This is intended as a way to collect some of the observations which I and many others have made about Rimmer in Series V on both LJ and Tumblr regarding how easily he can be read as struggling with his repressed homosexuality and attraction to Lister. If that isn’t your cup of tea, then don’t read.
I don’t claim to have come up with it all myself. If you recognise a particular point which you feel originated with you, link me and I’ll add the link to the post.
This isn’t really intended as serious meta. I’m not trying to convince people who disagree. It’s just a bit of fun.
If a quote is in bold, it’s my emphasis added.
Ah yes, the episode in which Rimmer has sex with and falls in love with a beautiful woman - on the surface.
To me, the relationship comes across more as a previously polyamorous and unemotional woman developing feelings for a closeted gay man who’s so flattered by her attentions that he mistakes gratitude and affection for romantic love.
The deleted scene where she literally has to drag him to her bedroom is a good demonstration of this. Please note, I do think the sex was consensual, but Rimmer comes across as more “Oh, alright then”, when given some of his previous verbal references to sex, you might expect him to be a bit more enthusiastic.
And then there’s the scene where Nirvanah asks him why he doesn’t have regular sex twice a day like the crew of the Enlightenment. Rather than simply saying that he can’t have sex because he’s the only soft-light hologram on Red Dwarf or because all his crewmates are male, this is his response: “Well I mean some people – sad, lonely people – find that people just aren’t attracted to them in that kind of way.”
Not much material here as this is a Lister and Kryten-centric episode, but we do still get this gem from alternate Rimmer:
RIMMER: Look, they come here with some cock-and-bull story, they’re chained together like Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis – I say open the door to oblivion and kick ‘em through.
SECOND LISTER: Rimmer, no one’s killin’ no one, alright?
RIMMER: Look, they’re from some freaky alternative dimension, they’ve come here to hijack this ship and do… oooh, weird things to us.
Come on, did anyone hear that line and think he meant anything other than anal probes? :p
In which Rimmer gets kidnapped and threatened with buggery by his own Self-Loathing Beast (voiced by Chris) and is saved by Lister telling him he loves him.
What? I’m describing the plot. :p
To be honest, this one is so self-evident to me that I’ll simply add some episode quotes:
DRUID: In accordance with the appetites of the Dark One, the vicious ruler of this domain, we, the hooded legions, proffer up this sacrifice to slake the vile depraved thirstings of the Unspeakable One.
Who turns out to be Rimmer’s Self-Loathing Beast i.e. himself.
RIMMER: This Master character – and I acknowledge that I may not want to know the full answer to this one – but why does he want me oily in particular? Obviously, whatever he has in mind is facilitated by my being slippery and pliant, yes?
RIMMER: Why’re you all looking at me like that? Like, as if this is all my fault? Have you any idea what kind of day I’ve had? I’ve been kidnapped, stripped, oiled, menaced, manacled, licked, nibbled, chained, tortured, humiliated, and I nearly had a knobbly thing the size and shape of a Mexican agave cactus jammed up where only customs men dare to probe.
CAT: Don’t you know what this place is?
RIMMER: Yes, it’s a hell hole. It’s a nightmare. It’s a stinking infested pit of putridness.
LISTER: Rimmer, it’s _your mind_.
The main thing which stands out to me here is the gingham outfit. I stress that I do realise that a penchant for female drag and being a gay man are not the same thing at all.
However, it seems to me to be exactly the kind of stereotype which young Rimmer would have picked up in the 1950s type environment of Io and therefore which his subconscious might project onto himself once the holovirus takes over.
And if it’s simply a symptom of the holovirus, why was Dr Lanstrom dressed in fairly nondescript clothing?
Oh God, where do I start? :p
Actually, with the Highs. As @allsortsofsmeg put it elsewhere, they were all shown to be flowery and romantic, but High Lister and High Rimmer are alone when they make this declaration to each other, which serves no obvious plot purpose:
HIGH LISTER: Have I told thee today how much I love thee, brother? How much my heart glimmers like a newborn star when I gaze upon thine beauteous countenance?
HIGH RIMMER: Thy love refreshes and cleanses me like a babbling mountain stream, brother.
And then, of course, we have Low Rimmer, who isn’t just LGBT-coded, he’s canonically LGBT.
LOW RIMMER: Hello, my pretty.
LISTER: What do you want with me?
LOW RIMMER: I want to hurt you.
LOW RIMMER: Because I’m not a very nice person.
LOW RIMMER produces an iridescent blue whip-like object, and lashes
LISTER with it. LISTER clutches at his head where the lash struck him.
LOW RIMMER: I’m going to lash you to within an inch of your life. And then I’m going to have you.
Honestly, if anyone has an explanation for this which isn’t that he’s a deeply closeted man whose repressed desire and love for Lister are manifesting in these two “worst” and “best” versions of himself, then let’s hear it.
(And don’t come at me with “It’s a sitcom, they just thought it would be funny” because frankly, what’s funny about it?)
The major indication here, as many have pointed out, is the fact that when Rimmer thinks he has a more successful half-brother in the hallucination, he’s driven to attempt suicide.
Hello? Regular Rimmer has three more successful brothers and has never shown any suicidal tendencies outside of this episode.
If, on the other hand, his repressed desire for Lister is now even more taboo because he thinks they’re brothers, that is a fresh blow to his psyche which could credibly lead to despair.
The final scene of “Back To Reality” is a quiet, subdued affair as the relieved crew prepare to blast off in Starbug and Rimmer looks the calmest that he has for the whole of Series V, as though his temporary relief at not being related to the man he loves has given him peace for the time being.
It won’t last, of course, because he’s Rimmer.
Feel free to add your own contributions in the comments. :)
