Ashes to Ashes 3.06
Or, how not to handle a prison riot.
That was one suspenseful episode, not least because when Chris went on about last messages etc., I was increasingly convinced Ray would die. Thankfully, they both made it out alive. Sadly, Viv did not; making the first AtA cast member who dies the black man. No further comment on that one. I will say that I'm glad Viv wasn't the first team member shown to betray the team because he was blackmailed, even though Chris' actions from last season keep not being referenced in this one.
Viv's death was the most obviously sinister depiction of Jim Keats yet; while he wasn't doing anything violent to Viv, his holding Viv visibly scared the hell out of the dying Viv, and it was clear that Keats didn't feel pity. More emphasis on him and Gene having parallel or similar functions, though, when Gene later tries to do the holding-the-dying thing anyway, but too late, and Jim says "what are you trying to do?" in a way that indicates "when I transition someone, they stay transitioned". And yet Jim Keats continues to make true points, because he was absolutely right about Gene having no business joining the raid entering the prison to begin with. Gene wasn't necessary, nor did he accomplish anything, and if he went for any other reason than wanting the opportunity to beat up people, the show didn't mention it.
What the episode did show, however, was Alex finally having enough of Gene's beating-the-crap-out-of-suspects methods. It's way, way beyond the point where she should have done both on a Doylist and Watsonian level, but better late than never, and it gives me some confidence that even if they go with, say, Gene = Michael, Jim = Lucifer (and I really hope it won't be as simple as that, and Jim Keats is the Angel of Death rather than the devil, if he's an entity from Christian imagery), Gene still won't be glorified as having always been right but will be presented as a good man/entity who lost his way. The way the Gene-Alex scenes play out this week, and the final sequence which confirms fandom's suspicion that the young dead cop Alex keeps seeing is in fact a young Gene Hunt (presumably before he became whatever he's now), give me some hope in this direction, especially because of Alex asking the Young Dead Cop "how can I help you?" Because then it hit me. Sam, in the first season of LoM, confronted the truth about his father and got over it. Alex, in the first season of AtA, confronted the truth about her parents and got over it. In both cases, Gene played a catalyst and saviour figure for them, a replacement for the unreliable/murderous father figures with distinct Freudian overtones. In subsequent seasons of each show, this saviour aspect (in as much as it related to our main protagonists) was gone because Sam and Alex had dealt with their original reasons for ending up in cop limbo. However one interprets Sam Tyler's suicide/jump, more as an inability to cope with the present or more with the need to help his 1973 friends who were in a dangerous situation - the later reason was certainly present. And Alex has been wondering why she ended up back in the past (if she was in the present in between, which is doubtful) again since the start of the sason. Not to find out something about herself (that's done with), not really for the rest of the gang (she's supportive, but Shaz and Ray did their own rescuing in their respective trials of fire) - what if she's back to help Gene, not in a supportive sidekick fashion but in a confrontational way, because he is the one lost this time, and needs to be confronted with the truth about his past, Ur-trauma and himself in order to find his way (and presumably original purpose) again?
The whole "I'm really Sam Tyler" spiel on the part of the escaped prisoner was clever for while obviously neither audience nor Alex really believed him, he knew enough interesting facts to make one wonder how much truth in his lies there were. Or did he lie at all, beyond the wrong identity claim? Because he did come through with the truth about the electrolocution plan, and the plan for the building that allowed Gene and Alex to disable the electricity in time to save Ray and Chris. On a Doylist level, letting him recite Sam's LoM opening lines "am I mad, in a coma or did I travel back in time?" was to mess with the audience, but on a Watsonian level, there are only two possibilities on how our con man could recite those lines and knew 2005 specifically as the year of Sam's "death" that I can see: a) Jim Keats told him, or b) Sam did, inadvertendly or not, since the episode made a point of letting Alex discover this man was Sam's last arrest.
Lastly, following the theme of creepy use of seemingly harmless songs, here are the lyrics of the song Jim Keats whistled (thank you, Wikipedia, for helping non-football fans like me out):
Verse 1
I'm dreaming dreams,
I'm scheming schemes,
I'm building castles high.
They're born anew,
Their days are few,
Just like a sweet butterfly.
And as the daylight is dawning,
They come again in the morning.
Chorus
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
They fly so high,
Nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams,
They fade and die.
Fortune's always hiding,
I've looked everywhere,
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
Verse 2
When cattle creep,
When I'm asleep,
To lands of hope I stray.
Then at daybreak,
When I awake,
My bluebird flutters away.
Happiness new seemed so near me,
Happiness come forth and heal me.
Chorus
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
They fly so high,
Nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams,
They fade and die.
Fortune's always hiding,
I've looked everywhere,
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
So, assuming Keats didn't whistle at random: is the "I" in the song supposed to be a) Alex, b) Gene, c) the unfortunate Viv, or d) Jim Keats?
