Assignment Four - Smile for the Birdie

[spikesgirl58]

What do you think about the symbolism of the missing faces in this assignment? Is this harkening back to the thought by some cultures that cameras steal souls. Could it be argued that that is exactly what is going on here?

And on another note, how the heck did Sapphire and Steel get out of that photo? I never really 'got' that.

Comments

[emeraldarrows]

Makes sense that it's something to do with that old belief. Also some old Victorian photos were decidedly strange (I got creeped out just looking at the ones in Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children) so it makes sense within sci-fi to have some weird force going on in them.

I never quite got how they made it out, either.

[spikesgirl58]

When I first saw it, it was a copy of a copy that had been made from a PAL format into VHS and thought it was something subtle or something that got cut out. Then I got the DVD set and watched it again and again. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I suppose the photographer was 'souless' then since he lacked features?

[emeraldarrows]

There's so much that isn't explained. I switch between thinking it's awesome because I can let my imagination go crazy unlike the other shows I watch and being frustrated because they never make sense of anything.

Could be. I always wondered if the photographer was actually human himself once, lost his face,and was "looking" for it back again?

[spikesgirl58]

Wow, that's a great though and it would make sense. And since he no longer had his, he was going to make others suffer at the same time.

There are times when S&S is great because it leaves everything so wide open for interpretation, but I share your frustration. There just doesn't seem to be any glue holding things together at times. I wish Hammond had been a bit less 'mysterious' about things.

[lost_spook]

I haven't rewatched Assignment 4 yet, but I think they got out via reflections (Liz put the two pictures together so that the glass would reflect each other and give S&S a way out. (Given that cameras work using mirrors, and the nature of logic in S&S, it seems relatively reasonable.)

[spikesgirl58]

Wow, I so missed that scene! I will have to go back and watch it again...

Given their logic (or lack there of, at times), it is very reasonable... almost too reasonable.

[lost_spook]

It's been a while, so I can't swear to exactly how it goes, but Steel works out how it was done, using a kind of kaleidoscope effect with mirrors, which is what the ask Liz to do, using the glass of other photos/paintings up on the walls, I think. It may be that it's just oddly directed or something, and isn't clear, but I think that's what happens.

:-)

[spikesgirl58]

Wow, I have got to watch the episode again because I remember none of this...

[sharaz_jek]

Didn't they get Liz to re-enact the landlord's experiment that brought the entity out of the photograph?

[spikesgirl58]

As God as my witness, I don't remember that. I have got to re-watch it because I remember them being trapped and then they weren't...

[svetlanacat4]

I have to rewatch Assignment 4. Vacation soon.

[spikesgirl58]

I think that's me as well, but I purely don't remember this exchange at all. I'm wondering if something happened...