Hey! finally, a decent forum for flux-philes. Most of the stuff you've all been talking about makes little sense to me, as where I live (New Zealand), no-ones ever even heard of Aeon Flux. So the only episodes I've ever seen are the ones on Liquid Television and the 3rd series half-hour ones.

Anyway, my question. That episode in the 3rd series, I think it's called 'Chronosphasia', still baffles me completely. Y' know, the one where she keeps waking up in that cave after being killed (repeatedly).

Could someone please help me!

-- Joey Tarlton (j_tarlton@xtra.co.nz), April 25, 1998

Answers

Woops, just realised that the episodes on Liquid TV ARE series one and two.

-- Joey Tarlton (j_tarlton@xtra.co.nz), April 25, 1998.

To tell you the truth, this episode baffles me too. However, i do know some things that might help to make sense of it. First off, you know how Aeon wakes up over and over on that rock slab, then sticks her fingers in that puddle of unknown fluid? Chung says that was supposed to be blood. The idea was that she would wake up not knowing whose blood it was. Is it hers? Someone's she killed? He said that making it a blue fluid ruined the whole show. You see, for some reason(maybe because she is infected with the Virus) she gets caught in a time loop that sends her back to that slab everytime she dies. She is supposed to be learning the consequences of her actions and her mistakes. For example,the first time she wakes up, she is shot at by two breen gaurds. The second time, she knows to hide from the gaurds and she overcomes them. There are hundreds of people dead, and Aeon suspects the baby did it. But the boy states that this is not so "you have looked death twice in the face, but have not yet guessed it's secret." Later, Aeon suspects the boy did it. Boy:"i was here before. before they came with thier experiments..." Aeon:"so you KILLED them" Then, she is forced to face the fact that perhaps SHE killed them. Trully this is the most baffling episode in the series, with The Purge coming in a close second.

-- Frostbite (http//foo@bar.com), April 26, 1998.

But what's the deal with that boy in the lab? Who the hell is he and why is he there? does it matter? And what's the significance of that very last scene? That's what bothers me the most.

-- Joey Tarlton (j_tarlton@xtra.co.nz), April 27, 1998.

Yes I think we should start an elaborate forum on this episode called Mutant Babies (Baby)? Anyway, it baffles me too and I m sick of trying to figure it out....."to you I bequeeth?" Explain.

Alright that is all for me kitties it's finals week on college campuses across America!

Gina aka x-phile

-- Gina Holechko (gina.holechko@mailexcite.com), April 28, 1998.

Who is the boy?

Consider the demiurge, and the serif-trevs. There are lots of supernatural creatures in Aeons world.Clearly this boy is not human. He appears to be from an older,immortal, and powerful race. This is the first episode that Chung has no part in writing (can you tell) The boys superhuman qualities are a complete deparure from Chungs angel-like serif-trevs and god-like demiurge.

-- Frostbite (http//foo@bar.com), April 28, 1998.

I just thought of something!What if the boy is a hallucination brought on by the virus? What if he is a personification of a hidden corner Aeon's psyche that had never been able to surface before she was infected? That might explain the fact that he loves her, and the end scene that is most likely another hallucination. Maybe hallucination is not the right word. Ever seen The Maxx? Maybe that last scene is like Julie's outback, except in reverse. Whereas Julie seeks an exotic live full of adventure, Aeon secretly wishes for a normal life and doesn't even relise it. There are other parallels. Julie projects her fantasy onto Maxx and in the end he becomes like a gateway that makes her conciously understand her desire. Similarly, the virus allows for Aeon to tap into her own subconcious wish.

-- Frostbite (http//foo@bar.com), April 28, 1998.

This episode continues to baffle me, and that's why it remains my favorite. :) During my correspondence with Drew Neumann, he said that, indeed, Peter Chung had almost nothing to do with this episode and that it was actually his "least favorite". It's a huge departure from the other nine 1/2 hour episodes, at any rate.

Anyway. Has anyone noticed the boy's necklace? There's a yellow happy face on it. And remember "Everything that rises must converge"? I'm not very well-read, but I'm pretty sure that's the title of a book from this century. I think the happy face also points to our era somehow -- a sign of the times, akin to how the peace symbol points to the late 1960's.

