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Not Les Revenants (spoilers if not through ep 06)


About the only similarity is people returning and appearing to be trapped within a certain boundary zone. In LR, the road out of town circled back onto itself, where here there is a water boundary where they can't cross bridges over streams. I saw LR when it first aired in real time and I haven't done a marathon re-watch, so I can't do a point by point analysis, but these are two very separate series with an unexplained return from the dead being the main similarity, so one need not worry about it being like watching Rake (US) after watching Rake (AU).

If you haven't seen LR, and it is excellent even if just for the scenery, stop here as some spoilers may follow. In LR, it seemed like the whole town was in purgatory, and that physical entities within the town were mostly symbolic, such as the flooding of the power plant representing a dying life force. In Glitch we have this huge anonymous Pharma firm which might be the parallel to the corrupt corporation/government responsible for the dam collapse and coverup in LR. And for an unknown reason, I keep being reminded of the Star Trek TNG pilot about farpoint station and that underlying theme. Regardless, there were enough interesting scenarios in Glitch and enough unanswered questions that I will watch a series 2 if it appears. By the end I was finally able not to see Brammell as danny Bright, which says a lot about his first impression from UMB.

Was John Doe supposed to be Gabriel? What spiritual entity took over Vic? Is the Dr. another type of resurected angel/spirit? I marathoned through it in an evening and a morning so there wasn't much time to reflect on the developments in each episode. If there is a series 2, I sure hope it takes up where this one left off. There are several plot lines which sort of demand immediate vs delayed by a year action.

I think my percentage of Chimp DNA is higher than others. Cleaver Greene

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I must admit that I gave up on LR halfway through since nothing seemed to be happening.

Beautiful scenery can't make up for that.

Glitch was very good. A 7/10 so well above average. I may bump it up to an 8/10 if the next series lives up to the promise of the first.

Was John Doe supposed to be Gabriel? What spiritual entity took over Vic? Is the Dr. another type of resurrected angel/spirit?


Your guess is as good as mine, and I frankly have no idea.

But that's usual for me.

If the opposite of Love is indifference, what's the opposite of Hate?

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[deleted]

I watched the whole thing in two parts, & hanging out for season 2...I like "is Sarah really Sarah?" as James appeared to react differently after her emergency surgery.
Need to know what/who Vic became after the accident. On reflection he did seem like an autotron standing stock still outside the Dry Cleaner's all night.... He did go from laid back mr nice country police chief to vicious. What was the scene in the motel with his wife all about? 'What's got into you' she says. Was he someone else being with her for his first time?
(Spoiler alert) now the real doctor died 4 years ago- is that identity theft or did she become 'undead'... She was 'safe' to cross the bridge unlike the other un-dead. On reflection her quiet calm manner could be interpreted as having no personality or no substance. She showed very little emotion til the end.
what was the silver object belonging to John Doe / convict man that he blew like a whistle or a signal? Vic & the doctor both knew what it was...does anyone else know?? The others reacted to it but I couldn't read their reactions....
I liked how their histories all came out at a nice pace. Fantastic Australian piece. Very well acted. Please let there only be one more season. I can't stand the suspense / wait for next season. Very clever writing that the viewer sees everything at face value & almost gets tricked into not seeing what is probably really going on! It is a good thing though painful, that the show raised more questions than it answered.
That's why it's good to have a message board - compare notes ;)

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Was John Doe supposed to be Gabriel?

The whistle could be similar to Gabriel's trumpet, though the Bible mentions a trumpet blast preceding the resurrection of the dead. In Christian songs that were created by African slaves it usually indicates the Lord's return to Earth.

I don't think John is anyone special. He seems to be the only resurrected to accept his death when it happened. While the others can have a motive to have ties to life (unsolved murder, accidental death, illness, unfinished business), John is the only one to have rightfully died by hanging for his crimes. Like he told Vic, "in the end, I wanted to die". That doesn't fit any of the other resurrected (except for Charlie, but we still don't know how he died).

what was the silver object belonging to John Doe / convict man that he blew like a whistle or a signal?

To me it looked like a failsafe system. When he used it, it seemed that all the resurrected felt peaceful, like they finally understood (like John) that "in the end, they wanted to die", accepting death and "embracing" the peace it gave them in the end.

Why was that whistle in John's tomb is another question without answer.

