Lights go out, walls come tumbling down

[redscharlach]

And now, one of the most predictable blog posts ever, even by my own high standards of predictable blogging.

Comments

[livii]

I really liked it, but was strangely unmoved. Might have been having to pop up and down the stairs several times to nurse and resettle the baby while watching, and explaining some bits to Billy as it went...I dunno. Also I'd been thoroughly convinced it was purgatory and Keats was the devil and all that so it wasn't a huge revelation? More like no revelation at all (even Ray being from the 50s had been nicely foreshadowed by Shaz's "it's like 1953 in there" and the various manners of death and while I was very pleased by the fact Shaz was from the 90s I'd also always wondered if she was anachronistic too). But, oh, the look on Gene's face when Alex was digging in the grave! Oh, my god. That was all worth it, right there.

I agree that Alex's story was ended VERY quickly - I still really wanted her to go back. :( Poor Molly. Do you think she actually went back at the beginning of this season, or was that a dream? I can't quite tell, don't have time to go rewatch ep1 either, but I know you saw it recently, so I trust your opinion on this matter. ;) I think overall what it actually means is the two series were about Gene, not about Sam or Alex, not really - so that makes a bit more sense in that way. It is sort of typical of Alex to come to terms with things a bit quickly, but I still felt a bit let down that she moved on THAT quickly, unless we're meant to believe she'd been coming to terms with it for a long time - which I could buy.

(And OMG THE RAILWAY ARMS! NELSON!! I squealed at Nelson's appearance, though when they said they were heading for the pub I just knew it would be the Arms).

...okay, I'm hogging your comments rather than write up my own post, haha, but I guess the thing that's hitting me as I type is THEY'RE ALL DEAD. So, purgatory, yes, but I guess I wasn't 100% thinking about what it MEANT that Ray and Chris and Shaz are actually dead and could have ended up in actual hell. It's like I'd worked out the ending and yet hadn't considered it emotionally. It's pretty powerful! When you think about it in its totality, not as a fun game of something you'd worked out. And the fact Gene is a young guy living a dress-up world trying to do good...it's a bit heartbreaking, that he's doing this, and that he can't move on. The clues had all been there that he was the Dead Copper and I believed it was him but I never thought about what that meant, that he died as a young man but is now who he is. Wow. It's hitting me, and it works.

Great television, indeed.

[redscharlach]

I've given some thought to whether Alex ever did return to reality, but even having rewatched 3.01, I was finding it almost impossible to decide for sure! But I'm now tending towards believing that she did NOT return and only dreamed that she did. Her "real" world was full of intrusions from Geneworld (seeing their faces on TV, on DVD covers and stuff), and she also went straight from being outside in a store, to being trapped in a dark cell, and then looking through the door and seeing herself in a hospital bed: all impossible, dream-like images, of the kind that only happen in Geneworld. When Sam returned to reality, it was just plain old dull reality; hers really wasn't. So that's my current thinking, but I may well change my mind tomorrow. ;-)

I never thought about what that meant, that he died as a young man but is now who he is.

That whole thing got to me so much. On further reflection, I realized that not only has he built up that persona of "the Guv", but he is now basically obliged to maintain it at all costs in order to keep doing what he does.

When Alex offers to stay with him, Gene says (slightly paraphrased) "You have to go... I can't have you putting me off my stride". At first I thought that seemed like a weird and distancing thing to say to her, but then I realized what it meant: she's seen who he is underneath, but can't ever be close to that person, because he can't function unless he tries to forget that that young man ever existed. So he has to force himself to be the Guv at the end, even though he seems to wish he could just be Gene. And she seems to get that too, which is why she says "Goodbye, Guv" to him. It's so sad and star-crossed.

[jandjsalmon]

*waves* I'm new - but I had to pop in here and add a sniffly "Word" to your points.

She's seen who he is underneath, but can't ever be close to that person, because he can't function unless he tries to forget that that young man ever existed.

THIS is what got me. I was sobbing saying 'please let her stay with you' - but I totally understand why she couldn't. His job was to help her along too. She couldn't just stay with him because then his job wouldn't be complete.

And can I just add - that I was never a huge Jimbo fan in the first place - but I got REALLY cranky when he started beating round the Guv. THEN at the end - crazy barking? And how Gene just stood his ground and stood between him and Alex - almost like he was protecting her. I got goosebumps!

[redscharlach]

Keats at the end made me feel extra-sorry for Gene: not that the Guv is afraid of Keats, but he's bloody irritated by him and is never, ever going to be able to get away from that irritation. It's the equivalent of being stuck in the car with him listening to "Club Tropicana"... for eternity. Argh.