Finally, an episode of Medium where Allison’s story intrigues me. I do love what they’ve been doing with the girls, seeing how their abilities are coming into play in their lives, but they can’t keep showing up their mom or they’re going to have to get their own show.
While I was watching I thought it was all very bizarre, yet amusing. The way the microwave started glowing like the Virgin Mary, and later all that stuff at the grocery store, and Allison’s face as she became transfixed with these things. It just couldn’t work on any other show.
At first I really didn’t get why Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” kept playing throughout these sequences. It’s a catchy tune, and damn if it isn’t stuck in my head for good now, but it didn’t seem like Medium to use such a current hit song, even if it was only the music and not the lyrics.
On a whim, I looked it up on Wikipedia, mostly to see if I had the name right, and after reading the article, it makes sense to me. Whoever picked it for this episode must be a Coldplay fan because even though I’ve heard the song about a gazillion times on the radio, I never picked up on the meaning of it. According to Wikipedia, Coldplay’s bass player Guy Berryman said:
“There’s this slightly anti-authoritarian viewpoint that’s crept into some of the lyrics and it’s some of the pay-off between being surrounded by governments on one side, but we’re also human beings dealing with emotions and we’re all going to die and the stupidity of what we have to put up with every day.”
And from frontman Chris Martin:
“It always fascinated me that idea of finishing your life and then being analysed on it. And this idea runs throughout most religions. That’s why people blow up buildings. They think they’re going to get lots of virgins.”
I thought it was pretty interesting that this song actually tied in with what was going on with the main plot of this episode. Granted, the terrorist in question was American, not an Islamic fundamentalist, but in reading Coldplay’s explanation of the song, and the lyrics I can see why it was used. Mitchell Sloakum (just guessing on the spelling of his name here) definitely viewed himself as a revolutionary fighting against what he felt were the injustice and oppression of our government, through any means necessary.
Clacked by Cate Cropp
on Feb 17, 2009 @ 18:00 EST5EDT
Hey, just dropping a message to say thanks for finding the details on this episode. I was wondering what the connection was myself. The song certainly fit in well with the episode.