A few details make John special:
- He is the last resurrected, while the rest came out of their graves at the same exact moment, John came out of his in broad daylight.
- Elishia tried to cover for him as soon as she saw his grave, telling James "It's just a hole. Empty. Nothing.", also hiding the silver whistle from everyone.
- Elishia was attracted to him and tried to use his lack of memory to "mold" him. When he finds out he was a murderer, she tells him to "start afresh, make up your own memory" (however she tries to make him kill Vic when needed). Was she trying her own little experiment on John? Did she get too attached to him in the end?
- The last words he tells Elishia are cryptic: "You had no right to bring me back"... From the bridge or from the grave? It's the first time (I think) we saw some emotion from Elishia, too.

now the real doctor died 4 years ago- is that identity theft or did she become 'undead'... She was 'safe' to cross the bridge unlike the other un-dead.

Because she's not "undead". The real Dr McKellar died four year earlier but since Kate has been dead only for two years and in the first episode Elishia asks her if she remembered Dr Kelly, who was at the surgery before her (which Kate does), we have to assume she's been in Yoorana for less than two years. Probably she was planted there with a fake identity by Noregard Pharmaceuticals to keep an eye on the locals and the experiment.

She showed very little emotion til the end.

Oh, you mean like she had no regard?

Ironically, she saved Vic's life (she swore an oath) but she tried to make John kill him.

For me, she was the visible head of the corrupt corporation responsible for the incident/experiment (as pointed by the OP).

By the way, the car we see in the very beginning leaving the cemetery as Beau arrives on his bike is her own car. The Noregard Pharmaceuticals car we can see when the guy collects a sample of Vic's remains is very different.

Need to know what/who Vic became after the accident.

It seemed pretty obvious it was Death, or some other related entity (a subordinate). Noregard Pharmaceuticals is messing with Death's work, and that entity is trying to fix things back to how they are supposed to be.

Was he someone else being with her for his first time?

Everything seemed to be new to the "thing" that got into Vic. For example, when he (it?) was at the gas station in the beginning of the third episode, someone enters and goes to the bathroom. Vic then mimics him, he urinates and sighs in relief, like he didn't know his body had to do that. The same goes for the sex in the motel and why he leaves with just a "thank you, goodbye".

I like "is Sarah really Sarah?" as James appeared to react differently after her emergency surgery.

It also seemed pretty obvious that what possessed Vic is now inside Sarah (hinted by both the doctor stating she was dead for a moment during surgery -just like Vic when he had the car accident- and by how show looked at James, and how he reacted). Which, by the way, will make things easier for James and Kate. Sarah's character was starting to be really annoying, the way she dumped Kate's belongings (when James treasured them in the cabin), how she called Kate out on Chris,... Now that the baby is born, it seems the writers are planning to get her out of the way of the happy James-Kate couple.

Other unanswered questions:
- What is keeping them inside the town boundaries? When Elishia tries to find an exit for the resurrected, she draws the boundaries and it's not a circle (as you should expect), it's an elongated hexagon.
- Does it have something to do with electricity? The very first scenes of the series show electric disturbances in the whole town: main street, gas station, The Royal, train station, even Noregard Pharmaceuticals, just when the resurrection happens. Everytime someone tries to cross the town limits, there's an electric buzz sound in the background. The first time Kate tries to leave town and she has the reaction they even show the electric pole (hint?).
- In the first episode, when Carlo leaves the surgery he ends up trying to climb the Noregard facilities' fence, just as Vic was arriving to the gate (he doesn't seem to be passing by, he drives towards the entrance and then he notices and arrests Carlo). Is it a coincidence? Why does Carlo ends specifically there, and why was Vic there and (apparently) going into the facilities?
- Was Vic's car accident really an accident? Something is wrong with the radio (electrical disturbance again?) and then he loses control of the vehicle. He doesn't seem distracted, and everything happens in a straight road. The whole accident felt strange, not caused by being distracted by the radio, but like he saw something on the road and tried to avoid it.

I really look forward to watching the next season. I just hope they will be able to wrap everything on a second season, and they won't try to stretch the series. The first season had a very strong start, but I felt it sometimes started to lose its focus with every new episode. I'd rather have a great second season with a closure, than a mediocre series following the trail of other tv shows like "The Dome" or "The Following".

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