1: 'Go back to being General of my nuts!' - a tongue twister or a Freudian slip? Umm...I love you for posting this question. Tom was having so much fun with Miles in that scene. Loved when Tom was like, I don't wanna watch your lips move when you read. Hee. Honestly I think this line came from pent-up frustration with his superiors in the Militia over the years. Did Tom respect Miles as a general? Yes. In Love Boat, he said it was good to be working with professionals again. But I also get the sense that he thinks Miles is not as smart as he is (and Miles picks up on this, hence HIS line at the end of Love Boat when he declares he's smarter than Neville, sounding rather like an 8 year old on the playground.) Despite the respect Tom had for Miles, he always feels personally betrayed by Miles since Miles defected. Back in Soul Train why Miles deserted was one of the first things Tom asked him even though they were locked in hand-to-hand combat. I think Tom was genuinely curious there (because he himself was doubting Bass) but was also
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Religion - I think Tom...adopted the facade of a pious man? Not necessarily consciously, but he remade himself from scratch post-Blackout and I think that being the scripture-quoting man of letters was part of that? It makes him look deep and spiritual, it gives him authority by contagion and the Bible can be used for pretty much anything.
I think it is real in the sense that Tom doesn't necessarily know it's not real? I'm not sure it would stand a test of faith type situation though.
Is Neville a misogynist? This gets to the complicated question of Julia for me. He appears to love Julia deeply - to the point where Miles knows she's Tom's Achilles' heel. What are some of the reasons people think Tom's a misogynist?
Tom tends to reset to gender-based insults when angry. He calls Charlie a 'pert little bitch', he calls Nora 'mamacita' (gender and race based) and he sneers something about dresses at Jim and Miles in Clue. Personally, I think it is a reflection of his crippling inferiority complex. Someone who really thinks they are
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there are plenty of misogynists who love their wives.Well certainly. I didn't mean to imply there weren't. I was just trying to think of anything relating Tom to women, since I didn't recall the comments you brought up en masse (although once you did I remembered how much I cringed at the "mamacita" thing.) I think there is bigotry that is part of social convention and structures (often personally unexamined and more internalized - and extraordinarily common among Americans) and then there are more personally realized founts of misogyny. Not that one or the other is more acceptable - I'm just wondering if you think Neville is the type who actively hates and demeans women or is more of the type who accepts social structures that suggest women are weaker, etc., and degrades them without giving it much thought? There has been a lot of talk in the U.S. military lately about how to extract the age-old misogynistic language used to train soldiers (e.g. using female-gendered insults like "pussy"). Now that the U.S. military is fully
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You do need to poke me if I sound snotty sometimes :) I don't MEAN to, I just get tangled up in making sure my position is clearly stated. (Define your thesis statement hangups!).
Ok - I was going to comment but I am on my iPad and that means I can't see the post I am replying to. So I will be back - later!
I think Tom degrades everyone because that is how he shores up his self-image? The scene in...the exploding train episode wasn't it?...where he was battering his men in a fist fight despite knowing they wouldn't fight back properly, then battering on an 18 year old asthmatic, exemplifies Tom for me. He struts and postures and preens in order to stop anyone realising 'what he is really like' or what he THINKS he is really like
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I do think Julia was originally going to be the Lady Macbeth to Neville's Macbeth - but again that doesn't contradict Neville having issues with women. The thing is with Lady Macbeth is she manipulates and coaxes her husband into the actions he takes. She's not the power behind the throne (making Neville a puppet ruler), she's more the poison word in the ear.
I'm not sure that is the route the show is going to take anymore. After the mid-season break Julia fell back into a much more passive role (in-universe because she was shaken off her game by her son's death, out-universe because Julia's actress was up for lead role in what turned out to be the execrable NCIS:Red and the power dynamic between her and Neville shifted. He was the one directing her, ignoring her attempts to argue with him and getting his own way. Whether the power can shift back to Julia is hard to say - and depends entirely on whether or not she gets vaporised in the first ep of the second season
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I do think Julia was originally going to be the Lady Macbeth to Neville's Macbeth Oh right. Now that you mention it, I remember hearing that in an interview. Poison in the ear. If Neville needed her to plant the seeds that Monroe was cracked though, I still think of him as a bit of an empty suit.
