The Crow by J. O'Barr

Photo Credit: Amazon.ca

The Crow by J. O'Barr



Graphic Novel Information:

Date of Publication: Reprint September 3, 2002

Publisher: Pocket Books

ISBN: 074344647X or 978-0743446471

Number of Pages: 240
Suggested Reading Age: Young Adult. This book deals with mature subject matter such as drugs, sex, and violence. It also includes offensive language.

Characters

Eric Draven (aka "The Crow") - Eric is the protagonist in O'Barr's graphic novel "The Crow". On Halloween night, one year ago, Eric Draven and his fiancee were brutally murdered on the side of a road. Eric has now returned to seek vengeance on the group of men who caused their deaths.

Shelly Webster - Eric's deceased fiancee. Many of Eric's memories are of her and the good times they shared. She was deeply in love with Eric and had recently accepted his ring.

Sherri - A young girl who spends most of her time on the street while her mother takes the company of criminals and drugs. She is eager for affection, and takes an immediate liking to Eric. Sherri often feels that she is is being punished and is living in hell. Eric gives her Shelly's engagement ring on a chain as a token of their friendship.

T-Bird - The leader of the gangsters, he is ultimately responsible for the deaths of Eric and Shelly. He is the enemy most sought after by Eric.

Fun Boy - a drug dealer who works for T-Bird, he is often seen using drugs and in the company of Sherri's mother. He also was an accomplice to Eric and Shelly's murders.

Top Dollar - a member of T-Bird's gang, he is also a drug dealer. He helped assault and kill the couple on Halloween night.

Tom Tom - Helped rape and assault Shelly on the night she was murdered. He acts as one of T-Bird's underlings.

Tin-Tin - One of T-Bird's gang members, he is the first of the group that Eric encounters in his new form.

Gideon - the owner and operator of the pawn shop where T-Bird and his gang trade in their stolen goods.

Captain Hook - the Captain of the police, he is knowledgeable of the murders of Eric Draven and Shelly Webster a year ago. He is a minor character in the graphic novel.

Officer Albrecht - the officer who arrives on the scene of the pawn shop explosion. He unsuccessfully tries to apprehend Eric, and later receives a note from Eric about the conditions Sherri is living in.

The Book Design

Photo Credit: Wikipedia, back cover of J. O'Barr's The Crow

• This edition of J. O'Barr's "The Crow" is a soft cover.
• Illustrated in black and white, with the exception of some additional drawings after the story ends.
• Varying panel size and number of panels per page.
• The mood is very somber and dark, matching the story of loss and revenge perfectly. Time shifts from the present to the past almost seamlessly through Eric's memories. Locations shift just as quickly, with the reader having to pay careful attention.
• The graphic novel includes an Introduction and An Afterword explaining the themes of loss and the symbol of the crow.
• The storyline is divided into Five Books: Book One - Pain, Book Two - Fear, Book Three - Irony, Book Four - Despair, and Book Five - Death.
• There are a variety of poems interspersed throughout the five books, including: Ordinary Nocturne by Arthur Rimbaud, Night by Lois Weakley McKay, The Hanging Garden by Robert Smith, Good Night by Rose Fyleman, and Being Beauteous by A. Rimbaud.
• Bold Words emphasize the mood of each Book 1-5, often accompanied by full page drawings.

Photo Credit: Lambiek.net

The Plot - Caution!! Spoilers!! Extensive Summary!!

* The book is dedicated to Brandon Lee, who died from the result of an accidental gunshot on the set of the crow. Wikipedia has a thorough summary of his life and early death.

* For the purposes of this blog, I will refer to Eric Draven as his real name rather than "The Crow" to eliminate confusion with the bird, the crow that accompanies him throughout the story.

