[Veronakat]

Hannah wow, I've never noticed. I guess I'll have to watch the epi again and again until I can see it (just an excuse to see JakeandHam moments)

There's another moment I always wanted to see. You know when the gang is in the back of the old man's truck coming back to Rawley we only can see Bella resting in Sean's arms but where and how were Jake and Ham? Are they sat, laying together,... ?

[Katka]

Originally posted by Talliann we only can see Bella resting in Sean's arms but where and how were Jake and Ham? Are they sat, laying together,... ?

I guess, he held her in his strong and beautiful arms...and they were just being quiet enjoying the last moments together.

The stupid thing about this last episode is the fact that I didn't know it was the last one. I watched it in summer 2002 on a German channel...and I thought they were preparing the other season for airing.
They even said it's the last episode for now...but that doesn't mean forever...actually, it DID!
I got so sad about the end I started to look for anything connected with YA (esp. j/h). I found a whole bunch of fanfic that just helped me to get better. You wouldn't believe it, but I was really depressed.

I came across something really nice. It was posted on Nelle's site...it was a list of what a jahammer should do or be like. Do you guys remember it?
- you consider buying a gas station, but only if you can build Friendly's across the street, etc.

[wolkenfuehlen]

Originally posted by katka15 The stupid thing about this last episode is the fact that I didn't know it was the last one. I watched it in summer 2002 on a German channel...and I thought they were preparing the other season for airing. They even said it's the last episode for now...but that doesn't mean forever...actually, it DID!

I was so pissed at them for doing that. I knew that there wouldn't be another season, and they said "That was the last episode for now", which, to me, sounded as if there was a second season coming, only there wasn't.

I know what you mean, I think you're talking about the Jahammer bible. I think I still have it somewhere... *off to search*

[Silversun]

Huh. I knew straight from the outset that it was only 8 episodes because I went online straight after the pilot to check it out. And I think as soon as WBSHM finished (like, the literal minute it finished) I jumped on my computer and started writing my first fanfic episode, so the withdrawal symptoms weren't as tough for me as for most others, I think.

[Katka]

Nicky, this might sound so pathetic, but you are keeping the YA alive...can't wait for a new epi.

[Silversun]

If you think reading fanfic is pathetic, then I must be the most pathetic of all, still writing those damn things. I'm glad to hear you're looking forward to it. It'll be a while yet, but fics are coming.

[Katka]

Originally posted by Silversun If you think reading fanfic is pathetic,...

No way, you got me wrong... I thought that sentence was pathetic

[Veronakat]

Aww... thank you Katka15 for that image . I can picture them like that!

Originally posted by katka15 I guess, he held her in his strong and beautiful arms...and they were just being quiet enjoying the last moments together.

[Silversun]

Originally posted by katka15 No way, you got me wrong... I thought that sentence was pathetic

Relax, sweetie, I was just taking the mickey.

You're not the Katarina I talked to via email, by any chance? Russian but lives in Germany? Or is that somebody else? Sorry, just trying to get people sorted in my head.

[Katka]

Originally posted by Silversun You're not the Katarina I talked to via email, by any chance?

Nope, must have been somebody else

[Silversun]

Oh well, it's good to make new friends too!

[Katka]

It's always great to make new friends...especially those who share your interests

[Finnegan]

Still trying to understand the last episode. For me, the hardest to understand. So I'm reading the oldest thread on this board about it. Help would be much appreciated.

Originally Posted by The Fifth Element (View Post) It's all about how everyone finds out about Jake being a girl.

Maybe. I'd like to think so. But apart from Krudski-as-narrator, is anyone inspired by the revelation that "Jake" is a girl? Bella already knows. Does Scout or Sean or Will seem to understand the "true love" story that Jake's gender-deception implies? Does it somehow inspire Scout to accept that Bella doesn't love him enough to "Scout her mom," that what he has lost is not a "true love"? Does it inspire Krudski to "keep his scholarship," to persist in his rejuvenation effort? That the "true love" story should inspire the others is what is wanted, dramatically, at the end, but I just don't see much indication of that. Does anyone? Is there any suggestion that the story was told on the walk down the railroad tracks?

It seems reasonable to talk about YA's "ending." One of the actors said in a July 9 press interview that they had just filmed episode 6. So episode 8 was filmed after the bad ratings news was known. Prospects for an autumn time slot were bleak. That's presumably episode 8 has so much "closure."

I think I get the necessity of the endings for Jacqueline and Bella.
-- Jacqueline gets the best possible ending in a situation with no very good possible endings: she's healed enough so that the costs of continuing to cross-dress (to stay at Rawley) would exceed the benefits. Hamilton leaves her in better shape than he found her, with a fighting chance at emotional health, as indicated by her offering to walk with Bella to Carson -- Pratt's first selfless act in all of YA.
-- Bella, in losing her gas station, is being "given what she needs, not what she wants," in typical Rawley-providence fashion. She has sacrificed her love for Scout to her obsessive craving for security and stability, represented by her step-father's gas station. The security to which Bella sacrificed love must be taken from her to enable her to overcome her character flaw and grow -- just as the heterosexuality that Hamilton sacrificed to his love for "Jake," when he did grow, was restored to him.

And I get why the last episode takes place almost entirely "off campus:" the whole point of Krudski's Rawley-dream, as of fiction generally, is to inspire us after we leave it and return to reality.

But why is the episode a journey on foot to visit Bella's mom, who lives in a graveyard? Obviously there's some "symbolic funeral" aspect to that. Does that walk down the tracks encapsulate their whole lives after Rawley? Does everyone's willingness to go imply friendships or (more likely) memories that will last until death? That's dandy, but we don't actually see much mutual inspiration going on, and the centrality of the Bella-and-her-mom storyline crowds out any inspiring communication of the Jake-Hamilton story.

Why were the deer scenes so important to Antin? (Somerhalder said that the actors hated them, but Antin insisted on them.) There's a death-and-rebirth theme there, but how to tie it in with the rest of the episode eludes me. All that seems clear is that everybody's moral tone is a lot better on day 2, after the deer revives, than on day 1. While the deer seems "dead," everybody's nasty. And the deer is young, a fawn. Does everybody's youthfulness, their moral optimism, "die" and get reborn with the deer? That's fine, but we don't have much time to savor the "rebirth" -- we don't see what use is made of it.

Why are the characters so nasty to one another in the cabin? The Scout-Sean tension is understandable. But Scout also seems hostile to Jake and Hamilton. And Jake and Hamilton, asked by Scout and Will to tell their story, refuse to do so. If ever there were a time for Pratt to open up and sing Fleming's praises, this is it; she passes it by. An opportunity to express gratitude in a meaningful way, a way that helps others, is not seized. Why is this overnight-death-of-moral-character necessary?

Above all, why doesn't Pratt send Fleming off to run some errand at some point and then offer something like Rose's ecomium to Jack in Titanic: "he saved me in every way that a person can be saved." We'd all feel a lot better about her prospects if she'd risen to that occasion. Maybe we're not supposed to feel too good about Pratt's prospects, because Pratt is us. But if myths don't get told, they're not good for much, and nobody but Pratt is in a position to tell this story. Is that the problem, the dramatic flaw? Has the Jake-Hamilton storyline been keep so "apart" for so long that it's just not possible even to tell it to the others in the final episode?