Will's cellmate
Was that his dad?
shareHuh? What are you talkin' about? Was who his dad?
shareThats what i figured too
I have no idea why they did that and i hated it
MovieChat Forums > The Newsroom (2012) Discussion > Will's cellmate
Apparently he was a hallucination of his dad. We know his dad beat his mom. And the picture clearly looked like his "cell mate".
shareI wouldn't call it a "hallucination", because that connotes the idea that Will actually thought he had a cellmate.
It was more of an inner conversation. After 52 days in jail, he probably started to let his mind wander, and asked himself "What would it be like to have my father here with me? What kind of conversation would we have?"
Yep. He was having conversations with his dad.
shareAfter 52 days of isolation I would probably have conversations like that.
shareHe said that, but I missed how important it was. I thought some guy was messing with him. It really powerful scene. All the things he wanted to say to his father.
If we can save humanity, we become the caretakers of the world
Man, does this really have to be spelled out you? Yes, it was a hallucination or imaginary conversation with his deceased father. Evident by the actor being his father on the picture and the rolled up mattress on the other bed that went unused for the duration of his stay.
Remember what he said, "that's why I'm supposed to be in solitary"
A lot of people obviously missed that. Do you think being a jerk and typing in boldface makes you superior?
shareI missed it, but then, I'd just eaten 6 pieces of fried chicken so my brain was floating in grease. maybe if they'd called the episode "Field of Dreams" it would have been a bit more obvious, or had his dad be a bartender at a remote Colorado resort.
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It was easy to miss. I knew there was something odd about his cellmate, but the episode was so jam packed and I knew Charlie was going to die, so I might have been a little pre-occupied. I get a little peeved at people who think if you don't get every little nuance or insider dialogue, you are a moron. I agree this was more than that, but I don't feel stupid that I didn't get it.
shareI was paying attention, but I did miss that the entire thing was his father.
I wondered why the picture on the wall looked so much like his father, and wondered if they hadn't just used that same actor for a blurry photo to save money. And I noticed that as he was leaving, the other mate's bunk was rolled up and he was gone.
Now that I've seen this thread, I've got to go watch the entire episode again. Hah. I'm pretty good catching these things, but I sure missed this one.
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Mrs. French's cat is missing...
I missed it too but I was fiddling with my tablet
shareI'm with you. During the whole episode I didn't have any thought that the guy was his father. Hell I even thought the guy might shank Will just to throw a, no pun intended, twist into the story.
I'm glad that wasn't the case of course.
It wasn't until Will walked out of the cell that I put 2 and 2 together. When they showed the closeup of Will and his father I was wondering why the hell his dad looked like the guy in the cell.
I too want to go back and re-watch it again knowing what I know now.
I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least its an ethos.
I missed it too and I feel bad about that. But it is typical Sorkin to be so subtle sometimes among all his preaching that you miss something big like this. That is why I admire Sorkin's skills and why I love to watch the episodes several times, just to pick up the subtext.
Saying that I wonder why the 'discussions' in the cell concerned so much Will's overbearing and patronizing attitude towards other people. Granted that this is an important issue with his family, coworkers and friends, it has not much to do with his journalistic morale and his stubborn refusal to reveal the source. All we learned of his thoughts on this was his polite "No sir". Usually Will is portrayed as sticking to the law meticulously. Why did he do an exception in this?
It was easy to miss; we didn't have all of the information, but Will could not have failed to identify his own father as his cellmate. Instead of the long debates, he should have just aid, "I'm losing my mind because I'm see my dead dad as a younger man." Instead, because the audience doesn't know what he does, the writer(s) can make it look like a great plot twist.
It's not; it's just a cheap manipulation of the audience.
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It was only apparent at the end, come on slim.
shareI totally missed that. Didn't look at the photos.
shareYou didn't look at this?
http://i.imgur.com/opSqeI7.jpg
I didn't even zoom in on this picture. This is exactly what they showed on screen for 5 seconds. I don't know how anyone could have not seen this.
Yes, Will apparently, wasn't handling being in solitary very well and decided to have a talk with good ol' dad,
shareYes, it was his father. He told the therapist in season one that he was first able to stop his father from hitting his mother and siblings when he was in fifth grade. When he stood up and showed his "cell mate" that he was big enough to handle him I got it. Very well done.
shareThat was a great twist on that scene. In a sense Will is having an internal dialogue with himself through his father. Really well done.
shareHe was that mustachioed Neo Nazi in Breaking Bad.
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