Final Space: Chapter Nine Review

"I don't know who you are. But I like how you keep shooting people even after they're dead."

It's hard or me to describe Chapter Nine. Coming off of a string of intensely emotional episodes, it ends up feeling like a quick moment to return to relative simplicity. And that's a strange stance to defend considering how hectic the episode is regardless—I mean, we do bear witness to Earth's destruction in the hands of the breach—but Chapter Nine feels like a quick and much-deserved victory lap before doubling down on whatever nightmares await as the penultimate episode of the season.

That's not to say Chapter Nine is any less intense, because there's no shortage of strong moments scattered about. And I'd hardly describe it as perfectly feel-good, but as far as Final Space goes, casually throwing Gary and co through waking nightmares, it kind of is. Everything's about to go insane; let's just enjoy a moment in the sunlight before getting thrust back into a nighttime of major feels.

The show mostly accomplishes this by forwarding the romance between Gary and Quinn to a point of complete mutuality. Throughout the season, I've been a bit reluctant over how generally one-sided their relationship was and how both characters never really seemed to have a believable romance, but surprisingly, Chapter Nine is able to put the two together with a delicate, realistic poignancy. They finally feel like a legitimate item, even without the need to drive that home too much; it's all in the interplay.

Even if Gary is perpetually hyperbolic and the two seal the knot as the world gets ripped apart around them, there's something strangely legitimate about the two as an item because of how great of a foil Quinn is to Gary; she's understated but affectionate, even if she'd prefer to fiddle with Gary over confessing it. It's those small moments though, like the two holding hands as they dive for the anti-matter bomb, or the two staring at each other with a sense of longing that carry the most weight; even with momentous things surrounding them, those little actions always mean the most, and it's an art that Final Space has mastered.

Additionally, and perhaps the episode's greatest and most exciting contribution: Tribor is back! He's a character that's been lurking in the shadows for quite a while, and with Olan naming him as one of his favorites in the show, it was a matter of waiting to see what would become of him. The answer? He's the leader of a counterrevolutionary movement against the Infinity Guard. While he ultimately doesn't contribute too much to the episode, with the focus largely off of him after his reintroduction, he brings a nice energy to round off the rest of the cast, and his change of tone from questioning his own actions earlier in the series to using them as rhetorical questions to quench his own awesomeness was a delightful step forward. Can't wait to see more of you, bud. Hope you don't die too quickly, but Final Space is a mean little show.

Otherwise, this episode was an exercise in building tension. Right from the get-go, the show hits us with pretty much the cruelest intro sequence yet, with Gary on the cuffs of death and HUE saying how much of an honor it was to know such a person. Even if Gary doubts himself at times, he's an unwavering character, but the plunge into inescapable bleakness is destructive of what the essentials of his character even are. (How we're going to get from Gary's confidence in defeating the armada of Heavy Incinerators to an acceptance of loss is going to be an adventure, I'll tell you that much.)

It never quite reaches that level of helplessness again, but through the fleeting drama the episode replenishes us with, there's an undercurrent throughout the whole thing of anticipation. We know that, with this episode leading into the finale, there's gonna be a ball getting dropped; it's just a matter of figuring out what. Ultimately, it's the return of the Lord Commander, who's been remarkably passive for the past few episodes doing.... I assume evil stuff. But with his eyes on Mooncake, he's ready to cause some serious wreckage, and that means all-out war.

The million-dollar question ultimately becomes how we'll get from this point to where Final Space has been hinting at this entire time, with Gary floating through space and the Galaxy 1 and its crew gone, and further, that episode will determine how well-executed this episode was. There's still a lot the show has to shred through, so we'll just have to see how ceremonious those final 22 minutes will be.

I think that's the most interesting thing about Chapter Nine: we know both, to some extent, where the final chapter will end up and where it's starting, but the rest of the picture is as hazy as ever, and that only puts the audience in more of a frenzy. It's a power-play that's paying off, y'know, in case you needed another reminder that Final Space is structurally magnificent. I think if there's one thing I have to say, it's this: get hyped, guys.

Notes and Quotes:
-I'm getting increasingly won over by KVN in just how much he contributes to the show, all while leaving Gary pretty much seething. This episode takes it up to the point of him not only fighting a ton of Infinity Guards off with a mechsuit that he just casually had lying around, but cranking it up to a thousand by trotting out even more mechsuited KVNs. It's such a burn for everything that Gary stands for that the poor guy can't even get a thumbs-up in solidarity without screaming in agony.
-"Hey, John! If we survive this, what do we say we kick it up with some taquitos, bro?" Pure evil.
-"Look at this place. I've been to New York before, and this... this looks better. Not by much."
-"Did anyone ever tell you emergency lighting brings out your hotness?" "Shut up."
-"Odds are that space douche has instructed his dickheads to hide it" in Kenny-dian cadence is quite beautiful.
-Gary calling Little Cato "Spider Cat" and vice versa "Thunder Bandit" was a cutely underplayed moment showing how tight they've become. I like that the show doesn't have to do anything super dramatic to drive that point home.
-Conan's return as the bathroom guy was genuinely unexpected and I absolutely loved it. His kids'll be very happy.

FINAL GRADE: A-. Chapter Nine is the sort of episode that might not contribute much, but it's secretly an episode that we need. It's nice to for the show to flex a bit more goodwill before going back in for the kill, and it certainly makes the best out of the opportunity with some sweeping cinematography, a killer score, and some joyous character work. Let's just enjoy this quick moment and relish in how nice it is as we await the hammer's ultimate fall; whether you choose to interpret it as a loving gift or an ultimate act of cruelty on the edge of betrayal, though, is in your hands.

I'm honestly kind of annoyed that the range of scores I work with pretty much seems to be "A+, A, or A-" at this point, but y'know what? The show works for its grades.

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