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Post by murdochic on Jan 11, 2017 1:11:05 GMT
That was MM at it's best. Yes, it was a bit farfetched that Gillies was still alive, but everything else was top-notch. Brilliant acting from everyone involved and it was great how segments of old episodes were intersected into the scenes. It didn't matter that Brackenreid or George weren't really in this episode because it felt like they were through the clips. It was also nice to see Emily again.
William and Julia were amazing and it felt like those past episodes with Gillies. I liked how they finally got to watch Gillies hang and Julia finally got his brain to study. Bravo MM, that was a masterclass episode. I loved it.
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Post by shangas on Jan 11, 2017 1:24:51 GMT
I think I liked, and hated this episode in equal measure. It was fun and interesting and suspenseful, but I think also farfetched. Although it is nice to see closure on Gillies once and for all.
I looooved the derringer wrist-extractor. That is SO COOL! Hell, I want one!
But there IS ONE THING I have never understood.
In all his time on the run - WHERE THE HELL does James Gillies GET THE MONEY to pull off his schemes? I'm sure all those gizmoes and talking dolls and everything must be pretty bloody expensive!!
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Post by lovemondays on Jan 11, 2017 1:43:03 GMT
Here! Here! I hope it gets nominated for every Canadian TV performance/department/craft award imaginable. This was fabulous--rg Helene and Yannick were absolutely OUTSTANDING in this episode. I think Paul Aitken deserves recognition for the script as does Eleanore Lindo for directing. |
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Post by lovemondays on Jan 11, 2017 1:47:50 GMT
I think I liked, and hated this episode in equal measure. It was fun and interesting and suspenseful, but I think also farfetched. Although it is nice to see closure on Gillies once and for all. I looooved the derringer wrist-extractor. That is SO COOL! Hell, I want one! But there IS ONE THING I have never understood. In all his time on the run - WHERE THE HELL does James Gillies GET THE MONEY to pull off his schemes? I'm sure all those gizmoes and talking dolls and everything must be pretty bloody expensive!! His family was wealthy. I suspect that one of them was funding him, or he had the foresight to set up some of his personal wealth in dummy accounts before the first murder or once he realized that Murdoch could solve it. |
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Post by Hodge on Jan 11, 2017 3:11:39 GMT
Here! Here! I hope it gets nominated for every Canadian TV performance/department/craft award imaginable. This was fabulous--rg Unfortunately I doubt it will. For some reason MM as a show and the actors themselves are always passed over for the awards. That's one of the reasons YB winning the fan choice award last year was so satisfying. |
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Post by randomkiwibirds on Jan 11, 2017 5:55:27 GMT
AHHHH!!!! This episode! It was a good strong opener for this latter half of the season! To be honest I wasn't all that wild about Gillies being back but eh I feel it wrapped up his story line well - better than in past episodes. Like we get closure with this whole one sided love affair with Murdoch which was sort of there but sort of wasn't. AND HE USED ARDENT AHHHHHH (sorry my Pride and Prejudice fangirl is showing) And Gillies whole fear of sying by the noose instilled in him by Murdoch (ironically) Which if you think about it kind of set this whole thing with Gillies in motion - aka Gillies always just escaping.
To be honest I was surprised that Gillies was able to see oit of his left? eye - AND HOT DAMN THAT GUN THAT MURDOCH WHIPPED OUT FROM HIS SLEEVE
By far my favourite part of this whole episode was Gillies calling Crabtree a "Cheerful Chipmunk" it's stuck with me. Now all I can see is Alvin and the Chipmunks replaced with Crabtree, Higgins and Jackson. I'm gonna have to make an icon about that.
