by cindyrae77 » Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:22 pm
Regarding that VERY 'shades of grey' moment in this one, regarding Catherine, I have to say that I like this Catherine with the same strength I liked her in SOO. This, again, is "Vincent's Catherine," and she's imperfectly perfect, as she crosses a line she thought she'd never cross, (she speaks to Elliot Burch again) in order to save 'her Vincent.'
Elliot, too, was written wonderfully, here, and said nothing out of character that I could detect. He's thrilled to see her, but not cloying. He's decisive and in charge, and taken aback, some, by her list. He gives it to her without question, for whatever reason, and she accepts his gift in that same way, paying only with the promise that 'next time you call, I'll be in.' It's a beautifully balanced scene, with a Catherine who's anything but. (She's scared, nervous and frantic. And we as the audience know those feelings are about Vincent, and what he needs, rather than about Elliot, and what he needs.)
Jacob, too, comes off as very credible, the injured older man remembering one of his most beautiful days.
Mouse jumps into our awareness, as you say, this time counterpointed with Winslow, the sure, steady pragmatist who probably thinks his two friends are going to die, but determined to reach them anyway, by the only means he knows how- the strength of his arm.
It's interesting to me how each character approached the 'problem' of freeing Vincent and Father by depending each on their own strengths, rather than, say, on each other's. (Until the very end.)
Society girl Cathy is using her social connections, here, (Elliot.) Mouse uses his very fertile imagination. ("I have a digging machine." and "Need a wire... need a gizmo... and boom!") Jamie is the stalwart friend who pleads Mouse's case in the face of a resisting tunnel community. (Winslow: Half his machines don't even work!" Jamie: Yeah, and half of them do.") Winslow is the solid, practical man who sees a mountain of stone in front of him, and a hammer in his hand, and is determined to use the strength in his arms to save his friends. They're all 'being themselves' as they go in somewhat different directions, all working for the same goal.
The heavily populated tunnels now have adults aplenty to go with the kids we met. (Kipper, in the pilot. More in ACS, if you go by viewing order.) But most of these people do the same thing they'll do in the show. They serve as 'background stage dressing' for those who have speaking parts. That's a shame, since it tends to 'homogenize' them, some, (make them all seem like versions of 'the same person,' even though we know they can't be.)
Most of the adults are following Winslow, with his strong voice. Rebel Jamie and Desperate Catherine follow the illogical voice of Mouse, who is right 'half of the time.' Desperate times call for desperate measures.
(Favorite line of Mouse's here, when they're about to detonate the plastic explosives, and Cathy tells him she'll work the detonator. "If you die, he'll kill me, anyway.") That's priceless.
It seems even Mouse already knows how in love our characters are. Somehow. (So, yes, 'our couple' are indeed gossiped about, Below, else how would he know so much?
Another thing to love: This one is solidly about just that. Love. How much it means, how much it brings, and sometimes how much it costs. (Jacob, talking to Vincent about what leading the tunnels will cost him. "It won't be without sacrifice. I think I miss the colors, most of all.")
Then he lists those colors, and we'll 'see' them in the show. "The blue of the Pacific in the sun" (A Distant Shore) "The green grass of Ebbet's field" (we already know about that from SOO) "The fall leaves changing in Vermont," (Substitute 'Connecticut' for 'Vermont' and you're at Catherine's lake, coming up in "Remember Love.") None of this is significant, mind you, it's just something that caught my ear as I watched it.
But anyway, everyone is firmly in love, here. (By 'everyone' I mean Vincent, Catherine, Jacob and Elliot.) V and C with each other, Jacob with both his (deceased) wife and his tunnel home, and Elliot with Catherine. (Nobody thinks he gave her tungsten carbide drill bits and plastic explosives because he's NOT in love with her, if you will.) As he says, "I must have called you 50 times, after our disagreement." And when he tells her he's not one of the bad guys, we think he just might be telling the truth.
