Given that the point of the series was to give the viewer a surprise ending, this episode definitely fulfilled the brief. I always try to guess the twist in any given episode, and more often than not I'm right, and when I'm wrong, I'm usually close- but with this one, I genuinely didn't see it coming and found it both pretty heart-breaking and a neat exploration of the nature of memory, the stories we tell ourselves, romanticism and how some of us change.
There is some foreshadowing of the way in which people can put a romantic gloss on an encounter (or just plain misread it) when we hear the irritating Marjorie telling onlookers what a wonderful time she'd been having with the American; a few scenes later and we discover that Doris is now a miserable cynic: or maybe she was a miserable cynic back in 1942 as well, but Gerry Armstrong was just too romantic or deluded to see it, as was Marjorie. Indeed, does Gerry tell people his wife is a wonderfully kind and romantic soul in the same way that Marjorie seems to embellish her tales about unwanted admirers?
There again, as others have said, maybe the writer was simply saying that the romantic dreams of wartime romances often fade and turn sour over time, thereby turning viewer expectations on their head and giving them a very downbeat ending after watching a seemingly very romantic tale.
All in all, a very thought-provoking end to the tale, and far better than all my initial mad predictions about Carol being his granddaughter or a ghost. Which is why I am not a writer!
There is some foreshadowing of the way in which people can put a romantic gloss on an encounter (or just plain misread it) when we hear the irritating Marjorie telling onlookers what a wonderful time she'd been having with the American; a few scenes later and we discover that Doris is now a miserable cynic: or maybe she was a miserable cynic back in 1942 as well, but Gerry Armstrong was just too romantic or deluded to see it, as was Marjorie. Indeed, does Gerry tell people his wife is a wonderfully kind and romantic soul in the same way that Marjorie seems to embellish her tales about unwanted admirers?
There again, as others have said, maybe the writer was simply saying that the romantic dreams of wartime romances often fade and turn sour over time, thereby turning viewer expectations on their head and giving them a very downbeat ending after watching a seemingly very romantic tale.
All in all, a very thought-provoking end to the tale, and far better than all my initial mad predictions about Carol being his granddaughter or a ghost. Which is why I am not a writer!