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In Arcadia Ego

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Guest MillenniumIsBliss

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Guest MillenniumIsBliss

WOW, it seems like just yesterday that I got my season 2 DVDs, and now there are only a couple of episodes left. I just got done watching In Arcadia Ego, and as is so often the case with Millennium, absence has made the heart grow fonder. I don't remember reading many opinions about this episode here, but I didn't remember it as one of my favorites. I still don't rank it WAY up there, but I really enjoyed it just the same, and found it to be very touching. While the episode was probably about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, Lance's performance was a 10 in my book. It's not often that you see the kind of emotion out of Frank Black as is seen in this episode, and you really get a sense of the kind of character he has. He really wears his emotions on his sleeve when he is talking to the guard who was accused of the rape, as well as the guy who was tied up by the two women, and you don't often see that from Frank. I don't know how to explain it, but you just have an increased admiration for him as the episode unfolds. As usual, he seems to be the lone voice of sanity, reason, and rationale, even though the contrast between Frank and the local police might be a little exaggerated. But that's just television. Rarely in real life do you run across people who are 100% righteous, as Frank is, or so pig headed as the police are in this episode, but hey, that's entertainment. What a joy it is to be able to watch Lance throughout season two, and of course, the other two seasons. It's just a shame it had to end.

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I deffinetly feel this is an 'onion' ep.. At first glance it seems very simple and even somewhat plain.. but the more you watch it .. the more you see in it.. and yes it was great to see Frank out of his usual self... seeing the women more as victums than perps...wanting to know why they ran... when he helped deliver and held the baby [posibly reliving the birth of Jordan which he considered his miracle baby] ... and when he read the report that the guard was not the father....and leaving the viewer to wonder.. was it 'God's child'... :ouroborous:

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Guest blondton13

This is one of the episodes I mention in my introduction (see What Made Me Cry). This one really touched me...maybe because I know a few lesbian couples and I kept wondering if I should recommend watching even this one episode to them because they are not familiar with MM. I think this would have touched them just as deeply, if not more, than me. :cry::wink:

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Guest ModernDayMoriarty

'In Arcadia Ego' is one of those episodes that. whilst it isn't really that great, manages to be one of the better episodes purely because of a few extremely good scenes. The episodes I associate this with most strongly are 'Kingdom Come' and 'The Wild and the Innocent'. Like them, it is a fairly leaden episode with a few great characters and lots of 2-D background characters.

In my opinion, this episode promises quite a lot but doesn't quite deliver. One factor that sits very uneasily is the tension between Frank and Watts. Henriksen has been quoted as being very unhappy indeed that Frank was forced to work with people that he (henriksen) felt Frank would view as unwholesome, if not outright sinister in their motives. In all the post-Owls/Roosters episodes, there is a feeling that Frank and Watts have sheets of glass placed between them; that Henriksen is trying to defy the script by pretending O'Quinn isn't even there. Some may say it's a good progression but it feels wrong to me. There is none of the old charisma between the two except in very short bursts.

As to the actual episode... well, I have stated issues I have with the negative potrayal of men in some Millennium episodes before. I agree that some men certainly would take liberties but the entire prison and police force of that county seem to be blood-hungry killers and cheerful rapists! The scene with the motorist who gives them a lift to 'get lucky', the prison guard who regards the rape as a joke... I can only take so much before it just becomes ridiculous. That kind of 'Hey, man to man, they have it coming you know?' kind of talk was rather lacking in credibility. I'm not saying the conversation shouldn't have been there, just that it could have been betetr executed and was simply stretching the 'man are macho, ignorant pigs most of the time' *message* too far. Ernie only had his job there because a previous rape of his from a different prison had been covered up! How much corruption of how many people do they want in this episode?!

The episode chugs along veeery slowly with Frank snarling and scowling at everyone in sight (because everyone is, apparently, very corrupt in this place) and little warmth penetrates anywhere. It isn't until the train yard scenes that the episode finally resurrects itself, which to be fair, it does very well. The male characters are still so 2-D it is imperiative that the camera always look at them from the front but the pregency and death are superbly shot and acted. As an aside, I remain convinced that Chip J put the 'holy face in the bullet' in as a jibe to how poor he considered this Season but it is a just my theory. It's very silly anyway.

But, like I said, the last scenes are so good that, under the primacy/recency effect, we remember the episode as being great. It isn't great; it struggles to even be good most of the time but like 'Kingdom Come' and 'The Wild and the Innocent' it has a prize winning finale. It was very reminiscent of the better episodes of ER (don't laugh, it was once a good programme) in fact.

