Final Space: Chapter Seven Review

"I never thought I'd be creating a murder squad with a small boy, but here we are."

Following the events of Chapter Six, one thing became incredibly clear: more than ever, our heroes have to see eye-to-eye. However much chemistry they've established, as I said in the last review, they're a group but not truly a team. With the shake-up that is last episode's ending (I'll just phrase it like that up here so nobody spoils themselves by accident), though, there's no better time to snap the gang into place, and it's an interesting challenge that Chapter Seven nimbly and almost effortlessly rises to.

Even if this a reconstruction period for everyone, Final Space doesn't relish the moment too much, and I say that in the best way possible. Don't get me wrong: the events of last episode are crucial to how things unfold here, with Chapter Seven exploring the effects of the tragedy on its characters, but there's very much a mentality of "one step back, two steps forward." That's not even a thing. Final Space is making that a thing.

So yes, we do see Gary sulking and feeling purposeless, and we see Little Cato's distress mounting as he keeps to himself, but there's also interesting advancements, too. Most significantly, Gary's sentence as prisoner aboard the Galaxy One is over, and Nightfall makes her presence known as she tries to rewrite the future. Beyond just adding a newfound dimension to the episode, though, they're the lens through which these feelings from before become properly realized.

If that's a bit confusing to wrap your head around (and I don't blame you, my mind is low-key running low on fumes right now), think about how Little Cato and his grief converges with the revelation of Nightfall's time travel. The episode puts those two components together by having Little Cato set off with KVN to save his dad with her spacecraft, and it ultimately allows us to understand Little Cato's internal conflict more than ever as he nearly lets himself die out of guilt for causing much of the previous events of the show to happen.

There's also Nightfall, who in addition to being a delectable introduction to the show's current cast with her own distinct edge, is doubly important in a narrative sense. I mean, sure, we get all the exposition about why she's there (which I won't repeat because y'all know all of it), but after several ups and downs, she's able to make Quinn realize that she needs Gary and everyone else, even if she can't put the words together as to why. She's been a very pragmatic character since the start of the show, dictating her actions around the greater good, but her acknowledgement that there's more to the equation than what she perceives is a momentous step and arguably the episode's greatest triumph.

Back to the storytelling front, though: Chapter Seven crushed it. It's certainly not one of the show's grandest episodes in its scope, but it packs a lot into 22 minutes with a ridiculous amount of ease. The strength comes from its intense meshing of all of the plot points, making the whole thing deceptively linear to the show's benefit. Past episodes have often been far looser on interconnectivity, working to isolate its characters to foster development, but here, everything ties itself up, allowing us to see just how important their dynamic is.

Conflict arises when the characters butt heads–Gary and co. (minus Quinn) set off to try and defeat the Lord Commander, Nightfall tries to kill Mooncake, Little Cato takes Nightfall's ship with KVN to travel back in time and save Avocato, etc. and etc.–and it resolves when they unite. Quinn's acknowledgement that she needs Gary and his team, Nightfall's realization that saving Little Cato is more important than killing Mooncake (even if that destroys her perceived timeline), and Little Cato letting himself be saved by Gary... Chapter Seven takes everything thrown into question by the past few episodes and then some and it uses that to tighten up the show and prepare for whatever insanity awaits, and for that, I commend it.

Notes and Quotes:
-I used the first image as a placeholder until I got my hand on some screenshots, but I ended up really liking it, so I'll accredit to FulvousFox from Discord because I'm an image thief, but a nice image thief.
-In terms of the time travel motif: I think Final Space did a really good job. It's something very difficult to pull off in how cliched it usually is, but the show never used it as a gimmick so much as a legitimate mechanic quintessential to the narrative. I just like the sense of it not being some novelty that leads to a revelation so much as something deeply-ingrained in how the show operates. It feels fresh.
-"I only feel two things, Gary. Nothing and nothingness."
-The scene of Gary, Mooncake, and KVN being set off by soul-crushingly emotional music was perfectly executed and a fun way to address the past episode's tragedy with almost a sense of self-awareness.
-"SHUT THE HELL UP, MOONCAKE!"

-"But the two of us together, isn't that a paradox? Shouldn't the universe explode?" "Excellent question." "Apparently not." "Excellent answer."
-My notes for the episode said "NIGHTFALL MOUNTS GARY" and I don't really know what else to comment on there.

-I couldn't figure out where to fit it in the review, but I want to put it down: The Legion of Murdering an Irritatingly Power-Thirsty Pintsized Imp into a Plethora of Buttholes is a great name.

FINAL GRADE: A. This isn't an episode that pushes too hard on a conceptual level, but the more I think about it, the more I appreciate just how much it does and how little attention it draws to that fact. This is an aggressively busy episode, but Final Space executes it as cleanly and smoothly as ever.

Admittedly, in every review, I seem to say something along the lines of "Our cast is finally smoothed out and we can finally see the show at full-power," and I want to single out that assessment as something so crucial to how the show works. No matter what happens, there's no resolution, and even when things seem perfect, there's always that faint bit of tension that comes and sweeps you over at the end of the day. Are things finally resolved? It's hard to say. But the show's endured tragedy and hope is slowly being regained, so regardless of that pesky status quo, for better or worse, the show's still plowing along as delightfully as always.

For the last review of Chapter Six, CLICK HERE.