THE GREAT ESCAPE -307

LA GRANDE EVASION

Réalisateur : Jo Johnson

Scénariste : Jaden Clark

L'HISTOIRE

Jim surprend Di en train de fouiller le placard de Josh. Elle invente une excuse bidon pour se couvrir. Peu après, ce dernier essaie de s'excuser auprès d'Helen pour sa conduite de la veille. Elle lui répond que si elle croyait une seconde que sa hiérarchie l'écouterait, elle porterait plainte. Un peu plus tard, elle tente de parler à Karen mais celle-ci lui avoue que sa relation avec Jim est sérieuse et qu'elle compte emménager avec lui.

Helen croise ensuite Nikki qui lui demande pourquoi elle va mal. Devant son insistance, Helen lui confie que Jim l'a agressé physiquement et sexuellement. Jalouse et blessée, Nikki menace ouvertement Fenner lorsqu'elle se retrouve en tête à tête avec lui. Découvrant cela, Helen la raisonne et lui dit de se concentrer sur sa prochaine libération.

Un documentaire est tourné au sein de Larkhall et les gardiens et les détenues sont suivis par les caméras. Profitant de la présence de l'équipe de tournage, Jim fait des doubles des clés et les donne à Shell. Celle-ci s'évade alors avec Shaz et Denny. Mais en échange des clés, Fenner a demandé à Shell d'écrire un journal intime où elle accuse Helen d'être très intéressée par elle lors des réunions des condamnées à perpétuité. Il en profite également pour dissimuler des preuves dans la cellule de Shell.

Bukki se mutile le bras dans sa cellule. Tout le monde se précipite et elle est envoyée à l'infirmerie. A son retour, le directeur, Simon, décide d'aller lui parler devant les caméras. Là, elle avoue qu'elle a été violée pour la première fois à l'âge de 5 ans par son éducateur et ensuite très régulièrement. Refusant d'en entendre plus et de voir cela filmé, le directeur fait sortir l'équipe du documentaire et fait taire Bukki.

Alors qu'elles sont sorties de Larkhall, Shell, Denny et Shaz ont un problème avec leur voiture. Elles sont obligées de voler un véhicule en remplacement mais en sortant du camion, Shaz se tord la cheville et ne peut plus marcher. Denny est obligée de l'abandonner mais lui déclare qu'elle l'aime et qu'elle va revenir la chercher.

CAPTURES DE L'EPISODE

Fenner: Helen.

Helen: Don't you talk to me.
Fenner: What, not even to apologize? Look, I shouldn't have blown up like that.
Helen: You assaulted me.
Fenner: Oh, cut the textbook politics, will you?
Helen: Well, what would you call it, Jim? A friendly grope between colleagues?
Fenner: [bristling] Apology accepted, then?
Helen: You're a s---, Fenner. And if I thought I had an iota of a chance of anyone believing what happened, I'd get you sacked in a second.
Fenner: Finished?
Helen: Yeah. I am for now.

Mais lui n'a pas fini. Alors qu'elle tente de partir, il la bloque avec son bras, attrapant son épaule :

Fenner: Look, things have been a little tough on me lately. Or had you forgotten?
Helen: [pushing his arm away] Just get out my way!
Fenner: I wake up dripping with sweat every night.
Helen: Oh, my heart bleeds. 
Fenner: I have panic attacks every time I walk through those gates.
Helen: It's nothing you didn't bring on yourself.
Fenner: Ah, but you see, I blame you, Helen. 'Cause every time I walk in here, I have to face the evil cow who came that far away from killing me.
Helen: Well, let's hope the next time she's that much luckier.

Devant la porte du jardin :

Nikki: Hey! Missed you. You don't write; you don't phone ...

Nikki: Helen ... ?
Helen: It's ... nothing.
Nikki: Don't look like nothing.
Helen: [coming through the gate] I'll sort it out myself.
Nikki: Might've known I couldn't be of any use.

Helen: Nikki, if I tell you, you've gotta promise me it'll go no further. I mean it.
Nikki: Hand on heart. What's happened?
Helen: Ah .... [struggling to find the words] ... it's Jim Fenner.
Nikki: Mighta guessed.
Helen: The other night I was in the office, and he was havin' a go as usual. But ... really didn't expect what happened after that.
Nikki: Like what?

Helen: He assaulted me.
Nikki: What?!
Helen: [swallowing her tears, unable to catch her breath] Between my legs. He said that he knew what I needed to sort me out.
Nikki: I'll kill him.
Helen: I really don't think that's gonna help right now.
Nikki: He sexually assaulted you!
Helen: Calm down. I don't know what to do. Other than lockin' him in a cell with Shell Dockley.
Nikki: Have you told Stubberfield?
Helen: No, I can't.
Nikki: Why not?! Get the bastard sacked. It's time someone did.

