i'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air.

[intrikate88]

Not that I am actually capable of coherency (and I don't even know WHY, that's the thing, everything just came together to make me go "Oh! oh..." and I don't fully understand how.)

But. Ashes to Ashes. Oh, oh.

Things I thought:

I. I am worried about Gene. I want to cuddle him, he is drinking too much and smoking too much and withdrawing into himself, and clearly he misses his wife Donna it just makes me so sad to see all the distance growing in between him and everyone else. Which I suppose was Keats' goal, but I didn't think he'd do very well at it, and. Oh, Gene.

II. Everybody thinks the dead copper is Gene; I dunno. I'm sort of tired of people going on and on and on and on about it. The dead guy looks more like Chris to me, really, and Chris is the only one not seeing stars. MAYBE IT MEANS SOMETHING. Or whatever.

III. Maybe I'm missing something but if I was Sam Tyler in a different body trying to convince Alex I was for real? The first thing out of my mouth would probably be "hey remember that time you were my shrink and then I jumped off the roof and probably gave you a few sleepless nights if not an actual job review? Those were the days, huh?" Because even if you started to forget things, like he was saying, I think you'd remember that time you killed yourself and it was a mess and changed your life a bit.

IV. Okay, so the ending. Keats basically killed Viv, because as far as I could tell he was propping up his head in a way that might cause his throat to close and would probably cause all that blood to drain into his lungs and drown him. But then he was holding him in that intense way, until Gene came and pushed him off to hold Viv himself. As he did so, he announced that Viv's record was clean and anything he might have done was forgotten- offering forgiveness.

Keats was holding that undercover lady cop when she died, after it was revealed that she had left the straight and narrow; Gene was there when Sam died/disappeared, and presumably he never was a bent copper. When Blevins was shot, Gene told him something, or perhaps showed him something, and I feel like it may be something along the lines of: "I'm not going to be the one to judge you."

V. Everybody being dead and existing in some kind of Purgatory here is seeming more and more likely. All the symbolism is blowing my mind, it feels like wandering through Dante's Inferno, really, and I'm loving it.

If they leave that grey town behind it will not have been Hell. [...] And yet to those who stay here it will have been Heaven from the first. And you can call those sad streets in the town yonder the Valley of the Shadow of Death: but to those who remain there they will have been Hell even from the beginning. -The Great Divorce

Comments

[misaditas.livejournal.com]

Thank you for mentioning II, because that's what I'm thinking too. But the photo's confused me. Meh.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know. For all we know the dead copper is nobody there but instead someone whose death was the catalyst to create this place... could be anything, I just don't feel that he is fo sho Gene.

[ohvienna.livejournal.com]

The first thing out of my mouth would probably be "hey remember that time you were my shrink and then I jumped off the roof and probably gave you a few sleepless nights if not an actual job review

I loled.

This show is certainly full of stuff, ain't it now?

[Just general wonderment: I'm not sure what the dead cop being Chris would signify? And if, like Sham!Tyler, you somehow magically get a new face, why would Gene have a picture of previously-different-faced-Chris and a roll of film in a box in his desk and no one else?]

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOL Sham!Tyler. Love it.

There is SO much; I watch and I feel these vast depths of things going on that I don't know what they are. Like in 3.05 right before Blevins got shot, they were in that alley, there was the flourescent girl going up and down on the wall, and there was red light lighting up everyone- only half of the faces of Ray and Alex, but Chris's whole face. Clearly that lighting was done on purpose, but what does it signify? Then Gene said he told Blevins that "City is going to cane United" which you know, casual football joke, but on the other hand, those are both Manchester teams in a conflict. This season has been about CID being split into a conflict with the opposing forces of Keats and Gene. This episode was about a Fenchurch conflict- police versus inmates, and conflicts within the team. Everybody's facing choices about the direction they'll go, and there's a weathervane pointing in different directions depending on which way the wind blows. In the riots, Gene walks into the prison and brings stillness; Keats manages the situation and brings division.

All fucking brilliant, I swear. I'm totally going to get my PhD and be a university prof one day, and am very much hoping to teach some sort of film symbolism or symbols in visual media or something course using this show as the main text. Because, damn.

I don't know what Chris would signify, as the dead cop; I think it's odd and interesting that he hasn't had a stars-and-Bowie moment, how he was divided up from Ray so Ray could sing the rife-with-meaning "Danny Boy" with Shaz... I just don't know, there's something weird about the kid. But I don't know why he should be special, or why Gene should think him so.

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

Here via mars_daily

red light lighting up everyone- only half of the faces of Ray and Alex, but Chris's whole face

Wow, I didn't notice that! But I have noticed on many occasions that Chris's face gets lit so the left side is in darkness à la Ghost!Copper. And while I was skipping through the ep on iPlayer last night I caught a still (no idea where, I was knackered) where Gene is fighting someone and Chris is standing watching at the right edge of the screen looking exactly like Ghostie. Even his clothes look the part. (Yes, I'm convinced Ghostie is somehow Chris. Eye-brow ridges, definitely).

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Glad you stopped by!

The half-lighting compared to the positioning of the Ghost's wound is very interesting, hadn't thought of it that way! Typically in film symbolism, when a character's face is half lit (and this is a device used fairly often, you'll see it everywhere if you look) it means they have a dual nature- the face is often a symbol of individual identity, so showing it as half-dark and half-light is often meaningful. Red light, especially, gives a more "demonic" type of connotation.

(Yes, I'm convinced Ghostie is somehow Chris. Eye-brow ridges, definitely).

And they have a similarly long face, I think.

