How Did Marguerit Maida Survive the Kharaa? | Subnautica Theory

The story of Marguerit Maida is one of the most fascinating stories to come out of both Subnautica and its sequel Subnautica: Below Zero. But while her story is no doubt legendary, there is one major plot hole that many of my viewers and I have noticed. How did Marguerit Maida survive the Kharaa Bacterium? Why didn’t it kill her, like it killed so many others? Well, there are a few possibilities that just might answer these questions...

Huge thanks to Kingnocho for helping me with brainstorming theories and proof reading my script!

Music by:
Simon Chylinski
Ben Prunty

Timestamps:
0:00 The Story
2:22 The Problem
3:22 Possibility #1
5:14 Possibility #2
6:09 Possibility #3
7:04 Possibility #4
9:15 Possibility #5
13:16 Possibility #6
13:52 Possibility #7
15:10 Thanks for watching!

#subnautica #subnauticabelowzero #theory

Let me know in the comments section down below if you have questions about Subnautica or Subnautica Below Zero that you'd like me to answer in another video. Are there any other plot holes you want me to cover? Did I miss anything in this video? Do you have any questions or concerns? Please let me know.

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Enjoy!

[SpeedyMouse]

I've heard a lot of people talking about how the cold could have helped Marguerit and Sector Zero survive the Kharaa. The problem with that theory is that since Marguerit's body is warm, the cold wouldn't have affected the infection that's already inside of her. The fact that the Frozen Leviathan is infected with the Kharaa, even though it's frozen, also indicates that the Kharaa has no problems with the cold. When it comes to how Sector Zero was able to survive the Kharaa, this theory would make much more sense. The cold could have limited the bacteria's ability to spread, which might have helped Sector Zero to survive.

I've also heard a lot of people talking about how since the Frozen Leviathan in Sector Zero is infected with the Kharaa, possibility #5 doesn't make any sense. However, this can actually be easily explained. The Frozen Leviathan didn't have the same common ancestors as the leviathans in Subnautica and the living leviathans in Subnautica: Below Zero meaning it wouldn't produce a Kharaa-curing enzyme. This is why we don't see any living Frozen Leviathans in Subnautica: Below Zero. The Frozen Leviathan also looks significantly different compared to the leviathans in Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero; it has a completely different body structure which further proves this theory. Because of this, I still think possibility #5 is a viable theory, perhaps even the most likely.

Additionally, some further proof I recently found on possibility #5 can be found in the PDA entry on Enzyme Host Peepers (Peepers carrying Enzyme 42). The entry states that the enzyme, "Bears some superficial similarity to the stomach enzymes of larger predators." This is some very solid evidence, the only problem is that it only mentions the stomach enzymes of large predators. This would explain how Marguerit was able to survive, since she consumed a Reaper, but it doesn't explain how Reefback and Sea Treader Leviathans are immune to the Kharaa. My best guess is that since the PDA is under the "Advanced Theories" section, this is only a theory and isn't the complete truth that all large leviathans have the stomach enzyme that makes them immune to the Kharaa.

[tomsilva]

When a leviathan class lifeform gets near Marguerit Maida they hear a voice in their head that says “detecting a Marguerit Maida class life form in the area, are you sure that what you are doing is worth it?”

[Bookishoodie]

10:50 Reapers aren’t apex predators. In the PDA there is an entry that says that the Sea Dragon Leviathan sometimes will swim up to the surface to drag a Reaper down, kill it, and eat it.

[phantomtoxin]

I think Marguerit is a leviathan class lifeform

[thealchemist]

i feel like we need to give more attention to the fact that Marg killed TWO reaper's with little to no injury and with just the equipment from their life pod, that crazy old lady could probably taken out the whole population with the equipment Riley had

[colinmartin]

My background is as an EMT with ten years' experience and a degree in biochemistry and biomolecular analysis, so I have my own ideas on why Maida wasn't killed

1.) She drifted into an Arctic zone. Cold is well known to reduce some viruses capability to reproduce, and if stage 4's skin blisters are a major replication site, this could have had a preventative effect. In cold climates, your core body temperature drops. You will go down 1 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, even more near the skin. This isn't dangerous, and even such a small change can have a dramatic effect on many diseases.

