Glitch (Netflix, Series 2)
Feb. 14th, 2018 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroWe return to the small town of Yoorana, where the local sheriff has just learned that the seemingly-helpful urgent care doctor knows much, much more about the recently-returned, formerly-dead people than she had let on.
This picks up immediately where Series 1 left off, revealing that Sarah has pulled through and the baby is healthy, and it immediately starts presenting “scientific” explanations for all this happening. (Which, as I noted in my review of the first season, I’m deeply skeptical of.) After watching episodes 1 and 2 with some distance between them, I finally opted to just marathon the remaining four hours, because the “Gah, will everyone please stop lying and tell us what the hell is going on? Also, James and Kate, will you fucking grow up?” was getting to me.
So, I think I’ll call back to my original predictions, because most of them seemed to have been accurate:
Despite the insinuations that there's a scientific component to all of this (centering around Noregard Pharma, who from their clear presence in the series was always destined to play a role), the phenomenon is clearly supernatural.
Though they don’t come out and say it, you can piece together that John (William’s) original resurrection, Alicia’s resurrection four years earlier, and the resurrections of Vic, Sarah and Phil were all supernatural, with an angel/demon/spirit/entity possessing and repairing their bodies. The presentation of the first-episode events as Alicia’s experiments seem to indicate she was using some sort of angelic super-science / sufficiently advanced magic to bring back the souls/memories that originally inhabited the bodies, rather than pulling new spirits into them. There’s an implication that Dr. Heysen will be able to use Alicia’s notes, Phil’s body and whatever samples they have to recreate the experiment and keep reviving people.
(I found it amusing that they emphasize “oh, the soundwaves make the vibrating salt take this shape, and it’s the soundwaves that do science-y stuff,” when clearly they were doing a classic high-magic ritual.)
Also, while the company’s name is pronounced “nore-guard” all through the series, I would be shocked if it wasn’t a snarky creator originally naming them “No Regard [For Human Life].”
My read of the situation is "intelligent higher powers" rather than "random reality short-circuit", and most of that comes from Vic--or whatever is walking around in a Vic-suit after the accident. Both Dr. McKellar and Vic know more than they're telling; from what McKellar says and the reveal that she's supposedly dead, I'm guessing that she either discovered the phenomenon or took a false identity to trigger it, and then she's trying to scientifically quantify it despite it being of magical origin. Her "side" of the Powers That Be wants reveal this knowledge to humans. Vic's wants to maintain the status quo and get all the corpses back into the ground.
This is almost all confirmed: Alicia was the second of a pair of rebel angels (or whatever) to arrive, the first being William a century before. She spent four years trying to set up the science to revive him; the others were unintentional on her part. Vic, Phil and Sarah were all “sent” to fix this situation. Her “side” appears to just be her and William, and her motivations appear to be more selfish and haphazard.
My other theory: Each risen is linked to a living human, and killing one kills the other. There's a mention that Marco's only living relative died the night Marco went over the bridge. Similarly, while we aren't explicitly told, the dry cleaner Vic visits after killing Maria is closed for a funeral--her husband's, perhaps?
Clearly each Risen was linked to a human, though the human didn’t have to die—Paddy was linked to Beau, Kate to James, Kirsty to Chris, and Charlie to the barkeeper?
(I wonder if the fact that Marco died by leaving town was related to John rising the next day. Can there be only six “active” at any point? Maria didn’t decompose, so no one “replaced” her?)
It seems more likely that John “took longer” to rise, because he was an angel/whatever in a human body already, similar to Alicia not reviving when they performed the second experiment, but clearly something happening when William visited the grave later.
I fully expect Sarah to be the season 2 version of Vic, having been possessed when she briefly died following giving birth.
They spend two episodes faking us out on this, but I was totally right.
While they leave a few things open, this is a perfectly fine ending point for the series: James takes his daughter and leaves town. Charlie moves on with himself. Kirsty and Chris make some peace. Kate tells Owen the truth. It seems clear that Alicia will rise again to be with William. The characters we care about have reached resolutions. A third season would presumably address whoever Owen phones after talking to Kate; and the fact that Phil is still alive and Dr. Heyson has him and all the notes. But if they never get addressed, I’m fine with that—I think this wrapped up nicely.
