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amplifyme · 1 year ago

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These episodes were magnificent. Wow, wow, wow.

Chimes At Midnight:

Diana escaping and getting out of dodge (and shoving the driver aside and having to think in the tollbooth-- you’re right, she is chatty once she’s not so locked in her head) but having to surrender was an grippingly incredible segment. Vincent’s dreams and describing Diana to Father (did he have a brief “is this a rebound???” fear on his face or was that just me? It was probably just me XDD)-- her incredible mind, her uniqueness, that she truly understands… oh BOY am I liking where this is going. (Loosely quoted) “She won’t betray Catherine’s memory” is the best setup to a second romance. Also, Father waiting for Vincent to come to him instead of going to Vincent constantly is character growth, I think; and his advice is more understanding and careful and empathetic… more hopeful, really. Gabriel having Diana brought to Vincent’s son’s room is a powerfully manipulative move (and very reminiscent of Cookie in Nan’s AWTN entrusting her with Vincent’s baby No. 2) “There’s nothing unusual there.” “I don’t think he looks anything like you.” “Precisely.” Gabriel always one step ahead, getting an intelligent woman to come exactly to his point while thinking she’s skirting another one. Magnificent writing. THE BABY’S DYING???????????????? (VINCENT’S DREAM.) Gabriel wanting Vincent to save his son is a fascinating dynamic. Diana noticing his shoes (correction: floor tile), hmm. The Helpers and Father and Diana and the pipes (and Father hopes she’s a friend.) Vincent struggling over the news about his son and realizing the truth about their connection and the visions. Diana struggling because they both know Gabriel will kill Vincent and Vincent is willing if it will save his son. Diana talking about the future instead of letting Vincent wrap everything up in a thank you, and him promising to come to her when it’s all done. “Be careful” and letting him go without a fuss (WHAT A STEP UP FROM CATHERINE.) Darted and chained and caged… juuuuuuuuuuust like that episode from S1. Diana sketching Gabriel’s shoe (correction: floor tile) at the booth until she gets an idea and starts to track him. Gabriel just watching Vincent struggle-- transfusion won’t work (iiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.) “Prove him wrong.” (There are just some things you can’t win, that you are incapable of winning, no matter how hard you want to, Gabriel.) Vincent talking to Gabriel through the cameras. “He is beautiful” look at that baby! That is a baby that gets it. (Also, perfect baby casting.) An aside: Vincent’s empathy is mentioned as starting to return, ooooooooooooh.

Invictus:

Favorite episode. Hands down. Diana calling Joe. Gabriel taunting Vincent with “Julian”, talking about generations and writing their names (Snow theme coming back) in blood. Standoff in Vincent’s cell and the baby crying more at being separated. The waking nightmares and Gabriel observing Vincent and asking if he sleeps. No transfusion, Gabriel disappointed in his doctor, the baby getting stronger. Bet Gabriel is going to keep Vincent around as the baby touchstone for the rest of Vincent’s life. Buster going straight for Gabriel’s throat. Gabriel throwing out the ring as yet another life on Vincent’s hands (and he can’t verify with a bond so doubly mind-twisting.) Father and his taxi driver posse coming to grab Diana off the street, giving her the backstory, recruiting her to help, Father is going to give Diana Cathy’s gun, FATHER IS GOING TO GIVE DIANA CATHY’S GUN, FATHER IS GOING TO GIVE DIANA CATHY’S GUN, I KNOW WHERE THIS GOES. JAMIE! Full circle from The Outsiders to now amazing. Gabriel and Vincent’s conversation through the cameras. “‘Death shall have no dominion’…. She knew it, even at the end.” Joe loses Diana twice and he’s not happy. HERE COMES FATHER (in his tux.) Floor tile and not shoes, got it (going to correct the above.) Father just wheeling out the Catherine trump card because it will always work. “We could have been great friends. Fire.” WELP, Vincent didn’t flinch; and I shouldn’t be laughing at Gabriel’s antics but they’re clinically theatrical rather than theatrically dramatic (Paracelsus) and I really, really like his style. “Kingdom of shadows”, “It’s our kingdom, remember.” The irony, of course, is that Vincent embodies the aspects of humanity that are worth living for while Gabriel represents a willful desire to toss away those aspects and embrace what he thinks are primal, animalistic. The greater irony, of course, is that Gabriel can’t win on either ground: he can’t beat Vincent on either level because he is deficient of the qualities that make him anything other than a bad man. Ah yes, bringing back the introduction to Gabriel at that other funeral: boys watching their fathers die-- but not pulling the trigger, hoping Vincent will do it himself (Paracelsus but hands off.) Watching through this and jotting my notes down, I am amazed at how many turns Gabriel takes-- I can’t predict him. “He’s going to kill himself”, “No, he won’t die. Death has no meaning for him.” “The only thing he’s afraid of is himself” and “Don’t.” Gabriel seeking control by destroying the qualities Vincent has that are superior to his. Ouroboros, eyyyyyyyy. The ring and veritas and ouroboros, cool stuff. Gabriel’s men tracking Diana through Joe and Joe being led straight to the museum by the posse Below. Diana set up a trap knowing the police were compromised and Joe would have been toast otherwise. Joe just lets the dinosaur thing go (letting Diana have her mysteries now that he trusts her again.) Gabriel switching the tapes from blood, murder, and death to the baby-- “I know how to be merciful.” Gabriel trying to grandstand on “I owe you a life” then twisting the discussion around on the baby’s beauty and leading right up to Catherine’s death. “I’m sorry about Catherine.” WHAT GAME YA PLAYIN’, GABRIEL. “We all make mistakes.” Setting up the doctor’s death, of course-- “Life for a life.” The Paracelsus games are back; but Vincent already lost “everything” but still has something to gain. Also, Gabriel’s demonic face is… incredible work.