Helen et Karen arrive dans la cafétéria et sont accueillies par des sifflets :

Nikki se glisse dans le bureau des officiers alors que Fenner se sert un thé. Elle lui annonce qu'elle veut porter plainte contre l'équipe de télévision. Il pense qu'elle fait juste l'imbécile mais elle devient très sérieuse :

Nikki: Know what you are, Fenner? A first-class bastard.
Fenner: Yeah? Well, women like that sort of thing. Real women, anyway.
Nikki: Dockley didn't. Did she? Not in the end. [putting her hand near an empty milk bottle] She had a way with a bottle. Just like me.

Avant que la situation empire, Helen intervient et demande ce qui se passe. Nikki prétend remercier Fenner et quitte la pièce, Helen sur ses talons. Elles vont jusqu'à la cellule de Nikii où Helen lui chante une autre musique :

Helen: Are you out of your stupid mind?
Nikki: [mumbling] Sorry.
Helen: There's your appeal out the window. I've been working my arse off to get you out of here, or hadn't you noticed? All I ask is for you to keep your head down and your nose clean.
Nikki: You didn't really expect me to say nothing — I have got feelings, you know?
Helen: Yeah, but what kind, Nikki? Anger, jealousy, violence? Those aren't the qualities that I generally look for in a person.
Helen: Just remember what got you in here in the first place.
Nikki: I didn't touch him!
Helen: You wanted to.
Nikki: What, and you don't?
Helen: I am not the one in here serving life for sticking a bottle in a policeman's neck.

Nikki retrouve Helen et s'excuse de son comportement :

Helen: There are ways of going about things other than violence, Nikki.
Nikki: [brattily] Yeah? You just haven't thought of one yet? [as Helen turns to leave] Sorry. Sorry.
Helen: Look, I understand how you feel. But this is my battle. Why don't you concentrate on fighting your own?

(Sources Captures et Dialogues : Afterellen.com )

ANALYSE DE L'EPISODE

Analyse en anglais par Jennifer T.

In this episode we get to watch characters struggle to act, in both senses of the word. Characters choose to perform (or not) for the documentary film crew. They also choose to take action (or not) towards their friends and enemies. Acting, no matter what kind, is a struggle for many characters. It's not easy to get the things we want, due to internal and external forces. 

The episode is overflowing with characters struggling to make decisions, to get where they want to go. The television crew jokes about the lack of security getting into Larkhall, comparing it favorably to getting through a supermarket checkout. Some things are easy to get through, and others hard. Obstacles can be physical (eg strip searches), but others can be psychological or bureaucratic. Karen has been hesitating about moving in with Fenner, and when she finally tells him she's ready she says "I haven't jumped the gun, have I?" Similarly, Denny is unsure she wants to escape with Shell because it will mean leaving Shaz. But Shaz jumps right in and seizes the day, making Denny feel like the whole thing will be easy as pie. The escape itself is fraught with starts and stops, first when Shell can't get the car started because she doesn't realize it's in park, and the second when Shaz falls out of the truck and can't escape with Shell and Denny because her foot is literally tied to the truck. 

In the midst of all these smaller moments, one character suffers most deeply from the difficulty of taking action: Helen. She has a few attempts in the opening few minutes of the episode. She tries to lock the gate between herself and Fenner when he approaches her to apologize. She tries to gauge from Karen whether Karen will be sympathetic and supportive if she reports Fenner's assault, but decides Karen will dismiss her. She then sees Nikki in the yard, and yet, starting from the moment when Nikki spots her and calls out to her, Helencannot unlock the gate. Her lover waits on the other side, expressing concern, and Helen's key is just not working. She cannot open that door and allow herself to be close to Nikki. After she finally gets through, and Nikki convinces her to confess what happened, the rest of the scene is Nikki urging action: Nikki wants to kill Fenner! (Helen says that wouldn't be a good idea). Nikki says do something! (Helen fantasizes about siccing Shell on Fenner). Nikki says go to Stubberfield and get Fenner fired! (Helen acknowledges, and Nikki is aware, that this probably isn't going to work). And then the two of them stare at each other helplessly. There are two types of solutions, official channels and violence, and neither one is an option. Helen is paralyzed. 

