Tru Calling, as demonstrated by characters from Buffy.

[deird_lj]

How exactly do you describe a pivotal moment in a tv show to someone who hasn't seen it?

It's... pretty much impossible, for the most part. About the best way to do it is to find a similar story, and try to relate it to what happened in that one.
Which makes life tricky, because usually the stories that are most worth describing are also the ones that are the least like anything you've seen before...


I've been thinking about it, and I think I've finally come up with a possible way to describe the last scene in Tru Calling.

(Seriously. Even if you don't care about TC whatsoever, you really should read this explanation. Cause I think it's really cool.)



The Final Scene (Ever!) In Tru Calling:

So, it's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 5.

Only... it's kinda different.

And Buffy and Spike have not been getting on at all lately. She tried to dust him for some reason, then he did something evil, then she tried to dust him again, and then he got really annoyed at her, and things got a bit out of hand...

Anyway, they haven't been getting along.

But, it's Christmas (aww!), so Buffy has decided to call a temporary truce on the whole mutual-attempts-to-kill-each-other thing, and has invited Spike to spend the evening with her family and friends, so that he won't have to spend Christmas alone (aww!).

Isn't that sweet?

Just watch the nice people, having Christmas together, and all getting along, and everyone being happy and drinking nog, and singing Christmas carols...

...and then think about all the little scenes you've watched for the past nine episodes. (Not all the Buffy vs Spike ones. No, those ones are pretty insignificant right at the moment. Instead, think about all the scenes with Buffy's family, and the whole thing with Willow and Tara, and that one scene with Riley...)

And you'd kind of forgotten about those little scenes. Because, hey, Christmas! Mistletoe! Nog! - all so much nicer than thinking about those rather... troublesome... scenes.
But now...

You look round the room, at all the people singing Christmas carols together, and suddenly you remember that Spike actually hates Buffy and wants to kill her.
And then you remember that, recently, he managed to corrupt Riley into working against her too.
And then you remember that Joyce has actually been evil this whole time, and actually wants Spike to win this whole Buffy-vs-Spike battle.
And then you remember that, in fact, Tara only started going out with Willow because Spike convinced her to so that he'd have a spy inside the enemy camp. (She's been doing a really good job of spying so far.)

And you suddenly realise that, out of the ten people in the room, nearly half of those people are actively plotting (together) to bring Buffy down.

Just keep watching the nice people, as they sing carols and hand out presents, and try not to think about the fact that the others have no idea what's about to hit them.


...and that's where the show ends.





Can I just say how much I wish they'd been able to do some more episodes of this?

Comments

[elisi]

...and that's where the show ends.
Huh. That's... evil. (I watched S1, but I don't think S2 was ever shown over here. At least not on any channel I can get. I rather liked Tru Calling - it could have become really good. And I *adored* her brother.)

[deird1]

Oh, track down S2, if you can. It's worth it.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

O.o

Whoa.

I've never seen Tru Calling, so I enjoyed your Buffy explanation - it totally worked.

Now I kinda want to start watching it, but I'm not sure I have time...sigh.

[deird1]

Whoa.

*nods frantically*

It's really incredibly awesome.

[snowpuppies]

I'm with lavastar. I find this...compelling, and I kinda wanna watch it now. I watched a few eps, for Eliza, when it first came out, and it was good, but I didn't keep watching. Don't remember why now. :P

[deird1]

Oh, hon. Track down the rest of it.

It seriously just keeps on getting better and better... and then it stops, abruptly. *grumbles*

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was incredibly frustrating, to see all the wealth of potential stories dumped. The feelgood ending felt like mocking the audience.

[deird1]

It really was frustrating. There was just so MUCH they could have done next!

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Yes, I mourn it still (partly because I watched it relatively recently, granted). All those threads, the man without a destiny, the family... dammit, I want more too. It's the only show I've really searched the internet for 'would have beens' from the writers because I need to know. The Buffy comparison is spot on, too.

[deird1]

The Buffy comparison is spot on, too.

*grins* Could you tell who all my oh-so-subtly-disguised Buffy characters were representing?

It really is a brilliant show (*has also searched the internet for would-have-beens*). I watched the final episode again last night and just sat there going "Oh, it was getting so GOOD..."

