![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakYou know, episodes 8 and 9 confirmed a strange phenomenon for me as far as Carnivale is concerned. This is the first show I like where I tend to regard the episodes written by the show's creator (as a solo effort, not the ones he cowrites with others) as sub par. 8 was a Daniel Knauf solo episode and it illustrated what ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kradical said at the beginning of this season regarding the opening episode - Knauf just can't do subtle. 9 was written by another writer, and I loved it.
Mind you, I still think this show never quite recovered from the loss of Ronald Moore. (And the contrast to the Moore-shepherded BSG makes that ever more obvious.) I'm buying the first season on DVD, but I'll be perfectly content with the second just on CD. This being said, there is are a lot of great things happening this season, the "good side" is getting far more fleshed out, the narrative pace has sped up, Ben simply rocks, and it's probably far more the kind of show Daniel Knauf wanted from the beginning, good versus evil. It's my own fault for having been more intrigued by storylines like Justin's from last season. But let's go into details, both good and evil:
Episode 8: Some of my objections to this one actually aren't there any more after having seen episode 9, which is why I'm glad I waited with my review. For example, as I still didn't see any chemistry between Jonesy and Libby and might have bought them having sex due to her Sofie issues and Mother issues and his Sofie issues and loneliness, I very much doubted that even drunk, Jonesy would marry Libby. I also found the family dinner scene too obvious. But then came episode 9, and praise for the Jonesy/Libby aspect thereof shall follow anon.
My other objection was that the final scene with Sofie, far having the chilling awe impact it probably was supposed to have, made me groan. I just saw my worst fears realized - the set up for a Victorian melodrama, with Ben having to save Sofie out of Justin's evil clutches. However, again, Sofie's scenes in episode 9 calmed my fears somewhat. More about this in a moment.
What I did like about episode 8: the Samson and Ben scenes. Samson having regarded Management as a friend, despite all, and not just immediately going all business as usual with Ben was a good narrative choice, and the scene where Ben conjured up the wagon he himself saw in the second season 1 episode for Samson to visit was wonderful. There was a moment of grace and goodbye here, and so much detail to love - the song from Ben's and Justin's first vision of each other, where they saw their respective fathers as well, and the fact that among Beljakov's leftovers was a photo of little Alexej and Irina. As I said, I have absolutely no complaints about Ben this season; he has matured so much, and what he did with Samson was a beautiful example of that. Samson offering his help afterwards felt earned, not a story construct so Ben could stay with the Carnivale.
As a sidenote, I wonder whether the fact that now whenever Ben uses his powers it throws Justin into fits - which it didn't before - is meant to indicate the difference between Ben being now a full prophet, after the death of Management, and Justin still an avatar (until the inevitable death of Scudder, I assume) , or whether we're supposed to conclude this is because now Justin is completely evil, which he wasn't last season (and hence had no negative feedback from Ben using his powers).
Iris watching Justin's fit and noticing Norman's reaction (which already showed her Norman is not as immobile as he pretended to be, which she said nothing about) bore out in the subsequent episode, with the final scene between her and Norman, which I'm still in two minds about. (I.e. can't decide whether this is awesome complexity or bad writing.) I like the ambiguity - we don't know whether Iris means what she says to Norman, or whether she's manipulating him. And I do like the idea of Iris - not a flea, as she remarked to Norman in a previous episode - having her own agenda; otoh I wouldn't buy said agenda actually is directed against her brother in a finite fashion, so it all depends on where the show will go with this. What worries me is what Clancy Brown said about this new direction for Iris in an extensive interview. Referring to the arson plot from last season in the first sentence, he said:
"At that point, it’ll be obvious – in episode six, I think, it resolves. After that, they kept trying to turn Iris a different direction, and it was never making sense, because it was so abrupt, and kind of in denial of what had gone before. So, you’re question is a question that we all raised. See, they gave us the answer, but they never posed the question. And we were, both of us, Amy & I were saying, “Ya know, it’s fine if you want to go this direction, but you gotta set it up. You can’t just kinda declare it. Cuz there’s way to much between the both of us, there’s way too much going on, and you can’t just turn a character – especially characters so symbiotic as we are – so abruptly without some kind of development, some kind of turn. And that was also coming from HBO. And it was really tough to argue these points.
