Ashes to Ashes

[HelenD123]

So what happened? I haven't tried to see if it's available on iPlayer but sort of assumed it would be blocked seeing as I'm in Canada.

 

[potsy]

So what happened? I haven't tried to see if it's available on iPlayer but sort of assumed it would be blocked seeing as I'm in Canada.

I'm still trying to work that out

 

[AlanW]

I'm still trying to work that out

I'm glad that I am not the only one then.

I have watched all of the series, and after the last episode I switched the telly off and thought to myself, I "think" that I enjoyed that.......but God was I confused!!

Could I understand what had happened?.....not a chance.

Mind you in saying that, it all started to get a shaky a few episodes ago to be honest. Never the less, I stuck with it to the bitter end in the faint hope that it would all fall into place in the last show.....sadly not for me though.

 

[summerdays]

I'm still trying to work that out

Yep I'm in that camp...

Am I to understand that:

Gene is dead
He was buried under the scarecrow
Why does he guide people to the pub and not himself
Why did he take most of his team from Manchester to London instead of the pub
And why weren't they having flashbacks to their previous life/aware of it
Where does Keats come into it
Where did that lift go to​

I didn't enjoy the last episode (maybe if I'd understood it?) and felt the number of laughs per episode were going down - but did love the car quote.

 

[tmcd35]

I got it and thought it was a very good ending to a good series and in no way belittled the original Life on Mars.

Gene is an arch-angel helping dead police officers not ready to pass over.
Keats was the devil.
The pub was the portal to the afterlife
Gene took his team to London and not the pub because he was afraid to let them go, he was scared of being alone.

I only have two complaints. During the series I liked the Keats character, but not in that last episode. As a character, the devil was just not needed. For that ending Keats was surpluss to requirements.

The other complaint is I think a proper cameo from Sam Taylor at the pub would have been a better ending tying the two series together.

 

[JtB]

Where did that lift go to

Given that Keats was (or worked for) the devil, I think we can safely assume where the ground floor is. The thing I still don't understand is why Gene took out his gun when Alex visited his grave. The implication at the time was that he was getting ready to shoot Alex, but I can only assume that he still had a bad feeling about the place he was murdered.

 

[BrumJim]

Only one complaint - having just lost the Quattro, Gene was then found looking at the brochure for a Mercedes Benz 190D. How VERY wrong. From one of the finest and most defining cars of the '80s, is he really going to settle for a dull, oil burning, bottom of the range Cinderella car instead? Surely time for a Sierra Cosworth?

 

[BearPear]

The lift went to Hell - or purgatory, you could hear the screaming when the door opened

 

[brokenbetty]

There are still a couple of ways to interpret it:

1. The ashes / mars world is a purgatory that exists in some way for everyone but has been given a particular shape for cops by Gene's will. His soul has been there since he died acting as a teacher to help damaged cops prepare for heaven. This was something he was doing unknowingly (he believed the illusion himself) until he was forced to confront it by discovering his own body and thus freeing his memories. By the end he has chosen to continue with that role rather than go on to heaven himself, perhaps because he is still angry about his own death and so not ready to go on himself yet. Gene doesn't remember that the grave is his, he just has a huge sense that whatever is buried there is bad and needs to stay buried. Pointing the gun at Alex is an act of confusion and desperation that he doesn't fully understand himself. Gene isn't an angel, he is a soul undergoing purgatory as well. His path through it is to act as a guide for others until he is healed himself.

2. The whole thing is created in an instant in Alex's mind as her subconscious mind forces her conciousness to accept the reality of her death. Alex already knew about Sam Tyler's delusion. Her subconscious takes that as a basis then mixes in events she is barely concious of like the news report about the dead cop.

Either way, it doesn't have to make sense with relation to the outside world. The rules are whatever makes sense to the person(s) who's conciousness formed it.

 

[magnatom]

There are still a couple of ways to interpret it:

1. The ashes / mars world is a purgatory that exists in some way for everyone but has been given a particular shape for cops by Gene's will. His soul has been there since he died acting as a teacher to help damaged cops prepare for heaven. This was something he was doing unknowingly (he believed the illusion himself) until he was forced to confront it by discovering his own body and thus freeing his memories. By the end he has chosen to continue with that role rather than go on to heaven himself, perhaps because he is still angry about his own death and so not ready to go on himself yet. Gene doesn't remember that the grave is his, he just has a huge sense that whatever is buried there is bad and needs to stay buried. Pointing the gun at Alex is an act of confusion and desperation that he doesn't fully understand himself. Gene isn't an angel, he is a soul undergoing purgatory as well. His path through it is to act as a guide for others until he is healed himself.

2. The whole thing is created in an instant in Alex's mind as her subconscious mind forces her conciousness to accept the reality of her death. Alex already knew about Sam Tyler's delusion. Her subconscious takes that as a basis then mixes in events she is barely concious of like the news report about the dead cop.

Either way, it doesn't have to make sense with relation to the outside world. The rules are whatever makes sense to the person(s) who's conciousness formed it.

I'd go with no 1. I must admit I really enjoyed it, and unusually for me I worked it out early on during the last episode.

It has to be left there. Follow ups wouldn't work.

 

[yello]

I'd pretty much go with the first interpretation. I don't have much sympathy for Gene though. I think he used other characters to create his own world and denied them finding their own truths. Jim Keats says as much and, although we are lead to believe that he is a/the devil, I do think that Keats is to be believed there.

But given the script writers had a lot to tie up, I think they did really well. I actually wasn't expecting it to be any good. Some loose ends were to be expected sure (LoM didn't, after all, start out with the end game in mind!) but all-in-all a good ending.

I do think the way is open for a follow-on of sorts but it'd be pure comedy 'cowboy western'; Gene Hunt as vigilantly good guy doing things old school. Think Harry Callahan of the Constabulary. I think there is some mileage there since the Gene Hunt character appears to be liked... not sure I'd watch it myself though!

 

[HelenD123]

Thanks guys. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of the episode when I get bacvk. It does sound very much like Lost!

 

[potsy]

Thanks guys. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of the episode when I get bacvk. It does sound very much like Lost!

That's exactly what i said while watching it the other day Final one of that too tomorrow,5am on Sky1 to coincide with US showing,my alarm is set

 

[Arch]

The thing I still don't understand is why Gene took out his gun when Alex visited his grave.

Or maybe they'd paid for the armourer and prop for a whole day, and wanted to get their moneysworth...

 

[Debian]

I got it and thought it was a very good ending to a good series and in no way belittled the original Life on Mars.

Gene is an arch-angel helping dead police officers not ready to pass over.
Keats was the devil.
The pub was the portal to the afterlife
Gene took his team to London and not the pub because he was afraid to let them go, he was scared of being alone.

I only have two complaints. During the series I liked the Keats character, but not in that last episode. As a character, the devil was just not needed. For that ending Keats was surpluss to requirements.

The other complaint is I think a proper cameo from Sam Taylor at the pub would have been a better ending tying the two series together.

+1, except for the next bit...

Given that Keats was (or worked for) the devil, I think we can safely assume where the ground floor is. The thing I still don't understand is why Gene took out his gun when Alex visited his grave. The implication at the time was that he was getting ready to shoot Alex, but I can only assume that he still had a bad feeling about the place he was murdered.

+1