"End Sinister" - original problem in alien world?greenspun.com : LUSENET : Aeon Flux : One Thread |
While watching "End sinister" last night I realized I really do not understand it. What are those 'things' that float in the air, in the future world of the aliens? There is a part where the female alien, (when Fon is running away), tries to communicate with her telepathically by impressing on her mind an image of her putting one of these moon shaped things into herself, (I know this is a poor description but how else can I describe this?) Then there is this machine that seems to go around devouring these things, and the alien seems heartbroken over this. I don't get it. Anyone?
-- Barbara E. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), March 31, 2000
Maybe it's meant to be incomprehensible.
-- Kiru B. (kirub@earthlink.net), March 31, 2000.
Those floating things are parasites, beamed to the planet accidentally by Trevor's ray, as he explained earlier in the episode. You'll notice that the marks on people's bodies, tell-tale signs of the disease caused by the Aldus-B ray, have the same shape. However, the "moon-shaped" object, that the alien is seen putting into herself, is something else entirely. She's trying to show how the aliens were originally just like us. Remember what Trevor told Aeon, after she woke up & fired the ray again? The "aliens" on Earth were a product of his forced evolution. That object was the alien's missing pelvis & digestive system.
-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), April 01, 2000.
Very Good Paul i couldn't have said it better myself...But what i don't understand is if these aliens are us (humans but evolved) then why were they there, i mean at the same per of time as ourselves....aren't they supposed to be our future selves...once we evolved that is? oh and another thing why didn't any one age when aeon was like sleeping for eternity to wait for trevors return? there is a whole weird time thing in there, sorta like that utopia one (is that what it's called can't remember)...
-- (Aeonfluxfan1@Aol.com), April 01, 2000.
Unless Trevor shot the Aldus-B ray through time & into the future (which I doubt), it's pretty clear that there were two planets. One, the future Earth where Aeon Flux takes place, and the other, an even more advanced civilization, populated by the evolved versions of ourselves. (your basic evolved humanoids I guess). Oh, and Aeon wouldn't age because cryogenic sleep shuts down the body. You're right about this episode having a strange time element, though, and that's the part which confuses me. Ok, the aliens travelled back in time to prevent Trevor from infecting their world, right? Then at the end of the episode, when Aeon kills off "the entire human race" (just quartered it I would think), she enters cryogenic sleep with Trevor. (Place your own joke about Trevor being the last man on Earth here) Now, here's what I don't understand. At the very end, we see the REAL aliens boarding their ship and jumping into hyperspace again. Is this the beginning of a time-loop? Won't the same thing just keep happening? And what about Aeon and Trevor? If the aliens go back again, there could be two pairs of them, one in the past and one in the future when they wake up (IF they wake up). I mean, what the f*ck! Next time I'll watch something nice & simple, like Evangelion.
-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), April 01, 2000.
The aliens are pretty much the same as Earthlings, they're just a few rungs higher on the evolutionary ladder.
-- Frostbite (mbkrooks@bellsouth.net), April 01, 2000.
At the end of the episode, the "aliens" go back in time to try and stop the ray, and are caught in a time-loop: a round-about way of killing off the ENTIRE human race ( except Fon and Trevor, who presumably wake up and start things over, that is, unless the hybernation pod malfunctions, and they die, and that's it for the ENTIRE human race. There can't be a much more sinister end than this. Why the heck did Fon put them in there anyway? Why didn't she just wait for Trevor to wake up or something? ) As for the 2 sets of Fon and Trevor, there are always an infinite number of selves when time travel is involved, as the time traveler can re-enter the spacetime continuum at any of an infinite number of points. Pretty freaky huh?
-- Stonce Anomi (neobe@kscable.com), April 01, 2000.
Somebody said that the "aliens" are a product of Trevor's forced evolution. I was under the impression that they were a product of unforced evolution. And when Aeon uses the ray, it does kill off the ENTIRE human race (except for Aeon and Trevor...and the "aliens" who go back in time??? Have to see it again...) because as far as the ray is concerned, these evolved humans are weak. Wasn't the ray based more on physical strength than anything else?
-- John McDevitt (JuntMonkey@aol.com), April 01, 2000.
The ray, to my recollection, was based on resistance to aldus b. It was a way of killing off those with low resistance, and was not based on physical strength, as evidenced in the demonstration on the two men: the smaller man lived while the stronger man died upon exposer to the aldus b ray. So if Trevor could have used the ray in the beginning, the naturally evolved humans that we see at the end would have survived the ray sent by Fon, that is, if she had survived the ray sent by Trevor! But of course, this would ruin the story.
-- Stonce Anomi (neobe@kscable.com), April 01, 2000.
Oh yes: and the evolved humans caught in the time loop are effectively dead, because they can never escape the loop. They're like living ghosts of human evolution.
-- Stonce Anomi (neobe@kscable.com), April 01, 2000.
