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Showing results for tags 'Borrowed Time'.
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Great episode, I see why everyone enjoys it! There is enough MM ambiguity, pathos and sheen to make this an excellent episode. A great return for the angel who returns in an equally righteous role, even though not necessarily preferable to Frank. I always felt that even though the negatives for this episode are rare, they are often unfair. First off, the idea that we need to know why the angel is making his rounds right now is one of those delightful ambiguities. There is nothing to suggest this is a one off, or that the MO should always be the same. Angels could perform this duty with different methods at different times. There is no reason to presume that all people who have near death experiences are are on borrowed time from Heaven - seems these are potentially a select few, which once again would explain why these situations are so rare. But ultimately, we don't need explanation. God moves in mysterious ways, and Millennium is of no exception. I enjoyed this variant on Samiel. He's far darker, but not in an evil way, merely immutable. Unstoppable. One could say, uncaring, but if we take Jordan's communique with her mother as fact, why would any Angel be utterly upset about his role? There is life after death - his part is a role in a greater picture, one far less scary than what we accept. It was a neat and foreboding mode to play the angel in. I liked the teasing nature as well, as if the role strips the subjects of their immediate pain; that the job is a job to the extent that the behaviour of people like Frank is a curiosity rather than empathy. Well, that's how I read it! I also liked how we never saw any indication as to what derailed the train. I presume we are to assume he seals the cabin so there can be no escape for those who must give back their borrowed time so someone else can share in it, and when the train is mysteriously derailed, the irony comes in the fact that his actions places those in the cabin on borrowed time. Whether this was an intervention from God or something darker is ambiguous. I personally saw it as a darker force, for the whole show places Frank in opposition to God's work and thereby any evil intervention to screw with an Angel doing God's will inadvertently benefits Frank. There is a nice mirror scenario there which made sense to me. I was half expecting the girl to be implicated as an evil agent screwing with Samiel's work, but thankfully no such horror genre crassness was used. A good episode. The only downside is the naff effects of the train being derailed. Hardly a big thing, but nevertheless that element hasn't aged so well!