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

AGREED. HOMG. On like everything. :D LET'S CUDDLE GENE TOGETHER, OMG HOW HE NEEDS US/DONNA. AND ALSO SCOTCH.

if I was Sam Tyler in a different body trying to convince Alex I was for real? The first thing out of my mouth would probably be "hey remember that time you were my shrink and then I jumped off the roof and probably gave you a few sleepless nights if not an actual job review? Those were the days, huh?"

LOL EXACTLY. I need to finish fleshing out and then post my Alex-meets-Sam fic. Because it is lolarious and fun in my head.

PS at first I was like OH NO YOU DI'N'T and I am still not really convinced but wow, there were some moments when he copied some of Simm's mannerisms pretty well. :O

Everybody being dead and existing in some kind of Purgatory here is seeming more and more likely.

YES. I am now having a distinct feeling Gene is dead, for instance. :/ And growing less and less sure about everybody else ...

Unf, the cinematography. I mean EVERY WEEK. The silhouette of Keats was maybe the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life, and I am still v. disturbed by trying to figure him out. I think you have very interesting thoughts — are you perhaps saying that Keats was at MORE people's deaths and probably responsible for them and trying to get Gene to take the rap?

Bleh. I am so sad that I was kind of warned by your and ohvienna's tweets that this ep would be soul-crushing, because :(

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

ACK! I am sorry ohvienna and I spoiled you a little last night. I wish Twitter came with a spoiler-tag to cover things up with the #ashestoashes tag or whatever and people could click to see if they had already seen it. The developers need to get on that.

LET'S CUDDLE GENE TOGETHER, OMG HOW HE NEEDS US/DONNA. AND ALSO SCOTCH.

BEST PLAN TODAY, WE TOTES SHOULD. He is so big and grumbly and clearly a softy on the inside. I worry.

Sham!Tyler was pretty good! It was a bit weird at first but it worked really well with the is he/isn't he ambiguity of it all, and he had the same sort of intensity that Simm uses, so it all came together. I was impressed.

I'm pretty sure they are all dead. Well, except maybe Chris, see comments of his weirdness to ohvienna above. But clearly being of questionable vitality has not slowed any of them down.

Keats' silhouette was so frightening, and that was after last week, where Alex saw him all backlit behind the station, I think right after she saw Gene burnign Sam's file? I had the funniest feeling that meant Keats is the recurring weathervane. And I don't know what that would mean.

I think you have very interesting thoughts — are you perhaps saying that Keats was at MORE people's deaths and probably responsible for them and trying to get Gene to take the rap?

off-topic, but it looks like you put an em-dash in that sentence and I can only make hyphens, which irritates me. It is a good thing I have a job where being pedantic about hyphens versus en-dashes versus em-dashes is part of my responsibilities. Anyway.

And that is a very interesting idea about Keats, and perhaps he was! But no, I meant that if everyone is dead and in some sort of Purgatory awaiting judgment, or waiting to be claimed by whoever will... accept their life's work, or something? (Like in The Last Battle, when Aslan says to the Calormene soldier that said he was actually a follower of Tash, "Any service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service to me...for he and I are such opposites that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him." Not that I am necessarily claiming the Manc Lion is the Narnian Lion or anything.) But it's like Gene and Keats are each trying to stake a claim on these people that have died, and it seems like the main difference between them is whether or not they have been bent coppers.

Basically the answer to everything is: Donna needs to get home to Gene already.

[theonlytwin.livejournal.com]

he does need cuddles. and i thought for a minute maybe dead cop was a relative of gene's, or something? then remembered his brother was a junkie, so probably not. i don't think it's chris, i'm in the ghost!gene camp, but i can't come up with a sensible explanation of why i think that. it's jsut a vague feeling, and something about his pout.

i agree with everything in iv. and sham!tyler never convinced me. dude wishes he was john simm.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Sham!Tyler wasn't convincing as Simm, but he did play the role with some of the same earnest intensity, so I'll give him that. I think he was supposed to be pretty starkly not Sam Tyler, to show some of the disconnect and division of identity, like that going on with the whole of Fenchurch CID. There have been a lot of themes of conflict and division going on lately, and I think it's highly symbolic of something big.

Yeah, everybody goes for the pout as the reason for it being Gene. It might be, it might not. I'm patient enough to wait to find out, that's not the most pressing speculation for me, really.

[theonlytwin.livejournal.com]

he was pretty good as a fantasist with delusions of grandeur, someone who believes his own lies. and THEMES, yesyesyes.

i am not patient enough. i want to know everything NOW. how the hell does test card girl fit into all this, for instance?

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

I think it's a little bit hilarious that Alex was making a list of symbols in one episode, just like all of us are doing out here.

I want to know what Alex's dreams mean, and what kind of things she is thinking about telling Keats, and what is the internal logic of this world where we never see anything besides police activity and does Alex just see things hopping from one day to the next because when does she buy groceries or clothes but she says she's been there three years... I want to know everything. Also if Molly is alive.

So many mysteries.

[theonlytwin.livejournal.com]

i had actually forgotten about molly, and i feel horrible. and the potential of the dream logic of the place has been bugging me too.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Re IV: Keats killed Viv, but I wondered whether he had to in case Viv managed to say something to Gene. At the beginning of the programme I thought it was Keats who prevented Viv from speaking to Gene. In addition Keats had been in the prison beforehand - how far did his involvement in the plot (and possibly Thordy's escape) go?

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Ooh, hadn't thought of that. I think you're right that Keats was blocking things all along... he's obviously very careful about setting up scenarios where Gene can't win. I am rather surprised at how effective Keats has been, thus far, since his plans seem to mostly rely on people playing a game of Dropping Your Mates In The Cacky, and I can't imagine that would be very popular in a police force like that.