Wow! You would not believe how long I have tried to figure out this episode, I can't wait to watch it now, and apply all this, actually it's pretty hard to follow,intermingled with the subplot's of Fon and Trevor's love/hate relationship,but how interesting an effect losing Trevor is on Fon...
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), April 01, 2000.
Oh, one thing I did notice, it is Earth in the future, don't you notice when she leaves the city and runs through the hole in the wall it is the wall that once stood between Monica and Bregna?
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), April 01, 2000.
Trevor says that the reason the ray infects the aliens is because they aren't different enough from Earthlings that it wouldn't affect them, and they also aren't adaptable enough that they could change in order to survive like a human could.
-- Frostbite (mbkrooks@bellsouth.net), April 01, 2000.
Cool, I never equated that wall at the edge of the future city with the border wall of old before. This raises the question of which society could have evolved that far into the future, and which one vanished to be replaced with the wilderness we see on the other side of the wall. Maybe it could have been either. However, I can't imagine the evolved humans needing any government like the Breen model, if any government at all.
-- Stonce Anomi (neobe@kscable.com), April 02, 2000.
Regarding what John said about the Earth aliens, yes it's very plausible that they evolved without the help of Trevor's ray. It would also explain how Aeon could have killed off "the entire human race". I was under the impression that he did use the ray, immediately after he returned to Earth, and that Aeon had activated it for the 3rd time. I didn't think Aeon was asleep long enough for the humans to evolve naturally (I think the alien ship's computer said the trip would take something like 500 years), and also, Trevor would have wanted his paradise sooner rather than later. But I must admit your theory is better, it would explain why the control was still in the forest. (although it doesn't really, see Frostbite's comments under "End Sinister Questions") So, I guess Trevor didn't use the ray on Earth after all. Am I just slow, or what?
-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), April 02, 2000.
i don't know if there was any going back and time thing in there....trevor said that the ray shot to their planet..and they had come to earth do discover the source of it...to stop it or to reverse it....Then trevor said that the alien contained humanoid liniage which suggest that they are human just highly evolved....but then how is it that they are from some diff planet...the time thing would make since here....but i don't think it was a time thing...and i never said anything about aeon not aging i meant trevor and the aliens...she slept for ever and when she woke up there they were still young as ever...
-- Lady Morgan (Aeonfluxfan1@Aol.com), April 03, 2000.
I believe that the aliens were from another world, one like ours but more advanced. The second set of aliens were just evolved Earthlings, like Trevor said. As far as time-travel goes, I think you said it best; Trevor didn't age, therefore he must have been travelling through hyperspace. Time would pass on Earth, but not for Trevor and the alien. It's a standard sci-fi convention, I guess the writer just took it for granted here.
-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), April 03, 2000.
Also, the music for this episode is called "Time Pretzel Paradox" on the Eye Spy CD... nuff said.
-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), April 03, 2000.
hey, Kiru, what do you think? Now we can both comprehend this together!
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), April 03, 2000.
heh paul yeah i think ur rt it's that whole einstein's twin paradox thing yeah i like that better.....but treovor said that the aliens had humanoid lineage so doesn't that mean that they are human not alien that they are us human i mean?
-- (Aeonfluxfan1@Aol.com), April 03, 2000.
The moon shaped object and the giant robot are meant to be incomprehensible, best stated by Trevor himself when he said something to the effect of, "Our actions today would be incomprehensible to a human 500 years ago.. etc"
-- divinity (divinity@u.washington.edu), April 04, 2000.
I beg to differ, figuring this show out is half the fun. And now that you bring it up, the thing with the mechanical arm looked more like a small city than a robot. See all those pointy towers underneath the dome? It could be a mobile, climate controlled habitat for the aliens to live in while they try to eradicate the virus. (And the robot arm could be part of their attempt to "clean up")
-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), April 04, 2000.
That is worth going back to view the scene for, which I did, it seems to fit. The funny thing is, before I got the real explaination of this episode, I thought those things floating in the air were unborn babies, kind of as if they were incubating in the air, and that 'city' was an abortion machine,(like China, with it's population control,) the scene with the alien putting the "thing" in herself I thought was her attempt to have a baby naturally, I was way off, huh...
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), April 20, 2000.
Here's another mystery to ponder... After Trevor returns to Earth with the original alien, having just told her/it "I don't feel your pain, I don't understand!", do you think she/it still loves him? And who was the baby in Trevor's arms anyway, just another evolved human, or was it the alien's? Not that there'd be any physical difference, the aliens are what we become, but it sure would say a lot about Trevor, wouldn't it.
-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), May 13, 2000.
That's why I thought those things floating in the air were fetuses, I think they had a birth problem, or they envied our way of birthing or something. Yeah, and Trevor became more or less the lead scientist, or political leader or something. I mean why would she take HIM, what, they got no alien guys? And since they ran through the old broken wall, you have to wonder which side evolved, I think it tells you, Aeon ran TO the other side, she was originally with Trevor, in Bregna, so it must have been Monica. So Trevor became king of evolved Monica? And had it's first half-breed baby? So what do you think, how did it get done? Thoughts? I can just imagine...