It’s not like any of us had any debate over the ultimate direction, it was just in how to get there. And I think it’s better than it was, but it’s not really accomplished. And the problem is, of course, that nobody knows the character better than the actor who’s playing it. And we kept trying to insinuate ideas, directions, and that’s not really our place, either. But towards the end, we got a good dialog going about it. But by the end, it was almost too late. I still think it works, but Amy was having more trouble than anybody. I still think it works… Well, that’s not true. I was having a little trouble with it, as well. But that was really her ball to carry.
This does not sound good. If they state that Iris never loved her brother at all, I'll end up going in denial about this season.
However, with that caveat in mind, I loved the California scenes of episode 9. Justin's relationship with Norman is one of the very few remaining ambiguous things about him. In the last three or four episodes, he increasingly confided to a silent Norman, and not just in a taunting "nah nah, I'm evil now, and you can't do anything about it" way; he talked about doubts and fears. Being capable of both causing Norman pain and saving him, of using him and wanting his approval despite all underscores all the interaction. Justin undoubtedly saw the publicity value once he HAD saved Norman, but at the moment he did it? He was sincere in that, I think. And unless the next episode proves me wrong, I actually think he's sincere about not being angry with Norman for attempting to kill him, mostly because that was what he had explicitly asked Norman to do in the season 1 finale. (When he was still complex and not Evil (tm). End of bitchy aside.) That is also what I guess he refers to when saying to Norman when the later confirms that yes, he does hate him now, enough to wish him dead, "well, you had your chance to kill me". The question "do you hate me?" when nobody else is listening (i.e. no PR purpose possible) itself is amazing for second season Justin.
What placated my fears about the Sofie storyline for the moment were two things, and one has directly to do with Norman. The other was that Sofie doesn't just fall sway to Justin' s Evil Mental Sex Enforcing Powers (tm); indeed the first scene between them clarifies she's able to maintain her free will. I guess that'll become important. But what really mollified me was that it's Justin's instant forgiveness for his foster-father's attempt to kill him that draws Sofie in. Because this is so in character and makes complete sense with her backstory, and the major trauma that Appollonia's attempt to kill her left her with. The end of episode 8 with the Justin leering at the new maid who is Sofie revelation had me groan; the end of episode 9, by contrast, with Sofie and Justin kneeling opposite each other and praying for forgiveness caused all the awed shivers the show can ask.
Some updated speculation about Sofie, not all my own, and fueled by Lodz' "Sofie is the omega" message from the beyond. The omega - the last letter of the Greek alphabet. And Sofie has the prophet dreams, too. Then there are Samson's two season intro speeches, both mentioning that the time of magic and avatars and miracles came to an end with the age of reason, and the repeated use of the trinity site/atom bomb imagery in combination with Ben and Sofie.
What if, instead of giving us the obvious Justin versus Benlightsaber duel, the show went this way: Justin kills Scudder. (Duh.) Becomes the Usher. (Duh.) Sofie gets to see him naked (obviously) , sees the tattoos, assumes he's her father/rapist of her mother, and in dissappointment and rage does what she has vowed to do, kill him. Which she actually can because she has the potential of being a prophet herself. This act makes her at once the current "Child of Darkness". And THEN Ben arrives, all ready to fulfill his destiny and fight his evil opposite number (tm), only it's not Justin anymore - it's Sofie. Who struggles with the powers for a while and might temporarily get overwhelmed by them, but then gets a grip. Whereupon she and Ben end the centuries-old-struggle by not fighting at all, and not running from each other (as Scudder and Management did), either, but by melting. Presto kiss and blast imagery, and end of avatars, with Sofie having been the last one.
Speaking of melting, that is what my objections to Jonesy/Libby did. Firstly, episode 9 acknowledged the obvious difficulties of their union (and not just the he-slept-with-her-mother ones). Secondly, then we saw them going through hell together. See, Justin getting black eyes is banal next to the horribly realistic scenes of Jonesy getting tarred and feathered and then slowly dying in the sun, and Libby being at his side, with no possibility to help him or herself. (And, excellent detail, getting progressively more burned by the merciless sun.) When she tries to scrap the tar of him and realizes this takes his skin as well, you suffer so much for both of them. And when the calvary in form of Ben arrives, we get the undisputed highlight of the episode. Beautifully filmed and played. It would have been so easy for healing scenes to come across as hokey (a danger the show is aware of, see the fake healings in early season 1 when Samson for an episode thinks he can exploit this financially) , but instead, I have to return to that word, we get to see real grace.
