of white matter in his brain has increased at an alarming rate. Redirected blood flow almost exclusively to the frontopolar cortex, rendering all other segments of the brain essentially nonfunctional.

Whatever was holding Culber at the time of his death, perhaps it might be more accurate to say that it was the sentient, intelligent Network, not Stamets. Culber was, possibly, in extremely intimate contact with mycelium when he died. If I'm understanding broken neck injuries correctly, Culber might have had about four minutes before irreparable brain damage. Perhaps the Network made contact with him, incorporated his neural patterns, and later spit out a spore that has since been incubating in Tilly?

There's also the fact that Stamets, holding the dead Culber, says:

Stamets: The forest. The forest. The forest. The forest. The forest is dark, but I can see him through the trees. The trees. The trees. The trees.

He later speaks of the "clearing in the forest. That's how they go." That's a fairly significant phrase in terms of the real-life Stamets's work, as he describes how mycelium in clear-cut woodlands take part in reforestation. The idea is that mycelium consume everything and move on, and in the process transform detritus into soil. Trees inonculated with mycelium also grow faster and have lower mortality rates. I would be surprised if these concepts didn't have something to do with Culber's return.

As for May, the real-life Stamets describes mycelium as the basic architectural pattern for dark matter. Perhaps we will find that when Tilly came into contact with the dark-matter asteroid, it triggered something in the mycelium in her body that facilitated contact with the network, and thus with May. Maybe the nature of May's death will play some part here.

A compelling quote from real-life Stamets:

Mycelium consumes its preferred habitat resources and then strategizes for transporting itself to new niches. Unless the mycelium is recharged with basic nutrients, it will move on as it transforms debris into soil. Mycelium is, in essence, a digestive cellular membrane, a fusion between a stomach and a brain, a nutritional and informational sharing network. It is an archetype of matter and life: our universe is based upon these networking structures.

I don't know the answer, but I do think that somewhere in there is the key to Culber's return.

 

[Hythlodeus]

man, real life Stamets really likes his Shrooms, it seems

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

I'm guessing Stammets will fall into a depression, and find a way to peer into the Mycelium network to have conversations with Culber - but he wont be back proper.

Stamets is best when he's "good ol' (sometimes prickly) Stamets".
I don't want to see this "lost Stamets" anymore that we've been getting.