Any other fans of "The Parallel"?
Sure it's got a pat ending. But as sketchesbyboze in the comments section of the Onion AV Club noted: "The sense of creeping dread is terrific."
shareI like it, but it's frustrating (from the perspective of the primary character) in the same way that "Person Or Persons Unknown" and "And When the Sky Was Opened" are frustrating. I tend to empathize too strongly with characters who are not believed when they are telling the truth, so I become angry on their behalf. Consequently, I especially like it when they are validated in the end (thanks to the arrival of Colonel Gaines, in the case of this episode).
shareYeah, the validation you speak of only occurs in "The Parallel." In "Sky" by the time Gart realizes Forbes was right it's too late (though the scary part of this episode is that there was probably not a whole hell of a lot Gart could do even if he was a believer from the get-go). "Person," on the other hand, turns everything on its head, and it's Gurney at the end who doesn't recognize his wife. I imagine he'll just go on staring at her, as he was doing when we left him, which will lead his wife to freak out and rush off to work as fast as she can. Which will then go the exact same way as it went for Gurney when he showed up at his place of employment. Gurney does have a choice though: he could just play along. That, however, might not go so well for him because everyone in this new reality might start to question why he's calling this apparent stranger his wife. And that could lead to all sorts of complications. Then again, Gurney could be in a several-dream-layers-deep-scenario like "Inception" and will probably find this dream collapsing, replaced by a new one in no time. Leaving him to adjust to the logic of that world ....
share"Gurney does have a choice though: he could just play along. That, however, might not go so well for him because everyone in this new reality might start to question why he's calling this apparent stranger his wife."
We don't get to see how others react to this wife, however. Will she be seen as a stranger by them (meaning she's now in a reality in which no one recognizes her, just as Gurney had been)? Or will she be seen as his wife, meaning he's the only one who doesn't recognize her? If it's the latter, perhaps he could adjust....
Good point. The end makes you wonder if the nightmare Gurney has woken up into is his own or someone else's. Or if it's a nightmare at all. As you suggest, if the woman he doesn't recognize as his wife is nonetheless seen as his wife by others then Gurney, if he so chooses, can just play along.
share