Saving Grace "I Need You to Call Earl" "I'm Gonna Need a Big Night Light" (spoilers)
Adam H. Kerman
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Grace gets her big sendoff. The first episode is kind of surreal. Still
trying to drown out her memories of running over and killing the little
girl with alchohol, Grace spots Neeley about to light a crack pipe. She
rushes next door handcuff and tape her to a chair and grabs her stash.
Grace isn't necessarily trying to save Neeley from herself but wants to
use the drugs.
Earl and the always present dog-with-the-absurdly-long-tongue watch
Grace leave, sadly. Earl is relieved that Grace isn't driving and has
left her guns.
In a drug-induced haze, Grace breaks into the dead little girl's bedroom
to steal some trinkets. She finds a child's bus ticket IN ENGLISH from Nuevo
Laredo and a plastic bracelet and a picture. Grace hitchhikes to Mexico,
amazingly finding a ride to the right town, and prostitutes herself for
a few pesos, stealing the man's wallet. She wanders the very pleasant
shopping area, a drug induced version of Nuevo Laredo which in real life
is a hellish place.
She finds a shop to sell her a dress, appropriate for wedding attire, a
larger version of the dress the little girl wore in the photograph. Of
course, Holly Hunter is so tiny that it's no wonder she found the right
dress.
For the third time, she spots a formally attired older man with two
extremely beautiful young women. The two women attend to Grace's hair and
makeup and she joins his entourage. She attends a wedding, tells everyone
that she's the little girl, and gives the bride the girl's bracelet.
She gets some weird feeling about going to Baltimore. She changes back
into her own clothes.
Rhetta, now terrified that Grace hasn't gotten in touch with her, goes to
her house and finds it spotlessly clean and knows for certain that Grace
is in a terribly dark place. She goes next door to see Neeley to beg her
to pass along a message to Earl. She frees Neeley, then leaves. Earl appears
and takes Rhetta's note. Neeley finds more drugs; Grace hasn't stolen
them all. She OD's and dies.
Grace decides to call home. Earl hands her a cell phone! Grace is stunned
to learn that she could have called Earl at any time! Grace learns that
her house has been burnt to the ground, but no one died and even Gus
the bulldog is safe. She then walks straight into the Gulf of Mexico.
A wave washes over her that sort of looks like wings. End.
The final episode opens with Grace walking out of the ocean. Earl waits
for her. She won't tell Earl what she experienced.
Grace is in New Orleans to bury Neeley, with Earl. Earl maps out a route
to Baltimore that passes 300 of his favorite restaurants. Grace knows he's
stalling. She decides to go home instead, and a few hours later (much too
short a time), they arrive. Grace surveys the damage. Earl tells her that
the fire looks like it was set with great malice toward her.
Grace learns that her nephew was there to take care of the dog. The dog
is fine. Her nephew had blood loss getting cut from a window but isn't
burned. In the hospital, he tells Grace that he remembered life saving
techniques and crawled as close to the ground as possible. He was trapped
in the house, having discovered that neither the front nor back door could
be opened. But a couch is thrown through a window and he sees a man but
Grace believes Earl led him and Gus out.
Her nephew was able to perfectly describe the arsonist. Grace takes the
sketch to her conspiracy-theory brother, recognizing him as the "writer"
who "wrote" about the bombing of the Murrah building. The two of them
theorize that the "writer" was responsible for a number of other tragedies,
and assisted McVeigh. Grace believes she must confront Evil, and Rhetta
says the same thing to Ham.
Grace says goodbye to most of her friends. She sleeps one last time with
Ham and kisses Rhetta goodbye. Ham shows an engagement ring to Rhetta,
who is pleased Ham wants to marry her.
Grace encounters the absurd pile of "Miracle on 34th Street" mail and
looks for a warehouse in the phone book. She discovers one called Baltimore
and realizes that this will be where she finds Evil.
She turns in her badge but does not say goodbye to Kate, so she never
learns that she's naming her yet to be born daughter after her (although
she denies it).
She waits inside the warehouse, with the mail, for Evil to arrive. She
has a box of very expensive cigars given to her by Earl long ago in
Season 1, the one possession that survived the house fire. She smokes
one, enjoying a final vice.
Evil shows up. She unloads her service revolver into him. He bleeds,
oddly, but doesn't die. Evil takes credit for all the bad things Grace
has witnessed, that he was the priest who raped her repeatedly, tricking
the little girl into stepping in front of Grace's car, giving Neeley
the drugs she would O.D. on, that he was the man she prostituted himself
for, even closing the eyes of her sister the day the Murrah building was
destroyed. Evil has made the ingredients of a fertilizer bomb appear. Grace
throws her lit cigar and blows up the warehouse.