“No.” And Gabriel’s stumped expression. And the doctor died anyway: “I always pay my debts.” Wanting Vincent to kill off the doctor for him-- a life for a life-- is just the mark of how little lack of… anything he has. A life for a life should be on the other person’s terms, not his own. Excellently written. Gabriel becoming obsessed with Vincent while Diana saves Joe’s backside AGAIN is a great back and forth dynamic. “Which of you is the captive here?” (Vincent knowing Gabriel’s name and Gabriel knowing Vincent’s and that ouroboros Gabriel is trying to connect the two of them with, interesting.) Pope just LEFT, done (great speech he missed out on, though. But words are only so useful when you have the time to luxuriate over them.) Father and Diana making battle plans, I love this so much. The police moving in and Diana moving Below (and the practicality of Father warning about rust dust.) Gabriel antsy because his words have lost power and Vincent calls him on it and Gabriel doesn’t like it. Gabriel calling upon destiny to justify his actions and connections and “prove” his likeness to Vincent, and Vincent disproving the destiny Gabriel foists upon him because of the bond Gabriel can’t break no matter how many words or theories he spins. Gabriel talking to anyone who will listen because he has begun losing people who will. “I believe in the power of love….” Nurse leaving so she doesn’t have to see the baby’s death and Gabriel STILL takes me by surprise. Hurry up, Diana. HERE is the one thing that is the same for Gabriel and Vincent: “Perfection must be cherished”-- that pedestalized effect, except Gabriel wants to pin his butterflies in a preservation glass while Vincent wants to watch them float freely, happily around him. KILL HIM DIANA. DO IT, DIANA. NAN SAID YOU DID. DO IT. VINCENT’S FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. YES! DIANA ROBBED GABRIEL FROM THE SATISFACTION OF DEATH ON “HIS” TERMS. YES. YES. YES. (*Ahem*-- ot a bit excited there.) “Your child is crying” and “what kind of a father” all perfectly culminate here, the setup and payoff-- perfection. Diana keeping Vincent grounded by talking so Buster doesn’t pop out is also perfection (even more so because I know she’s going to be an avenging angel.) “Father’s waiting”, perfection, too. Gabriel taunting Diana by using her name to gloat with some false sense of victory on his part; and Diana deciding to "lose" this battle with morality/ethics to win the war. “Not this time, Gabriel. This is Catherine Chandler’s gun.” Perfection. Father waiting and Vincent coming back from exile and Father meeting the baby (who continues to be adorable, of course), AND VINCENT’S FACE AND FATHER’S HAND AND VINCENT’S HAND AND BOTH OF THEM NOW "FULLY" FATHERS and the Naming ceremony and (of course I knew this part because of AWTN) naming him Jacob… I feel something lodged in my throat, gotta clear it a bit, *ahem*. FATHER’S FACE IS TOO HAPPY I CAN’T LOOK AT IT DIRECTLY. Catherine’s face there for a frame. PERFECTION. JUST. INCREDIBLE.

Hands down, Invictus is the best episode by far. And there’s still two episodes left, wow.

I gotta tell you, I giggled my way through your entire post. Just because I remember that feeling of giddiness watching these two episodes when they first aired.

Let's discuss!

Diana escaping and getting out of dodge

Girlfriend knows how to take care of herself. A damsel in distress she's not.

Vincent’s dreams and describing Diana to Father (did he have a brief “is this a rebound???” fear on his face or was that just me? It was probably just me XDD)

What I saw on his face was more like "A woman?? Oh, dear God, not another one!" 🤣🤣🤣 But by the time he and Diana are in that cab on the way to Gabe's, she's more than earned his respect. Not to compare unfairly, but it took Cathy a lot longer than that to earn it.

