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Bridging the Gap: Issue #7

By | January 14th, 2013
Posted in Annotations | 6 Comments

Bridging the Gap Logo

There is a heck of a lot to analyze in this issue, even for “Mind the Gap”! Bear with me as I get nitpicky with it, and spin out a crackpot theory or two.

A prefatory note: our cast list only differs from last issue’s in that Elle’s brother, Dane’s father, and Miles are present. No surprises here, given that they all figure in the issue, but that “bored” epithet pinned to Eddie Jr. is somewhat intriguing. Hrm.

The Cast Party

As Elle sinks back into unconsciousness, she seems to take up the conversation she had with Jo when she first woke up in Katie’s body, as though there were need to continue convincing Jo that it really is Elle who is speaking. She recalls the cast party — which I think is a reference back to the closing night of [title of show], since this was the last thing they were talking about, and when would you have a cast party if not the closing night? — and mentions that she and Dane had a fight at his place afterwards. This whole thing appears to be the incident that Elle was trying to tell Jo about last issue, but as to its significance now that she’s finally gotten it out, it’s hard to say. Was the closing night of [title of show] the night before Elle was attacked? And if it wasn’t, how is it relevant?

Let’s assume for a moment that the closing night of [title of show] was the night before Elle was attacked (since we know, at least, that she was attacked in the late afternoon). That would explain why Dane looked so chagrined in the photograph we saw last issue, where Jo was holding playbills for [title of show] — he and Elle were working up to a fight, which later materialized at Dane’s place, after the cast party. Of course, we have no idea that the photograph was taken that day, but I’m assuming that the creators are slowly helping us to reconstruct one day’s events, rather than several. Anyway, according to the panel above, Elle left Dane a… something, after the fight. Alone? Or a [noun]? If she means “alone”, she could be saying that Dane had nothing to do with the events of the next day, because she went back to her place after the fight and didn’t see him again. Hrm.

There’s one more thing I’d like to point out about the scene above, and it’s that “Where’s Bobby?” at the end. Clearly, Elle’s not seeing him as she drops back into her dream world, and this would fit in with the Bobby is a Projection of Frankie theory, being as Frankie is clearly busy at the moment. It’s been kind of hard to sort out how Elle’s dreamtime lines up with real-world time, though, so it’s up to question as to whether Bobby and Frankie have ever been going about their separate business at the same time, thus proving that they’re separate beings. Unless dream-projections can run on auto-pilot?

Cryptic Quotations Pt. II

When Elle/Katie falls asleep, Jo and Frankie are kind enough to discuss and identify the things that Elle/Katie quoted last issue, making this columnist’s job that much easier. Let’s take them one by one.

“To dwell is to garden.”

From German philosopher Martin Heidegger, although I don’t know the context/meaning of this one, except, of course, that “to garden” could be a reference to The Garden where Elle’s taken up residence. Anyway, Elle could have been familiar with this phrase, but she doesn’t seem like the type to just quote it at random. Clearly somebody or something else is taking over here.

“Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”

From Noam Chomsky, whom Frankie describes as “a long-dead guy”. This is quite possibly the most mystifying detail in the issue, because as of this writing, Noam Chomsky is very alive. We’re left to conclude that “Mind the Gap” is taking place either somewhere in the future, or else in an alternate universe where Noam Chomsky met his end much earlier. But we haven’t gotten any hints so far that this story is taking place in the future; the iPhones all look thoroughly 2012 and so does the iPad Frankie’s holding. And while an alternate universe is possible, this would again be our first hint — other than the weird stuff happening to Elle — that Elle’s world is different from ours. A third possibility, of course, is that McCann slipped up, but in this case it seems unlikely. So, this is a big thing to keep in mind.

Continued below

Moving along: Jo and Frankie Wikipedia the phrase, and find it’s a sentence that’s “grammatically correct, but semantically nonsensical”, serving to illustrate the difference between syntax and semantics. Semantically nonsensical as it is, though, it seems to suit Elle’s state pretty well: she’s asleep, but actively, furiously conscious in her dreamworld, and the “colorless green ideas” could be a reference to her green memory wall. Is this a way of saying that things that don’t make sense in our world can fit together in Elle’s world? Either way, and as Jo affirms, this doesn’t sound like Elle.

