Final Space: Chapter Eight Review

"Didn't know we were members of the same club."

As that old Maya Angelou adage goes, "We are more alike than we are unalike." I could just stop right there and quit while I'm ahead, because my stuff more than less just sort of devolves into incomprehensible thoughts, so I will... Wait, I don't have enough of a reputation to get away with that? Crap.

Well, the adage rings true for Chapter Eight. And it does so not by focusing on all of the characters and exploring their interplay, but by stripping Gary bare before them (I mean that happened last episode, but... bad joke, sorry) to examine the imperfections that riddle his mind.

This is a particularly daunting predicament. Gary, for all intents and purposes, is the show's head honcho in the comic relief department, a character who no doubt knows tragedy but is always bouncing back and messing around. But straight from the start of the episode, where he alternates between a charged pep talk and freaking out over the hollowness of his speech in his room, it's clear that the guy's got some serious baggage to unpack. And what better thing to make him confront his anxieties than putting him face-to-face with his father?

Per Nightfall's suggestion that they confront Bolo, a Titan who saved her when she was at her lowest as a fellow victim of infinity and martyr for his respective cause (closing Final Space off from universal destruction), Gary finds himself sucked into the creature's mind, all the way to Chamber-975, in search of the information that he needs. What he ends up getting, though, is a whole lot of heartbreak, if not mandatory heartbreak. (Which in all honesty is Final Space's only vehicle of heartbreak. We're all aching, Olan.)

There's something legitimately sweet about Gary and John Goodspeed's confrontation. Sure, they end up spending a lot of time beating the crap out of the Lord Commander pre-Lord Commander, with the rather insane reveal of him once being John's co-pilot, Jack, and that they find affection in pulverizing the guy is completely bonkers, but that's kinda the point. They're one and the same. Simultaneously, though, that's their downfall: they both want to do the greater good, endangering themselves to save others, but Gary, sealed off from joining John in self-sacrificing himself to seal Final Space with an antimatter bomb, is both physically and mentally trapped. Not only does he have to watch his father die; he has to watch him die knowing that he's responsible, even if it was something that had to be done.

I also want to point out that, while it's very similar to Chapter Six in the department of emotional complexity, there's something different about how Chapter Eight wields it. It's almost more empathetic in its simplicity. It's safe to say that only a select number of people will truly feel for Avocato's death on a legitimately empathetic level in the sense that most of us haven't had a dear compatriot blown up at the chest and shot out of a spacecraft. But what happens between Gary and John Goodspeed is something we can all understand.

People have talked about Avocato's death and its power in his unglorified sacrifice, but with John, the inverse makes all the difference. The former was a much-needed call to arms for the gang, but this episode's gut-punch is equally profound in that it allows Quinn and Lil Cato to truly understand Gary and, in spite of his goofy candor, he's as flawed and tragic as they all are.

I suppose you could argue that the two characters were never really utilized to any stronger story-telling capacity, but that's sort of the goal. For them to understand Gary, they have to understand his tribulations, and sometimes that means stepping back and understanding the full picture. And that's what Chapter Eight sets out to do: paint a luscious portrait of Gary's psyche, all while mobilizing him and the LMIPTPIPB as they prepare to save the universe. In other words, Final Space is unstoppable.

Notes and Quotes:
-ALSO WORTH NOTING: BACKSTORY! Chapter Eight was a whole lot of fun in the non-linear story-telling department, explaining the cause of every episode's events as stemming from this episode, and it's a delightful trip that makes me wonder what sort of discrepancies await being addressed by the show. I mean, Gary is responsible for killing his father, turning Lord Commander evil, and creating Mooncake. Cold-blooded.
-In this week's stolen screenshot round-up, credits to Standard Ceb, JosHUEa, and cacti. I think I'll have to enlist a designated screen-shotter at some point, so if anybody's interested... there is no pay but you will be met with showers of affection.
-I never bring up Gary's episode-starting monologues with HUE, but this week's was particularly chilling, a perfect blend of the show's comedic sensibilities and their ability to be used in an emotional and dramatic way. Gary fantasizing cookies being baked as his oxygen depletes is as hilarious as it is strangely affecting. I dug it. Also: butter wheat crunch. "That's... not a cookie. And you know that, HUE. You know that!"
-"I am not okay with this winter wonderland of cosmic cotton candy!"
-"Gary, you'll never be able to grow one of these! A thick, rich, luscious mustache!" "I wish I was a crumb so I could get caught... in this."
-Nightfall is gone. I forgot about that. It's interesting how she came into the show with a very explicit purpose and left with that completely fulfilled. You don't see that often.

FINAL GRADE: A+. I mean... what more is there to say? This is just Final Space doing insanely tight, vritually flawless story-telling, and there's still two insane episodes left. I wonder how much my rating scale will break. In the meantime, though, for the show to go all out with exploring Gary was, as I said before, a huge risk, but it was massively rewarding. You go, show.

For the last Final Space review of Chapter Seven, CLICK HERE.