‘A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away... There Lived A Monster.’

Unpopular opinion:

The biggest problem I have with DT as Crowley is that we are going to inevitably have Crowley/Rose Tyler fics, and when that happens I’m going to flip a table. Leave my ineffable husbands alone please!

Mark calling Chloe the way he did at the end of episode 6 season 3 made me really angry as much as it broke my heart. Because if he had really succeeded in ending his own life the way he wanted, then his daughter would have had to live with that final conversation for the rest of her life. Chloe would have undoubtedly blamed herself if he really had died, wishing she’d gone to find him like she had wanted during their phone conversation. 

David Tennant as Jimmy Murphy

United (2011) 3 of 4

One of my favorite things about Broadchurch is that you always find something new that Chibnall has slipped in that’s a nod to some of the greats of British culture. Thomas Hardy not withstanding, one of my favorite moments actually came in S2, episode 1, when we see Alec being interviewed by Maggie and Ollie. At the point at which she points out the cliffs behind him and that they’re starting to crumble more and slide farther down we see him look behind him. 

We get a good look at the mess of the beach as the camera pans around his shoulder and we get a good glimpse of what it looks like to Alec himself too. What he mutters is that nod to one of England’s poets.

“Things fall apart” is just a small piece quoted from William Butler Yeats’ poem ‘, ‘The Second Coming’, the full stanza reading:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;    The best lack all conviction, while the worst    Are full of passionate intensity.”

Yeats’s poem alludes to the poet’s belief that history runs in cycles of 2,000 years, and at the end of every cycle a new hierarchy would rule.

But Chibnall cleverly uses this line to show us just where his characters are following Joe’s arrest. Clearly nothing has gotten better. There’s still tension. People who have been best friends for years have had their friendships destroyed. Ellie has been estranged from her home, her town, and even her own son with the blame others have placed upon her.

And being the outsider, Alec can understand and see that perfectly. He’s still obsessed with Sandbrook and solving the case that had to have had split that town open at the seams. The irony of the situation of the cliffs starting to crumble away faster sets the tone of the story and understanding the poem from which Alec quoted is a clue as to how the story will go, I think.

“Mere anarchy” is the center of the storm and the guilty party himself: Joe Miller, and he sets up the whirlwind that threatens to flatten Broadchurch with his ‘not guilty’ plea. He fails to recognize his guilt in Danny’s death and tries to shift it onto others. In some ways he creates anarchy by refusing to stand up to what he has done wrong.

“The blood-dimmed tide” and “ceremony of innocence” can be nods to the victims of Sandbrook, Lisa Newberrie and Pippa Gillespie. Lisa dies with her blood all over the floor of the Ashworths’ home which in turn starts the Sandbrook case itself. For Ricky’s murder of Lisa, his daughter Pippa will pay the price. And of course the ceremony of innocence being “drowned” can only point to one thing:

“The best lack all conviction” can (mostly) be put towards Jocelyn Knight, who in the beginning of the story is apathetic to the trial of Joe and wants no part of the outside world. She’s lost her conviction in the light of her loss of eyesight and although she ultimately decides to take the Latimers’ case she starts it off unsure.

And of course Jocelyn’s hesitation and Mark’s secrets he keeps from the prosecution paves the way for the one who can only be labelled as the “worst with passionate intensity”:

Sharon Bishop really makes me mad. Let me say that.

At the end of the poem Yeats concludes by asking, “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

The second series ends with Joe’s being found innocent and his banishment from the town but it appears that Ellie warning him away from his own sons is going to come full circle at some point soon.

What rough beast will be born from that?

Jenny ran into the mysterious woman quite by accident in the streets of the planet Earth, which she had learned through her various journeys that her father often frequented. It was a busy, curious place, this third rock from the sun, and she thought maybe she could understand why he liked it so much.

“Oh! Excuse me, seems I lost track of where my feet were going. Entirely my fault.”

The woman was dressed rather oddly, with a long lilac-colored overcoat and a dark shirt with suspenders. But it was the large eyes staring back at her that caught her attention the most. They were old. Incredibly old. Old, and wise, and shining with an inner fire that Jenny instantly recognized. 

And the woman seemed to know she would run into Jenny, because she quite simply held out a hand and handed her a bouquet of flowers.

“Violets,” she explained. “They represent remembrance. And I never forgot about you for a day, Jenny.”

An electric shock seemed to shiver down Jenny’s spine. It would be too cliche to ask how this woman knew her name; besides, she began to suspect she knew already. She barely dared to hope. It should be impossible. 