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Post by Fallenbelle on Jan 11, 2017 15:08:23 GMT
Okay, I guess I'm warming to the idea of Gillies' return because I can't help but wonder about the age old question of nature vs. nurture: was he born that way, or was he made? Yes, perhaps there was something about his brain, but maybe he didn't know what love was, having never experienced it from cold, distant parents. It makes a twisted, convoluted kind of sense that he kept going after Julia because the man he loved was in love with her and not him. Eliminate the competition if you will. Roland was also a natural target because he was further proof that William had moved on, something JG couldn't do because he was obsessed with William. I hope that this doesn't mean the return of Roland, cute little guy he is. Hopefully he was just kidnapped. I always thought Gillies was a psychopath, nothing more and he fixated on W first because he beat him then because he was attracted to him. He obviously didn't do his homework to get to know W well though as if he had he'd have realized he never stood a chance with him. I guess that's what obsession does to you though. My opinion is that it may not have been love at first sight, but anger at having been bested grew into obsession and as close as Gillies could ever get to love. I'm fairly sure that Gillies knew he wouldn't ever have a chance with William, but while I don't think he was insane, I don't think he was all there either. I think by the end, he had become obsessed enough to be hurt by the fact that William had clearly moved on, and was a sort of lover scorned (even though that love was one-sided). He seemed hurt that William was building Julia a house even though he had to have known that William was never going to do anything of the sort for him. |
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Post by Fallenbelle on Jan 11, 2017 15:17:06 GMT
I spent the first half of the episode thinking "no, it can't really be Gillies because he died jumping off the bridge. They found his body and the bullet from George's shot....he CAN'T still be alive", but I had no other plausible alternative. Freaked out!! In the end though, I have to give Paul Aitken credit for bringing back JG AGAIN in a way that was plausible, even though I really, really, really didn't want it to be true. The idea of a rudimentary cochlear implant is well within Gillies abilities. I have problems with the mechanics of how he got it into Foley, why he chose Foley and how he got the listening device into the light fixture of the interview room. Suspension of disbelief must prevail but Gillies is so precise and focused that I can wrap my head around it. (Never in a million years could I have imagined myself saying that!)
Gillies has always been the villain I have credited as being William's equal. They are absolute counterpoints to one another intellectually, socially, morally, and psychologically. It's a dance that evolved once Gillies fell in love with Murdoch. It was obvious but it wasn't. It was plausible but it wasn't. Gillies kept coming back for more because he was obsessed with William. He could have gone anywhere to satisfy his lust for killing, moving on as needed, becoming a turn of the century sequential killer, but he needed to dance with William. That is the reason I buy the whole plot of this episode. The fact that he healed from his terrible injuries, then spent such meticulous time observing and learning about the man he loved and figuring out the best way to exploit William's love, the one thing Gillies would never have. It all makes terrible, terrible sense.
I have to assume that Gillies killed Roland's father, leaving him truly an orphan. The door is once again wide open for the baby discussion, or Roland's adoption. We'll see.
I absolutely loved the scene with Julia in the morgue, finally removing Gillies brain, with After the Ball playing on her gramophone. Such a full circle.
Yes, this episode is up there in my top 10 of the series. Despite my initial annoyance at Gillies' return, I am definitely warming to this episode and have mostly come to embrace it. The fact that he survives his fall and injuries, finds someone who looks like him and surgically removes the bullet from him and implants it into that poor man at about the same time so the decomposition fits, hijacks another man and performs surgery/implants a device into him are all rather implausible, but much like last season's finale, I've decided to let it go and just accept it. I agree that his obsession was such that he would sort of stalk William from a distance and use those people/events to exploit William's love-the one thing he will never have. I also really hope that poor Roland was just kidnapped like Veronica Bowden and that his father is still alive. I'm not really keen on having a baby hijack the storyline right now-I need W/J reestablished. |
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Post by Fallenbelle on Jan 11, 2017 15:19:55 GMT
I think I liked, and hated this episode in equal measure. It was fun and interesting and suspenseful, but I think also farfetched. Although it is nice to see closure on Gillies once and for all. I looooved the derringer wrist-extractor. That is SO COOL! Hell, I want one! But there IS ONE THING I have never understood. In all his time on the run - WHERE THE HELL does James Gillies GET THE MONEY to pull off his schemes? I'm sure all those gizmoes and talking dolls and everything must be pretty bloody expensive!! I loved the wrist gun...in fact, I hope to see it again! As for Gillies, I hope that we get a comment or something that a family member has also been charged/tried with abetting a felon. But, we'll probably never get it. Also, anyone catch that Roland was playing with a doll? Think this doll had a message as well? |
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Post by Fallenbelle on Jan 11, 2017 15:22:22 GMT
AND HE USED ARDENT AHHHHHH (sorry my Pride and Prejudice fangirl is showing) And Gillies whole fear of sying by the noose instilled in him by Murdoch (ironically) Which if you think about it kind of set this whole thing with Gillies in motion - aka Gillies always just escaping. By far my favourite part of this whole episode was Gillies calling Crabtree a "Cheerful Chipmunk" it's stuck with me. Now all I can see is Alvin and the Chipmunks replaced with Crabtree, Higgins and Jackson. I'm gonna have to make an icon about that. When I heard ardent, my thoughts were quite similar...I was like "awww, how charming" but in a split second kind of way. I totally think ardor needs to come back. OMG! You totally need to make that icon! |
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Post by murdochic on Jan 11, 2017 15:59:55 GMT
Gillies wasn't in love with William, he was a psychopath and incapable of feeling love. He was gay and attracted to William and he was obsessed with him because he thought he was the only person who could match his intellect. Though really Gillies was wrong, William didn't match his intellect, he surpassed it. That's why William always bested Gillies schemes in the end.