Everyone goes to the warehouse after. Ham and Butch carry Grace's burned
body out on a stretcher to the morgue wagon. Ham throws the engagement
ring. The pile of mail survived and two hook-and-ladder trucks have
lifted their ladders to form the roof of a church. Everyone salutes
the body, eve Earl.
Earl looks forlorn over Grace's death. End.
Season 3 had a lot of very weak episodes and I'm really not sorry that
TNT wouldn't order a fourth season. The second to last episode was better
than the last but both episodes were filled with stupid stuff. Butch and
Ham partner up for a case that begins at a surprise party at which Butch
encounters a gun runner he knew from his criminal days and some bad things
he did back then. In the last episode, Ham goes totally off the deep end
on spiritual stuff. Butch won't believe in Grace. Ham and Butch have a
knock down fight, either over faith or which one loves Grace more. Butch
reminds us that he loved Grace before Ham did, which wasn't really all that
important to the show.
Ultimately, the ending didn't work. The final crises that Grace faced felt
all so artificial and pointless. At no point did it seem like Grace was
tempted by Evil, although I wondered about the man in the white suit at
the wedding. If Evil put every crisis into motion, then how was her faith
tested? At one point, Earl told Grace a story about a tragedy, asking
ghod afterward, who told Earl that he doesn't work through tests.
In the warehouse, Evil's only promise was to let Grace out of the warehouse
instead of destroying it and her with it but since Grace is utterly
self destructive, how was that a temptation?
It should have been emotional, but it really wasn't.
Barry Margolin
"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
> Season 3 had a lot of very weak episodes and I'm really not sorry that
> TNT wouldn't order a fourth season. The second to last episode was better
> than the last but both episodes were filled with stupid stuff.
The other problem with the finale episodes is that there were no
criminal investigations in them. Most SG episodes have a crime plot and
an Earl plot. Even while Grace is dealing with her personal crises, she
still manages to solve the crime.
Concentrating almost entirely on Grace's issues in the last two episodes
diminished them.
--
Barry Margolin, bar...@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
Adam H. Kerman
>>Evil shows up. She unloads her service revolver into him. He bleeds,
>>oddly, but doesn't die. Evil takes credit for all the bad things Grace
>>has witnessed, that he was the priest who raped her repeatedly, tricking
>>the little girl into stepping in front of Grace's car, giving Neeley
>>the drugs she would O.D. on, that he was the man she prostituted himself
>>for, even closing the eyes of her sister the day the Murrah building was
>>destroyed. Evil has made the ingredients of a fertilizer bomb appear. Grace
>>throws her lit cigar and blows up the warehouse.
>It comes full circle as Grace gets to take out the missing "man"
>involved in the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing in which
>Grace's sister is killed. I liked how unobvious that was. But I think
>the combination of ammonium nitrate, nitromethane and a $750 cigar was
>a bit much. Also, what was the point of leaving all the mail
>undisturbed? She clearly wouldn't be reading and/or answering any of
>it.
Oh, I suppose the mail was symbolic of everyone who found faith through
Angel Cop and that it miraculously survived the fire tells us that faith
cannot be destroyed.
No, this tells us that there was supernatural influence behind the
destruction of the Murrah building. I just don't get why Evil brought
the materials Grace would use to destroy it, except that it brought
materials that wouldn't destroy it, which makes Grace's confrontation
meaningless.
>>Everyone goes to the warehouse after. Ham and Butch carry Grace's burned
>>body out on a stretcher to the morgue wagon. Ham throws the engagement
>>ring. The pile of mail survived and two hook-and-ladder trucks have
>>lifted their ladders to form the roof of a church. Everyone salutes
>>the body, eve Earl.
>I thought that was a very touching moment, esp. given the music they
>played during the whole thing. Bonus credit to Leon Rippy for knowing
>how to properly salute, military-style.
The others didn't? There seem to be a number of different saluting styles
among military branches, and the British salute differently.
>>Earl looks forlorn over Grace's death. End.
>I kinda wish we'd had a short scene with Earl taking Grace's soul to
>whatever her eternal reward would be. That would've added the extra
>emotion that seemed lacking.
I don't think Grace is going to heaven. I figured she was being trained
to be a last-chance angel for other troubled souls,
>>In the warehouse, Evil's only promise was to let Grace out of the warehouse
>>instead of destroying it and her with it but since Grace is utterly
>>self destructive, how was that a temptation?
>I don't think it was about temptation but rather about closure. Grace
>felt guilty about her sister's death and this was a good, if not way
>too quick, way to accomplish closure.
Well, yeah, that's what we expected. She's self-destructive. Evil knew this.
legal process
"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote in message
news:hvpn8h$b4f$1...@news.albasani.net...
>
>
> She gets some weird feeling about going to Baltimore. She changes back
> into her own clothes.
