TELEVISION: A Small Light - episode 8
Nov. 8th, 2024 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllA Small Light - 1.8 Legacy
Perhaps inevitably, this felt like a very bitty episode, like an extended epilogue, although we immediately followed Miep into the Nazis’ den, where she wasn’t able to bribe the Viennese officer or his boss, who just took the money. Jan was waiting for her outside and had to deal with the emotional fallout. Miep was reminded that they should go through the annex to see if any valuables could be saved before the moving agency swooped in. But the Nazis had taken so much that more or less the only thing they retrieved was Anne’s diary, which did not have the same resonance for the characters as it did for the viewers. Miep was, of course, hoping to return it to Anne.
Things got worse in Amsterdam, with Miep running the company in Mr Frank’s absence and sacking a saleswoman for suggesting they sold up. Jan was stuck indoors because any young man would be rounded up for the war effort. There was no food about and Jan was breaking up furniture for firewood, when there was a food drop from the Allies. This was followed by a crowd scene of joy at liberation – tulips and orange.
And then people started to return home, first the men from the office, who had been sent to work camps, not death camps. And then the few who had been in death camps – the shaved women were the most haunting. Miep was mainly concerned about her eight, while Jan was one of the welcoming committee at the train station in Amsterdam. Their landlady returned, but was only reunited with one of her grandchildren. Max too would return.
Otto Frank came back too, and while it looked as though he was the only adult survivor, they had hope of the children – Miep kept repeating they were strong. But Peter’s name was on a list of the confirmed dead, Peter who had become a young man in his last months, as witnessed by Otto. And then a survivor from Bergen-Belsen came with the worst news for Mr Frank. Miep gave him Anne’s diary and then doubted whether the gesture was worth anything. Of course, it was. They didn’t overplay it, just showing that the grieving father had got to see his youngest daughter in a new light.
He had an adoptive family, in an episode full of complicated reunions – where either so few reunited, or children had almost forgotten their birth families, or people wore their suffering visibly. We were briefly informed of what happened next – the publication of the diary and the real Miep becoming a speaker in her long life – in orange text. And to close, the pictures of the actors in character were shown side by side with photographs of the real people (generally the actors were better looking, but the casting directors and hair and costumes had done a good job.)
There were moments of high drama, Miep’s complicated feelings were a throughline, and we got to find out what had happened to most of the characters we’d seen over the series, but because it covered such a long period of time, as I said, it felt like an extended epilogue, but a far from triumphalist one, which was fitting. As Miep felt that she’d failed, we saw the toll on the city and its people. But then that spoke to the humanity and relatability that the show had been getting at throughout.
Perhaps inevitably, this felt like a very bitty episode, like an extended epilogue, although we immediately followed Miep into the Nazis’ den, where she wasn’t able to bribe the Viennese officer or his boss, who just took the money. Jan was waiting for her outside and had to deal with the emotional fallout. Miep was reminded that they should go through the annex to see if any valuables could be saved before the moving agency swooped in. But the Nazis had taken so much that more or less the only thing they retrieved was Anne’s diary, which did not have the same resonance for the characters as it did for the viewers. Miep was, of course, hoping to return it to Anne.
Things got worse in Amsterdam, with Miep running the company in Mr Frank’s absence and sacking a saleswoman for suggesting they sold up. Jan was stuck indoors because any young man would be rounded up for the war effort. There was no food about and Jan was breaking up furniture for firewood, when there was a food drop from the Allies. This was followed by a crowd scene of joy at liberation – tulips and orange.
And then people started to return home, first the men from the office, who had been sent to work camps, not death camps. And then the few who had been in death camps – the shaved women were the most haunting. Miep was mainly concerned about her eight, while Jan was one of the welcoming committee at the train station in Amsterdam. Their landlady returned, but was only reunited with one of her grandchildren. Max too would return.
Otto Frank came back too, and while it looked as though he was the only adult survivor, they had hope of the children – Miep kept repeating they were strong. But Peter’s name was on a list of the confirmed dead, Peter who had become a young man in his last months, as witnessed by Otto. And then a survivor from Bergen-Belsen came with the worst news for Mr Frank. Miep gave him Anne’s diary and then doubted whether the gesture was worth anything. Of course, it was. They didn’t overplay it, just showing that the grieving father had got to see his youngest daughter in a new light.
He had an adoptive family, in an episode full of complicated reunions – where either so few reunited, or children had almost forgotten their birth families, or people wore their suffering visibly. We were briefly informed of what happened next – the publication of the diary and the real Miep becoming a speaker in her long life – in orange text. And to close, the pictures of the actors in character were shown side by side with photographs of the real people (generally the actors were better looking, but the casting directors and hair and costumes had done a good job.)
There were moments of high drama, Miep’s complicated feelings were a throughline, and we got to find out what had happened to most of the characters we’d seen over the series, but because it covered such a long period of time, as I said, it felt like an extended epilogue, but a far from triumphalist one, which was fitting. As Miep felt that she’d failed, we saw the toll on the city and its people. But then that spoke to the humanity and relatability that the show had been getting at throughout.
