As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
These three men cancelled the apocalypse.
- Gorbachev gets a small one when he defies Shcherbina's attempts to downplay the severity of the accident by forcing him to take Legasov with him to examine the reactor personally.Gorbachev: Do you know how a nuclear reactor works?
Shcherbina: ...No.
Gorbachev: No? Well then, how will you know what you're looking at? - Legasov gets one early on in what is arguably his Establishing Character Moment (other than his Heroic Suicide). He defies the irascible Shcherbina, who has just threatened to have a helicopter pilot shot if he defies his orders, thereby saving the life of everyone on board the helicopter.Legasov: If you fly directly over that core, I promise you, by tomorrow morning you'll be begging for that bullet.
[the helicopter pilot silently agrees and flies the helicopter away] - Upon confronting Fomin and Bryukhanov over the graphite (which, keep in mind, was only supposed to be in the reactor core itself, meaning that yes, the core did in fact explode), Shcherbina rips Fomin's allegation that the graphite was merely "burnt concrete", pointing out that while he may not know anything about nuclear reactors, he knows concrete, and concrete looks nothing like that no matter how much you burn it. Fomin and Bryukhanov are left stunned, and after the true radiation levelsnote come to light, Shcherbina orders them arrested. Also counts as it shows that Shcherbina is willing to listen and understand that the Chernobyl situation is dire.
- Not only that, but Shcherbina's never actually seen the actual graphite, only the reports and Legasov's explanations. He's just trying to catch the two in a lie based on what little he knows... meaning that despite his dismissive bureaucrat act, he's been paying attention to Legasov the entire time.
- General Pikalov, when told that there's a good chance that whoever would take the radiation readings at the fire would still die despite the heaviest shielding possible, tells Legasov this:Pikalov: Then I'll do it myself.
- Pikalov's moment is awesome for two reasons: first, he refuses to risk his subordinates, instead putting himself in extreme danger, with only a NBC suit, his solid lead balls and some lead plates on his truck for protection. Second, he knows that Bryukhanov and Fomin (the highest on the totem pole in Chernobyl and Pripyat) could stall the cleanup efforts by claiming that a simple soldier could've misread or misused the dosimeter's readings in order to save their skin. Pikalov is both the commander of the chemical troops of the Soviet Union, and a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, so even Moscow can't dismiss or ignore him. The man knew the dangers, but also that he had the clout to make things move forward instead of doing things the Soviet way of passing the buck and act as if nothing happened.
- When it becomes clear a team needs to go in to drain the water underneath the meltdown to avoid a steam explosion, nobody wants to volunteer. Shcherbina, already shaken by the revelation he may already be dying in five years just by being there, stands up to give a Rousing Speech about how three volunteers can save millions, and that their culture as citizens of the Soviet Union always required sacrifice from every generation to serve their country.
- It's enough to convince three men to stand up and volunteer, even though each man looks at each other knowing what the risks will be. Just by volunteering, in that moment those three were the bravest men on the planet.
- That three-man liquidator crew - Boris Baranov, Alexei Ananenko, and Valery Bezpalov - went on that terrifying Suicide Mission to drain the water tanks beneath Reactor #4 in order to prevent the disaster from becoming far, far worse. And contrary to everyone's expectations and an Urban Legend, they survived!
- That simple moment where the three divers get out of the tunnel and simply raise their fist in the air to say they succeeded. The whole group of soldiers around them immediately start cheering and offer them some vodka. Even Legasov, Scherbina and Pikalov look, for a few moments, relieved that things finally go their way.
- And they did it even as their flashlights - in Real Life there was only one - die on them as the radiation fries their batteries. So, they released the watergate in total darknessnote , with their Geiger counter ticking so hard it was a constant screech. The men were later awarded in 2016 for their bravery. Boris had died of a heart attack in 2006, so his grandson attended the ceremony in his honor.
- The use of two old Soviet Lunokhod lunar rovers re-purposed as remote-controlled bulldozers to clear debris on the roof is genuinely pretty ingenious. Their design had already been radiation-hardened in order to survive in space, though they break down long before the job is done.
