SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR as Buffy Summers

- "Rossa is talking about introducing a dress code. Apparently, some of our operators are, like, drawing attention to themselves." - "I can't think who she means." - "Me either, babes."

Revelation 12:9

The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. [...]

Revelation 21:8

Oh, and also, remember how Christ's sacrifice on the cross, in the Biblical canon, redeemed this original sin of Adam and Eve by taking it upon himself ? And remember how Jud (St. Jude, The Saint for the Hopeless and the Despaired, patron saint of hopeless causes, little prayed to because of his superficial similarity to deception and murder, commonly  depicted carrying the image of Jesus in his hand or close to his chest) took the diamond that had symbolised this "original sin" of the Church and placed it literally into the image of Christ ?

Also, the fact that the person who "redeemed" the Church in this way is explicitly called out to be a CARPENTER - or at least someone good with wood ?? The fact that the image of Christ - which he makes himself - in which he hides the diamond was raised up to replace the empty space left by the cross destroyed by Grace ?? The fact that, in doing so, he removes the physical symbol of Wicks' grudge and hatred, and lets go of these emotions in favour of Christ ?

All this while Tom Waits' "Come Up To The House" is singing "Come down off the cross, we can use the wood" ? Metaphorically calling for Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude to "come down off the cross" of it's hatred for it's founding sin ? To learn to show - as Jud changes it's name to, not the fortitude to bear it every single day, but the grace to let go of it ?

Wicks is almost ALWAYS shot in a low angle. (also known as a worm's eye view). This is an angle used to make the subject look larger than they really are (think, a person looking down at the ground). This is used in film to convey power or presence in a scene. This angle conveys authority, power, who's in control in the scene. Now, it can also be used in reverse, but this is not the case with how it's used to frame Wicks. And if he is not in a low angle (rare), he is shown to be in control in other ways, be through other framing devices, or the fact that he is yelling or physically moving towards someone. Even in the scene where Jud is UP ON A LADDER, Wicks is positioned in frame as bigger than him. Wicks is always bigger. (AND WICKS IS SMALLER THAN JUD. JUD IS 6'1".)

And by contrast, Jud is, for most of the film, while interacting with the flock, shot in an level angle. Even if the angle has a slight high or low tilt, he is almost always equal in height or positioning with the other characters in the scene. While yes, he has authority and power over them via his position in the church, he does not abuse that power over them like Wicks does. He is trying to stay on their level. He is equal to them, and sometimes, he's shot in a way that makes him SMALLER than them. Jud is not a short character, and his past would imply he should have power over other characters if he wanted to. But he is small. He does not take up space. (which is another great element to characterization but that's for another post).

These were SUPPOSED to be quick Wake Up Deadman still studies, but I got lost in the sauce

Normally when a character (usually a woman) who starts the story being villified and villainised, just as Grace was deemed "the harlot whore" for 60 years, their redemption in the eyes of the story comes from the revelation that they were a better person than people gave them credit for. Maybe they were a good mother, or did their best in the face of the deck being stacked against them.

With Grace, we don’t see that. I can’t recall any instance in the movie of her being a particularly good person, or a good mother to Jefferson Wicks, or a virtuous woman as befitting her name. A lot of her actions are recontextualised to be more understandable within the story, yes, but that’s not necessarily the same.

Grace is messy. Some would call her shallow with her focus on expensive brands. She’s unashamedly destructive. She probably wouldn’t have wanted her father’s church where she was pretty much held hostage for years to be named after her, even if the Wicks family weren’t in charge anymore.

And she STILL didn’t deserve what Prentice Wicks and her family did to her, whether she was a good person or not.

There are no perfect victims. Trauma, shocker, tends to mess with people’s mental state a lot, and they’re not always going to act the way people think they should. They can’t always be, well, graceful about it- I dare say they can’t be EXPECTED to be.

And people don’t have to be perfect or even particularly good people to be sympathised with as victims.

And it didn’t take anyone finding out about her secret better side or good deeds. All it took was one person - Vera - having a change in perspective, to consider things from Grace’s point of view and realise she never really had a chance to BE a better person, to plant that idea in the heads of the characters and the audience.