Ending it there was just horrible. *sniffs*

From Laney

[(Anonymous)]

Ummm, could you possibly tell me this one without the Buffyness, if that's ok? I'm sure youur explanation is quite awesome, but I'm all confused...

[deird1]

To... uh... explain my explanation:

Riley is Buffy's boyfriend.
Joyce is her mother.
Tara is her best friend's girlfriend.

So, pretty much, there's one person there who she knows is working against her, and three others who are really, really close to her... and who are also secretly working against her.

This guy has managed to get a secret operative close to her, another one close to her brother, and another one close to her best friend. And she has no idea.

[deird1]

Or, to put it another way...


Harry invites Snape to spend Christmas with the Weasleys...
Snape has recently Imperiused Cho Chang...
Mr Weasley has been secretly evil ever since book one...
And Hermione deliberately made friends with him on Snape's orders.


Not as accurate a comparison, but it'll do.

From Laney

[(Anonymous)]

OH-KAY. Now we have something to work with.
Let's see... is this how it translates?

...............

And Harry and Snape have not been getting on at all lately. But, it's Christmas (aww!), so Harry has decided to call a temporary truce on the whole mutual-attempts-to-kill-each-other thing, and has invited Snape to spend the evening with the Weasleys, so that he won't have to spend Christmas alone (aww!).
Isn't that sweet?
Just watch the nice people, having Christmas together, and all getting along, and everyone being happy and drinking nog, and singing Christmas carols...
You look round the room, at all the people singing Christmas carols together, and suddenly you remember that Snape actually hates Harry and wants to kill him.
And then you remember that, recently, he managed to imperius Cho Chang into working against her too.
And then you remember that Mr Weasley has actually been evil this whole time, and actually wants Snape to win this whole Harry-vs-Snape battle.
And then you remember that, in fact, Hermione only started being friends with Harry because Spike convinced her too so that he'd have a spy inside the enemy camp. (She's been doing a really good job of spying so far.)
And you suddenly realise that, out of the ten people in the room, nearly half of those people are actively plotting (together) to bring Harry down.

..................

I get it up to this point.


..................

Just keep watching the nice people, as they sing carols and hand out presents, and try not to think about the fact that the others have no idea what's about to hit them.

..................

So...
Harry doesn't know all this, right? Just us, right?
When you say, "the others have no idea what's about to them", who are we talking about now? and what's about to hit them?

Do you mean that Harry's enemies are all about to jump Harry, and hurt his friends?
Or do you mean that something terrible is going to happen to Harry's enemies and he's having a premonition of this?
Or that we're having a premonition because they're completely underestimating his incredible Expelliarmus skills and so the battle will be tremendously enjoyable?

(Sorry, I know that spelling it out so plainly is not half so cooooool-sounding as your lovely explanation thingy.)

[deird1]

Okay...

*sigh*

Long-term plans of Evilness are going into effect behind Tru's Buffy's Harry's back. This is not a plan to suddenly ambush Harry in some dramatic way. This is a long-term plan to end up stuffing up all the stuff he's trying to do. Forever.

The enemy has just managed to manipulate everything into the perfect position, so that every single person in Tru's - err Harry's - life is being slowly corrupted. And all the nice people have no idea what's been going on behind their backs.

And right at the EXACT point when we suddenly realise how incredible the Evil People's plan is, and just how thoroughly they've put it all together, and it's all been set up perfectly for a really long, epic story arc, with strategies, and covertness, and metaphorical chess pieces flying every which way...
...the show gets cancelled.



Got all of that?

From Laney

[(Anonymous)]

Soooooo... to check I've got this right by repeating you:

Nothing is going to happen just yet.
Harry hasn't worked it out yet.
We hadn't worked it out previouly - why?

- because they hadn't shown any of the relevant scenes and now they're showing them all at once (a la dying!Snape's memories gift to Harry, although that example won't, of course, work with this example)

- because they had shown those scenes, but now they turn around and show them all from a different perspective that turns everything around

- because they suddenly reveal a particular fact that makes a lot of things change dramatically / suddenly make sense (dying!Snape again, or possibly Snape kills Dumbledore except it wasn't really, it was a baitandswitch, except it wasn't because we all knew he would turn out to have been good all the time BUT THE POINT IS that a real 'Snape is evil!' reveal *would* work in the context of our highly-non-canon example, inasmuch as our example doesn't involve Dumbledore and Harry would have noticed it)

- because we're just forgetful and so they've just replayed all the relevant scenes to remind us of this stuff

- because we haven't read enough conspiracy theory to have put it together, so they replay all the relevant scenes one-after-the-other, to ram it home that they're all connected ARGH!

