Pop culture is chock full of things that have ambiguous endings. I really enjoy when artists create such things, because it provides us nerds with something to argue about.
Examples follow (and I'll include my interpretation for each example, because it's the correct one)...
The ending of Angel:
Not Fade Away ends with ...um, I guess I should spoiler tag this, just to be on the safe side:
Angel and his crew have spent season 5 working for the bad guys, trying to take them down from the inside.
In the final episode, they set forth into motion a plan that seriously weakened many of the higher-ups in the bad team's hierarchy. This pissed them off, so they sent an entire army after Angel, Ilyria, Spike, Gunn [badly wounded], and Wesley [who did not survive].
The show leads up to the final battle between an army of evil and the final 4 good guys.
Angel and his team know that the odds are against them, but they are determined to go down fighting. Angel says, "Let's go to work." and the show goes to black.
So - did they survive? Did the army wipe them out? Did the earth grow tired of it all and hurl itself into the sun? We don't know. That's for us to decide.
My interpretation: When I first watched it, I felt for sure that Angel and his crew died heroic deaths, but that Evil won in the end.
Years have gone by, and maybe it's because I know that there are plans for a continuation of the series via comic books, or maybe I've just grown more optimistic, but I now feel that they beat the odds and ended up surviving against the army. Yay!
Here's the Youtube video of the last 5 minutes of the show, along with the WB's "goodbye" that shows some of the clips from the previous years.
#2) The Sopranos
I've never actually seen an episode of this show, and that includes the controversial series finale which just aired, but I've read all about it.
Basically, the final scene is set in a diner, where Tony is with his family, and the tension is building as to whether the next people coming into the diner will "whack" him or not.
His wife is outside attempting to parallel park, and it goes to black - midscene.
My interpretation: Tony bit it. If the show is from Tony's POV - and I guess most of it was - then it makes sense that once he's dead, that it would go to black. Also, apparently, the line of "you never see it coming" was used several times, which leads credence to that idea.
I was trying to find the clip of it on youtube, but I can't seem to find an unedited version of it.
#3) "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam
Video that came out in the early 90s.
I almost didn't include this "debate", because it's so obvious that he shoots himself, but when it was first popular, I had a friend who believed with all of her heart that he shot his classmates. Um...no.
#4) Han shot first.
#5) "That's where I'm a Viking!"
In the Simpsons episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" - a classic episode, from, like, 15 years ago - Ralph Wiggum is told by the teacher to go to sleep while the rest of the class tries to learn. He exclaims, "Oh, boy, sleep! That's where I'm a Viking!"
He then promptly falls asleep.
My interpretation - Ralph dreams of being a Viking each and everytime that he goes to sleep.
For years I thought that that was the only way to interpret that line. And then, a few weeks back, I saw that there was a different way to perceive it. That "viking" was a metaphor, and that Ralph was excited because he was going to be able to do something that he excelled at.
When I began reading that thread, I asked Steph, "The line 'Oh boy, sleep, that's where I'm a Viking!' means what?" and she instantly said, "That he's really good at sleeping."
And I was all, "WHAT!!!???!!!"
After having read all 467 comments in that thread, and talking to Steph (and Jupe) about this matter, I can see that way of thinking, but ...it's still wrong.
(And, sadly, the link to the youtube video of that particular clip of the show has been removed.)
And now, it's later than I had expected it to be, so I'll just end it there. I didn't even get to lyrics and/or book interpretations. So I'll open up the comment section - what books/movies/tv shows/songs/whatever are ambiguous and unclear enough to warrant debate and discussion? And/or, what about the above 5? If I'm seeing things in a completely erroneous matter, please, show me the light.
ETA- a few more examples:
The Wizard of Oz - it was all just a dream....or was it? [see also, about a million other copies of this idea. *Normal Again* from BtVS, for instance]
American Psycho did a similar riff.
The ending of FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer - highly recommended, btw - has one of the most awesome ambiguous endings ever. "I must be getting old."
Modest Mouse lyrics are ripe with double meanings.
I couldn't remember
I couldn't remember
If I tried
being one.
Long Live Ambiguity!
14 comments:
I don't think Ralph is smart enough to use "Viking" in the sense that he's good at sleeping. I think he dreams about being a Viking.
I also like your interpretation of the ending of The Sopranos.
Pan's Labryinth is another good example of an ambiguous ending. I can't remember how to do spoilers in comments, but I really like that it can be interpreted either as a happy or a sad ending.
Um. Ralph dreams he's a Viking. AND THAT'S FINAL.
No! And I'll tell you why. The Simpsons is a show that is based on humor. And that's just not funny.
I agree with the Steph.
I assumed that he was using Viking as a metaphor. Which is not entirely unheard of, because Anya totally did the same thing on Buffy. Unless you took that to mean that Xander actually physically transforms into a Viking as soon as he gets in bed. Which would be a terrific idea for a fanfic, actually.