“It sleeps exactly four days. If it wakes up on the fourth day, it lives without change. If it lives on the fifth day, it will live the following year with 9/10 probability. If it lives the following year, it will–“

Jo identifies this as a Markov chain, which Wikipedia describes as “a mathematical system that undergoes transitions from one state to another, between a finite or countable number of possible states.” Funnily enough, Markov chains are also described as “memoryless”, just like our favourite heroine.

Anyway, this sounds a lot like a description of the usual course of the Jairus Project (which is what I’m calling the process Elle seems to be undergoing). Bearing in mind what we learned last issue — that the project was about to enter the “second phase”, four days after it began — this all fits together really nicely. Ideally, it looks like Elle would sleep four days in her coma state. Waking up on the fourth day equals life without change — immortality, then? — but if she wakes up on the fifth day, her continued existence isn’t assured (although 9/10 ain’t bad). And provided she continues to live the following year… well, something, I’m assuming something special, will happen. So, this is the ideal course of events that Dr. Hammond was referring to last issue — the course of events that may well be compromised by all the unexpected “variables” that came up. Waking up on that fourth or fifth day is crucial, it seems, and he needs to make sure Elle stays in her current state until that time.

Getting back to Elle herself: Jo affirms that Elle was terrible at this kind of math, so we have another point in favour of these words coming from some being other than Elle.

“The girl is not dead, but asleep!”

Before he gets cuts off, Frankie notes that this is from a Bible story about a rabbi and his daughter. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s referring to the story of Jairus, which is the word that’s written in code on the side of the Mysterious Suitcase. So we have more confirmation that the voice is referring to the mysterious project at hand. Anyway, the phrase above is Jesus’ reply when Jairus asks him to revive his dead daughter (Mark 5:37). Jesus then takes the girl’s hand, and she stands up and walks around.

The most interesting part of this, I think, is that when Katie/Elle said this quotation in #6, Katie’s hand grabbed Dr. Geller’s — and the next page showed Min loosening Elle’s hand from her own, implying that Elle’s hand did the same thing. The being controlling Elle and Katie illustrated the Biblical moment as well as quoted it, underlining its message in an unquestionable way. Whatever it is, it’s seeking to make us understand details about the Jairus Project as well as Elle’s current state.

As for clues to this thing’s identity: it seems it can only speak in quotes or mathematical/logical constructions. That almost seems like something a sentient computer would do — if it couldn’t formulate thoughts for itself, it could pick and choose from stored materials that express what it needs to say. There haven’t really been any cybery themes so far, though — this feels like more of an occult/supernatural story. Some kind of force then, some current that runs through all accumulated human knowledge? At any rate, this being definitely knows more than we do. I wonder: if Elle goes and possesses another body, will it break through again and deliver more information?

Continued below

WASPs Nest

This will be likely my most crackpot-sounding theory in the column, so bear with me. Does it or does it not seem like the creators have been drawing a lot of attention to whether somebody is a blonde or a brunette? The most obvious example is the role of the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in Jo and Elle’s psychic communication, and the fact that Jo said she and Elle would root for Jane Russell (the star brunette of the film, and foil to Marilyn Monroe’s spacey blonde). Could this be McCann telling us to root for the brunettes and watch out for blondes? In that case, we’d be on the side of Elle’s family, as well as Jo, Frankie and Antoinette. We’d be suspicious of Dane, Dr. Hammond, Dr. Geller and the Lawrences. And then there’s the redhead, Miles — purposely being coded as an unknown variable? Miles does mean “soldier” in Latin — perhaps he’s always just carrying out the wishes of his superiors?

