Sunday, December 9, 2012

Week Twelve

Lundy Watches...
The theme of the week is about dealing with death, whether literally experiencing the loss of a loved one, or symbolically losing a piece of one's self. This week high school heroes fall, reputations are tarnished, relationships are destroyed, and the nature of identity is put into question as our protagonists try to make sense of the world around them.


Secret Diary of a Call GirlLove is for Other People [4]

Ever since falling in love with Alex (Callum Blue,) Hannah (Billie Piper) has been experiencing the decline of her life as Belle in favor of nurturing her budding romance. Belle is very much a part of Hannah's life, offering a view point that she never would have known had she not gotten into the business, and giving her a chance to unwind from the rules of regular society. In shunning Belle, and not taking on clients, Hannah is losing a very important part of herself, an identity that allows her to be confident and sexy without needing to worry about what other people think of her.

Unfortunately, it is her relationship with Alex that is also putting her friendship with Ben (Iddo Goldberg) in jeopardy, cutting down on the amount of time the two can spend together while also feeding the growing jealousy that Ben has toward Hannah's new beau. Where Ben had previously struggled with Hannah's double life as Belle, she knows that Alex will take the revelation even worse, and Ben's attitude toward him likely won't help the situation.

Ultimately, it is Belle's work that is Hannah's undoing when Alex finds out what she does behind closed doors. Forced to choose between her client's need for privacy and Alex's need for explanation, she chooses her client, and Alex storms out of her apartment to confront Ben. Hannah had always known that Belle would be the end of her romantic life, but Alex was proving that he could have been the end of Belle's career instead, offering Hannah the opportunity to live as a real girl with a real boyfriend.

Very briefly Hannah experienced what it was to be in love, and it made her into an entirely new person. Very quickly did Hannah learn what it was to lose someone she loves, and now, sitting alone, she has witnessed the death of who she could have become.


DariaThe Misery Chick [4.5]

Having never experienced the death of a classmate, Daria's (Tracy Grandstaff) peers are thrown for a loop when a former football star dies on campus. While Daria feels largely disconnected from the situation, having not known him beyond a series of insults he had thrown her way, she soon recognizes that her friends are less accustomed to dealing with their mixed feelings.

Jane (Wendy Hoopes) shuts herself off from the world, feeling regret about the things she had said about him before his death, wondering if, in some way, the universe was responding to her wish to be rid of him, while Kevin (Marc Thompson) sees it as a look into his own future, worried that he, too, may die tragically young. As everyone begins coming to Daria for advice, no one stops to question how she really feels about the situation, instead just assuming that she was handling things fine on her own.

In the end Daria takes a very mature view on the matter, stating that the death was a tragedy, but that he had not been a very nice person in life, and beyond the feeling that his was a life wasted, she will not mourn for him. Were he a friend or had he proven himself as anything other than an arrogant jerk, the sense of loss within the community would be greater, but the fact that so many people are unsure of how they should feel speaks volumes about who he was in life.


Buffy the Vampire SlayerWhen She Was Bad [3.5]

Having spent the previous months ignoring the fact that she had, however briefly, been dead, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) returns to Sunnydale ready to take on any challenge that comes her way. The issue is that she hasn't dealt with her feelings over what it was to be mortal, and in response she begins lashing out at those who care about her, feeling as though they are, partially, at fault for what had happened on prom night.

With the Master (Mark Metcalf) dead, Buffy should be able to rest easy, but she remains haunted by the thought of his return, seeing his face around every corner and wondering how much longer she really has left in her life. During a routine patrol she finds the Master's grave empty, and the realization that the Anointed One (Andrew J. Ferchland) will soon resurrect her greatest foe is too much for her, making her question whether or not she's strong enough to go up against him for a third time, considering the fact that they had both killed each other during their previous two encounters.

In stopping the ritual Buffy is given the opportunity to stand before the Master's bones and view first-hand the state of his being. Tears well up in her eyes as she takes note that, previously, the Master had stood before her lifeless body, but where he didn't finish the job she will. Crushing the Master's bones with a sledgehammer, Buffy is provided with a sense of closure and the chance to take back the life that he had stolen from her earlier that year.


Life on MarsCoercion [4]

Everyone here is dealing with death in some way or another, for Sam (John Simm) he is focused on his current illness caused by an accidental overdose in the future, potentially leading to his own death, while Gene (Philip Glenister) is haunted by the death of Charley Witham (Georgia Foote) who he had connected with through investigating her death. The central theme of the episode is a race to find a mother and daughter before they are murdered, but the case takes our men and women around in circles as they struggle to find the right answers.

