S05.E01: Closed Casket

[weyrbunny]

Quote

Reid - on the run from the police - must find a way to bring down Assistant Commissioner Augustus Dove.

[weyrbunny]

I’ve been putting off watching Series 5 of Ripper Street, I think, because I’m not ready for it to end. But, it’s the New Year, and I finally have a moment to concentrate on it, so here goes.

All spoilers, all the time, of course.

An episode of menace and scars… So many characters’ faces are scarred from fights here: Drake, Dove, Shine, Nathaniel, Drummond, the dogfighter, the dogs themselves. It all sets the stage for S5 being an ugly, brutal, animalistic fight, I think—wolves versus dogs, at first thought, but never so clearly bisected.

The recurring images here of dead dogs are gruesome—sad for the dogs’ sake of course, but made worse by the way that they recall Drake’s body lying in the dirt. An episode of dead fighters… dogs and Drake. (Even Abel, come to think of it, since Nathaniel named his rescued fighting dog Abel.) Frankly, before I noticed the symbolic callbacks to Drake, it felt like everyone had moved past his death too quickly. Reid certainly mourned—MacFadyen’s acting was excellent as he silently conveyed Reid’s inability to focus—as did Rose… but then Rose quickly exited like she had served her purpose and the various plots took over. It didn't seem right for Ripper Street not to dwell on the death of such an important character. I’m hoping that because the show is so novelistic, it’ll return to Drake in many forms.

Drake’s dying words, “No, my friend, I won’t fight,” seem really meaningful, in hindsight. They fit perfectly with S5’s dogfight theme, and it must be a callback to the climactic Drake vs. Shine boxing match at the end of Series 2. (Recall that Reid talked Drake into fighting Shine, urging Drake to kill him, and that it was a severing in their relationship.) With Shine returning, I’m glimpsing references to that fight everywhere, in Reid contemplating his own morality, in Shine’s subdued or emotional behavior.

DI Shine is… well, being beat by Drake scarred him more than just physically. It’s truly creepy when he’s nice to people (like Mathilda). He’s also cagey now, which makes me even warier of him. I spent the episode waiting for him to erupt, just so that the sense of menace Mawle brought to every scene would dissipate. Of course, I shouldn’t expect a physical climax like the S2 boxing match, because that’s no longer how Shine fights.

I did find Shine’s reintroduction overwrought and cheesy—the music practically went “DUN DUN DUNNNNNN.” This wasn’t the best-directed episode, really… overly dramatic zooms, oh, and Susan’s reveal was cheesily drawn-out, too. And the hats! Jackson, Reid and Susan think no one will recognize them because they change hats?! Ripper Street’s attention to detail is always so good, but that’s all they could come up with?

A good detail: the Egyptian god that Reid stares at on the theatre entrance is Anubis. It’s a jackal or wolf image, and Anubis is associated with death and entombment, i.e., caskets.

I respect how the show subverts expectations by treating Nathaniel as just another character, even showing his compassion. S4 was ultimately the hunt for a serial killer, for Nathaniel, and a lesser show would concentrate on vilifying the character, to make the outcome black and white. But here, he’s just part of a pack, less villainous than Shine or Dove.

Edited January 6, 2017 by weyrbunny
Because climatic and climactic are not the same word. And Ripper Street is not about the weather.

[dragonsbite]

</wail!>  When will this be aired in the U.S.?  

[Deanie87]

On 1/2/2017 at 10:00 PM, weyrbunny said:

I did find Shine’s reintroduction overwrought and cheesy—the music practically went “DUN DUN DUNNNNNN.” This wasn’t the best-directed episode, really… overly dramatic zooms, oh, and Susan’s reveal was cheesily drawn-out, too. And the hats! Jackson, Reid and Susan think no one will recognize them because they change hats?! Ripper Street’s attention to detail is always so good, but that’s all they could come up with?

 

Hi Weyrbunny!  I finally had to succumb as well.  I just finished 5.3 last night and will try to tackle the rest of the season over the next few days.  The statement that I quoted stood out to me because Shine's re-introduction and the hats especially, made this episode seem out of place in Ripperville, almost like another show altogether, and I've found that this gets more so as the season goes on.  If I remember correctly, they filmed this season and season 4 around the same time, so I"m not sure exactly why this season seems so different, but it does.  The scenes of our intrepid threesome running around (in broad daylight no less) in their Indiana Jones hats seems like something out of a fun adventure show airing on TNT or TBS (and quite a few shots reminded me of Casablanca) much rather than the darker show that we have always known. Having said that, the writers certainly don't shy away from the terrible things that our "heroes" have done.  There is a long list of torture and killing between the three of them, and somehow Capt. Jackson seems to have tallied up the smallest numbers. On the one hand, I'm glad that the show isn't glorifying them or their actions, but on the other hand, I almost feel bad rooting for them.  Almost.  It actually helps that Shine is back, since he is a cartoon villain compared to Augustus, who at least has some complexity and garners some sympathy.

Another shot that stood out to me was when Reid, garbed in his theatrical scarf and 1930s gangster hat of course, stares up to see if Mathilda is lighting the candle.  When she finally does, he practically pivots and stares goggle-eyed at the sight for an almost comical amount of time.  It truly was a scene out of a cliched melodrama, which is so unlike Ripper Street, IMO.  It may just be that I most enjoyed this show when all of the characters interacted in a more natural way and were uneasy allies, versus now having them on the run and variously at odds and not completely in each others' orbit as they have been in the last two seasons.  I understand that the story must come to an organic close, and therefore the more procedural aspects of the show wouldn't work, but I do really miss the threesome of Drake, Reid and Jackson and I also really miss Long Susan the Madam coldly thwarting them at every turn.

