Post by rhort on Mar 8, 2013 4:26:04 GMT -5
A new series, and a new location, as we’re introduced to Gary and Yvonne’s new flat at around the same time as Ron, who is clearly impressed, but in appraising the new residence, immediately shows his working class roots. Straight into the fray, Yvonne kicks things off in the usual style for her relationship with Gary, thus bringing us straight to the subplot for this episode, when she tells Gary that there is an event she wants him to attend tonight, however, he’s instantly into excuse mode, leaving Yvonne thoroughly unimpressed, as usual.
Back at the Royal Oak, and Gary’s excuses are still coming thick and fast, as he’s laying them on for Phoebe too, as he leaves to make a dash through the rain to get back to Yvonne. Reg is on excellent comic form as the plot device of the umbrella is highlighted before Gary rushes out into the rain. As Gary approaches the portal, his umbrella struck by lightning, which will show something of the electromagnetic nature of the portal to anyone who understands electricity, and how lightning strikes happen. The result of this is that Gary appears to be split into two copies of himself, one of whom is unconscious, the other seemingly unharmed.
Returning to the new flat, and Gary is noticeably different, to the viewer at least, but this seems largely ignored by both Ron and Yvonne, the latter of which is visibly concerned with the way things have been going of late between her and her husband. When Gary suggests they should do something together later, Yvonne sets off thinking she knows the sort of thing he has in mind, and beings to belittle the idea, however, Gary steps in, suggesting something significantly more special, leaving a stunned Yvonne very much on the back foot as she registers her approval. Ron too is impressed, clearly enjoying the new Gary, with little or no explanation as to why things have changed so radically.
The people in the bar at the Royal Oak don’t seem to have questioned the differences in Gary either, despite their approval of the changes, particularly Reg, who seems to be enjoying Gary’s jokes, until he tells him one that goes a little close to the bone. As Gary then tries it on with Phoebe, he finds that he’s hit the talent wall, and she’s having none of it, so Gary decides to try his luck elsewhere, and leaves for the portal. I always thought that, at this point, the street in the shot outside seems different; looks slightly narrower to me for some reason, but it might just be the angle it’s taken from, which I don’t think we’ve seen before.
A brief visit back to the shop, as Gary nips to the toilet, and we find that the ‘other’ Gary, who we can only assume is the original one, is tied up in the back room, leading us to further assume that the Gary we’ve been seeing in the last two scenes is the ‘Evil Twin’, to take the standard science fiction rule whereby one twin is always good and the other is evil. This marks the point where the episode becomes extremely complicated to anyone who’s not giving it their full attention.
Back at the new flat, Yvonne is clearly most annoyed with Gary for not turning up for the Paris trip, and Ron is bearing the brunt of her ire. When ‘real’ Gary turns up he’s naturally confused by the chain of events set in motion by ‘evil’ Gary, and part of his efforts to try and get up to speed involves his attempts to convince Ron of what’s happened. Whilst initially understandably sceptical, Ron is shocked into a level of belief when ‘evil’ Gary turns up briefly, then turning tail and running before anyone can stop him. As the two then discuss the issue, Gary is most perturbed to find that Ron felt that his doppelganger was in fact more fun.
Still basically hunting around for whatever he can get (particularly in the bedroom department), ‘evil’ Gary returns to the 40s, and tries to bring Phoebe back on board by apologising, but she seems to be able to see right through him and rebuffs his advances once more, so just as he begins to look elsewhere, Reg provides a moment of distraction by asking for him to play a song, however, given his anarchic choice, it doesn’t go down at all well. Sensing that he’s struck out once again, he then returns to the 90s and Gary and Yvonne’s flat, however, Yvonne is still singularly unimpressed with his efforts, so he loots her handbag instead, taking a sum of cash and a necklace he finds there, before noticing ‘real’ Gary and Ron outside and heading toward the flat, so once again, he makes good his escape, but as he leaves, he takes a moment to kiss Yvonne most passionately, leaving her momentarily senseless. As ‘real’ Gary enters with Ron, they are finishing off a discussion about ‘evil’ Gary’s exploits in the Royal Oak, however, when Yvonne appears, she (obviously unwittingly) lets them know that ‘evil’ Gary was just here, so they set off in pursuit, only to find that Gary’s evil twin has got the jump on him once again by making off with his car.