For Cathy, the story even opens in "Shades of Grey" before she's aware of the cave in. (Joe tells her that their boss has given instruction to ask Cathy to trade on her personal life so they can all advance the legal case against Max Avery.) Morally, that's a no-no. It riles Cathy enough to threaten resignation if it ever happens again, and we believe her. Joe, meanwhile, is the hapless deliverer of this unsavory message, agreeing with her that it stinks, but there it is. Shades of Grey.
We meet Mouse (who will be our hero, here,) as he's being punished for doing pretty much the same things that will save Vincent and Father. (He's been caught going up to a construction site, above, and 'Shades of Grey' like, is having a hard time figuring out the distinction between 'borrowing' and 'stealing.')
Only in hindsight do I realize that we heard much from Jacob, Catherine, and Elliot, about what they love, (for Elliot, that would be building megastructures (He's willing to testify to get rid of Max Avery) and Catherine,) but not a whole lot from Vincent about that, except for his love of the books Jacob read him, and how they 'took him places,' with their words. (He mentions Kipling, Twain, and Jack London, to Jacob.) Clearly those were his first 'loves,' and he tells Jacob no child ever had a better guide, and it's that kind of 'love' we hear him speak of.
The other characters discuss (or are clearly feeling) romantic matters of the heart, a bit more. That isn't a complaint, regarding Vincent, just an observation. Other kinds of love (the desire to build, both Above and Below) friendship, familial, are clearly explored here, too. For Vincent, however, it's that love of books, that love of the 'window to the world' he could see so clearly. (That love did cause him to dare to dream of Above, and that dream did cause him to save Catherine, so in a way, yes, I suppose this episode DID touch on his romantic feelings for her, but I'm all over the place here, as it is.)
As an odd question, I can never quite decide if Cathy's 'awareness' of their bond and Vincent's trouble comes because he's IN so much trouble, (She's feeling what he's feeling, or at least she's hearing what he's hearing, as she 'hears' the sound of Winslow's hammer hitting the steel pipe) or if rather than 'simply feeling Vincent in trouble,' Vincent is actively 'calling out to her' inside their bond.
I don't know why I think the latter could be on the table, (other than Catherine's odd reaction as she reaches for her temple, making it seem as if she'd just been somehow 'contacted'). It's just a thing I notice, and ponder as I ponder everything else.
There are even odd touches of humor in this episode, and they come in otherwise solemn/serious moments. (Vincent teasing Father that he'll fall asleep in the cave in, if Jacob takes to quoting Virgil on the hour. Father and Jacob talking after Mouse has been sentenced to 'The Silence' that the kaleidescope (there's a reference to 'colors' again, and not the color 'grey' as the episode title suggests) Mouse had gifted Father with was not stolen. - He'd just stolen the parts. Cathy's crash landing into Mouse's 'deep' chamber... as she's frantically trying to reach Vincent, aware that something is wrong. Even Mouse's line about "He'll kill me anyway," said just as he's about to die... maybe.
This is the episode of 'keeping Vincent still' while the rest of the world goes absolutely buzzing, around him. (Catherine changes scenes half a dozen times, from Above in her office to Below in Mouse's chambers, to the site of the cave in, to back Above to see Elliot, to back Below to the cave in again, to the OTHER side of the cave in to Mouse, etc.)
Vincent, by contrast is in the Council Chamber, Father's chambers, in the cave in for most of it, then near Cathy's exit, as she goes above.
Thinking about that a moment... Is this the first time Vincent doesn't go Above at all, in an episode? Because as I run the list, I THINK it is. And once I think about it, that fact kind of 'stands out to me.' Vincent seems... I don't know the word. As trapped as he actually is by the cave in, in this one, because of that. There's this feeling of this very large man in much too small a space, throughout the episode. Like he needs to get Above, to breathe.
But that's just an impression, and as I say, I'm babbling, at this point. So much to like, here!
