#mp bbc ghosts
“There’s a lady falls from a window in the west wing. […] And a strange creature that roams the grounds. Half man, half ape.” - Barclay Beg-Chetwynde in 1x05
Does this mean that Robin, just like Fanny, can sometimes be seen by living people? Perhaps on nights of a full moon, when the light hits him just right?
Either way it would mean Robin has not just one but at least two ghost powers - electric light manipulation and (conditional) visibility - and that Mike could actually see him under the right circumstances.
“I’m going to drown myself in the lake! I meanit!”- Thomas in 1x04
I’ve been thinking about this line ever since I rewatched the episode because it’s actually quite sad once you look past the dramatic delivery.
Thomas, as we know, wears his heart on his sleeve (or so it seems) and tends to overshare a lot, often in an overtly dramatic fashion. The others either ignore him when he expresses his feelings, roll their eyes or outright mock him. It’s obvious they’re tired of his behaviour but I can’t help but wonder if they actually might be (partly) responsible for it.
Thomas is someone who craves attention. It’s probably not too far-fetched to assume he was ignored a lot as a child (as implied in 3x05 when he talks about how his mother left him crying as a baby - something I personally think is way more serious than he makes it out to be but that’s a topic for another post). And probably not just ignored, but also actively told to shut up as well. We can see a hint of that in 1x04 when he walks into the room, desperate to talk to Alison about the free pass thing. He keeps asking to have a word with her right until the moment Alison tells him firmly to, “Shush!” He shuts up at once and steps away, looking not just heartbroken but also a little betrayed, I’d say. And he remains quiet.
I think Thomas has been silenced a lot in his life. Poetry might have been the only way he had of giving voice to his thoughts and getting people to listen to him. Perhaps that’s also why his poem went on for ages in 2x04 - he might feel he has to make the most of it while he has the room’s full attention for once.
Only now that he’s dead people no longer have the common courtesy to even pretend to listen to him. They are openly dismissive of both his work and and his feelings, bringing us back to 1x04 in which not a single person cares that Thomas is clearly upset about the film being about Byron. They think he’s being dramatic (which he is). That’s all there is to it for them. No one goes after him when he leaves. Thomas waits and waits but no one ever comes - sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?
When he goes back downstairs and explains to them why he’s upset, he tells them exactly where he’s going before he leaves this time - to the lake. He makes it easy for them to find him.But once again no one comes for him. There’s this little moment at the end of the episode where Pat acknowledges that someone should probably tell Thomas the film crew is gone but then he just follows the others inside and leaves him waiting in the lake. Alone. Forgotten.
In summary, I think Thomas’s behaviour is the result of 200+ years of being largely ignored and dismissed. Being overtly dramatic is the only way he knows how to get people’s attention, even if it’s negative. But the real Thomas Thorne, the one who didn’t shed a tear when the true circumstances of his death came to light and composed something truly poetic while watching an ordinary sunrise, is a lot more serious and self-reflecting and quiet than we see most of the time. He just rarely has the chance to be heard.
I never noticed that Nigel almost drops the furs he gets from Mick in the flashback in 2x02.
It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in the background when Mick starts coughing and it has no right to be so adorable.