• The beginning of the book (before Book One - Pain)  starts with Jones, a petty criminal, walking off with a stolen Toshiba. He is startled by Eric, and drops the Toshiba. He tells Eric he owes him $100 for the loss of the stolen merchandise. Ignoring him, Eric asks him the whereabouts of T-Bird, Tom Tom, Top Dollar, Fun Boy, and Tin Tin. Retaliating, Jones stabs Eric in the chest. Eric pulls the knife out of the wound, telling Jones he is the "boiling man". Handing the knife back to Jones, Eric tells him that Shelby had informed him Jones would know where the other men were, only after he removed some of his fingers. Jones eventually gives up the location of several of the men, and is left alive to warn the others that Eric was coming for them.
• Reoccurring event - a crow accompanies Eric through the story, acting like a guardian, suggesting that he should not remember some events in the past that will cause him pain.
• Book One: Pain. Late October. In the ghetto in a forgotten house on a dead-end street there is a shape, a man. He listens to voices that were there a year ago, gunshots, a girl crying. The voices belong to: Tin Tin, Top Dollar, Tom Tom, T-Bird, and Fun Boy.
• Tin Tin is in the street with two other men, Ratso and Fat Eddie's brother. Ratso hands Tin Tin a gun, who then proceeds to shoot an old woman carrying her groceries and both of the men. Tin Tin walks into an alley carrying the gun, and sees Eric. He asks him why he is painted up, and does not remember him from the year before. Eric tells him he is dressed up for a funeral march, Tin Tin says your own, and fires at Eric. The bullet careens off of Eric's head, and he in turn fires from a concealed gun in his pocket, bringing Tin Tin to the ground. Tin Tin asks Eric who he is, and Eric tells him the story of a year past, a dirt road, a man and a girl, and a broken down car. Tin Tin remembers, and claims that T-Bird had told him he was dead. He explains to Eric that his girlfriend was out cold by the time he got to her, and it was just the cause of being high. He tries to bargain with Eric, telling him he has connections. Eric says "May God grant you the mercy I cannot", and shoots Tin Tin dead. He ties a spent shell in his hair and says "Number One".

* Note - The character of Eric in the persona of the crow tends to talk in riddles, often involving deep passages about life, death, and religion.

