GreenAjah

New to the forums, but I have always loved discussing shows like this and I have seen some awesome points made here (paramitch, your post could have been a lecture in several of my socio/anthro classes, and a bloody good one at that). I wasn't too particularly attached to Poussey, but somehow that made it worse for me, like I couldn't just tell myself "oh it's only so upsetting because you're in love with that character", the way I did to comfort myself after the finale of Turn; Washington's Spies. Poussey was a great choice on the writers' part, because she rarely antagonized anyone but also wasn't this great hero either. She was just a regular person caught in the moment, as is often the case in real life. Those last two episodes stuck with me long after they ended, I think for that reason. There is always an uncomfortable feeling I get when watching this show; an occasional reminder of "that could be you if you had made different choices" or worse, "that could be you had you been born under different circumstances and conditions". Like paramitch said: by far the most common theme amongst prisoners is poverty. I am certainly in the minority, but I believe they purposely made Poussey's finale scenes quite vague and open to interpreation. At first I thought "ah, flashback", but she has already had that treatment on the show and it felt weird they would do a flashback of her getting busted so late in her storyline. Went back and watched the last 5 minutes (which must be done, because... good lord) and that final shot of Poussey was sooo symbolic. Finally alone, she is surrounded by bits of trash and looking to the other, beautifully lit up side of the river. And suddenly the earlier mention of crossing the River Styx came crashing back into my head. Also, it really seemed like she saw someone there at the very end and her face lit up (possibly her mother?). Maybe I'm just telling myself this to dull the pain, but I think her scenes definitely skirted the line between "flashback" and "afterlife", purposely. Absolutely bloody brilliant