“We’re receiving news that the terrorist Ryan McGregor, otherwise known as the Decimator of Demwa, has died.”
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| This is the last we see of Ryan McGregor. |
In the final moments of the previous episode of Noughts +
Crosses, we saw Ryan brutally attacked by a Cross inmate, on the night of
his sentencing.
The next we hear of him, in this episode, is that he has
died.
It’s a shocking turn of events – Ryan had just been sentenced to 30 years in prison, rather than death by hanging. And now, instead of 30 more years to live, he has been afforded only a few more hours.
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| Meggie is completely dumbfounded by the news, as are we. |
The most shocking thing is, she does not learn of her husband’s death through a sympathetic phone call from a prison official; she discovers that he has died from the television news bulletin. Such a lack of human decency – failing to inform his family in person of the news that will shatter their lives – brings home just how little the Crosses care about Noughts. Truly, they see no humanity in them – so why would they treat them like humans?
The cup Meggie is holding falls to the floor and shatters into pieces. Sustained musical tones drown out the news, and the camera pans shakily around to show Meggie, still. She becomes a blurred statue in the camera frame as her sons rush down the stairs.
Like that cup, their lives have just been shattered into pieces. Commotion may whirl around them, but the axis of their world has lost its place.
Noughts + Crosses does a brilliant job of depicting the harsh realities of racial injustice and racial tension, but it also does a phenomenal job of illustrating the realities of human relationships. Bereavement is the most severe rupture of a human relationship possible, and we see its effects at work in this episode.
“I can’t believe they’ve put me on hold”, Meggie says in disbelief as she paces up and down the living room. Neither can I.
The McGregors head to the prison, to ascertain the facts for themselves, as no one is telling them anything.
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| The stone-cold grey lighting cast over this scene reflects the dismal mood. It is impossible not to be touched by the palpable grief of Meggie and her sons. |
“All I can tell you is, his body was found last night in his cell and was then moved to the prison morgue.”
That is the clinical reply from the receptionist to Jude as
she faces him from behind her protective glass screen. The receptionist may
feel an ounce of discomfort in following such harsh orders, but she does not
have to live the grim reality that the McGregors are now shut up in.
To learn of Ryan’s death through the news is bad enough. To
then meet with those who should have told them in the first place, only to have
the facts withheld, and then be told they are barred from seeing Ryan’s
body… The disregard for Nought life is so tangible, it is as though it is
hurtled at you through the TV screen.
“He killed himself?” – Jude
“But you can’t tell me how or why?!” – Callum
It seems more than a little suspicious that Ryan’s corpse is
being kept under lock and key. Doubts that his death truly was a suicide begin
to surface relatively quickly.
The death of Sandra Bland is a real-life case where doubts have been cast over the ruling of suicide. When her mugshot was first released, the public even doubted that Sandra was still alive at the time it was taken, due to her appearance in the photo. Sandra’s death was ruled a suicide, but the nature of her violent arrest – for a failure to indicate – and her death in prison three days later, showed profound misconduct on the part of Texan police. Here in the UK, Simeon Francis died in police custody during the lockdown. The cause of his death remains unknown. Kingsley Burrell suffered a cardiac arrest in Birmingham in 2011 after being subjected to excessive restraint by police officers – his body was only released to the family 17 months later.
Kamal the Gaslighter
As well as highlighting the evidence of racial injustice, Noughts + Crosses is extensive in its social commentary of abusive relationships. The marriage between Kamal and Jasmine is clearly one in which Kamal controls and manipulates his wife.
In an act of defiance against him in the last episode, Jasmine shamelessly used money from Kamal’s account to fund Ryan McGregor’s defence – to support her friend Meggie and her family.
Her defiance is quickly broken down though, under the merciless, manipulative hands of Kamal. His behaviour is a classic example of gaslighting: he makes Jasmine believe that she is losing her mind. In a matter of seconds, he has eaten away at her self-confidence.
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| This creepy stare from Kamal sends shudders down my spine. |
Ryan’s death changes EVERYTHING.
As the family battles their grief, Meggie warns Callum not
to allow his anguish to turn into rage and revenge. She cautions him not to
join the Liberation Militia. But this time, Callum doesn’t seem to be against
the idea, “if the cause is right”.
