Methane-based life on Titan in "For All Mankind"

I love the Apple TV+ show "For All Mankind", not just for its excellent stories and fun alternate twists on history but also for its science.

Season 5 of "For All Mankind" had a major plot with the search for life on Titan. Astronaut Kelly Baldwin and crew arrived there and found something apparently bioluminescent in a pond. Following some analysis (the instruments used weren't entirely clear-- they looked almost like a thermal cycler and a spectrophotometer inside a containment hood, but I can imagine they were something else, especially in this alternate timeline), they found some motile microbes. Amazing! This is great science-- we're far more likely to find microbial life on another world than something that looks even remotely like us.

Kelly exclaimed, "These cells, their structure's based on methane, not carbon like Earth." On the one hand, that's really interesting because it suggests, as Kelly later notes, that this life likely formed completely independent of life on Earth, and implies that there may be several independent origins of life throughout the galaxy. On the other, the verbiage here is confusing. Methane is a simple hydrocarbon, with formula CH4:

Not surprisingly, some people have criticized this statement online as a result, with rude quotes like "infuriating" and "nonsense". Setting aside that this is a fictional TV show and that story will always take precedence over science, I offer a simple in-universe explanation.

I think what Kelly MEANT to say was not about structure and carbon, but instead, that the cells use liquid methane as a SOLVENT instead of WATER. This would make a lot of sense-- there's lots of methane on Titan, in both liquid and gaseous form because of the low temperature. The possibility for methanogenic life on Titan has been suggested in the scientific literature, and is something that NASA actively considers.

Why did Kelly say carbon then? She just found an independent origin of life. It's TOTALLY fair that she'd be more than a little bit excited, and perhaps misspeak in the moment when FIRST talking about it. She didn't write this in a refereed scientific publication-- she just exclaimed this in a moment without thinking. Totally fair that she might misspeak-- I certainly might in her shoes!

Anyway, let's applaud the show for thinking CORRECTLY about alternate life being microbial and thinking CREATIVELY (in a largely correct scientific framework) about it being methanogenic, and not worry about the small verbiage slip. Kudos to all who worked on the season, and looking forward to the final season soon!