Season one group rewatch: "The Colonel"

[jae]

This is the discussion post for "The Colonel" (episode #13, the season finale) in the group rewatch of season one. When you rewatched the episode, was there anything you noticed that you didn't notice the first time (and any subsequent times) you saw it? What things about it did you perhaps view differently after having seen the later episodes?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first season in the comments. Feel free to join in even if you didn't get a chance to watch the episodes that preceded it!

Comments

[georgley]

One of my favourite parts of this episode is the note that Philip leaves for Elizabeth when he goes to meet the Colonel. Given the high probability that he was walking into a trap and the note would have been the last communication he had with her, the fact that he signs it off with 'I love you' always gets me. Even with everything that has happened, that he would want that to be the last thing that he says to her.

[jae]

Wow, I had never noticed this, but you're so right!

-J

[katiac]

ME TOO!!!

It's so beautiful because after all the "I won't mend this; I want you to say you want me back first" stuff they'd been trading back and forth over the course of 2-3 episodes, when it comes to the final words he gets to say to her (he assumes), it's just the purest form of truth. No games. No attempts to hold out so she'll give back to him. Just how he's always felt about her.

And, it's a much truer "I love you" than the first one we got, not that he didn't mean that one just as sincerely in the moment, just that this one is proven in a way that Elizabeth simply *can't* doubt. He's choosing to sacrifice himself and give her their children. There is no more selfless way he could prove it's "real" to him too, and I think that would be the moment it all really changes for her.

[sistermagpie]

I love how even beyond that the whole note just sums up Philip. I almost feel like there should be a picture of him giving a "Whadya gonna do?" shrug next to it, because he's laying himself out: I tricked you. I do that sometimes. I love you. If he really did get captured she could treasure that note as a total snapshot of the guy.