Wednesday 4 January 2023

The Day of the Triffids (1981): Part Five

 "Hey! Can't you kiss her indoors?"

This, like its predecessors, is a gripping and thought-provoking episode. Plot-wise, it's simple. Bill finds a disillusioned Coker, they bond, they philosophise, they find a rather naive community of unworldly Christians, they philosophise some more. Coker then returns to bash the community into shape while bill goes on a quest for Jo, picking up a little girl called Susan along the way.

Yet the plot is not the point. The core is Coker's monologue- one day the loot and the petrol will run out. By then, they will need to have learned how to farm, to plough, to make things. And for that they will need a large community so there's enough surplus labour to read up on these things. He's right.

For we see, everywhere, Triffids triumphant over the stung or diseased corpses of human beings. Humanity is not winning. I expect the ending to be downbeat and open, but I also expect it to be bloody good.

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