So, here's my crazy theory: The boy is from our time, the late 20th century. Somehow he wound up stuck in the cave, lacking parents, lacking a childhood. Perhaps he was kidnapped and used as a test subject, whatever. The point is, he wants Aeon to be his mommy.

Boy: "You resist me!" Aeon: "No." Boy: "I will have you!" Aeon: "Have me!" (struts her stuff) "What's the matter?" Boy: "No, not like this!"

Unfortunately, there's sketchy evidence (at best!) to support this idea. "My inheritance to you" helps drop the hint, I think. And then at the end, Aeon is driving a mundane car and playing tinny pop music through the stereo, and the implication is that she's driving her son to a baseball game.

I think the 20th century references are undeniable. The mom thing is a bit abstract, but it's something to think about. Very, very weird.

-- Zach (rapacity@usa.net), May 01, 1998.

Btw, the smiley face and other items that make up Boy's necklace are from the keyring in that last scene.

-- Philip Mills (philip.mills@cableinet.co.uk), May 02, 1998.

Philip Mills, that observation about the smiley faces and things being from the keychain is ingenious. I never would have noticed. It really leads to so many possibilities for conjecture on the tie in that I don't want to take time thinking of them now to write about it.

One thing everybody seems to be ignoring, though points have been discussed that could be supported based on it, is that the boy bears a resemblance to Aeon (she doesn't notice it either). I noticed this throughout the episode, so when I saw the last scene, it really made something click for me. Comments?

-- P D (Snazzman@Hotmail.com), May 04, 1998.

That's a good point to bring up, about their possible relationship as mother and child. Take a look at this bit of dialogue from the episode: Aeon: "Take a look at the photo in my top. Go ahead." Trevor: "My pleasure... How cute! Is it yours?" Aeon: "A test subject from the little 'experiment'. I came to get her out." Notice that Aeon doesn't confirm or deny Trevor's comment about it being hers? Maybe the baby is her child. But somehow I think it more likely that the boy is hers, if anything is.

-- Mat Rebholz (mer5@dana.ucc.nau.edu), May 04, 1998.

This plays into my own pet theories, apropos of nothing else on the show. The virus (near as I could tell) seems to be some kind of Time-Loop, whatever else happens, Aeon keeps waking up in the cavern with the Boy. He may or may not be her son, he definitely has some connection to her but not to Trevor. I still can*t be sure about the Baby herself, the Boy is looking out for her in some way yet unexplained. This is where my ideas begin: Forget Trevor, Aeon must apparently leave him behind. Once she grasps whatever the Boy is saying about Time, what he *bequeths* to her, she can slip free of this--situation?, timeline?, some kind of respite or oasis where she and the Boy are (for the present) living normal lives. Off-duty if you like. There is no guarantee that this state is permenant, only that it may be the *ordinary* lives that Aeon may or may not be protecting in her byzantine games with Trevor. (Aeon may be a villian, but her actions are not wrong.) Where the irrelevancies begin are when I insist on imagining Jane and Elroy Jetson also present at the ball game--are thier lives so completely apart from Aeons? If that gets too far-fetched, look at the contrasts you see in Japanese Anime, for all the star-blazing action there will be at least one scene of domestic quiet, a girl feeding her cat, someone reading a book and drinking beer, etc. Aeon, by this token, may have *slipped* into Jane Jetson*s neighborhood in NeoTokyo, for a much-needed respite from the constant cutting-edge frenzy. It leaves Aeons position as open-ended as ever, for all the pleasentries (and is it wrong for Aeon to relax into *normalcy* for a time?) there is no telling how long it will last-----not if the rest of the series is taken into account. Of course to true fans all the above will be completely wrong, but it*s my two cents so I am sticking it in. I welcome anyone who can further enlighten the subject.

-- Mrs. Whitworth (Mrsmishima@aol.com), May 12, 1998.