Shouldn’t it?

“Who are you?” She asked anyway, because those eyes were too familiar even if they weren’t the deep brown she remembered. 

And the woman smiled, a wide unfettered smile. “I’m the Doctor.”

Jack: my name is Captain Jack Harkness, but you can call me...

Jack: *agressively takes off sunglasses*

Jack: ... anytime.

Honestly, one of the only things I have to complain about about Spielberg’s Lincoln is minuscule and people will probably roll their eyes but I’m a Civil War nerd, and it BUGS ME:

Ulysses S Grant’s uniform is entirely TOO CLEAN. 

Just look at him. This is a commander who literally came from the battlefield, and all accounts remember him to be wearing a private’s borrowed jacket and splattered with mud. Does anything about that uniform/costume look remotely dirty?

(I mean, kudos to Lee’s clean crisp uniform. Historically he showed up looking like the commander he was, thinking he may become Grant’s prisoner.

Spoiler alert: he wasn’t.)

It’s a small detail, I know, but the more I learn about Grant, the more little missed details like this bothers me. Grant’s untidy, messy appearance showed just what sort of a soldier he truly was, and why he was, ultimately, the general who won the war: he didn’t care about personal appearances or advancements, he was there to get the job done.

That little detail aside, I truly loved Lincoln a lot, Daniel Day-Lewis is absolute PERFECTION playing our titular President, Sally Fields is fantastic as Mary Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones was brilliant as always, and Jared Harris is my favorite Ulysses S Grant so far depicted in either television or film.

Frodo & Bilbo play Scrabble regularly and are VERY competitive

I was rewatching random moments of Broadchurch season 2 the other day and started wondering what Ellie Miller actually thinks of Hardy`s ex wife. I couldn´t figure it out, whether she just doesn´t know her enough to judge if she likes her or not or what she thinks. This might be random but I thought I´d ask the one who knows this show much better than I do. What do you think? What does Ellie think about her?

It’s an interesting question. Honestly, I’m not sure if even Ellie knows what to think of her. I’m guessing she must know about how the pendant got lost and what Tess did to Hardy, but she also seems very open-minded, and she’s not willing to demonise Tess or judge her for it.

Ellie and Tess are compared and contrasted a great deal, and just like Joe and Alec, they are depicted as opposites. The women look similar, they are both Hardy’s DSes, they’re both mothers - but they make opposing choices. E.g. Ellie is invited to have an affair at work - she refuses. Tess, on the other hand, committed adultery. The two of them are rivals for Hardy in a way, but Chibnall’s writing is clever and nuanced enough to avoid the whole cliche of women fighting over some dude.

But back to the central question - what does Ellie think of Tess? Remember this is Ellie Miller. Staunch, take-no-shit feminist. Our very first scene showed her greeting all her friends and handing out presents to them right before she chewed out her boss for sexist bullshit. She’s a woman-loving social butterfly and she gets on well with everyone she meets. And if she doesn’t get on with someone, she makes it her mission to smother them with kindness. With this in mind, what I find striking is that Ellie is quite awkward around Tess. She’s friendly enough, but most of the time she’s with Tess and Alec she’s silent and caught between the two, often in a physical sense.

The first time she meets Tess, Hardy acts like a colossal jackass. He doesn’t tell Ellie that Tess is his ex-wife, he’s bitter and aggressive and insulting. Granted, Tess doesn’t behave all that appropriately either, but Ellie is reproving of his behaviour, and the impression is that she’s neutral in this particular marital war. Yes, Hardy is her friend, and yes he was the wronged party in a lot of ways, but his behaviour is inappropriate and she won’t enable it or tell him it’s okay. She whacks him and tells him off. She treats Tess just like she’d treat anyone else.

Tess acts as an obstacle to getting the case reopened, and several times Ellie sighs or rolls her eyes when Tess refuses again to reopen. But she also respects Tess’ capabilities as a detective. For all that happened with the Sandbrook case, Tess is good at her job. She’s competent and efficient, and once she’s put her mind to something she can do it easily. Ellie might not agree with everything she did in her personal life, or even all her professional choices, but she respects her capabilities.

What’s interesting is how quickly Tess can put her off guard. One of my favourite scenes is when Hardy wakes up after his pacemaker and Ellie’s there. They start bickering (because that’s their thing) and Tess comes in.

