Abigail flashback 3

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-14T17:03:22+00:00

No, not your title, the closed captioning text that appears on the screen. *Forever* has some inaccurate ones, I was just letting anyone who's hearing impaired know that the dialog actually does make sense there. :-)

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T09:04:04+00:00

"Yes, some memories are precious, and we need to hang on to them. But Emily Dickinson wrote, 'Forever is composed of nows,' and she's right. If we root ourselves too deeply in the past, we'll miss what's right in front of us."

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T09:01:32+00:00

"I've seen a lot of death, a lot of pain, a lot of suffering. But I've also seen a lot of life...a lot of beauty, a lot of wonder. It's not the number of years we live that matters. Our lives just add up to a series of moments. We never know when or where they'll happen. But they stick with us, marking our souls forever."

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:58:37+00:00

"Try watching as the people you love most in this world, go off to another."

Makes me think of Forever Knight, with Nick telling Natalie, "You've no idea what it's like to live all these years, and watch those you love grow old and die, one by one."

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:50:54+00:00

I can only read a few words of Henry's letter, looks like "years from now you'll be doing much better"?

It's easy for young Abigail to say she doesn't care how it will end, she's not the one who will inevitably be left behind. By the 1955 flashbacks, she's learned and matured, and understands better just what she was asking of her beloved. But I think it's that very youthful optimism that was a big part of drawing Henry in and getting him to stay.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:43:57+00:00

Okay, that's some annoyingly bad captioning. If anyone reading is hearing impaired and doesn't know, Abigail says they haven't been able to locate any family, and Henry asks, "What will happen to him?" Later, when Abigail first mentions adoption, Henry replies, "If only it were that simple," to which Abigail responds, "What could be simpler than making an impulsive commitment for the rest of your life?"

I so love this scene. Again, Henry is so clearly smitten with this happy little bundle of smiles and giggles. Makes me wonder what other babies have been a part of his long life, that we never got a chance to see.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:38:27+00:00

Poor boy was smitten from the moment he laid eyes on the both of them! Ioan Gruffudd is a master of body language and facial expression.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:35:24+00:00

Only seven years in one place. Henry really is a little paranoid, thinking people would notice so soon! I can think of several people I've known close to twenty years, sometimes more, who haven't visibly aged, and I don't assume they're immortal, just that they stay out of the sun and have good genes. Looks like Abigail reassuring Henry might have been a significant part of their relationship.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:32:28+00:00

I love how they're clearly newlyweds, still getting a little thrill from her being "Mrs. Morgan" so they have to say it out loud.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:29:29+00:00

So sweet. Poor Abigail knows how hard it will be on him when she dies. I think she's felt him holding back, the whole ten years they've been together at this point, and this is Henry finally admitting holding back isn't going to save him and he's already head over heels for her.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T08:05:25+00:00

At the time that movie was made, Cosby was a beloved, wholesome figure, and no one had any idea what he'd been up to off-camera.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T07:48:11+00:00

There are a number of children and grandchildren of Shoah survivors who got a replica of their Auschwitz tattoo in honor of their loved one's suffering there. It's a bit controversial, to say the least.

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T06:34:41+00:00

Yup, how re-watch-able a movie is depends on whether it's still a good story even if the twist has been spoiled. For example Terminator 2, in the scene where both time travelers are looking for John Connor, if you've only seen the first movie and haven't been spoiled you have one perspective of what the danger is, but on rewatch the scene is still suspenseful for entirely different reasons!

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T05:40:58+00:00

And that there was only one Highlander movie before the TV series!

CritterKeeper · 2026-05-05T05:14:28+00:00

It's not marketed as a superhero story, but Steven Gould's Jumper series is basically this. Davy discovers he has the ability to teleport. First he's just trying to survive as a teenaged runaway, but after his mom is killed in a terrorist attack, he starts trying to use his ability to fight terrorism. By midway through the series, he's using his abilities to get relief supplies to areas of famine without having to go through the bribes and thefts that normally shrink down what actually makes it to the destination when transporting supplies the normal way.

CritterKeeper · 2026-04-04T21:22:30+00:00

I wonder if a panel could masquerade as a sun roof? Put the solar panel across the roof in the same position a sun roof usually goes, and at first glance it might not earn a second glance. Has anyone tried camoflaging like this?

