#The 'midnight overthinkies' scene showed us that there's a lot going on under the surface | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hephaestuscrew · 18 days

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I'm still thinking about that scene in Victoriocity S3E7 where Fleet runs back towards the Beast so as to lure it into the path of the train...

Clara's exclamation of 'Teamwork, Fleet!' after Fleet says he's got a plan reflects her conviction that any plan that Fleet has will be a shared plan, something they do together.

This conviction is a kind of trust, and that trust is part of the reason Clara takes a moment to realise Fleet has headed back towards the Beast. She trusts that he's following behind her. She keeps talking to him, her words full of optimism.

When she realises Fleet isn't there, she immediately realises what that must mean he's done, and her voice sounds more small and scared than I think we've ever heard it before.

Fleet's attempt at self-sacrifice is a kind of betrayal of Clara's trust, but when he echoes her celebration of their teamwork in a more somber tone, I think it suggests that he understands the weight of that betrayal.

If Fleet's plan is that Clara won't realise he's gone until it's already too late, then he thinks "Teamwork, Clara" will be the last words he'll ever speak to her. In what he imagines will be their final conversation, Fleet affirms Clara's understanding of them as a team who work well together, even as he is making a choice that rejects the possibility of their teamwork in this scenario. It's a recognition of what their dynamic has meant. It's a goodbye and an apology, even if Clara doesn't understand it as such at first.

I don't think Fleet sounds scared as he initially faces down the train. When he shouts "Yeah, this way, you stupid machine! Come on then!", he sounds defiant and grimly determined.

In fact, I don't think he sounds afraid until Clara appears, until she might be at risk of being in the path of the Beast or the train as well. It's when he shouts "Clara, stay back for God's sake!" and "Please, get back!" that there's real fear and desperation in his voice. He can confront the idea of giving his own life, but not the idea that doing so might put Clara in danger.

Another thing about these lines is that the move from 'stay back' to 'get back' suggests that Clara didn't obey his first instruction but got closer to him (and therefore to the path of the Beast and the train) between those two lines.

Then Fleet gives what might be another attempt at his last words: "I'm sorry! I'm sorry." A repeated apology before an attempted self-sacrifice is an implicit acknowledgement of how much losing him would hurt Clara. He regrets causing her pain.

Even so, he's accepted that he is about to die and that it'd be worth it to destroy the Beast. But Clara very much hasn't accepted either those things. She's still trying to yell over the noise of the train; she's pulling off her ring to throw at him.

I think it's a good illustration of how Clara's optimism is a kind of strength. She always believes that they can "make a new plan" and that it'll be one in which no one has to die. I think Archibald Fleet needs someone like that, someone who'll tell him to drop to the ground when his death advances from both sides, someone who - even in a dark tunnel with an murderous metal monster and a speeding train - won't stop shouting that there's hope.

#Victoriocity #victoriocity spoilers #clara entwhistle #archibald fleet #I have feelings about them!!#I've listened to this scene a normal number of times...#Can't decide if it's more angsty if Clara heard his apology or if she didn't...#Also on the topic of Clara's optimism #I think it is a part of her temperament #but I don't think that means it's always easy or that it isn't something that takes active effort #The 'midnight overthinkies' scene showed us that there's a lot going on under the surface #As previously established I don't personally see Clara and Fleet romantically #but nonetheless there is something Orpheus and Eurydice #about two people who care deeply about each other #in a dark tunnel trying to head towards safety #and one of them trusts that the other is behind them #except Clara doesn't look back for a while and then he actually is already gone #and she's alone wondering if she's lost him forever #I think I can draw those parallels platonically #Oh also there's something impressive about a show that can literally raise a guy from the dead in the first season #and yet still have real stakes when he's in life or death situations after that #something deeply sinister about how in Even Greater London no death ever needs to be permanent #but we know that the vast majority of deaths would be because access to that technology is so restricted #inspector fleet #victoriocity season 3 #victoriocity podcast #Clara & Fleet #The empty man posteth

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