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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 389196" data-attributes="member: 23">Episode 289 5th August 1985 Something that’s struck me on this rewatch is how well each episode has struck a balance between the darkness of the siege itself and more lighthearted fare. In recent episodes we’ve seen Harry stealthily raising Ralph’s rent as well as Damon and Neil’s séance.As the intensity of the siege has increased, it feels the levity in other scenes has increased to match it. The siege reaches a critical point in #289, and there’s a whole lot of organic humour.Much of this has come from the rather bizarre situation of most of our regular characters breakfasting under one roof as all the households are moved to a nearby hotel (the only absentees are Heather and Karen). We have Harry being minimal with his and Edna’s breakfast choices until he can be sure he’s not paying; Damon going to the other extreme and making the most of the scran on offer; Annabelle looking with horror at the fryups and commenting she's “taking a chance” even having just toast; Edna getting locked in the lav; Camilla showing up and dropping Damon in it just as he’d convinced Sheila and Bobby he was having a quiet night in when the police knocked.With so much happening, we didn’t see the guests arriving at the accommodation, but we find out some details over breakfast, such as Ralph being given a double room while Harry got a single. There’s also Paul’s scoffed reply when asked if the Collinses' room has a view:Closer to the drama, the comedy is arguably even broader, with the nice sight gag of armed police surrounding the unsuspecting Sinbad while he is digging up the telly he’d buried in Heather’s garden.Much is made of the surreal nature of what’s going on. Damon is thrilled to see the Close on TV during a news report from the scene (“Ey look - it’s us”), while shots of the Close - deserted but for armed men strategically placed on roofs and patrolling homes and gardens with their dogs - have an eerie and almost otherworldly quality. We  even briefly see young armed officers making themselves at home in the Grants' living room.After a bit of a lull in the previous episode, things are back to being gripping inside number 7. Pat and Sandra retain their stock siege facial expressions and deliveries but have a lot less dialogue.I did find I had to suspend my disbelief a little when it came to the device of Kate speaking to John as though she was his mother and him buying into it (these reminded me of similar scenes in Psycho II), but once I was able to get on board with the fact that John appears to be suffering some kind of extreme psychosis or breakdown it worked.This episode really did create that sense of John having painted himself into a corner from which it’s almost impossible to extricate himself. The closing scenes of the episode where it seems everything became real for him and he realised his mother was dead and he had no way out  was a moment of tragedy and horror for both him and Kate.Kate herself was full of compassion to the end. She put her friends’ safety before her own, making sure they were freed at the cost of her own freedom (those few moments where Kate stops play acting as John’s mother to urge them to go as she ushers them are quite moving with the benefit of hindsight). Ultimately, she also put John’s welfare ahead of her own and her last act in this episode was to attempt to stop him from harming himself.Not a bad legacy, all told.</blockquote>

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