This episode is very similar to the structure of the earlier seasons, as Aeon kept dying in various situations. In this season her deaths are usually rendered noneffective by something (paralyzing fluid, a clone, ect.), here the saving grace could be insanity, disease, nonlinear time, or just a 'dream sequence'; whatever reality Aeon exists in can not allow her to remain dead. I don't mean that metaphorically; her immortality is one of the tenets of her reality. Whether she can learn or change anything with the ability to replay her actions is the crux of the episode, as well as the thing people find so facinating about time travel. (Digressing for a second, look at the first Back to the Future in comparison to the later two. The first is about second chances, the second somewhat, the third is just a tour of another time zone.)

The end represents another path Aeon may have taken; the route she took to get there isn't as important. One possibility is time itself bringing this about. A baby photo, a set of coordinates, Trevor's troops approaching...; beginning, middle, end; birth (a selfish, cannabalistic baby, a cynical representation of how we all begin life), life (coordinates, location, an attempt to analyze or understand one's place), death (troops, war, futility). Viewing the pool as blood ties death with the beginning. Perhaps Aeon needs to die to advance, or to understand. The child serves as a mentor, or a possible parent figure. The transition of the smiley face from the keyring to the necklace illustrates the passage of time, or the child's memory or hallucination.

Just to confuse things further, the universe is winding down in a manner that seems to indicate that time is not constant. If you want to attribute this to a deity or a big bang go ahead, but whatever the precipitating factor of existence was/is, it was probably outside the normal flow of time. (An eternal god, the big bang bringing itself about, ect.) The idea I find amusing, if not preferable, is some intelligent being (such as the child here) bringing itself into existence.

-- Val McCafferty (zulofritter@hotmail.com), May 23, 1998.

There are lots of good ideas about this episode below; here's my thinking.

I would resist the idea that AEon has to learn. That would mean that there's a "right" way to do it, and that AEon *has* to do it that way.

I would argue that AEon chooses to break that vial, the vial that, exactly when broken, freezes time (thus we get the rather abrupt snow/ice imagery). If AEon chooses, there can be no "right" way, but rather one way of many to be chosen.

The boy, I would argue, is Time itself. He is "before names," which means before labels, language, and the need to distinguish. His eternal youth suggests as much. He alone can "bequeath" the secret of time, but AEon resists this gift by destroying the vial, instead choosing to live in linear time by the boy's rules, rather than endure the non-linear time afforded by the cave.

Someone below asks about "everything that rises must converge"; that's the title of a Flannery O'Connor collection of short stories, one of which bears the title. It's not a difficult read, and anyone interested in the episode should read it, because it's about the troubled relationship between a young man and his mother. I won't reveal the ending, but I will say that a convincing argument could be made that "Chronophasia" is about past regrets and trying to fix them, from the boy's point of view.

In fact, this is one of the few episodes in which AEon's past comes back to haunt her, which is probably one reason why Chung wasn't fond of it (flaunting linear time; the past does not exist in non-linear time). She moves through times and cultures (all those costumes), only to find she cannot escape her regrets.

There's a lot more to say about this episode. I can't wait until we get to the Ep Guide for this one...

SRM

-- Steve Rach Mirarchi (rach@earthlink.net), May 27, 1998.

I think that the boy was a part of Aeon and it was showing her the evils of what people like her can do.Te boy seemed to be overjoyed when she threw the vile and Aeon ended up being the "mother" of the boy like in the end when she drives him to baseball practice. Orshe went completely insane.

-- Jordan Marques (HanSolo1@webtv.com), May 28, 1998.

Chronosphasia is my favorite episode of the Series. End Sinister is a close second and The Purge a comes in a respectable third. While Most of the series is Symbolic in nature, and thus Definable, Debatable, and Logical. This is a complete Puzzle. Who is the Boy?.... there is no answer. the way i see it, he exist only of himself. if something is imaginable, it also has the potential to exist. If its thought of by a sentient being, it is created in the beings mind. aeon flux exist in the mind of Peter Chung and all those fortuante enough too view her. She exist in there minds. If one(fact or Fiction) is forgoten....it sease to exist(maybe...paraphysics is not definate). The boy lives outside time, time is a chronological book to be read for reference. Therefore it Can concieve itself....by thinking of hiself "before" hes "born".....a self created creature..... the fact that he says that he's been waiting "forever" and "Always" suports this. And that he referes to the dead bodies as"unborn" displays his view of linearity..... the boy is no doubt omniscient....and pehapse omnipotent the boy wanted a mommy :)

-- tak loufer (Tak@Loufer.bellona.usa), August 05, 1998.

