Ashes to Ashes/Headscratchers

Ashes to Ashes

In the first episode, Alex mentions everyone from Life On Mars excepts Annie but no-one mentions Annie. Did Sam never mention her?

• • I get the feeling Annie's going to turn up later.
    • Whether or not it's Canon is debatable but Annie gets killed off in a short story posted on the BBC webpage.
  • Annie finally got a mention in season 2, when Jackie confirmed that Sam and Annie married, and that they were "the happiest couple you ever saw".
  • Keats mentions her in 3.08, though he says that his "office" can't trace her. It's implied that she and Sam got to be Together in Death.

Also from the first episode...

Alex takes whoever's word on Sam being there for seven years. Why does she so easily and without questioning accept the word of someone that she is so convinced is a hallucination?

Chris provoked to upchuck by maggots? Srsly?

Look, writers: I know Marshall Lancaster is adorable, and DC Chris Skelton's lovable naivete is a great source of comic relief, but: as of mid-1982, he has been a detective for at least ten years. (He was on the 1972 investigation of the teenager killed in the "Camberwick Green" episode of Life On Mars, albeit as a rookie.) He should not be vomiting uncontrollably at the sight of a dead rabbit. Come on, writers: this strains credibility just a tad.

• Except Chris isn't real. He's imagined by Sam and Alex. The 1982 of Ashes to Ashes isn't genuinely connected to 1972. It's not 1982 because ten years have passed. It's 1982 because Alex is younger than Sam. This is also why there's a huge tonal shift between the two series, as each of the models their idea of policing in the time the shows are set on the cop shows that were on TV at the time.
  • That's your epileptic tree, not necessarily canon, and it's not a satisfying excuse for lacksadaisical writing. On topic, some people genuinely don't toughen up or grow like that; it's a bit of a case of Reality Is Unrealistic.
  • Except Chris IS real. 3x08 leaves you in no doubt of that. The reason he's still puking over maggots is likely because he was barely even a copper at the time of his death.
• Further to Reality Is Unrealistic above; Some people have phobias. Most people know somebody who freaks out at the sight of a spider; maggots are less common, but this troper knows one person who is so disgusted by them that they can't even look at a picture of a maggot without feeling unwell. Also, when Chris is going to a crime scene, he knows it's a crime scene and has time to steel himself; when he finds the rabbit, he has no warning whatsoever.

About The Un-Reveal of 3.05:

If Gene didn't remember his role as a psychopomp for dead coppers with issues, what on Earth did he say to Bevan to make him sob and whimper like that?

• • Perhaps his face changed to Dead!Copper and scared the crap out of Bevan.
  • Gene isn't entirely unaware of his status as a psychopomp though. He chooses not to remember a lot of it, presumably for the sake of his own sanity, but he is aware of it at some level. Presumably with Bevan he chose to stop forgetting enough to tell Bevan and then afterwards went back to his choosing to forget.

Regarding the ending...

If the final episode is to be believed, then how could Sam and Alex have seen Annie and Gene when they were children?

• • Word of God is that Alex was rescued by a real copper, but that the fact that she saw him as Gene could have been a premonition/foreshadowing of the protective role that Gene would have in her (un)life. Sam is still anybody's guess, though many fans are floating the idea that Vic Tyler kicked Annie to death and that memory is why Sam has the flashes of the woman in the red dress i.e. Annie.
    • I always took Gene taking young Alex's hand to be just the afterlife universe overwriting her real memories. (as is seen more later on in the Series 2 and 3) And if the woman in the red dress really is murdered and really is Annie, it's arguably Fridge Brilliance as that seems exactly the kind of trauma that could get coppers sent to Gene's world. You could even say that Annie's relationship with Sam is her version of 'making peace', like Shaz, Chris, and Ray do, with their death and in her case the Tyler family (from what we know of his character, Vic probably only became a crime lord because he wanted to give Sam a better future than a cleaning supplies salesman could give). It doesn't matter that Vic couldn't attack Annie in Gene's world, because we know it's not really time travel and it's not the same timeline.

How did some characters in Sam's world re-appear in Alex's world?

I understand that Gene Hunt transferred to London, but what's with Ray and Chris? Wouldn't they still be back in Manchester (or at least not in London)? Or do they just go wherever Gene goes? Or did they all re-unite by chance?

• • It seems like Gene makes the rules in Dead Copper Purgatory, and until you come to terms with your death, you can't move on. Gene went to London because he was needed in London. Chris and Ray hadn't resolved their issues yet, so they went with him.

Where do they go if they die?

Well, they're already dead and in purgatory, so what would've happened if Gene's bullet had actually killed Alex, for example, or if she hadn't revived Shaz after she was stabbed? Would they have just moved on to the pub, or gone to hell, or would their souls have just been erased completely? Or can't they actually die in Gene's world unless Jim takes them (like Viv) and will always end up being rescued just in time? Actually, while I'm on it, what would've happened if Chris had really been fired in 3.04, or if Shaz had gone through with her decision to quit? Inquiring minds want to know.

• If you got fired you probably ended up like poor Viv, this is the last chance saloon for coppers souls after all. You get to fix whatever it is you've not dealt with, fail to fix and that's it. Quitting would probably result in a trip to the pub. You've dealt with your issue, you aren't a copper anymore and its time to move on. Getting killed, I suppose it depends how you get killed. If it is by going against the coppers code, then it is probably a trip downstairs, or if it is in line of duty you probably moved on (or just started again in another squadroom, like a series of russian dolls).

Who was "The Missus"?

Ok, so in reality it seems pretty clear that The Unseen wife of Gene Hunt was largely there as a joke in Life On Mars and got written out of this series so Gene and Alex could have Unresolved Sexual Tension. But given the reveals, it's interesting to wonder: Did she exist at all? If so, was she a lost soul like Alex et al, or one of the imaginary people that it seems (?) most of the population are, possibly including all those in Gene's team who never get any lines. The latter seems a bit strange (are those people "real" enough to marry?), but the former would presumably imply she was in the police, which also seems doubtful. Gene having been married seems much more interesting in light of Keats mocking him for always being alone.

With what we know about the unreal nature of Gene's World from Ashes to Ashes, how can the Casino owner in Life on Mars be explained?

In Life on Mars (I forget which episode), a dirty Casino owner/crime lord that Sam knows from 2006(?), tries to kill him in the hospital. Sam remembers making a watertight case against him after he kills his wife Eve, and he was set to be sent down when Sam goes into a coma. Sam manages to have him declared insane in 1972(?) through some hijinks after telling him about the future, and he then hears nurses talking about the person who attacked him in the hospital being a lunatic kept there since 1972(?). At the time it seemed that Sam had altered the future through his actions in the past, but since we now know from Ashes to Ashes that he was not time travelling but was in Gene's world, and could not affect the future because he wasn't in the real world, it stands out at the most significant plot hole in the duality, in a universe that is otherwise surprisingly well wrapped up (considering the complexity of the story).