Tonight's Ashes to Ashes was a great insight into Ray Carling's mind... Hot on the trails of a serial arsonist the team... what? You want speculation, not review? Okay!
Life On Mars saw Sam Tyler sent to Gene Hunt from the present day after an accident. Ashes To Ashes saw Alex Drake suffer the same fate, after being shot. So a few questions arise... Why Gene? Why are these officers getting sent to Gene Hunt? Whether they are in a coma or back in time, Sam Tyler and Alex Drake are both in a very tricky situation. A situation that my friend on Twitter, @SWH_2010, seems to think is not at all new Gene at all! I'll come to that in a second...
Twice now, on Ashes, we've seen strange "Life On Mars" music played while supporting characters - Shaz last week, Ray this week - zone out and get a little ethereal spotlight shined on them (hearing LOM Barman Nelson's voice too). But as my OTHER twitter friend, @Kazters, seems to think the TIMING of this little moment is what's important here. Both times the officers in question have been dissuaded, earlier in the episode, of following Gene Hunt's way by New Kid On The Block DCI Jim Keats. Both times they have eventually been won over to Gene's way of thinking by the man himself. THIS is when the music plays. THIS is when they have their moment. Now, the connection to Sam Tyler (and, through him, to the song Life On Mars) is as yet unforeseeable. But I think that'll clear up soon.
Now, @SWH_2010 seems to think that this is all to do with why the team are with Gene in the first place! What's this mysterious, gravitational pull he seems to have over these cops? @SWH_2010 seems to think that Shaz, Ray, Chris and presumably the other members of the team, have found themselves in the same situation as Sam and Alex. Suffering some kind of incident that sends them from their respective presents and straight to DCI Gene Hunt. BUT WHY??? I love this idea, LOVE it! And it feeds into my idea that Sam had to be "off'd" in order to keep the balance. The balance of what? I don't know... Maybe he "found out" something that the rest of the world couldn't know... I suppose only time will tell...
And I'm sticking with this until the very end!
It's looking more and more like all the characters are dead...hanging in some kind of purgatory. Gene is either the gatekeeper or maybe he keeps them around because he's lonely. I believe the cop that Alex sees with his face blown off is actually a young Gene Hunt. I'm not too fussed about how they clear it up as long as they don't cop out and use the American ending of Life On Mars, which was one of the worst finales EVER.
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