Anyway, what provoked this theory is the scene above, in which Dr. Geller jokes about being carried off with the Lawrences because she’s a blonde as well. As Matt noted, Dr. Geller has done a couple of vaguely suspicious things, particularly early on in the series. What seems to have absolved her so far is in her interest in figuring out what’s happened to Elle. But could her sleuthing wind up being harmful in some way? I’m increasingly beginning to suspect that there is some kind of grand, desperate, greater good that’s supposed to come of the Jairus Project, something that might even come close to justifying the means. In this case, Dr. Geller would be the biggest villain. Something to think about, anyway — particularly since Hoodie looks like a brunette.

A Cryptic Phone Conversation and Subsequent Events

More elliptical hints courtesy of Min. “We might have a situation here” could refer either to Jo, and her badass outburst against Lonnie a moment before, or else to the sketchamaroo behavior of Lonnie himself. (My money’s on the latter, but you never know.) Anyway, it looks like somebody (or something) could be “eliminated” because of it. Oh my.

Also, we can infer from the clock on this page and the digital watch on the next that Jo sleeps for about two and a half hours. Plenty of time for Frankie to go do something shady, if he wanted to.

Also-also Jo proceeds to flirt with Frankie upon awakening and it’s kind of disconcerting. Does she want something from him or is it genuine? She definitely dials things up really suddenly, which would seem to indicate the former. We do know that she would do anything for Elle, so…

A WTF-Worthy Moment

Is Elle/Katie referring to Miles when she says “It’s me”? She’s looking straight at him when she says it. WTF?

What We Know About Elle’s Labs

First we find out that Hoodie’s got copies of all these tests, via his “connections.”

Two pages later we see that Frankie has them, and Dr. Geller’s putting off in-depth analysis (like the test for propofol?) in favour of comparing Elle and Katie’s results. The short timeframe here implicates Frankie pretty strongly, since the hand-off from hospital staff to Hoodie seems to have happened almost instantaneously.

Katie/Elle’s Situation

We know from her run-in with Esteban that Elle can only occupy bodies for a limited amount of time. But last time, neither her nor Esteban reacted this violently toward the end — Elle was simply returned to her dreamworld, and that was that. There are two variables here, though: Katie’s lifesigns (which have continuing on despite the lack of life-support machinery) and Elle/Katie’s distance from the hospital as she gets driven away in the cab. Either Katie’s life-signs are fading, causing the physical breakdown of both bodies that we’re seeing, or else there’s some kind of supernatural wi-fi hotspot at the hospital that Elle/Katie’s not supposed to stray too far from. The former is the simplest explanation, though, so my money’s on that one for the moment.

Continued below

Recap

We know:

– that some being other than Elle can speak through her when she possesses bodies;

– that this being has difficulty expressing information in an original way;

– that the Jairus Project must follow a rigid timeline, or else risk failure;

– that somebody (likely Lonnie) is considered a threat to the project;

– that Hoodie has an in with the hospital staff, and

– that Elle had a fight with Dane at his place soon before the attack.

I suspect:

– that Elle is somehow deeply connected to Miles (WTF?);

– that Hoodie’s “connections” are Frankie;

– that Bobby is a projection of Frankie;

– that Katie’s lifesigns are fading, and

– that the world of “Mind the Gap” is not our world.

A Working Hypothesis

My overarching theory for the moment is, wait for it, that Elle is undergoing a transformation into a superhero. As we learned last issue, it seems something good — or at any rate, something desperately needed — will come of the Jairus Project. A superhero — some kind of human weapon — would fit that profile, provided there were a specific threat out there that required a specialized response. Aliens? Asteroids? Anyway, if the government were involved, that would certainly explain all the secrecy, and how smoothly all the cover-ups have been operating.

Now, as for how you convince a girl whom you’ve attacked, captured, controlled and terrified to go save the world for you… that’s hard to answer. Do they plan to wipe her memory completely? What do you guys think?

Be sure to check in next month for a rundown of issue #8!

Previous annotations: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6


//TAGS | Bridging The Gap

Michelle White

Michelle White is a writer, zinester, and aspiring Montrealer.

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