The Guardians: Part 12 - The Killing Trade
Spoiler alert: in this blog post I spoil the conclusion of this episode.
This episode of The Guardians brings together the disparate interests by the very simple means of having Tom and Claire Weston both in the Benedicts' house, looked after by Mrs Weston while Dr Weston is out seeing to things.
The episode starts with a montage of shots of action by Quarmby, which you could either call protest or possibly terrorist action as you will. I am very happy to accept the possibility that I have missed a major facet of the plot, but Tom Weston spends the entirety of this episode comatose in bed in the Benedicts' house, and I'm not sure of what happened to make him that unwell. My recollection is that we last saw him bombing the Guardians' headquarters in Redditch, so it may well have been that.
Anyway, because he's not taking part except to lie there, and Dr Benedict is out, the episode takes the form of an extended conversation between Mrs Weston and Mrs Benedict. If you like the thread of this show where people agonise about their relationships and things, you will love this episode. If you don't you can just not watch it at all because I'm going to tell you what happens.
Claire Weston's character is rather annoying in this episode, but this isn't a criticism, because she's clearly intended to be annoying. She ignores the security that Quarmby need to maintain by going out, she's obviously not really engaged in it, she's ambivalent about her husband and what he's been doing, and ultimately makes her own decision about how to resolve the situation that she has agonised about for twelve episodes of this show.
She resolves her situation by killing her husband with a suicide pill. She does this completely unilaterally and without consulting, or even telling, Mrs Benedict, who then has another murdered body in the house and that is how the episode ends. She concludes that she didn't love her husband but felt pity for him.
My main criticism is a completely personal one that I find this way of resolving the plot (in the penultimate episode) very unsatisfying. In a sense it isn't a resolution at all. I also sense a certain moral tinge to the episode, suggesting that Tom ended up in the state he did because of being a violent resister to the government and look he got the end he deserved. In contrast to the complex polticial discussions of the earlier episodes it's a bit too easy and feels like the series is a train on a long journey which has suddenly derailed. On the other hand I now really want to see how the series concludes in the next episode, the final one. Perhaps Claire will run off to her lover, the PM's son, and both overthrow the government and Quarmby. Frankly nothing would surprise me about this show.
My other criticism is a purely practical one, which is an apparent inconsistency in the descriptions of Tom Weston's state. He's described as taking tablets and being fed and yet when he's on screen he looks absolutely comatose, having to be physically moved and dressed. You may not feel that this amounts to a continuity error but it just strikes me as wrong.
In all, an episode which will suit people who like discussion, but can be omitted by everyone else because only one event happens which really moves the plot on.
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