Curiouser & Curiouser

It was ironic that, in the very week I started analysing the novel, Alice
in Wonderland, with my Year 8 students, that the episode, Curiouser and
Curiouser, was run in season two of Forever Knight. What a powerful episode
this was with Nick ,seemingly waking from a fitful sleep after a dreadful
experience in the Raven, to be greeted by a Schanke who is not what we know
him to be. From here Nick, like Alice, enters a world that is topsy-turvy.
Janette is his wife, Schanke is the dominating partner, his captain is the
new owner of the Raven and Natalie is his new captain who has had an affair
with him and still lusts for him, despite his bewilderment.
Behind this world, that isn't really what it seems ,is the old foe/father.
Lacroix ,who appears to take enormous pleasure in pushing Nick to confess
to his apparent murder of his nemesis. Of course , Nick in his Darkworld is
enacting what he wants most of all -freedom from his past and from Lacroix.

The final scene , when Lacroix confronts Nick in the Raven confirms that
this is a situation from which Nick can only escape by dying. When Lacroix
says;
                           Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

this is the moment of choice.Nick cannot forget his past or deny his guilt
and would rather escape than give in. His end, however is an illusion, just
as Alice' world is the stuff that dreams are made of. He awakes, relieved
to find that his earlier action in the Raven ,..that resulted in the death
of an innocent bystander , has been found to be honourable.It was a
horrible nightmare, but then again, Nick's real life is a nightmare.  
 

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