spoiler discussion - 513
Apologies to anyone who read this before I put the spoiler warning.
And to those who haven't yet - serious spoilers for 513.
Thought I'd put this on here. It's something I posted on the bj spoilers list in response to someone who said that, while Brian is quite happy at the beginning of the season, because he believes that Justin is coming back from LA, the fact that he's shown as being down at the end means that he recognises that it's all over.
(She also went on to say that bj fans don't see it as the end simply because we don't want to, but that's another story.)
Although maybe it isn't.
Because, while there are posts I disagree with, or posts that just make me mad, the ones that I respond to are these - the posts that paint their writers' point of view as the only possible "reality", and therefore imply that anyone who differs from their opinion is simply delusional.
I have no problem at all with people holding very different viewpoints to mine, and interpreting things in quite different ways.
But I find it the height of arrogance as well as simple bad manners to insist that their point of view is the only valid one.
So ... with all that in mind ...
***Actually, we do NOT see Brian being particularly happy at the beginning of 501. He's clearly been down. Even Mikey makes a point of saying that he'll be a lot happier once he's reunited with his beloved. (And that's before Brian gets the phone call saying Justin will be away for longer.)
There really isn't a lot of difference between how Brian is at that stage and how he is in 513.
But there is a big difference in how he's handling it, and how he sees it.
In 501 he has another panic attack about how Justin will eventually leave him, how time will destroy their relationship - "it's time for him to get on with his life". So he goes back into pain management mode - the booze, the drugs, the tricks.
In 513 he says "it's only time". Because he no longer fears the power of time over their relationship.
And, while he's not exactly in raptures after Justin leaves, he's not out doing all the things that Brian has done every other time - all the times when he thought he'd lost Justin. He's not doped out of his skull, he's not drinking, he's not wallowing in mindless sexual excessess. Instead, we see him sitting quietly at home till Mikey comes to kick him into action to do something about restoring what the haters destroyed. Which kinda says to me that this time he doesn't believe that he has lost Justin.
And even when he is back at Babylon, we don't see him drunk, or drugged, or with a trick. We see him dancing alone, above the crowd. A figure of triumph over adversity.
The whole point in these two episodes is to show the contrasts - the difference between where Brian's head was at in first episode of the series, and what a different place it's in at the end.
As for "we B/J fans don't see it as closure only because we don't want to" - from someone who has very vocally been trumpeting for the last week or more that the end spells doom for the bj relationship, that strikes me as an odd thing to say.
Speaking for myself, I don't see it as closure because there is absolutely nothing in what is said or what is shown to indicate that the relationship is over.
As I keep pointing out, it's true that Brian says that it might be "never again". He also says it might be "next weekend". And he says them both in the context of saying that either way it won't make any difference to how they feel about each other.
So in what way does that indicate that he knows it's over? Why some people are so insistent on hearing the "never again" and not the "next weekend" or even the "next month", is completely beyond me. Let alone that they aren't hearing the real message that he's giving in that statement.
He's saying that for the first time since we met Brian Kinney, he's not afraid of time. And because of that, he's at a stage where Justin going away isn't something that he's automatically going to interpret as being "the end".
And we know this is the case because of what we DON'T hear.
What we don't hear is what we most certainly would hear if Brian believed that it was over, that Justin was going for good.
We'd hear "don't look back".
If Brian believed that it was over, then he would most certainly believe that it was in Justin's best interest for him to cut Justin loose. To set him free. To make sure that Justin wasn't denying himself the chance to move on because he felt in some way tied to Brian.
That's what he does. When he believes that he has to sacrifice his own feelings to make sure that the person he loves is free to go on to other things, he unhesitatingly does it. He throws them off those damned Kinney cliffs.
We've seen him do it with Mikey. And we've seen him do it a number of times for Justin.
But it's not what happens here.
He says nothing that indicates that Justin has to let go and move on with his life.
He says "it's only time".
And he keeps the rings.
That is the closure I see in this ending.
Not the end of bj.
But the end of Brian's fears, the end of Brian running, the end of Brian trying so desperately to have control that he will give up rather than try to hold on, because that way the outcome is in his control, and the end of him needing to drown out the resultant pain in his usual pain management techniques.
This time he's having some faith. This time, he knows that "it's only time".
This time round, it's different. He's different.
