Ashes to Ashes: The finale

[KayHarker]

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

Of course - I'd forgotten that he 'sinned' in the Prison episode (too much going on!).

Poor Viv. But it also explains why Gene was so upset at his 'death'.

Didn't Sam stop Annie's murder by his dad?

Just ordered my box set of LoM. Also, ordered a Gene Hunt 'having hoops' t-shirt in ladies skinny fit from the link below. DH will go nuts!

Sam only stopped the murder in purgatory, it had already happened in "real life" as Annie was dead - she wouldn't be there otherwise.

It gets confusing but as I understand it events in the LoM or A2A 'universe' have no effect on what has or hasn't happened in "real life".

Another dim question: what bad thing did Shaz and Chris do?

It wasn't about coppers that did bad things, but those that "had issues with their passing". Ray had committed suicide over his guilt and unhappiness with the Force and Chris and Shaz died in the line of duty, as did Gene and Alex.

Yes, but then why did they go to hell?

< hopes they did actually go to hell, not sure as was on MN and drinking wine when it was on >

The actions they do within purgatory can lead both upwards and downwards regardless of how good or bad they were in life. The reason they are there is purely because they "had issues" etc, not because of their actions. Therefore Ray could atone for his lifetime sin of killing that lad and never having justice brought against him and conversely Shaz and Chris could be swayed into following a hellbent path. The notion of purgatory is one of being on the cusp, with just a small push needed to tip the scales for heaven or hell.

As has been mentioned, Keats had to trick them into the lift--he couldnt just take them. That, to me, indicates that there wasnt enough in it for them to be guaranteed a place either way, they had to be led either by Gene or Keats depending on where they placed their faith.

S'good stuff!

One question I have: how did Gene rescue the child Alex at the time of her parents' murder in the bombed car if he wasn't real?

Trouvere and UQD: thanks for the film names! It must be a human angst that we might die and not realise that we're dead. {shiver}

The Purgatory thing is interesting because in orthodox christian tradition the only way out of Purgatory is up. When I was a child we used to pray for people in Purgatory to be 'released' into God's presence. I don't think I've come across it being a conduit to hell before, but I may be wrong.

abr1de because this was not "real life" Gene didn't rescue Alex as a child. This was her projection of what happened into purgatory. I think someone else explained it better than me earlier in the thread!

I guess the best way to think of it is that the purgatory is an alternate reality, rather than travelling back in time.

OurLady none of them went to hell.....they all turned up at the railway arms in the end and went to Heaven.

I want to watch the whole lot again now and see it in a different context.

It is like the film the sixth sense...when you watch the film the first time your imagination carries you through in a very different path to where the directors take you in the end. Once you understand the full plot and watch it again you see things that you never saw before and it becomes a totally different film/series.

Just watching LOM again.
Immediately strikes me as much superior to A2A.

diddl, am doing the same. Nearly wet myself laughing at Gene running out of the swimming pool in his speedos! Sex symbol? What sex symbol? I love all the 70s stuff and the relationship between Gene and Sam (though obviously there's no sexual tension).

I was a bit surprised about my own reaction to the final. I'm a real cry baby when there's anything sad in a film/series but I didn't cry at all at the A2A finale. Was relieved to see that Matthew Graham's wife seemed to have the same reaction to me - so on the edge of her seat that she didn't laugh at the jokes (or in my case cry at the sad bits). I watched it again on my computer and did shed a few tears. If anyone out there wants to watch LoM and A2A again but doesn't get iplayer, here are a couple of links:

LoM and A2A. Choose the megavideo links.

I'm on episode six of a good old re-watch of LoM too now! It's much lighter in tone than Ashes To Ashes- and I can actually see that the writers had the whole thing planned out from the beginning now, it's all tying in.

PG looks so young!

We started waching LoM again over the weekend (the Blu-Ray DVDs are only £10 each on Amazon if anyone is interested!). I think LoM is much darker than A2A! A2A always had more of a comedy element to it, to my mind, until the last few episodes that is.

I laughed at the 'Gene in speados' too! Also enjoying the music choices more - Live and Let Die in episode 2

That's interesting that you say that- perhaps I can relax enough to home in on the comedy elements now that the mystery has been solved?

Thanks for all the analysis. Really helped me as normally watching whilst breastfeeding! Can someone explain to me if viv and louise were already dead in gene's world then how and why did they die again? Why did some people die and some get taken to the pub/in the lift? Is that a dim question?

I think it's actally a bit of a mistake to think if the hell/heaven/afterlife stuff from a purely Christian veiwpoint when (like I said upthread) it seems to be drawing on a variety of mythologies.

I think that with a lot of this that there are still gaps...and that this is deliberate so the viewer has to use their own imagination to fill the gaaps.

In my mind...because Viv was part of the prison break in thing...he didn't redeem hiself and therefore was taken to Hell, rather than Heaven.

I'm with twofalls, how come some of them actually 'died' in this parallel limbo type world? I understand WHY Viv had to go to 'hell', but why didn't he just go down the lift? How could his body 'die' again? Eeeekk!!! Must STOP thinking about it!!!!!

They experienced the Geneverse as physically real, though, didn't they? I mean, they ate and drank and felt pain. So why not another physical death?

Maybe it wasn't hell. Maybe Keats was just like Gene only his fantasy world was dark and nasty and those in it were essentially bad guys rather than good guys. After all, Gene didn't seem frightened of Keats. Seemed more like a rivalry on equal footing.

So maybe Viv has just gone from one holding place to another. Though the only way to Nelson and therefore peace is through Gene. As essentially Gene helps them find peace and move on whereas Keats never lets the souls go. Maybe if you 'die' in Gene's world, he takes you to Nelson but on a few occasions, Keats got there first and stole their sole.

Slightly surprised that Viv never rose beyond desk sergeant before he died because in Life on Mars Sam revealed he would go on to become the first black Chief Constable (dh's observation not mine - he's been following Viv's progress ever since it was first mentioned!)