This is Ben in full control of his powers and his intelligence, making sure no humans will get hurt this time, having the patience to wait until the vultures are close enough. The endless sky and the desert providing stunning visuals. And then Jonesy being healed, not just in body, but also in suffering spirit, with his knee - and the sudden ability to run again, as he could in his youth - as a beautiful symbol. The scene when Libby sees him and Ben return and rushes towards them - perfect. Could have been pure kitsch but wasn't. As I said, I'm completely won over. Perfect.
***
Another show whose creator, Terry Nation, was arguably not as good a writer of its episodes as the show's story editor, Chris Boucher (Terry fans, don't devour me - he's a jewel of subtlety compared with Mr. Knauf) is Blake's 7. Gone these many decades, produced on a tiny budget by the BBC that was the leftover from some soap opera, and still alive and floroushing in fandom. Not least because it has fans likewatervole, aka Judith Proctor, who maintains the best B7 site on the net and is among many other things an excellent fanfic author.
(In her spare time, she organizes conventions, trips to the theatre to watch Our Heroes on stage, and lures unsuspecting continentals into singing out loud at conventions despite the fact they can't sing, but that's neither here nor there.)
Judith has this amazing knack of being able to write the B7 characters both in their natural surroundings and in other worlds. My absolutely favourite story of hers was originally a fanzine but now is thankfully online. It's theoretical premise would have made me extremely wary if the author had been anyone else, because it's a crossover with a miniseries I had not then seen (I have since, again thanks to Judith), and it uses one of those fanfic tropes which can go badly so easily, i.e. the fact that the same actor, Gareth Thomas, played Blake and Morgan, the character we get to meet in this story.
(Sidenote here: Gareth Thomas' performance as Morgan in Morgan's Boy is amazing, not because this is a very different character from Blake but because it's one of the most intense bits of acting I ever saw on tv or elsewhere. But you can, as I did, enjoy Judith's story without having seen said performance - she gives all the necessary information you need about Morgan in her story.)
"Morgan" is set in Wales and describes the encounter between two very damaged and very different men; one of whom is Avon, and though the why and wherefore of his being there isn't revealed until the end, it makes complete sense within the B7 universe. It's a gen story with a firm sense of place and atmosphere, a credible Avon (who shares the fact of all beloved and ambiguous characters of often gettig whitewashed or, tough much more rarely the other extreme, getting demonized), and it is my very favourite PGP. (Only B7 fans know what this means.)
My second favourite Judith story uses a classic Western as its template - "Shane". It's another PGP and contains a brilliant use of Blake's clone from Weapon and the family he was about to found at this episode. Blake's clone isn't exactly unused in fanfic, but it's great to see him with his own personality and priorities, similar to Blake but definitely not identical. As for that other B7 character, if you can't guess who "Shane" is in this scenario within the first page or so, shame on you. The child narrator sounds perfectly plausible as well, no mean feat to pull off.
Another thing which endears Judith to me as a writer is that she's not only a Blake/Avon (and Blake 'n Avon) fan but fascinated by the dynamic between Avon and Servalan as well. (In my humble opinion, it's what largely drives the third and fourth season of B7.) Her story "The Third Option" describes a plausible PGP encounter between Avon and Servalan which captures everything that made this relationship so intriguing to me, despite the fact that Avon is amnesiac and brainwashed at this point. (And Servalan's reaction to that is so utterly her.)
If ever a poem was obvious to be quoted in a B7 context, it was Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Goal. Judith's story of the same name gives us Vila's point of view not just on Blake and Avon, but on Avon and himself. Again, you have something that could have gone so wrong - extensive use of poetry quotes is just as dangerous as song fic - and goes so right instead.
