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selenakFirst, some general spoiler-free thoughts, caused by rewatching some bits of season 1, among other things.
I. I’m slow sometimes. Usher. As in House of. As in Roderick and Madeline. And I bet not just the original Poe story, but the trashy Roger Corman movie, because this show’s creative staff is bound to have watched that. Now I’m having visions of Vincent Price playing Justin Crowe.
II. You’ve got to love the details. In the second episode of season 1, when Justin and Ben share their first dream and Justin wakes up, he and Iris are listening to a 30s radio show. And not just any radio show. The voice we’re hearing coming from the radio is that of Orson Welles playing Lamont Cranston, the Shadow. Remember the catchphrase of that show? “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” (And now, boys and girls, what is Justin’s specific power?)
III. That scene where Justin and Iris meet Norman for lunch is heartbreaking in retrospect. He’s so proud of them and loves them so much, and the “children”, as he calls them, love him too. More about Norman and his relationship with the siblings Crowe in the spoilery section below.
IV. In case I didn’t mention this before: I love that Justin and Iris are both middle-aged. Iris specifically. Hooray for the existence of interesting characters past forty with an avid emotional life in the age of the tv youth cult, especially if they’re female! (Plus a young “little sister” Iris would have created a very different power balance as opposed to older sister Iris.)
Now, on to episode 2.06. (Thank you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
smashsc!)
I’m talking about Justin and Iris, of course, though I strongly suspect this applies for Ben and Sofie as well. I mean, come on. The suspicion that Scudder is in fact Sofie’s father has just received another boost by the late Apollonia flashing Sofie with the vision just when Sofie and Ben are starting their session. Not to mention the fact the tattood man has exactly the same position (and is filmed in the same position) as Ben has later. Oh, and the earlier dialogue. Ben declaring that he wants to find his father and Sofie declaring that if she found her father, she’d kill him dead? I watched Star Wars, people. They’re Luke and Leia, talking about the same person. The force is strong in both of them. I was just waiting for Samson to say, when Ben drove off on his Scudder quest, “this boy is our only hope”, and Management to return, “No, there is another.”
More Ben and Sofie theories, while I’m at it: could it be that the powers of the Champion of Light are in fact split between Ben and Sofie, because Scudder never truly battled it out? And please, please, don’t let the show end with Ben having to save a pregnant Sofie from A Fate Worse Than Death at Justin’s hands, that would be Victorian melodrama at its worst.
Also? A measure of just how creepy Sofie’s Apollonia visions are getting is that the rape flashback was actually the least disturbing of them. Poor girl. It’s a wonder she’s still sane. Though I’m still irrated with her for having left without having made even once the attempt to apologize to Libby.
But while I like Ben and Sofie and find them interesting enough, you know where my heart truly lies. And for the second episode in a row, I was completely happy with the California scenes and my darling siblings of doom. Am I sorry for Tommy Dolan? I suppose I should be, because he’s not guilty of anything other than the normal ambition for a good story, but really, no, not at all. You should have listened to that story a somewhat tipsy Iris told you about those two Russian kids in season 1, Tommy. Remember, the little girl might have knocked a wounded man down with a rock, but the little boy made him break his neck. He’ll protect his sister, even when he’s angry and wants to punish her at the same time. I had my suspicions last week on second thought when discussing the episode, and they were made solid during the conversation between Justin and Tommy Dolan on the veranda. If Justin had been truly intending to let Iris get arrested, he wouldn’t have been nearly as calm.
What’s fascinating about this is that here at long last we get confirmation that not only does Justin still think he’s doing God’s work (in a left handed way, but still God’s work), but Iris does have her faith, too. I was wondering about that, i.e. whether Iris has any other convictions than “Justin has a destiny and I’ll do anything to see he’ll fulfill it”. So, here we have Iris, kneeling among the shards of a mirror (the mirror Justin has broken last week when watching through Ben’s eyes, I wonder?) and praying for her deliverance. Which she gets, just not in the fashion she imagines or wants. She doesn’t repent and she refuses to feel remorse, but she did want to go to jail – why, I wonder? To become a martyr for Justin, whereas now he’s got the upper hand again by having sacrificed someone for her as she did for him? And of course he didn’t tell her in advance. He did want her to suffer. But he can’t bear to let her go. Theirloveis… see above.