Overall: This wraps up both a lot of the mysteries and a lot of the character arcs from the first season quite well. I don’t know if they really needed six hours to do it, but that’s fine. Interesting story, interesting characters, fun watch overall.
This picks up immediately where Series 1 left off, revealing that Sarah has pulled through and the baby is healthy, and it immediately starts presenting “scientific” explanations for all this happening. (Which, as I noted in my review of the first season, I’m deeply skeptical of.) After watching episodes 1 and 2 with some distance between them, I finally opted to just marathon the remaining four hours, because the “Gah, will everyone please stop lying and tell us what the hell is going on? Also, James and Kate, will you fucking grow up?” was getting to me.
So, I think I’ll call back to my original predictions, because most of them seemed to have been accurate:
Despite the insinuations that there's a scientific component to all of this (centering around Noregard Pharma, who from their clear presence in the series was always destined to play a role), the phenomenon is clearly supernatural.
Though they don’t come out and say it, you can piece together that John (William’s) original resurrection, Alicia’s resurrection four years earlier, and the resurrections of Vic, Sarah and Phil were all supernatural, with an angel/demon/spirit/entity possessing and repairing their bodies. The presentation of the first-episode events as Alicia’s experiments seem to indicate she was using some sort of angelic super-science / sufficiently advanced magic to bring back the souls/memories that originally inhabited the bodies, rather than pulling new spirits into them. There’s an implication that Dr. Heysen will be able to use Alicia’s notes, Phil’s body and whatever samples they have to recreate the experiment and keep reviving people.
(I found it amusing that they emphasize “oh, the soundwaves make the vibrating salt take this shape, and it’s the soundwaves that do science-y stuff,” when clearly they were doing a classic high-magic ritual.)
Also, while the company’s name is pronounced “nore-guard” all through the series, I would be shocked if it wasn’t a snarky creator originally naming them “No Regard [For Human Life].”
My read of the situation is "intelligent higher powers" rather than "random reality short-circuit", and most of that comes from Vic--or whatever is walking around in a Vic-suit after the accident. Both Dr. McKellar and Vic know more than they're telling; from what McKellar says and the reveal that she's supposedly dead, I'm guessing that she either discovered the phenomenon or took a false identity to trigger it, and then she's trying to scientifically quantify it despite it being of magical origin. Her "side" of the Powers That Be wants reveal this knowledge to humans. Vic's wants to maintain the status quo and get all the corpses back into the ground.
This is almost all confirmed: Alicia was the second of a pair of rebel angels (or whatever) to arrive, the first being William a century before. She spent four years trying to set up the science to revive him; the others were unintentional on her part. Vic, Phil and Sarah were all “sent” to fix this situation. Her “side” appears to just be her and William, and her motivations appear to be more selfish and haphazard.
My other theory: Each risen is linked to a living human, and killing one kills the other. There's a mention that Marco's only living relative died the night Marco went over the bridge. Similarly, while we aren't explicitly told, the dry cleaner Vic visits after killing Maria is closed for a funeral--her husband's, perhaps?
Clearly each Risen was linked to a human, though the human didn’t have to die—Paddy was linked to Beau, Kate to James, Kirsty to Chris, and Charlie to the barkeeper?
(I wonder if the fact that Marco died by leaving town was related to John rising the next day. Can there be only six “active” at any point? Maria didn’t decompose, so no one “replaced” her?)
It seems more likely that John “took longer” to rise, because he was an angel/whatever in a human body already, similar to Alicia not reviving when they performed the second experiment, but clearly something happening when William visited the grave later.
I fully expect Sarah to be the season 2 version of Vic, having been possessed when she briefly died following giving birth.
They spend two episodes faking us out on this, but I was totally right.
While they leave a few things open, this is a perfectly fine ending point for the series: James takes his daughter and leaves town. Charlie moves on with himself. Kirsty and Chris make some peace. Kate tells Owen the truth. It seems clear that Alicia will rise again to be with William. The characters we care about have reached resolutions. A third season would presumably address whoever Owen phones after talking to Kate; and the fact that Phil is still alive and Dr. Heyson has him and all the notes. But if they never get addressed, I’m fine with that—I think this wrapped up nicely.
Overall: This wraps up both a lot of the mysteries and a lot of the character arcs from the first season quite well. I don’t know if they really needed six hours to do it, but that’s fine. Interesting story, interesting characters, fun watch overall.
