Anton writes
>: I half wonder whether the replacements for the original "C" and
>: Burnside's secretary were planned to set up the final few episodes.
>: ... the relationship between
>: Sandbagger #1 and the second secretary makes the final episode
>: all that more poignant/tragic.
>
>Hmm..
>
>Diane: "Willie needs someone to love him."
>Neil: "Are you volunteering?"
>Diane: "I might have done, before you got to him and twisted him."
>
By this, if I understand correctly, he means that it would have been equally
poignant if Diane had been around for the final episode. I agree. But,
frankly, the last person I'm thinking about when "it" happens is Marianne
(or Diane). I'm thinking about Neil who's going to have yet another ghost on
his back.
In what, I think, is the last scene between Willie and Neil they refer to
each other as "an old married couple". One of them says that they've gone
through more together than any couple ever has. This, to me, suggests the
depth of the loss that Neil is going to feel (or try not to feel). Not to
mention the guilt.
For me, the two main "narrative thrusts" in the series are the inevitability
of Willie's death"(I'm the only one left! And you're not going to kill me!")
and Neil's drive to emotional self-destruction. These come together in the
last scenes.
The poignancy of the end, for me, is that Neil's obsession about "protecting
the service" necessitates that Willie die trying to save a KGB agent; a
really wonderfully sick irony that may well push Neil over the brink.
As I wrote this, I thought of another thread which I'll leave dangling: Neil
has a bad habit of "getting to people and twisting them" -- getting people
to stay in Special Section with tragic results (Alan Denson, Laura, Willie).
As Diane suggests (coming back to Anton's point), everyone in the Special
Section has a fatal flaw: they choose respect over love. When they do, it
seems, they die -- physically or emotionally.
Mark