And then there’s the scene between Justin and Norman. Justin, Iris, Ben and Sofie might all have missing biological fathers who might or might not groom them to battle each other, but Justin and Iris also have their adoptive father. Norman obviously imprinted them with his beliefs, and they’re still strong in them, no matter in how twisted a fashion. When Justin asked Norman to kill him in the season 1 finale and Norman couldn’t bring himself to do so, that relationship took a crucial term. From this point onwards, Justin switches between caring and taunting in his behaviour towards Norman, to and thro, never just one or the other. Even my least favourite plot device of the season, Justin sexually exploiting Celeste and then driving her insane, makes a vague kind of psychological sense if seen as specifically directed at Norman. It does happen directly after Norman spits the – marmalade? Cream? – at Justin, a gesture of contempt and rejection. The subtext possibly being “you think I’m bad? I’m worse! Look at what I am now, and remember, it’s your fault, because you have made me live!”. And then there is the fact that in 2.05, Justin and Tommy Dolan talked about what Iris did specifically in Norman’s presence. (Dolan might assume Norman is incommunicado and unable to grasp what’s going on, but Justin knows better, and has from the moment he visited Norman in the hospital.) Which makes Norman a witness to what Iris did, too. (And incidentally the only one who could confirm ole’ Tommy is innocent.) Now this week’s episode has Justin talking to Norman about Iris, which confirms he intended for Norman to have been there during Dolan’s report, and what Justin says is, depending on your pov, the classic Elizabethan stage device – the main character, no matter whether it’s Richard III or Hamlet, villain or hero, examining himself, his feelings and his intentions for the audience’s benefit – or a confession/soul searching in front of his foster father and spiritual father. And I don’t think he’s taunting Norman with his “I am a man of god” reassurances at all. Or with the kiss at the end of the scene. I also think Iris is right – he wanted remorse from her. Why he thinks he’s going to get it more likely though denying her martyrdom/saving her/keeping her/whatever you want to call it, I’m not sure yet, but I’m all aquiver to find out.
I. I’m slow sometimes. Usher. As in House of. As in Roderick and Madeline. And I bet not just the original Poe story, but the trashy Roger Corman movie, because this show’s creative staff is bound to have watched that. Now I’m having visions of Vincent Price playing Justin Crowe.
II. You’ve got to love the details. In the second episode of season 1, when Justin and Ben share their first dream and Justin wakes up, he and Iris are listening to a 30s radio show. And not just any radio show. The voice we’re hearing coming from the radio is that of Orson Welles playing Lamont Cranston, the Shadow. Remember the catchphrase of that show? “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” (And now, boys and girls, what is Justin’s specific power?)
III. That scene where Justin and Iris meet Norman for lunch is heartbreaking in retrospect. He’s so proud of them and loves them so much, and the “children”, as he calls them, love him too. More about Norman and his relationship with the siblings Crowe in the spoilery section below.
IV. In case I didn’t mention this before: I love that Justin and Iris are both middle-aged. Iris specifically. Hooray for the existence of interesting characters past forty with an avid emotional life in the age of the tv youth cult, especially if they’re female! (Plus a young “little sister” Iris would have created a very different power balance as opposed to older sister Iris.)
Now, on to episode 2.06. (Thank you,
smashsc!) I’m talking about Justin and Iris, of course, though I strongly suspect this applies for Ben and Sofie as well. I mean, come on. The suspicion that Scudder is in fact Sofie’s father has just received another boost by the late Apollonia flashing Sofie with the vision just when Sofie and Ben are starting their session. Not to mention the fact the tattood man has exactly the same position (and is filmed in the same position) as Ben has later. Oh, and the earlier dialogue. Ben declaring that he wants to find his father and Sofie declaring that if she found her father, she’d kill him dead? I watched Star Wars, people. They’re Luke and Leia, talking about the same person. The force is strong in both of them. I was just waiting for Samson to say, when Ben drove off on his Scudder quest, “this boy is our only hope”, and Management to return, “No, there is another.”
More Ben and Sofie theories, while I’m at it: could it be that the powers of the Champion of Light are in fact split between Ben and Sofie, because Scudder never truly battled it out? And please, please, don’t let the show end with Ben having to save a pregnant Sofie from A Fate Worse Than Death at Justin’s hands, that would be Victorian melodrama at its worst.
