Goodbye To All That

[ethsnafu]

Lara is even more interesting. Did her choice to give Frank the antidote infer that she escaped the clutches of the Group, rebelling against the self-interest of the membership, or was it a gift to the man who had managed to avoid the path she had taken; her last altruistic act before the Group swallowed her up into its fold - providing she survived the plague.

Lara's possession of the antidote, much less her decision to give it Frank, is part of a 'much flogged' chain of events oft ramshackled together as the 'Lara is more than meets the eye arc' and forms part of the, as I term it, Moriaty-Arc that began with 'Owls'. Whilst I won't bore you with the suppositions and intricacies of this I will at least focus on the event. My gut is that this isn't an altruistic act at all but then we wade back into the mire of what defines 'pure' altruism. Lara's arc made much of 'fear', her fear of the 'inevitabile' if I quote Anamnesis correctly, and her all pervasive preoccupation was that she would ultimately be driven insane, it is this fear that the Owls capitalise on when attempting to 'reel her in'. Despite her desire for Gnosis and thirst for understanding it is clear that Means did not have the psychological remparts necessary to allow her to function in light of the revelations she was presented with. The inevitability became just that and despite Watt's assurances that Lara's malaise is nothing more than a commonly experienced reaction to the initiatory process fandom has seized on the inferences that suggest Lara did indeed endure a state of mental degradation. Her decision to give her portion of the Marburg Vaccine to Frank does, on the face of it, apear to be an altruistic act inspired, largely, by those tentative feelings she expressed on occasion but my own resume of events leads me to conclude that this was an act of suicide. Lara was under the impression that Apocalypse had begun and the fact that she possesed the antidote and was plagued with psychedelic visions of corpulses and Rhesus Monkey's indicate that she was cognisant of the form this apocalypse would take. As she had finally succumbed to the fear she had longed held and descended in psychological dissaray my impression is that Lara chose not to save herself from that which she believed would consume her, opting for death over insanity. In choosing to give the vaccine to Frank she honours the feelings she has developed but satisfied her own need to be relieved of reality and the experience she is enduring.

Forgive me for addressing the Lara issue only but as a rabid devotee it was the one point that immediately provoked me. I promise, in earnest, to discuss the other points you raise shortly.

Best wishes,

Eth

[Guest Jim McLean]

No problem E. As I said, the minute details to season 2 evade me until I get another watch, so on specific issues like Lara, I'm happy to read and digest elements of the arc I either missed on a one time round or simply never considered. I'll respond a little later myself!

[BillQS]

I just finished GTAT and as such have officially finished Season 3!!!! I must say season 3 as a whole is unjustly maligned. I found many riveting captivating stories in this season and the last several episodes were just one gem after another... especially the two part ending.

It's obvious that the paramedic who killed Baldwin was a Millennium Group operative and as such wanted the chain of command freed for Hollis to take over.

The fall of Hollis and the redemption of Peter Watts were both profound in my view and motivated by deepseated character actions. I just never bought Peter as a heavy.

I do have one continuity question which is niggling and doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the episode but it is this... Frank sees the tape of Jordan in Virginia and next scene is smashing through the window of Peter's house in Seattle? Has he taken on Lucy Butler's ability to span coasts immediately?

It really would have been interesting to see a 4th season to see how things would have played out, but I did enjoy the X Files Episode. I saw it when it originally aried and at that point I had only seen one episode of Millennium, Collateral Damage, which I loved. It was great seeing Frank and Jordan at the end... and a great X Files ep to boot.

All this makes me hope for a Millennium movie even more.

[Guest Laurent.]

I completely agree with you! And I'm glad that you enjoyed the last stretch of season three as much as I did.

Right now, I only have the time to say this: Are you sure that Peter Watts' family lives in Seattle? (you must know it better than I do, you just finished the series after all)

[BillQS]

I got that impression from The Sound of Snow:

HOLLIS: There was somebody who worked with Frank here, in the Millennium Group.

GIEBELHOUSE: Peter Watts.

HOLLIS: Yeah. He was in Seattle at the time of the outbreak. He survived the virus. His whole family did. So did Frank, so did Jordan, but not Catherine. Can you imagine the guilt he must feel.

It's more an inference now that I read the transcript...

[Guest Watts]

I always assumed that Peter lived near Frank. In 'Midnight of the Century' Frank and Lara go to his house for a Christmas party. I'm assuming they didn't fly in for it.

Also in 'Luminary' I believe, Catherine drives over to his house to talk to him about Frank.

[Guest Laurent.]

It makes a lot of sense,.

Anyway, I give the scene the benefit of doubt only because it is so cool to see Frank momentarily "going over to the dark side" to protect Jordan (like he did for Catherine with the Polaroid Man).

[BillQS]

It might be worth doing some more careful research... However, the scene is certainly powerful as filmed. Maybe he hitched a broom with Lucy Butler to get across country instantaneously.

[model217]

I do have one continuity question which is niggling and doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the episode but it is this... Frank sees the tape of Jordan in Virginia and next scene is smashing through the window of Peter's house in Seattle? Has he taken on Lucy Butler's ability to span coasts immediately?

I was a bit confused with Watts being in Virginia with his family a first,but then I started to think of this this way,Watts moved to Virginia to be with Frank to lure him back to the group. It hit me when I saw Peter's car had Virginia plates in Good By To All That.Watts had said that Frank was his candidate and was now in the end protecting him from the group.It just seems odd at first to me because dropping everything and moving across the country is something you wouldn't do unless you had a real purpose in it.

[BillQS]

I was a bit confused with Watts being in Virginia with his family a first,but then I started to think of this this way,Watts moved to Virginia to be with Frank to lure him back to the group. It hit me when I saw Peter's car had Virginia plates in Good By To All That.Watts had said that Frank was his candidate and was now in the end protecting him from the group.It just seems odd at first to me because dropping everything and moving across the country is something you wouldn't do unless you had a real purpose in it.

That's entirely possible. The Sound of Snow references made me think differently as I said above, however, that doesn't rule out that Peter Watts might have moved, after all his daughter was going to college in Virginia and he could make a case he was moving there for family reasons.

Edited February 7, 2009 by BillQS