Cindy
Regarding that VERY 'shades of grey' moment in this one, regarding Catherine, I have to say that I like this Catherine with the same strength I liked her in SOO. This, again, is "Vincent's Catherine," and she's imperfectly perfect, as she crosses a line she thought she'd never cross, (she speaks to Elliot Burch again) in order to save 'her Vincent.'
Elliot, too, was written wonderfully, here, and said nothing out of character that I could detect. He's thrilled to see her, but not cloying. He's decisive and in charge, and taken aback, some, by her list. He gives it to her without question, for whatever reason, and she accepts his gift in that same way, paying only with the promise that 'next time you call, I'll be in.' It's a beautifully balanced scene, with a Catherine who's anything but. (She's scared, nervous and frantic. And we as the audience know those feelings are about Vincent, and what he needs, rather than about Elliot, and what he needs.)
Jacob, too, comes off as very credible, the injured older man remembering one of his most beautiful days.
Mouse jumps into our awareness, as you say, this time counterpointed with Winslow, the sure, steady pragmatist who probably thinks his two friends are going to die, but determined to reach them anyway, by the only means he knows how- the strength of his arm.
It's interesting to me how each character approached the 'problem' of freeing Vincent and Father by depending each on their own strengths, rather than, say, on each other's. (Until the very end.)
Society girl Cathy is using her social connections, here, (Elliot.) Mouse uses his very fertile imagination. ("I have a digging machine." and "Need a wire... need a gizmo... and boom!") Jamie is the stalwart friend who pleads Mouse's case in the face of a resisting tunnel community. (Winslow: Half his machines don't even work!" Jamie: Yeah, and half of them do.") Winslow is the solid, practical man who sees a mountain of stone in front of him, and a hammer in his hand, and is determined to use the strength in his arms to save his friends. They're all 'being themselves' as they go in somewhat different directions, all working for the same goal.
The heavily populated tunnels now have adults aplenty to go with the kids we met. (Kipper, in the pilot. More in ACS, if you go by viewing order.) But most of these people do the same thing they'll do in the show. They serve as 'background stage dressing' for those who have speaking parts. That's a shame, since it tends to 'homogenize' them, some, (make them all seem like versions of 'the same person,' even though we know they can't be.)
Most of the adults are following Winslow, with his strong voice. Rebel Jamie and Desperate Catherine follow the illogical voice of Mouse, who is right 'half of the time.' Desperate times call for desperate measures.
(Favorite line of Mouse's here, when they're about to detonate the plastic explosives, and Cathy tells him she'll work the detonator. "If you die, he'll kill me, anyway.") That's priceless.
It seems even Mouse already knows how in love our characters are. Somehow. (So, yes, 'our couple' are indeed gossiped about, Below, else how would he know so much?
Another thing to love: This one is solidly about just that. Love. How much it means, how much it brings, and sometimes how much it costs. (Jacob, talking to Vincent about what leading the tunnels will cost him. "It won't be without sacrifice. I think I miss the colors, most of all.")
Then he lists those colors, and we'll 'see' them in the show. "The blue of the Pacific in the sun" (A Distant Shore) "The green grass of Ebbet's field" (we already know about that from SOO) "The fall leaves changing in Vermont," (Substitute 'Connecticut' for 'Vermont' and you're at Catherine's lake, coming up in "Remember Love.") None of this is significant, mind you, it's just something that caught my ear as I watched it.
But anyway, everyone is firmly in love, here. (By 'everyone' I mean Vincent, Catherine, Jacob and Elliot.) V and C with each other, Jacob with both his (deceased) wife and his tunnel home, and Elliot with Catherine. (Nobody thinks he gave her tungsten carbide drill bits and plastic explosives because he's NOT in love with her, if you will.) As he says, "I must have called you 50 times, after our disagreement." And when he tells her he's not one of the bad guys, we think he just might be telling the truth.