I seriously doubt that I will miss Rose all that much, but I would like to see her one last time if for no other reason than to see her acknowledge her many instances of bad judgment.  But I can't tell you how thrilled I was to see Mimi again!  While I still am a sucker for the murderous and dysfunctional Susan/Jackson relationship, I really did love Mimi and hated the way that Jackson tossed her aside and fell for Susan's manipulations without a second thought.   So I am very pleased to see her back and she is not disappointing!

I may start a thread for the other two episodes before I get ahead of myself.

[pezgirl7]

On 1/5/2017 at 8:39 AM, Deanie87 said:

I really did love Mimi and hated the way that Jackson tossed her aside and fell for Susan's manipulations without a second thought. 

Didn't he leave her because he found out Susan was pregnant? Or maybe I'm remembering wrong.

Can someone remind me when the last time we saw Shine was, and what happened to him? All I remember is something about an asian prostitute, and Reid wanting Drake to kill Shine in the boxing ring. But I can't actually remember what awful thing Shine did!

Does anyone know if it would have been proper for Drummond to be staying in the same house as Matilda? I feel like that would have been frowned upon back then.

[Deanie87]

15 minutes ago, pezgirl7 said:

Didn't he leave her because he found out Susan was pregnant? Or maybe I'm remembering wrong.

Can someone remind me when the last time we saw Shine was, and what happened to him? All I remember is something about an asian prostitute, and Reid wanting Drake to kill Shine in the boxing ring. But I can't actually remember what awful thing Shine did!

Does anyone know if it would have been proper for Drummond to be staying in the same house as Matilda? I feel like that would have been frowned upon back then.

Yes, that is why he left her, and I"m not really accusing Susan of getting pregnant on purpose, but he was finally happy with someone else and it certainly was convenient for Susan that she got pregnant just when her neck was in the noose.  It always bothered me, even though I had always rooted for Susan and Jackson together.

[raven]

Sooo does the show want me to dislike all of the leads?  What was the point of humiliating Thatcher the way they did, because he was kissing up to the new boss?  It wasn't necessary that he be stripped down, he would still have made an effective distraction/point if he were tied up on the horse with the sign.

Reid weakly telling Matilda that basically "it seemed like a good idea at the time" to leave Susan's father to die of dehydration in the place where Matilda was kept captive made me shake my head.  She is obviously wondering now what kind of man he is.  Plus the old bastard pretty effectively got the last word in the whole mess.  I am glad that there continues to be fallout from that little adventure.

I miss Drake - the show for me was about the three men.  Reid and Jackson (and Susan) hiding and being on the run for crimes they actually committed isn't as much fun to watch.  Throw in wounded and crying animals and it's depressing.   Susan mooning over Connor doesn't interest me either.  I always gave Rose more of a benefit of the doubt, being the one of the group who hasn't murdered anyone, but her dumping Connor with Dove made lose most of my sympathy for her.  Poor Connor with the trembling lip over Drake's grave :(

Still, it was fun to see Mimi again, I always liked her.  Maybe Matilda and Drummond can take Connor and live happily ever after.  I'm not convinced that Reid, Jackson or Susan should have a happy ending, much as I love the Reid and Jackson characters, though since life is rarely fair I wouldn't complain.    I do want to see how it all wraps up.

ITA with the silly outfits on our group; I did laugh at Jackson snatching off Reid's bowler hat with the comment that it was as recognizable as Reid himself.

[attica]

On 1/2/2017 at 10:00 PM, weyrbunny said:

And the hats! Jackson, Reid and Susan think no one will recognize them because they change hats?!

I'm actually willing to buy this. Back in the day, a hat was a signifier of so many things besides fashion: it was the key to one's profession, one's social status. So it's like seeing a work colleague at the ball park wearing a team jersey and face paint rather than a suit: your brain has trouble placing them out of their usual context.

[lidarose9]

I have been letting this season collect on my DVR and finally watched 5.1 tonight. It was hard to watch. The dog fighting and dead dogs are upsetting for me. At the end of the episode, I realized I didn't want to watch any of the rest of it. I deleted the other episodes from my DVR. I'm going to retroactively erase all of this season mentally, in fact -- I prefer to end the program with Reid and his daughter happily splashing at the seaside, Drake and Rose happily married, and Jackson visiting Susan in jail. That's where the story should have ended. Tell me if I was wrong. 

[Snarklepuss]

2 hours ago, lidarose9 said:

I have been letting this season collect on my DVR and finally watched 5.1 tonight. It was hard to watch. The dog fighting and dead dogs are upsetting for me. At the end of the episode, I realized I didn't want to watch any of the rest of it. I deleted the other episodes from my DVR. I'm going to retroactively erase all of this season mentally, in fact -- I prefer to end the program with Reid and his daughter happily splashing at the seaside, Drake and Rose happily married, and Jackson visiting Susan in jail. That's where the story should have ended. Tell me if I was wrong. 

@lidarose9, if you think that episode was bad, the rest of the season has gotten progressively more gruesomely violent and harder to watch so I think you're better off, to be honest.  I can't unsee some of the things I've seen this season and I'm almost sorry I continued to watch.

[raven]

19 hours ago, lidarose9 said:

I prefer to end the program with Reid and his daughter happily splashing at the seaside, Drake and Rose happily married, and Jackson visiting Susan in jail. That's where the story should have ended. Tell me if I was wrong. 

I can't disagree with this and though I haven't watched the last episode of this season yet, I wish the show had just ended at S3 also.