User blog:Peter Quin/A Review of "Tom and Gerri: Inside No. 9 S01E03"

Sometimes it is very hard to get over something or someone. It can be small things that you used to do once and stopped doing completely for some reason or no reason at all. Or it can be someone, a someone you can’t just forget easily.

This episode of Inside No. 9 is an emotional one as it toys with the feelings of a person who has recently lost someone. It is apparent that Tom, the main character is unable to let go of his past. Tom wants to become a writer, and doesn’t like his job at all. This fact tries to be the driving force behind the episode, as early minutes of the episode try to depict. But soon, it is not about how Tom wants to quit his job and be more like Charles Bukowski, for which he has created a different persona, Migg that would be the sense of reason for his actions. The story takes a darker turn when it is revealed that Tom is not thinking about how he can change his life with a change in his job or writing a novel, but he is in denial about his girlfriend’s death. He couldn’t let go. In my opinion, he is so much in denial that he has projected an image of his girlfriend and wants her to be the actual voice of reason. He wants her to tell him what is right and what is wrong. She might have got that kind of personality when she was alive. But anyhow, he isn’t trying to move on. He does block her out of his life for sometimes, thinking about how he can write a novel with the help of his new friend, Migg. But on the other hand, Migg being a parasite that wanted to drain every bit of money and life from Tom, wasn’t much of a surprise but still, the ending is horrifying. Tom “getting rid” of Migg, by drowning him, thinking his life will be perfect now with Jerri is scary and sad at the same time. And, seeing Migg destroying Tom wasn’t pleasant at all, how Tom spirals down from a witty author to a “tramp” as he describes Migg. Tom becomes a murderer just because he wasn’t about to move on. The story has a dark and emotional meaning, which I understood as, we should be able to move on, we might become the monsters we want to slay if we don’t.

How Tom is capable of convincing himself again that Jerri is right and completely deny her death, amazes me. People who are unable to move on, people who want things to stay as they are, are the ones who suffer the most.