- After the Epic Fail that was the German robot they attempted to use to clear graphite off the roof, Scherbina gets on the phone with Moscow and, despite the phone call being monitored, lets the person on the other end of the line know just how much of a pack of fucking idiots the government is for refusing to take Chernobyl as seriously as it should be just because they don't want to lose face. He ends it by screaming at the guy to tell every higher-up he wants, including Gorbachev, before smashing the phone to pieces.Scherbina: OF COURSE I KNOW THEY'RE LISTENING!! I WANT THEM TO HEAR! I WANT THEM TO HEAR IT ALL! [...] DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING HERE!?!? TELL THOSE GENIUSES WHAT THEY HAVE DONE!! [...] I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!!!! [...] Rhyzkhov! Go tell them he's a joke!!—TELL FUCKING GORBACHEV!!!
- At the end of Episode 4, two Liquidators climb up the ventilation stack of Reactor #3 and then unfurl a red flag at the top, symbolizing the "end" of the clean-up operation.note
- The sacrifices made by the Chernobyl Liquidators both in the miniseries and in Real Life. A lot of them died or remained sick for the rest of their lives... but they did it knowing if they hadn't, millions would have perished.
- It's a doomed gesture, but Legasov's final speech at Dyatlov's trial openly indicts the Soviet system for making the disaster inevitable with their insistence on secrecy and propaganda.Legasov: Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies.
- At the same time, in the first two episodes Fomin distinguishes himself by smugly asking people, including Legasov, to explain how an RBMK reactor core explodes. So, there is something satisfying about how Legasov, at Fomin's trial, explains how an RBMK reactor core explodes.
- Legasov gets a pretty good zinger in on Charkov at their final meeting.Charkov: After all you've said and done today, it would be...curious if you chose this moment to lie.
Legasov: (with a smirk) I would think a man of your experience would know a lie when he hears one.- It's a double Crowning Moment of Awesome because Legasov presumably convinces Charkov that he's telling the truth about Khomyuk since the last time we see her she's free. So Legasov successfully lied to the boss of the KGB.
- Legasov's final retort to Charkov also counts:Charkov: Why worry about something that isn't going to happen?
Legasov: "Why worry about something that isn't going to happen?" Oh, that's perfect. They should put that on our money.- For context, the Soviet Union was supposedly founded as a worker's paradise, where the lower classes would be treated fairly and respected, unlike the so-called "evil capitalistic" West where money goes above all other concerns. Yet the same state needlessly sacrificed the lives of thousands of the lower-class people it supposedly held at high value by building cheap nuclear reactors with little safety measures, then downplaying the disaster and causing some more needless deaths. And not only does Charkov, a leader of such a state, not even care, he even suppresses anyone who dares to raise such concerns. Legasov implies that the State should advertise their lack of care regarding safety when compared to saving costs by printing it on currency that they don't supposedly value, essentially calling out the very purpose of the Soviet Union itself. And he did this in front of the boss of the KGB.
- Shcherbina's Character Development in general. He starts out threatening to throw Legasov out of a helicopter and even threatens to have a helicopter pilot shot if he doesn't fly directly over the core - later, he screams at Moscow for fucking up with the robot and later still he appears in court and presents evidence. A lot of people have praised how well-handled Shcherbina's Heel–Face Turn is.
- In an absolutely terrifying way, the explosion itself. When it's shown in flashback during Episode 5, we see the nearly 800 pound (350 kilo) control rod and fuel channel caps bouncing up and down. After the fatal shutdown procedures are initiated, we get a shot of the fiery core itself surrounded in a twisted mess of graphite rods, which soon blossoms upward into an explosion.
- Though he never lived to see it, Legasov's efforts to expose the truth of Chernobyl and prevent another nuclear disaster paid off as the publication of his account of the disaster, as well as the public outcry over his death, finally forces the Soviet government into correcting the RBMK's design flaws. As a bonus, it also gives a proverbial middle finger towards the KGB's efforts to Unperson Legasov and silence the truth. And even better than that? On September 20, 1996note , Boris Yeltsin posthumously awarded him the honorary title of Hero of Russian Federation for the "courage and heroism" shown in his investigation of the disaster.