I thought Higgins taking over George's duties worked well in the episode and I liked that he had a shining moment when he figured out the street names connection. I didn't miss George or Brackenreid's physical presence because we saw them in the clips. This was the only episode of MM we've sort of had all the shows 7 main/central characters in one story.
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Post by Hodge on Jan 11, 2017 23:19:44 GMT
Numbers for Monday's episode, 1138k. It seems I was right that people wouldn't come back after the Christmas hiatus. Perhaps they'll give it another chance with the last episode getting so many positive comments despite it's subject.
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Post by Hodge on Jan 11, 2017 23:23:04 GMT
Despite my initial annoyance at Gillies' return, I am definitely warming to this episode and have mostly come to embrace it. The fact that he survives his fall and injuries, finds someone who looks like him and surgically removes the bullet from him and implants it into that poor man at about the same time so the decomposition fits, hijacks another man and performs surgery/implants a device into him are all rather implausible, but much like last season's finale, I've decided to let it go and just accept it. I think the way to approach this episode is to forget it's JG and look on it as an intense psychological thriller. Most of it could have been any opponent, it just happened to be Gillies and we only saw him briefly at the end. |
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Post by molly on Jan 12, 2017 0:00:02 GMT
I'm rewatching it now. I absolutely LOVE Gillies, both the character and the actor, so while I'm not happy that they brought him back, I'm going to love this episode because it was so good, if not realistic. My thoughts:
The guy with the implant was great when he was speaking in Gillies' voice.
So are we to believe that Gillies jumped, smashed his face, broke his back and still was able to find a man to take his place? A man who looked like him? And while in all that pain he was able to dress him in his own clothes, remove the bullet from his own body and implant it in the man's body?
With all these horrific injuries, and while there was no such thing as social media, wouldn't a doctor rat on him to the police while he was in hospital? Wouldn't someone at the hospital do that if the doctor was paid off?
Did Gillies kill Robert Perry? I can't remember that. Or was he hung by the noose (until he was dead!)
So are we to believe this implant was done so perfectly and worked exactly as it should have?
All in all, I am hoping for more episodes in the same vein. I really miss the mysteries and darkness. I would like to see fewer spoilers, though, I actually muted everyone on Twitter related to the show because I tend to watch the next day so I didn't know Gillies was going to come back. But without muting, I think I would have been annoyed at the prospect of his return.
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Post by Hodge on Jan 12, 2017 0:24:29 GMT
I'm rewatching it now. I absolutely LOVE Gillies, both the character and the actor, so while I'm not happy that they brought him back, I'm going to love this episode because it was so good, if not realistic. My thoughts: The guy with the implant was great when he was speaking in Gillies' voice. So are we to believe that Gillies jumped, smashed his face, broke his back and still was able to find a man to take his place? A man who looked like him? And while in all that pain he was able to dress him in his own clothes, remove the bullet from his own body and implant it in the man's body? With all these horrific injuries, and while there was no such thing as social media, wouldn't a doctor rat on him to the police while he was in hospital? Wouldn't someone at the hospital do that if the doctor was paid off? Did Gillies kill Robert Perry? I can't remember that. Or was he hung by the noose (until he was dead!) So are we to believe this implant was done so perfectly and worked exactly as it should have? All in all, I am hoping for more episodes in the same vein. I really miss the mysteries and darkness. I would like to see fewer spoilers, though, I actually muted everyone on Twitter related to the show because I tend to watch the next day so I didn't know Gillies was going to come back. But without muting, I think I would have been annoyed at the prospect of his return. Even without the spoilers I'd say it was pretty obvious that Gillies was back by the title. In Murdoch's world Gillies IS the devil. |
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