Jump to content

"anamnesis" (2nd Season)

Rate this topic


Guest ___ L@the_of_Heaven___

Recommended Posts

Guest Jim McLean

I liked this episode, even if I found the effects rather crude, plus I've never liked the drive in season two to make theological conspiracy and mysticism a truth.

If you put those bugbears aside, this is the best Laura Means episode so far. I've really disliked her inclusion in the series up until this point. Having Frank's gift moved into mystical grounds was a little jarring, but hers has a very contrived edge to it, and I was never thrilled with the casting.

But this episode, her role and particularly her acting was perfect. Brilliantly strong performance. Catherine was also great in the episode. I enjoyed the story and its pacing. Some very strong drama indeed. If Laura's role had been as haunted and poignant as it was in this episode, I think her inclusion would have felt a little less contrived.

Fine episode. I forgot all about Frank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Anamnesis is one of my favorite episodes and if, I am allowed to be indulged, time can taken to sit back from reviewing episodes purely on the notion of production values and allow this episode to be glorified by its content. There are moments when one wishes to hear someone talk about the substance of Millennium's chapters and there are moments when an episode warrants a rich and clocklike deconstruction then this is it.

Anamnesis is Lara's jewel and what it presents us with is a story of insurrection, a moment when a touched soul moves against the Millennium group and refuses to commit the murder they demand of her. This insurrection is played against a backdrop of Merovingian myths but the allegory, far from supporting this, allows Lara to discount this notion. It should be noted that Lara states that "...some people..." believe Clare is the descendant of Christ and her brave decision to give Catherine the evidence she lacks faith in shows she is not one of them. Lara believes that Clare is an incarnation of the Magdelene or more correctly the 'Divine Thought': Sophia. Lara felt Claire move retrospectively to the time of Christ's resurrection and knows that she possesses inherited knowledge of this event and rather than being a descendant she is a psychic participant. Of course there is the enigmatic statement that Catherine is a Chronicler and much misty board time was taken with what this means and so on but the truth of the matter is that faced with her own inevitability Lara Means defied the group because she truly believed, and knew, that they were wrong this time. Mckenna possessed an ability to access the spiritual resonance that is the Magdelene. She was able to feel that which had passed and recognizes Claire as an incarnation of the Ennoia and not a descendant of Christ.

According to myth, in the beginning God had his first thought, his Ennoia, which was female, and that thought was to create the angels. The First Thought then descended into the lower regions and created the angels. But the angels rebelled against her out of jealousy and created the world as her prison, imprisoning her in a female body. Thereafter, she was reincarnated many times, each time being shamed. Her many reincarnations included Helen of Troy; among others, and she finally was reincarnated as Helene, a slave and prostitute in the Phoenician city of Tyre. God then descended in the form of Simon Magus, to rescue his Ennoia. Having redeemed her from slavery, he travelled about with her, proclaiming himself to be God and her to be the Ennoia, promising that he would dissolve this world the angels had made, but that those who trusted in him and Helene could return with them to the higher regions.

This myth supports the creativity which we absorbed as Clares' speech which states that "..."And thus, from age to age, she passed from body to body, into one female body after the other. Thus, she became the lost sheep..."

So I implore you. Before anyone denounces Lara as subscribing to any heretical notion that Mary Magdelene was the wife of Christ, view this episode with different eyes and appreciate Lara as a soul who perceived something far more mystical occurring here.

Edited by ethsnafu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks for the kudos, it is a rarity that my bizarre ramblings are agreed upon and I thank you earnestly for doing so. I am aware that there is a contingent of fans who appreciate realism in their viewing and I accept that the richness of stories such as Anamnesis jarred with their appreciation of fact and science, but this episode has such a subtle beauty I implore all to suspend their requirements for under and hour and jump in. A writers ability to embrace such profound a postulation as Gnosticism and weave it into the narrative should be acknowledged. What endears me to this episode is the delicate censure of the Merovigian conspiracy and the glorification of such a complex wonder as Gnostic theology. I can not imagine that it is easy to present such a lofty premise to viewers yet Anamnesis dribbles such wonderful clues throughout that those with an interest in such matters are richly rewarded and those that aren't are tanalised. Few shows before, or since, took concepts that befuddled scholars and dared to give them a narrative. There are numerous personalities who frequent this community, each with audible demands of what tickles their fancy but for those of us who soul-search and muse this episode is a shinning example of why Season Two gets it right with gusto.

Anamnesis is a work of art, one that is enriched by study and supported by knowledge. Brave and truly wonderful.

Edited by ethsnafu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm adding a reply to my own post which, I guess, is a grotesque sign that I am talking nonsense.

I was really hoping that someone would pick up on my reference to the 'Chronicler' statement and run with it as it is 'THE' most enigmatic utterance in our apocalyptic mythos. For those of you who may recall this speech only in shades of faded grey then thanks to Libby I can sellotape it thus:

CATHERINE: Clare, I was wondering about something that you said at the prayer circle …

CLARE: I used to be a chronicler like you. Only, I believed. Then I got tested, like you. And I didn't believe.

CATHERINE: Tested?

CLARE: By the man who took all the pictures of you – the one who told you the truth.

I think the initial assumption, given McKenna's retro-cognitive abilities, is that she perceives Catherine's previous incarnation as a member of the Knights Chroniclers, though if this were to be true it would be arguably kitsch, almost too DaVinci Code, to sit with ease amongst the theosophical maturity surrounding it. I proffer that it is too profound a statement to be using the word in its literal sense and neither Clare nor Catherine possess traits illustrative of the words' definition thus this explanation can also be binned.

