Saint James Infirmary 634: Désolé de t'interrompre

[Daphne]

[jmundt29]

Does the title mean "Sorry to interrupt," then?  Who and in what way?  Dani mocking Jakobite?  Adrian accelerating Dani's timetable?  Julien?  Or the nurse indicating the visit has run long?

[laguna85]

Danielle is mocking Jako

[Haight]

Dani looking quite a bit like Lady Death here, heh.

Still wondering what the implications are if the Watch can "undo" what's already been done.

[mns_95125]

And that looks like the end of the Jakobite... at least of the one in Cherry's mind.  And Cherry seems to be awake now, or at least more responsive.

If the death of the Jakobite undid whatever it did to Erin then it may all be over but the cleaning up.  But if the changes persist then things are more interesting.  That would be one way for Adrian to discover that Watch programming is reversible.

[laguna85]

May be that why Jakob wanted Erin under control and stop her and  Danielle undoing the watch programming

[mi_english]

it would be interesting to have Adrian choose to reverse everyone's programming, and then see their individual reactions.  who would be upset?  who would be willing to go back under?  who would want to stay clear, but still be in relationship?  who would threaten to go to the cops, necessitating the moral conundrum of whether to reprogram them?  As I've stated elsewhere, it would be *hot* to have someone choose to be programmed because they like it.  I could see Erin and Jacqui, for example, wanting to stay in relationship with Adrian but not be programmed...and several of the others wanting to go back 'under'.  Either way, it would interesting to see how it was done.

DS

[Haight]

As I've stated elsewhere, it would be *hot* to have someone choose to be programmed because they like it.

Oh yeah. Definitely fun when this is even hinted at.

[GodWilling]

A couple of relevant things arising from looking back recently:-

Rain in 261: "Powerful people impress themselves upon the future. Even after they are dead, the things they created continue to execute their will." Adrian was mulling this over just before Julian introduced himself and returned the broken watch. It's thrown together this story; if it appears not to be that's probably just fate intervening.

And with Cherry apparently waking up, is this where we find out everything since 355 has been her dream? In reality Adrian is with Laura tonight, politely checking every couple of minutes that he isn't bumming her too hard.

[Daphne]

And with Cherry apparently waking up, is this where we find out everything since 355 has been her dream?

Yeah no.

[mns_95125]

A further thought.  We saw that the Jakobite in Cherry's mind was able to block the Watch; that's why Erin went into her mind in the first place.  If the Jakobite created a similar resistance in Erin's mind then it might not be so easy to deprogram her.

[GodWilling]

I haven't really understood at all how the watch is supposed to be affecting Cherry's mind, beyond it being something to do with neurons, but I thought it was Erin's healing magic that was being blocked by Jakob - that in turn being under the influence of the watch. I'm thinking that Dani somehow kind of is the watch, or is the power of the watch - and she prevailed here. I think that by allowing Dani to call him Maitre way back when, Adrian was effectively asserting ownership of the watch. But Adrian doesn't control its power; Dani does. Maybe.

In the absence of (and possibly the impossibility of) any evidence to the contrary, I'm going to continue to believe that the Jakob in Cherry's mind was a manifestation created by ideas and memories in Cherry's brain, but whose conversation with Erin was largely a product of her mind, and thus reflected her own ideas, insecurities, and secret desires. I admit this is purely because I prefer to think of Erin knowing she doesn't really love Adrian and wanting to be trained by someone.

[GodWilling]

Yeah no.

You'll be saying next that it's just a coincidence that the residents of the SJI have the initials D, E, A, and M, and that their guiding (b)light is called Rain.

[lifmcs]

I've been remiss in not giving a shout-out to the fantastic mental landscape imagery that has been deployed in this series lately. Everything from Erin and Pearl performing the ritual onwards has been so good. The issues where Erin and whoever are falling through memories... wow. If the progression of time is going to stall relative to the issue count, you won't hear any complaining from me when this is what we end up getting.

Just a great job lately by the creators. Bravo!

[mns_95125]

I thought it was Erin's healing magic that was being blocked by Jakob...

In #619 Erin describes her problem as "It's like there are parts the Watch isn't reaching."  I took that as meaning "the Watch is being blocked", not "my magic is being blocked".  And if the Jakobite could block the Watch from reaching part of Cherry's mind, then it seems like it could block the Watch from reaching part of Erin's mind as well.

In the absence of (and possibly the impossibility of) any evidence to the contrary, I'm going to continue to believe that the Jakob in Cherry's mind was a manifestation created by ideas and memories in Cherry's brain, but whose conversation with Erin was largely a product of her mind, and thus reflected her own ideas, insecurities, and secret desires.

I find it simpler to take the Jakobite's statement in #628 that it is "a bit of my personality I implanted in her" at face value.

Either way, though, we should learn something pretty quickly the next time we get a look at the mindscape.  If Erin still looks the way the Jakobite made her then its programming probably outlived it, whereas if Erin resumes her own appearance then its programming probably died when it did.  Daphne being Daphne, though, it's more likely the plot will simply cut back to everyone back in the real world, with the question of Erin's mental state left artfully ambiguous.  She seems to love to torture us with open questions.