To Say Nothing of the Dog...

[shipperx]

Heh.  I've seen a few people note this bit.

From EW.com:

Like many of us here at the EW offices, I’m completely and unashamedly hooked on Revenge. The ABC drama about a young woman bent on avenging her father’s ruin is full of fun twists, fancy rich people doing fun, fancy, evil rich people things, and, perhaps most importantly, displays the utter awesomeness that is Madeleine Stowe. But! There is a small nagging issue that has been driving me crazy with every viewing: What is the deal with that dog, Sam?

Okay, so, Sam is an adorable yellow Labrador that our avenging angel Amanda/Emily received as a birthday gift as a cherub-faced kid. Things happened: Fathers were framed and men in scary black op outfits stormed the beach house and nabbed young Amanda, beginning the trauma that will lead her to-yes!-revenge. According to the show’s website, this dramatic act took place when Amanda was nine years old and 17 years have since passed. And yet! We’ve been led to believe that the (very healthy) Lab who now lives with the handsome, sure-to-be-a-romantic-entanglement townie, is the very same “Sam.” We know this because the dog recognizes that this Emily Thorne is his former owner, the once young and innocent Amanda Clark, and so tends to just tail-wag himself over to her house at all hours.

Now, according to the experts, the average life span for a Labrador is 11-13 years and yet this miraculous dog is not only looking remarkably alive for being at least 17, he’s really pretty spry as he jumps on and off that (rather fancy) sailboat.

So, what should we believe? Is Sam magic? Or is this a reference to Homer’s The Odyssey, when Odysseus’ dog, Argos, recognizes his former master in disguise even after 20 years have passed? (Hey, why not, the show is supposedly a modern take on Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. So anything is possible). 

Or maybe the writers, like me, just hate doing math...

Comments

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

you know, I've been assuming the writers just didn't do the math on the dog, but if it's a play on The Odyssey? APPROVE.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

That or he's Vincent from Lost! :)

[molliemole.livejournal.com]

Well, my yellow Lab lived to be 15 1/2, but he wasn't at all spry his last year. However, I'd like to think Labs can live for years and years longer, running and jumping to their hearts' content.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Probably not. But I'm fine with his being magic tv dog.

[rahirah]

I've heard that due to better nutrition and medical care, a number of larger breed dogs are living longer than they used to. Sam died at thirteenish, and despite the cancer and the diabetes, he was active and healthy-looking to the end. Still, a seventeen year old Lab looking and acting like a three-year-old kind of stretches credulity.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It made me laugh last night in the 'previouslies' where they stated that it was in fact "twenty years ago..." And then went immediately to a scene of her walking up and greeting Magic Sam (still Sam is cute, and I do understand the purpose the dog serves. The dog is the only 'person' she drops all pretense around. With everyone else... she lies. (And the scene last night revealing that she was the one who kidnapped and locked-up the shrink from her childhood in the shipping container... oh yeah, Emily/Amanda has got issues. )

Also lol'd at the big fat copy of The Count of Monte Cristo in the shrink's office. Might want to read that, hon. You're now in it.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I had a lengthy chat with another person on my flist last week about this very thing. I said even if she got the dog at the age of 10, and is 25 now, that's a 15 year old dog. And he pointed out that it is a reference to the classic Odysseus trope of the faithful dog...which just doesn't work as well with cats who do live longer. (a cat can apparently live to be 25).

I don't know he's awfully spry lab for 20...LOL!

Logic applied to tv...apparently is similar to applying logic to well comic books, it just isn't done. ;-)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The cat I had while growing up died at 23 and my current cat is 18. So, yeah, they can live a long time. But they aren't as easy a sell for overt tv affection. :)

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

Reincarnation maybe ?
And you have an 18 year old cat who escpaed from the house to have adventure in a rain storm !!! When I told my mother that story she about burst a bucket. My 11 year old cat isn't that active, acourse she is fat but losing weight as a cat can healthly. (Having the ten month old know kitten who thinks the greatest game in the world is to chase her helps though.)
And boy to have a nonsiamese cat going that long is amazing too. The oldest mine has made it was 15 and unfortunatley we had to put Higgins down because his peeing got to the point that he won't use the litter box at all not even at the vet. So he was definitely starting to get kitty alzheimer's and was missing my grandfather so much that he won't stop searching and crying for him.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I had a beutiful Burmese when I was growing up who lived to 23. She was the best cat ever (no offense to my current one... who I also think has kitty alzheimers, and who I suspect fell when trying to jump on my bed in the middle of the night last night... and I already have a stepping ottoman for her that's half the height of the bed).