Yes, it frequently feels as if -- as used to be said of certain opposed fans on the email discussion list long ago -- you and I watch two completely different series, from alternate universes.
No, frankly, I don't think that Nick refraining from murdering Tracy in the present is sufficient to validate the existence of that flashback in this episode (or the prison scenes). I don't think it is character development at all. By definition, Nick already does refrain from murdering people in the present, and has been doing so for a very long time. And, goodness, surely especially his coworkers? This flashback provides no change or lesson for the character in the present day, in the episode presently happening. It's hollow voyeurism for those who enjoy it, and hollow disgust for those who don't.
And it's unnecessarily poor storytelling. FK's structure should ideally have all its plots converge toward a lesson that provides a pivot or development for a character, and the pivot or development should show itself in the final act, as bringing the character somewhere other than where he or she began; neither Tracy nor Nick learned anything on-screen in this episode. Neither of them do anything different in the final act of the episode because of something learned in the middle act; everything is the same at the end as it was at the beginning, character-wise.
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No, frankly, I don't think that Nick refraining from murdering Tracy in the present is sufficient to validate the existence of that flashback in this episode (or the prison scenes). I don't think it is character development at all. By definition, Nick already does refrain from murdering people in the present, and has been doing so for a very long time. And, goodness, surely especially his coworkers? This flashback provides no change or lesson for the character in the present day, in the episode presently happening. It's hollow voyeurism for those who enjoy it, and hollow disgust for those who don't.
And it's unnecessarily poor storytelling. FK's structure should ideally have all its plots converge toward a lesson that provides a pivot or development for a character, and the pivot or development should show itself in the final act, as bringing the character somewhere other than where he or she began; neither Tracy nor Nick learned anything on-screen in this episode. Neither of them do anything different in the final act of the episode because of something learned in the middle act; everything is the same at the end as it was at the beginning, character-wise.