Personally, I think the next to last episode is one of the
>best ones in the series, and much stronger that the last one. Also,
dramatically, I think death scenes
>should be framed to wrench you - like Laura's, or Blake's in Blakes 7.
>We get that long sequence of the cars, then whacko, Willie is shot, cut
>to Neil's plane in take off. Very frustrating ep for me.
>
The second last episode is my favourite, for lots of different reasons. I
also agree that the last episode might have been a stretch. Neil risked the
entire Special Section to destroy the SALT talks; even if he'd managed to
scuttle the talks, the Service would have suffered for it in the end. I
disagree, though, about the death scene in the last episode. (Hmmm, can I
still call it a "death" scene? It would be an interesting thread to explore
all the ways Sandbaggers are killed and how that's portrayed -- another time...)
I shared your frustration with Willie's death, but, for me, that was part of
the episode's success. It all happens so quickly that you get a sense of an
inevitable chain of events set into motion. When we hear Neil's name being
paged in the airport as the plane takes, off, it seems to reinforce Neil's
powerlessness. It leaves you wanting more, some sort of closure (which may
be why so many people have retained hope that Willie survives. That lack of
closure (typical of so many episodes) is why I never tire of watching the
series.
Mark
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