About Me

Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom
HR Apprentice. Ex Media Studies student at Swansea University. This blog is a collection of links, articles, academic reference and random thoughts.

Monday 31 May 2010

Israel Attack Freedom Flotilla

Saturday 22 May 2010

Ahes to Ashes

"I'm arresting you for the murder of my Quattro", a perfect end for the fab five in Ashes to Ashes. Having watched since the Life on Mars days I was slightly apprehensive about watching the last episode in case I was disappointed. I wasn't, here's how it ends


Gene Hunt, Alex Drake, and their colleagues Ray Carling, Chris Skelton and Shaz Granger were in fact all dead - meaning 'life' at Fenchurch East CID was simply a 'purgatory' for dead police officers caught between Heaven and Hell.

After thinking she can return 'other world' before being allowed to go home, Drake realises instead of being in a coma she has died after being shot in 2008 and will never return to her daughter Molly.

The increasingly creepy complaints officer Jim Keats turns out to be the devil - luring the officers to joining him in the burning depths of Hell.

It appears Keats has already succeeded in bringing Viv James to Hell after he was seen cradling him in his last moments when he died in episode six.

Before Keats' role became clear, Skelton tells his colleagues he dreamt about Viv being surrounded by flames - alluding to Hell.

Keats gives Alex the location of a field in which he alludes to the presence of the remains of Sam Tyler. As Drake starts digging up the grave, Hunt demands that she stops... but when she finally comes across his body and pulls out his police badge, he is left unusually speechless when he remembers who he is.

Rather than the middle-aged man audiences have watched in the Seventies-set Life On Mars and its Eighties follow-up Ashes To Ashes, it turns out Hunt was just a rookie cop on his first week of the job when he was shot dead on Coronation Day in 1953.

Then out of the shadows came Keats, hoping to lure Drake to Hell by claiming Hunt is trying to keep her with him in limbo.

Meanwhile, back at Fenchurch East, Ray, Chris and Shaz also realise they're dead after watching videos of their deaths, cruelly left for them by Keats.

All three have been 'seeing stars' and been haunted by various eerie noises from the era they died in.

Ray watches himself sitting in an armchair struggling with depression before standing on a chair and hanging himself. His last words being 'sorry dad'.

He later explains he disappointed his dad by choosing to be a police officer rather than join the army.

One day, he took his anger out on a young man outside a pub, who ended up dying.

While his DCI helped Ray by covering up the man's death, living with the guilt prompted his suicide.

Chris then sees himself as an officer in the late Seventies or early Eighties, being led to his shooting death by his sergeant, who orders him into the line of fire.

Finally Shaz breaks down when she finds out she was a 26-year-old office from 1995 who ends up stabbed with screwdriver as she tries to stop a car thief.

As former fiance Chris rushes to comfort her, the reason behind her anger throughout the series finally becomes clear to her.

She cries: 'All this time I felt so angry, so frustrated, I thought it was the job. It isn't fair.'

The trio, furious with Hunt for keeping the truth for them, are given the option to 'transfer' to another department by Keats.

An incredulous Keats shouts: 'Oh come, you didn't think this was a real police station did you?'

As the trio follow Keats to his 'new department' in hell, Hunt lures them back for one last job and promises Shaz a promotion.

As the fab five carry out their last job together - stopping a jewel heist in the airport - Hunt's beloved Quattro ends up destroyed by gunfire.

A furious Hunt yells: 'He's bl**dy killed my Quattro... I'm arresting you for murdering my car, you dyke-digging t**spot..'

After the 'blag' is successfully completed, the gang all head back for a pint - but this time it's at the Railway Arms instead of Luigi's, which fans will remember from Life On Mars.

Walking out of the Railway Arms isn't Tyler - as many fans wondered if Simm would return - but the landlord Nelson (Tony Marshall) does return as a type of St Peter, welcoming people at the gates of Heaven.

It turns out there is no need to Tyler to come back - because he's already in Heaven.

As Hunt put it, 'Sam had to go, end of.'

Before entering the heavenly doors of the Railway Arms, Shaz and Chris reconcile after breaking off their engagement in between Series 2 and 3 as she tells him 'I love you, I'll always love you forever and a day, you got that'.

As Ray, Shaz and Chris 'pass over' into the Railway Arms, Drake thinks she can go home to her daughter Molly, but the look on Hunt's face makes her realise it isn't possible.

A devastated Drake finally realises she is dead and will never return to Molly, which she has been fighting to return to in 2008 for all three series.

Hunt assures her 'I know, I know. Way of the world, Alex. She'll be fine'.

Despite Drake's best efforts to stay with Hunt in his limbo world, Hunt tells her to follow the others, because they've 'got a saloon bar', while he will have to spend eternity 'sorting out the troubled souls of Her Majesty's constabulary' and 'those who have issues with their passing'.

The pair finally share a kiss and Hunt says 'see you around Bolly-kegs'.

With Drake and the others gone, Hunt is chided by his nemesis Keats, who has become increasingly more devil-like with his evil laughter and snakelike hissing.

He returns to Fenchurch East and find a brochure for a Mercedes Benz 190D - a stylish replacement for his poor old ruined Quattro.

Then a brand new officer bursts through the doors - very similarly to Tyler's entrance to 1973 in Life On Mars - demanding to know what is going on.

Clearly from the Noughties, just like Drake, he demands 'one of you jokers give me back my iPhone'.

So with Tyler and Drake gone, it looks like Hunt has another challenging working relationship on his hands.

He leans out of his office and says to the new recruit, 'A word in your shelllike...' and so his existence stuck between Heaven and Hell continues.

Extracts taken from The Daily Mail

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