Difference between revisions of "Rose"

Latest revision as of 19:14, 19 July 2008

This article is about the flower. For the KateModern character, see Rose (character).

The wilted rose in Gemma's flat could mean any of a number of things...

Throughout the lonelygirl15 and KateModern series, roses have been prominently featured. The first appearance was in Gemma's last video, Bad Decisions, where a wilting rose was displayed on her right hand side.

Some fans believe that roses represent the Order, seeing that after Bad Decisions was posted, Gemma was revealed to be an OpAphid agent. One user pointed out that when roses wilt, they do not bend over like other flowers do, so the one in Bad Decisions was intentionally bent.

In Coming Up Roses, Kate talks about roses. She quotes a person who pondered that if a rose was not called a rose, it would still smell sweet. Kate observed that a lot was in a name, and that this famous person was wrong.

The Bad Decisions rose

• In Bad Decisions, Gemma also mentions that she went on three dates with a musician (speculated to be Finn, but never proven). Some fans theorize that the rose was given to Gemma by this boy on the first date, but the relationship went awry and the rose died.
• Guilt
  • The wilting rose symbolizes Gemma's guilt. When Gemma was not filming, she could have been touching the rose, hence the damage of it.
  • Gemma could feel guilty about her lies toward Bree and Daniel. She told them to go home, and knew that they would be captured by the Order there.
  • Although at first glance, it seems that Gemma only made the video Bad Decisions to strike at Bree and Daniel for their "bad decisions," she might actually be trying to communicate her guilt to them because it is she who has made some "bad decisions."
• Distrust
  • The wilted rose not only represents Gemma's lost trust in this boy, but also her lack of trust in Jonas. So important is her distrust of him that the rose is placed there to emphasize it. This ties in with the Bad Decisions theme of "people who are not always who they seem."
  • The rose represents Bree's trust in Gemma. Perhaps at first, she thought Gemma could be trusted, but something happened to alert her that she should not follow Gemma's advice. This would explain why Bree no longer acknowledges Gemma's videos, yet frequently discusses "the whole Gemma thing" with Jonas and Daniel.
• The Order
  • The rose symbolizes the Order, and its wilting represents corruption.
  • At the center of the unicursal hexagram lies a rose. This symbol has been linked to Thelema. The founder of Thelema, Aleister Crowley, apparently has a huge part in the basis of the Order.
  • Also with ties to Thelema, the symbol of the rosy cross has a rose at its center. In a cosmological context, the rose is Nuit, the goddess of the night sky from Egyptian mythology. The Order has been linked to Egypt through the ancient town of Denderah.
• Bree
  • The rose represents Bree (who is portrayed by Jessica Lee Rose).
  • Its wilting represents Bree's downfall, her lost innocence, and/or lost faith in the people close to her. It had not fully bloomed and already it is wilted because it was cut off from the bush - Bree's adoptive parents, the Averys.
• Love
  • The rose represents love (between Daniel and Bree), which is pitted against will (the Order, the Hymn of One, and Bree's parents).
    • The rose dies, will wins, and Bree is returned to her commune to do her duty.
• Time
  • The rose visibly wilts during the video, particularly between jump cuts. It is nearly shriveled up and broken by the end of Bad Decisions.
  • The rapid wilting could mean that time is running out: perhaps the date of the ceremony is approaching, or the Order plans to apprehend Bree and Daniel soon, or there is little time left to rescue Bree's parents.
• From Gemma to Bree
  • Fans have long speculated that Gemma speaks to Bree in code.
  • Gemma may have placed it there, wilted and bent, to send an important message to Bree. Perhaps Gemma is saying that she is under the Order's surveillance, or that the Order is making her tell Bree to go home. Perhaps she is warning Bree not to trust her because she's being manipulated by the Order. This might make sense since Gemma said she had seen a Watcher in her video Scared To Go Home. She has later retracted the claim, saying that she had just been feeling paranoid. The Order could have also made her deny that she had been followed.
  • The rose could simply be symbolic of her state of mind - depression.

Other roses

• Bree's bedroom has a framed picture of a rose on the wall. Since Aleister Crowley is credited with adding a rose to the center of the unicursal hexagram, it's possible that picture is another reference to Crowley. However, the Wired article titled "The Secret World of Lonelygirl" alleges that Beckett "got it at a 99-cent store because it was cheap and looked like something a teenage girl would buy." There is a faint pink-quotation printed beneath the flower that reads "It is by believing in roses that one brings them to bloom."
• In Breakfast In Bed, Daniel comes back from the grocery store with breakfast for Bree and some white flowers. Many viewers thought they were roses, but upon closer inspection it seems like he just picked some gardenias on the way back from the store.
• In Nikki Bower's video, My Eternal Song, Nikki smells a bright pink rose, further escalating the possibility that roses represent the Order.
• In Coming Up Roses, Kate talks to us about roses.
• In Nikki Bower's video, Nikki Tied Up, Nikki has a stuffed dog holding a pink rose, mocking The Bachelor.