“She won’t betray Catherine’s memory” is the best setup to a second romance.

Isn't it, though?? I love how the writer's room made sure there was a thread running throughout the arc of Diana having great respect and reverence for what Vincent and Catherine shared.

Diana noticing his shoes (correction: floor tile)

Don't feel bad. A lot of folks couldn't figure out why she'd be looking at his shoes until she was in the phone booth sketching the pattern of the floor tile.

Diana talking about the future instead of letting Vincent wrap everything up in a thank you, and him promising to come to her when it’s all done. “Be careful” and letting him go without a fuss (WHAT A STEP UP FROM CATHERINE.)

Nothing to add to this. *chef's kiss*

transfusion won’t work (iiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.)

It's already been established that Vincent's blood type is unique and any transfusion would kill him. Jacob's is the same. I love how Nan elaborated on this in AWTN 3 when Vincent is shot by Lena's husband and we find out Father has been taking blood from V every month to store for emergencies and would be doing the same for Jacob when he was old enough.

An aside: Vincent’s empathy is mentioned as starting to return, ooooooooooooh.

I think he started to get it back when Jacob was born. It's just not fully back yet, the way he's used to it being, so he may not be recognizing the way it's manifesting itself right now - showing up at the park threshold just as Diana was attacked was not a coincidence. Somehow he knew, even if he didn't realize it.

Oh, my beloved Invictus...

Bet Gabriel is going to keep Vincent around as the baby touchstone for the rest of Vincent’s life.

I'm pretty sure that was his intent once he realized it was Vincent's bond with the child that saved his life. And in if that's the case, Gabriel would want to mold V into the kind of man he wants him to be, just as he wanted to do with the child.

Buster going straight for Gabriel’s throat.

Gonna have to disagree here. That was 100% Vincent. Truthfully, by this time in the arc, there's not a lot of Buster left, at least not in the way he was earlier set up as somehow separate from Vincent. V absolutely had Gabe's number by this point and just wants him dead.

Gabriel throwing out the ring as yet another life on Vincent’s hands (and he can’t verify with a bond so doubly mind-twisting.)

Going to disagree again here. I'm pretty sure when Gabe first tossed the ring on the floor and told him D was dead, V believed it. But I'm convinced as soon as he picked up and held that ring, he knew she was still alive. Especially in the later scene when he's rolling it between thumb and forefinger and he kind of tosses it up and catches it in his fist. Look at his face. He knows she's alive. Like I said, he's on to Gabe by now. "You're the only monster here."

Father is going to give Diana Cathy’s gun, FATHER IS GOING TO GIVE DIANA CATHY’S GUN, FATHER IS GOING TO GIVE DIANA CATHY’S GUN, I KNOW WHERE THIS GOES.

😁😁😁

The irony, of course, is that Vincent embodies the aspects of humanity that are worth living for while Gabriel represents a willful desire to toss away those aspects and embrace what he thinks are primal, animalistic. The greater irony, of course, is that Gabriel can’t win on either ground: he can’t beat Vincent on either level because he is deficient of the qualities that make him anything other than a bad man.

This is perfection. Thank you.

Not gonna lie, this is another moment where I stand up and cheer for Vincent. He so badly wanted to kill the doctor, but the best part of who he is knows that he can't - not unless he's willing to become Gabe's weapon. It's just such a transformative moment for Vincent. He's finally achieved a firm grip on Buster.

KILL HIM DIANA. DO IT, DIANA. NAN SAID YOU DID. DO IT. VINCENT’S FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. YES! DIANA ROBBED GABRIEL FROM THE SATISFACTION OF DEATH ON “HIS” TERMS. YES. YES. YES. (*Ahem*-- ot a bit excited there.) “Your child is crying” and “what kind of a father” all perfectly culminate here, the setup and payoff-- perfection. Diana keeping Vincent grounded by talking so Buster doesn’t pop out is also perfection (even more so because I know she’s going to be an avenging angel.)

Again, that's not Buster in that nursery, that's Vincent. And, yes, he's killing mad. But Buster wouldn't have let a little thing like Diana yelling his name stop him. But Vincent the man would respond to her voice. Vincent the man remembers what she said to him in that alley, asking him what kind of father he wants his son to have. Another transformative moment for him.

Re: Diana killing Gabe. GRRM really, really wanted to write an ep. focusing on the ramifications of that and how it might affect her going forward. Sadly, he didn't get the chance to do it. I mean, she absolutely did the right thing for the right reasons, but she still killed an unarmed man and she has her own sense of morality to deal with there - as a human being and as a cop.

AND VINCENT’S FACE AND FATHER’S HAND AND VINCENT’S HAND AND BOTH OF THEM NOW "FULLY" FATHERS

Wasn't that a lovely moment? Vincent is just beaming!