Remember when Trevor said the virus produces happiness, well the virus tapped in to Aeons thoughts and gave her a happiness, a normal life.

-- Cliff Leslie (ComdrBlood@aol.com), October 29, 1998.

All the answers given so far have been very interesting, and certainly plausible, but I think you`re missing a more obvious one. Why couldn`t the virus have been administered to both the baby AND the boy? Let me explain: my theory is that Trevor`s virus works like the "Spice melange" in Dune. If you`ve seen the movie, you may remember that by consuming spice on a regular basis, ordinary human beings could evolve into creatures that move ships through hyperspace (or time/the 4th dimension/ whatever you want to call it) using only thought. I think the virus works in the same way, "expanding consciousness" to the point where one can control time. Or to put it another way, if what the boy said is true, and time really is in the mind, then we all have the ability to time-travel. But to a mentally inhibited, "normal" person like you or I, he didn`t see "forever" until after he`d been dosed. As for the baby, well I`m going out on a limb here, but my explanation of her is that she didn`t have the mental faculties to make the transition, being a baby and all, and ended up a stunted mutant. This might also explain why her crying has the effect on Aeon that it does. Perhaps this is her "function"? At the end, when a drop of blood passes from the boy to Aeon, and she sees everything she was/could/will be, she decides that the boy`s fantasy of living in the 20th century (the happiest place in time?) with her as a mommy, is preferable to all the others, and gives him what he wants by infecting herself. Now I`m not saying this is THE answer, just my way of explaining what was, for me, a very confusing ep. Feedback would be appreciated. I feel your pain!

-- Paul D. Gilbreath (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), January 19, 2000.

Seeing as that I haven't seen the episode in a while (will do first thing tomorrow) and the last post is over a year old, I offer a simple dumbed-down explanation (something I know none of you want, but it's an opinion).

Along with being an Aeon nut, I'm also an avid Star Trek fan, and there was a Next Generation episode that reminds me of Chronophasia. Commander Riker wakes up in the future where he's that captain of the enterprise, and has forgotten the past 15 years. In that time, he has had a son, who loves him very much. Anyway, Riker soon finds out that this reality is all a hoax, and turns out he's in a simulation (holo- deck) where he is held captive by Romulans with the boy that played is son. Riker then finds out that this reality is alos false, and that the boy is actually an alien that was trying to trick Riker into staying with him because he was lonely.

If you kinda overlay that with the events in Chronophasia, you get a few similarities. I figure the boy was some type of antcient being that lived (was trapped?) in the cave, and when the scientists came with their experiments it disturbed him and thus he killed them. Then Aeon comes along (probably the first woman he's ever seen) and he takes a likeing to her-- better yet, he wants to 'have her' as his caretaker (also think back to "The Twilight Zone" movie). But he kinda wants Aeon to accept him. He wants her to *choose him* (maybe her repeated deaths was just filling space in between those moments where the boy was trying to grow on her). And maybe offering the 'secret of time' of just the panic card he was planning to play if she said no. And in the end, he got his way; a fantasy where Aeon was his caretaker and they where doing something together away from the cave, scientists, and everything else that had anything to do with their meeting.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just on something. But that's kinda how I see it. Not perfect or crystal clear, but something to chew on until Peter Chung or Howard Baker say "this is what it meant..."

-- Christopher Wood (redwood52@hotmail.com), March 18, 2001.

It's a good comparison; Star Trek:TNG had plenty of reality-bending moments, similar to those in Aeon. Actually, it was my favorite show as a kid (pre Aeon)... Trek influenced? You'd have to ask Peter (Gaffney), or Garrett Sheldrew about that one, but I can definitely see the similarities there. (BTW, sorry about the "you're gonna love this" post)

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), March 19, 2001.

