"One Flash of Light But No Smoking Pistol"
Because
Ashes to Ashes is NOT just "that other show with Gene Hunt but without John Simm so woe!" Here's a post about THE THEORY.
Credit goes to fahrbotdrusilla for the initial mind fuck:
DI Alex Drake is not in a coma, she's not seconds away from life, and she's not dead. In fact, she hasn't been shot in the head. At all. She's just crazy. Nuts. Insane. Bonzo. No longer in possession of one's faculties. Three fries short of a happy meal. Wacko!!! (Thank you Jack O'Neill for that fruitful explanation.) All because the scary dude from the first episode actually shot and killed HER DAUGHTER!
Dun dun DUUUUN!
Remember the scene when Layton took the daughter hostage for a second? Remember how illogical/anticlimactic it was for him to drag her off screen, then for a mysterious gunshot to ring out, and the kid is all right??? Wtf? No. That would NEVER happen. Because at that precise moment Alex was hit with something she couldn't handle, and every moment after that mysterious gunshot represents her slipping slowly into Crazy Town.
Some proof-ish thoughts a la theory and themes...
1.) Alex's whole mantra is that she needs to get back. She needs to go to her daughter's birthday party. In reality she's stuck in a loop, trying to do the last thing she was supposed to do for her daughter which is go to her birthday party, a super happy time, because she can't face up to the fact that it'll never happen. And in 1981 she's literally stuck in a loop when she keeps remembering being her daughter's age and seeing her parents' car explode. Not only that, but Arthur Layton is quite massively connected to both the past and the present. She keeps seeing him.
2.) The color red. It is quite strong in the color palate of this show, eh? It's kind of everywhere. And besides the obvious art direction of dull 70's colors vs. bright-ass 80's colors, red is also the color of danger and INSANITY! Red light increases blood pressure. And from my friend Wikipedia:
Recognized color theorist Faber Birren in his book Color Psychology and Color Therapy lists what he calls "Modern American Color Associations". For example, he lists the associative attributes of red as follows: General appearance: "Brilliant, intense, opaque, dry"; Mental associations: "Hot, fire, head, blood"; Direct associations: "Danger, Christmas, Fourth of July, St. Valentine's, Mother's Day, flag"; Objective impressions: "Passionate, exciting, fervid, active"; Subjective impressions: "Intensity, rage, rapacity, fierceness". To continue the example, Edwin D. Babbitt wrote that, "Red light, like red drugs is the warming element of sunlight, with an especially rousing effect upon the blood, and to some extent upon the nerves...."
3.) In episode 4 Gene Hunt says something to the effect of: "When they bring in the straight jacket, it won't be my size." CUZ IT WILL BE ALEX-SIZED!
4.) Episode 4 again. The big scary fantasy place where Alex is the little girl who hides in a box or trunk from the Scary Clown. What better image to represent captivity? Being trapped has been a theme throughout the show. (Like being trapped in a locked cell of the Loony Bin!)
5.) And finally the Scary Clown himself. He's been after her since the first episode and he is damn menacing. He is everything you want him to be, but to me he is one specific thing. He is the personification of her insanity, or more specifically, the representation of her unstable reality. If Alex stops running from him then she snaps out of 1981 and goes back to the present where she realizes her daughter is dead. She can't handle it so she runs.
And if you need any more proof, check out the actual Bowie music video for "Ashes to Ashes." A room with padded walls? Whuuuuut???
Crazy people don't know that they're crazy. They think something similar to Sam Tyler is happening to them. ;)
Ashes to Ashes is NOT just "that other show with Gene Hunt but without John Simm so woe!" Here's a post about THE THEORY.
Credit goes to fahrbotdrusilla for the initial mind fuck:
DI Alex Drake is not in a coma, she's not seconds away from life, and she's not dead. In fact, she hasn't been shot in the head. At all. She's just crazy. Nuts. Insane. Bonzo. No longer in possession of one's faculties. Three fries short of a happy meal. Wacko!!! (Thank you Jack O'Neill for that fruitful explanation.) All because the scary dude from the first episode actually shot and killed HER DAUGHTER!
Dun dun DUUUUN!
Remember the scene when Layton took the daughter hostage for a second? Remember how illogical/anticlimactic it was for him to drag her off screen, then for a mysterious gunshot to ring out, and the kid is all right??? Wtf? No. That would NEVER happen. Because at that precise moment Alex was hit with something she couldn't handle, and every moment after that mysterious gunshot represents her slipping slowly into Crazy Town.
Some proof-ish thoughts a la theory and themes...
1.) Alex's whole mantra is that she needs to get back. She needs to go to her daughter's birthday party. In reality she's stuck in a loop, trying to do the last thing she was supposed to do for her daughter which is go to her birthday party, a super happy time, because she can't face up to the fact that it'll never happen. And in 1981 she's literally stuck in a loop when she keeps remembering being her daughter's age and seeing her parents' car explode. Not only that, but Arthur Layton is quite massively connected to both the past and the present. She keeps seeing him.
2.) The color red. It is quite strong in the color palate of this show, eh? It's kind of everywhere. And besides the obvious art direction of dull 70's colors vs. bright-ass 80's colors, red is also the color of danger and INSANITY! Red light increases blood pressure. And from my friend Wikipedia:
Recognized color theorist Faber Birren in his book Color Psychology and Color Therapy lists what he calls "Modern American Color Associations". For example, he lists the associative attributes of red as follows: General appearance: "Brilliant, intense, opaque, dry"; Mental associations: "Hot, fire, head, blood"; Direct associations: "Danger, Christmas, Fourth of July, St. Valentine's, Mother's Day, flag"; Objective impressions: "Passionate, exciting, fervid, active"; Subjective impressions: "Intensity, rage, rapacity, fierceness". To continue the example, Edwin D. Babbitt wrote that, "Red light, like red drugs is the warming element of sunlight, with an especially rousing effect upon the blood, and to some extent upon the nerves...."
3.) In episode 4 Gene Hunt says something to the effect of: "When they bring in the straight jacket, it won't be my size." CUZ IT WILL BE ALEX-SIZED!
4.) Episode 4 again. The big scary fantasy place where Alex is the little girl who hides in a box or trunk from the Scary Clown. What better image to represent captivity? Being trapped has been a theme throughout the show. (Like being trapped in a locked cell of the Loony Bin!)
5.) And finally the Scary Clown himself. He's been after her since the first episode and he is damn menacing. He is everything you want him to be, but to me he is one specific thing. He is the personification of her insanity, or more specifically, the representation of her unstable reality. If Alex stops running from him then she snaps out of 1981 and goes back to the present where she realizes her daughter is dead. She can't handle it so she runs.
And if you need any more proof, check out the actual Bowie music video for "Ashes to Ashes." A room with padded walls? Whuuuuut???
Click to viewCrazy people don't know that they're crazy. They think something similar to Sam Tyler is happening to them. ;)