That helicopter scene

We all know the one I mean. The final scene of 3.10, Revolution Pt 2. 

Now, to be totally honest, I liked the finale up to this last scene.  The death of Anacostia was a tragedy, but she was moving on to a new role on a new show and this honoured her contribution. 

I know some people are not happy that Scylla and Adil were not in the helicopter scene.  However, I don’t think they had a part to play in it.  When the cataclysm happened it was Tally, Abigail and Raelle who played pivotal parts in it.  Tally and Abigail as stewards, singing their part of the song and Raelle with the Witchbomb sending their message all round the world.  Then Raelle healed Adil and Scylla.  This storyline started with the unit and ended with the unit.  Adil and Scylla would still be there when the Bat landed back at Fort Salem.

But, I don’t understand the helicopter scene.  It almost screams deleted scene, or at least deleted lines.  There have been a few bits previously that I wanted to rewrite, but this makes me just want to take that page from Eliot and totally rewrite it.  Keep it open ended, but get it to make sense.

Here’s what they actually say:

Alder:  You’re going to want to listen carefully.  The Mother wants a word.

Echoing voice (Amanda Tapping’s voice overlaid on Lyne Renee’s): Long ago I merged with six women.  I changed their voices and the way they hear.  As my gifts travelled down their lines, descendants of the six came to be known as witches, and they came to be feared for their gifts. Now my gift is freely given, thanks to you three.  They are awake, all of them singing one song.

Tally:  And the Camarilla?

Alder / Mother: They are witches too, like everyone else. [Addressing Tally] You saw my plan.  You saw how all the pieces work together.  The parts you all played.

Tally:  Will it be enough?

Alder / Mother:  That is up to you.  The world will need new stewards.  They will need your vision [Tally], your care [Raelle] and your fury [Abigail].  Well done.  They will call you goddesses.

Alder:  Did you get all that?

Tally:  It doesn’t mean what I think it means?

Raelle:  We’re ancient.

Alder:  Like an old friend once said, witch is just a word they call us.  She has spoken.  In fact she has just told me that my work is done.  Thank you for changing the world my daughters.

[She kisses each of them].

Alder: When they call you goddesses, make sure you live up to it.

Tally, Raelle, Abigail: Let us begin  – Khàsémé àvá.

One thing that seems glaringly absent from this scene is any Abigail dialogue.  Abigail doesn’t get a line in this scene.  Raelle may only have got two words, but Abigail deserved something.  I just wonder what was filmed and not shown.

I can’t work out if the Mother is thanking them for what they have done or what they are going to do or both. 

Alder / Mother’s first part does make sense, the idea of the six women we saw at the start of 3.1 Homo Cantus having their voices and hearing changed is what we have been shown through the seasons.  That these changes were gifts and made people fear them is reasonable. 

When the Mother says ‘Now my gift is freely given’ does this mean that everyone’s voices and hearing has been changed?  As for the ‘They are awake, all of them singing one song’ part, here is where I start to lose it. Awake in what sense?  All of them singing one song, is that some peculiar way of saying that harmony has been returned to the world?  Is the Mother trying to say that it was a way of healing divisions between people and ending hatred and prejudice?  Or is it more metaphysical, about all being children of the Mother?  If that is the meaning then it has major implications for the world religions. 

The idea of the Camarilla being witches too is unsettling.  If they are committed enough to hating witches that they form an army and wear 22.18 on their jackets then the last thing they want to become are witches themselves.  They would not want to become what they themselves hate.  When you hate what you are and cannot change, then it is a bad place to be.

Then it gets weirder, with the idea that the world will need new stewards.  Stewards of what?  Stewards of the first song, version 2?  Then we need Khalida and the others in that Bat too.  What are these new stewards supposed to do?  And as for them being called goddesses?  Why?  Honestly that was bizarre.  Why would they be called goddesses?  Perhaps Alder was talking about the long distant future, when stories of the origin of the new world order are told and the unit become almost mythological and achieve goddess like status in the retelling.

The only person who seems to understand what is going on is Tally.  She asks ‘It doesn’t mean what I think it means?’. I am not sure if Raelle was serious or joking when she replies, ‘We’re ancient.’  Perhaps that is a question to ask Taylor at the London con in August. 

Somehow it is fitting that the last line of this scene is said in unison.  Their Khàsémé àvá ‘Let us begin’, in Mothertongue both suggests an ancient past and the start of a new future. 

Powerful, but I think something got lost along the way.  Probably a few lines of dialogue to join the dots.  I would love to see an original script for this scene, it might help me to understand.  Failing that – Tally, have you got time for a couple of beers?  I’ll buy.