October 12th, 2018
12 Oct 2018 · page 841 of 1306
Eliza, that's all very good advice that won't lead to a very interesting plot.
Cast: Eliza Swift, Parsley, Vincent Knott
Comments (28)
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Uh oh, Chekhov's knockout drops.
I foresee an ill-advised yet surprisingly successful prison break coming up!
...Eliza is advising her friend to give up on trying to save a man's life. She ought to be helping him with his research. Better adherence to his morals, and let's her put her strengths to work for a friend.
I most assuredly did not hear her try to dissuade him. I heard her advise him to take an avenue more likely to succeed.
Well, if talking to dad means Vincent can say "I can't do this," presumably the authorities would find someone else to do it. (Dad, maybe?)
Has Vincent's lawyering gotten all the previous ones acquitted, or just changed the sentences? What if someone is actually guilty? Seems like what he may want is an abolition of the death penalty, which would take some activism (which Eliza should be good at) but would also be striking at the heart of the family business.
That is the awkwardness of it: we don't know what the guy did. Which in and of itself is an issue: I am actually not opposed to the death penalty in certain cases, but if you don't want to tell me what the crime is, don't expect me to blindly agree that he needs to be hanged for it. Star Courts are BAD.
And obviously Eliza's first order of concern in this conversation is Knotty, who is currently freaking out about what to do. Calm him down, give him options.
I get the impression the Knotty is opposed to the death penalty in all cases.
Actually, my impression is that Knotty is opposed to killing somebody with his own hands. It's personal with him, not political.
I get the impression the dad very well know of it and only asks him to replace him on tangent cases where he has a personal duty which has also a political result.
?? Not sure what you're saying here.....
The dad "sends" Knotty on desperate case he jopes to be solved.
Not implausible. We'll see.
I'll re-read the last couple of pages, but I don't remember anything indicating his anxiety is about moral opposition to the death penalty or a desire to "save a man's life". It seems 100% fueled by the mix of not wanting to be the one pulling the lever and not wanting to disappoint his dad. Note that when she suggests he just talk to his dad, his objection isn't anything about the convict in question or morality, but about his relationship with his dad.
Which isn't surprising. If you look at modern real-world execution methods, that kind of anxiety (over being the one to do it, rather then the morality of doing it) has led to all sorts of weird things†.
So it's possible he'll go into more detail about his moral/ethical concerns later on, but so far he doesn't strike me as motivated by morality, just by personal involvements, which is perfectly inline with real-world issues.
____
†From a purely academic perspective, the various execution methods we've devised over time, particularly in the last century and a half, have been very interesting. The steps we've added to ensure various levels of "no suffering" while also making sure people don't know if it was them that killed a man all speak to interesting things about human psychology.
I read "another option" as "there's another way you can avoid having to be an executioner." Plus, if we go with the aforementioned "convince dad to send him to law school" option, he'd become much better equipped to save more people.
Granted, that does leave the current condemned man in the lurch, but Vincent can't keep doing this "desperate last minute reprieve" every single time. The stress of it will drive him mad.
Anyway, yeah, I think "another option" is less about this specific instance and more about a general "How do we get you to stop being constantly stressed over this?"
While it is a fine idea to do your lawyering, take Eliza's advice about talking to Dad.
“If only all could be like me, so then would all be grand....”
Tante Sofia, in Thorbjørn Egner’s «Kardemomme Town»
I saw an episode of The Twilight Zone about that. Not quite so grand in practice as it might be in theory.
Learning that Vincent tries to get his "clients" off every time puts a new construction on the bit earlier when he said to his dad, "N-no, I'm ready! I mean - I will be." [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-14th-2018/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-14th-2018/") At the time I thought being ready meant nerving himself up to do the job, but now I think he was talking about preparing his defense.
I take off my proverbial hat. :)
Either that or dad is alluding to the idea that, sooner or later, there's going to be someone Vincent can't save from the gallows, which will be the first time he has to actually perform an execution.
"Pretty sure he puts those in the correct order, though." Eliza is thrice-awesome and the best friend a reluctant hangman could have.
I am so sure that we encountered a character with the surname "Sharpe" before in this world. Aaargh
All I can think of is Richard Sharpe, formerly of the 95th rifles; a good yorkshire lad (at least when played by Sean Bean) and from the right era - though he'd be getting on in years now. 😁
You know, Eliza's right about the whole fourth anchor conspiracy. The problem is that everyone who's investigated hasn't been able to finish their reports. They're just underwater right now. I'm sure that they'll make everything clear once they can come up for air.
kitty !
The deathrow inmate could break out by themself. That would lead to an interesting plot to parallel Vincent's view, of how he struggles between his role of an executioner versus a lawyer, and how a criminal can perform acts to redeem themselves versus being given a very permanent sentence with no chance to do so.
I was gonna comment on the contrivance of having a hangman called "Knott", until my brainkicked in and reminded me that trades are exactly what gave a lot of people their surnames.