That was one suspenseful episode, not least because when Chris went on about last messages etc., I was increasingly convinced Ray would die. Thankfully, they both made it out alive. Sadly, Viv did not; making the first AtA cast member who dies the black man. No further comment on that one. I will say that I'm glad Viv wasn't the first team member shown to betray the team because he was blackmailed, even though Chris' actions from last season keep not being referenced in this one.
Viv's death was the most obviously sinister depiction of Jim Keats yet; while he wasn't doing anything violent to Viv, his holding Viv visibly scared the hell out of the dying Viv, and it was clear that Keats didn't feel pity. More emphasis on him and Gene having parallel or similar functions, though, when Gene later tries to do the holding-the-dying thing anyway, but too late, and Jim says "what are you trying to do?" in a way that indicates "when I transition someone, they stay transitioned". And yet Jim Keats continues to make true points, because he was absolutely right about Gene having no business joining the raid entering the prison to begin with. Gene wasn't necessary, nor did he accomplish anything, and if he went for any other reason than wanting the opportunity to beat up people, the show didn't mention it.
What the episode did show, however, was Alex finally having enough of Gene's beating-the-crap-out-of-suspects methods. It's way, way beyond the point where she should have done both on a Doylist and Watsonian level, but better late than never, and it gives me some confidence that even if they go with, say, Gene = Michael, Jim = Lucifer (and I really hope it won't be as simple as that, and Jim Keats is the Angel of Death rather than the devil, if he's an entity from Christian imagery), Gene still won't be glorified as having always been right but will be presented as a good man/entity who lost his way. The way the Gene-Alex scenes play out this week, and the final sequence which confirms fandom's suspicion that the young dead cop Alex keeps seeing is in fact a young Gene Hunt (presumably before he became whatever he's now), give me some hope in this direction, especially because of Alex asking the Young Dead Cop "how can I help you?" Because then it hit me. Sam, in the first season of LoM, confronted the truth about his father and got over it. Alex, in the first season of AtA, confronted the truth about her parents and got over it. In both cases, Gene played a catalyst and saviour figure for them, a replacement for the unreliable/murderous father figures with distinct Freudian overtones. In subsequent seasons of each show, this saviour aspect (in as much as it related to our main protagonists) was gone because Sam and Alex had dealt with their original reasons for ending up in cop limbo. However one interprets Sam Tyler's suicide/jump, more as an inability to cope with the present or more with the need to help his 1973 friends who were in a dangerous situation - the later reason was certainly present. And Alex has been wondering why she ended up back in the past (if she was in the present in between, which is doubtful) again since the start of the sason. Not to find out something about herself (that's done with), not really for the rest of the gang (she's supportive, but Shaz and Ray did their own rescuing in their respective trials of fire) - what if she's back to help Gene, not in a supportive sidekick fashion but in a confrontational way, because he is the one lost this time, and needs to be confronted with the truth about his past, Ur-trauma and himself in order to find his way (and presumably original purpose) again?
The whole "I'm really Sam Tyler" spiel on the part of the escaped prisoner was clever for while obviously neither audience nor Alex really believed him, he knew enough interesting facts to make one wonder how much truth in his lies there were. Or did he lie at all, beyond the wrong identity claim? Because he did come through with the truth about the electrolocution plan, and the plan for the building that allowed Gene and Alex to disable the electricity in time to save Ray and Chris. On a Doylist level, letting him recite Sam's LoM opening lines "am I mad, in a coma or did I travel back in time?" was to mess with the audience, but on a Watsonian level, there are only two possibilities on how our con man could recite those lines and knew 2005 specifically as the year of Sam's "death" that I can see: a) Jim Keats told him, or b) Sam did, inadvertendly or not, since the episode made a point of letting Alex discover this man was Sam's last arrest.
Lastly, following the theme of creepy use of seemingly harmless songs, here are the lyrics of the song Jim Keats whistled (thank you, Wikipedia, for helping non-football fans like me out):
Verse 1
I'm dreaming dreams,
I'm scheming schemes,
I'm building castles high.
They're born anew,
Their days are few,
Just like a sweet butterfly.
And as the daylight is dawning,
They come again in the morning.
Chorus
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
They fly so high,
Nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams,
They fade and die.
Fortune's always hiding,
I've looked everywhere,
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
Verse 2
When cattle creep,
When I'm asleep,
To lands of hope I stray.
Then at daybreak,
When I awake,
My bluebird flutters away.
Happiness new seemed so near me,
Happiness come forth and heal me.
Chorus
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
They fly so high,
Nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams,
They fade and die.
Fortune's always hiding,
I've looked everywhere,
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
So, assuming Keats didn't whistle at random: is the "I" in the song supposed to be a) Alex, b) Gene, c) the unfortunate Viv, or d) Jim Keats?