Speaking of songfic; as hinted at earlier in this rave, music is dear to Judith's heart, and she's the queen of filk in B7 fandom. It's hard to pick among her little masterpieces, but here are two ensemble pieces:
"Liberator Live Forever" filks the ode to joy, and "Messing about in a Space Ship" ( "Who cares that Blake is a trifle obsessed,/ As long as Kerr Avon wears studs on his vest?") takes on "Messing about on a River". I dare you not to hum at least one of them. Judith will make you. She is that way.
kradical said at the beginning of this season regarding the opening episode - Knauf just can't do subtle. 9 was written by another writer, and I loved it. Mind you, I still think this show never quite recovered from the loss of Ronald Moore. (And the contrast to the Moore-shepherded BSG makes that ever more obvious.) I'm buying the first season on DVD, but I'll be perfectly content with the second just on CD. This being said, there is are a lot of great things happening this season, the "good side" is getting far more fleshed out, the narrative pace has sped up, Ben simply rocks, and it's probably far more the kind of show Daniel Knauf wanted from the beginning, good versus evil. It's my own fault for having been more intrigued by storylines like Justin's from last season. But let's go into details, both good and evil:
Episode 8: Some of my objections to this one actually aren't there any more after having seen episode 9, which is why I'm glad I waited with my review. For example, as I still didn't see any chemistry between Jonesy and Libby and might have bought them having sex due to her Sofie issues and Mother issues and his Sofie issues and loneliness, I very much doubted that even drunk, Jonesy would marry Libby. I also found the family dinner scene too obvious. But then came episode 9, and praise for the Jonesy/Libby aspect thereof shall follow anon.
My other objection was that the final scene with Sofie, far having the chilling awe impact it probably was supposed to have, made me groan. I just saw my worst fears realized - the set up for a Victorian melodrama, with Ben having to save Sofie out of Justin's evil clutches. However, again, Sofie's scenes in episode 9 calmed my fears somewhat. More about this in a moment.
What I did like about episode 8: the Samson and Ben scenes. Samson having regarded Management as a friend, despite all, and not just immediately going all business as usual with Ben was a good narrative choice, and the scene where Ben conjured up the wagon he himself saw in the second season 1 episode for Samson to visit was wonderful. There was a moment of grace and goodbye here, and so much detail to love - the song from Ben's and Justin's first vision of each other, where they saw their respective fathers as well, and the fact that among Beljakov's leftovers was a photo of little Alexej and Irina. As I said, I have absolutely no complaints about Ben this season; he has matured so much, and what he did with Samson was a beautiful example of that. Samson offering his help afterwards felt earned, not a story construct so Ben could stay with the Carnivale.
As a sidenote, I wonder whether the fact that now whenever Ben uses his powers it throws Justin into fits - which it didn't before - is meant to indicate the difference between Ben being now a full prophet, after the death of Management, and Justin still an avatar (until the inevitable death of Scudder, I assume) , or whether we're supposed to conclude this is because now Justin is completely evil, which he wasn't last season (and hence had no negative feedback from Ben using his powers).
Iris watching Justin's fit and noticing Norman's reaction (which already showed her Norman is not as immobile as he pretended to be, which she said nothing about) bore out in the subsequent episode, with the final scene between her and Norman, which I'm still in two minds about. (I.e. can't decide whether this is awesome complexity or bad writing.) I like the ambiguity - we don't know whether Iris means what she says to Norman, or whether she's manipulating him. And I do like the idea of Iris - not a flea, as she remarked to Norman in a previous episode - having her own agenda; otoh I wouldn't buy said agenda actually is directed against her brother in a finite fashion, so it all depends on where the show will go with this. What worries me is what Clancy Brown said about this new direction for Iris in an extensive interview. Referring to the arson plot from last season in the first sentence, he said:
"At that point, it’ll be obvious – in episode six, I think, it resolves. After that, they kept trying to turn Iris a different direction, and it was never making sense, because it was so abrupt, and kind of in denial of what had gone before. So, you’re question is a question that we all raised. See, they gave us the answer, but they never posed the question. And we were, both of us, Amy & I were saying, “Ya know, it’s fine if you want to go this direction, but you gotta set it up. You can’t just kinda declare it. Cuz there’s way to much between the both of us, there’s way too much going on, and you can’t just turn a character – especially characters so symbiotic as we are – so abruptly without some kind of development, some kind of turn. And that was also coming from HBO. And it was really tough to argue these points.
It’s not like any of us had any debate over the ultimate direction, it was just in how to get there. And I think it’s better than it was, but it’s not really accomplished. And the problem is, of course, that nobody knows the character better than the actor who’s playing it. And we kept trying to insinuate ideas, directions, and that’s not really our place, either. But towards the end, we got a good dialog going about it. But by the end, it was almost too late. I still think it works, but Amy was having more trouble than anybody. I still think it works… Well, that’s not true. I was having a little trouble with it, as well. But that was really her ball to carry.