Did anyone notice that when the boy was on the ceiling that a drop of blood formed from his forehead and landed on Aeon's? Well, don't pakistani people wear that red dot on that same spot to symbolize that they have achieved the final stage of spirituality, the complete understanding, sort of like a peace with the earth. With that being said, it also represents the third eye. As for aeon asking him what happened the boy said, "What the flame does not consume, consumes the flame." So the scientists must be the flame, what did they try to consume? The essence of time? Maybe thats why they were mumified as if they were there for hundreds of years rather than 2 days. If u rember, Trevor says that it was a fully functional lab 2 days prior. In the hallucinations, the time used there does it also age you physically as if u lived those years even though your body in this time is stuck? So if I dream I lived 50 years in a hallucination, even though its imagined my body aged 50. Just a suspicion.

-- Jon (jon@cmpmail.com), June 24, 2001.

This is a good suspicion Jon. This episode eludes me, but your reasons are intriguing, so why would the scientists be considered the flame? Was the vial time? Why did Aeon achieve the final stage of spirituality was it only because the boy bequeathed it to her, or was it because she was worthy? Or did she? Not sure I get it...or got it...or get it...or got it...

-- Barb e (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), June 25, 2001.

OK, to me this episode explored the infinite possibitites that can happen (Chaos theory I think)

As Aeon wakes and starts again in the cave

Her previous lives flashing (I like the Punk)

The ending as her becoming a Mother is just another possibility, one which she may have thought about (or thought about wanting). We all think, would happen if we did this, or what would happen if we did that. I see this episode playing (exploring) with that kind of idea as it intrinsically linked with time.

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001.

The thing you have to understand about this episode is that... damn, there goes the phone, gotta go

-- Peter Gaffney (virtualgaf@aol.com), June 30, 2001.

I was reading Zach's post about the title "everything that rises must converge" i thought that sounded familiar i read it in english and it struck a certain cord in my brain. it's a story about a boy and his mother i believe, don't know if anyone posted that or not cos i was so excited i went directly to the bottom to post. that and i'm on my way to bed. so sorry if someone did happen to say that. :O) very interesting connection thought Zach! i'm excited imma have to read that story again. frostbite enjoyed ur idea on the hallucination. :O)

-- Lady Morgan (AeonFluxFan1@msn.com), July 02, 2001.

As someone noted in the other Chronophasia discussion here, "Everything That Rises Must Converge" is a Flannery O'Connor novella.

-- Peter Gaffney (virtualgaf@aol.com), July 03, 2001.

Most of my ideas about this episode have already been covered, like the boy having been there before the scientists, his possible parent/child realtionship with Aeon, and Aeon learning from her mistakes. I do find it especially interesting that this is the only episode that references other episodes directly (when Aeon sees the faces of people she's caused distress in some way). It's also strange that she apologizes outloud to Rorty. On a more surface note, but also interesting to me, is that this is one of two (full- length) episodes where Aeon's hair is down and she wears something other than black or red leather.

One thing that I haven't read anything about here is Aeon's reaction to breaking the vial. I had the distinct impression that she wasn't expecting what happened to happen. Also, the episode seemed to end on a note where Aeon is trapped in a normal life, not free to rest in one. Afterall, it may be normal to us, but is it normal to her? We live in a world like that (well, sort of), she doesn't. I had the feeling that the kid was lonely and powerful and, in the end, he got his way because (and I'm reaching here) Aeon's refusal to accept change ultimately resulted in her change. That's another interesting side note for me. Her name means roughly forver changing, yet Aeon is the character most opposed to change, especially changes which directly affect her.

Also, I love the show very much, and I think it gets a bum rap quite a lot, but there are some moments in certain episodes where I feel like they're just being weird for weirdness's sake. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but a lot of the stuff the kid says here just seems plain weird to me. Maybe I'm missing something, and, no, I haven't read the Flannery O'Connor story, as I just learned of it tonight, so maybe that will change my opinion, but I doubt it.

