Ashes to Ashes 3.07.
May. 15th, 2010 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which a throwaway remark from some episodes back turns into a main plot.
Okay, back in the episode where Alex invents speed dating and Our Heroes were filling out forms, Gene, reading Alex' answer to the question whom she admires most, says "how many times I have to tell you, Bolly, Nelson Mandela is a terrorist!", which at the time I took as a reminder of the way the ANC was regarded in the early 80s, at least by much of British police. (As accident would have it, this week the new Astonishing X-Men has Warren Ellis writing a conversation between Wolverine, Hisako and Emma Frost in which Logan also goes on about the early Mandela = terrorist theme.) I didn't expect the show to make more it, though, but now we get an episode where the theme of the week, tied into the longer arc, is the Struggle, and Chris' voice identification in his last scene made me go "duh!" re: Life on Mars barkeeper Nelson. Clearly, someone in the writing staff shares Alex' admiration for Mandela. As depictions of 80s attitudes towards black South Africans go, this appeared honest, from Gene's blatant racism to Alex' unintentionally condescending liberal guilt. Mind you: it's all used as part of our (white) regulars' story, but I think in a fair way (i.e. same as all the characters of the week are used on this show), plus I'm really glad that this week's main black guest star did not die for Chris' enlightenment but lived, however you define "life" in this universe.
This, finally, is the episode where Chris gets his heroic moment/growing up/confrontation, and it's fitting for the character that it's not about confronting a potentially lethal situation but confronting his tendency to bow to whatever authority, especially Gene's, is next, in order to get along with everyone. Chris standing up to Gene comes with Ray and Shaz considering him right to do so as well, so we're not back on the "Gene is always right" train, which was/is my fear and what I pray won't happen in the final episode, either. That Chris doesn't apologize at the end but says "buy me a drink and we'll call it even", felt just right. At the same time, Gene proves himself not irredeemable (after yet another episode of mostly displaying his darker side) by accepting Chris' stand; his real test, obviously, is still to come, because now that all three, Shaz, Chris and Ray, have had their Moment, the question is whether he'll be able to let them go. And, you know, confront his own state of being.
Re: Sam: obviously, if Gene said the truth (and right now, I think he did, though he might have omitted something from his account, but I don't think anything he said to Alex was a lie), then he was already able to let one person go, i.e. Sam, who as was by now many a person's guess, not just mine, worked out just what the world he was in really was and thus concluded he wanted to leave it. The unexpect part is that Sam apparantly thought Gene didn't know. (I think Gene must at least be semi-aware, though maybe not all the time.)
Current remaining guesses: the grave is that of the young copper, who is Gene. Because Gene is the remaining regular who never faced a truth about his past/ past trauma in current day thing yet, and this will be the big one. The video tapes for Shaz, Ray and Chris will demonstrate to them in some fashion that they are dead as well. The Life on Mars regular we'll see in the finale won't be Sam but barkeeper Nelson, who might or might not be the same person like Luigi, but who is actually Gene's and Keats' superior in the supernatural hierarchy (which they aren't aware of), and will recall them both. Alex will help Gene with the letting go process for everyone and himself, which is when we'll also see that kiss they teased out long enough - it will turn into a goodbye kiss. The copper limbo for dead or comatose policefolk will not be entirely gone, but will reconstitute itself around a new center, to wit, Alex, who by now is dead as well in the "real" world, and in the very last scene will greet the first new arrival to a new team.
One more week...
Okay, back in the episode where Alex invents speed dating and Our Heroes were filling out forms, Gene, reading Alex' answer to the question whom she admires most, says "how many times I have to tell you, Bolly, Nelson Mandela is a terrorist!", which at the time I took as a reminder of the way the ANC was regarded in the early 80s, at least by much of British police. (As accident would have it, this week the new Astonishing X-Men has Warren Ellis writing a conversation between Wolverine, Hisako and Emma Frost in which Logan also goes on about the early Mandela = terrorist theme.) I didn't expect the show to make more it, though, but now we get an episode where the theme of the week, tied into the longer arc, is the Struggle, and Chris' voice identification in his last scene made me go "duh!" re: Life on Mars barkeeper Nelson. Clearly, someone in the writing staff shares Alex' admiration for Mandela. As depictions of 80s attitudes towards black South Africans go, this appeared honest, from Gene's blatant racism to Alex' unintentionally condescending liberal guilt. Mind you: it's all used as part of our (white) regulars' story, but I think in a fair way (i.e. same as all the characters of the week are used on this show), plus I'm really glad that this week's main black guest star did not die for Chris' enlightenment but lived, however you define "life" in this universe.
This, finally, is the episode where Chris gets his heroic moment/growing up/confrontation, and it's fitting for the character that it's not about confronting a potentially lethal situation but confronting his tendency to bow to whatever authority, especially Gene's, is next, in order to get along with everyone. Chris standing up to Gene comes with Ray and Shaz considering him right to do so as well, so we're not back on the "Gene is always right" train, which was/is my fear and what I pray won't happen in the final episode, either. That Chris doesn't apologize at the end but says "buy me a drink and we'll call it even", felt just right. At the same time, Gene proves himself not irredeemable (after yet another episode of mostly displaying his darker side) by accepting Chris' stand; his real test, obviously, is still to come, because now that all three, Shaz, Chris and Ray, have had their Moment, the question is whether he'll be able to let them go. And, you know, confront his own state of being.
Re: Sam: obviously, if Gene said the truth (and right now, I think he did, though he might have omitted something from his account, but I don't think anything he said to Alex was a lie), then he was already able to let one person go, i.e. Sam, who as was by now many a person's guess, not just mine, worked out just what the world he was in really was and thus concluded he wanted to leave it. The unexpect part is that Sam apparantly thought Gene didn't know. (I think Gene must at least be semi-aware, though maybe not all the time.)
Current remaining guesses: the grave is that of the young copper, who is Gene. Because Gene is the remaining regular who never faced a truth about his past/ past trauma in current day thing yet, and this will be the big one. The video tapes for Shaz, Ray and Chris will demonstrate to them in some fashion that they are dead as well. The Life on Mars regular we'll see in the finale won't be Sam but barkeeper Nelson, who might or might not be the same person like Luigi, but who is actually Gene's and Keats' superior in the supernatural hierarchy (which they aren't aware of), and will recall them both. Alex will help Gene with the letting go process for everyone and himself, which is when we'll also see that kiss they teased out long enough - it will turn into a goodbye kiss. The copper limbo for dead or comatose policefolk will not be entirely gone, but will reconstitute itself around a new center, to wit, Alex, who by now is dead as well in the "real" world, and in the very last scene will greet the first new arrival to a new team.
One more week...