2.) While "natural immunity" isn't really a thing, having a strong resistance is. You can simply get less sick from a chronic illness, and we do understand why this happens, biochemically speaking. It's just an emergent field of study.

3.) It may function similarly to tuberculosis, which can have an immensely long latent period. Your body essentially walls off the infection like an oak gall. But eventually is breaks out. So possibly she just got to a point where the disease went into remission, not cured but not spreading.

4.) The peepers carrying the curative enzyme may have been acting like a treatment, not a curative. Before modern antibiotics, we used to treat syphilis with arsenic. It rarely cured the disease, but severely repressed it. We still use it in some forms of leukemia. It's possible the disease was just being suppressed by the peepers weaker version of the disease.

[theviking]

The thing is, In below zero, when you find the antidote with the spy pengling, so you could still finish the game if you died and lost it, you can craft the antidote, and margurite had experience farming plants, and it takes plants to make the enzyme (that are in the area snow stalkers are where she got hers from) meaning she could’ve eaten both plants at the same time and accidentally created an antidote.

[LashknifeTalon]

The theory I would go with is that humans are anatomically VERY different from the Architects. It's entirely possible that the mortality rate of Kharaa is actually significantly lower in humans than it was for Architects. Sure, Bart Torgal presumably died of the disease, but he lived for quite some time before succumbing to it, and was reasonably active while still sick. Ryley manages to complete the events of the first game while infected with Kharaa. Our sample size is pretty small; maybe Marguerit just...got better after a few months.

[ashura]

I've seen a alot of people theorize that because of the cold climate, the bacteria get weakened. Yet everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the frozen leviathan contracted the infection within the *POLAR* climate, and then fell through *ICE* and *FROZE* to death. Yet the bacterium was still active within its corpse. Which in itself I find odd, wouldn't the kharaa die out without a living host?

[vee]

I think it’s probably because of the peepers that carry enzyme 42. Out of the three Degasi survivors, only Marguerit preferred to hunt for food instead of farming, meaning she likely ate A LOT of peepers. While it wouldn’t cure her outright since the mother Sea Emperor’s enzyme was too weak/unstable, it WOULD prevent a severe infection from taking root, just like it prevents fish in alien containment from getting sick. Maybe Marguerit couldn’t avoid the Kharaa ever infecting her, but she had enough enzyme 42 in her system that the infection wasn’t able to progress past a certain point & it burned itself out before it could kill her.

[jrm]

Maida is a mercenary. She very likely traveled a LOT and received numerous innoculations that most ordinary people wouldn't. It's also possible that in her travels she may have fallen ill with one or more diseases or bacterium that had been undiscovered at that time, and naturally developing the antibodies to those illnesses gave her a better chance of fighting off the Kharaa.

[thefatherrabbit]

I personally think it is a plot hole that the devs didn't have the time to account for. Based on some PDA entries from the cut storyline, it seems like there was supposed to be some kind of explanation for how Marguerit survived, but they never got to it. There were at least 10 incomplete voicelogs for her from when she was floating towards Sector Zero and only a few made it into the full release.

In the ones that were cut, she talks about the Kharaa and how Bart had told her he could slow it down, but that now that she was on her own, it was getting worse. After she gets to Sector Zero, there is one where she says she thinks she only has a few weeks left to live and specifically mentions that the fish in the sector taste exactly like the Peepers she was eating in the Crater.

Even though those are not technically canon, it seems most likely that she was surviving on fish that carried the enzyme. How she was cured permanently is anyone's guess. Maybe once the Sea Emperors were hatched, they carried the enzyme to other parts of the planet and she was cured for good at the same time Riley was.