• Bold Word: Shadowplay. Top Dollar and his men are sitting around a table with alcohol, drugs, and guns. Sanchez tells him about someone blowing Tin Tin’s head off, and tells him to look into it. He said it looked like he didn’t have control. Top Dollar says this was his outfit, his drugs, his neighborhood. They look out the window and see Eric posed on a ledge, he says he is Santa Claus and they have all been very bad this year. They all start firing, and no one can kill him. He calls them drowning men, and begins killing them all, until Top Dollar is the only one left. He asks him if he remembered a man and a girl, and Top Dollar offers him money and drugs. Top Dollar said he remembered, "so what", and Eric says "so this", and shoots him. Top Dollar tells him to go to hell, and Eric says he has been waiting for a guide to take him by the hand and shoots him dead.
• Bold Word: Like a Concave Scream. Eric goes back to the apartment, and lays out champagne, roses, and a gift for Shelly, a cat named Gabriel. Shelly had always said she wanted a cat. Eric wishes her a Happy Anniversary, and cries. He remembers painting the walls with her, and her saying she wanted to get married. He had shown her the ring, and she was so excited to be getting married. The crow tells him he doesn’t want to see this, calling him an idiot, because he relives her dying over and over.
• Book Two - Fear. Eric prepares himself for battle, while Tom Tom and a fellow gang member assault and murder an innocent man with Down's Syndrome. Eric sneaks up on them and immediately eliminates Tom Tom's companion, scaring Tom Tom in the process. Eric slashes at the light, and the two square off in darkness. Eric recites his version of a bedtime prayer, and tells a joke about Jesus and an inn before cutting off Tom Tom's feet. When Eric asks him if he remembered, Tom Tom admits to kicking Shelly until she stopped screaming. He complains of being cold and asks for his boots. He tells Eric what pawn shop to find Shelly's engagement ring, and dies.
• Eric goes to Gideon's pawnshop. Seeing it closed, he breaks open the door and enters. Gideon pulls a gun on Eric, which he slaps aside, stabbing him in the hand. While Gideon tries to free his hand of the knife, Eric rummages through the box of pawned rings until he finds Shelly's. Eric shoots Gideon multiple times, and after helping himself to several assault weapons, douses the pawn shop in gasoline. Bold Word: Submission. A policeman (Officer Albrecht) enters, and Eric assures him he would not hurt him. Eric informs Officer Albrecht that he had set a bomb on the premises and contacted the fire department. When the bomb ignites, Officer Albrecht calls in to Capt. Hook, who tosses Eric's homicide file in the trash, stating that "maybe God has some wisdom after all".
• Bold Words: Elegy, Irony, Despair, and in Eric's memories of Shelly, Velocity. Eric meets a little girl sitting alone on a step, bruised and disheveled. Sherri asks him if he was a clown, and he says he might be, and asks to sit with her. When Eric asks Sherri the whereabouts of her mother, she tells him that she was up with Fun Boy seeking out her "medicine". He tells her he had a present for her, and gives her Shelly’s ring on a chain. She cries with happiness because no one had ever given her anything before. Eric tells her he would go fetch her mother, and she begs him to come back. He promises they would be together again.
• Eric goes upstairs, smashes open the door, and sees Sherri’s mother is naked in bed with Fun Boy. Fun Boy tells him to go unless he wanted something real bad to happen. Eric tells him he would kill him before he got the chance to get his gun and tells Sandy to leave before Fun Boy sucked all of the light from her eyes. Eric reminds her that Sherri is waiting downstairs for her, and in usual prophetic tone, tells her that "Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of all children".
•  A large gathering of cats covers the steps outside of Fun Boy's apartment. The bird informs Eric of Fun Boy's morphine addiction, and Fun Boy quickly realizes that Eric was responsible for the deaths of Tin Tin, Top Dollar, and Sanchez. He is in disbelief because he too had seen Eric's murder, informing Eric that the gun had shot so close to his head his hair had caught afire. Eric takes a vial of Fun Boy's morphine and tells him to round up his friends for a meeting at the Gin Mill.
• Bold Word: Watching Forever. Eric looks in on the bed, and remembers them together. The crow tells him not to go in there, it was the place that hurt the most because it was there they were closest. The bird tells Eric he was the luckiest man alive. He tells him not to do this, and Eric remembers her beauty, how she left him love letters on the fridge,  and how he used to watch her sleep.
• Book Three Irony. Eric sits in the church with a gun. Bold Word: Immolation. Before going to the gin  mill, Eric prepares himself a syringe full of morphine from Fun Boy's supply. Fun Boy and his men await his arrival, all armed heavily with weapons. Eric appears, telling them the meanings behind the number of crows. He tells them they were all going to die,and when the bartender goes to attack him, throws an axe in his shoulder. All the men begin shooting, and are convinced he must be wearing a vest when the bullets have no apparent effect.  One bullet hits Eric in the head, and Fun Boy is happy to see that “the ghost does bleed after all”. Eric says "Death, like virtue, has its degrees". Looking around, all of the men are dead except for Fun Boy.  He crudely describes how he enjoyed assaulting Shelly, and is sent off to locate T-Bird. Eric tells Fun Boy he was dead the moment he touched Shelly, but promises to make his death quick.
• The Atrocity Exhibition. One year ago. Book Four: Despair. Eric and Shelly are sitting on the beach in evening attire, and she is excited about their upcoming wedding. When it grows cold, the couple go to their car and drive, only to experience car troubles. As Eric stands outside attempting to fix the car, another car comes by and throw a bottle that smashes near Eric. When the men reverse the car, Eric assures Shelly everything would be fine and tells her to lock the doors and put up the windows. When one of the men calls Eric worthless trash, Eric tells Shelly to turn on the lights (perhaps to shield her vision from what was about to happen to him). The men start harassing Shelly, telling her to open the doors, and Eric intervenes on her behalf. They coldly shoot him Eric in the head, and while he is on his knees begging them to not do this, T-Bird fires again. A crow flies overhead as the deed is done. Once Eric is taken care of, T-Bird and his crew take their time assaulting, raping, and eventually murdering Shelly on the roadside.
• Head Trauma. Capt. Hook is standing by Eric’s bedside in the hospital, noting that Eric is essentially brain dead. He apologizes to him for what happened to him and his girl, and says he "didn’t know why things like this happened,  it made him sick to be human". Hook leaves Eric his card and tells him he hopes he had a good life.  Eric awakens and tells Capt. Hook that the crow had said "Don’t look".  They operate on him, and he flatlines while the crow tells him he has responsibilities.
• Crescendo Death. Eric remembers Shelly telling him she felt safe with him.  He had promised her that he would never let anything happen to her.  She had told him they could make beautiful babies. Eric wraps his wounds with tape and prepares himself for battle.
• Hammer Party. Book Five: Death. After Eric says goodbye to Sherri, we see Captain Hook on the scene of a fire. The fire has engulfed what remained of Eric and Shelly's home, and a fireman hands Hook a cat and a note asking him to take care of the cat, regards of "The Crow".  Officer Albrecht (the police officer from the pawn shop) is leaving the fire, crying, saying he had something to do. The crow had left him a note about Sherri.
• Gravity. Ugly Patrick, one of T-Bird's minions,  is smoking a cigarette, and Eric appears behind him. He slashes at Ugly Patrick with his straight razor as he pulls a gun on him, saying it was amazing that god wasted skin on trash like that. Fun Boy is with T-Bird, telling him the crow had killed everyone. T-Bird does not believe Fun Boy, attributing his crazy story to a nasty drug trip.  He calls Fun Boy a junkie and tells him to leave, but Fun Boy goes into the other room to get high first. Eric is in the room waiting for him, and gives him the bottle of morphine to do. Fun Boy quickly overdoses and tells Eric to kill T-Bird slowly. Outside, T-Bird is attempting a car escape with one of his gang members, Shelby. Shelby is quickly done away with by Eric, and Eric faces off with the remainder of his crew. The men begin shooting all at once, and Eric tells them "It's not death if you refuse it".
• Attrition. Eric is hit all over with gun shots but does not fall. His attackers think it is a trick when he disappears. Looking Down the Cross. Eric reappears, using his fists and their own weapons against him to defeat his enemies. Tbird tries to flee in the car, with Shelby’s body beside him. He plans to go to Detroit where Eric can’t find him. He keeps driving, and is scared when he realizes that it’s the road he had killed Eric and Shelly on one year ago. T-Bird crashes the car and he is quite beaten up, his legs rendered useless. Eric appears with a hammer.
• Passover. Snow is falling in the cemetery, and there is a statue of an angel. Eric is there, telling Shelly it was over, he was coming home. He lays down on her grave, and remembers kissing her. He tells her that she had said forever, and it was forever now.The statue of the angel is weeping.