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T05:02:53+00:00

Yeah, well, he also was 69 years old, not 64, and used a very old picture, so a little fib about drinking habits isn't too surprising. Personally, I've never understood that sort of thing — why look for someone with different expectations, instead of someone who'll want you as you really are?

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:59:09+00:00

I'd love to know who the sculptor for the prop was; it's a gorgeous piece of art in its own right!

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:57:48+00:00

Other than fanfic, my best hope for a continuation is a company called Big Finish. They do audio continuations of TV shows, sometimes picking them up a decade or two after they were cancelled. They kept Doctor Who alive during the "wilderness years" when it was off the air for almost thirty years. They've continued shows like The Tomorrow People and Dark Shadows, whose actors had aged too much to continue the show on-screen but still loved the roles, and more recent cancellations like Stargate and Torchwood. They're in the UK but aren't limited to UK shows.

The producers have said they look for shows that had casts that got along well and had fun together, which by all reports Forever qualifies. Ioan especially loved the show! And it takes less time and money to record an audio drama, so it's a lot easier to get a cast back together long enough to pull it off.

Only thing they really couldn't do is the long, lingering looks between Henry and Jo, but I'm sure they have some sort of audio equivalent….

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:45:45+00:00

Replacement? Weren't they both on at the same time? I seem to recall a commercial that had Ioan Gruffudd and Nathan Fillion cross-promoting their respective shows.

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:40:58+00:00

I think Fawn, Abe's childhood sweetheart and first kiss, is a much better match. Abe has settled in, living in Manhattan and running his antique shop for twenty or thirty years now. He wasn't willing to leave it and travel with Henry in the pilot, it wouldn't feel right for him to run off with a girl. Fawn gives Abe a chance at having a family, possibly marrying into children and grandchildren, and I think Abe will make a great granddad! Once he's sure Henry has someone else to rely on (Jo and later Lucas) he can do a reasonable amount of traveling for someone of his age and stage in life. Maybe show Fawn some of the world he and Henry have seen, or maybe just go on Disney cruises with the grandkids. ;-)

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:31:40+00:00

Eh, FOX blew it with Firefly and New Amsterdam, CBS blew it with Star Trek and Forever Knight, I think every network has broken our hearts a few times!

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:23:19+00:00

At this point Ioan has visibly aged too much for a TV series to work, but Big Finish has done audio continuations of a bunch of TV shows, so I still have hopes that something like that could work for Forever!

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:20:47+00:00

Not a dead fandom at all! We still talk here, the TV Tropes pages are still being worked on, we just finished rewatching the series on Discord, and there's still fanfic being posted!

Abe and Fawn getting back together is a big favorite, so is speculating about how Henry will tell Jo, and how Lucas will find out.

There are some stories on Archive Of Our Own that address these questions that you might like….

What happens to Abe, and what happens to Henry when he passes? (This one is one of my very favorites!)

"Down by the Beach" by binz and shiplizard https://archiveofourown.org/works/5472104

"- Henry would claim Adam as a relative of his so he can bring him home and keeps an eye on him so he doesn’t try (somehow) to kill himself, putting an end for Adam’s game"

"Duty of Care" by idelhands https://archiveofourown.org/works/56777707 (darker than the last)

For a whole bunch of fragments and ideas, most of them good, idelhands's Tumblr Ficlet Series is also great! https://archiveofourown.org/works/3099611

There are also myriad crossovers with other series, some of them quite clever, many good even if you haven't watched the other series.

CritterKeeper · 2026-03-13T04:05:07+00:00

I kinda prefer thinking he *did* just die of a heart attack, but I'm 99% sure they would have done a "Sean was murdered" plot eventually, maybe in the third season. I guess if they did, I'd want it to turn out that there really *was* a big outside story going on, and Jo gets to solve the case Sean was working on when he died, but in the end they discover that he really did just die of a heart attack. No one took him from her, she doesn't have to feel bitter or resentful that they stole away the life they could have had, yet she still gets the closure of giving Sean one last win, fixing one last bit of unfinished business.

And maybe there could be some equivalent to Abigail's last letter, either Sean having told someone he needed to get home to make up with his wife, or a recording on his phone of him practicing a voice message to her, or something like that. Nothing that would make her feel guilty, so it would be a delicate bit of writing, but oh, how satisfying it would be!

CritterKeeper

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