This shot is so well-composed, I love it. Look at the placement of the hands; it looks like they’re touching, and Ellie is gripping the bed so tight it’s like she’s holding his hand by proxy. Then Tess comes in:

They look up and Ellie’s reaction is almost one of guilt. It’s like she’s been caught. She does this weird shuffle and looks between the two of them, then quickly takes her hand away.

It’s not jealousy Ellie’s expressing - it’s more like embarrassment that she’s been caught with Hardy like this - by his ex-wife no less. There’s also an odd possessiveness. I wish I could gif this scene because Olivia Colman’s acting is so subtle and awkward, and you feel like Ellie herself isn’t sure how she feels. Someone encroaching on her bickering with Hardy? What is this? And does she trust anyone else to look after this idiot besides herself? Not that she cares about him, haha.

Later on, when Tess answers Alec’s phone on his behalf, Ellie gets a tiny bit flustered: “Oh! Oh, I was expecting him to answer.”

In a deleted scene, Hardy is begging Tess to reopen the case. Ellie is silent, and looks like a kid whose parents are fighting. Then Hardy slips up. He says to Tess “Please, love.” Tess immediately scoffs and looks to Ellie. “Did he just call me love?”

Ellie does not rise to the teasing. As Hardy swears and groans over his slip-up, Ellie tries to lighten the mood by saying, “I called the teacher “mum” once. Still can’t think about it without wincing.”

It goes over about as well as you’d expect. It’s fascinating to see social butterfly Ellie Miller flounder like this. She genuinely doesn’t know what to do in this situation, but we know her sympathies are with Hardy. Tess invites her to join her in laughing at him; she abstains and makes a joke about herself. Then Hardy demands to know why Tess doesn’t want this case reopened; she says she does, but she’s still got a career to protect. Hardy’s speechless. Tess leaves, and Ellie makes a face and mouths ‘ouch’ to Hardy as they get into the car together. It’s just a little nod of sympathy that shows, hey, that was out of line, I disapprove, and I’m on your side.

Ellie’s a woman who’s determined to see the best in everyone. I think she likes Tess and respects her in the professional sense, but she’s disgruntled by certain aspects of her personality and on a personal level it nettles her to see Hardy and Tess close, and she exhibits a certain reluctance to leave them alone. She’s quietly protective of Hardy, more so as the season goes on, and I think in S3 the differences between Ellie and Tess’ values will drive a wedge further between them. At the moment, Ellie isn’t quite sure how to feel about Tess - she’s conflicted on that point, but many of the things Tess does and says and how she treats Hardy don’t sit well with her.

As for how Tess feels about Ellie - well, she definitely resents the closeness between Hardy and Ellie. Regardless of her feelings for Hardy, I think Tess enjoys being loved by him. She’s ambitious and has a certain superiority complex. It’s natural for her to want to be the best detective or the most beloved of Hardy. Ellie represents a threat to that, and even if she doesn’t openly dislike her, she too is quietly unsettled. When she first meets her, there is a sense she believes Ellie is Hardy’s girlfriend, and this sets up that uneasy undercurrent.

The two most telling scenes are when Alec arrests Claire. Tess smugly informs him everything’s set up and she’s on top of the investigation. She says she’ll interview Claire with him. Automatically, Hardy says, “No. I need Miller.”

“Course you do,” she mutters with barely concealed resentment.

Then Tess pulls some evidence Ellie asked her to find. Ellie’s impressed by how quickly she did it. Tess looks Hardy in the eye and says, “I’m really good.” Hardy, however, ignores Tess, looks at the evidence and yells to Ellie, “Outstanding. Out-bloody-standing!” This makes Ellie grin like a dope.

Stay salty, Tess.

Tess’ reaction makes me wonder how Hardy used to treat her when she was his DS. Was he always complimenting her? Is that why she seems so sure of herself? Is Tess watching Hardy shower the exact compliments on Miller that he used to bestow on her? Divorced or not, it must sting.

In all, I think the women do respect each other, and they treat each other civilly. There’s never any hint of close friendship, however, and there is an underlying tension or an awkwardness to the way they act that will probably get worse in S3, though I don’t think Chibnall will ever make it so they’re doing anything as dull as fighting over Hardy. However, Ellie’s growing protectiveness of Hardy may certainly lead her to view Tess less and less favourably, because Tess has and continues to treat Hardy unfairly, and if he won’t stand up for himself and accept he’s not the guilty one, Ellie might have to force his hand.

Preach! Martha doesn't get nearly enough love.