Another of the endless things I love about the adaptation which deserves its own post - Norrie.
I love Norrie so much and what she means for the narrative. I love that entire first part of the first episode because it really hammers in how much of a craptastic world they live in. Sure, they have cozy breakfasts and tea, but let’s face it, they’re all child soldiers. And inasmuch as the show shows some pretty criminally negligent adults (or you know just plain criminal), there are also characters like Barnes and that undercover agent and even Danny Clough who prove that there are slivers of goodness in a world that has failed its children and pushed the responsibility onto them (and again man if that isn’t an allegory to current times).
Norrie is ever part of the narrative. She’s Lucy’s past and her own personal ghost. She tinges Lucy’s current relationships even now. If Lockwood is sometimes reminded of Jessica through Lucy, then maybe Lucy is also reminded of Norrie through Lockwood, because between the both of them it was always Norrie who longed for more than what life gave them. When Lockwood declares he won’t be the one to leave anyone behind, it resounds because Lucy is the one who was left behind. But see there’s the difference between Lockwood and Lucy. Because while Lockwood vows to give up on love, Lucy’s response to having it taken away from her, to having been abandoned and left behind, is to fight for it, to love and live fiercely.
And George, I love George so much, because George stabilizes the both of them. There’s how George connects with Lucy after she shares about Norrie and becomes her staunch advocate, and there’s also how Lucy is finally able to tell him what she desperately wishes someone told her back then, “No matter what happens, it’s not your fault.” Lockwood and Lucy are two desperate, angry, and lonely kids. They need George to remind them of brighter days of breakfasts and doughnuts and family. It’s a great thing for George to still have his family because in a way he shares that warmth with them. But because he is also George he can relate to them about normal things, like being weird and being the black sheep. Like I just want to say George is so important okay?
I’ve said before that this show reminds me so much of Anne with an E, and it especially reminds me of that show in that scene where Lucy talks into her tape recorder for Norrie. I think it’s the shot of the sun shining through the dust motes and the blinds.
Anyway, I really love Norrie and potential dynamics. (For fanfic and headcanon purposes, I can’t help but think of Norrie as Lucy’s lost lenore, so how could Lockwood ever compete?)
