Being Human(UK) s3

[liliaeth]

I'm going to post a little ramble, that's been going through my mind. 



I've seen a lot of people judge Nina or Annie harshly when Nina informed the police about Mitchell. When Annie wouldn't help him escape. And I finally think I figured out a comparison that would explain why they did the exact right thing. And why Mitchell did the right thing in making George kill him. 

That comparison is simple.

The supernatural world in Being Human is like the catholic church. 

Now don't get me wrong, I am catholic and I definitely don't mean any offense to my own religion,but it's the best comparison I can find, so let's go with it, shall we.

As people know, the catholic church has been suffering from a lot of scandals dealing with pedophiles using the church to hide in, to commit their sins and get away with them.

Vampires are like those pedophiles. A lot of these men and women may even think they want to stop, but like those pedophiles who feel guilty, but don't genuinely get themselves away from children, who don't get treatment and don't take responsibility for their actions, Mitchell allows or tries to allow, the supernatural world around him to hide his actions. He lets other vampires cover up his sins. He tries to move on with his life, tries to abstain from his sin (murder), but time and time again he falls right back into bad habits and people suffer.

And like those priests who try to cover up the pedophiles sins, by covering things up, by pretending nothings going on, for the good of the church. George has been covering for Mitchell. He's been allowing himself to get corrupted by his own inaction. He barely spoke up when Mitchell killed Lauren, he didn't do a thing when Josie gave her life for Mitchell. He knew about Box Tunnel massacre and didn't say a word.

And he did it to protect his friend, because 'speaking up would harm them all'.

Just like good priests get corrupted when they don't speak up against the crimes of some of those amongst them. 

Nina is the voice that says 'enough', 'we can not keep quiet.", 'the victims are worth more than reputation'.

So she reported, like many good people do when they find that a priest is doing something wrong. And like many of those who dared to speak up against the abuses in the church, she's villainised for this. "How dare you threaten the church", "how dare you risk the secrecy of the supernatural world'. It pretty much comes down to he same thing.

The secrecy is more important than the lives of the innocent that get destroyed every day.

And it's here that Annie and Nina speak up and say: "No"

The secret is not more important than that. We must do the right thing, we must speak up and stop what's wrong, because how can we continue to be good people if we do not?

And it's Mitchell's moment of redemption when he realizes that he keeps falling in the same pattern. When he tries to halt his corruption of his friend, of the church, by saying "I must stand responsible for my actions", "I must be stopped, and you have to be the one to do so"

Because it's only when the church (aka the supernatural world) stops covering up for the crimes of the few, that all can be redeemed.

Hoping this makes sense.

Comments

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Makes lots of sense.

[liliaeth]

thought so, just posted a link to this post on a Being Human com, curious to see what others think of it.

[a_blackpanther]

I can't believe the flak Annie and Nina are getting for this. Because they were absolutely right to do what they did. The problem is Mitchell was right too - look at how many deaths reporting him caused.

Mitchell's death - it was the only redemption his character could have ever achieved, but it wasn't Nina or Annie's fault. He knew his death was the only way to save the world from himself and protect his friends. He chose it, it was essentially suicide. I think he would have come to this conclusion on his own anyway, but it would have been much, much slower and would have destroyed George, Annie and George & Nina in the meantime.

[icafreak.livejournal.com]

::claps::

[jeri-1116.livejournal.com]

I believe Mitchell should've paid- I do, but I do feel like Nina should've kept it within the family, i.e George and Annie, she brought to many people in and in the process they were brutally killed, her jugdement was off she did what she did without thinking, because I would've confronted Mitchell infront of George and Annie.
I do think Nina, had every right to be mad. I just think she handled it wrong.

Annie had every right to be mad- every right, but turning him in made no sense. Exposing him would've only made it worse.

And the ending? I do feel like it was fitting that George did it. He basically set him free.

[catchester.livejournal.com]

The difference is, reporting a catholic priest to the police wont cause all priests to be hunted down and killed.

Reporting a supernatural being to the police will cause the discovery of supernaturals, panic, and a 21st century version of the Salem witch trials.

Or you get what happened, in the show, which is other supernaturals slaughtering a whole police station in order to keep the secret.

Mitchell absolutely should have been punished, but he should have been punished "in house" as it were. I see no reason why Nina Annie and George couldn't have imprisoned Mitchell themselves. George had a cage, why not build Mitchell one? Why not de-fang him so he cant bite any more? Oh yeah, because Nina was too scared to confront him, or even share her suspicions with George.

To be honest, if the Catholic church had handled punishment in house, say by castrating the paedophile priests, I'd have been quite happy with that. It's the fact there was no punishment combined with enabling the priests to continue that has so many people angry.

[etoile444.livejournal.com]

You are right that supernaturals cover for each other, but maybe not so much for the same reasons as the church, but it's still problematic. Nina was trying to do the right thing. She had good intentions that went wrong.

Mitchell did the right thing in the end, but oh God, was that sad or what?

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

This is such a neat way of looking at it.

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

This is a really interesting way of looking at it.

I agree with some of the comments about how it might have been handled better but the fact that they didn't have all the facts about the consequences made that impossible. We know who was to blame for that. Mitchell kept so many secrets.

I have been angry for years about someone in my family who very messily disclosed having been abused by a family member at a time when I really needed practical support and couldn't hope for it because everyone just fell apart. I realize now that the truth can't be "convenient" and consequences are not dependant on what we would like.

I also understand the desire to keep things "in house" but if the house is crazy it needs to be torn down.