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Basking In The Afterglow Of Luminary

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Guest MillenniumIsBliss

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Guest F_Black

BTW, what actually happened to Alex at the end? I seem to recall he just left the hospital and went off again to Alaska or something. He didn't die, did he?

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I'd often wondered about Frank's staying behind, too. Since he refused when another guy was told to stay behind... and the way he crowched down on the bank, watching the plane fly away.... I had thought he saw this as his own "Spiritual Journey", too.

I always thought it was too stay away from Peter after the way he was treated. Although he clearly was on a journey of his on trying to find peace.

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Guest SouthernCelt
BTW, what actually happened to Alex at the end? I seem to recall he just left the hospital and went off again to Alaska or something. He didn't die, did he?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think that was purposely left ambiguous to allow the viewer to decide for himself what was really up with Alex.

After re-viewing the episode (also my favorite of the series), I've decided that the incarnation of Alex that Frank found was temporary and that the body recovered from the water that washed down was his original body, his "husk" as someone else put it in another post. He had already passed on to a state of greater enlightenment which required no corporeal body but was sent back temporarily to help Frank to work through his issues.

His disappearance from the hospital could have simply meant that he got up and left to return to Alaska or wherever he intended to go next but I tend to think he disappeared because his temporary presence was simply an illusion. On a practical basis, his injury probably wouldn't have permitted him to get up and walk out if his body were real.

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Guest blondton13
I think that was purposely left ambiguous to allow the viewer to decide for himself what was really up with Alex.

His disappearance from the hospital could have simply meant that he got up and left to return to Alaska or wherever he intended to go next but I tend to think he disappeared because his temporary presence was simply an illusion.  On a practical basis, his injury probably wouldn't have permitted him to get up and walk out if his body were real.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's an interesting thought. I just assumed he returned to the "wild". I never would have thought of it that way..I like that thought.

I read "Into the Wild" years ago and I don't think I connected the two...until now.

Thanks for some "enlightenment" guys! This is ..who we are.

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Well, if you remember the final scene, and Frank & Catherine's conversation.... Which I can't quote exactly, but I'll try...........

Catherine

"Do you think he'll ever come back?"

Frank

"The boy THEY knew?.... No." (shakes head)

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Guest F_Black
Well, if you remember the final scene, and Frank & Catherine's conversation.... Which I can't quote exactly, but I'll try...........

Catherine

"Do you think he'll ever come back?"

Frank

"The boy THEY knew?.... No."  (shakes head)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmmmmm. . .that's interesting. . . . ..I'm still stymied. Frank seemed adamant that the body that washed up was NOT Alex's, but I can't remember how he determined that. OTOH, he also took the sprig of evergreen from the body's neck and used that to find the river where the body had washed out from. So who's body was it then?

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Guest arcanamundi

Allow me to chime in with my agreement with everyone here about how wonderful an episode 'Luminary' is! I just finished watching it on the dvd -- half way through the second season, and what can I say that you all haven't already? It was one of the most moving in the entire series - probably up there in my top 3 favorite alongside MotC and TCoFB. The music, the photography, the dramatic elements of Frank's spiritual arc and its impact on his relationship w/ Catherine and the MG.... it all added up to a very powerful 45 minutes of dramatic storytelling.

Other bits I loved: the astrologer's hints hitting Catherine like a 2X4 over the head, her confrontation with Peter outside his house, Jordan's recognition of her father as the guy receiving wisdom on Mt. Ventoux, the clueless parents' blank looks as Frank tries to impart some understanding of their son's fate, and the stubborn ambiguity of the Millennium Group's 'trick bag' at the beginning leading to Frank's passing 'the first election' at the end of the episode, by which time I think Frank had already passed way beyond them.

I like Southern Celt's interpretation that Alex's return with Frank was a spiritual manifestation, which makes more dramatic sense than the idea that in the shape he was in he could have just gotten up and walked out.

I'd also like to say that I'm grateful not only for the stories from this great series, but for the on-line community that allows me to share my thoughts & feelings about them with others who also appreciate them so much. Thank you. :grouphug:

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Guest MMawagen

My interpretation of this is in an earlier post within this thread. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Hmmmmm. . .that's interesting. . . . ..I'm still stymied. Frank seemed adamant that the body that washed up was NOT Alex's, but I can't remember how he determined that. OTOH, he also took the sprig of evergreen from the body's neck and used that to find the river where the body had washed out from. So who's body was it then?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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Guest arcanamundi
My interpretation of this is in an earlier post within this thread.  Take a look and tell me what you think.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Been thinking about this and while I am inclined to agree with you here - that the body actually was Alex's - I too am a little stymied. You say that Frank sensed in some obscure way that the decayed body would lead him to Alex; are you also saying that although Frank knew the body was Alex, he persuaded the local authorities to i.d. it as a John Doe so as not to unduly upset the parents, and so as to give him enough time to -- what? To find his way to and retrieve the only apparently wounded spiritual self of Alex? I'm having trouble swallowing that.

I think I'm more inclined to accept the interpretation that the dead body was Alex, but that Frank did not know it and was blinded by either his focused determination or by higher powers leading him on to some kind of personal gnosis. I think he sincerely believed he was rescuing a surviving Alex. Yet he didn't seem that surprised when Alex disappeared from the hospital.

I also think a case might be made that the floater was not Alex, perhaps an anonymous peer to whom Alex gave his jacket like he gave away his other possessions. But I don't think so. Alex strikes me as generous but not so stupid as to give away his jacket and freeze his ass off; he did say he wanted to live & not die. Besides, watching that floater in the opening teaser with Alex's voice over narrating was supposed to lead the viewer to think that was him.

I know it sounds like I'm nit-picking here, but it really does matter to whatever sense the episode is to ultimately make. I think MMawagen is right: the floater is Alex's shell, but I don't think Frank recognizes it at that point (the autopsy). I think in this episode we find ourselves in that zone where lived reality and symbolic reality begin to merge; and is that not an attribute of the spiritual plane? And come to think of it, isn't that a place that Frank finds himself more and more in the course of the series? Maybe he did sense on some level that the floater was Alex Grazer and that he had to find Alex Ventoux...

Heck, I think I just took the long way round to just re-state what MMawagen said in 2 or 3 sentences. I guess I agree with you after all! :tongue:

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