3.06: "The Body in Question"
Summary: A frozen body discovered in the local river could cause a world-wide historical revolution: was Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo or was he ice fishing near Cicely and fathering a tribe of French-speaking Native Americans?
Moosechick's episode guide page.
Moosechick's episode guide page.
Backstory! Yay! I love the idea of Ruth-Anne setting out with a cat and $800 and coming to Alaska when she was 50.
Okay, her being proud of trucker poet Rudy and disappointed in successful investment banker Matthew could very well have been quirky to the point of being obnoxious, but I think the utter, utter deadpan she and Ed use throughout the scene saves it.
For perhaps the first time in the series to date, I like Shelly in her scene in Joel's office. She doesn't sound quite as dumb as she usually does when she's talking about her womb being a sandbox and how she's "been around [sperm] a lot" but never gotten pregnant. I mean, the reason she initially got on that train of thought is ridiculous, but after that she briefly shows some evidence of reasoning!
Joel: And you put two and two together and came up with twenty-two?
Shelly: Yeah.
...I did say it was brief.
Hee, the first mention of Holling's evil family! I love how it comes back up in "The Bad Seed" and "Mr. Sandman."
"We're all just genes." Hmmm, so does the whole speech this is part of imply that Holling is an atheist? I can't remember if the show ever comes out and characterizes him as anything in particular. (Unless he says so in "Seoul Mates"?)
I love Ruth-Anne cheering Ed up with her story about how Matthew didn't have any obstacles to contend with, and so he didn't feel as attached to his music as he would have had he needed to fight for it.
"No, I'm depressed because I believe in Pierre....One fell swoop and my whole gestalt is in the toilet." Oh, Joel. Don't worry, Cicely will serve up something new for you to disbelieve next week, I'm sure!
"I feel like I'm changing. I'm mutating in some horribly grotesque way....I'm glad to see the total meltdown of my psyche is so amusing to you, O'Connell." Of course it is!
I like how Joel really does start to change this season, however unwillingly and however slowly. The reset button is unfortunately nudged a bit in S4 before things get back on track in S5, but for this season, it's really nice.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the town meeting about Pierre! It's not quite my favorite scene of the series, but it's waaaaaay up there. Although I don't quite understand Joel's position that "when the truth is finally known, the facts will be made to accommodate it." He uses the example of light showing properties of both particle and wave, and...is he suggesting that if we were to eventually discover it was a particle, all our observations would be rewritten and the ones where it looked like a wave would be thrown out as bad? Or that the definition of "particle" would expand to contain these observations-which actually sounds more like Chris's thesis that the truth changes while facts remain the same? (Uh, if you couldn't tell, I'm on Chris's side.)
Bwahaha, and then Chris drags in Keats, because that's just the kind of thing he would do.
Hello, Tellakutans!
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Heh, and she's still excited about it!
I'm mutating in some horribly grotesque way
Oh no! Building character is so repugnant, Joel!
"when the truth is finally known, the facts will be made to accommodate it."
At first I thought he meant facts would be manufactured to accommodate it, but no, I think he means that facts will be reinterpreted to point at the new truth so it looks like that's where they were pointing "all along." Which... yeah, that's what Chris is arguing.
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I guess you have to cultivate that kind of attitude in a town like this...
Oh no! Building character is so repugnant, Joel!
Heh. You know, it reminded me a tiny bit of your post-Exeter essay for Jesse... (I seem to recall you had a section on how building character is painful and annoying?)
At first I thought he meant facts would be manufactured to accommodate it, but no, I think he means that facts will be reinterpreted to point at the new truth so it looks like that's where they were pointing "all along." Which... yeah, that's what Chris is arguing.
Mmmmm, tasty semantics.
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And I suppose she takes care to stock her favorites...
(I seem to recall you had a section on how building character is painful and annoying?)
I didn't say Joel's assessment was wrong, I was just making fun of him for it!
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