Eventually arriving back at the Oak, ‘real’ Gary arrives to find that ‘evil’ Gary has just left, and waiting only a moment to catch up on events from Phoebe, he notices the challenge written on the darts scoreboard, “One down, one to go!”, and so sets off back to find Yvonne as fast as possible, arriving back at the flat before he does, and witnessing ‘evil’ Gary return with Yvonne, and then proceed to seduce her on the sofa, right in front of him.
When Ron finally catches up with Gary, he’s back at the shop, and Ron finds himself staring down the barrel of a wartime service revolver, as Gary has decided to take no further chances. Almost as if he’s simply planning to kill ‘evil’ Gary, ‘real’ Gary sets off to look for him through the portal, finding him in the Oak, taking a pot shot at him, then rushing off for fear of being discovered by Reg. ‘Evil’ Gary then rushes back to the shop, and attempts to convince Ron that he’s the original Gary, leading Ron to work with him on a plan to disarm him when he returns. As the plan is put into effect, ‘evil’ Gary reveals himself, and whilst making the classic ‘Evil Genius Mistake #1’, spends so long explaining the details of his dastardly deeds to the good guys, that he gives a third Gary time to make an appearance, which distracts him long enough for Ron to then disarm him. The third Gary then tells them he is the other half of ‘evil’ Gary, comprising of only the good-natured elements of his personality, and even hinting for a moment that he might be homosexual -- Oh! What a time he would have had if only Noël had been around
As the four of them discuss what needs to be done to get things back to ‘normal’, Ron comes up with a brilliant plan, which actually makes a reasonable degree of scientific sense, and shows that he’s been paying attention, and is capable of a good amount of logic when required. The three of them all need to go back through the portal simultaneously, and that should reintegrate them into one person. As they pass through the portal, Phoebe is standing on the other side, fortunately looking the other way, however, this doesn’t detract from the fact that she’s still annoyed with Gary about many of the things he’s done over the past couple of days, but Gary’s promises seem to bring her back around somewhat.
Back to the new flat for the final scene, and given the passionate nature of Gary’s other self, Yvonne is very much in a playful mood, however, she then finds herself disappointed when Gary doesn’t seem to be able to kiss her in quite the way she’s become accustomed of late, but even so, Gary’s initial attempts to talk to her are met with disinterest at first. When she suggests carrying things on where they’d left off earlier, things are brought to a close with the excellent "Why couldn't she have met the gay one?" line.
I’d give this episode a 80% rating. Very complicated plot, and difficult to follow at times, especially during the ‘who’s in this scene?’ scenes at the end of the second act.
Back at the Royal Oak, and Gary’s excuses are still coming thick and fast, as he’s laying them on for Phoebe too, as he leaves to make a dash through the rain to get back to Yvonne. Reg is on excellent comic form as the plot device of the umbrella is highlighted before Gary rushes out into the rain. As Gary approaches the portal, his umbrella struck by lightning, which will show something of the electromagnetic nature of the portal to anyone who understands electricity, and how lightning strikes happen. The result of this is that Gary appears to be split into two copies of himself, one of whom is unconscious, the other seemingly unharmed.
Returning to the new flat, and Gary is noticeably different, to the viewer at least, but this seems largely ignored by both Ron and Yvonne, the latter of which is visibly concerned with the way things have been going of late between her and her husband. When Gary suggests they should do something together later, Yvonne sets off thinking she knows the sort of thing he has in mind, and beings to belittle the idea, however, Gary steps in, suggesting something significantly more special, leaving a stunned Yvonne very much on the back foot as she registers her approval. Ron too is impressed, clearly enjoying the new Gary, with little or no explanation as to why things have changed so radically.
The people in the bar at the Royal Oak don’t seem to have questioned the differences in Gary either, despite their approval of the changes, particularly Reg, who seems to be enjoying Gary’s jokes, until he tells him one that goes a little close to the bone. As Gary then tries it on with Phoebe, he finds that he’s hit the talent wall, and she’s having none of it, so Gary decides to try his luck elsewhere, and leaves for the portal. I always thought that, at this point, the street in the shot outside seems different; looks slightly narrower to me for some reason, but it might just be the angle it’s taken from, which I don’t think we’ve seen before.
A brief visit back to the shop, as Gary nips to the toilet, and we find that the ‘other’ Gary, who we can only assume is the original one, is tied up in the back room, leading us to further assume that the Gary we’ve been seeing in the last two scenes is the ‘Evil Twin’, to take the standard science fiction rule whereby one twin is always good and the other is evil. This marks the point where the episode becomes extremely complicated to anyone who’s not giving it their full attention.