Photo Credit: comicbookmovie.com

The Crow (Movie - 1994)

Movie Publication Details

- Length: 102 minutes

- Director: Alex Proyas

- Writers: James O'Barr (comic), David J. Schow & John Shirley (screenplay)

- Nominations & Awards: Nominated for the 1995 Saturn Award (in the categories of Best Costumes, Best Director, and Best Special Effects) from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films USA. Won the 1995 BMI Film Music Award, as well as the 1995 MTV Movie Award for Best Movie Song (Stone Temple Pilots). The 1995 MTV Music Awards also nominated Brandon Lee for Best Male Performance and The Crow for best movie.

- Cast of Major Characters: Brandon Lee (Eric Draven), Rochelle Davis (Sarah aka Sherri), Ernie Hudson (Officer Albrecht), Michael Wincott (Top Dollar), Sofia Shinas (Shelly Webster), David Patrick Kelly (T-Bird), Laurence Mason (Tin Tin), Michael Massee (Fun Boy).

- You can watch the trailer here.

Photo Credit: comicbookmovie.com

Plot Summary

* Photo Credit: comicbookmovie.com

• The voice of Sarah (different name, known as Sherri in the graphic novel)is opening the movie, she says "people say that when someone dies a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes something so terrible happens that the soul can’t rest. Then the crow can bring that soul back to make the wrong things right".
• A man and a woman are attacked in their house, the woman (Shelly) is being attended to by paramedics.  Policemen collect evidence - a wedding invitation, a dress. The couple had been set to marry the next night, on Halloween.
• When the paramedics prepare to transport Shelly, a young girl named Sarah comes by on her skateboard. She isn't related to either Eric or Shelly, but they help care for her. The policeman (Officer Albrecht) lies to Shelly, telling her Eric would be fine , when he was already dead.
•  One year later: a crow perches on a cross on top of the building, the only thing left is ashes, it had been torched. Sarah places flowers on the scene of their murder and on their graves while a crow flies overhead. She talks to the crow and leaves, going to a hot dog shack where Albrecht buys her a hot dog.
• A group of men are destroying a building and its valuables, setting a bomb. It is a rainy stormy night and the crow settles on Eric’s grave, the ground cracks and Eric rises from his grave. The bomb goes off, and Albrecht goes to see what happened, leaving Sarah behind. 



Photo Credit: listverse.com

Eric goes back to his home, tears aside the crime scene tape, and enters. He sees Gabriel, his cat, and remembers what happened. Shelly had opened the  apartment door thinking it was Eric, but it was the men. They attack her, rape her, destroy their home, and Eric walks in. They stab him, shoot him twice, and throw him out the window, and he crashes to the ground.

