Even better yet, pretend she has a short wiffle cut but is dressed in a bright pink prom dress and is lying at an unnatural angle, dead and washed up in the reeds of a lake's shore. Then, you'll see her as viewers of Cold Case did last night to bring home the concept that people don't like gender-ambiguous folks.
Like Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry, Samantha Crawford doesn't see herself as a girl. Instead, she views herself as a boy, or at the least, a tomboy who should be allowed to dress and do as she pleases. And, like in the movie version and real-life happenings of the Brandon Teena case, the world around her will not let young Sam be.This is by far one of the most moving episodes of Cold Case I've ever seen. The show always seems to explore the humanity of the characters involved, especially when they go against society's norms. There have been interracial lovers in the time before the Jim Crow laws were repealed, gay cops presented in the black and white TV format of their era, and a couple of young punks who were accused of murder and convicted after they sought to portray themselves as the despicable monsters everyone said they were. In the end, the murders the Cold Case investigators look into are more complicated than they first seem.
In the case of young Sam, she has to deal with a school system forcing her to conform, two teenage bullies who have it in for her, a love interest who questions his own sexuality over his attraction for her, a father who is confused over what he should do, and a psychiatric facility with a "cure" for her deviant behavior.
They all contributed to her demise, finishing with a tearjerker ending. I have to admit, it got the best of me.
And, as long as I'm on the subject of getting all teary-eyed, Heroes got to me tonight. I think it was the fact Claire watched her father get shot for the second time. I've noticed a trend emerging. Every season, Claire is going to witness violence that tears her life apart.
Now, she has to live with her last real exchange with her father, where she told him she hated him. In the last few minutes of the episode, they played up her guilt.
Tonight's theme was control. Matt's control over Molly and Mrs. Petrelli. Hiro's control over time and his ability to save his father from death. Claire's father's control over her. And, the question of how Elle's father controlled her in the past.
Yes, Elle Bishop is the zappity electricity girl, played by Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars fame. She's sadistic, tarty, and apparently used to be all about rainbows and unicorns before The Company got to her. The electricity baked her brain, according to Claire's father, Noah Bennet.It's going to be interesting to see if Elle's daddy really allowed her to become one crazy experiment in electricity. It's clear Claire's father loves her enough to die for her, twice over. Does Elle's patronly unit compare, or is going to let her down in the end?
2 comments:
Two thoughts about Heroes:
1)Matt just found out this past episode that he can control minds and he is already using it as a crutch to get what he wants.It seems more of a villainous thing to do and it will be interesting to see if he continues to slide in that direction.
2)I think Elle's father has already failed her.If Claire's father knows what happened, then he certainly knows it too.I think he does love her, but he still let it happen.Maybe he's in denial as to her current, loopy mental state.
Elle's father still has time to either save or fail her. Since he's the main villain besides Adam, he is probably going to fail her big time and have that fact rubbed in his face.
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