Back at the new flat, Yvonne is clearly most annoyed with Gary for not turning up for the Paris trip, and Ron is bearing the brunt of her ire. When ‘real’ Gary turns up he’s naturally confused by the chain of events set in motion by ‘evil’ Gary, and part of his efforts to try and get up to speed involves his attempts to convince Ron of what’s happened. Whilst initially understandably sceptical, Ron is shocked into a level of belief when ‘evil’ Gary turns up briefly, then turning tail and running before anyone can stop him. As the two then discuss the issue, Gary is most perturbed to find that Ron felt that his doppelganger was in fact more fun.
Still basically hunting around for whatever he can get (particularly in the bedroom department), ‘evil’ Gary returns to the 40s, and tries to bring Phoebe back on board by apologising, but she seems to be able to see right through him and rebuffs his advances once more, so just as he begins to look elsewhere, Reg provides a moment of distraction by asking for him to play a song, however, given his anarchic choice, it doesn’t go down at all well. Sensing that he’s struck out once again, he then returns to the 90s and Gary and Yvonne’s flat, however, Yvonne is still singularly unimpressed with his efforts, so he loots her handbag instead, taking a sum of cash and a necklace he finds there, before noticing ‘real’ Gary and Ron outside and heading toward the flat, so once again, he makes good his escape, but as he leaves, he takes a moment to kiss Yvonne most passionately, leaving her momentarily senseless. As ‘real’ Gary enters with Ron, they are finishing off a discussion about ‘evil’ Gary’s exploits in the Royal Oak, however, when Yvonne appears, she (obviously unwittingly) lets them know that ‘evil’ Gary was just here, so they set off in pursuit, only to find that Gary’s evil twin has got the jump on him once again by making off with his car.
Eventually arriving back at the Oak, ‘real’ Gary arrives to find that ‘evil’ Gary has just left, and waiting only a moment to catch up on events from Phoebe, he notices the challenge written on the darts scoreboard, “One down, one to go!”, and so sets off back to find Yvonne as fast as possible, arriving back at the flat before he does, and witnessing ‘evil’ Gary return with Yvonne, and then proceed to seduce her on the sofa, right in front of him.
When Ron finally catches up with Gary, he’s back at the shop, and Ron finds himself staring down the barrel of a wartime service revolver, as Gary has decided to take no further chances. Almost as if he’s simply planning to kill ‘evil’ Gary, ‘real’ Gary sets off to look for him through the portal, finding him in the Oak, taking a pot shot at him, then rushing off for fear of being discovered by Reg. ‘Evil’ Gary then rushes back to the shop, and attempts to convince Ron that he’s the original Gary, leading Ron to work with him on a plan to disarm him when he returns. As the plan is put into effect, ‘evil’ Gary reveals himself, and whilst making the classic ‘Evil Genius Mistake #1’, spends so long explaining the details of his dastardly deeds to the good guys, that he gives a third Gary time to make an appearance, which distracts him long enough for Ron to then disarm him. The third Gary then tells them he is the other half of ‘evil’ Gary, comprising of only the good-natured elements of his personality, and even hinting for a moment that he might be homosexual -- Oh! What a time he would have had if only Noël had been around
As the four of them discuss what needs to be done to get things back to ‘normal’, Ron comes up with a brilliant plan, which actually makes a reasonable degree of scientific sense, and shows that he’s been paying attention, and is capable of a good amount of logic when required. The three of them all need to go back through the portal simultaneously, and that should reintegrate them into one person. As they pass through the portal, Phoebe is standing on the other side, fortunately looking the other way, however, this doesn’t detract from the fact that she’s still annoyed with Gary about many of the things he’s done over the past couple of days, but Gary’s promises seem to bring her back around somewhat.
Back to the new flat for the final scene, and given the passionate nature of Gary’s other self, Yvonne is very much in a playful mood, however, she then finds herself disappointed when Gary doesn’t seem to be able to kiss her in quite the way she’s become accustomed of late, but even so, Gary’s initial attempts to talk to her are met with disinterest at first. When she suggests carrying things on where they’d left off earlier, things are brought to a close with the excellent "Why couldn't she have met the gay one?" line.
I’d give this episode a 80% rating. Very complicated plot, and difficult to follow at times, especially during the ‘who’s in this scene?’ scenes at the end of the second act.