Epiphany

[wren_kt7oz]

This is something that I posted to the bj spoilers board, and now I'm putting it here as well.

It's my interpretation of what I think that last scene in Babylon means.

Open to all comments (even the rude ones).


Was thinking again about what we've been hearing about the
ending and I had an epiphany that I thought I'd share.

It struck me that the problem for me (and I suspect many like me) is
that we've become so bj focused, that the larger issues that C/L
might be trying to address have sort of slipped by.

I asked in an earlier post what the message from the last scene was
meant to be, and totally missed the obvious.

It's not about bj.

It's not even about Brian.

It's about the fact that, despite Stockwell and his ilk, despite
bombs and hatred and violence, Babylon and all it represents are
alive and well.

Brian, from what we have heard, comes close to despair in the final
episode. He considers not rebuilding. He's on the verge of letting
the haters win.

But he doesn't. As once before when he fought Stockwell, he comes
through. He takes up the challenge, and Babylon, his culture, his
way of life, is rebuilt, young and beautiful forever.

I think that's the point that C/L are trying to make with the last
scene.

It's not about Brian being alone and lonely and doomed to permanent
isolation.

It's about Brian (and the unapologetic gay lifestyle he represents)
being triumphant against all the odds.

Did they have to split bj up to do that?

No, of course not.

But, in a sense, that's part of the message too.

Justin is the new generation. He also has survived hatred and
violence, and he's emerged stronger than ever, ready to spread his
wings and take on the world.

He's now "the best homosexual he can be" and he's gone off to live
his life to the full, despite all those who would like to see him
fail, to see him fall, to restrict and reduce him (think the
Hollywood honchos kowtowing to the Bush-ites).

And yes, there are probably ways that all this could have been
achieved without the split.

But I don't think that C/L place the same sort of focus on the bj
relationship that I do.

I think, for them, getting this amazing gay love story to the screen
was almost an end in itself. It doesn't have to have a
conventionally happy ending for them to feel it was all worth it.

For me, looking at it from a character-centric viewpoint, not from a
general, politicised stance, it seems that Brian especially has been
sacrificed. But I suspect that they simply don't see it that way.
That they see both Brian and Justin as representing the triumph over
the forces of bigotry and hatred and Bushism.

I think that's the message we are supposed to get from Brian dancing
alone at a restored Babylon.

Which simply leaves it for us to know the characters well enough to
understand that from here, they can only move on to bigger and better
things. That Brian is no more stuck in limbo in Babylon than Justin
is stuck forever in a garret in the East Village.

And that they are not forever doomed to being apart.

Comments

[elaere.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what that scene means, I haven't seen it. I haven't seen the season. I don't feel any need to interpret something that I don't know the whole of. But something of your assessment rings true to me: you write that Brian represents "the unapologetic gay lifestyle".

I feel that to be true, and, in addition, that all the other characters in the show are representatives of an abstract concept of a similar kind, too. And that is why I don't see the characters changing through all these seasons. There are a lot of features about them that have emerged during the seasons, features that weren't visible in the first season, but I don't feel that they have been changes; instead I have interpreted them to be features that have been there all the time but have been let to surface when the situation has changed, not the characters.

Let's take a closer look on Michael. In the first season Michael was "the boy next door" kind of a character. Did he not, back then, dream of love and suburban life with a hubby? His relationship with David failed. Did it fail because of Brian? I don't think so. To succeed with David, Michael would have needed to change: a boy-next-door didn't sit well in David's sophisticated life. But the CL didn't change Michael, instead he came back the same from Portland(?). Soon after he was paired with Ben, and what change has happened in the character in that relationship? Nothing dramatic, as would be likely in a drama. Michael has matured and taken more responsibilities, but I don't see any changes that aren't just responses to the changing situations in his life. The character is still the same. To me Michael represents one possible lifestyle a gay couple can lead, to me Michael is a concept: unchangeable, whole, defined.

Unfortunately that makes it easy to predict what the characters will do in situations. The drama has lost much because there can be no surprising changes in the characters. Has any of the characters behaved against his or her "nature"? I can't remember one such event. But I remember the to-buy-or-not-to-buy-roses scene of Brian. Did it surprise anyone that Brian didn't buy the flowers?

The actors have done one hell of a job in giving a resemblance of a life to these concepts. Randy and Gale have succeeded with their characters very well; Hal did not. His Michael is not a gay guy I would like to know, even if that is the basic idea of the character: a gay guy that is acceptable to everyone.

[sandid.livejournal.com]

Wren, long time. Hope all is well.

It was interesting reading your assessment of the end of my dream. lol

True, I did not consider the ending from that angle. I missed it. And like so much else that CL didn't say and I missed. Other's will miss it too. Still it was somehow soothing to me.

I'm going to go read SF, the BJ/LJ and then read your comments again. A little digestion is in order.

[budboi.livejournal.com]

Hi there Wren.
I was really interested to read about your epiphany. I had a similar one earlier on this year. I wrote to a friend a while ago that perhaps we are missing the wood (!) for the trees. C/L wrote the screenplay (or Russell Davies wrote the early ones) to get a series of stories/points of view about the gay world across, and the way they do that is by having a character play those story lines.
We watched the story but got distracted by the characters, and they became the whole story to us. Anything which interfered with their love story (you can tell that to me QAF=B/J) was an interruption to us, while to C/L, B/J and all the others were a way to get a story across. I think that is what drama is about.
And although I definitely got sidetracked by the B/J love story (and I *choose* to believe they will be together again and soon in NY) I have to admire C/L for putting together the whole fabulous 5 series. Drag queens & twinks, gay bars, dance parties, drugs, sex, love and friendships spill out of every episode. I know this place and these people.
So many times when I rewatch, I skip through to the B/J scenes, but every now and then I’m in a mood to watch a whole bunch of episodes all the way through, and I am amazed every time by how much I love this show, in its entirety.
I am *so* hanging for S5!
I’m off now to read your further thoughts on 513.
Bud