[jaiclary]

One thing I wish you'd mentioned is that the precursors were uniquely susceptible to the virus due to their conglomerate DNA. Also Below Zero does throw a tiny wrench into your "Leviathans don't get Kharaa" theory, but it's only a tiny wrench because the obvious explanation is that the non-immune ones died out. Still, it's a solid theory and I personally go with the combined theory that "Maida is tough as nails" and "All (surviving) leviathans create an enzyme." It's simple, elegant, and wholly consistent with the facts as we know them.

[gage]

Basically, she's badass.
She was an extremely strong, healthy individual, and I imagine didn't settle for the tastes of the small fish, instead, going for stalkers and other predators. This made her concentration of enzyme-42 higher, boosting her immune system to not be fatally ill when the reaper attacked. Then, feeding on the reaper, her enzyme-42 concentration increased higher, letting her overcome the bacterium as they got to the map of Below Zero.

[ariellesedore]

Actually there is a good explanation for how she survived and it's explained through datapoints on Kharaa and its effects on local fauna. You learn that leviathan's have a level of resistance to the bacterium, with larger leviathan class lifeforms having the ability to coexist longer with the bacterium. They may get infected, but they have the ability to survive for much longer periods of time, or can live for years being infected without dying. It's most likely that Margaruit gained a stronger resistance to the bacterium through excessive consumption of the reaper leviathan. It's provided her with a natural ability to resist the bacteria. When you meet Margaruit in sector zero she is no longer infected or at least is in remission. She survived long enough via reaper resistance, then eventually received the cure from the sea emperor's enzyme, which was released in way so it would spread and cure the rest of the organisms on the planet. Likely the cure reached sector zero eventually in some form, and she probably ended up consuming cured peepers vented from the glacial basin, which cured her fully. (The frozen leviathan only had the bacterium still because it was never in the water when the cure was released, there was no way for the sea emperor's cure to reach it, hence it's the only organism still infected).
The other explaination is that simply that she scared the Kharaa bacterium into leaving her body. After killing a reaper with a jagged peice of metal, the bacteria decided it had better things to do and didn't want to stick around.

[Karottenregen]

When chuck noris meets Marguerit they shake hands respect each other and go along their way because they know it would be a even fight that would last for eternaty

[Drave_Jr.]

For possibility 5, The Sea Emperor is Sapient and possess physic capabilities. She may have freely given Enzyme 42 because she knew the dangers. Also the Architects were researching other Leviathans. The Kharaa was released in the first place because the Architects took a Sea Dragon Egg to study, and the mother attacked the base. We also don't see any other Leviathan level research outside of the egg and Emperor. They may not have been able to capture another Leviathan because of their size, with them only getting the Emperor because she wanted to help.

[saza]

The antidote ingredients is the vase plant and fevered pepper. And in Below zero, there's so many fevered pepper around the island. I think maybe she survived because of them?

[natashaowens]

This question is actually answered canonically in Bellow Zero, but in a very roundabout "blink and you miss it" way. Margaret's log in the greenhouse mention that she is "craving" a salad.

"Huh? I hear you say?

In bellow zero, after you find the antibiotic to clear the dead leviathan of the disease, you then have it in your PDA as something you can make. It requires 1x Frost Vase Plant and 1x Fevered Pepper.

Seems to me that these must have antibiotic nature that effect Kharaa.

Margaret has been munching on salad's containing these ever since, hence survived.

Other animals in the area must have also been eating these and adding the cure to the food chain (and their droppings into the water) explaining why life survived in this area.

[sharondornhoff]

The Kharaa bacterium on 4546B had a thousand years to evolve properties which specifically allowed it to infect the yellow-blooded native organisms of that world. Possibly, in adapting to more effectively go after that one specific biosphere's life forms, it incidentally became less lethal to creatures with a *non*-4546B biochemistry.