This does not sound good. If they state that Iris never loved her brother at all, I'll end up going in denial about this season.
However, with that caveat in mind, I loved the California scenes of episode 9. Justin's relationship with Norman is one of the very few remaining ambiguous things about him. In the last three or four episodes, he increasingly confided to a silent Norman, and not just in a taunting "nah nah, I'm evil now, and you can't do anything about it" way; he talked about doubts and fears. Being capable of both causing Norman pain and saving him, of using him and wanting his approval despite all underscores all the interaction. Justin undoubtedly saw the publicity value once he HAD saved Norman, but at the moment he did it? He was sincere in that, I think. And unless the next episode proves me wrong, I actually think he's sincere about not being angry with Norman for attempting to kill him, mostly because that was what he had explicitly asked Norman to do in the season 1 finale. (When he was still complex and not Evil (tm). End of bitchy aside.) That is also what I guess he refers to when saying to Norman when the later confirms that yes, he does hate him now, enough to wish him dead, "well, you had your chance to kill me". The question "do you hate me?" when nobody else is listening (i.e. no PR purpose possible) itself is amazing for second season Justin.
What placated my fears about the Sofie storyline for the moment were two things, and one has directly to do with Norman. The other was that Sofie doesn't just fall sway to Justin' s Evil Mental Sex Enforcing Powers (tm); indeed the first scene between them clarifies she's able to maintain her free will. I guess that'll become important. But what really mollified me was that it's Justin's instant forgiveness for his foster-father's attempt to kill him that draws Sofie in. Because this is so in character and makes complete sense with her backstory, and the major trauma that Appollonia's attempt to kill her left her with. The end of episode 8 with the Justin leering at the new maid who is Sofie revelation had me groan; the end of episode 9, by contrast, with Sofie and Justin kneeling opposite each other and praying for forgiveness caused all the awed shivers the show can ask.
Some updated speculation about Sofie, not all my own, and fueled by Lodz' "Sofie is the omega" message from the beyond. The omega - the last letter of the Greek alphabet. And Sofie has the prophet dreams, too. Then there are Samson's two season intro speeches, both mentioning that the time of magic and avatars and miracles came to an end with the age of reason, and the repeated use of the trinity site/atom bomb imagery in combination with Ben and Sofie.
What if, instead of giving us the obvious Justin versus Ben
Speaking of melting, that is what my objections to Jonesy/Libby did. Firstly, episode 9 acknowledged the obvious difficulties of their union (and not just the he-slept-with-her-mother ones). Secondly, then we saw them going through hell together. See, Justin getting black eyes is banal next to the horribly realistic scenes of Jonesy getting tarred and feathered and then slowly dying in the sun, and Libby being at his side, with no possibility to help him or herself. (And, excellent detail, getting progressively more burned by the merciless sun.) When she tries to scrap the tar of him and realizes this takes his skin as well, you suffer so much for both of them. And when the calvary in form of Ben arrives, we get the undisputed highlight of the episode. Beautifully filmed and played. It would have been so easy for healing scenes to come across as hokey (a danger the show is aware of, see the fake healings in early season 1 when Samson for an episode thinks he can exploit this financially) , but instead, I have to return to that word, we get to see real grace.
This is Ben in full control of his powers and his intelligence, making sure no humans will get hurt this time, having the patience to wait until the vultures are close enough. The endless sky and the desert providing stunning visuals. And then Jonesy being healed, not just in body, but also in suffering spirit, with his knee - and the sudden ability to run again, as he could in his youth - as a beautiful symbol. The scene when Libby sees him and Ben return and rushes towards them - perfect. Could have been pure kitsch but wasn't. As I said, I'm completely won over. Perfect.
***
Another show whose creator, Terry Nation, was arguably not as good a writer of its episodes as the show's story editor, Chris Boucher (Terry fans, don't devour me - he's a jewel of subtlety compared with Mr. Knauf) is Blake's 7. Gone these many decades, produced on a tiny budget by the BBC that was the leftover from some soap opera, and still alive and floroushing in fandom. Not least because it has fans like
watervole, aka Judith Proctor, who maintains the best B7 site on the net and is among many other things an excellent fanfic author. (In her spare time, she organizes conventions, trips to the theatre to watch Our Heroes on stage, and lures unsuspecting continentals into singing out loud at conventions despite the fact they can't sing, but that's neither here nor there.)