Sam is, of course, convinced that, should he save the hostages from being killed that he will somehow save himself from overdosing, forcing himself out of bed to help in the office when he can barely string together a sentence. In some fashion, Sam assumes that, should he fail to protect these women, should he and his colleagues allow them to die, that he, too, will die, unable to wake from his come, and left either stranded in the world of 1973 or simply cease to exist. Driven to break free from his coma, Sam wants to find the culprit, and, even when he overdoses and falls further into a coma, no longer able to interact even with those in 1973, he watches on, yelling advice to his peers as they try to save the women without him, and pumping his fist in the air with success every time they make the right choices.

Slowly growing convinced that he had fingered the wrong culprit in the murder of Charley Witham, Gene throws himself back into the case, wracking his brain in an attempt to find who really murdered Charley while also trying to ensure that Simon's wife and daughter are not the next victims. To fail to save Simon's family here would not only be a failure to his wife and daughter, but would also indicate that he had, retroactively, failed Charley's memory, in turn failing himself and the Witham family. While closing the case won't bring Charley back from the grave, and in turn brings more tragedy to their story, Gene holds his head up high knowing that, in the end, he had brought Charley's villain to justice.


Better Off TedSecrets and Lives [4]

Generally uncomfortable with showing her vulnerability, Veronica (Portia de Rossi) goes to great lengths to hide the fact that she has started working as a magician's assistant. Veronica's main concern is that her employees, should they discover her secret, will use this information to undermine her authority, losing faith in her ability to lead them and starting some kind of revolution to oust her from her position.

The question lingers as to why she would put herself in such a position, but soon it is revealed that she has fallen in love with the magician Mordor (Mark Deklin) and, having abstained from romantic relationships for the bulk of her life, has been caught up in what it is to give everything she is to someone else. With her secret out, Veronica considers breaking things off with Mordor, leaving his act and cutting off contact, struggling with the fact that she has had to choose between saving face at work and losing the man that means everything to her.

Debating the pros and cons of remaining a business professional and having a personal life, Veronica tries to combine the two, soon realizing that she can create a balance between both halves of herself and find a peace that she never knew she was missing. In the end Veronica finds that living as a complete person, without killing any aspect of her personality, is far more effective in managing her staff than presenting a false face.


FireflyThe Message [4.5]

Having fought alongside each other in the war, Mal (Nathan Fillion) and Zoë (Gina Torres) are both accustomed to seeing their friends die in times of war, but here, seeing Tracey's (Jonathan M. Woodward) lifeless shell, they take notice of how wrong it feels. No one goes into a war expecting everyone to survive, but those who do make it out aren't meant to die as young as Tracey does, and the loss of their friend hits them hard, as though for the first time they accept their own mortality.

Mal and Zoë reminisce on the boy's life, trading tales of things he had done to ease tension while bullets rained down on them, and they come to realize that he had been a victim his entire life, thrown into situations where he had little control and often having no way out of them. Their theory proves true when Tracey wakes up and reveals that he had gotten in over his head with a group of smugglers, having allowed himself to be cut open in order to deliver a full set of lab-grown organs, instead taking a better offer in an effort to keep his family financially afloat.

It's the reasoning behind his actions that makes Tracey a sympathetic character, and throughout the narrative it becomes more clear why Zoë and Mal care so deeply for him. In the end, when Tracey has betrayed them, they take action against him, leading to his death, but remain by his side for his last breaths, maintaining that his actions were wrong, but that his heart had been in the right place.


Winner of the Week • Firefly

What makes this week's Firefly such an interesting piece is the commentary on the bond experienced by those who went through war times together, offering a view of what might happen to those who can't cope with the reality of returning to regular life while also showcasing the loyalty between those who went through rough times together. Despite the fact that Tracey puts his friends in danger, turns on them and threatens them with violence, they stand by him in the end, ignoring the fact that they once were, however briefly, enemies, and give him the solace he needs in his final moments.

The interesting thing about the friendship between Mal, Zoë and Tracey is that it turns, in an instant, between friendly and hostile, but even as they threaten each other's lives there remains a sense that they regret their actions, apologizing as they take action against each other. Mal is, ultimately, responsible for ending Tracey's life, but, as he explains, it was Tracey that killed himself, Mal only carried the bullet for a while, and Tracey, though angry and frustrated, understands that he had been his own demise. As he lays bleeding out, moments after threatening the lives of Mal and Zoë and everyone they hold dear, he asks that they don't leave him, and they oblige, still keeping him in a special place in their hearts.

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