"We were walking on a tightrope for a Hell of a long time..."
The sixth and final episode and, appropriately, six years have passed. The extended family, including Susan and Bill and Jo's son, exist in a state of continuous siege which functions as a metaphor for the precarious state of civilisation. It seems the Triffids are fated to win. London is slowly rewilding. Fuel is becoming scarce.
There's a moving and very human conversation between Jo and Bill. Despite the peril, Jo is happy with their little family. And Bill echoes our current concerns with civilsation being precarious- the climate crisis, nuclear war, the Singularity- by pointing out that we begat the Triffids- and even the humanity-blinding comet may not have been a natural phenomenon. "Sooner or later a foot had to slip." Indeed. Are we so different?
We get a welcome visit from Coker, who has established a community on the Isle of Wight; small islands seem ideal for keeping Triffid free. The Channel Islands too. But Jo wants to spend one last summer at the farm... until peace is interrupted by militaristic morons, played for laughs, who want to set up some kind of feudal society.
The last scenes are funny as the family escapes to the Hampshire coast and beyond, and we end with a nice little monologue. This was an excellent and thought-provoking adaptation of a novel that I simply must revisit.
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