- they don't play any of the scenes again and simply use their magical editing powers to illuminate us in a tacit lighting bolt of general revelation.

Which one?

[deird1]

You're making it all sound so complicated...


And it's really not.

To put it algebraically:

subject A = our heroine
subject B = our villain

(We know that B's a villain, because he ran around doing lots of villainous things. And kind of said he was the villain, too.)

Scenario: B meets up with C for friendly chat about B's evil, evil plot.
(Ergo, C is also a villain, and clearly in league with B.)

Another scenario: D rings up B to talk about the stuff A's been doing lately.
(Ergo, D is spying on A. And is also a villain.)

Another scenario: B talks to C about E, and says (ominously) "I have big plans for E".
E is also seen looking suspicious, and not himself.
(Ergo, E is also pretty much going to end up as part of B's team.)


THIS ALL HAPPENS OVER SEVERAL EPISODES. WE KNOW ABOUT IT ALREADY. WE'VE SEEN IT ALL HAPPEN.
(Please note my comments:
"...and then think about all the little scenes you've watched for the past nine episodes. (Not all the Buffy vs Spike ones. No, those ones are pretty insignificant right at the moment. Instead, think about all the scenes with Buffy's family, and the whole thing with Willow and Tara, and that one scene with Riley...)".
Very much put in there because WE ALREADY SAW ALL THESE SCENES. A WHILE AGO.)


The point of the final scene is not to reveal nefarious schemes we didn't know about, or to give away previously-unknown details that explain it all clearly for the first time, or anything like that.

Not at all.

All it is is a situation where, for the first time ever, B, C, D, and E are all in a room together - with A and all her friends - and you (the viewer) finally get to step back and realise "Oh yeah, that's right - he's got that person on his side. Oh, and that one too... and that one. Oh heck. She's seriously outnumbered, isn't she?"
...which is technically something you could have figured out earlier, but you really won't have thought about it, because in previous scenes we've never had more than one of the bad guys hanging out with the good guys at once. It's always been more of a one-on-one thing.

But, knowing full-well that their viewers have been too caught up in the normal everyday plot, and having artfully spaced all these reveals out over several weeks (actually months) so that you wouldn't notice them all at once, they even more artfully let you watch the cheesiest, happiest, Christmasiest scene imaginable... and then twist it. So you suddenly blink and realise that this isn't a sweet little holiday moment - it's actually there precisely for the purpose of pointing out how very screwed our heroine is, because you finally get to see them all together, all at once, and realise the extent of all these little individual things you'd never really seen side-by-side...

[immer-am-lesen.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's...confusing.
Kinda glad I stopped watching it, bad endings just make me cranky.
Two fave shows of mine did terrible endings (well, three, but Farscape got resolved at least, kinda!)
Journeyman: It's been a while, and I've kinda forgotten, but it got so good and interesting, and his kid may have inherited the same ability/ curse, and his ex also has the ability, and decides to stay in the past, and there are more people out there like him...and....that's it? Argh. That was one show that deserved another chance.
Now and Again: Michael reunites with his family, they have an 'omg you're him? moment, bad guys break in, they flee.....and that's it. :-|
Sometimes I hate TV. At least books have closure.

[deird1]

Oh, the Now And Again ending! That was so annoying!

"Men with guns behind me! Run for your lives! Quick!" - and we NEVER see what happens next!

*hates shows getting cancelled without warning*

[immer-am-lesen.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it just?
Someone should do just one more ep. To tie it all up. Young Mr. Close has hardly aged in the intervening...lordy, is it 9 years already?

*hates right along with you*

I await the day when, a la holodeck, we can scan a whole tv series into a drive, and then enter in a storyline, and it will recreate it all as though it were a normal episode. Mmm. What a way that would be, to fix all the injustices done to excellent shows/ storylines!