For Cathy, the story even opens in "Shades of Grey" before she's aware of the cave in. (Joe tells her that their boss has given instruction to ask Cathy to trade on her personal life so they can all advance the legal case against Max Avery.) Morally, that's a no-no. It riles Cathy enough to threaten resignation if it ever happens again, and we believe her. Joe, meanwhile, is the hapless deliverer of this unsavory message, agreeing with her that it stinks, but there it is. Shades of Grey.
We meet Mouse (who will be our hero, here,) as he's being punished for doing pretty much the same things that will save Vincent and Father. (He's been caught going up to a construction site, above, and 'Shades of Grey' like, is having a hard time figuring out the distinction between 'borrowing' and 'stealing.')
Only in hindsight do I realize that we heard much from Jacob, Catherine, and Elliot, about what they love, (for Elliot, that would be building megastructures (He's willing to testify to get rid of Max Avery) and Catherine,) but not a whole lot from Vincent about that, except for his love of the books Jacob read him, and how they 'took him places,' with their words. (He mentions Kipling, Twain, and Jack London, to Jacob.) Clearly those were his first 'loves,' and he tells Jacob no child ever had a better guide, and it's that kind of 'love' we hear him speak of.
The other characters discuss (or are clearly feeling) romantic matters of the heart, a bit more. That isn't a complaint, regarding Vincent, just an observation. Other kinds of love (the desire to build, both Above and Below) friendship, familial, are clearly explored here, too. For Vincent, however, it's that love of books, that love of the 'window to the world' he could see so clearly. (That love did cause him to dare to dream of Above, and that dream did cause him to save Catherine, so in a way, yes, I suppose this episode DID touch on his romantic feelings for her, but I'm all over the place here, as it is.)
As an odd question, I can never quite decide if Cathy's 'awareness' of their bond and Vincent's trouble comes because he's IN so much trouble, (She's feeling what he's feeling, or at least she's hearing what he's hearing, as she 'hears' the sound of Winslow's hammer hitting the steel pipe) or if rather than 'simply feeling Vincent in trouble,' Vincent is actively 'calling out to her' inside their bond.
I don't know why I think the latter could be on the table, (other than Catherine's odd reaction as she reaches for her temple, making it seem as if she'd just been somehow 'contacted'). It's just a thing I notice, and ponder as I ponder everything else.
There are even odd touches of humor in this episode, and they come in otherwise solemn/serious moments. (Vincent teasing Father that he'll fall asleep in the cave in, if Jacob takes to quoting Virgil on the hour. Father and Jacob talking after Mouse has been sentenced to 'The Silence' that the kaleidescope (there's a reference to 'colors' again, and not the color 'grey' as the episode title suggests) Mouse had gifted Father with was not stolen. - He'd just stolen the parts. Cathy's crash landing into Mouse's 'deep' chamber... as she's frantically trying to reach Vincent, aware that something is wrong. Even Mouse's line about "He'll kill me anyway," said just as he's about to die... maybe.
This is the episode of 'keeping Vincent still' while the rest of the world goes absolutely buzzing, around him. (Catherine changes scenes half a dozen times, from Above in her office to Below in Mouse's chambers, to the site of the cave in, to back Above to see Elliot, to back Below to the cave in again, to the OTHER side of the cave in to Mouse, etc.)
Vincent, by contrast is in the Council Chamber, Father's chambers, in the cave in for most of it, then near Cathy's exit, as she goes above.
Thinking about that a moment... Is this the first time Vincent doesn't go Above at all, in an episode? Because as I run the list, I THINK it is. And once I think about it, that fact kind of 'stands out to me.' Vincent seems... I don't know the word. As trapped as he actually is by the cave in, in this one, because of that. There's this feeling of this very large man in much too small a space, throughout the episode. Like he needs to get Above, to breathe.
But that's just an impression, and as I say, I'm babbling, at this point. So much to like, here!
Cindy