But, no. Also, I also assumed that Ralph didn't really know what he meant by saying that. I find that more plausible than the idea that Ralph constructs elaborate, historically accurate sagas in his unconscious. I mean, it's Ralph, dude.
Also, what Steph said.
Also! Regarding the Sopranos.
1. I don't watch it either. But!
2. The "diner" is actually an ice cream shop. I know, because I used to live across the street from it. A small group in my town pitched a fit when they wanted to film there, because the Sopranos is offensive to Eye-talians, and is single-handedly responsible for teenagers in the Midwest thinking that we're all in the mob. And that we all talk like that. Which, you know, might be true, but, whatever, because it's not like we couldn't use the money. (Um. The town. From the fliming.)
3. It was actually his daughter parking the car.
4. The exterior scenes with the car were filmed a week after the interior scenes, after all the hubbub had died down and no one thought there would be anything to see anymore. Heh!
5. I've obviously read the same articles you have, and I think the ending means he died, too. Which, if true, is pretty awesome.
6. My boss talks about this show a lot. He's a douchebag.
And furthermore. The fact that Ralph isn't smart enough to come up with such a metaphor makes it even more funny. Humor is all about unexpectedness. Like stupid little Ralph spews out this metaphor, but then the metaphor is all about how he's stupid. Pretty much.
P@, I've got your back, even if I don't think I've seen that episode of The Simpsons.
1) Ralph & metaphors? um, no
2) Amy, no one said anything about historically accurate
3) Since when is "Viking" a metaphor for doing *anything* well? "A Viking in bed", ok. A Viking at...sleeping? That doesn't even make sense.
So there.
Oh, and Pan's Labyrinth. (This is not a spoiler, unless history is itself a spoiler.) I liked the movie, but what's incongruous about the ending is, in the real life events, well, the bad guys won the Spanish Civil War. Really, it's in books and stuff. The movie kind of leads you to believe otherwise. It's weird.
I'll definitely have to add Pan's Labyrinth to our Netflix queueue. [Oh, just looked, and it's already there. Currently at position 126. [sigh]] But, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing it, especially now.
The Anya "Viking" occurance came like 8 years after Ralph's did, and I always interpreted the Anya comment as a reference to some of their role-playing.
I really wish I knew what it was about this particular "debate" that causes so much passion - relatively speaking. I mean, 467 comments at metafilter, and 7 (and counting!) comments at my blog, and I am *still* arguing about it. Weird.
Maybe I'll post about it at the WD. (That's where I'm a Viking!)
I can't stop!
It would be good if you could get the clip, because I've decided that a lot of it is context.
Ralph: "Miss Hoover? My worm went in my mouth, and then I ate it. Can I have a new one?"
Miss Hoover: "No, Ralph, there aren't any more. Just try to sleep while the other children are learning."
Ralph: [as so]
Ralph's attitude suggests that there are things that's he not very adept at doing. (Like, say, all school activities.) When Miss Hoover lets him sleep, he feels relieved because he gets to do something he is good at.
You know, I bet the writers meant the ambiguity. I'd bet cash money that Ralph means it that he dreams about being a Viking, but the writers thought that the second interpretation was a meta-commentary on Ralph himself, and so the better. Being able to take it both ways is just an example of the depth of humor of the show.
I can't stop!
I KNOW!! I can't either. I wonder if this is what highly religious types feel like. Strange.
Anyway.
I don't think that the "[Ralph] feels relieved because he gets to do something he is good at." argument works, because a) Ralph usually doesn't care if he's good OR bad at anything.
or b) Ralph is excited to escape to the land of sleep, where he is a Viking, instead of plain-ol' Ralph, who eats worms.
Also, for it to be a metaphor, he should've said, "Oh, boy, sleeping! That's where I'm a Viking." Because then he's talking about the action. But, he's talking about sleep as a place that he travels to.
This is my final word on the subject:
I think that's what he meant because that's what [i]I[/i] would have meant. Seriously, if I said that, or something like that? That's what I'd mean.
This is more about me than it is about Ralph.
Hee. I totally interpreted Ralph's comment as being metaphor rather than a dream. Actually, it's funny either way, for the reasons stated in previous comments.
(As for what Kirk said, I do know the phrase, "so-and-so is a Viking in the sack", but of course one doesn't want to go there with Ralph Wiggum. Ahem.)
Also, wot Amanda said about Pan's Labyrinth (which is excellent IMHO; I've converted everyone to whom I've lent the DVD). My other half and I came out of the cinema with completely differing viewpoints on the ending. The funny thing is, the director Guillermo del Toro first said that it was as my husband interpreted it, then on the DVD he said it was the way I interpreted it! Maybe he was in two different moods when he answered the question. But either way, I'm sure he intended one to take it whichever way suited one...
OK, one final thought from me, after stewing over this for the past week.
To be a Viking in the sack does not mean you are good in bed. It means you are rough and virile. Rape and pillage, and all that. The phrase has been misused at times, but that is what it means. So it really makes zero sense to use Viking as a metaphor for being good at something.
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