Hey everybody, welcome to another week in Ye Olde School Café! This week, we’ll be concluding our look at the Alan Moore/David Lloyd classic V for Vendetta! Up until now, we have seen the terrorist/freedom fighter V lay out a path of destruction and anarchy. Why? Let’s find out what his endgame is, right now!
After the events of last time, we see that Creedy is apparently going to succeed the Leader and become the new commander in chief. As he announces this, the Finger is trying to figure out their next move, and in walks Mr. Finch. He’s been gone for days now, and he tells everyone that he’s killed V. He has not, though, but he has mortally wounded him. As Mr. Finch is being tended to at the hospital, Dominic asks him to explain everything. He tells him that V could have killed him but didn’t. After coming to this realization, Finch gets tight-lipped about anymore details of the shooting. He’s apparently had a change of heart about his loyalties to the current regime. As people are roaming the streets, rioting, and so forth, the speakers are leaving a resounding message that everything is under control.
V then stumbles down the stairs in front of Evey, and she’s shocked to see he’s been shot. She wants to help him, but he tells her that he’s going to die. He tells her that he wants a “Viking funeral,” and she agrees to send him off on the train full of explosives. She then hears the speakers from the government announcing that V is dead. Evey then goes to the lower chambers and sees many masks and cloaks hanging in the room. As if they were meant for someone else, and not just “spares” for V himself. At this point, Evey realizes what V intended for her. She then dons the costume and addresses the crowd of raucous citizens that V has so kindly wound up. She tells them that V’s demise was greatly exaggerated, and that tomorrow Downing Street will be reduced to rubble and the populace will need to decide what the future holds, not the government. V then disappears into the night. The people then violently attack the police, having obviously made their decision.
The next day, as promised, the explosion rocks the city, and we see the cycle of this story begin to renew itself as Evey (V) has a new understudy to mold, or better yet, open his eyes to the truth! The last thing we see is Mr. Finch walking towards the outskirts of the city. He’s obviously going to start a new life for himself elsewhere. Mrs. Heyer (who is living on the streets) recognizes him, and tries to barter her way into his life. He basically tells her no thanks, and she screams that “all you cops are queer.” He simply walks away, to forge a new tomorrow. End of story.
I have many thoughts on this book, as have many before me, so I’ll be relatively brief. A story like this always has me fighting with my beliefs that I’ve had since a child, and my realizations from growing up in a world that is exceedingly mirroring the one in this book. Of course, when most of us are children, we typically see the world as this grand place where anything is possible, and those in charge, whether in school, local or national government, etc., are there to protect us, give us opportunity, and in general take care of us. We age, and then understand that there are more things that motivate people in power than we earlier suspected in our youth. And that these motivational devices and their ends are less than altruistic, to say the least. Oh, I know that there are some in positions of power that do have the people’s best interests at heart, but I fear that number has dwindled down to a scarce few. What does all this mean? Will we end up like this story in the end times? Perhaps, and obviously we are not in these circumstances yet, but it is food for thought. Do V’s actions equate to “the ends justifying the means” as they say? I guess that’s a question we must all ask ourselves, isn’t it? Return next week for a more traditional lighthearted story, and I promise it will be entertaining, although not as thought provoking!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net