Cheng is short for Chief Engineer, not the name of a person.
The Global Seed Vault is a seed bank located on the Arctic Island of Svalbard, Norway, which is located about 800 miles from the north pole. It consists of a giant vault that contains seeds from every known extant species of plant on Earth, it first opened on February 26, 2008. The main purpose of the vault is to store seeds for scientific research and also to help repopulate a plant species that may go extinct in the wild due to human activity or some type of natural disaster. While there are other seed banks in the world this one is the largest by far and was built in an extremely isolated area to reduce the likely hood of it being destroyed during wars or other disasters, such as the seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were both destroyed during the Gulf Wars. The seed bank in the Philippians was recently destroyed by flooding as well, so it was decided that a vault needed to be created in an isolated location where there would be little to no chance of a wildfire or flooding destroying it, and as mentioned since it is on a remote island in the arctic there is little chance of it being destroyed in the cross-fire of some future war.
The episode's title, "In medias res", is Latin for "In the middle of things". In terms of a narrative it is used to describe when a story begins in the middle of the action, with the inciting events being described later on through either the use of dialogue to describe what transpired before or through flashbacks.
Which is appropriate for this episode as the season starts off sixteen months later with the world in the middle of a new pandemic without us viewers knowing how it got started. The events that took place in between seasons three and four will likely be explained in future episodes in flashbacks and descriptions in dialogue.
Which is appropriate for this episode as the season starts off sixteen months later with the world in the middle of a new pandemic without us viewers knowing how it got started. The events that took place in between seasons three and four will likely be explained in future episodes in flashbacks and descriptions in dialogue.
Kathleen and some of the other sailors sometimes refer to Picket "Sunshine" (the chopper pilot) as Warrant. This is referring to his rank of Chief Warrant Officer, Grade 3 (CWO3). Warrant Officers in the United States military are rated as being above all enlisted and non-commissioned officers but subordinate to all commissioned officers (they would outrank a Master Chief Petty Officer but not an Ensign); they are highly skilled, single-track specialty officers, there are five grades going from Warrant Officer grade 1 (WO1) to Chief Warrant Officer grade 5 (CWO5). Warrant Officers are typically commissioned by the secretary of the particular branch in which the candidate serves, while the rank of Chief Warrant Officer (grades 2-5) are commissioned directly by the President. Warrant Officers can command units, aircraft and vessels but typically serve as a technical expert, providing valuable skills, guidance, and expertise to commanders and organizations in their particular field. Warrant Officers in the Army are chosen from the non-commissioned officer ranks and must be at least an E-5 (sergeant). In the Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy Warrant Officers are chosen from the senior non-commissioned officer ranks and must be at least a paygrade of E-7 (chief petty officer or gunnery sergeant). The Air Force no longer uses the Warrant Officer system. Promotion to Chief Warrant Officer requires at least 12 years total service and at least three years of service as a Warrant Officer.
Sometime in the 16 months between season's 3 and 4, O'Connor(Paul James) has been promoted to Chief Petty Officer.