As for Trevor and his men, I'm not real sure they play much of a role in this episode. Maybe that's another reason why -- allegedly -- this was Chung's least favorite. And as for the whole virus thing, when Trevor says there was no virus, I believe him. I think whatever happened in that cave was the result of something else, probably directly related to the boy and/or the baby. The baby, too, seems just plain weird, but I like the connection someone on this thread made to the sort of id-driveness and savagry of that stage of life. You could look at it as Aeon's fear of motherhood, and the kid as trying to get her over that which each repeated death so that she'll relent and be his mom. Who knows? This is an interesting episode, though, and an interesting thread.

-- Dr. Razzmatazz (boogiebaby37@yahoo.com), September 25, 2001.

something just occured to me while reading these responses. What if Aeon is dead? and she is experiencing the after life. Think about it, after she falls through the hole she falls pretty far and when she wakes up shes face down on stone. She looks like she maybe washed up on shore but the river is lower then the stone she is on. also she sees images of people she has wronged. The entire episode prior to the baseball game might be a test of faith or she has to proove herself, and her reward is to have a normal life as a mom. The baby might be her punishment, like when you travel through a maze and theres that thing that will devour you if you choose the wrong path. The boy might just be her guide and when her journey is over he dies giving her the key to her afterlife, knowledge of time and everythign that has ever happened in time.Aeon screams NOOO b/c she is changing and she can not stand to be changed.thoughts?

-- Emma Frost (ice_cold_emma_frost@yahoo.com), December 22, 2001.

Interesting idea. When she sees the people she has wronged she is sorry, and so it allows her to enter the afterlife as a good person. What then do you make of the 'snow' scene as she is transformed?

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), December 23, 2001.

I have no idea about the snow scene but I did think of another fact to support my death theory. In greek mythology when somone dies they cross the river Stix. That under ground river might have been the Stix river, it did have that super natural glow to it.

-- Emma Frost (ice_cold_emma_frost@yahoo.com), January 19, 2002.

At first, this episode stumps everyone. People keep wanting to explain the boy, the lab, the baby and everything else. Who cares? These are symbols, and metaphors. The overlayed plot is the ultimate purpose for the story.

Aeon Dies.

Before I give this my shot, it's important to note the well published fact that this episode was censored by MTV. The slime in the baby's mouth and on Aeon's waking place was supposed to be blood. When I learned of this, the rest of it all made sense.

Aeon enters the episode, searching for the Baby. Trevor, to find the virus that produces human hapiness. Aeon falls into the cave and (maybe) dies. The boy finds her there, and the story begins.

The Boy is Death.

He leads Aeon down the cave to the lab, a place that has been utterly destroyed and everyone killed. A large dead place, where nothing is left but Aeon and Death -- lietrally and figuratively.

Aeon and the boy talk, and she picks up a handful of clues. She finally asks Death where the baby is, and this makes Death laugh. The baby, according to him, remembers it's function. "What the flame does not consume, consumes the flame." The baby simply eats on the dead of the cave, and Death brings the Aeon to the Baby. Great Sandwich...

The Baby is the basic urges of life and survival: Consumption.

When Aeon is killed byt the baby, she awakens on the slab covered in blood. Here she faces the puzzle, of the blood itself. Is it hers? Someone elses? Did it belong to baby? Most important, why isn't she dead?

Skipping ahead... The personification of Death here would be obvious, if you concentrate on the ending. Instaead, remember who's blood that is on the slab. Who has been waiting for Aeon in the cave, all of this time. Waiting for her to die so that this game could begin.

Throughout the episode, Death refers to Aeon as "The Waker." An western metaphor, but one none the same is that when Aeon is killed she wakes up on a slab much like the tradition that became the western funeral. Death says that Aeon still sleeps, she dreams this place. This place is her afterlife, a playground where death takes her back through her life and aways from it.

This is Aeon's Death. The caves and lab surrounder her are dead. Her memories are ghosts and shadows, driving her mad, forcing her to let go of the life she had. Death has finally come for Aeon, and it has to show the "Waker" a nightmare before she can "Awaken."

This time, we see the real Trevor. He explains, bitterly, that there never was a virus. That times were never better, and nothing was ever easy. "Jascoe was either an idiot or a charlatan." Perfection, immortality and nirvana do not exist.

Aeon is arrested and, in the real world, dies once more. Only to be born again on the bloody slab. Finally, we see who's blood it is.

