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Guest Jim McLean

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Wonderful posts all of them and with each new one my understanding of the episode swells a little, as I have noted it isn't one I absorb easily so I thank all concerned. I do agree with much of what you say Laran and I am sure that it is possible that my search to understand this episode has me giving credence to things I have perceived rather than those which have been implied. But, what prevents me from wholly accepting your evaluation of the episode is that it implies that the narrative here is a carbon copy of Closure albeit with new set pieces. If it is correct that this is a story where the truth is that there is no complex reason for the slaughter, it is simply a tragedy of events played atop an angst ridden back-story for Emma then the theoretical premise of this episode is a repeat of what has gone before. It's not to say you are incorrect, gosh I don't have all the answers and rarely do, but I do believe there is an implied profundity here, a philosophical premise to which this episode dances but as I have noted it isn't one I fully understand.

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Guest Laurent.

I think the complexity of the episode would be more in the imagery and symbolic used (what about those palm trees?) than within it's (not so) complex storyline. The profundity of the script is not so much in the actual events in the episode than in the way it is delivered. I really can't detail the symbolism of the episode without giving it a brand new viewing... and that will have to wait a few days.

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Guest Jim McLean
In one sense, I really think Darwin's Eye and Bardo Thodol share the same message and the fact that Darwin's Eye was aired first is quite important. Both were meant to be extremely complicated; conspiracies, cult, a bit of meta-science, etc. and all these elements were only there to hide the simplest story.

I've not watched Bardo, but I'm doing a one-a-week on the final few, so I'll be watching it later tonight. I'll report back after that.

Edited by Jim McLean
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Guest Laurent.

I love to see how people react to this episode after their first viewing.. it's such a mind boggler. Don't forget to post your opinion as soon as you can!

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Guest Jim McLean
I love to see how people react to this episode after their first viewing.. it's such a mind boggler. Don't forget to post your opinion as soon as you can!

Will do, though I didn't manage to watch it last night, so its scheduled for tonight!

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Well this 'off' topic personified but I couldn't help myself.

For all those conversant with 'Lost' the woman who played Cass also played Bonnie the woman who manned the 'Looking Glass Station' with Greta. I have watched this a thousand times and would never have guessed.

BonnieA.jpg

index.php?spgmGal=darwinseye&spgmPic=99&spgmFilters=#pic

Cass/Bonnie

Bloody hard to believe isn't it?

Edited by ethsnafu
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Guest SouthernCelt

Cass/Bonnie: Thanks for that bit of casting trivia. I knew the blonde in LOST looked familiar but didn't make the connection on looks alone. I think she's matured and "pumped-up" a bit since the MM days; she's still pretty but can play a "meanie" all to well. (I always wonder about actors who seem to fit certain roles so well...are they good actors or are they simply being themselves?)

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Cass/Bonnie: Thanks for that bit of casting trivia. I knew the blonde in LOST looked familiar but didn't make the connection on looks alone. I think she's matured and "pumped-up" a bit since the MM days; she's still pretty but can play a "meanie" all to well. (I always wonder about actors who seem to fit certain roles so well...are they good actors or are they simply being themselves?)
For those of you still interested in a "take" of Darwin's Eye, please read the following link from "The Rouge's Eye View" written by Patrick Harbison back on 4/16/99...

https://www.paperstreetprod.com/rogueseye/season3/318.html

its hard to read, but if you highlight the text it changes to black text on white background...its a bit long, but once you get to the paragraph that starts with "The proof of a bigger picture...." it really gets into breaking down the symbolisms and relations between characters...let me know what you guys think...

4th Horseman

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Guest SouthernCelt
...

its hard to read, but if you highlight the text it changes to black text on white background...its a bit long, but once you get to the paragraph that starts with "The proof of a bigger picture...." it really gets into breaking down the symbolisms and relations between characters...let me know what you guys think...

4th Horseman

Well, I read it twice and since I was not as big a fan of season three as I was the other two, I'll have to rewatch some of those eps before I can really comment on what is suggested about some of the episode interconnections. The only interconnection I always thought existed was the one back to the remote viewing plot elements because I figured Cass' father had something to do with some of that in the past and wasn't trusted to be left walking around to possibly talk about some of what had been done, especially the Group's involvement. I also got the impression that the Group possessed something that could be used to cause various forms of mental illness, whether exacerbating a predisposition to Alzheimer's or simply driving one mad. That possibility isn't dispelled in this review though no specific conclusion is drawn, only suggested.

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The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason....

Mighty 4th!

Thank you so much my friend for pointing me in the way of this. I hadn't seen in before and is a stunning and enriching read.

I don't agree with much of what is written but must commend who ever did on a lovely, lyrical style of writing and a very considered and daring deconstruction.

I think it is difficult to employ this type of speculative review to episode such as 'Darwin' and God knows no one is more fond of taking disparate lines, images and episodes and molding a formless narrative than I.

At the core of 'Darwin' is the realisation that we have carrots dangled at us throughout, tentative nods to 'Group' execution styles, shades of Darwinism, scents of past narratives: only to have these declared as red-herrings. To attempt to create a picture from the various mosaic elements as the reviewer has seems to indicate that he or she has not understood the purpose of the plot and is following Hollis into the realm of reading-to-much-into-it.

The review seems to rest on the shaky certainty that Doyle has been driven to murder by some uncertain device of the Millennium Group. Quite why the reviewer feels that the incestuous rape she endured at the hands of her father is an insufficient precursor for mental aberration on its own is not fully explained. Nor is there evidence supplied to support such ideas that the decapitated orderly was 'Millennium' or that Doyle's father and James Hollis may have been involved in covet experimentation for the Group in the misty past. As I noted as one who champions such speculative writing I was dismayed, a little, that the originator of the review fails to search for evidence within the narrative to support their claims. The art of such free-form musing is built upon taking a solid, identifiable part of the epic and running free with it - not simply depositing the ideas randomly.

The most interesting part of the review is in dealing with iconography of the crossed palms. It is an element of the story that promises so much exciting arcanity but turns out to be a mundane case of coincidence. In two separate worlds James Hollis and Cass Doyle are embellishing their madness with symbols, in both cases eyes and palm trees form outward expressions of their debilitation. It is worth noting, however, that in James Hollis' case the eyes and palm trees are amongst a plethora of other icons, chess pieces, roses, lillies and so forth. Conspiracy fans such as myself are thus salivating at the prospect of an interconnected backstory of intrigue and immorality, that our characters stories are built upon historical Millennium Group machinations. But both James Hollis and Cass Doyle are products of two seperate evolutionary paths.

In James' case his addled mind with is rapidly degenerating grasp of linear time is searching through wild flashes of memories, images, sounds and sensations and with all Alzheimers sufferers he is expressing these torturous, disembodied senses of reality with disparate images and solid representations of them in order to assert some control on his reality. In his case, his daughter's murder and his past as a proud member of the military are relived in snatches and scenes that have no coherent narrative and so he brings these into the real world in the form of origami symbols in order to solidify and make them real.

Doyle on the other hand has motive and understanding of why she employs the images she does, they are not a wild carousel of invasive thoughts but poignant symbols of moments of mental anguish. The alarming fact that these two characters employ similar motifs has us searching for synchronicity, looking for links and hoping for explanation but the truth is rather like the narrative itself. It is the accidents Cass is so obsessed with, the chaos theory she alludes to in the butterfly comment, the emergence of things without reason or need for evolution.

This episode is all about pointless, causeless tragedy. Things happening without a mandate, without a hidden truth. To read so much into it as the reviewer does make a tantalizing read but maybe one that is unnecessary after all.

Edited by ethsnafu
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