My reconciliation, shaky and speculative though it may be, requires only a fleeting awareness of the mythology supporting 'Anamnesis' and the speculative mysticism encompassing the Magdelene. The 'Lost Sheep' who incarnated from body to body was, by tradition, bound to enter the bodies of subordinate women. Each woman was essentially shadowed by the profundity of the men they consorted and in each instance these woman chronicled the lives of their saviours whilst basking in their awe and remaining denied of their of their own spiritual magnificence. Each woman, shadowed by the profundity of their paramours, viewed the drama and spectacle of the lives of the men they afforded their devotion and in Clares' ability to recall her pre-existence as the Magdelene she perceives in Catherine a woman bound to the same circumstance, to silently observe the perplexity of their partners whilst never ascending in comparison.

I guess this is another moment of eye-rolling for you all but I would love to know what you think. I know I am clueless at the best of times and if you can bid a more concise explanation the you make me extremely chirpy.

Edited by ethsnafu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
Guest queequeg914
Anamnesis is one of my favorite episodes and if, I am allowed to be indulged, time can taken to sit back from reviewing episodes purely on the notion of production values and allow this episode to be glorified by its content. There are moments when one wishes to hear someone talk about the substance of Millennium's chapters and there are moments when an episode warrants a rich and clocklike deconstruction then this is it.

Anamnesis is Lara's jewel and what it presents us with is a story of insurrection, a moment when a touched soul moves against the Millennium group and refuses to commit the murder they demand of her. This insurrection is played against a backdrop of Merovingian myths but the allegory, far from supporting this, allows Lara to discount this notion. It should be noted that Lara states that "...some people..." believe Clare is the descendant of Christ and her brave decision to give Catherine the evidence she lacks faith in shows she is not one of them. Lara believes that Clare is an incarnation of the Magdelene or more correctly the 'Divine Thought': Sophia. Lara felt Claire move retrospectively to the time of Christ's resurrection and knows that she possesses inherited knowledge of this event and rather than being a descendant she is a psychic participant. Of course there is the enigmatic statement that Catherine is a Chronicler and much misty board time was taken with what this means and so on but the truth of the matter is that faced with her own inevitability Lara Means defied the group because she truly believed, and knew, that they were wrong this time. Mckenna possessed an ability to access the spiritual resonance that is the Magdelene. She was able to feel that which had passed and recognizes Claire as an incarnation of the Ennoia and not a descendant of Christ.

According to myth, in the beginning God had his first thought, his Ennoia, which was female, and that thought was to create the angels. The First Thought then descended into the lower regions and created the angels. But the angels rebelled against her out of jealousy and created the world as her prison, imprisoning her in a female body. Thereafter, she was reincarnated many times, each time being shamed. Her many reincarnations included Helen of Troy; among others, and she finally was reincarnated as Helene, a slave and prostitute in the Phoenician city of Tyre. God then descended in the form of Simon Magus, to rescue his Ennoia. Having redeemed her from slavery, he travelled about with her, proclaiming himself to be God and her to be the Ennoia, promising that he would dissolve this world the angels had made, but that those who trusted in him and Helene could return with them to the higher regions.

This myth supports the creativity which we absorbed as Clares' speech which states that "..."And thus, from age to age, she passed from body to body, into one female body after the other. Thus, she became the lost sheep..."

So I implore you. Before anyone denounces Lara as subscribing to any heretical notion that Mary Magdelene was the wife of Christ, view this episode with different eyes and appreciate Lara as a soul who perceived something far more mystical occurring here.

Ahhhh....you've no clue what a breath of fresh air this belief is. If I can get a little more pragmatic, I think that the "Ennoia", the Female Divine, is what we might refer to as the Church- not as the little boxes where we preach our specific denominational whims, but as the True Spirit of God- that is the true bride of Christ. It's present in all of us- that piece of God within our souls. You hear the religious right preaching hellfire against The DaVinci Code for the thought that Christ could be married and have kids- but we forget that in the Bible, Christ already has a bride- The Church is His glorious Bride, that Spirit which moves in our world. And we are all a part of this through our lives and souls

Edited by queequeg914
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest queequeg914

Oh yeah, and I liked the books on Clare's shelves. The Dark is Rising series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and then His Dark Materials- two series about children finding themselves as tools of God, and then one about children destroying the establishment of religion (yeah, I know Phillip Pullman says his books are about "killing God", but that's a whole other discussion for me- I don't really buy into it, nor do I get worked up about his rhetoric). Anyway, I thought they were interesting (and they're books I love, wish they'd thrown in some Harry Potter too)!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, and I liked the books on Clare's shelves. The Dark is Rising series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and then His Dark Materials- two series about children finding themselves as tools of God, and then one about children destroying the establishment of religion (yeah, I know Phillip Pullman says his books are about "killing God", but that's a whole other discussion for me- I don't really buy into it, nor do I get worked up about his rhetoric). Anyway, I thought they were interesting (and they're books I love, wish they'd thrown in some Harry Potter too)!

Being Lord of the Uber-Nerds I have read my Potter books till the pages are hanging on by a thread but I have never read the Pullman books sadly. I did have to look them up in order to understand their significance within the narrative and its that degree of attention to detail that makes Aanamnesis a particular high point for me.

Smiles

Eth

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...
Guest Black's Babe

really liked this one, the ladies took CENTER STAGE and delivered.

Really strong performances from both Gallagher, Kristen Cloke and the actress who played Claire.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm Frank WHO?

I get the feeling that things won't end well for Lara Means and she has resigned herself to it.

My favorite scene was when she told Catherine not to give up on Frank.

8/10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

to tell you the truth, i like MM over X-Files.

I, also, prefer MM.

Lance is an exceptional actor and the scripts fit his abilities to a 'T'. Oh, for the movie to be made ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using our website you consent to our Terms of Use of service and Guidelines. These are available at all times via the menu and footer including our Privacy Policy policy.