        Present time: the group of men sit around, drinking shots and swallowing bullets. They draw weapons on each other and chant their favorite saying “Fire it Up”.

• Tin Tin is at Gideon's pawnshop, pawning a ring and a purse. Tin Tin leaves, and is followed by the bird. Eric is leaping from building to building, following the flight of the bird. He is able to see what the crow sees. Eric jumps from the roof of a building, laughing. He approaches Tin Tin, and Tin Tin makes fun of him b/c he is painted up. Tin Tin pulls a knife and they fight, and Eric reminds him of the man and a woman in a loft a year ago. Tin Tin throws a knife like he did that night at him, and Eric throws it back, stabbing him. 
•      The men go to a bar where Eric’s band picture is hung. Upstairs in the bar, T-Bird and a Chinese woman reside, they have killed a woman. The Chinese woman takes a knife and says she likes the woman’s eyes.  Below them, in the bar, Darla (Sarah’s mother) is making out with one of the gang. When Darla tries to rid herself of Sarah by throwing money at her, Sarah tells Darla that the policeman had already bought her dinner and left.
• Gideon's Pawnshop: Eric enters the closed pawnshop, speaking in riddles. He asks Gideon about an engagement ring, and Gideon responds by firing a gun. Eric's wound heals itself, and he retaliates by stabbing Gideon in the hand. He tells him that Tin Tin had told him where he pawned it before he ran out of breath (his body shown carried away by paramedics with his chest full of knives – a crow has been painted in blood overhead). Eric closes his eyes as he goes through the box of rings, tossing them out until he comes to own that he reacts to – and he remembers Shelly. Eric tells Gideon he is going to tell him where everyone else is – and he tells him the whereabouts of Fun Boy and his crew. Eric assigns him the task of telling the rest of the men he is coming and to tell them Eric Draven says hello. Eric leaves, shooting a bullet into the gasoline, igniting the pawnshop. Gideon escapes.
• Officer Albrecht encounters Eric leaving the pawnshop and draws a gun on him. Eric asks Albrecht if he remembered Shelly Webster. Albrecht says Shelly is dead. Eric asks him if he knew about Tin Tin, and tells the policeman he was dead a year ago the moment he touched her, and ran off.
• Top Dollar sits at the table with the Chinese woman, and she is burning the woman’s eyeball to get energy from it. The men enter and tell them about the fates of Tin Tin and Gideon. Top Dollar snorts cocaine, and tells the men he needs them to do work for him tomorrow night.
•  Sarah gets on her skateboard and is almost hit by a car, but is saved by Eric. She asks Eric if he is a clown, and he said sometimes. When she turns her back complaining about the rain, he says "it can't rain all the time (one of his song lyrics). Sarah realizes it is Eric, turns around and he is gone.
• Darla and Fun Boy are getting high together in bed when Eric appears in the window, and Fun Boy pulls a gun on him. Eric places his hand over the barrel and tells him to take his shot, and he fires, shooting him in the hand. Eric shows him his hand healing, Fun Boy keeps shooting him but he doesn’t die. He shoots Fun Boy while Darla cowers in the bathroom. She arms herself with a razor while Eric puts Fun Boy in the tub and turns the shower on him. He holds Darla and reminds her of her responsibilities as a mother, holds her arm and the morphine pours out, he tells her it is bad for her and her daughter is on the streets waiting for her. She runs out.

Photo Credit: moviemikes.com

      Gideon is at the bar, drinking when Darla runs downstairs and out the door. Fun Boy awakens in the shower, and Eric pulls him out, holding the syringe over him. He injects him, and as another man enters, leaves out the window. Fun Boy is seen with several syringes in his chest.

•   Eric visits Officer Albrecht in his home, hands him a beer, and asks Albrecht for the details of the night he died. When Eric touches Albrecht, he is able to see and feel everything that Shelly experienced that night.

  Gideon is up talking to Top Dollar, telling him about being stabbed and his shop being destroyed. He demands to know what Top Dollar is going to do about it. Top Dollar tosses him an eye, telling him all the power in the world resided in the eye, it came from the last guy that didn’t cooperate with him. He also tells Gideon that his female companion is his sister. Gideon tells him that Eric Draven had said hello, and Top Dollar wonders why Eric had let Gideon live. Top Dollar takes a sword and stabs him in the throat, and then shoots him.