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), May 13, 2000.
This show switches character around more than Hitchcock. Yes, it says a lot about Trevor's character. But the idea that the alien loved him is a new one to me, it never occurred to me. Really a whole new avenue of thought there.
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), May 14, 2000.
I have a weird alternate theory about what the floaty pink things are. Where do you see them?1:All over the alien planet. 2:Trevor pulls one out of the baby superhuman's (evolved) swaddling. 3:Aeon telepaths an image of the alien forcing one of these into itself.
What if they're the alien/superhuman equivalent of feces. Trever said they do not perspire of defecate but that may just be from the inital observed lack of orifices.
(A) Aldis-B caused some horrible disease, something parrallel to dysentry on the alien homeworld and, since it floats, a maintenence robot chases it around cleaning up the mess of an expired populace.
(B) A newborn will defecate on it's sheets and even a newborn superhuman isn't developed enough to tend to it's own hygene.
(C) Aeon sent that mental picture to the alien, roughly translated "Eat shit.", this caused the alien to become perturbed.
Weird, or too weird to be false?
-- Damian K. (bdbfox@banet.net), September 15, 2000.
I'm afraid you've got it ass backwards...
-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), September 15, 2000.
Whoops, I'm being cruel again, and right after I said I never would... sorry `bout that. There are loads of different theories about this ep, and just to clarify things, I will direct people to Chung's own synopsis (in the CFQ article) in the future. It's pretty close to Barb's, actually.
-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), September 29, 2000.
heh! AAhh Paul how i missed ur comments. It's good to be back. :O)
-- Lady Morgan (Aeonfluxfan1@aol.com), September 29, 2000.
It is?
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), September 30, 2000.
Yeah, because the floating "virus", as Chung explains it, actually *is* a bunch of developing fetuses. It's in the article, see for yourself.
-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), September 30, 2000.
What article? Where?
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), September 30, 2000.
Paul! Get back here!
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), September 30, 2000.
It's the Cinefantastique article at Will's site, State of Flux. CFQ = Cinefantastique. The URL is www.geocities.com/stateofflux/cine.html
-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), October 01, 2000.
Thanks for being gratious enough to respond. It seemed that way when I watched it because he was in that room with babies around him, and the shapes were pink. So, then, maybe you were right, the alien and he..? No wonder Aeon ran, she didn't want to see it.
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), October 02, 2000.
Probably so, but without Chung's help, how would we know about it? This ep is unrivaled in it's opacity (wow, there's a word I don't use often), but I still love the ending. Interesting that the tell-tale signs of the virus look just like the creatures it produced...
-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), October 02, 2000.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Aldus-B had triggered mass asexual reproduction on the planet, thus leading to all those fetuses. (hey, the original problem!)
-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), October 02, 2000.
Well, here's another way-out theory about this episode. Ever here of Aldus Manutius? He was a 15th century printer and publisher of the Italian Renaissance. If it wasn't for Aldus, many of the Greek classics, such as Homer, Sophocles and Demosthenes would have been lost to civilization. In 1450 Guttenberg (Guttenberg bible) created the 'book' for use in the churches. Aldus finished the transformation of the 'book' as we know it today, used for personal use, because he made it small! So, here's my way out theory, as a result of foreign Greek ideas the world became infected and diverted civilization from biblical teachings. Well, that was 500 years ago, (time in capsule?) 500 years later we are so removed from the original teachings of the bible and infected with foreign philosophies of thought that we are as 'strange' as the babies born from the aliens. If you want to read about Aldus Mantutius go to http://www.lib.sfu.ca/proj/aldus.htm, or reduce it on your screen and it will be listed, if you are on AOL, as Aldus B (bibliograph).
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), October 02, 2000.
Well, I just watched this one again today, in the sunlight, where my mind is more apt think more clearly, and I noticed Trevor taking one of these moonshaped things from a baby, so how then how could it be a fetus? I'm so CONFUSED.
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), December 31, 2000.
That thing I thought was like a throwback trait to the time when the "aliens" had intestines and things, those a vestigial organs that grow outside the perfect body and are removed at birth. How these babies are born is still a mystery to me, perhaps love between two evolved humans thinks these little creatures into existence, or they grow out of eyes. Well my first idea has to be true, we all saw how she did it with trevor, the eye is the only exchange so maybe they grow out of the eye. Sorry if this is not organized well, I tell you I've felt better.
-- Marquie de Nadar (nadar@BigPoppaPump.zzn.com), January 01, 2001.
This is a pretty interesting answer.
-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), January 01, 2001.
Well I went and read the post, and if Chung says there fetuses I guess they are. I never read the article but second hand information is a good as money. I think that I might read that article.
-- Marqiue de Nadar (nadar@BigPoppaPump.zzn.com), January 02, 2001.