Ashes to Ashes: The finale

[KayHarker]

Mark your places ladies, for the final leg of the journey!

Yesm, Daniel Mays did a fabulous job throughout the series - sort of sexy in a wrong way, creepy, reassuring, but always just a tiny bit 'off'.

im having to watch it again....thank god for iplayer..
now i can watch it with all the clues.

Alex remembered, but was getting increasingly vague through S3. I think the others had probably been there a long time - Chris and Ray certainly, Shaz less so. I think as others have said, that being in a coma allowed Sam and Alex to remember (and hold on to the memory of their real life after death). Dying quickly made the transition more clear cut.

Also, I don't think Gene helped young Alex in real life, I think it was Evan. It was only in Gene's world - he saw the child bereft and couldn't not help her, whereas in the real world Evan probably did take her hand, he just took a bit longer to get her (can't quite remember what happened!)

Does that make sense? That g&t was stronger than I though!

Ah dear, drunken cross post with everyone

I absolutely hated the way Keats appeared out of nowhere. You hardly ever saw him enter a room - he just started speaking and you knew he was behind you......eeeek!

I think Gene was married in LoM, and divorced by A2A. Now that was a job for a tortured soul!

Maybe his wife moved on?

Yes, Daniel Mays superb too. V creepy!

I kinda feel that even if there are unexplained bits it doesn't matter cause it was so damn good.

It seems to me that regardless of whether we're 'religious' or not we can't bear to believe that there's nothing after we die: that, whether we've behaved like decent human beings or been cruel and awful, we just lose all consciousness. We seem to want to believe that there's a place where we can be purged of the bad things we've done and prepared for eternal happiness.

I find this very interesting.

I thought it was excellent
What am i going to do without it?

One question: may have already been covered up the thread, but why did Keats crop up in this series rather than being a constant threatening presence?

If some of the others had been there a long time, why had they never seen him before? (Oh, that's two questions).

< grovels > All credit to BOF and others for guessing the storyline; the theory stuck in my mind but I thought, well, if that's right they'll just cock it up and it'll be a massive disappointment (was dreading a spaceship-style ending) - but fuck me if it wasn't right and they didn't totally pull it off!

And someone further up also reminded me of an unanswered mystery that bothered me in a recent episode: Shaz's terror of screwdrivers.

Quality.

Ok....I think that I get it....but there is one thing that I am struggling to resolve in my mind.

If the Railway arms is Heaven/the gateway to heaven...(incidently we thought that Nelson was some sort of gatekeeper when LOM was on...and was disappointed that he "wasn't")...then why didn't they all go to heaven every time they went to the pub in LOM?

The best that DP has come up with is that they appeared to need to get into the left to hell of their own free will....but that still doesn't explain why the Railway arms is sometimes effectively just a pub and at other times the gateway to heaven.

Oh and what was the signifcance of Keats keep taking his glasses of in a Clark Kentish fashion???

Sometimes the wardrobe is just a wardrobe...

Now one of the things I rather liked about the ending was that it wasn't all that specifically Christian - the business of gatekeepers etc and the idea that the living can intervene in the realm of the dead is more Greek/Roman mythology IMO.

I know what you mean, SGB. There's no overt mention of 'God' for instance.

Just got a question for those of you who have it all sorted!

When Sharon etc went home after work, what were their lives like? I mean, did they not think it was strange that their parents weren't around, and friends etc? Or did they forget gradually, so it just became normality?

Confused, but it was bloody brilliant!

the fact that they had forgotten that they were dead says to me that they had forgotten they normal daily lives when alive - shaz knew she was frustrated and angry but didnt know why - so im sure they never questioned where their friends or families were.

But then why did Shaz say she wanted to see her mum?

that was AFTER she saw her video and remembered she was dead

I think the key to the Railway Arms is that they could come and go as they pleased prior to their redemption moment and after that they were able to pass on.

I think the entering the lift of their own free will to go to hell was simply down to Keats tricking them. He couldn't 'take' them because they had been redeemed so he wanted to trick them to get one over on Gene.

Perhaps Keats appeared in this series because Gene was saving too many souls, which wouldn't please him 'downstairs'

Loved the ending but have a question-doesn't Gene's body get found in 2006 when Alex is in hospital? It is on the telly when she is in bed isn't it? Do you think thats when he willl get to go to the pub-when he gets a proper burial rather than a shallow grave? I just really don't want him to be on his own forever.......

Vicar, am v. impressed by your dh working out the significance of Dixon. I love it when writers sprinkle the script with little nuggets like that but especially when someone is helpful enough to point out the ones I've missed.

By VicarInaTuTu Sat 22-May-10 14:04:59
DH has just said he worked out why it showed dixon of doc green at the end too - cos in the film the blue lamp he died 20 mins in but then went on to have a series.

I completely missed your post, Vicar- it's very impressive!

Mollymom, I was wondering that too today, and hoping he might be nudged into acceptance with a proper burial. And thinking about it, didn't Gene lament that he didn't deserve a shallow grave? So maybe you are right. But the other characters were presumably given proper funerals...still, it's a hope to cling to, that he might not be too far behind