• T-Bird Gets in the car, and Eric is in the backseat, holding a gun to his head. He tells him to drive, and he speeds down the road. A police car is parked on the side of the road, and goes in pursuit. The other gangster (Skank) pursues them in another car, and soon after, T-Bird collides with the police car. T-Bird is tied up in the car, and he is talking about what happened that night. Eric tapes his head back, and puts his foot on the gas pedal, puts a bomb in his lap and sets the car going. T-Bird tells Eric "there ain’t no coming back", and crashes into the water. Eric lights the gasoline on the ground, and the flame forms into a crow.

 Eric goes back to the apartment, and he looks at their pictures, remembering them together. Sara goes to the apartment looking for Eric, sees their cat Garfield. She picks up a half-burnt photo of them, and says she knew it was him, even with the makeup –s he had remembered his song, it can’t rain all the time. The bird is above her on beam, and she says she misses him and Shelly, it is lonely w/o him and Shelly. She goes to leave and Eric appears in the window, and they hug.

Photo Credit: geektyrant.com

•  At the club, loud metal band is playing, and the crowd forms a mosh pit. The men above are getting their guns ready, all sitting around a table.  Top Dollar says it is Halloween so they should set a bunch of fires, cause chaos. He says he started Devil’s night and now they have greeting cards about it. He wanted them to start a fire so big the gods would notice them. Eric arrives, perches himself on top of the table. He tells the leader he wants Skank, and the leader says he can’t have him. He tells the men to kill Eric, and he is shot multiple times. The sister tries to capture the bird, but misses. Eric stands up and begins firing, killing all the men in his path. He takes the leaders swords off the wall and kills others, one crashes through the window and falls into the crowd below. All of the club goers scramble, and Eric reaches Skank. He throws Skank out of a window, onto the top of a police car. He jumps from the window as the police shoot at him, the police helicopter hovering ahead. Officer Albrecht sees the events from his car, and Eric is running the rooftops trying to escape. Albrecht picks him up in the car, and drives off, when he looks over, Eric has disappeared
• Top Dollar, his sister, and another man are in the car. The sister says the power can be taken from him, if you killed the crow you would destroy the man. He goes to their graves, and sees Sarah sleeping there. She tells him he didn’t say goodbye and knows he isn’t coming back. Eric puts the chain with Shelly's engagement ring around her neck so she would always remember Shelly – she promises to never take it off and they hug.
• One of the gang members kidnaps Sarah, bringing her into the church where Top Dollar and his sister wait. He looks at the ring, rips it from her neck, and the sister says she has innocent eyes. Eric is at Shelly’s grave and hears Sarah call out his name for help. He goes to the church, and the crow enters with him. The bird is shot from up above and lands on the ground. Top Dollar comes up, and Eric tells him he would let him live if he gave him the girl. Top Dollar shoots Eric and he falls to the ground. Eric starts to bleed, and is in pain. The crow is still hopping around on the ground, and when his man goes to kill it, Albrecht enters and begins shooting. The sister takes the crow and flees with it, and there is a shootout. Eric tells him they had taken Sarah, and Albrecht learns Eric is no longer invincible. The sister fires at them from the bell tower, hitting Albrecht. Eric faces off with the sister, who is holding the crow and the crow attacks her, pecking at her eyes. She falls from the bell tower, and Eric can hear Sarah and Top Dollar up on the rooftop.
• Eric goes to them, telling Top Dollar he would not fight him if he set Sarah free. Top Dollar tosses Sarah aside, who fights to hold on to the ledge. While the two men square off, Eric turns his back to check on Sarah, and Top Dollar stabs him with the sword through his midsection.Top Dollar admits to being responsible for the deaths of Eric and his fiancee, and he had enjoyed it. Eric tells him he had something to give him, and touches him – exposing him to three hours of Shelly’s pain in intensive care, all at once. Top Dollar falls, and is pierced by the spire on the church. Sara and Eric go downstairs, and he tells her to go help the policeman. Eric tells Albrecht the memories he had kept in his head had saved him – he goes to smoke a cigarette, spits it out and vows to quit that moment.
• Eric leaves, going back to his and Shelly’s graves. He falls down on Shelly's grave, and finally rests.  Shelly comes to him in a white flowing dress, touches him, and they kiss.  The bird perches once again on Eric’s grave, and when Sarah comes to visit, drops the ring back in her hand.