The Missing BBC1- thread 2

[EauRouge]

Original thread here, disappearing scarves, grey-haired doppelgängers and twin theories abound. Has anyone done a spreadsheet yet?

Rabbits I love your theory and I am thinking along similar lines (or at least today I am!) But still can't devide actually whether the hoteliers are the child snatchers or in fact just trying to protect Ollie. There is a sense that the family have ended up there as a terrible mistake.

I agree re the title. I typed out a massive essay earlier but it got lost! In one of the earlier episodes someone mentioned a teen reading To kill a mockingbird and think this is significant.... I will misquote I'm sure as it's been 20 years since I read it but isn't it something like 'you can kill all the jays you like but it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. .' So all this time the children who have been trafficked, abused and murdered have gone univestigated but once an English child becomes mistakenly embroiled then a full on investigation is launched.

Ok, I think I may have spent too long thinking about this!!!!

Anyways, I bet the French tourist board are delighted with this portrayal of France!!!

Brilliant theories, Rabbits.

Another thing regarding the picture in the basement- the original picture was left in the car at the garage, so it could have been removed and copied by someone, and then later replaced. Maybe Olleh was never in that basement. There was no evidence other than the scarf and the picture and both of those things could have been planted.

Oh, and the video may not have been Olleh. It was too blurry to tell.

Yes but the other thing that points to the basement is the fact it was so clean...as if it had been cleaned of all evidence. I think Ollie was held there temporarily. Why, I have no idea!!!

Alternatively, the whole paedophile set up may not have had anything to do with Ollie at all. But the whole set-up I mentioned above may have been pulled into play to protect the ring. That at least, this way, the whole case could be managed.

In which case we're no closer to finding out what happened to Ollie, but we know what can be discounted...

Rabbits, I have been thinking that Emily may have had two children. One in 1999 and one in late 2000. In February 2000 Tony beats up Greg because of his fling with Emily. Possibly he lashes out at Emily too, Emily and Tony separate and she doesn't want to see Tony again. She cannot cope with their baby and he is cared for by someone else/adopted. Emily discovers she is pregnant with Greg's baby but decides to keep the baby. In 2005/6 tony comes back into her life and she wants him back, she leads Tony to believe the little boy is their son. Greg finds out he has a son and wants him back and as Emily does not want to lose Tony a hoax abduction is planned with Mark and Greg. I think James is actually Emily's first baby. I realise there are lots of holes in this but that's my crazy theory for today !

That's a brilliant theory rabbits. There is something odd about the town and the whole thing. If it was a normal abduction, why on earth would someone risk snatching a child in the middle of a crowd? Far too risky. So either someone Ollie knew or the town knows about the whole thing so wouldn't have batted an eyelid.

Could tie in with Mark randomly being there with James too?

Is it possible that it was a targeted snatch, but that Ollie was not the intended target?

My thinking on this possibility: Tony and Mark are not that alike but are both British men of similar height, frame and age; and with a child of same age/size/appearance. Emily was not with Tony at the pool, so he could have been mistaken for a single father. Grey-haired man at pool could have spotted what he thought was the target (ie an English speaking boy with father only) and called in the gang to see if they could get him away. As James was holidaying in the area, they might have been able to make some preparations for what happened after an opportunistic snatch. Major spanner in works as child abduction alert is issued so quickly and makes it plain it is he wrong boy.

The motive would therefore lie in Mark's previous policing, and be somehow connected to a ring with connections across Europe.

And of course whether or not this is the case, Mark might believe it to be so, and part of the weird dynamic between him and Emily links back to him trying to atone for another child being taken in place of his by 'giving' her his child.

Is it significant that Ollie calls Tony "Daddy Big-Ears" - much in the same way that kids distinguish between their grandparents if they call them the same name IYSWIM?

And I think that Ian's wife is Vincent's mother otherwise why would there be two Marys - that's got to be too confusing....

Does he actually call Tony Daddy Big Ears (why oh why didn't I do a series link so that I could watch the first episode back!!!)