>
> Rhetta, now terrified that Grace hasn't gotten in touch with her, goes to
> her house and finds it spotlessly clean and knows for certain that Grace
> is in a terribly dark place. She goes next door to see Neeley to beg her
> to pass along a message to Earl. She frees Neeley, then leaves. Earl
> appears
> and takes Rhetta's note. Neeley finds more drugs; Grace hasn't stolen
> them all. She OD's and dies.
>
> Grace decides to call home. Earl hands her a cell phone! Grace is stunned
> to learn that she could have called Earl at any time! Grace learns that
> her house has been burnt to the ground, but no one died and even Gus
> the bulldog is safe. She then walks straight into the Gulf of Mexico.
> A wave washes over her that sort of looks like wings. End.
I haven't worked my way through the last episode yet, but it seems you've
moved some scenes around..... The cell phone incident with Earl is in the
last episode, not the next to last.... How do you know Grace thought about
Baltimore prior to changing her clothes... or are you guessing. There's
quite a gap in what happens to Neeley. After Rhetta left her and Neeley
pulled out the drugs, the next time we see her she's dead in a back alley,
but it isn't clear where Grace found her... Mexico? Grace hadn't gone back
to OkCity yet, so why would Neeley be anywhere Grace can find her... Yeah, I
know the balloon, but you don't even mention that.... and, although the last
scene is Grace walking into the Gulf, this doesn't take place after learning
her house burnt down (remember, that's in the last episode). She walks into
the Gulf after finding Neeley dead... however, Nueva Laredo is inland and
not a coastal city, so where is the connection unless she had already
started taking Neeley's body from NL toward Louisiana and stopped over on
the way.
pkj...@aol.com
[big snip]
Since I was away for a long-weekend vacation, I wasn't able to watch
the final two, but I had a feeling I wouldn't like the resolution.
Assuming your summary is even vaguely accurate (and I'm sure it is),
I'd hate it. They're still on my DVR, but I may not ever get around
to watching them.
I've always had a problem with the premise of the show. If not for LR
and the rest of the great supporting cast, I never would've stayed
with it this long.
And now it turns out that all the bad things that happened to Grace
were the result of one . . . what . . . the devil, a demon? Further,
we have no idea if she was supposed to redeem herself (for some pretty
petty, silly reasons) so she could go to heaven or so she could become
another Last Chance Angel? Finally, self-destructive Grace is given
the means to kill herself by EVIL, and she takes him up on it - rather
than living to fight EVIL another day?
Sounds like a complete mess of a finale, to me.
Adam H. Kerman
>I haven't worked my way through the last episode yet, but it seems you've
>moved some scenes around.....
Yes, I'm sure I did. You'll note that I didn't write this after watching one,
but both.
That's no excuse for your misuse of punctuation. Now, give back all those
stolen periods so somebody else can write something. There's just no call
to abuse innocent punctuation marks like that.
legal process
They be elipses.... and perfectly acceptable to build
up...........................................................................................................................................................................................................
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suspense.
;-P
BTW, I agree with pretty much everyone else. The end was stupid and
completely not in line with the expectation that Grace was going to be some
sort of a living saint. Evil certainly could not be killed, but merely
detained from carrying out his evil deeds. The only thing I can think of is
that by becoming a martyr, Grace becomes a symbol for people to rally around
to fight Evil in the future. Another alternative b.s. explanation is that
God (or whatever) decided that Grace, by sinning, and thereby causing her
sister's death (being in the wrong place at the wrong time?), should be
punished, but not without winning her soul by converting her to his side.
Pretty f'ed up if you ask me.
Adam H. Kerman
>;-P
fwiw, I use ... for points of suspension and . . . for points of elipses.
In typography, thin spaces are used between periods to make the elipsis,
not that it works well in character cell terminal emulations.
I would never do it in every sentence in a paragraph. It makes it too hard
to read.
>BTW, I agree with pretty much everyone else. The end was stupid and
>completely not in line with the expectation that Grace was going to be some
>sort of a living saint. Evil certainly could not be killed, but merely
>detained from carrying out his evil deeds. The only thing I can think of is
>that by becoming a martyr, Grace becomes a symbol for people to rally around
>to fight Evil in the future.
I guess, but Grace is such a loner that she didn't do much to train anyone,
not even her nephew. Still we had the miracle of the mail, which doesn't
play into the warrior theme, nor does anything explain Evil's actions.
You'd think Evil wouldn't want a martyr but Evil arranged the situation
so that was the inevitable outcome.
>Another alternative b.s. explanation is that God (or whatever) decided
>that Grace, by sinning, and thereby causing her sister's death (being in
>the wrong place at the wrong time?), should be punished, but not without
>winning her soul by converting her to his side. Pretty f'ed up if you
>ask me.
Whatever thought you put into it is more thought than the writers gave it.
Weak, weak stuff.