Nikki, however, unlike Helen, is constitutionally unable to just let things lie. She's the opposite of paralyzed, and she stalks Fenner, looking for her opportunity to take action against him. Gina thwarts her first attempt, out on the wing, but then she sees her chance when Fenner is alone in the office. Her whole strategy is a brilliant combination of acting without acting. She goes to the edge, she puts her hand near the bottle, but she doesn't touch it, and she doesn't touch Fenner. She's playing a part, pretending all she's talking about is prison paperwork, but in reality she's taking aggressive psychological action against Fenner. When Helen reacts with outrage, Nikki defends herself with "I didn't touch him!" to which Helen replies "No, but you wanted to." As always with Helen, there's no separation between thought and deed. 

In this weird way, Helen seems to almost value her own paralysis, her own inability to take action, as a triumph over her baser desires. She, Helen, also wants to kill Fenner, as she acknowledges in the previous scene with Nikki. Arguably, the reason Helen tells Nikki about the assault is that she subconsciously wants someone to stand up for her at a time when she's incapable of standing up for herself. Helen tells Nikki as much when she said the only thing she could think of to do to Fenner was lock him in a cell with Shell Dockley. This communication between Helen and Nikki follows the same pattern they've had since season 1. Helen communicates desires to Nikki that she is not aware of. Nikki responds to those desires. Helen is upset and astonished. Helen values her ability to repress her own anti-social desires, refusing to acknowledge the ways she transfers those desires onto Nikki. 

Helen's attachment to her own paralysis, her sublimation of her desire to act, is something she has to overcome. Nikki knows this, which is why, when Helen says "There are ways of going about things other than violence" Nikki retorts "Yeah? You just haven't thought of one yet."

Buki, like Helen, is desperate for a way to channel her rage. For the second time we see her cutting herself, but in this instance she actually describes her motivations. She talks to Stubberfield about wanting to release the rottenness inside her, which she describes as storm, rage and anger. Violence against herself is her only option to get it out, because she can't commit violence against the people who have harmed her, nor can she inspire those who love her to take action on her behalf. So she actually has gone so far as to feel and enact anger and violence against herself instead. This is the tragedy of abused women, and in this episode it reads as a cautionary tale, a potential path Helen could head down. Nikki fights against this fate, on Helen's behalf. 

Fenner's plan to help Shell escape symbolically echoes Buki's cutting. He's trying to expunge himself of his fear and rage by releasing its source. He comes up with the plan, gets Shell to fake the diary, creates the keys, plants the evidence, and hopes to get rid of two enemies at once: Shell and Helen. 

Shell's escape introduces the idea of the power of teamwork in taking action, making changes. Helen insists to Nikki that each of the two of them should fight their own battles: "This is my battle. You concentrate on fighting your own." But Helen is way off base, as the rest of this episode demonstrates. Shell's escape requires teamwork. She needs help from the Julies to create a distraction so she can get out of the chapel. She needs Fenner to give her all the tools of escape. And not only that, she doesn't want to be alone when she gets out, so she recruits Denny to join her. Action requires teamwork and support, and that is something Helen is denying herself. No wonder she is paralyzed. 

Intertwined with all these characters who can and can't act are characters who do and don't act—in front of the television cameras. So many characters ham it up for the film crew. All of them lie, baldly, to tell a story of how they want others to see them, rather than how they are. All of these performances are so transparent and awkward, it's almost ridiculous to watch, particularly as we see the television crew falling for the act. 

These performances are both empowering and disempowering. Acting enables you to act: being able to perform is what enables characters to take action, rather than allow themselves to be stuck or paralyzed. Shell wouldn't have gotten the keys in the chapel if she hadn't put on the show of penitence and walked up to the altar. The Julies put on a show in the chapel to create a distraction. Fenner acts like he didn't know three people would be missing from the chapel. 

However, no matter how good the performance, the camera (and, really, the person who is behind the camera, the director) claims ultimate authority. Stubberfield can say "You won't be using this" after his failed communication attempt with Buki. But in reality anyone who lets themselves be filmed no longer has control, no matter how much they might perform the version of themselves they want others to see. Sylvia wanders through the wing explaining "free flow" while the real free flow happens behind her as Shaz and Denny kiss and mug for the camera. 

Two characters won't allow themselves to be filmed: Fenner and Helen. Fenner is the biggest actor of them all, but he knows he loses his mastery if he allows himself to be capture by the camera. Helen, on the other hand, is such an authentic person, she can't possibly perform in this way. She asserts her authority in the Lifer's meeting by not allowing Fiona to film. But unlike Fenner, Helen doesn't ever quite assert her authority over the other factors that threaten her. Fenner gets Shell out of Larkhall, but Helen doesn't file an assault complaint against Fenner. Instead she asserts her authority over Nikki! She won't perform, and she isolates herself in her battle, leaving her with no productive channel for her anger. As Buki knows too well, kept inside, that anger will transform her.

(Source: BadGirls Annex)

Lire la suite : BadGirls 3-08