If so I wonder if it could mean that someone they know has Ollie something but said to him 'don't tell your daddy as he listens to everything- it's our secret' etc... children are quite literal so Ollie would perhaps translate that into daddy big ears. Also, Tony doesn't really have very big ears!!!

Or it could be that Tony wakes up from a deep sleep and it's all been a bad dream!
I really hope not although this thread seems to have taken over my life

Ooh Papa you might be on to something there! *the daddy big ears thing.
Thanks Rabbits for your essays- you have some excellent theories.
Well, I've just re watched Episode one & the only thing I can say is that I noticed a a fair bit of the colour yellow in an awful lot of scenes- is this a motif running through he subsequent episodes as well? (We have noticed the water motif)

Mewkins there's a Youtube link up thread- I've just watched Ep1 again via that.

Yellow is the colour of the scarf.... does everyone feel that they could write an a-level essay on The Missing now?

Thanks Toldmy! Going to watch tonight's episode first and then revisit ep 1 tomorrow! !

Chamartín leads to a few small districts in spain, or a railway station or stadium in madrid

Fluent french DH cannot think of any possible translations or places (or other ways of spelling it that lead anywhere either)

What are the dodgy timelines with the baby in 2000? Is there any chance that 'baby' meant pregnancy and so it isnt a mistake?

The title of episode 7 is up on IMDB if anyone wants to know.

The theme of the yellow scarf, yellow towel used to dry Ollie after the swim etc is interesting as yellow is the colour that symbolises missing people.

I thought it stemmed from the song Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree about a man returning home after a prison sentence who is not sure whether his love will remember or want him back. However, when I checked Wikipedia it seems that the use of yellow ribbons to remember those who are missing or far from home goes back to the 19th century when wives and girl friends who had men serving in the US calvary wore yellow ribbons.

I remember both the song and yellow ribbons being used in the campaign to free John McCarthy and the other hostages. Does anyone else remember watching the cinema adverts about this?

Yellow ribbons have also been used in relation to missing and returned children in both the UK and the states.

I do hope that the ending of The Missing stands up to the detailed analysis we're doing here!

My problem with the dodgy timelines is that Ollie was taken to A&E with a fracture in September 2004 and is described by Julien as being "almost 3" i.e. 2 years old but with a birthday very soon, when that happens.

Ollie goes missing on 1 July 2006 aged 5. (According to the posters at the police station).

Both of those facts can't be right.

They clearly refer to the same boy.

I'm inclined to think that Ollie's date of birth is September 2000. Which would then make it possible that he was conceived as a result of an affair between Emily and Greg which was taking place around February 2000. This would perhaps explain why Tony went ballistic at the time.

The "almost 3" should have been "almost 4" and was a slip of the tongue by Julien. English is his second language.

Thinking about the abduction day.... Is it significant that Emily chose not to go swimming with them but stayed in the hotel? First day of the holiday, she didn't need to unpack as they were going to leave the next day????

Also "To Kill a Mockingbird" book that the boy in that cafe was reading (could he be Ollie??) as far as I remember is about misconceptions and lost innocence of the children when they start discovering evil human behaviour around them which then leads to a closed circle of learnt and repeated behaviour.

Did anyone read yesterday's Guardian? The two writers were being interviewed - scope for a second series apparently, though, obviously they wouldn't confirm either way. That seems to be standard practice now - if something gets good viewing figures it has to go to a second series. I, for one, would like a conclusion at the end of this series. Like I wanted for The Fall and Broadchurch don't do this to me again screenwriters

Some quite revealing cast in that new IMDB episode - one surname in particular, and a returning cast member under a different alias... I'm not going to be specific for possible spoiler reasons.

Yes I've noticed something too...

I have new theories now after seeing the cast list- which is the returning actor with the alias though? I can't figure it out.

I can see the surname thing, but not the cast member thing. Can you give the actors name, i dont think that would count as a spoiler? (As people would have to look themselves to find it out)