S03.E05: Heavy Boots

[weyrbunny]

Ep. 3.5 – Heavy Boots

 

After the brilliant intensity of last episode, 3.5’s beginning (with song) seemed awkward and surreal, stylistically…off. I soon realized that was the point, and then I couldn’t stop noticing how the episode's style reflected the characters’ grief and unsteadiness. The swirling and swinging camera movements, atypical angles, long takes, blurriness, even absence of music in some scenes all contributed to the sense that this was a world waiting for death. (As did the drunkenness, of course.)

 

The other interesting visual storytelling choice? All the images of bodies lying or sleeping. Or dead or dying. And these images evoked Reid—what else? The arrangements of sleeping bodies—Rose and Drake, Jackson and the pig dressed as Reid, the dying man and his girlfriend, even Drake slumped awkwardly in a chair—all take on a second meaning. Jackson’s line at the end about wanting to “rest his head” punctuates the theme too, I think.

 

Speaking of Jackson, this is the second episode in a row where he uses his gun to bully someone. It was just to get a seat in the pub this time, but last time he technically robbed the journalist. Reid uses his hands, but Jackson uses his gun…how Wild West, I suppose.

 

I’m starting to wonder if all the drowning imagery and ocean/river references in S3 are leading somewhere. Or maybe it's all just carrying over from the specter of Mathilda’s death on a ship.

 

Episode 3.5 was actually really well-written: it managed to integrate a history lesson without sacrificing character moments or subplots in a way that chunks of Series 2 didn’t. I was never totally convinced that an older brother would betray his kid brother like that, though.

[radishcake]

 

A destructive gang of youths unleash hell upon the streets, but it's not until daylight breaks that the true horror of their brutal work is revealed. The trail leads the team of H Division into the heartland of one of the city's oldest trades - the London Breweries - where conflicted loyalties reign, and grief and anger create a potent concoction.

 

[rallymantis]

I can't remember if the show has always done their intro as the "Wild Wild West" freeze-to-illustration.  I like it.

But, ugh -- never liked Rose with Bennett.  She's a flake, and I won't forgive her for how she dissed him in Season 1.

[roomtorome]

So, I guess MM is just guesting this season?  

 

I have to say I am weary of brutal torture scenes in so many shows - seems to be all the rage the past few years and just strikes me as poor story telling overall.  Some is fine but the extend to which it is happening is just more than I care for or find even remotely interesting or pertinent in the graphic detail - just me griping about this.  i'm guessing they wouldn't keep doing it if most of their audiences was fine with it.  

 

I'm always more frightened by implied violence (if done well) than the graphic ones because the implied sort leaves it to my very vivid imagination….

[Primetimer]

With Reid fighting for his life, Abberline steps into the breech, sort of.

Read the story

[fauntleroy]

roomtorome it's not just you. I think they showed that forced drinking/inhaling procedure three separate times. I mute these scenes, which so many shows now seem so enamored of and render with such loving detail. In the case of young Grace since he is a regular character it seemed obvious both that there would be a long dreary scene detailing his torment, and that he would be rescued. So it's mute and fast forward until the rescue.

 

The motivation seemed thin (in short, beer from the north + brother is a sadist/nutter) and the gimmick of building the barrel around the body careless in that it would lead directly to them. Meant to be a signature, but makes it easier for the cops. Also, why bother.

 

My understanding of a 'froe' is from Roy Underhill. It's an L-shaped tool  for splitting long lengths of wood along the grain. I wasn't aware coopers had their own version (Jackson said T-shaped), and couldn't follow the bit about how it was used to break the bones without external damage. Gratuitous morbid detail anyway.

 

Less time dwelling on the mechanics would have left more time to investigate that foreman, who Abberline implied knew of the scheme, but without followup.

 

And in the last scene with Grace, the mob of young coopers seemed too large. It looked like more than a dozen, all screaming for death of a copper because their young leader says so? I dunno. And they all seemed to get carted off without a fight, considering what a wild bunch they supposedly are.

 

Good treatment of the consumptive brother, though Jackson seemed pretty careless to be near the boy as he coughed away. Likewise the girl on the deathbed. Transmitted through the air after all.

