Anyone know what happened to Ruth the medical student from season 2. It is of course possible I missed something but I do not remember if Ruth was even mentioned in season 3 or if there was any reference to where she went or if she died??
Having seen The Cult of Survivors I reckon there was a lot of drama off camera as well? It was difficult enough getting used to losing Abby (and Terry Nation) but then Ruth too?
Now I have another question?
Spoiler alert:
Didn't The Captain expose everybody to smallpox? He was walking around with what looked like oozing sores on his face? I researched smallpox and it seems he would have been highly contagious? I have just finished the series and enjoyed it immensely but wonder how Jenny and Charles could go on the road to Scotland without a quarantine period of everyone at the GP compound?
Would really appreciate anybody who has any knowledge or insight? Maybe there are important scenes missing in the DVD. Thanks.
The Captain surviving smallpox cheapened Greg's sacrifice IMO. There was really no need, either; any old marauder would have done for the finale-that-wasn't-the-finale.
shareI believe it was explained early in the second series that Ruth traveled around the communities, treating people's ailments.
As for the Captain exposing everyone to smallpox, well don't forget the Norwegian girl was immune to it, as she had treated Greg, but the others weren't, so it's most likely they did quarantine Fellbridge for a while. If you felt OK after a week you hadn't picked it up, so they were lucky
After building up Ruth so much in S2, she was just dropped (like a lot of the semi-regular cast) in S3.
While I love Survivors, the random decisions with the cast just annoys me; they could have at least written her and the others out.
When one considers that making a TV show is a multi million dollar enterprise that usually involves hundreds of peoples livelihoods, and is therefore a significant commercial enterprise, to be screwing around with cast and plot in such ad hoc ways is amazingly unprofessional.
And if what one reads about the reasons for these things is true: personality issues, actors effectively wanting script approval and so on- one has to wonder about the maturity and fitness of these people to be involved in professional drama.
This stuff still goes on of course. The writers and producers of Lost were making it up as they went, and dicking around with cast and characters, nearly 40 years after Survivors. For audiences to invest time and emotion in story and characters to be treated so contemptuously by writers and producers, deserves every criticism we can voice.
While I'm here, the expository writing where one character explains to the children, but really to us, the audience, because we are child like, that everyone who was in the building that burned down, but is not here now, is dead, is the most egregious piece of writing for convenience I can ever recall seeing on TV. The characters (except Vic) are not even named, presumably to allow the writers the option of returning them at a later date, by the simple contrivance of saying they weren't at home when the fire happened. Incredibly insulting stuff.
Ruth was one of my favorite characters, so like you I also missed her in the 3rd season. I looked around on the web, I thought for sure she was at least mentioned by name in the 3rd season but I must of had the same assumption as this reviewer, assuming she was one of the five people mentioned in The Peacemaker.
Season 2
Ruth's final appearance is in New World. Here she and Pet spend some time pondering the uncertain future which now looms following the arrival of Agnes, Greg's departure to Norway and Charles' renewed talk of federation now that he is armed with Carlsson's notebook.
Season 3
We can assume that Ruth remained at Whitecross, when Jenny, Charles, Pet, Hubert, Jack and Lizzie relocated to Challoner. It is entirely possible that Ruth is one of the five new arrivals to Sloton Spencer from Whitecross, who Pet tells Charles about by phone in The Peacemaker. Given the demand for her skills, it is likely that Ruth was destined to spend the rest of her days moving from settlement to settlement tending to many different groups of survivors.
From an interview (http://www.survivorstvseries.com/Celia_Interview.htm) with the actor Celia Gregory she suggests the following on where Ruth ended up...
"I think Ruth probably got lost on the motorway going back to London to get some more soap!"
>_>