ABC
What I like most about doing episode reviews of shows I love is getting insightful comments from readers. Sometimes comments go no further than, “you suck!” but it’s worth wading through those to get to the ones that get you thinking.
Commenter ‘Nattyff’ brought up something about Life on Mars that was a slap-to-the-forehead moment for me: Is Sam’s neighbor, Windy, imaginary?
I wish I had every episode still recorded to look back (well, I could use ABC.com, but I’m lazy), but have we ever seen Windy interact with anyone besides Sam? Has anyone acknowledged her existence besides Sam? What really clicked for me was the time Windy leaned in and whispered in Sam’s ear about 1973 being the reality, 2008 being fantasy.
I think Nattyff and anyone else who’s brought this up is onto something. Sam’s been seeing all sorts of crazy things pop up in each episode, though most disappear as soon as he points them out to someone else. Who’s to say he can’t have an extended vision when nobody he knows is around?
So, who is Windy, really? I could see her as a nurse from 2008 in Sam’s hospital room: 2B. Or maybe she’s another patient at the hospital where Sam is, in a coma in 2008, in bed 2A. Eventually Sam will find out she’s not real when he tries to enter her empty apartment or asks his landlord about “Windy,” only to find that nobody by that name lives in the building.
Of course, this could all be nothing. I mean, where else did Sam get that lasagna in the second episode?
Any other thoughts on who or what she might be?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Nov 02, 2008 @ 07:00 EST5EDT
Interesting point.
Tell me again why the other people he interacts with are “real”?
Windy interact with anyone besides Sam
please! she interacts with Annie.
I was thinking the same thing, if only because it explains a weakness from this past week’s episode.
In the original series, Sam didn’t have a Windy, so it made some sense that he let the club girl stay at his place. He might have tried to get Annie to let the club girl stay at her place, but I’m not sure they ever addressed where Annie lived in relation to Sam.
In the US version, there is no reason Sam wouldn’t have at least tried to have the club girl stay at Windy’s apartment down the hall. Sam isn’t stupid. He should have anticipated some sort of trick. Even just a quick shot of him knocking on Windy’s door would have gotten rid of this particular plot-hole.
:P
Actually Chuck, she never did interact with Annie … or rather Annie never interacted with her. Windy acknowledged Annie at the door (and why shouldn’t she … we all know Annie is real), but Annie never acknowledged Windy. Watch the scene from the third episode when Windy is Sam’s apartment and Annie comes to the door. After Sam goes back in and comes back out you can tell Annie was listening to what was being said. I would think if she heard Windy talking she would ask, “who was that??”, but since she never says anything it makes me think she only hears Sam talking to himself.
Also, never has Windy ever actually communicated with anyone other than Sam. In the third episode she is around other people when Sam sees her at the park and again at the club, but the only person she ever actually interacts with is Sam.
I am pretty sure that Windy is not real and just a part of Sam’s imagination.