This time she finds the container on the slab with her, and looks up to see the boy dead and suspended fomr the ceiling. Bleeding down on her. The blood was his, and it was always his.

She realizes for the first time that there is no perfect truth, no hidden hapiness in the human mind. People are born, they consume, they die. She came to this cave to find a baby, an innocent, new life. But in a million other worlds, she herself would have always been Aeon Flux.

Finally, she encounters Death one last time. Seeing no way out of her conundrum, she throws away the vial with vengence, and inadvertently uses the virus on herself. Death is pleased, seeing her reject the ideals worthless ideals of life. Death takes her to another life.

See also the Movie Jacob's Ladder. Which did all this about thousand times better. ;)

-- A. Deskiewicz (aman@zexyz.net), August 29, 2002.

...and with that inspired assessment of CHRONOPHASIA's subtextual analysis, I must say: Mr Peter Gaffney, I think I owe you a long overdue open notice of my sincere appreciation and regard for all of your effort both as story editor and writer of several of the episodes. I though I was missing something there but, dude, I really didn't see it clearly til having seen the above post from A. Deskiewicz, despite all the others (including of coure your own as you've given us on at least one other related thread). I am embarrassed it's taken me so long to recognize and give you some praise for the one you did for AEon Flux which I never had "cinched" since (at last as I see it now):

1. Ep. under present discussion requires a degree of intuitivity and patience - qualities I need to develop in creatively myself.

2. Ep. under present discussion is not appropriate to be "cinched." It requires a facility for apprehension of significance through a process of appreciation whose mechanisms are more subtle, reflective and requires one to be able to absorb, rather than cinch, a meaning.

A>D>: Thank you for your excellent analysis, if only for my own sake. Jacob's Ladder is one of my favorite films. I think it's nice to mention it as a conceptual reference but give us a fkn break dude, they only gave us 22 minutes apiece! I mean, okAAAAY??

MM

-- Mark Mars (artian@charter.net), September 02, 2002.

Good god, Deskiewicz, you appear to have hit the nail on the damn head. This is by far the best explanation of the episode I've ever heard, and to me it fits more than anything else. Especially the characterization of the boy as Death - there's clues that are rather obvious in retrospect, both as to his nature ("I am before names,") and his "true" assessment of reality ("Composite things are like bubbles...").

One thing that I'd like to find out that may be important: Was the substance in the vial supposed to the same color as all the blood in the episode, or was it originally meant to be the color it was in the changed episode? If the substance in the vial was indeed changed from the original form, it could have been the color of blood... which would not only solidify the role of Death's blood in the episode but also confirm the vial as a symbol of Ĉon's grip on the transient, material things and practices of life. When she smashes the vial against the wall, she at once recognizes the inexorable nature of Death's presence and rejects the physical instincts and objects that made up her life. The vial - the "virus" - is nothing less than the nature of humans to clutch at life, whether in the form of biological instincts and practices to perpetuate the self and the species, or the form of mankind's ideological fairytales and illusions to comfort and sustain itself.

I'll have to watch this episode again in the near future and apply this interpretation, and find more contextual evidence to support it...

-- Brian Davis (ubik@purdue.edu), September 03, 2002.

So it definately was blood, I never really felt clarified on.

In relation to recent discussion its also interesting to note this effect censorship had on Chronosphasia.

-- Sam (janecherrington@paradise.net.nz), September 03, 2002.

Yep. It was supposed to be blood. Chung said so once somewhere on this board already, I think.

-- Mars (artian@charter.net), September 03, 2002.

Also interesting is that death becomes Aeons child. Actually another screening of Aeon is well over due for me, this ep especially I guess.

-- Sam (janecherrington@paradise.net.nz), September 03, 2002.

Yeah, yeah... I still prefer to think of the boy as Tralfamadorian ;)

*4-th dimensional mom and dad appear* Billy! Stop playing with your toys and come to dinner!

But Mooom... I just got this new Aeon Action Figure... oh, alright...

*The baseball field vanishes, Aeon wakes up in the jungle*

-- Inu (paul@nadisrec.com), September 03, 2002.