Also? A measure of just how creepy Sofie’s Apollonia visions are getting is that the rape flashback was actually the least disturbing of them. Poor girl. It’s a wonder she’s still sane. Though I’m still irrated with her for having left without having made even once the attempt to apologize to Libby.
But while I like Ben and Sofie and find them interesting enough, you know where my heart truly lies. And for the second episode in a row, I was completely happy with the California scenes and my darling siblings of doom. Am I sorry for Tommy Dolan? I suppose I should be, because he’s not guilty of anything other than the normal ambition for a good story, but really, no, not at all. You should have listened to that story a somewhat tipsy Iris told you about those two Russian kids in season 1, Tommy. Remember, the little girl might have knocked a wounded man down with a rock, but the little boy made him break his neck. He’ll protect his sister, even when he’s angry and wants to punish her at the same time. I had my suspicions last week on second thought when discussing the episode, and they were made solid during the conversation between Justin and Tommy Dolan on the veranda. If Justin had been truly intending to let Iris get arrested, he wouldn’t have been nearly as calm.
What’s fascinating about this is that here at long last we get confirmation that not only does Justin still think he’s doing God’s work (in a left handed way, but still God’s work), but Iris does have her faith, too. I was wondering about that, i.e. whether Iris has any other convictions than “Justin has a destiny and I’ll do anything to see he’ll fulfill it”. So, here we have Iris, kneeling among the shards of a mirror (the mirror Justin has broken last week when watching through Ben’s eyes, I wonder?) and praying for her deliverance. Which she gets, just not in the fashion she imagines or wants. She doesn’t repent and she refuses to feel remorse, but she did want to go to jail – why, I wonder? To become a martyr for Justin, whereas now he’s got the upper hand again by having sacrificed someone for her as she did for him? And of course he didn’t tell her in advance. He did want her to suffer. But he can’t bear to let her go. Theirloveis… see above.
And then there’s the scene between Justin and Norman. Justin, Iris, Ben and Sofie might all have missing biological fathers who might or might not groom them to battle each other, but Justin and Iris also have their adoptive father. Norman obviously imprinted them with his beliefs, and they’re still strong in them, no matter in how twisted a fashion. When Justin asked Norman to kill him in the season 1 finale and Norman couldn’t bring himself to do so, that relationship took a crucial term. From this point onwards, Justin switches between caring and taunting in his behaviour towards Norman, to and thro, never just one or the other. Even my least favourite plot device of the season, Justin sexually exploiting Celeste and then driving her insane, makes a vague kind of psychological sense if seen as specifically directed at Norman. It does happen directly after Norman spits the – marmalade? Cream? – at Justin, a gesture of contempt and rejection. The subtext possibly being “you think I’m bad? I’m worse! Look at what I am now, and remember, it’s your fault, because you have made me live!”. And then there is the fact that in 2.05, Justin and Tommy Dolan talked about what Iris did specifically in Norman’s presence. (Dolan might assume Norman is incommunicado and unable to grasp what’s going on, but Justin knows better, and has from the moment he visited Norman in the hospital.) Which makes Norman a witness to what Iris did, too. (And incidentally the only one who could confirm ole’ Tommy is innocent.) Now this week’s episode has Justin talking to Norman about Iris, which confirms he intended for Norman to have been there during Dolan’s report, and what Justin says is, depending on your pov, the classic Elizabethan stage device – the main character, no matter whether it’s Richard III or Hamlet, villain or hero, examining himself, his feelings and his intentions for the audience’s benefit – or a confession/soul searching in front of his foster father and spiritual father. And I don’t think he’s taunting Norman with his “I am a man of god” reassurances at all. Or with the kiss at the end of the scene. I also think Iris is right – he wanted remorse from her. Why he thinks he’s going to get it more likely though denying her martyrdom/saving her/keeping her/whatever you want to call it, I’m not sure yet, but I’m all aquiver to find out.
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Date: 2005-02-14 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-14 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-15 05:35 pm (UTC)I'm all caught up now.
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Date: 2005-02-15 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-15 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-15 05:33 pm (UTC)