Giancarlo at one point commented that Neville was upset by his wife spending time with Monroe Ooooh. Fascinating. Man, such wasted potential.
He'd love to be, but the character doesn't have the chops. He can talk a good game - that's how he got Monroe tied to a chair - but he isn't a great soldier. Randall was right, Neville has a trail of failures behind him and one sorta-success by accident. He's not even particularly a good leader, although he seems to have convinced people he is for now. I buy this analysis.
Like on The Love Boat, when he was so smug and then watched it all go to shit.Hee. How true. Why do you think Foster thought Tom could control Miles
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I think Tom really does talk a good game. He escaped to Georgia, he's one of the most senior men that Bass has (mostly cos Bass keeps executing them...except for Jeremy, who went to Canada) and he played on his long history with Miles, his connection to Rachel and all the rest of it.
Foster just bought into it - so far Randall is the only one that hasn't.
(And maybe Bass - I think to a degree Bass always saw Tom as trustworthy-ish because he knew what level Tom was competent to? Not good leadership, but Bass is paranoid enough to see talent as a threat.)
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I think it is real in the sense that Tom doesn't necessarily know it's not real? I'm not sure it would stand a test of faith type situation though.
Is Neville a misogynist? This gets to the complicated question of Julia for me. He appears to love Julia deeply - to the point where Miles knows she's Tom's Achilles' heel. What are some of the reasons people think Tom's a misogynist?
Tom tends to reset to gender-based insults when angry. He calls Charlie a 'pert little bitch', he calls Nora 'mamacita' (gender and race based) and he sneers something about dresses at Jim and Miles in Clue. Personally, I think it is a reflection of his crippling inferiority complex. Someone who really thinks they are ( ... )
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Ok - I was going to comment but I am on my iPad and that means I can't see the post I am replying to. So I will be back - later!
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Which brings me to Julia!
I do think Julia was originally going to be the Lady Macbeth to Neville's Macbeth - but again that doesn't contradict Neville having issues with women. The thing is with Lady Macbeth is she manipulates and coaxes her husband into the actions he takes. She's not the power behind the throne (making Neville a puppet ruler), she's more the poison word in the ear.
I'm not sure that is the route the show is going to take anymore. After the mid-season break Julia fell back into a much more passive role (in-universe because she was shaken off her game by her son's death, out-universe because Julia's actress was up for lead role in what turned out to be the execrable NCIS:Red and the power dynamic between her and Neville shifted. He was the one directing her, ignoring her attempts to argue with him and getting his own way. Whether the power can shift back to Julia is hard to say - and depends entirely on whether or not she gets vaporised in the first ep of the second season ( ... )
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Oh right. Now that you mention it, I remember hearing that in an interview. Poison in the ear. If Neville needed her to plant the seeds that Monroe was cracked though, I still think of him as a bit of an empty suit.
Giancarlo at one point commented that Neville was upset by his wife spending time with Monroe
Ooooh. Fascinating. Man, such wasted potential.
He'd love to be, but the character doesn't have the chops. He can talk a good game - that's how he got Monroe tied to a chair - but he isn't a great soldier. Randall was right, Neville has a trail of failures behind him and one sorta-success by accident. He's not even particularly a good leader, although he seems to have convinced people he is for now.
I buy this analysis.
Like on The Love Boat, when he was so smug and then watched it all go to shit.Hee. How true. Why do you think Foster thought Tom could control Miles ( ... )
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Foster just bought into it - so far Randall is the only one that hasn't.
(And maybe Bass - I think to a degree Bass always saw Tom as trustworthy-ish because he knew what level Tom was competent to? Not good leadership, but Bass is paranoid enough to see talent as a threat.)
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