Blurred Lines

Description

Undercover Black policewoman, DEE, brings down SAMMY, an influential gang lord responsible for many deaths, including Dee’s friend AMINA. “Blurred Lines” is a psychological thriller about love, loyalty, and the ultimate betrayal. The structure centres on an iconic moment from the Samson and Delilah story—Delilah robs Samson of strength by shaving his hair. As she prepares to shave (and thus humiliate) a bound Sammy, Dee reveals how she meticulously infiltrated his life during a romantic liaison. These flashbacks show her discovering the key to his power even as she is falling in love with him. Meanwhile, Sammy tries to convince Dee to let him go as flash-forwards reveal how his rival gang, the SOUTHSIDERS, will torture him if he loses his influence. Their emotional exchanges reveal that Dee knows her own police force used the Southsiders to set up Sammy for most of his crimes. But Dee’s family has been threatened if she doesn’t finish the job. Dee shaves Sammy but reveals she’s pregnant and promises to care for their child. A bittersweet coda reveals Dee living a new life and learning how Sammy destroyed the Southsiders and himself in a bombing that collapsed a building.

Biblical Connection

The story of Samson & Delilah in Judges 16 is marked by a series of ambiguities in the biblical text that pose unanswered questions: Who is Delilah? What’s the nature of her relationship to Samson? Why does she help the Philistines? Does the story of Samson’s wife impact Delilah’s choices? Did she love Samson? What’s her side of the story? I want to explore these questions as well as gaps in the text such as Delilah’s fate after Samson is captured. Despite the ambiguity surrounding Delilah and the text’s account of Samson’s chequered past, many Christian interpreters, Hollywood movies and popular TV shows refuse to portray Delilah outside the familiar tropes of the femme fatale. My story subverts this and asks what if Delilah is the hero, or at least heroic in her own right? Dominant culture and scriptural interpreters have at times marginalised women or omitted their voices. A fresh examination can reveal their heroism and courage. In the original text, Delilah’s story is positioned as ancillary within Samson’s own. Blurred Lines retells the story from the perspective of a modern-day Delilah (“DEE”) and shines a light on her as a role model for strong women in all times.