And IMO, that's not a matter of MY refusing to see what's there.
And to those who haven't yet - serious spoilers for 513.
Thought I'd put this on here. It's something I posted on the bj spoilers list in response to someone who said that, while Brian is quite happy at the beginning of the season, because he believes that Justin is coming back from LA, the fact that he's shown as being down at the end means that he recognises that it's all over.
(She also went on to say that bj fans don't see it as the end simply because we don't want to, but that's another story.)
Although maybe it isn't.
Because, while there are posts I disagree with, or posts that just make me mad, the ones that I respond to are these - the posts that paint their writers' point of view as the only possible "reality", and therefore imply that anyone who differs from their opinion is simply delusional.
I have no problem at all with people holding very different viewpoints to mine, and interpreting things in quite different ways.
But I find it the height of arrogance as well as simple bad manners to insist that their point of view is the only valid one.
So ... with all that in mind ...
***Actually, we do NOT see Brian being particularly happy at the beginning of 501. He's clearly been down. Even Mikey makes a point of saying that he'll be a lot happier once he's reunited with his beloved. (And that's before Brian gets the phone call saying Justin will be away for longer.)
There really isn't a lot of difference between how Brian is at that stage and how he is in 513.
But there is a big difference in how he's handling it, and how he sees it.
In 501 he has another panic attack about how Justin will eventually leave him, how time will destroy their relationship - "it's time for him to get on with his life". So he goes back into pain management mode - the booze, the drugs, the tricks.
In 513 he says "it's only time". Because he no longer fears the power of time over their relationship.
And, while he's not exactly in raptures after Justin leaves, he's not out doing all the things that Brian has done every other time - all the times when he thought he'd lost Justin. He's not doped out of his skull, he's not drinking, he's not wallowing in mindless sexual excessess. Instead, we see him sitting quietly at home till Mikey comes to kick him into action to do something about restoring what the haters destroyed. Which kinda says to me that this time he doesn't believe that he has lost Justin.
And even when he is back at Babylon, we don't see him drunk, or drugged, or with a trick. We see him dancing alone, above the crowd. A figure of triumph over adversity.
The whole point in these two episodes is to show the contrasts - the difference between where Brian's head was at in first episode of the series, and what a different place it's in at the end.
As for "we B/J fans don't see it as closure only because we don't want to" - from someone who has very vocally been trumpeting for the last week or more that the end spells doom for the bj relationship, that strikes me as an odd thing to say.
Speaking for myself, I don't see it as closure because there is absolutely nothing in what is said or what is shown to indicate that the relationship is over.
As I keep pointing out, it's true that Brian says that it might be "never again". He also says it might be "next weekend". And he says them both in the context of saying that either way it won't make any difference to how they feel about each other.
So in what way does that indicate that he knows it's over? Why some people are so insistent on hearing the "never again" and not the "next weekend" or even the "next month", is completely beyond me. Let alone that they aren't hearing the real message that he's giving in that statement.
He's saying that for the first time since we met Brian Kinney, he's not afraid of time. And because of that, he's at a stage where Justin going away isn't something that he's automatically going to interpret as being "the end".
And we know this is the case because of what we DON'T hear.
What we don't hear is what we most certainly would hear if Brian believed that it was over, that Justin was going for good.
We'd hear "don't look back".
If Brian believed that it was over, then he would most certainly believe that it was in Justin's best interest for him to cut Justin loose. To set him free. To make sure that Justin wasn't denying himself the chance to move on because he felt in some way tied to Brian.
That's what he does. When he believes that he has to sacrifice his own feelings to make sure that the person he loves is free to go on to other things, he unhesitatingly does it. He throws them off those damned Kinney cliffs.
We've seen him do it with Mikey. And we've seen him do it a number of times for Justin.
But it's not what happens here.
He says nothing that indicates that Justin has to let go and move on with his life.
He says "it's only time".
And he keeps the rings.
That is the closure I see in this ending.
Not the end of bj.
But the end of Brian's fears, the end of Brian running, the end of Brian trying so desperately to have control that he will give up rather than try to hold on, because that way the outcome is in his control, and the end of him needing to drown out the resultant pain in his usual pain management techniques.
This time he's having some faith. This time, he knows that "it's only time".
This time round, it's different. He's different.
And IMO, that's not a matter of MY refusing to see what's there.