Unforgotten

is the name of a fictional British TV series that follows a team of London detectives that solve cold cases involving disappearance & murder. Part of the appeal of the series comes from as how the murder mystery unfolds, the emotional ramifications of the crime on the lives of those affected (including the detectives investigating the crime) are also explored. 

This post is prompted from having binge watched season two. The story starts with the discovery of the body of someone reported missing for over 25 years. The person was murdered. Interwoven into the story are seemingly unconnected characters who are gradually revealed to have some relationship with the victim: a teacher trying to move up in the system despite a poor academic history, a homosexual barrister in the process of trying to adopt a young girl who is struggling with anger issues, and a nurse who has problems maintaining relationships and boundaries at work as well as at home. It turns out that in this case, these characters are all victims themselves - of sexual abuse - who met each other while getting psychiatric care. They end up forming a pact to kill each other's abusers. The murder victim is one of the three abusers. The lead detective manages to find evidence that all three abuse victims knew each other at the time their abusers were killed, and then finds them together meeting to discuss their situation. The lead detective is conflicted as to what constitutes justice in this situation; they're still experiencing symptoms of their trauma which are in their own way much more punitive than incarceration, and each of these victims are in vocations which help the less fortunate, so rehabilitation isn't an issue either. The lead detective decides to drop the case.  

My initial response prompting this post was to make an observation about the damage a lot of us carry and how that influences our daily behavior and how important it is that we remember that these people need to feel safe before they can begin any sort of meaningful healing process. But from a Biblical standpoint: "Vengeance is mine! I will repay!" is pretty unequivocal, yet I found myself sympathizing/empathizing with the abuse victims and not categorizing them as vigilantes. I suppose this was the intent of the writers of the show. The vigilantes are abuse victims and the abusers are viewed solely from the viewpoint of their victims.

I was violated/penetrated in a different way - yet I experienced justice of a sort when my attacker was convicted of premeditated attempted murder but she was also found to be insane so instead of incarceration, she was committed to a mental hospital and it's expected that she won't ever be released as the risk of liability would be extreme if she were to attack someone else. 

I'm a big Tolkien fan, and what Frodo said near the end of The Lord of the Rings as he forgives Saruman for corrupting the Shire has always stuck with me:

"...He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us; but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it."

and it pretty much encapsulates my attitude about the person who attacked me. It would probably help to explain that when someone is mourning a loss, what I usually say to them is that I hope that God gives them an answer that they can accept as the typical response is to ask why some perceived calamity has occurred. My answer for my assailant was that she'd been hurt herself and was merely displacing her anger onto me. 

But back to the original thought: regardless of how sympathetic the story of the vigilante, it's still wrong.