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  • 2 years later...
Guest Jim McLean

While the episode - as with too many season two episodes - follows too much of an X-Files formula, it does hold some very strong dramatic and directorial moments. The last 15 minutes are fantastic. The love and isolation of the two escapees and the fragility of Frank's situation are very strong. Its one of the few moments in which Frank does seem genuinely fearful for his life and that really adds to the tension. The final pull back with Frank holding the baby is beautiful. Great stuff.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Heath328
As to the actual episode... well, I have stated issues I have with the negative potrayal of men in some Millennium episodes before. I agree that some men certainly would take liberties but the entire prison and police force of that county seem to be blood-hungry killers and cheerful rapists! The scene with the motorist who gives them a lift to 'get lucky', the prison guard who regards the rape as a joke... I can only take so much before it just becomes ridiculous. That kind of 'Hey, man to man, they have it coming you know?' kind of talk was rather lacking in credibility. I'm not saying the conversation shouldn't have been there, just that it could have been betetr executed and was simply stretching the 'man are macho, ignorant pigs most of the time' *message* too far. Ernie only had his job there because a previous rape of his from a different prison had been covered up! How much corruption of how many people do they want in this episode?!

I don't think the intent of this episode was to portray all men in a negative light. Frank Black and Peter Watts, who are all male, come off as chivalrous here.

What the episode is saying is that the two women might have stood some chance in life if there had been more men like Frank and Peter in their lives instead of the types they had to endure -- the prison guards, the opportunistic motorist, etc.

Certainly most corrections officers aren't like Ernie, who raped the young woman in his care. But the reality is, there are guys like this who take advantage of the power the state gives them. Some of them become this way over time, some gravitate toward the job because of the power it gives them.

I think the problem you see with this episode is a problem I see with our real world. The Ernie's, who do all the harm, get all the attention and the headlines while decent people -- the "Frank's" -- keep their heads down and forge on.

If there is a "lesson" to be taken from "In Arcadia Ego," it's that we ought to bear each other's burdens.

I thought this episode was unbelievably touching ... and I tend to be pretty cynical (a symptom of 12 years spent in the media).

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Mighty review Heath and I agree with your suppositions, I have no proverbial axe to grind with regards to the depiction of the men in the episode, my interpretation echoes your own sensibilities, in that it is less about masculinity and more about power. 'In Arcadia' seems to be one of the bravest essays on the power of spirit ever committed to film. To bury such profundity, such meaning in the lives of lesbian convicts negates convention, roars at conservatism and renders the spiritual as a non-discriminatory wonder bestowed by a greater mechanism than prejudice and acceptability can comprehend. Saints and mystics throughout the vast eons have endured troubles, killed, profaned and in some cases literally rotted in their sick beds yet spirituality has seeped into their existence by the divine action of a judgement more complicated than man can comprehend. In the foulest stench pits, the most criminal souls, the war torn, the diseased and the vibrant God has given the gift of sanctity in an austere disregard for convention. Man, is this episode, is not present as the sexist, the rapist or misogynist but given to us a depiction of the misunderstood, the real and the organic. The benediction is given to two lesbians by convention these criminal unconventional souls would suffer oppression and for this episode to represent that it does little more than echo reality.

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Guest Heath328
Mighty review Heath and I agree with your suppositions, I have no proverbial axe to grind with regards to the depiction of the men in the episode, my interpretation echoes your own sensibilities, in that it is less about masculinity and more about power. 'In Arcadia' seems to be one of the bravest essays on the power of spirit ever committed to film. To bury such profundity, such meaning in the lives of lesbian convicts negates convention, roars at conservatism and renders the spiritual as a non-discriminatory wonder bestowed by a greater mechanism than prejudice and acceptability can comprehend. Saints and mystics throughout the vast eons have endured troubles, killed, profaned and in some cases literally rotted in their sick beds yet spirituality has seeped into their existence by the divine action of a judgement more complicated than man can comprehend. In the foulest stench pits, the most criminal souls, the war torn, the diseased and the vibrant God has given the gift of sanctity in an austere disregard for convention. Man, is this episode, is not present as the sexist, the rapist or misogynist but given to us a depiction of the misunderstood, the real and the organic. The benediction is given to two lesbians by convention these criminal unconventional souls would suffer oppression and for this episode to represent that it does little more than echo reality.

You truly have a way with words!

I was just thinking about how the Gospel of Christ was always given to society's "outcasts" because the privileged didn't think they needed it or were too good for it.

I won't start a Sunday school lesson here, but I can really tell that a spiritual dimension for "Millennium" was important to the writers.

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Guest Jim McLean

Nicely put.

... I have no proverbial axe to grind with regards to the depiction of the men in the episode...

In the light of this show, I am happily assured by the specific nature to this point - that the axe is indeed proverbial, unlike so many in Millennium's content.

