FORKNI-L
Digest - 22 Dec 2010 to 23 Dec 2010 (#2010-42)
Thu, 23 Dec 2010
There is 1 message totalling 64 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Some musings on the "whammy"
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Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:53:09 -0700
From: Angela Gottfred <agottfre@t.......>
Subject: Re: Some musings on the "whammy"
Greer Watson pointed out earlier that the situation in "Only the Lonely" is
not clearcut. Did Natalie pretend to be whammied by Nick when they first met
in the morgue? If so, why did she drop the pretense when she saw him on the
street later? And if she really was whammied, then what made it stop
working?
My gut feeling is that Nat did pretend to be whammied. But in the hours or
days after her encounter with Nick, she wondered if she really had done the
right thing. The combination of getting to know this good-looking guy (who
she later admitted to being attracted to) and solving a scientific puzzle
were ultimately too much to resist. So when she saw Nick for the second
time, she decided not to let him go so easily.
However, if she really was whammied in the first place, it's not too hard to
see why it wore off. Nick didn't know about the documentary evidence problem
at that time. Nat would have found a paper trail a mile long - documentation
that she received a body that isn't there any more, not to mention the
umpteen crime scene reports and photos that would have been necessary before
Nick's body was sent to Nat's morgue.
I also saw "Avenging Angel" the other night. That one was interesting
because Nick's whammy of the TV reporter in front of the shelter for abused
women suggests a fifth scenario, which I call "Whammy? What whammy?"
Nick is upset because the TV crew is filming right on the doorsteps of the
safe house, which is compromising its location. First he asks the reporter
to move quite belligerently, and the reporter responds equally heatedly.
Then Nick pulls out the whammy.
Nick: "You're all done here. There's nothing more to see. It's what you call
'a wrap'."
Reporter: "Let's go. That's a wrap."
However, later, we see the footage airing on TV, with chaos ensuing.
So obviously the whammy didn't work. There are two possibilities here.
First, Nick's whammy was successful, it's just that he didn't give the right
suggestion. He convinced them to leave, but didn't say a thing about not
airing info that could locate the shelter. The other possibility is that the
reporter didn't even know that a whammy had been attempted. He *was* all
done there, he didn't see any reason to further annoy the homicide cop (who
he might come into contact with on a future story), so he actually agreed
with what Nick had said, and responded "It's a wrap," not even realizing
that Nick was trying to pull something on him. (Probably just thought Nick
was a bit overbearing.) And the reporter then went back to the studio to
finish the footage in time for the news broadcast.
Finally, one little side note regarding "Avenging Angel". In Canada, many
shelters for abused women and children were originally established as homes
for unwed mothers; places where the girls could have their babies far from
home and then give them up for adoption, then return with nobody the wiser
back home. With the sexual revolution, many of the maternity homes lost
their original clientele and were repurposed as women's shelters. I learned
this from Canadian journalist Ann Petrie's memoir/history, _Gone to an
Aunt's_.
(http://www.amazon.ca/Gone-Aunts-Remembering-Canadas-Mothers/dp/0771069715 )
Fascinating stuff!
Can you picture Nick having a flashback to what was happening at that same
shelter 50 years earlier?
Your humble & obedient servant,
Angela Gottfred
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End of FORKNI-L Digest - 22 Dec 2010 to 23 Dec 2010 (#2010-42)
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