I've just watched the whole of assignment 2 over the lst few days and while the acting was excellent I was a little let down by the ending. The thing is I didn't get that Tully was resentful? what evidence was there of his resentment? I could understand if it was something like he didn't fight in the war and he felt guilty about that...I did see a man that held strong religious beliefs, but resentment???
Noel
Tully's resentment was purposely created by Steel with Steel's betrayal of Tully. He tricks Tully into thinking that all is well, their work is done, and sends him right into the jaws of the Darkness. Steel made a dirty deal with the Darkness: if it would give up its hold over the railway station, and the souls there, Steel would give it Tully and the ultimate enduring form of resentment: betrayal. The last we hear of Tully is his terrified screams as he realizes he's been sacrificed to the thing. Additionally, Steel promises the Darkness that "time itself" will have strong resentment that a person who is known to not be due to die for another five years, is being stolen. This, as Steel tells the Darkness, could cause "serious repercussions in high places." It is not just Tully's resentment, but that of Time itself having been betrayed. Also note that Sapphire seemed none too pleased with Steel as they departed the assignment. She appears to feel remorse for what had been done; Steel gives not a hint of it.
Steel makes it very clear that he is not human. His ethics, particularly towards humans, are strictly utilitarian. He will do whatever he concludes is called for in order to set the time continuum right again. If this means sacrificing one innocent human being to a monster, or even a hundred, then that is what he will do.
This was my favorite episode of the series, with the final episode being second.
Winston, interesting point about Steel not being human and thus being more calculated and pragmatic than emotional, but having said that what’s your take on the scene where Steel is hatching his plan and talking to Tully, asking him does he have any family, etc and Tully basically says he has nothing and no one in his life (apart from his cat)…My take is that Steel was showing benign emotions, if Tully had been a husband/father/grandfather I don’t think that Steel would have used him. It’s an interesting twist on that old moral chestnut “would you kill one man to save a thousand?”
Noel
I must have missed something because I don't see how giving the Darkness a living person was better than letting it take the dead.
Seems to me his own words show that what he did made things worse not better.
I hope there are consequences to his actions in later episodes. Except I'd hate to see Sapphire suffer because of Steel's arrogance.
Sapphire knew that Tully was to have lived for several more years. By sacrificing Tully to The Darkness years before he was 'due' to die, Steel betrayed not only the innocent Tully, but also Time itself. Thus, he intentionaly created a resentment that would satisfy The Darkness to a far greater degree and for a much longer time than the resentments of those already dead souls at the railway station. While I can't say as I'd condone Steel's actions, that was his reasoning.
There were consequences - as depicted in the final episode of the series - for both Steel and for Sapphire.
I have mixed feelings about the ending myself, while I (think that I) followed the logic the dark entity does seem to be getting the rough end of the deal, I'm surprised it agreed so easily after being tempted with a 1000 years of resentment. The life of one man with only a few years left who lived alone with his cat would be (as far the Darkness would be concerned I'm sure) a very small amount in exchange for all those tortured WW1 souls wandering around in a period setting. Steele talks about the ramifications for time but I can't imagine Tully would have had much impact on the future, thanks to his neighbour even the cat won't be missing him very much.
I also can't help feeling that if the Darkness could take Tully and then go elsewhere why didn't it just go elsewhere in the first place and take whatever live resentful soul it wanted? There are plenty of resentful people out there ready for the taking.
One important element not mentioned yet is Tully's religion. After the section where he betrays S&S he feels guilty, scared, but most importantly he has lost his religious faith. He takes of his cross and leaves it on the table.
This is what inspires Steel to make the deal. He takes Tully's cross without him noticing and then in the scene where S&S first meet the Darkness (via a possessed Sapphire) he continuously waves the cross around. In the possession scene he says i'll give you "a real reason for resentment" whilst waving the cross in the air.
What I thought was being suggested here is that the resentment of Tullys lost faith is what would feed the darkness. Tully is an Irish name, suggesting he is a Catholic. The resentment of being offered up (against his will?) + his lost faith he will be doubly resentful.
The morality of offering up Tully for the other ghosts is a little bit fudged but
-Tully did 'betray' S&S
-He was a loner
-Other than that its a bit dark really
Thing is, in the final scene before Tully gets taken, he stands at the top of the stairs and talks with Steel and has a conversation in which he appears to know what is about to happen, and to go into it willingly - "shall i get my things?" and "are we winning?" says Tully, and then waves goodbye with a weary smile.
This takes off some of the darkness of Steel's 'betrayal' against Tully. its a good point though that if the Darkness could take a living person why wouldnt it do that before, but there you go - need to gloss over that. The fact that Tully goes along of his own free will may be something to do with it?
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Its worth noting that all the ghosts are war dead, and the idea of offering up one person (Tully) for many, is part of the idea of sacrifice in war - at least a defensive war, as opposed to an imperialist/expansionist one. The idea of religious faith being lost in the context of war dead also adds up to the overall metaphor.
i think people are missing something important here, the resentment steel offered wasn`t tully`s it was the resentment of time itself, faced with a power they clearly didn`t seem capable of beating steel had to find a compromise that would cause the least damage to time itself, since resentment doesn`t effect time or effect it in a way show onscreen, he could offer it a human life that was almost over gambling that the damage would be minimal, it`s not like tully`s life in that period was going to impact time in a big way, and with that deal he does not have to face that thing again for 500 to maybe even a 1000 years, by which time they should have a way to beat it, what i didn`t get with this episode is this, what exactly where they there for to begin with, how was an entity feeding on resentment effecting time in any way.
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