Post by Dinze on Jul 8, 2009 16:34:55 GMT -4
To start with, he didn’t manage to graduate from Columbia University. He fought for eight years to make it and however missed the finals. He was sick, or he was scared, or he simply didn’t have the nerve – who cares? He had no other choice but to lie – at least he thought he didn’t.
…We are introduced to the life of Gerry Rankin when it’s about to knock him down, so it takes a while to collect the whole picture step by step, act by act, one revelation after another. It takes even more to realize: this is the most tragic – I mean, naturally tragic – character played by Michael Emerson so far. Why so? This man had already portrayed such variety of distressed multi-layered ill-minded people it doesn’t seem right to concentrate attention on a guy who just lied so much he got caught.
Still it is so. The rise and fall of Gerry Rankin is by far one of the most sorrowful stories about love and desperate battle for it.
“He must feel very loved” – the big cop says right before realizing what moves Gerry to kill his own children. The point is we all must feel very loved – or loved enough, or loved once in a lifetime, you know, just to feel alive, basically, just to live on. We need it despite anything, sometimes despite our own good.
Gerry Rankin was simply the one who needed it more than life. It was definitely not his fault - just as he tried to persuade himself in the middle of the Botanical Gardens. His only fault was lack of sanity and brainpower. Tied together, they finally led him to the plank floor of that Newark hotel room. If he only had enough sanity, he could seek for love much more securely; he would find a way for sure. If he only had more brainpower, he wouldn’t leave so many tracks, he wouldn’t give in to panic so easily, he would always be one-step ahead of any chase; again, he would certainly find a way out.
What Gerry Rankin really had was only a cold wind, endlessly blowing through a hole in his chest, as if someone left the window open on a winter night and never returned to close it. This feeling eats him alive and doesn’t allow to take things under control. This hole, this emptiness, this pain make the man so doomed it turns into a real tragedy.
Why is real tragedy about Gerry Rankin and not Ben Linus, Marty Manning or William Hinks? They all seem somewhat villainous and suffering to say the least. There is a big difference, however: last three are too smart and too far-sighted to give in to anything or anybody; they can be caught, beaten up, face their own death and still remain in control of themselves and the situation. One can watch them crying, falling apart, dying - and still think: so you believe you got him, damn fools. He will find a way even from a mass grave!
This is what will never happen to Gerry Rankin. When you see him taken away in the final scene, you know for sure: this man is completely broken. He will never recover. He will never close the window. His life is so pointless now some merciful cellmate would better kill him.
If this is not a tragedy, I am not really sure I get the concept at all.
…We are introduced to the life of Gerry Rankin when it’s about to knock him down, so it takes a while to collect the whole picture step by step, act by act, one revelation after another. It takes even more to realize: this is the most tragic – I mean, naturally tragic – character played by Michael Emerson so far. Why so? This man had already portrayed such variety of distressed multi-layered ill-minded people it doesn’t seem right to concentrate attention on a guy who just lied so much he got caught.
Still it is so. The rise and fall of Gerry Rankin is by far one of the most sorrowful stories about love and desperate battle for it.
“He must feel very loved” – the big cop says right before realizing what moves Gerry to kill his own children. The point is we all must feel very loved – or loved enough, or loved once in a lifetime, you know, just to feel alive, basically, just to live on. We need it despite anything, sometimes despite our own good.
Gerry Rankin was simply the one who needed it more than life. It was definitely not his fault - just as he tried to persuade himself in the middle of the Botanical Gardens. His only fault was lack of sanity and brainpower. Tied together, they finally led him to the plank floor of that Newark hotel room. If he only had enough sanity, he could seek for love much more securely; he would find a way for sure. If he only had more brainpower, he wouldn’t leave so many tracks, he wouldn’t give in to panic so easily, he would always be one-step ahead of any chase; again, he would certainly find a way out.
What Gerry Rankin really had was only a cold wind, endlessly blowing through a hole in his chest, as if someone left the window open on a winter night and never returned to close it. This feeling eats him alive and doesn’t allow to take things under control. This hole, this emptiness, this pain make the man so doomed it turns into a real tragedy.
Why is real tragedy about Gerry Rankin and not Ben Linus, Marty Manning or William Hinks? They all seem somewhat villainous and suffering to say the least. There is a big difference, however: last three are too smart and too far-sighted to give in to anything or anybody; they can be caught, beaten up, face their own death and still remain in control of themselves and the situation. One can watch them crying, falling apart, dying - and still think: so you believe you got him, damn fools. He will find a way even from a mass grave!
This is what will never happen to Gerry Rankin. When you see him taken away in the final scene, you know for sure: this man is completely broken. He will never recover. He will never close the window. His life is so pointless now some merciful cellmate would better kill him.
If this is not a tragedy, I am not really sure I get the concept at all.
I'll comment you back in my LJ as well
