As Arabella demonstrates on social media and in her very public outing of Zain (Karan Gill) after he took off his condom during sex without telling her, Arabella knows she has the power to potentially ruin any man who tries to destroy her. The title also can be flipped, with the “I” being Arabella and the “You” being her rapist, identified in the finale as David (Lewis Reeves). The notion that someone else could destroy “you” could just as easily apply to the you that is Arabella’s friend Kwame ( Paapa Essiedu), who is also raped in a situation that starts as consensual sex, or the you that is Arabella’s BFF Terry ( Weruche Opia), who engages in a threesome that leaves her feeling like her opportunity to consent was stolen from her. But I May Destroy You is insistent on exploring a wider range of sexual abuse. Certainly throughout the series, Arabella struggles to keep herself mentally and emotionally together after the incident. Michelle McNamara wrote in her book that someday GSK would hear the footsteps of police approaching his front door and be forced, finally, to “show us your face” and “walk into the light.” By writing that series of events in her book, which inspired this docuseries, it’s as if she manifested it into reality.īefore watching I May Destroy You, it’s easy to assume its title is also rooted in the unspoken threat from the assailant who drugs and rapes Arabella, played by series creator Michaela Coel. Eventually he was caught, as the series explains, and, as of just last week, was sentenced to life in prison. Joseph James D’Angelo, won’t be gone in the dark forever. But the title is also ironic because we know that the Golden State Killer, a.k.a. It also implies something that both shows, but especially I May Destroy You, address: that there is no true sense of closure after you’ve been raped. It’s a foreboding phrase and one that places all the power in the hands of the rapist and murderer who believes he will never be caught. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is an actual quote from the Golden State Killer: “Make one move and you’ll be silent forever and I’ll be gone in the dark,” he once told one of his victims while holding her at knifepoint. When considered in tandem, the two shows also illustrate how much has changed from generation to generation in terms of the way women talk about their experiences with assault.Įven the first-person titles of the respective series are worthy of parallel analysis. They definitely share some similar insights about victimized women: the coping mechanisms they use and the need for closure they feel but rarely get. It’s a real shame that they didn’t air in back-to-back time slots, because these shows strike me as connected, like two voices in an ongoing conversation about rape and how victims deal with its aftermath. The two shows finished their runs on those separate tracks I’ll Be Gone in the Dark concluded on Sunday, August 2, after six episodes, while the 12-episode season of I May Destroy You ended Monday night. When Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy Youshifted from its initial Sunday time slot to Mondays in late June, it did so to make room on HBO for I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, the true-crime series about Michelle McNamara’s search for the Golden State Killer. Taken in tandem, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and I May Destroy You illustrate how much has changed from generation to generation in terms of the way women talk about their experiences with assault.
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