Precious few seconds after this talk of the LM, the voice of
their leader Jack Dorn echoes through the air. Dorn is one of my most hated
characters on the show! He is an unscrupulous opportunist who enjoys gratuitous
acts of violence. It matters little to me that he claims the cause behind his
trouble-stirring is Nought dissatisfaction – the trouble that he stirs takes
the lives of the Noughts he claims to care about!
One of the more frustrating things though, is that Jude,
still disenfranchised and still struggling with his identity, is quickly sucked
into the web that Dorn is spinning.
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| I don’t really understand why Jude is dumb enough to listen to Jack Dorn again, after all the trouble he’s caused their family. |
“They killed him. Deliberately.”
That is the assertion of Jude when he returns home to find
his brother Callum, still sunken in hopelessness. Callum, the much more
optimistic of the two, isn’t ready to believe those words.
After some time to reflect, however, the possibility no
longer seems outlandish. Callum brings his thoughts to Sephy, and as usual, she
chooses wilful ignorance – because anything else will change the level of
comfort she’s afforded. She doesn’t want her father’s upcoming position as
interim Prime Minister to be jeopardised.
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| Why is it always about YOU, Sephy? |
At Kamal’s inauguration, however, the story isn’t all about him.
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| The beading on Jasmine’s hair – and her jewellery, point to the richness of various African cultural traditions. |
As Kamal speaks of implementing tighter controls and greater
police presence, a group of Noughts head to the front of the crowd, their
chests covered with red and their hands in chains. Their message is clear: you
say we are free, but everywhere we are in chains.
 |
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| This breathtaking statue never gets boring! |
Kamal’s first act as Prime Minister is to chuck the former Prime Minister, Opal Folami’s draft of an interracial bill, into the bin. Or, at least, to command that his cabinet do so – despite some opposition.
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| The ministers can’t believe the vitriol they are hearing from the new Prime Minister. |
In a society where the idea of Noughts and Crosses forming
interracial relationships is seen as engendering “mongrels”, it is perhaps no
surprise that the loss of Ryan is handled so unfeelingly.
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| Meggie receives this letter from the prison. Identified only with a number, Ryan is not even to be buried by his own family, but only be 'disposed of' by the state. |
Callum cannot believe the height of the depravity. “They’re
disposing of him like a dog!” he yells at Sephy down the phone. And at a cost
that is unimaginable for a family that is already struggling to pay rent.
It is more than a little suspicious that the family
are not going to be allowed to see Ryan’s body before it is 'disposed of'.
Even Sephy begins to suspect foul play.
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| Kamal the gaslighter, at it again. |
“I just think the time for silence is over.”
Such is the assertion of Meggie as she speaks to Yaro. Her words run through the current of events that follow. What has been hiding in the dark comes to light.
Kamal, after ordering his secret service officials to take
Callum from his home offers up the flippant words: “Apologies for the nature of
the invitation. It’s the only way I could assure your attendance.”
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| You will have to watch the episode for yourself to find out how their conversation goes. |
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| Jude, the recruited, now becomes the recruiter. |
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| We never expected this to happen, but in desperation, people take desperate measures. |
Callum turns down a different
path to the one that he would usually take, and Jasmine opts for a completely different
mode of thinking from her husband – when she tells her daughter Sephy to follow
her heart.
The sentimentality doesn’t
last long, though. The next scene is frighteningly jarring.
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| The prison guard that tried to protect Ryan reappears. |
“There were orders. […] From the warden, maybe higher even, I don’t know”, the prison guard tells Callum.
What follows is shocking stuff. The Callum that we see now is incongruous from the one we knew at the start of the series. Being led down a path of crime is common amongst those who have experienced relentless hurt and angst at the hands of an unjust system.
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| The sight of the car screeching away with its angry tail lights, leaving two women feeling heartbroken and helpless in the ruins left by the men they love, is heart-wrenching. |
I can't recommend enough watching this episode to find out more for yourself. There's a lot that happens that I haven't told you about. Be quick about it though; at the time of writing, here in the UK, the series is only available until tomorrow!
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