Edited May 28, 2015 by fauntleroy

[attica]

As an asthmatic myself, I find that actors don't generally effectively mimic what the fluidy-lung thing feels/sounds like. This dude? Had me hitting the mute button trying to avoid a sympathetic bronchial spasm. Good work, actor and sound fx peeps! Now where's my albuterol?

 

OMG, I loved Crankypants Abberline so much this week. He got all the best lines, especially the one about his boot in Jackson's arsehole.

 

I'm glad they rescued the sweet young constable. We can't get in the habit of redshirting those guys every series, just as I'm getting to know and like them.

 

Mathilda suddenly looks like an actual teenager.

[mrsdalgliesh]

Anyone else thrown off at the beginning of the episode by flashbacks to "The Ballad of Jayne"? Just me? Ok, then.

I want to thank the writers for putting Reid in a coma for an episode so that I could enjoy more Jackson. Reid can wake up now -- he is integral to the show, after all -- but I sure loved a mostly AR-focused episode. Abberline was actually helpful, too --- you could finally see that he had a real copper in him. So funny seeing him stand up to Jackson with the beer-filled lung in his face.

I haven't actually looked to see how many episodes we're getting -- and I had begun to assume that it was a super-short "season" and it would all be about Obsidian and the train robbery. So, despite the fact that it was jarring to have just a case-of-the-week, I was thrilled to know that there's a bit more to the season than I thought.

Mathilda suddenly looks like an actual teenager.

A bit more, yes, but the casting still bugs me.

[Dowel Jones]

I had to laugh at Jackson's dismissal of English beer.  Warm, flat pond water indeed. 

 

I was also surprised at the ability of the "brewery bums" ability to wreak havoc on the pub patrons.  Men  who patronized pubs back then would not be the sort to back down from a fight.

[Ailianna]

They didn't back down though.  I was impressed they even had shots of women patrols getting into  it, picking things up and fighting back.  The young thugs were organized, young and sober though, and had the element of surprise.  And it looked like they were at least equal numbers if not a few more.  The pub wasn't crowded. 

 

I was more worried for Reid when he woke up in the presence of Susan than I can tell you.  If he knew she shot him...

[Neurochick]

Shit, only stupid young men would kill over beer. Or maybe this episode was about outsourcing.

[Snarklepuss]

I have to say I am weary of brutal torture scenes in so many shows - seems to be all the rage the past few years and just strikes me as poor story telling overall.  Some is fine but the extend to which it is happening is just more than I care for or find even remotely interesting or pertinent in the graphic detail - just me griping about this.  i'm guessing they wouldn't keep doing it if most of their audiences was fine with it.  

 

Totally agreed.  Made me think I was watching "the Sopranos", another show I could not appreciate for the sheer volume of such scenes.  I think the producer meetings for this season went something like, "It's Ripper Street only 4 years in the future, grittier, more dystopian, more shocking and gratuitously violent than ever - THAT will get audiences to tune in by cracky!"

 

Also, way to kill the suspense with the spoilery coming attractions.  We leave off with Reid still in a coma wondering what will happen to him only to have all doubt about his fate completely erased.  Seriously pissed off about that one.  They should know better than that.

[pezgirl7]

This was a good Jackson episode. He got to be drunk, play with squishy organs, display his good bed side manner, and show his sensitive side. That ending was very heart breaking. But the scene with Abberline dragging him out of bed was amusing. "I pronounce you... well". And I'll never complain when he goes shirtless.

[weyrbunny]

Rewatching…

 

I’ve noticed now that both sides of this case-of-the-week are about following someone else’s example. On the criminal side, the younger brother emulates his brother’s violence, trying to assume his role as a leader. And, Drake, the duckling, Jackson, and even Abberline all practice Reid’s forensicating ways. Abberline also assumed Reid’s role as the physical, violent one during interrogation. Abberline was like that before of course, but Reid has been filling that role this season.

 

Reid’s cataloging and archiving of crime details is paying off—it’s rewarding to see.

 

I laughed out loud when Abberline threatened Jackson with “A man’s never too old to put his boot up an American’s arsehole.” It was Drake’s “Damn!” grimaced expression in response that made it so funny.

 

This was a nice break from Reid’s rages and melodrama. The story’s references to taking a life for a cause and street justice vs. police justice pull it back to the season’s larger themes, I think.