Touching on the darkness in everyone for a moment here, i have to admit there's nothing more satisfyingly to me than those few seconds when Vincent bursts through that nursery door and just swats the hell out of Gabe, causing him to twirl around until he smacks into the door and goes down. I have (and will continue to) watch those few seconds on a loop. Never get tired of it. What does that say about me? 🤣

Oh, and can I add that I love that by the time Diana avenges Cathy's death, she looks like she's been through the spin cycle of a washing machine more than a few times? I just adore her.

The final two episodes are something of a reset. We get a hint of what the show might've become going forward. It's much quieter than the baby arc but is still important as we see Vincent begin to rebuild his life, and how and where Diana will fit into that. It's actually a two-parter. If I had to reduce it to a single theme, I would say it's very much a story of second chances - for several characters.

I look forward to seeing you through to the end. Then you can go back and do it all again, whenever you want to. Because while all stories may end, we can always read (or watch) them again. ❤️

P.S. I managed to get all 3 books of AWTN posted on AO3. So you can revisit those, too.

#beauty and the beast 1987 #season 3 #the chimes at midnight #invictus #discussion

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dandelionjack · 8 months ago

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an essay about Rogue, The Chimes of Midnight, and how i believe all this ties in to the overarching themes of the series EVEN IF the inside-a-tv-show theory proves untrue

“Rogue” named himself after a stock character. he is the archetypal Handsome Rogue because there has to be a Handsome Rogue role in a period drama story set in Austenesque Regency England.

it’s all theatre — smoke and mirrors. just like the war waged against imaginary foes in boom (because there needs to be an Enemy in a wartime story) was theatre; the creation of the Bogeyman in space babies (because there needs to be a Scary Monster in a children’s bedtime story) was theatre; The Woman following Ruby in 73 yards (because there needs to be a Ghost in a folk horror story) was theatre. dot and bubble less so, but it’s wise to note — the dots created the slugs after all. they invented the slugs so that there would be a tangible Creature for the finetimers (and the Doctor) to fear, rather than simply being betrayed by their own technology. because that’s exactly what the false, harmful narratives colonialists tell themselves — stories of taming and conquering a wild Mother Nature and her ferocious beasts — have trained them to expect from the world. the dots were telling a story too, or rather putting on a play.

the penultimate episode of any doctor who series, if not always leading directly into the two-parter finale, will typically begin to tie up loose narrative strands that have stretched across the entire season. at a first impression rogue doesn’t seem to be doing that. but then you take a closer look at the antagonists: creatures that play a role for fun without the slightest regard for those around them. lethal LARPers. cosplayers out to kill. to put it pretentiously, a hyper-realistic theatre of cruelty.

to nobody’s surprise, i’m bringing up my favourite eighth doctor audio drama — the chimes of midnight. edward grove gives every person trapped in the time loop a designated role: the chauffeur, the doctor-detective, the plucky young lady of the house, the lady’s maid, the scullery girl, the housekeeper. they keep playing these roles, over and over, until they begin to forget their original identity, until the part they’re playing takes over their entire sense of self. the servants keep dying over and over because they cannot transcend their roles, because they believe themselves to be “nothing but a scullery maid”. they are reduced to the parts they play in the narrative until they become nothing outside of it, until they become confined to a single location.

the chimes of midnight is set in Edwardian-era England, a time of restrictive, prescriptive class, status and social roles which defined a person’s life and career trajectory — this strict delineation is driven to its logical conclusion and deconstructed under the unnatural conditions of Edward Grove. similarly, rogue is set in a Regency-era mansion — another historical period defined in the popular imagination by its complicated social rules, elegant courtship dynamics, strict class barriers, gossip and elitism. these two doctor who stories don’t have any intentional watsonian connection, but they are deeply linked on a thematic level.

high society is forced theatre. a 24/7 LARP. play your part, put on your costume, don’t interrupt the performance. the audience is waiting. they’re oh so hungry for tragedy.

the biggest part of them all, the most sought-after role, of course, is The Doctor. a standard to live up to. a name to wear like a banner, a pledge, a promise. he has to be like this because this is what he’s like.

the Scullery Maid scrubs the kitchen floor. The Detective searches for clues. the Chauffeur starts up his car. the Duchess hosts a glittering soirée. the Rake hides a secret fling with the Wallflower. the Rogue breaks hearts and broods on the balcony.

and the Doctor? the Doctor dances. “onwards and upwards”. forever in perpetual motion, spinning and spinning and spinning across the stars. never pausing to breathe. never stopping.

p.s.: so, pray tell, what is Ruby Sunday in all this? “The Companion”, of course. smart, funny, sassy, quick-witted, brave, cheeky, curious, self-sacrificial. she almost feels generic because she’s meant to be. she wasn’t born. she was written. an essential part of the story too. circling the Doctor like a satellite forever.

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