:death:

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I know I am a seasoned 'Two' fetishist but this episode is simply spotted-dick-and-custard for me and whilst I would never claim to be adroit on the subject of U.S. theological trends I am aware that public opinion is much harsher towards homosexuality especially in the context of a theological narrative and this is why this gem so warms me. Whilst there is an element of butch-and-femme about this the devotional text of the couple feels solid and considered and respected and the notion that a Lesbian relationship could receive the gift of divine conception is treated as viable, possible and devoid of shock. To hear Sonny softly appraise Janette as "...You're all lit up like a Christmas tree..." is a tender expression showing a fierce fondness irrespective of the brutality they have endured and created, it has that 'Christmas' scent about it, the moment when all is good and smelling of cinnamon.

To me it is an Immaculate Conception redux, the child of God born to two women and this had me furiously book-delving with regards to the Gnostic controversy surrounding the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Hebrew names for the Holy Spirit are decidedly feminine "Shekhina" (which means "Divine Manifestation," "Divine Presence," "Divine Power," "Glory," and "Grace") and the feminine "Ruach" (which means "Soul" or "Spirit") lead the Gnostics, in their wisdom, to conclude that the Immaculate Conception could not have occurred as '...whoever heard of a woman impregnating a woman..." this argument has cluttered Christian Occultism for generations and is the rich, speculative canvas upon which, I believe, this Millennium episode is painted upon. As far as episodes go it seems littered with other realities and treasure-like-caveats. I relish the scene where Frank lingers upon the blood-splattered filing cabinet where the majority of the spill marks the drawer that would contain the 'X-Files' and again there are references to the Magdelene (in the address of the house our protagonists are visiting), a hint to the fact that the 'Follow the Path' cult is an offshoot of the Millennium Group (though you never get a clear view, the 'Follow the Path' bookmark appears to be surmounted by an ouroborous albeit with some additional markings).

The prison in which Sonny and Jannie are held captive is Garrison Prison a hint to the legend that Mary was impregnated by one of the Roman Garrison and not by God echoes of the Talmud's claims that Jesus was Yeshua ben Pantera the illegitimate son of Mary M'gadd'la (the braider or hairdresser) by a Roman guard. The legend of Jesus son of Pantera is echoed quite literally in 'Arcadia' with Jannie supposedly bearing God's child, the result of an Immaculate Conception, but with strong evidence to suggest that it is in fact a natural conception after she was raped by a guard. Behold, there is the strangest of caveats in this episode, it does require a super sharp pause-button-finger to read it though: When Sonny is alarmed by the newspaper article she reads in the clinic waiting room, the article beside it is reporting the murder, at the 'Ruby Tip Peep Show', of Joanne 'Calamity' Sandor with Seattle detectives requesting information on a black male suspect: meaning Arcadia must occur concurrently with the Pilot episode and seemingly in the initial stages of that investigation (which it obviously doesn't).

When Frank deduces that Sonny and Jannie are attempting to flee by train he is drawn to timetable entry 'Calgary 3.05 #23'. The number 23 is again shown, boldly as a notice-me number upon the boxcar with a seeming prominence that wants us to take note of it. There is a rather innocuous occult theorem which regards the number 23 as a portent for great disaster. The late author William Burroughs was so obsessed by numeric coincidences surrounding 23, he kept a scrapbook of his findings. He was drawn to the number's power when a Captain Clark told him he had run a ferry from Spain to Morocco with for 23 years without incidence: hours later it sank, killing the skipper (didn't you just see that one coming). Alternative pop band Psychic TV are so obsessed with 23 that at one point they made the Guinness Book of World Records by releasing 23 albums on the 23rd day of 23 months in a row. They were influenced by the occultist Aleister Crowley who had been convinced of the power of 23. This inexplicable fascination with 23 has become a mind-virus, seeping into the music of 'Psychic TV', the art of H.R. Giger, the comics of Jamie Hewlett and Grant Morrison, the literature of Robert Anton Wilson, Arthur Koestler, Umberto Eco, and our very own Millennium where it too is a portent of disaster.

The birth scenes in the boxcar are a poignant recreation of the nativity scene, the light from above that illuminates the straw-strewn-stable-on-wheels is a sobering experience, the fact that Jannie bleeds to death has me in mind of the numerous Marian apparitions related to blood shedding where the The Virgin's blood is shed for the ills and faithlessness of non believers. The final martyrdom of Sonny is harrowing but excellent: only moot point is Frank willingly surrendering the baby to two obvious loons, more indoctrinated that any Millennium Group member and very possibly members themselves. Could the group have been manipulating things all along?

All said and done, more power to all of this to the Nth!

Edited by ethsnafu
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