Anemnesis

[Guest Willious]

I have just gotten hold of this episode, and the beginning has just had me sitting in my seat, unable to move. What is that song...? What editing! When I finish watching it I will report back here... but so far I am hooked. I'm guessing that this will be one of the better ones I have seen so far.

William John.

[Guest Chascarrillo]

The song is "Dancing Barefoot" by Patti Smith, who also had a song ("Horses") a few episodes later.

I really like this episode a lot. It explores the overall themes of the second season in a thought-provoking way without devolving into minutiae. A lot could have gone wrong, particularly considering who skipped this week, but for me it stands out as one of the best of the season.

Coincidentally, I just picked up a copy of The Gospel of Mary of Magdala by Karen King, examining a work quoted in this show. Fascinating stuff. Here's the latter as well as another early Gnostic scripture used in 'Anamnesis':

The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

[Guest Willious]

Thank you for the song title, Chascarrillo. Patti Smith has a great voice, and I could understand why the producers would act to use the style.

Anamnesis was a very good episode. It was, of course, devoid of Frank Black bar a few mentions, but it was interesting seeing the manipulation and control that the Group undertook to make sure events occurred as planned. Perhaps this all underlies something Catherine said...

"The Millennium Group doesn't uncover truths, Laura... it buries them..."

I am still wondering exactly what the girl's connection is with Catherine's abductor... "I am the alpha and the omega..." ... I have seen only one of those two episodes, though I don't know the names of them, I can remember the episode very well. Now that one was scary.

William John.

PS. Have been trying my hand at an avatar and signature now... trying to get the hang of all this.

Edited August 10, 2004 by Willious

[Guest Seraphim]

I am actually in the midst of reading The Nag Hammadi Library. Which is a collection (And the best source) of Gnostic scriptures. Christian Gnostic anyways. There are much better sources for Manicheanism. It was found in Egypt in 1945. The Church worked very hard to destroy a lot of these texts over a millenia ago.

[Guest Seraphim]

Ack, sorry to double post. I almost forgot. "I am alpha and omega" is a line from Revelation. It is referring to God. Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, and Omega the last. I wonder if it's use was intended to connect to the Polaroid Stalker or not. I honestly have not seen the episode since it originally aired, so don't remember.

"I am Alpha and Omega

The Beginning and the End

The First and the Last"

Revelation 1:8

[Guest canadian girl]

I just watched this episode yesterday. Despite Frank's absensce, I loved it. Like you said, the intro with the Patti smith song was amazing. I replayed that part a couple of times.

I have lots of questions about this episode.

How did the "family" and the Millenium group know that Clare is a descendent of Christ and Mary Magdelene? I know they have her DNA that matches DNA from the Shroud of Turin, but how did they know they should check her DNA? And if Clare is a descendent of Christ, wouldn't her father or mother be too and one of her grandparents and so on?

So has the "family" that protects/watches these descendents been watching Clare's family for 2 thousand years?

And why did the teacher/"family" member have to be sacrificed? They sent another member to watch out for her, didn't they. At the end, when Catharine puts the book down , she sees a man with the same book about the "family".

Maybe I need to watch it again, or maybe I'm slow.

[Guest Chascarrillo]

Ack, sorry to double post. I almost forgot. "I am alpha and omega" is a line from Revelation. It is referring to God. Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, and Omega the last. I wonder if it's use was intended to connect to the Polaroid Stalker or not. I honestly have not seen the episode since it originally aired, so don't remember.

It was definitely intended. The "alpha and omega" misquote was deliberately put in - consider that the writers were so careful as to allude to the missing text in one of the Gnostic scriptures she quotes. More obviously, the girl implicitly refers to the events in the first episode of the season in an early discussion with Catherine.

[Guest Chascarrillo]

I just watched this episode yesterday.  Despite Frank's absensce, I loved it.  Like you said, the intro with the Patti smith song was amazing.  I replayed that part a couple of times.  

I have lots of questions about this episode.

How did the "family" and the Millenium group know that Clare is a descendent of Christ and Mary Magdelene?  I know they have her DNA that matches DNA from the Shroud of Turin, but how did they know they should check her DNA?  And if Clare is a descendent of Christ, wouldn't her father or mother be too and one of her grandparents and so on? 

So has the "family" that protects/watches these descendents been watching Clare's family for 2 thousand years?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe. Maybe not. If you go back to tracing Jesus's lineage in the introduction of the Gospel of Matthew, you see his entire family tree going all the way back to Adam (and, significantly, King David). A lot of them we can assume weren't anyone historically noteworthy since this is the only time that any mention of them has been recorded. Besides, due to the exponential growth of Jesus's descendents, it must have been prohibitive for a small group like the Family to keep track of all of them - particularly in the years before MS Access.

Now that I think about it, the DNA testing pretty much gives us a nudge that the Family had not been tracking the family, but that once they had information that this girl was someone special, they acted on it.

And why did the teacher/"family" member have to be sacrificed?  They sent another member to watch out for her, didn't they.  At the end, when Catharine puts the book down , she sees a man with the same book about the "family".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I guess to the Family it'd be preferable for a flunkie of theirs to be sacrificed rather than the spiritually reawakened relative of Jesus Christ. :)

[Guest canadian girl]

Thanks for your replies, Chascarrillo.

So once the Millenium group got wind of Clare and her visions, they figured she must be a descendent of Christ? (and somehow got her DNA to prove it?)

[hippyroo]

Gnostic nonesense! You might as well think Dan Brown is really deap, and has uncovered a lot of "hidden" history.

Of course "the church" tried to get rid of gnostic teachings. It was a b*******ization of their religion. If there was a group out there saying that Frank Black wasn't the main character in MLLM, but it was really all about his wife, you might try to get rid of theri nonesense too.

I don't mean to dismiss gnostiscism; people have a right to believe as they wish, but don't misinterpret their veiws as the true gospel that the church tried to cover up. There is scant evidence of an historical Jesus, let alone evidence that he fathered children. At best it is pure speculation. At worse it is an attempt to undermine the work of God.

I kept thinking the show was going to be about Frank's wife discovering his new love interest.. ha. The story would have been better with Frank.