1.Aeon captures the Demiurge affected bird in a box. She takes the box back home, and after trying to open it, shoots it out the trapdoor. It falls, lands on Celia, (who sounds like she's breathing even though she should be dead) and opens. And for some reason, it's empty. Why? Similarly, after Celia decides to spare the Demiurge cat, we see it's glow fade. Does it disappear as well?

2.What is the significance of Aeon's hideout? If it didn't mean anything, wouldn't they have just put Aeon in her regular Monican apartment? First of all, how did she find it? Was the taped-down block in the floor already there? This hardly seems likely, because from what I gather, she has to keep adding tape constantly. The building looks like all the bottom floors were blown out, but it can still stand because the top of it is being held up. And why is it standing all by itself in the middle of a big plain? And what ARE those dozens of cables hanging from the sky? What holds them up? Wierd...... and fuckin' cool.

Secondly, is the building symbolic of something? Something about how something so big depends completely on something so obviously shakey? And is the big crash at the end symbolic? Aeon looks up at the cable and concrete block, swinging to and fro, and says "Funny, how things work out." What does this mean?

Well, good luck. I for one am baffled. Perhaps I'm looking for significance where there isn't any. That's quite an accomplishment when you're talking about this show.

-- Frostbite (foo@bar.com), January 17, 1999

Answers

I am also baffled about this episode. Two things that I think are symbolic are Trevors hand prints on Aeons behind and Aeons teeth marks on Trevors arm. When Trevor pins Aeon down the camera shot is clearly aimed at this and we also see the teeth marks when Trevor is at his desk.

-- Richard Cutler (rigler@ndirect.co.uk), January 19, 1999.

I think the bird is in the box, it just hasn't flown out yet. My theory on the feline-oid is that it was partially crushed by Celia's poor aim and stumble (freeze frame on the cat). She see's this and is horrified that she did this to it. She was crying and emotionally distraught. And wasn't able to "finish the job". It's light fades which leads me to believe that it died. However, could it be the same box that is shown in that "mysterious peek through the window" scene (where Aeon is climbing the building)? I mean the one where that guy is doing something sadistic to the knealing woman. It does look like the same box... ______ Robert rfbeck@internetconnect.net

-- Robert F. Beck (rfbeck@internetconnect.net), February 19, 1999.

I think when people leave the Demiurge behind or refuse it's care, the sattelites of the Demiurge fade in their minds and in reality. And I think Aeon's hideout was just something that only the incredibly agile Aeon Flux could get to... without that rocket- grapple thing that Celia had, of course.

-- Telemental (panaceag@lvcm.com), March 23, 1999.

As for tha cat and glow, I think the glow represents the power of the Demiurge. Like when the Demiurge focused his glow upon Nadir and thus transfromed him. I think that the cat sensed it was in trouble and used its Demiurge power to influence the girl, hence the glow. Once she left it, and it was longer in danger, it stopped using its power to influence the girl, and thus the glow stopped.

As for Fon's apt, it looked like it was held up by the tape. I think that the idea is so perverse that it might be the coolest part of the entire episode.

-- Lucas McGregor (lucas@eni.net), March 25, 1999.

not to be too way out but Elaine Pagels has a book called the "gnostic gospels", in which one of the original ideas of the early 1st century christians that did not follow along with christianity as we know it now was the idea that god was a demiurge, or that he was not the only god but a lesser god, who desired to be viewed as the only god. I wonder if this episode means for us to believe Aeon is a gnostic more or less, and Trevor fooled by the demiurge into believing he is the all powerful god... and that print Trevor left behind, I think that shows us Trevor likes Aeon's choice of clothes.

-- Barbara E. (suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 24, 2000.

Aeon is rather trite and fickle, despite being extremely skilled and intelligent. She usually only cares about results affecting herself and no one else. She does whatever it takes to preserve her own wellbeing and to hell with anybody or anything else. In real life, the people and institutions that I know of that also have this way of thinking all share a recklessness and band-aid approach to problem solving.

Even though Aeon is extremely gifted and so forth, she's habitually just slapping a band-aid on a problem, partially because she's typically the only survivor left of any inadvertent calamity her carelessness causes.

Trevor is similar, but he's a bit more deliberate. That's part of the reason why she both infuriates and attracts him. Trevor is also a survivor, but his destructiveness is a result of his foresight, and deliberation rather than pure self preservation.

Trevor is interested in building his empire, even if it means erasing history. He nurtures a strange legacy, whereas Aeon never gives a damn about the legacy unless it helps her to get her way. Totalitarian idealism vs/mating with Sabatouristic Individualism. Great changes come in their wake, but they are mortally vulnerable like everyone else.

Naturally, they are both dangerous as hell.

I think the bite marks were an Omega, but i can't remember for certain. The soldiers all have an Omega sign on their shoulders, but then again... it also looks like an icon of a virus as well.

I think part of the mystique of the Demiurge is that it is symbiotic in nature. The humans that can handle this are as risen from the dead, but those who can't handle this see it like some kind of parasite. Of course, if you're about to die, or are a fresh kill, then you're fertile ground for the Demiurge to save you. I think the Demiurge is also merciful and benevolent at the same time. The demiurge never harms anyone or anything in this episode, but the people are in denial--except Trevor, who is kind of waking up.

The problem is, if you've been a ruthless leader for so long, who's gonna trust you when you try to team up with God to make the world a better place ?

-- Day of Brahma (DayOfBrahma@aol.com), October 26, 2004.

i'm fairly close to exhausting my memory of this topic, so i figured i'd keep going. i suppose others will appreciate it if this old cult film series is rediscovered.

as i understood it, the bird disappears because as a symbiotic life force, it is reinvigorating the body of Celia. This also explains the cat's disappearance. It has melded into somebody or something.

On the other hand, maybe it just represents teleportation. The teleportation or passing through walls/barriers ideas reinforce the whole transcendence theme.

yeah. i think that about does it for me and this topic. and for those who like to read alot, i am not ashamed to say that NO, i do NOT have a foot fetish. :)

-- Day Of Brahma (DayOfBrahma@aol.com), November 04, 2004.