Judith has this amazing knack of being able to write the B7 characters both in their natural surroundings and in other worlds. My absolutely favourite story of hers was originally a fanzine but now is thankfully online. It's theoretical premise would have made me extremely wary if the author had been anyone else, because it's a crossover with a miniseries I had not then seen (I have since, again thanks to Judith), and it uses one of those fanfic tropes which can go badly so easily, i.e. the fact that the same actor, Gareth Thomas, played Blake and Morgan, the character we get to meet in this story.
(Sidenote here: Gareth Thomas' performance as Morgan in Morgan's Boy is amazing, not because this is a very different character from Blake but because it's one of the most intense bits of acting I ever saw on tv or elsewhere. But you can, as I did, enjoy Judith's story without having seen said performance - she gives all the necessary information you need about Morgan in her story.)
"Morgan" is set in Wales and describes the encounter between two very damaged and very different men; one of whom is Avon, and though the why and wherefore of his being there isn't revealed until the end, it makes complete sense within the B7 universe. It's a gen story with a firm sense of place and atmosphere, a credible Avon (who shares the fact of all beloved and ambiguous characters of often gettig whitewashed or, tough much more rarely the other extreme, getting demonized), and it is my very favourite PGP. (Only B7 fans know what this means.)
My second favourite Judith story uses a classic Western as its template - "Shane". It's another PGP and contains a brilliant use of Blake's clone from Weapon and the family he was about to found at this episode. Blake's clone isn't exactly unused in fanfic, but it's great to see him with his own personality and priorities, similar to Blake but definitely not identical. As for that other B7 character, if you can't guess who "Shane" is in this scenario within the first page or so, shame on you. The child narrator sounds perfectly plausible as well, no mean feat to pull off.
Another thing which endears Judith to me as a writer is that she's not only a Blake/Avon (and Blake 'n Avon) fan but fascinated by the dynamic between Avon and Servalan as well. (In my humble opinion, it's what largely drives the third and fourth season of B7.) Her story "The Third Option" describes a plausible PGP encounter between Avon and Servalan which captures everything that made this relationship so intriguing to me, despite the fact that Avon is amnesiac and brainwashed at this point. (And Servalan's reaction to that is so utterly her.)
If ever a poem was obvious to be quoted in a B7 context, it was Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Goal. Judith's story of the same name gives us Vila's point of view not just on Blake and Avon, but on Avon and himself. Again, you have something that could have gone so wrong - extensive use of poetry quotes is just as dangerous as song fic - and goes so right instead.
Speaking of songfic; as hinted at earlier in this rave, music is dear to Judith's heart, and she's the queen of filk in B7 fandom. It's hard to pick among her little masterpieces, but here are two ensemble pieces:
"Liberator Live Forever" filks the ode to joy, and "Messing about in a Space Ship" ( "Who cares that Blake is a trifle obsessed,/ As long as Kerr Avon wears studs on his vest?") takes on "Messing about on a River". I dare you not to hum at least one of them. Judith will make you. She is that way.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Wow
Date: 2005-03-10 09:00 pm (UTC)Thank you. It's particularly nice that your choice of my two best B7 stories are the two that I myself consider to be my best.
I love filking. (If your tastes run that way, visit
Filking is where you can make people laugh and cry all in the same evening, where you can bring shy people out of their shell and also listen to some wonderful songs. You should hear
PS. If you nag me sufficiently, I'll get around to putting my Stargate novels on the web. I think you may have read "The Price to Pay", but I'm not sure if you've read the sequel.
Re: Wow
Date: 2005-03-11 06:06 am (UTC)And you so deserve every word of praise!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-13 04:26 pm (UTC)That final moment with Sofie in episode 8 did get me. I felt like I'd been sucker punched by the show. I was half expecting it and I share your concerns about Sofie's character but it still did get to me.
A question about the trailer of Management the Ben created for Sampson, what did you make of the fetus in the jar? It was there at the beginning but the jar was empty at the end. To me it seems to suggest Management being reincarnated which adds an interesting twist to your Sofie speculation (which I love). What if Sofie kills Justin (and becomes the Usher) while pregnant with the next in line after Ben?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-13 05:37 pm (UTC)Though I still maintain that the omega thing only makes sense if Sofie is the last one, i.e. even if her child is now a prince, it won't be any more once the show is finished...