MovieChat Forums > Cracker (1993) Discussion > Judith, Jane and Fitz (**SPOILER**)

Judith, Jane and Fitz (SPOILER)

posted 16 years ago by nijn70
3 replies | jump to latest

Hi there!
Since I'm Dutch, (excuse the mistakes I make in this message please) with the DVD's in English, there are some details I'm missing out on I'm afraid... Some scenes require the authentic British knowledge of the language and customs I think.

One detail that bothered me was Fitzes answer to Judith when she discovered that he had been doing it with Jane. He starts a beautiful monologue about how Jane was looking for a fatherfigure and how Judith ended with a 'four-eyed therapist' while he got a sexbomb, but when Judith asks Fitz if he'd loved her, he looks at her and mumbels 'Jezus'. Is that a yes or a no where you live? :o)

[–] DrZaat 16 years ago

What he meant cannot be determined by his words. It all depends on the way he said it, his intonation, etc. It could mean "yes," "no," "what kind of question is that?"--or any number of other possibilities. I think his response was intentionally ambiguous, and your guess is as good as mine as to what Fitz's feelings for Penhaligon actually are.

[–] nijn70 16 years ago

Thanks for the reply! At first my idea also was 'what kind of question is that?' But what I really wanted to hear was a yes!
So now I'm reassured that I can still believe it was...

[–] dannysays 12 years ago

Fitz definitely loved Panhandle.

By the end of the final series anyway that much was clear. And from the moment she realised he'd been sleeping with Panhandle, Judith had always known it. Although I don't think Fitz truly realised it until the end, by which time so much had happened it was too late and Jane had become too distanced from him and resentful. Fitz being Fitz let her down as well, and she was never as forgiving as Judith. You always got the impression that Fitz - naturally - felt an incredible amount of loyalty and duty to Judith, and that it always prevented him from going for what would have made him happy in the end. Even after Judith cheated on him with Graham, he still didn't begin anything with Panhandle until he believed his marriage was over. Then of course Judith returned pregnant which after her rape and the previous standing up at the airport and being messed about, was the final straw for Penhaligon.

Fitz and Judith's marriage was so bleak by the end of the final series I still find it incredible that they then remained married and swanned off to Australia as shown in the 2006 special! He still loved Judith, just maybe not in the way he once had, and I think it was always made quite obvious at the end that he wanted to be with Panhandle, but circumstances and his own actions had meant it was never going to be. Panhandle's "I don't love you, Fitz" to him in 'True Romance' was never fully convincing to either him or the viewers, but after everything that had happened she was never really going to go back there and resume their affair. For Panhandle, getting over the rape and Beck's suicide also meant finally getting over Fitz and starting a fresh. Hence why at that point she also announced her resignation from the police.

Anyway, even after all these years, Fitz and Panhandle still remain a fantastic on-screen pairing - Cracker wouldn't have been half the series it was without their relationship. Still unforgivable that Geraldine Somerville didn't feature somehow in either of the drossy special one offs.