At first I had no words for what I was getting from the imagery in this episode because I seemed to be conceptualizing visually and coming up with these one-word labels for the ideas -- single words that meant a paragraph's worth of stuff.
Well the first word was "mirror." Or "mirror images."
There was something about "Sentinel Too, Part Two" that was like "Switchman," for me, and it was the mirror images.
In "Switchman," the very first episode, there was a pair of scenes that just screamed out at me.
First, when Jim's tactile senses started exploding right after he ate dinner with his ex-wife Carolyn, he grabs her and backs her abruptly [if not roughly] against a wall, grabbing her hair, having at her mouth with the hottest kiss he's ever given her, but she backs away, leaving him alone in the rain. It's clearly the end of that relationship.
Then, in Sandburg's office, in another explosion of passion [of a different sort], Jim slams Blair against another wall and all his frustrations come spewing out in a rush. But Blair, rather than rejecting him, moves towards him and that relationship begins.
Visually, the two scenes are mirror images of each other -- Carolyn was on the right, Blair on the left.
And then, while I was wondering what nagged me about "Sentinel Too, Part Two," I thought, "Oh my God! They did it again!"
Look at all the mirror images. Blair and Alex are being mirrored as contrasts throughout the episode.
At the university, Blair is face down in the rectangular pool on the right of center screen. In the grotto, Alex is face up on the left in another rectangular pool. Both pools belong to sources of knowledge -- the university and the temple.
Jim kisses both of them.
(Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation has been referred to as "the kiss of life.")
What we saw on that lawn was a kiss, symbolically. There is a lot of symbolism in kissing [which I'll get into later].
When Jim kisses Blair, Blair's on the right of center screen and Alex is always on the left.
Jim tries to connect with each of them with his hands and mouth to save them.
Jim makes attempts to help each of them through visions; there is an attempt to merge in each pairing.
Both Blair and Alex 'suggest' that Jim should enter "the mysterious" with them -- Blair on the right of Jim in the shot, Alex, on the left.
Those are some of the paralleled/mirrored scenes. There may be more.
But then, there's the opposition, the contrasts in those scenes.
In many cultures, to share breath with someone is to exchange or merge souls, and kissing is seen as a means to do just that. The kiss joins two souls both in the 'romantic' sense and in the religious/spiritual sense. I believe it is this latter type of kiss that we were seeing.
When Jim 'kisses' Blair, he breathes part of his life, his spirit into him. When their souls attempt to merge, it's a success -- Blair is healed, life is restored, he and Jim remain one.
When Jim tries to merge with Alex to 'heal' her, show her the correct path, the merge is unsuccessful, Alex is debilitated, they can not be 'one.'
Blair invites Jim into the water of 'the mysterious.' ["We're definitely there, my brother; come on in, man, the water's nice."] He leaves the choice up to Jim.
Jim says he isn't sure he's ready to take that trip with Blair. To say it that way is to suggest that Jim believes that Blair actually has the ability to take him there [wherever 'there' is]. And Jim does not turn him down -- he does not say NO; he says he is not ready. [And many of us heard an unspoken 'yet.']
Alex forces Jim into the water, to face the mystery. He can not move, can not choose to leave, until the paralyzing drug wears off.
And Jim's reaction to Alex's mode of getting 'there'? He rejects it, saying it's not the right way to do it. He has no faith in her understanding of the true path.
When the opportunity arises to merge through visions, Jim leaps to merge with Blair, embraces the merge. He chooses it.
When Alex attempts to merge with Jim, he is unhappy with the idea, and in one of the visions in the pool, he actively rejects it.
And then there is the contrast between light and heat.
Blair is always shown as the Light. There was the white light around his face as he lay on the lawn as well as that which surrounded the image of the the leaping spirit animals.
Later, in Jim's vision in the pool, Blair was the light in the darkness of Jim's life.
Blair has the wisdom to say that he does not know everything [when Jim asks for help on the beach]. Also, when he sees Jim acting bizarrely [kissing Alex], his first reaction is to ask for information. He seeks knowledge and understanding without judgment [most of the time].
But Alex was surrounded by fire in the final vision and attempt to merge. It was heat without light. It consumed her but it did not enlightened her.
When Alex gets out of the pool the second time, she is deluded, thinking she 'knows all.'
I know that in the action part of the show many felt that there was not enough Blair there. [And too much Alex (or attempts by Alex to merge with Jim)]
But Blair was being highlighted by his mirror opposite. He was 'there' in every scene that Alex was in.
And Jim?
Jim is joined with Blair soul-to-soul and knows that Blair is his Light -- the light that Incacha has told him to follow.
Cool.
Since June 13, 2000, people have read this essay.
